The Cost of Beef(ing)

Remember last year’s horrendous US Beef protests in Korea? If you were here, how could you not remember? It was the biggest, most ridiculous thing. Throngs of people jammed Seoul roadways. Protests ranged from those merely holding candlelight vigils  to ultra violent riots. And for what? A lot of lies propagated by a TV show called PD Diary. And how many people have ever gotten sick from eating mad cow infected beef? One or two perhaps. And how many people have died from eating mad cow infected beef? Exactly zero.

The Choson Ilbo, however, has other numbers that are far more telling as to the extent of the protests. Protests ran for 106 days. Nearly 2/3 of a million riot police officers were called into action. And over 1.5 Trillion won were lost – that’s about $1.2Billion in US dollars in economic damage.

That’s a lot of cash for a beef about beef.  No one every said Koreans don’t do things halfway.  And now, US beef is freely available in most markets and is actually being sold and eaten without incident.  Sometimes, it’s amazing the speed at which a myth can rocket up to “reality” and then back down again here in this land.