In our lives, one might come across with individuals who would make one feel underachieved; these individuals are smarter, more talented and highly achieved one would consider himself/herself to be. They may come to our lives in verity of types and flavor, but they are largely received in our sphere with likes and dislikes to them. The former people would bring us gaiety and joys to be around, but the latter individuals have quite divergent characteristics, whose demeanor can be characterized with lack of compassion for humanity to be called "brat" with full of pugnacity. Any country would have arrogant people, but Korean soil would breed more of latter type of people. It is so strange that the way individuality goes out of bound in the society where collective way of doing things is much emphasized. The increased number of people in latter type is result of individuality went out of bound, giving them privileges. In the society where collectivism is honored, such "brats" need to be hammered out; however, the rules become lenient to those privileged. It is because the society has been historically lackluster in bringing a ruler of morality when such people commit wrongdoings. As needs for industrialization became greater in post war era, excessive favoritism on individuals achieved in academia in hiring high positions were routinely practiced. Due to such environment, the education has been thwarted largely associated with gaining social status, which led to creating environment where majority of its people view one's academic achievements to be at the top of the pedestal mainly in doggy race going after social recognitions, material successes and aristocracy instead of becoming true leaders of the society. Such environment led to creating social mafias. Instead of moving toward bringing betterment for the society, these social mafias have been helping each other with pretext of becoming high ranking officials or a professors of good universities for high pay and social recognitions instead of sacrificing themselves to make contributions to the society with their talents. In our casual encounter with such people, it is not frequent that such talented ones would come in our lives with sheer joys, but rather they would come upon our lives with repugnance. Their harmful effects could linger quite some time in our psyche. From the former, their innate humanism can come as blissful moments bringing boons to us. However, the latter folks - those ones who are smart and arrogant - can smear our psyche with toxicity, implanting us with poisons from their rude behaviors. For that matter, when such repugnant people are caught in traps - which has been seldom a reality in Korea where Kama of ingratitude, rudeness, haughtiness and arrogance would often defy gravity of demise, one can not help but showing gleeful mood watching they caught themselves in a cob of web . They have all along averted the quagmires as a privileged person, that ordinary people would have encountered. Has Korea instilled itself finally to be able to server the privileged ones? We now know that they are going though a hellava time finally like we all might be fallen into due to freaky nature of life itself. It's a moment reaffirming the freakiness of human condition - absurdity and normalcy ever so intertwined in our lives, in this case, inability of defying the gravity of evil person's demise as normalcy would prevail finally.
Sexual molestation charges being made against professors and politicians in Korea can not be viewed merely in terms of consensuality is involved. In Korea, sexual molestations or rapes charges are made against professors would often entail coercion on professor's part. Professors in Korea has so much power over students' sphere. In comparison with their counterparts in other countries, their power goes further even finding jobs for students, giving grades - getting good grades are weighed more important in very competitive society. As their power over the students even reach to coarse sex without getting punished. This is a typical formation of the society that the western system is imposed on tranditional Confucian society.
Following the incident of a politician sexually harassing an intern college student as he was accompanying the President Park in her trip to the U.S. recently, another sexual harassment change has been brought upon, this time, to a renowned mathematic professor who allegedly molested slew of his female students. The professor was convicted, handcuffed and taken away. What is shocking is that the professorship, an epitome of Confucianism of the society has been demoralized. The professor has achieved quiet a lot; he has chaired an international mathematical committee and written books, one of which is even used in Harvard and Wisconsin Universities. What is even more interesting is that he is a grandson of a famous scholar and a member of independence movements during the colonial era, who is widely known among young and old Korean, Jung In-Bo, and his father and mother were both scholars; a signature in-born of elite and aristocratic family. This conviction of a professor is first of its kind in the history of Seoul National University, not a simple case that can be brushed under the rug. What is even more shocking is of his mindset; he he even tried to escape the country to look for a job else where in foreign country.
After graduating from Seoul National University majoring in Mathematics, he went on getting his PhD from the Yale University. A mathematical book that he published in 2012 has been adopted as a textbook in several universities in the U.S. and he is exonerated for having upgraded mathematical researches in Korea on higher order. He was a recipient of Young Scientific Mind Award in 1998 and Young Scientists in 2002 from the Korean government.
His colleagues regard him as a talented person who can accomplish anything whether that be a slew of research articles have been published in highly acclaimed international journals, his fine lecturing skills, his orientation to details, his humors, story telling skills, writing skills, etc. He has a baby face and he wears casual clothing and carries a backpack as though a student; nobody would recognize him as a professor.
How the mathematician became a sexual molester?
The professor stopped by at a park with a female student, on the way while his female student was giving him a ride to his home after having dinner with a group of students followed by attending a mathematical forum. The professor molested the female student sexually sitting at a bench. The professor asked the student to sit on his lap. When the student sat down in force, he then caressed her body. After the incident, the student spoke to the group what happened. She said that she is in state of shock, and resigned from her internship. After receiving the report, the police immediately launched an investigation, and filed the case with pending conviction. The case is then assigned to a prosecutor North Ward in Seoul.
The professor, in an interview with a news report from HanKeyRae Newspaper, stressed the fact that the student is a beloved student, and she gave him ride to home many times as he is hurt in a car accident. He said that they hug each other casually as they depart. He said that the intern student often sent text messages to him about mathematical mistakes she has made, so he took her out for dinner to cheer her up, and the incident happened inadvertently. The professor showed his emotion saying, "What a crazy man would do such thing in front of his house. I am crazy. I should be responsible whether my intention was misunderstood." After the interview was over, the professor sent a text message asking, "Would my name be mentioned on the newspaper? If it did, many people will be shocked. I understand the trouble that she is having, but I can't help being thinking about myself first."
Nevertheless, professor's transgression is not limited to this incident. After HanKyuRae newspaper published the interview, number of students posted their messages on the campus online message board anonymously with similar charges on the professor. One student claims that she has been sexually harassed by the professor over two years. According to her, the professor sent her text message saying that he wanted to see her. The student has been collecting such messages all along but she has never attempted to make this a public for she was afraid that revealing it public would jeorpadize her future career. The student want to substantiate the fact that the professor is a routine sexual molester, not of mistakes or misunderstanding from the victim, and want to encourage those people like her to come forward. The message board has been posted with 107 messages. One student posted a message that, in between 2009 and 2010, she has been received numerous message from the professor asking her to meet him with threats. She also mentioned that she was called for dinners, and he molested sexually in numerous occasions. One other student reported that when she said that she would have to go back to her home in remote province in response to being asked to meet her, the professor said that he would drive down to the province to meet her since he would be passing by the province on the way to a conference, where the place for the conference is 3 hours drive from her home.
After all, he was a man who was born in a aristocratic family, having a Ph.D from Yale University with recognition from the world academic community, pursuing excellence in writing, playing Hip Hop, mingling with students in no walls, bona fade, meeting the image of idealistic professor to students.
HIs power within the department sored up, nothing in the path of achieving unbounded confidence, seizing a tyrannical power to bring demise any student who would disobey him. Even the school that is craving for world recognition would not snub off his bizarre sexual behavior.
The victims then gathered together and organized a committee and collected evidences to be used against him in the court. The evidences were collected in the file name called "X" as a variable that the professor would use as a single method in molesting his students. For four days of work collecting the evidences, there have been 22 victims. The first case on the list dates 10 years ago. According to the X file, the predatory approach that the professor employed has not been changed much. He took the approach by sending a text message saying, "It's raining, and I am thinking about you. What are you going to do this evening? Can I buy you a dinner?" Almost all the student say that it was hard to ignore his message. When the students ignore his message or express resistance, he would respond saying, " You're getting overboard. Would I think of you as someone for a date? I am baffled that you would think that way." He would take the approach getting angry at students belittling them and he tried to find their personality and how far they can be pushed to get what he wants. When the students resisted much, he would then stop calling them. The committee, based on the evidences have been gathered, reported a laundary list of sexual charges made against professor Kang, and called him "a habitual sexual molester." The report revealed that the professor would keep on asking the students' schedule for next two to three weeks in order to set up a time to molest them. despite their resistances to meet him. The professor would meet one student at a time, and upon meeting the student at dinner table, the professor would treat her as if a girlfriend. He would dinner and insisted on having liquor along with so that student gets intoxicated, and then change the place for sexual advancements.
According to the Kang's acquaintances, they all say that what had to happen has happened. According to one of the acquaintances, he knew what the word "K" on the newspaper refers to "Kang Suk-Jin" instantly. Other acquaintances also could easily identify who the alleged sexual molestor "K" referred to on the newspaper, and it is well know fact that he was such person not only in the campus but also mathematical community in Korea. They say that Kang's thinking is grossly overblown, mainly due to the fact that both his parents and his grandfather are renown scholars and he himself was well spoken, a good writer and athlete, to the point that all women like him, and it made them to think Kang is crazy.
Kang claimed that the condition for research is not up to par and he moved his location for his research in different place outside the campus, and he moved back three years later. He revealed the reason why he returned in an interview with Campus Newspaper in September 4, 2004, saying that he missed time doing research in close proximity with students. One professor told that although he heard indirectly that students have been molested by the professor, actually hearing the news of his alleged sexual charges is shocking.
Kang's incident is only a tip of iceburg. This is not simply a Kang's incident, but it goes into further as an incident that symbolically unsurfaces the obligatory condition that the students are subjected to put themselves in with their professors in Korean educational environment. One student in KAIST referred to his professor as though a CEO of a small company. According to him, his professor has a too much power over his sphere as a student: from rights not to pass his qualifier for graduation and even to rights to allocate how much financial assistance for the project that he is involved with. He said, "There is nothing that goes through without his supervision, and if he is disked by the professor, there will be nothing getting done." He also said that number of professors in KAIST have been charged with sexual molestation by their students, and there has been an incident where a professor hit one student with a notebook computer on his head, and these things happen more frequently in graduate school where professors would have more power over students' sphere." One person who graduated from SNU as a mathematic major says that Kang is an exceptionally gifted professor, and whoever studies under his guidance with his liking of him/her would receive good ideas for their thesis, and if anyone raises issues about his sexual advancements would surely jeopardize his future career ruining his/her chance of getting hired. For this reason, many of the victims would not go public and try to forget the past once he/she found a job, and that's why his sexual behavior has not been revealed.
Professors at SNU say, "We have to reflect upon structural flaws exist in our academic community."
The head of professorship committee states that the school overlooked misbehaviors of those high achieving professors. When such professors publish more articles in international academic journals or praised by the international academic communities, their misbehaviors would not be brought against them. It has become more important in hiring process of their achievements than their ethical standing as a professor. The environment has become so thwarted that , after employing professors on merit basis, professors has become competitors to each other, when a professor achieves more, his/her transgrassion becomes ignored. We need to discuss in depth for the cases such as Kang's. According to Ms. Lee, a committee member for Strategic approaches to Women's Issues in Korea, " The academic environment is more leaning toward individual's transgression than industrial sectors in Korea and thus it is important for individuals in academic coming to realization of the importance of self-control on this matter seriously, not abusing the freedom with their own interpretations, and the more important thing is that school itself should take the matter seriously and make improvements"
Kang, who loves sports, mentioned the basketball player, Her Jae, in his book, "A mathematician sitting on a football," where the player gets disqualified to play for Asian Men's Basket Game as a result of being found sneaking out of the camp, getting drunken and then got into an accident in driving a car. Kang expressed his view of the incident that Her Jae should not have been disqualified for the misdemeanor.
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