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DESCRIPTION:3/8 SF International Women's Day With The Mothers Of Korean Sewol 
 Victims\n\nMarch 8, 2015 International Women's Day With The Korean Mothers 
 Of Sewol Ferry Disaster\nSunday March 8, 2015  7:30 PM\nILWU Local 34 Ship 
 Clerks Hall\n800 2nd St Next To AT&T Stadium\nParking Available\n\nVideo 
 And Mothers Of Sewol Ferry Disaster\n\nOn April 16, 2014 the Sewol Ferry 
 which was traveling to JeJu Island capsized and 295 people died with most 
 of them being children. Nine are still unaccounted for. The families were 
 initially told that all had been saved and the Park government has 
 prevented getting the truth about about the causes of the accident and why 
 it took place. They even arrested a reporter who was investigating the 
 disaster. The Korean Coast Guard refused to even get involved in helping to 
 save the passengers.\nThe mothers and families of the survivors have 
 launched an international campaign for justice and set up a website called 
 Sewol Truth. Seven bodies are still unaccounted for.\nAs people in Korea 
 have learned the deregulation of the maritime industry and the use of part 
 time temporary workers is very much connected to the incident. Even the 
 captain was a contract worker and the companies owner was a big supporter 
 of the Korean Park government and was allowed to violate health and safety 
 protections by overloading the boat and failure to have proper health and 
 safety training for the crew. The systemic corruption that has been exposed 
 is not unique but more and more common in not only Korea but the United 
 States as it pushed agreements like TPP and the Korea US Trade Agreement. 
 Health and safety in maritime, nuclear industry, railways and airlines is a 
 growing danger in Korea, the US and around the world.\nTwo Sewol mothers 
 will be coming to the bay area to get their story out and also to link up 
 with working people here who are fighting for justice and human 
 rights.\nPlease join us for a video screening and report from the 
 mothers.\n\nEndorsed By\nSesamo Group\nDokebi Me Seol Support 
 Committee\nSewol Family Support Committee\nWorkWeek KPFA\nNo Nukes Action 
 Committe\n\n\nThere will also be a press conference at the San Francisco 
 Korean Consulate 3500 Clay St. in San Francisco on Monday March 9, 2015 at 
 2:00 PM by families and supporters of the Sewol Families.\n\nFor 
 information (415)282-1908\nwww.sewoltruth.com\n\nBackground\n\nOn April 16, 
 2014 a South Korean passenger ferry, the Sewol, sank off the southwestern 
 coast, leaving 295 passengers dead and 9 still missing. Most passengers 
 were between the ages of 16 and 17 who were on a high school field trip. 
 Investigators say that an improper modification of the ship to carry more 
 passengers, overloaded cargo, an abrupt turn of the ship, as well as 
 weather and strong currents were factors contributing to the sinking of the 
 ferry. However, what turned the unfortunate accident into such a massive 
 tragedy was a lack of rescue efforts by the captain, the crew, and the 
 owner of the ship, in addition to the improper, unskillful, and painfully 
 slow emergency response and rescue operations by the authorities. On 
 November 7, the Special Sewol Bill was passed to enable special 
 investigation of the disaster and confiscation of assets unlawfully gained 
 by the owner of Sewol, yet it did not fully satisfy the victims’ families 
 that wanted an independent committee with subpoena and prosecutorial 
 powers.    \nOur children were not killed from an accident, but they were 
 murdered by:\n·         The captain and crew who acted in the most cruel 
 and disgusting way by abandoning passengers in need;\n·         The coast 
 guard which performed clumsy and slow rescue operations and rejected help 
 from others;\n·         Chonghaejin Marine, the company that owned the 
 Sewol, which cut corners on passengers’ safety and did not act promptly 
 to save passengers;\n·         The media which did not report the truth, 
 further slowing down initial rescue operations;\n·         The South 
 Korean government which did not make strong enough efforts to save the 
 children’s lives; and\n·         President Park Geun-Hye who violated 
 her constitutional responsibility and presidential duty to protect the 
 safety and lives of the people\nWe hereby demand:\n·         A thorough 
 investigation into this disaster should be performed immediately by an 
 independent counsel in order to disclose all irregularities on this 
 matter.\n·         President Park Geun-Hye should stop blaming others. She 
 should take a full responsibility stipulated in the Constitution. \n·      
    All responsible people in the disaster should be identified and properly 
 punished.\nPlease visit our website, Sewoltruth.com, for more information 
 and sign the petition.\n\nSafety Regulation Still Lagging 100 Days After 
 Korean Ferry 
 Disaster\nhttp://www.equaltimes.org/south-korea-safety-regulation?lang=en#.U-AHMjm5JUR\n24 
 July 2014\nSOUTH KOREA: SAFETY REGULATION STILL LAGGING 100 DAYS AFTER 
 FERRY DISASTER\nby Se-Woong Koo\n\n“Wait a second, I just saw this in the 
 back, it’s a life vest made in 1994. This is the situation on the ship. 
 Power is cut off and we really don’t know what to do. The coastal police 
 are apparently almost here, and I want to live.”\n\nMade on a cell phone 
 by a student victim whose desire to live didn’t stop him from losing his 
 life, a previously unreleased recording has illustrated the stark reality 
 of the poor safety onboard the Sewol, a ferry that sunk off the coast of 
 southwest Korea on 16 April 2014.\n\n\nA man holds up a sign that reads 
 “Pass the special legislation” at a 19 July event in downtown Seoul 
 where passers-by were asked to sign a petition in support of the victims’ 
 families.\n\n(Photo/Se-Woong Koo)\nThis Thursday, 24 July 2014, marks the 
 100th day anniversary of the disaster where some 294 people died – 10 
 bodies are still unaccounted for.\n\nBut given a discernible lack of 
 progress in the investigation of the accident’s cause and the rescue 
 operation’s failures, the families of the victims have been protesting in 
 front of the country’s National Assembly since 12 July to demand the 
 speedy passing of a legislation that would allow a special committee to 
 carry out a full assessment and indict those found responsible.\n\nThe 
 final day of the National Assembly’s regular summer session on 17 July 
 failed to see the passage of the much debated legislation.\n\nAt the heart 
 of the disagreement is the ruling Saenuri Party’s refusal to heed the 
 families’ request and grant the committee full investigative authority 
 including the power to seize evidence and arrest suspects.\n\nCoupled with 
 the mysterious death of Yoo Byung-eun, the fugitive boss of the company 
 that operated the Sewol, the stalled legislation has received criticism as 
 a sign of the state’s inability to seriously tackle problems in public 
 and occupational safety.\n\nKorea is beset by industrial accidents. 
 According to a study conducted by the state statistics agency (KOSIS), in 
 2008 Korea had an industrial fatality rate of 18.0 per 100,000 persons, 
 higher than those of Russia (10.9) and Mexico (10.0).\nThat number tapered 
 only slightly in 2009 (15.7) and 2010 (15.5).\n\nBy the government’s own 
 admission 2,422 Koreans died from industrial accidents in 2010 alone, and 
 the 2013 figure of 1,929 deaths, while a decrease, still accorded the 
 country the dubious honor of having the highest rate of worker fatalities 
 among OECD member states.\n\nUnder President Park Geun-hye’s watch, 
 accidents large and small have taken place with an alarming frequency. 
 Notably on 31 August 2013 three trains collided in the southeastern hub of 
 Daegu, injuring more than 20 people.\n\nOn 17 February 2014 the roof of a 
 resort in the town of Kyungju collapsed from the weight of accumulated 
 snow, killing 10 and injuring 125, mostly university students on a school 
 retreat.\n\nMeanwhile, the construction of a 555 metre-tall tower by the 
 Lotte Group in southeastern Seoul has resulted since last year in two 
 deaths and five injuries as well as a small fire and falling debris onto 
 the nearby area.\n\nThe company has also been accused of causing sinkholes 
 in the neighborhood with the building’s excessive weight.\n\nOn the 
 manufacturing front, Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest 
 shipbuilder, reported eight deaths and four injuries at its work sites in 
 March and April of this year alone.\nHyundai Steel, a sister company to 
 Hyundai Heavy Industries, saw eight die and another eight injured last 
 year.\n\n\n\nCost-cutting\n\nExperts argue that to improve public and 
 occupational safety the state must first address the underlying problem of 
 cost-cutting by industries.\n\nBut for Jun Hyoung-Bae, professor of law at 
 Kangwon University and a specialist in occupational safety and labour 
 rights, the problem is deeply rooted: “Korea’s industrial sector is 
 heavily dependent on manufacturing and construction, which are prone to 
 accidents to begin with.\n\n“Second, to remain competitive, Korean 
 companies cut costs associated with production so that it can make similar 
 products compared to those made overseas but at a much lower cost and 
 therefore at a lower price. The idea is that if they followed every safety 
 regulation they wouldn’t be able to compete.”\n\nThe subway system is 
 another area where excessive cost-cutting in safety enforcement and hiring 
 has been blamed for causing accidents. This spring Seoul alone has seen 
 three subway accidents, with the worst case, on the heavily trafficked Line 
 2, leading to 238 injuries.\nThe Seoul Subway Labor Union (SSLU) contends 
 that the Sewol sinking has not brought about any meaningful change in the 
 management’s attitude toward safety issues.\n\nIn a public statement, the 
 SSLU noted: “While turning a blind eye to deficient manpower on the 
 ground, [the management] has simply sent a pile of documents ordering 
 inspection. There is no sign that the system of operation that emphasises 
 performance and results over safety inspection will ever be 
 touched.”\n\nVarious accidents have mounted while the Sewol legislation 
 stalls.\n\nOn 17 July a fire broke out on the Busan city subway network, 
 forcing some 500 passengers to evacuate and halting operation for 40 
 minutes.\n\nThat same day, a helicopter carrying five firemen on the way 
 back from the ongoing Sewol search operation crashed in a densely populated 
 area of Gwangju, killing all five onboard.\n\n\nWas neoliberalism the real 
 cause of the Korea Sewol 
 tragedy?\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/635555.html\nmost 
 of the Sewol’s crew members were irregular workers, with even the captain 
 serving on a one-year contract - giving him the title of captain without 
 any real authority.\n“Under these working conditions, it’s difficult to 
 develop any sense of devotion to or responsibility for the boat,” 
 \nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/635555.html\nPosted 
 on : May.2,2014 21:26 KSTModified on : May.2,2014 22:57 KST\n	• 
 \n프린트\n	• facebook21\n	• twitter9\n	•\n\n\nHan Byung-chul, 
 professor at the Berlin University of the Arts\nKorean-German philosopher 
 argues that neoliberalism has eroded trust and regulations, making 
 accidents and selfishness more common\nBy Cho Ki-weon, staff 
 reporter\n“The real killer isn’t the captain. It’s 
 neoliberalism.”\nThe Korean-German philosopher Han Byung-chul, a 
 professor at the Berlin University of the Arts and author of “Fatigue 
 Society,” published a piece in the Apr. 26 edition of the Frankfurter 
 Allgemeine describing the sinking of the Sewol ferry as a tragic outcome of 
 the dehumanization caused by neoliberalism.\nHan’s book “Fatigue 
 Society” caused something of a sensation in South Korea, with its 
 characterization of modern society as a “performance society” where 
 people work themselves to death or exhaustion without being forced to do 
 so.\nIn the recent piece titled “The Ship Is Us,” Han writes that the 
 ferry accident “cannot be blamed on a lack of attention from the sailors, 
 a lack of professionalism, or the special circumstances of South 
 Korea.”\n“This tragedy is a metaphor for modern society,” he 
 concludes.\nNoting that President Park Geun-hye recently described the 
 captain of the ship as a “murderer,” Han observes, “The person who 
 should be first to bear responsibility for the Sewol tragedy is [Park’s 
 predecessor] Lee Myung-bak, the person who pushed the country’s 
 neoliberal policies.”\nHan notes that as recently as 2009, a passenger 
 ship was only allowed to operate for 20 years after it was built. That 
 period was extended to 30 years under Lee, who pushed 
 “business-friendly” policies while serving as President from 2008 to 
 2013.\n“These policies and their focus on business performance have 
 greatly increased the risk of accidents,” he concludes.\nHan also takes 
 note of the fact that most of the Sewol’s crew members were irregular 
 workers, with even the captain serving on a one-year contract - giving him 
 the title of captain without any real authority.\n“Under these working 
 conditions, it’s difficult to develop any sense of devotion to or 
 responsibility for the boat,” Han says. “When an accident occurs, your 
 first action is to save yourself. Looking back on this tragedy, one could 
 call it an example of structural violence.”\nHan also points out the 
 sharp decrease in the number of regular workers in South Korea as a result 
 of the neoliberal policies introduced by the International Monetary Fund 
 (IMF) during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.\n“As a result 
 of neoliberalism, South Korean’s social climate became very harsh and 
 inhumane. Everyone only thinks of his or her own survival,” he 
 writes.\nHe also observes how South Korean politicians made sure to visit 
 the scene of the tragedy to draw attention to themselves, including 
 President Park Geun-hye, who drew criticism for a picture she took with a 
 five-year-old girl who survived the tragedy.\nAccording to Han, the days of 
 captains staying on deck to the last - like Edward J. Smith, the captain 
 who went down with the Titanic in 1912 - are a thing of the past, not just 
 in South Korea but in other societies as well. It was no coincidence, he 
 writes, that the captain of the Italian luxury liner Costa Concordia chose 
 to the flee the ship first when it sank in 2012.\n“Today’s society is a 
 ‘survival society,’ where everyone is just trying to make sure they 
 survive,” he writes.\nQuoting the German economist Alexander Rustow - the 
 person who coined the term “neoliberalism” - Han says that 
 neoliberalism makes societies inhumane.\n“Neoliberalism alienates people. 
 In that sense, the Sewol is like a microcosm of neoliberalism,” he 
 observes.\nHaving sacrificed trust, modern society is trying to replace it 
 with transparency and control, Han writes. This echoes the conclusions of 
 his 2012 book “Transparency Society,” in which he writes, 
 “Transparency gives rise to forced adaptation, and in that sense 
 contributes to stabilizing the ruling system.”\nHan’s argument is that 
 trust is the glue that holds the members of a society together and makes it 
 stable; when trust disappears, the society depends instead on transparency 
 and control.\n“When people in a society think only of their own interests 
 and lose a sense of community consciousness, corruption occurs,” he 
 writes. “Transparency and control may succeed in preventing corruption, 
 but they cannot restore common sense or trust.”\n\nLessons from Sewol 
 tragedy not 
 learned\nhttp://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/08/116_163475.html\n\nA 
 capsized fishing boat is lifted out of the water in Saemangeum, North 
 Jeolla Province, Saturday. / Yonhap\n\nBy Kim Se-jeong \n\nTwo workers who 
 were supposed to be on duty at the water gate control center on the 
 Saemangeum seawall failed to warn a fishing boat that was approaching the 
 seawall. The two were eating dinner together at a nearby restaurant at the 
 time of the incident, police said Sunday.\n\nThe behavior of the workers 
 was reminiscent of officials stationed at the Jindo Vessel Traffic Service 
 (VTS) who allegedly neglected their duties when the Sewol ferry sank in 
 April, killing more than 300 passengers.\n\nAccording to Gunsan Coast Guard 
 in North Jeolla Province, a 3.2-ton fishing vessel named Taeyang was 
 engulfed by water near a floodgate at the seawall at 7:13 p.m. on Friday. 
 Three fishermen, including two East Timorese ― De Jesus Alcino, 25, and 
 Da Coast Mendes Marcelino, 26 ― are still missing, while three others 
 were rescued.\n\nWhile the floodgates are open, vessels are supposed to 
 stay at least three kilometers away from the seawall. The two workers were 
 supposed to warn the boat stay distant, but they were dining at a 
 restaurant at the time, according to the Coast Guard.\n\nShin Byung-su from 
 Gunsan Coast Guard said that the two were questioned on Saturday.\n\n"We 
 will decide whether to seek arrest warrants for them after our 
 investigation is over," Shin said.\n\nHe added the vessel did not violate 
 any time schedule.\n\nThe Saemangeum Project Office releases in advance a 
 floodgate operation schedule every week, and Friday evening was not 
 included on the timetable.\n\n"There are times when we have to open 
 floodgates unexpectedly. The water levels have quickly risen in recent days 
 due to heavy rainfall last week, and we had to open it," Hwang In-hyuk, one 
 of the two floodgate control center workers, explained as to why it was not 
 included in the schedule. The floodgates had been opened since 3 p.m. that 
 day.\n\nCompleted in 2006, the 33.9-kilometer-long Saemangeum seawall ― 
 the world's longest man-made dyke ― has 18 floodgates. The control office 
 opens and closes the floodgates to maintain the water level within the 
 seawall.\n\nThis is not the first accident caused by the negligence of the 
 water gate control center.\n\nSeven years ago, the floodgates were also 
 opened unexpectedly and one fishing boat was overwhelmed, killing one 
 fisherman.\n\nTo many, Friday's incident is almost identical to the Sewol 
 ferry disaster in terms of how it happened.\n\n"They are the same in that 
 the negligent behavior of the officers caused the tragedies," said Kim 
 Hyung-dong, 33, said.\n\nOn April 16, the passenger ferry carrying 476 
 onboard capsized in waters off Jindo in South Jeolla Province, killing more 
 than 300 people, mostly high school students from Ansan, Gyeonggi 
 Province.\n\nAfter the Sewol tragedy, the prosecution indicted 13 officials 
 at the Jindo Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) for negligence in carrying out 
 their duties of monitoring the Sewol ferry and gathering information about 
 the drifting ferry after it began to list and go off course.\n\nThe VTS 
 allegedly let one of the two officers assigned to the vessel traffic 
 control go off to take a nap and leave the office during working hours. The 
 VTS is also accused of removing CCTVs from the monitoring room and deleting 
 parts of the video file. A trial date has been set for Aug. 
 29th.\n\nGrieving families of Sewol ferry victims want independent South 
 Korean 
 probe\nhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/south-koreas-grieving-sewol-families-want-independent-investigation/2014/08/05/3e7e3afd-88ae-4daf-bc81-8a1b2dd9d909_story.html\n\n\nHundreds 
 of people marched in Seoul last month at a hundred days’ memorial protest 
 marking April’s Sewol ferry disaster, in which 304 people died and 10 are 
 still missing. (Shin Woong-jae/For The Washington Post)\nBy Anna Fifield 
 August 5 at 5:58 PM  \nSEOUL — Kim Yung-oh is not exactly sure how much 
 weight he has lost. But when he undoes his belt buckle, his pants bunch 
 around his concave belly. Twenty pounds, he estimates.\n\nKim, whose 
 16-year-old daughter was one of 304 people who died when the Sewol ferry 
 sank in April, will on Wednesday enter the 24th day of a hunger strike — 
 staged on Gwanghwamun Plaza, a wide median strip along a central Seoul 
 boulevard that leads toward the presidential Blue House.\n\nThe plaza is 
 also where Pope Francis will celebrate an open-air Mass next week — and 
 Kim is vowing to stay put.\n\n\n“No matter what, I want to stay here and 
 appeal to the pope,” Kim said weakly during an interview on an elevated 
 platform under a tent on the plaza, part of a protest against perceived 
 government obfuscation over the cause of the ferry disaster.\n\nThe pope is 
 scheduled to meet with the Sewol families during his visit, but in Daejeon, 
 a city about 100 miles south of Seoul. Nonetheless, protesters know they 
 have some leverage over President Park Geun-hye’s administration as it 
 prepares for the pontiff’s arrival.\n\n\nKim Young-oh, a father of one of 
 victims lost his daughter, Kim Yu-min, and has been on a hunger strike for 
 23 days straight. (Shin Woong-jae/For The Washington Post)\nThe April 16 
 capsizing of the Sewol — an overloaded ferry transporting an estimated 
 476 people and far too many containers from the mainland to the southern 
 island of Jeju — remains an active tragedy in South Korea.\n\nTen 
 passengers have still not been found, and Seoul’s City Hall remains a 
 carefully tended memorial — complete with funereal chrysanthemums — to 
 the victims, the vast majority of whom were students from one high 
 school.\n\n\n‘We want to know how our children died’\nOn Gwanghwamun 
 Plaza, a few blocks from City Hall, Kim sits on his platform, alongside 
 tents designated for victims’ families, religious figures and other 
 supporters. On Tuesday, a group of Catholic nuns, Buddhist monks and 
 Protestant ministers joined Kim in his hunger strike for the day. 
 Supporters handed out free cups of fresh iced coffee to passersby while a 
 TV screen played footage from video shot inside the ferry, by students 
 unaware of the fate about to befall them.\n\n“We want to know how our 
 children died. That’s all,” said Park Yung-woo, a math teacher whose 
 daughter drowned.\n\nThe families are urging the country’s president to 
 set up a special investigative panel with a greater proportion of members 
 appointed by victims’ kin than by the government. But, more important, 
 they also want the panel to have the authority to subpoena information it 
 needs and prosecute people it suspects of wrongdoing.\n\n“The parents 
 want truth from the government,” said Won Jae-min, a lawyer who has been 
 helping the families. “We are asking for an independent body of 
 inspectors to look into this case, and we are demanding the government to 
 give them special legal powers so they are able to 
 investigate.”\n\n\nPark and her ruling Saenuri Party had vowed to 
 establish an independent commission, and the main opposition party had 
 agreed in principle. But they are divided on the details. The deadlock led 
 to the cancellation of hearings scheduled for this week.\n\nThe families 
 are calling for the special panel to be established becausePark’s 
 administration is widely accused of bungling its response to the tragedy 
 and not being sufficiently forthcoming with the facts. That has led to 
 rumors of government complicity and a cover-up.\n\n\nAn ongoing criminal 
 investigation has shown that dangerous modifications were made to the ferry 
 — including the addition of an extra floor — and that the ballast water 
 meant to counterweigh the cargo had been emptied out, so as not to alert 
 regulators to the changes.\n\nAdding fuel to the suspicions, authorities 
 took almost six weeks to identify a body they now think is that of Yoo 
 Byung-eun, the 73-year-old owner of the Sewol ferry operator, Chonghaejin 
 Marine, who had been on the run since the sinking.\n\nThe decomposed body 
 was found June 12 just two miles from one of Yoo’s houses. Even though 
 the deceased was dressed in designer clothing, police said they initially 
 thought it was a homeless person until DNA tests indicated in late July 
 that it was Yoo.\n\nPeople wondered why it took so long to identify a man 
 who was the subject of the largest manhunt in South Korean 
 history.\n\nWilling to die for his cause\nPark, whose approval rating has 
 slumped since the disaster, criticized police and prosecutors Tuesday for 
 their missteps, noting that they continued searching for Yoo even after the 
 body was found.\n\n“The bungled manhunt resulted in the waste of national 
 resources and severely undermined public confidence in the government,” 
 she said during a cabinet meeting, the Yonhap news agency reported.\n\nAt 
 the protest site Tuesday, families handed out pamphlets bearing a photo of 
 a moist-eyed Park expressing remorse for the ferry sinking. The headline 
 read: “Were the president’s tears just lies?” Volunteers urged people 
 to sign a petition calling on the administration to establish the 
 independent inquiry commission.\n\n\nThroughout, Kim sat on his platform in 
 the sweltering heat, nodding at well-wishers who stopped to bow to 
 him.\n\nA sign on a bib he was wearing marked the number of days he had 
 been fasting and carried an appeal: “Madam President, please bury me next 
 to my love Yu-min if this powerless dad falls and dies.”\n\n“I feel 
 ready to die for this,” Kim said, sitting cross-legged on a gray pillow, 
 his thin wrists resting on his knees. “I feel so sorry that I couldn’t 
 save my daughter that day and that I can’t do anything to bring her 
 back.”\n\nAnna Fifield is The Post’s bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on 
 Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from 
 Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle 
 East.\n\nKorean Protests including by KCTU intensify over Sewol failures 
 caused by deregulation and 
 privatization\nhttp://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140525000350\nProtests 
 intensify over Sewol failures\n\n\nPublished : 2014-05-25 21:03\nUpdated : 
 2014-05-25 21:43\nDespite President Park Geun-hye’s repeated apologies 
 and drastic reform proposals, a growing number of people are participating 
 in protests against the government’s failures during the Sewol ferry 
 disaster.\n\nStudents, parents with small children and even foreign 
 nationals took part in massive demonstrations in central Seoul on Saturday 
 to commemorate the victims of the sunken ferry and to urge Cheong Wa Dae to 
 take responsibility for its failed operation to save those onboard the 
 sunken ferry Sewol. \n\nAbout 30,000 people held a candlelight vigil this 
 week, according to Park Sung-sik, spokesman of Korean Confederation of 
 Trade Unions, while the police say the rally had about 8,000. KCTU is one 
 of two labor umbrella groups here that organized the weekend rally. The 
 Korean National Police Agency said it had dispatched about 13,000 riot 
 police.\n\nProtesters march in central Seoul on Saturday calling on Cheong 
 Wa Dae to take responsibility over the government’s failed rescue mission 
 for passengers of the sunken ferry Sewol. (Yonhap)\n\n“The number of 
 rally participants has steadily grown to around 30,000 a week. Unlike other 
 rallies, we see a growing number of young kids with parents joining the 
 rally,” Park said.\n\n“We are going to hold rallies every Saturday and 
 will share the plans online and on social media,” he added.\n\nThe 
 weekend demonstration was filled with protesters wearing masks and black 
 T-shirts that carried angry words directed at the government and the media. 
 Many were holding pickets reading, “What did you do during the golden 
 time?” and “We demand an independent probe into Sewol.” Students and 
 parents of the victims shed tears and denounced the government’s poor 
 initial response.\n\n“Stop saying that you have failed to protect us,” 
 a girl said on the platform. \n\nSome protesters clashed with the police 
 later in the evening as they attempted to head toward Cheong Wa Dae, the 
 presidential office, some blocks away from the Cheonggye Plaza where the 
 rally was held. \n\nThe protesters claimed about 2,000 people marched 
 toward the Blue House to urge President Park to step down, but soon 
 collided with police who were blocking the entire street toward the office, 
 they said. The police ordered the protesters to disperse. But as they 
 refused to do so, the riot police forced them onto the sidewalk, saying 
 what they were doing was illegal, they said. \n\nDuring the collision, one 
 protester was injured and transported to a hospital nearby. The police also 
 took about 30 protesters on charges of using violence against the police. 
 They were taken to four different police stations and are being questioned. 
 The list of protesters taken by the police included KCTU officials and high 
 school students. The police said some of them had been released.\n\nYoung 
 KBS journalists decry their network’s 
 sinking\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/636068.html\nPosted 
 on : May.8,2014 11:48 KST\n	• \n프린트\n	• facebook7\n	• 
 twitter19\n	•\n\n\nCoverage of Sewol sinking was misleading and shielded 
 the president, say junior reporters calling for debate\nBy Lee Jung-gook, 
 staff reporter\nYoung reporters at the KBS network put out a statement 
 calling for a “big debate” with news bureau executives and reporters to 
 reflect on coverage of the Sewol ferry sinking.\nThe reporters, who 
 represent all members of KBS’s 38th to 40th recruiting classes and have 
 been at the network for less than three years, were responding to the 
 ongoing controversy over inaccurate and misleading reporting on the 
 tragedy.\nThe statement, titled “We reflect on KBS’s sinking journalism 
 standards,” was released on the afternoon of May 7 by 55 KBS reporters 
 and photojournalists.\n“We wish to propose a big debate with the news 
 bureau chief, the newsroom director, and all the journalists who took part 
 in covering the Sewol tragedy to reflect on the way it has been reported 
 on,” it read.\n“We intend to keep ‘reflecting’ with our more 
 experienced colleagues until the news bureau leadership responds 
 sincerely,” the reporters added.\nEarlier that morning, ten of the 
 reporters posted messages on the network’s internal online bulletin board 
 calling for reflection on the “shameless reporting of the network in 
 charge of disaster coverage.”\nBlasting the network’s coverage of a 
 visit by President Park Geun-hye, one reporter wrote, “The report on the 
 President’s first visit to Jindo left out everything that the family 
 members were saying at Jindo Gymnasium. The harsh voices disappeared, and 
 all that went out was the President‘s voice and her basking in 
 applause.”\n“When the President paid condolences at the Ansan memorial, 
 the coverage was edited in a way that led viewers to believe a mourner was 
 the grandmother of one of the missing passengers,” the reporter added as 
 an example of misleading reporting.\nCritics have been lambasting KBS for 
 repeated reports on the “emotional security services” Park has been 
 receiving.\nA second reporter asked, “Does it fit with KBS’s reason for 
 being for it to be a broadcast van parroting things without content, or to 
 copy what it says in the morning news?”\nA third reporter wrote, “I’m 
 afraid to even wear a jacket with the KBS logo at Paengmok Port. My first 
 thought is how I’m going to avoid being glared at and rebuked by the 
 public.”\nThe messages were later deleted by the network, sources 
 reported.\nThe same day, the KBS office of the National Union of Media 
 Workers put out its own statement criticizing the network.\n“We can no 
 longer bear to watch KBS as it sinks,” the statement said before calling 
 on network president Gil Hwan-young, news bureau director Im Chang-geon, 
 and news room chief Kim Si-gon to “apologize to the public and step down 
 right now.”\n“With the newer employees taking action, a lot of the 
 veteran journalists are saying, ‘We can’t just sit here and do 
 nothing,‘” said a member of the union on condition of anonymity.\nOn 
 the night of May 7, the KBS newsroom made an official response, “We are 
 listening to the young reporters’ various opinions and plan to hold a 
 debate if needed. We will revise the standards of reporting on accidents 
 and disasters after gathering reporters’ opinions.”\n\nKorea Confronts 
 Tendency to Overlook Safety as Toll in Ferry Sinking Grows-Gov Health And 
 Safey Oversight Controlled By 
 Capitalists\nhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/world/asia/as-ferry-toll-rises-hand-wringing-over-tendency-to-overlook-safety-in-south-korea.html?ref=world\nBy 
 CHOE SANG-HUNAPRIL 22, 2014\n\n\nA temporary morgue in Jindo, set up to 
 identify victims of the sunken ferry Sewol. As of Tuesday night, the death 
 toll had risen to 121, but 181 were still missing. CreditUriel Sinai for 
 The New York Times\n\nJINDO, South Korea — As Navy divers recovered the 
 bodies of dozens of teenagers drowned waiting for a rescue of their doomed 
 ferry, South Korea has begun a national bout of hand-wringing over the 
 country’s tendency to overlook safety precautions in its quest for 
 economic success.\n\nWith a mounting list of errors that appeared to have 
 contributed to the disaster, maritime experts, the news media and regular 
 citizens venting their anger on social media have begun to question what 
 they describe as inadequate safety precautions and often lax regulation of 
 businesses.\n\nOn Tuesday, an opposition lawmaker released data showing 
 that the ship was carrying three times its recommended maximum cargo, 
 though it remained unclear if that could have helped destabilize 
 it.\n\nArrests of 4 More Crew Members Sought in Korean Ferry SinkingAPRIL 
 21, 2014\nIn addition, President Park Geun-hye, who has been withering in 
 her criticism of the crew, has also argued that cozy relations between 
 regulators and shippers may have contributed to the catastrophe, one of 
 South Korea’s worst in peacetime. The prime minister cited specific 
 problems that might have been addressed by better regulation, including 
 suspicions that renovations to add more sleeping cabins made the ship 
 top-heavy and more likely to keel over.\n\nPhoto\n\nThe mother of one of 
 the missing passengers from the ferry shows the photo of her daughter to 
 another relative of the missing. Most of the missing are students from 
 Danwon High School.CreditJean Chung for The New York Times\nThe country’s 
 top newspapers reflected the growing sense of anger, and shock, over what 
 they suggested was a lack of proper oversight. “Are we a safe society or 
 a third-rate people?” read one editorial headline in the newspaper 
 Joong-Ang. And the daily newspaper Dong-A ran an editorial titled “Cry 
 Korea,” in which it argued that Ms. Park should live up to her campaign 
 promise to run an “administration of safety.”\n\nFor years, South 
 Koreans called their country “a land of disasters” after a lack of 
 regulation or a cavalier attitude toward safety, or both, were at least 
 partly blamed for a string of accidents.\n\nIn 1993, an Asiana Airlines jet 
 slammed into a hill not far from the site of the ferry accident, killing 68 
 people aboard. Later that year, an overloaded ferry sank, killing 292. In 
 1994, a bridge collapsed in Seoul, killing 32. In 1995, about 100 died in a 
 gas explosion, and roughly 500 in the collapse of a department store in 
 Seoul that was weakened after the owner violated building safety codes by 
 adding a swimming pool at the top. Two years later, a Korean Air jet 
 crashed in Guam, killing 228.\n\nWith no large-scale disaster reported 
 since arson caused a subway fire that killed 192 people in 2003, South 
 Korea appeared to have put its curse behind it — and the country appeared 
 to be moving past its culture of “ppali ppali,” or “hurry hurry,” 
 loosely translated as a tendency to justify cutting corners to get work 
 finished quickly.\n\nNow, many Koreans are expressing shame at how far 
 their country still needs to go to address safety concerns, adding to the 
 grief and anger that has gripped the country since the accident last 
 Wednesday.\n\nOn Tuesday, anger at the crew’s apparent missteps in the 
 evacuation only grew as investigators said the crew was not even the first 
 to notify the authorities that the ship was in trouble. The first call, 
 they said, came from a high school student who called the 
 police.\n\n“Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking,” the 
 student is quoted as saying, according to the South Korean national news 
 agency, Yonhap. The boy is among the missing.\n\nAs of Wednesday afternoon, 
 the death toll had risen to 150, but 152 were still missing.\n\nContinue 
 reading the main storyContinue reading the main 
 story\nAdvertisement\n\n\nAnalysts said the ferry accident appeared to be a 
 reminder that South Korea did not shed its easy acceptance of loose 
 regulatory enforcement even as it became a high-tech economic powerhouse 
 flooding the world markets with Samsung smartphones. The culture of lax 
 enforcement is such a given, experts say, that government officials 
 consider working in public safety a second-rate job.\n\nIn South Korea, 
 more than 31,000 people, including 3,000 students, die every year in 
 accidents, accounting for 12.8 percent of the country’s total annual 
 deaths, the highest rate among major developed nations.\n\nThose episodes 
 include everything from car accidents to fires, and it is unclear how much 
 can be attributed to a lack of focus on safety. But there is a general 
 acknowledgment in hypercompetitive South Korea that success is often 
 measured by how quickly and cheaply a job is done, and that spending too 
 much time and resources trying to follow rules is sometimes seen as losing 
 a competitive edge.\n\n“The country has grown so rapidly that a lot of 
 shortcuts have been made, so that it’s waiting for an accident to 
 happen,” said Tom Coyner, a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in 
 Korea and the author of “Doing Business in Korea.”\n\nKim Chang-je, a 
 professor of navigation science at Korea Maritime and Ocean University, 
 said the complaints appeared to be true of the ferry business. “We have 
 the safety regulations and systems that were similar to global norms,” he 
 said. “But they are not properly enforced.”\n\nHe and other experts 
 pointed out a host of issues they said undermined safety on the ferry, 
 including that the crew had several contract workers, who might have been 
 less familiar with the ship than a regular crew.\n\nInvestigators have also 
 said the decision by the company that owned the ferry, Cheonghaejin Marine 
 Company, to add more sleeping cabins probably undermined the ship’s 
 ability to regain its balance after tilting.\n\nThe Korea Register of 
 Shipping approved the change to the ship’s design after advising 
 Cheonghaejin Marine to carry less cargo and more ballast water to 
 compensate for the loss of stability. But on Tuesday, Kim Young-rok, an 
 opposition lawmaker, said that when the ship left Incheon, it carried 3,608 
 tons of cargo, three times the recommended maximum. The company’s audit 
 data showed it has depended increasingly upon cargo to compensate for 
 declining passenger revenues.\n\nProsecutors were investigating whether the 
 ferry carried enough ballast water to accommodate the extra cargo. One of 
 the two first mates arrested on Tuesday told reporters that when he tried 
 to right the ship after tilting, the ballast “didn’t 
 work.”\n\nProsecutors raided Korea Register’s headquarters on Tuesday 
 and barred the head of Cheonghaejin Marine, as well as the company’s 
 family owners, from leaving the country.\n\nIt has also become clear that 
 the captain most likely violated national navigational guidelines when he 
 left the ship in the control of the least experienced ship’s mate through 
 a waterway notorious for its rapid currents. The guidelines stipulate a 
 captain should be in control in busy or dangerous waters.\n\nThe ferry also 
 had no extra captain, as ships often do when they are on long overnight 
 voyages so the two can take turns in the bridge, experts said.\n\nExperts 
 say they suspect some of the problems with the ship resulted from lax 
 enforcement of safety standards made possible by ties among the Ministry of 
 Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Shipping Association and shipping 
 companies.\n\nThe shipping association is a lobby for shipping companies 
 and is financed by them. But it is also charged with inspecting ships for 
 safety measures, such as a proper and balanced stowage of cargo. In 
 addition, many senior officials from the ministry — which is supposed to 
 oversee the association’s enforcement — also join the association after 
 they retire.\n\n“We will never be able to expect safety regulations to be 
 properly enforced until the shipping association becomes independent,” 
 said Jung Yun-chul, another maritime safety expert at Korea Maritime and 
 Ocean University.\n\nIn an editorial on Monday, The Chosun Ilbo, the 
 nation’s largest newspaper, summed up the sense that with more care for 
 safety, the calamity might have been avoided.\n\n“In Korea, people who 
 insist on abiding by basic rules are often considered annoying or 
 inflexible, while those who are adept at dodging them are seen as smart,” 
 it said. “But the country is full of such smart people, and the result 
 has been catastrophic.”\n\nPark Geun-hye administration only pays lip 
 service to safety while in reality being completely apathetic about the 
 issue-The heartbreaking lack of attention to 
 safety\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/633441.html\nThe 
 heartbreaking lack of attention to safety\n\nPosted on : Apr.18,2014 11:18 
 KSTModified on : Apr.19,2014 13:14 KST\n	• \n프린트\n	• 
 facebook40\n	• twitter22\n	•\n\n\nIn the second day of efforts to 
 rescue the people who are missing after the sinking of the Sewol, there has 
 unfortunately been no progress. It is heartbreaking to see the ferry, 
 upside down in the cold water along with around 280 missing passengers with 
 only part of the prow sticking above the surface, not only for the families 
 of the missing but for the entire Korean public. Words fail to describe how 
 horrible this situation is. Nevertheless, the government must never give up 
 hope, sparing no effort in the rescue work.\nWhile tragic, the sinking of 
 the ferry was avoidable. The direct cause of the accident has yet to be 
 determined, but the facts that have come to light and the testimony 
 provided by the survivors makes it clear that this was a stereotypical 
 man-made disaster resulting from Korean society’s indifference to safety 
 concerns. More specifically, evidence is surfacing that shows the total 
 inadequacy of the government’s initial response to the accident.\nIn a 
 disaster such as the sinking of a passenger ship, the first response is of 
 the utmost importance, since each minute, each second, can make the 
 difference in saving lives. If the government had at least had a disaster 
 response system in place, it would have been possible to deploy the rescue 
 equipment and personnel in a rapid and organized fashion, accounting for 
 all foreseeable contingencies.\nBut the government did not take the crisis 
 seriously in the early stages and thus failed to move quickly to begin 
 rescue operations. It claimed that it had activated a joint public-private 
 response system involving the military and based in the Central Office of 
 Disaster Safety Measures, part of the Ministry of Security and Public 
 Administration, but these claims has yet to be verified.\nThe 
 government’s pathetic inability to respond to accidents is also reflected 
 in its failure to even grasp the basic situation twelve hours after 
 receiving word of the accident. The figures provided by the Central Office 
 about the number of passengers on the Sewol, the number of rescue workers, 
 and the number of missing persons changed throughout the day, adding to the 
 confusion. On the evening of the accident, after a string of contradictory 
 reports about the rescue work, the public witnessed the disgusting 
 spectacle of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration and the 
 Coast Guard both trying to avoid responsibility for the rescue work.\nThe 
 government’s clumsy response was also evident in the comments made by 
 President Park Geun-hye. The Blue House reported that, just after the 
 accident occurred, Park worriedly instructed the relevant ministries to 
 ensure that not a single life be lost. It also explained that Park paid a 
 personal visit to the Central Office when the situation took a turn for the 
 worse around 5 pm, about eight hours after the accident. During this visit, 
 the Blue House said, Park asked the second vice minister of the Ministry of 
 Security and Public Administration why it was so hard to find the high 
 school students if they were wearing life jackets. These remarks 
 demonstrate that Park had not been accurately briefed on the basic 
 situation on the ground or had failed to understand the situation. The 
 passengers had not been able to put on life jackets at the time of the 
 accident, and most of the missing were trapped inside their chambers in the 
 capsized ship - facts that anyone could have picked up from simply watching 
 the coverage on TV.\nThe Park Geun-hye administration selected safety as 
 one of its primary governing objectives, even renaming the Ministry of 
 Public Administration and Safety as the Ministry of Safety and Public 
 Administration. But judging from the government’s performance from the 
 moment the accident occurred through the ongoing rescue efforts, it is 
 doubtful whether even a rudimentary disaster response system is in place. 
 It is no exaggeration to conclude that this is an administration that only 
 pays lip service to safety while in reality being completely apathetic 
 about the issue.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/17/18768633.php
SUMMARY:SF International Women's Day With The Mothers Of Korean Sewol Victims
LOCATION:ILWU Local 34 Ship Clerks Hall\n800 2nd St Next To AT&T Stadium\nParking 
 Available
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/17/18768633.php
DTSTART:20150309T023000Z
DTEND:20150309T043000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR