IOC, Dokdo, PSY

A la Lex Column on the back page of The Financial Times, I tackle multiple subjects in today’s column.

IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) barred Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo from the closing ceremony of the London Olympics for displaying a banner saying, “Dokdo is our territory.”

The IOC cited its charter spirit of keeping the Olympics apolitical for its decision.

Such a decision, however, is seen with great concern for two reasons.

First, Park’s action can be compared with a victory lap run by track event winners and, as they would do with their national flags, Park picked the banner from a spectator in the stands and paraded with it after defeating Japan 2-1 in the match to decide the winner of the bronze medal.

By all means, it was not a premeditated action.

It wouldn’t take a lawyer to know that the degree of intention determines the severity of punishment for one’s action.

If IOC decides to penalize Park further, it would amount to an act of violating its own nonpolitical spirit, thereby contradicting itself by imposing a political meaning on his action.

Second, athletes are an integral part of the Olympic movement and the IOC is under an obligation to protect them.

Stripping Park of a bronze medal would resemble Big Brother bullying a helpless individual, perhaps going down in history as a more shameful act than IOC’s stamp of approval to Nazi Germany by allowing it to host the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Last but not least, if the IOC takes additional punitive measures, where would it put the organization on the Dokdo issue? Would it side with Japan, which invaded Korea, controlled it with bayonets, robbed Koreans of their resources in their World War II effort to kill millions of people, and is suffering from a puerility complex preventing it from owning up to its past misdeeds?

Besides, Park’s banner was not a political statement but a statement of fact. If Dokdo is Japanese territory, why can’t a Japanese prime minister or, for that matter, its king come and visit it?

Dokdo

President Lee Myung-bak visited Dokdo last week.

By all means, it was a political gesture aimed at showing these small islands belong to Korea. Then what motivated his trip?

President Lee may have wanted to divert public attention from corruption scandals involving his brother and aides, and invigorating his presidency during its last stage.

If he did so, Lee would not be the first politician to use Japan, a red-button issue that never fails to activate Koreans to set aside their individual differences and unite.

Of course, there are some politicians and anti-Lee media outlets that argue his trip was an imprudent act and making Korea play into Japan’s hand.

As a matter of fact, Japan threatened to take the matter to international court of dispute settlement.

Lee said that he had originally planned to visit Dokdo three years ago but couldn’t until last week because of a variety of reasons including inclement weather.

He chided Japan for failing to act like the big country it is and responded to concerns about a Japanese backlash by saying, “Japan’s international influence is not as strong as it used to be.”

Dokdo and, by extension, the issue of Japan’s territorial claim has a special resonance among Koreans. Here is one joke that shows how strong it is: The caption of a sinking Titanic says that there are three seats short on a life raft, asking for three male volunteers. One raises his hand and jumps into water, the second does the same. The third to raise the hand is a Korean who says, “Here,” and pushes into the water a Japanese fellow standing next to him.

Psy

The media is making a big fuss over PSY for his latest hit, “Gangnam Style.”

Korean media reported the foreign media’s feeding frenzy about a recent concert by the rapper-singer who had to serve two military tours of duty instead of one, had trouble with drugs, is known for sweaty armpits, doesn’t have a six-pack and is by no means handsome. Besides, the father of two has a knack for making anything he sings and dances about sound and look cheap.

Some culture analysts attribute PSY’s latest success to his brilliant parody of the upscale district in Seoul that symbolizes wealth, fashion, trends and the like.

Others argue that it is his marketing tactic using YouTube that enthralled the world with his rodeo dance. But PSY’s popularity should be seen as something that has been long in coming as part of “hallyu” or Korea’s version of the British Invasion led by The Beatles and the Rolling Stones into the United States in the 1970s.

In other words, with people of many other countries enjoying Korean dramas and K-pop, it was only a matter of time for somebody from among Korean entertainers to take the world by storm.

If it were not PSY, other Korean stars would have done it.

Despite some disclaimers, the Korean cultural wave is being increasingly accepted as the nation’s gift to the rest of the world. It may not a great overstatement to say that PSY happens to be at the right place at the right time. Still, I wouldn’t mind shouting, “Bring it on, PSY!” <The Korea Times/Oh Young-jin>

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