Whatever one thinks of the recent release of 250,000 State Department cables by Wikileaks, they offer an incredible inside snapshot of goings on around the world. I recently typed “Mitt Romney” into one of the excellent searchable databases available for the cables and came across something that was interesting, disturbing, and classic Romney.
In late 2006, then Governor Romeny took a trip to South Korea and on that trip had a conversation with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Jung-pyo. The official State Department cable has an account of their conversation, it reads in part:
“Cho registered concern over the inclusion of “So Far from the Bamboo Grove,” a children’s book about a Japanese girl in Korea after World War II, in the curriculum of several Massachusetts school districts. According to Cho, the book contributes to a negative perception of Koreans. Gov. Romney thanked Cho for bringing the issue to his attention. While each of the 351 school districts in Massachusetts has the authority to determine its curriculum, Gov. Romney said that he could advise the districts not to use certain material or to present a more balanced approach.”
Ugh…Now, one would expect the Executive of Massachusetts would have the modicum of guts required to at least politely, but firmly, stand up for the principle that people in Massachusetts have more of a right to decide what their kids should read in school than the South Korean government does. Sadly, everyone knows guts are something Mr. Romney simply does not possess and cannot buy. If, for whatever reason (being a wimp or general indifference to the self determination of the citizens he is supposedly leading?), Mitt wanted to take the easy way out he could have just said he’d look into it. But Mitt, being Mitt, of course had to go full-pander and actually thank the Korean official for his attempt at censoring American schools and explain that while he didn’t actually have the authority do what was asked, the Governor could “advise” those who did to remove offensive material.
On the plus side, it’s good for voters know what kind of foreign operator President Romney will be if manages to dupe people again into electing him: “Yes, Mr/Mrs Foreign Leader…are there any other books you would prefer American school-children didn’t read? Of course, I’ll do what I can.”
Side note- the visit took place mid December 2006, the very end of Romney’s term. At this point it was totally obvious that Romney was running for President, and would at least be a contender (mostly due to his personal wealth, “presidential” handsomeness, and squeaky clean personal life- in that order). Is it not incredibly strange, and somewhat creepy, that the subject of a book some students in Massachusetts were reading in school was one of the 3-4 things the South Korean government chose to bring up in a 40 min conversation with a possible future President?
Moving on…one of the most disappointing aspects of Romney’s Governorship was the total betrayal of Mitt’s campaign promise to use his business acumen and be a top-rate salesman for attracting businesses to Massachusetts. Even if you didn’t want Romney to be elected, it was not impossible to believe that this was something the smart & successful businessman could and would do. Unfortunately, good old Mitt instead decided to spend the second half of his one term traveling around the country bashing the state foolish enough to elect him- in order to build up some badly needed street cred with skeptical repub primary voters in the rest of the country who (as Romney well knew) just love to hate those Massachusetts weirdoes. Real nice, Mitt, and btw- not a particularly effective sales pitch.
At least it was easy to understand Mitt’s motivation for this particular backstab (his usual desperate pandering). It’s seems less obvious why Romney would, behind closed doors, seek to tamp down Korean interest in biotech and pharmaceutical investment in the Commonwealth- all while supposedly on a trip “seeking commercial exchanges.” But, that is pretty much what he did. According to the State Department cable:
“Cho expressed admiration for Boston’s bio-technology and pharmaceutical sector and said that he wanted to build a close relationship with Massachusetts in furtherance of the ROK’s goal of developing its own bio-tech sector. Gov. Romney welcomed Cho’s overture and said that many overseas representatives had offices in Boston to track the most recent developments. However, Gov. Romney shared that bio-tech, which employs only 30,000 people in Massachusetts, was not a job-creating industry.”
This is just bizarre. Especially since Biotech is one of the growth sectors of the MA economy and was even heavily touted by Romney himself when he was Governor (at least in public).
Caveat emptor presidential voters- Mitt Romney is a two-faced weasel with little or no conviction beyond what he thinks is most expedient to his own best interest on a given day, his whole public record confirms that. And so do the parts he never thought the public would see:
06SEOUL4247: GOVERNOR ROMNEY VISITS KOREA
…that Romney legitimately decided that the South Korean Foreign Minister had a point? Just because one is persuaded does not mean he “caved”.
would be that he would review the book – and IF it was a problem, he would advise the school districts to consider what his problems with the book. I would doubt that Governor Romney was familiar with the book.
I had never heard of it so I googled to get a description. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Far_from_the_Bamboo_Grove
Given that it was the autobiographical story written by a Japanese American of her experiences in war time Korea when she was 11 years old, it sounds like a good book to have in a school program. The teacher could provide the historical backdrop. It would be an easy way to teach that you need to read critically and understand that the story was written from one perspective – one not positive towards Korea. It also could lead to interesting discussions. Japan was our enemy – yet, in this book the students would likely identify and like the innocent young girl.
But, as I said, I didn’t read it.
if the government of South Africa objected to the portrayal of South Africans in an obscure book taught in a few districts … then what?
…he could not have made an informed decision, with no dissenting opinions, in that time-frame. Shouldn’t he at least read (or reread) a book before agreeing to try to ban it? Of course, we have no idea whether he actually did anything or not. But, that’s all beside the point.
The point is the Korean Foreign Minister (or any other country’s Foreign Minister) doesn’t get to try to ban a book in Massachusetts public schools. Period. Romney should have stood up for us, not bowed to half-baked attempts at censorship.
…ended up in the wrong place.
But knowing my early 20th Century History, I can’t say I’d be terribly sympathetic to the plight of Japanese people who lived in post-World War II Korea, any more than I would towards Germans living in Warsaw or Stalingrad after the war.
There was a collection on Germans living on the Volga. Is there any evidence that they were Nazi sympathizers? (I actually don’t know.)
Perhaps Stalin thought so, but you may not want to take that as evidence.
What if it was a child, who had nothing to do with any atrocities? Or a baby? Having empathy for one individual doesn’t in any way mitigate awful things done by other people who come from the same place. I think that may be a point of the book- getting past assumptions and broad generalizations, establishing our shared humanity beyond national origin, etc, etc.
While the governments in Germany and Japan deserve the condemnation that history has given them, there is no way that I could extend that condemnation down to every German and Japanese person, including children and those not living in the country.
Wikipedia, it’s interesting. The plot summary is pretty straightforward, though not cited.
The editorializing that comes in the next paragraph is bizarre:
There certainly seems to be a raw nerve here.
There is some really weird stuff on youtube too. It’s obvious there is some kind of concerted smear campaign against this particular book- which is fiction, so most of the above complaints make no sense even if true. Whoever wrote this on Wikipedia clearly doesn’t know what the word “novel” means, or is pretending not to. It is also banned in China.
“booming” was part of the book’s particular usage–like a naive narrator was saying it instead of “bombing.”
On second reading, I think spellcheck picked the right spelling for the wrong word.
The tense problems aren’t too bad, but might also be indicative of English as the learned language of an Asian speaker.
And said it was up to the school departments, but he’d advise that there was more than one side to the story, and please present a balanced approach.
The BASTARD!
How could he imply that there is more than one side to anything? Doesn’t he know this is Massachusetts?
Romney thanked the foreign minister for his attempt to ban a book in Massachusetts schools. It’s nice to know the Multiple Choice Mitt’s idea of local control mean local schools could be told what to do by gov’t in state capitols, Washington DC, or even foreign capitols. And this doesn’t really fit his current faux incarnation of Mr. No Apologies.