"Bart Bailey" wrote in message
...
In posted on
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:17:28 +0900, Brenda Ann wrote: Begin

Within the last single generation, meat protein has been introduced into
the
larger diet here in Korea. In that single generation, body height and
strength have increased to Western levels. Unfortunately, around that
same
time, Western fast food was introduced, so there are now fairly large
numbers (though nothing like in the West) of obese. It's interesting to
see
20 somethings that are a full foot taller than their parents.

What if the recent 80,000 strong protest in Seoul fails to maintain the
blockade and USA beef comes in, does this lower the price of hamburgers
even more, making for fatter citizens?

It seems to have worked quite well. Mad Cow phobia reigns. But I guess
that's no different than what is going on in Japan. Korea has very strong
unions. You should have seen them holler when rice began to be imported from
other countries (read, the US). Along with health paranoia, they're pretty
protective of their jobs here. They have to be. In a country roughly the
size of Indiana, with nearly 60,000,000 people, they can't afford to give
any away. There's a generational divide over whether the US military should
be here or not. The oldsters want us to stay, for the protection from the
loony of the north, and for the economic infusion of tons of $$$. If the US
military were to pull out, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost
directly from the military support system, and indirectly from the loss of
dollars spent by the military and it's members. The youngsters want us out.
It's an understandable point of view, for kids that don't realize what it
would do to the country's economy (let's just set aside Uncle Kim).