After embarassing a country of 48 million by concocting one of the greatest scientific hoaxes of all time then denying it and repeatedly lying about it as the scandal unfolded, South Korea’s Hwang Woo Suk remains a hero to throngs of South Koreans. It appears that the die-hard Hwang supporters are so desperate to have an international hero that they are willing to look past little details such as the fact that he fabricated pretty much all of his most acclaimed results and his fraud has created untold damage to worldwide cloning research (not to mention patients awaiting for resulting cures). Only attorneys and the religious right have been able to do more damage than Hwang to the promise of medical cloning. It also appears that Hwang may have also misappropriated $6.4 million in state and private research funds for his private use.

So how are many South Koreans responding to these and other charges? By attacking his attackers and steadfastly believing in his righteousness. When MBC, a large Korean broadcast network, first started airing shows questioning Hwang (all of which turned out to be right on the mark), the network received more than 500,000 angry emails. Even when it became clear to his supporters that Hwang was a fraud their position was that the South Korean media shouldn’t have exposed him because it will put the country’s bio-tech industry at a disadvantage to the U.S. Just a few weeks ago, a few thousand Hwang fans marched in darkness carrying candles in support of the disgraced scientist.

What’s clear to Independent Sources is that this country needs a hero and needs one quick. As Hwang has shown, they can rally behind pretty much anyone that acts like a hero. Since the United States has been an ally of South Korea’s for many decades, we think it is time that our company step up and help a friend in need and ship them one of our many heroes. Here are some suggestions:

1. Michelle Kwan. Okay, she’s a little long in the tooth for the skating world but she’s young enough that she can remain in the spotlight for many decades so we won’t have to go through this every couple of years. We’re not sure if they like ice-skating in South Korea but before Hwang how many serious cloning fans did the country have?

2. Michael Jackson. He’s supposedly still big in Asia and is certainly in need of a new country since he’s pretty much given up on the U.S. All Korea has to do is compete against Bahrain–should be no contest.

3. Rafael Palmerio. Baseball is huge in Korea and other than a lifetime of cheating and lying Palmerio is a legitimate hero.

4. James Frey. Frey could pen a memoir on how much the U.S. sucks when compared to South Korea and his personal struggles in America compared to the blissful life has in Seoul. It goes without saying that this story would immediately catapult him in the eyes of South Korea’s masses.

5. William Hung. He certainly personifies that grey area in between gutsy spunk and sheer denial that personifies many South Koreans.

6. Others: Paris Hilton (why not?), Leif Garrett (probably a stretch but he’d be cheap), Kayne West, Jimmy Carter, Steve Erhardt…

Come on America, time to do our part.

Update: An American musician moved to Korea a few years ago and is now starting to blog about his experiences in Through Whitey’s Eyes. Perhaps we should ask him.

technorati: hwang Korea

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 at 9:32 am by Insider and is filed under Not the conventional wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.