[Letter to the editor]Art or porn in public spaces?

Thank you for your [March 20] report about pornographic material on the Internet. I am glad that the government is concerned about children having access to material that will affect the way they will view women when they get older.
But I am still concerned about some of the things I see on the streets that seem to not get much attention. In Yeoksam-dong where I live, I see many flyers advertising prostitution that are placed on cars and later discarded on the street. Children are exposed to these pictures far too often. I can’t understand why it is hard to stop when these materials list phone numbers that can easily be traced to the people who make them.
Another concern: If one walks past the LG Tower located about 300 meters from exit 8 of Gangnam station on the way to the Kukiwon (a national tourist attraction that many children visit) there is an art display showing videos of women posing with no clothes on multiple screens; [this I find] pornographic.
I love Korea and I love the Korean people ... I hope that the government [will] target these public areas as well.
Bobby Coronato, Seoul

Globalizing means opening minds

I am a Korean adoptee, and have been living in Korea for two years. Among the most shocking things I have encountered during my life in Korea are the racism and discrimination that I have been subjected to here, repeatedly.
Having never experienced even one incident of racism in the United States, it was utterly bewildering and vexing to be confronted with it in my “motherland.”
I recently came to a breaking point when I was told by an English language institute that, “unfortunately, they only want a native teacher.” This was imparted just two days after I had been told that my resume was more than satisfactory, and that [the institute] really wanted to schedule an interview with me.
This came immediately after I had quit my job, which was in part because I have been told that Koreans regard adoptees as trash because we have no parents.
I have also been told that my biological parents had to have been both stupid and immoral, and that Americans only adopt Korean children because they get welfare [benefits] as a result.
While I cannot judge the veracity of the first assertion, the latter claim is easily refuted by logic. What country would give people money to adopt children from other countries? Financially, it would be an absurdity.
I have discovered that no matter what I do, I am always confronted with the problem that I’m not Korean enough or white enough to be accepted in this country.
I have found this paradoxical situation rather farcical since, by American standards, my minority status only serves to augment my suitability; as a Jew and a Korean, I am statistically in the top echelon of the academic world [in the United States].
American people treat me accordingly, and I have always been treated no differently from a white American.
If Korea is sincere in wanting to join the global community, its people are going to have to curb their racist attitudes and prejudiced perceptions.
The Korean people need to open their eyes and stop holding adoptees to a double standard.
Either treat us fairly, as fellow Koreans, or treat us with the esteem granted to “native,” i.e. white, Americans.
Kyung Eun Davidson, Seoul