Personal Injury Law

More Protests And Changes in Government As Mad Cow Circus Still In Seoul

The English web site of The Chosun says its time for the protests against importing American beef to end...

People in around a hundred countries eat U.S. beef every day, including Americans and Europeans. Most people around the world consume U.S. beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, but nowhere do you see mad cow hysteria or protests. If you ask people in other countries right now whether they believe eating American beef will cause them to come down with vCJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), they will say you must be out of your mind.

Yet only this past weekend there was another protest in downtown Seoul, which attracted 50,000 people.  It was another production of the People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease and brought out  religious groups including Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Won Buddhists, as well as the opposition United Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party, New Progressive Party and the Renewal of Korea Party.  The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and university students also participated.

According to The Chosun:

Protests have been going on for two months now, with participants claiming that eating U.S. beef leads to death by variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), or the human form of mad cow disease. Over the last two months, anybody who is anybody has joined in the protests, and just about every imaginable act of violence has been committed.

Meanwhile, President  Lee Myung-bak of South Korea dismissed his agriculture, health and education ministers in an attempt to reduce some of the heat on the four-month old government, which agreed to allow American beef imports to resume.   They were halt back in 2003 after a single "Mad Cow" was found in Washington State.

The New York Times story on the changes in the South Korean government can be found here.

And, go here for the full Chosen editorial.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).