Candlelight vigils in Seoul

The hundreds or thousands of unquenchable light from burning candles seem like an ocean of yellow dots arranged in organic artisty can be seen from the birds eye view on the main thoroughfares of downtown Seoul. Burn, burn burn! oh tiny candlelights that can shed light to the darkened souls of the South Korean political leaders who choose to take the side of the profiteers and in the name of economic globalization.

The first candlelight vigil started on May 2 by students airing their concerns on the safety of U.S. beef and it became a continuing protest action even to this day, June the 24th. The main motive of the candlelight vigils was to call for the renegotiation of the beef import deal, but various groups joined the nightly vigils and rallies which started to criticize other policies of President Lee Myung-bak such as privatization of public firms, the inland canal project and many others.

From a small group of students the nightly vigils swelled to hundreds of thousands especially on the night of June 10 that commemorated the historic democracy movement massive protest actions. The big swell in number of protesters on June 10 estimated at 500,000 included church people from the member churches of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK). In a night long vigil pastors and lay leaders from the Protestant churches gave speeches on various social issues that affect the life of society such as the privatization of the national health insurance and other social services. Church leaders who came to the gathering remembered the dark days of military dictatorship. They challenged church people to continue to raise its prophetic witness in the present time now that there is a resurgence of conservative right.

People from all walks of life from students to workers and former activists who fought for democracy 21 years ago joined the rallies, demanding the government to renegotiate the beef deal with the United States made under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Because of this the clarion call for renegotiation the government sent emissaries to the US in an attempt to renegotiate the trade deal on beef importation. The South Korean government will urge the US trade negotiator that only beef from cows less than 30 months old can be imported to the country. Health experts believe that mad cow disease which affected the cattle in the US few years ago may be transmitted to humans through beef from cows older than 30 months.The US negotiator hopefully will reconsider the deal.

Moreover, the candlelight vigils also affected the credibility of the cabinet members of President Lee Myung-bak, where all of the ministers resigned from their post and the president has appointment their replacements. The president's popularity rating has plummeted since his first 100 days in office due credibility issues surrounding ministerial appointees.

The candlelight vigil will go on as long as the government will only serve the its own political and economic interests and the interests of the powers that it serves. In the context of globalization, more and more people will be disadvantaged due to the widening economic gap among people with varying economic capacities and the global economic recession.

Burn, burn burn! Oh candlelights of Seoul.