It really isn't, publications like the Guardian have just misled people about how the economy works and why corporations make profits in situations like this. It's basically a direct consequence of two things: people cannot buy stuff unless it's actually available to buy, and money does not disappear when it's spent. This means that when there's not enough stuff available to buy, everyone bids up prices until demand meets supply again, with the money ending up as profits at whatever parts of the supply chain are most constrained. This is a perfectly reasonable place for it to end up: those companies are actively helping make the problem less bad by existing and investing in production at the level they did, it incentivises more such investment, and - most importantly - limiting corporate profits and price increases cannot prevent people from becoming worse off in real terms because the amount they buy is still limited to what's actually being produced.
Presumably you think this is "whack" because you feel it's unfair that companies are making more in revenue without a corresponding increase in expenses. What about the reverse situation? ie. there is an oversupply/demand collapse, prices go down, but their input expenses stay the same so they make less money. We're seeing this in the semiconductor industry. Should we stand with them in solidarity by continuing to pay pre-collapse prices, and have internet commentators point out how it's "whack" for them to rake in less money even though their expenses hasn't dropped?
I was under the impression this wasn't exactly hidden knowledge.
South Korean cinema has made movies on it. The South Korean intelligence agency involved even renamed itself and has had some powers stripped because of it (and other reasons).
I guess it's just not that well known in the west.
I made some Korean friends on a semester abroad in college… Kind of shocked me how much I hadn't heard of concerning Korea and Japan, from specific stories like this to differences in daily life and what is considered "normal behavior". Things sometimes don't really make it out—could it have to do with the differences in how negative it's considered to face a potentially embarrassing situation?
I am a pretty informed EU person, and I had no idea South Korea was a military dictatorship so recent. If I think about it, I don't know anything about that region regarding the 80s.
What is described here is worse that what happened behind the Iron Curtain at the same time, in terms of numbers at least (more people tortured).
Yeah, it's stunning how little we learn about Asia in European schools. The "I'm a pretty informed EU person" attitude is part of the problem -- how many of the countries on the top 30 economies list have you actually ever read the History Wikipedia article of? Why not?
Talking to South Koreans about the PCH era is very difficult. It quickly leads to agitation, even if you pose no reason for it - no matter their opinion, people seem to feel put on the defensive (or offensive, sometimes). The opinion you get to hear often seems to be their Official Family Opinion. It's tends to be either very pro ("Korea made so much progress in that time") or very con ("a monster"). It varies regionally, too - people from down South in Gyeongsang tend to think differently on average than native Seoulites, say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHu39FEFIks is a recent politically-charged South Korean pop song. It's (intentionally paradoxically) interpreted by a young girl, but it was penned by an older, male composer. The lyrics are superficially waxing nostalgic about the Sogyeokdong district of Seoul, however during the times shown in flashbacks in the video, this used to be the location of the HQ of the Korean Defense Command, which ran a "School Greening Project" arresting and interrogating students believed to be activists in the democratization movement, and trying to turn them into informants. Several died. So when the girl sings "Do you remember Sogyeokdong? It hasn't changed at all ..." it's biting sarcasm. The music video directly features related events, including the haunting, eerie curfew sirens and government broadcasts about the SGP.
Disclaimer: I'm a German citizen living in Seoul, and I enjoy life here very much and am crazy-fond of the country and many of its people. Yet it's a very complicated place, in particular its 20th century history.
???
That's a whack thing to say with a straight face.