"So what I'm trying to say is that yes, something happened prior to these videos" Yeah, that's when someone decided to start filming. We probably missed about 2 minutes.

It's the ultimate contradiction, as Korea has come so far in the last 50 years (in terms of economic development) that we now find ourselves in the position where a) one group of seniors are the most disconnected from the modern world (global village, etc) b) that generation will be with us for another 20-30 years and walk the Earth with (as someone pointed out) the Confucian ideal that Elders get respect no matter what, and should be treated with great respect. Great. Not only does the foreigner (who obviously speaks decent Korean, and thus gets to hear racist epithets all day in Korea) have some hostility bottled up cuz of that, but now he's stuck on a bus, and some old guy tells him to shut up. What do you think is more likely? a) that this guy decided to beat up an 80 year old man for no reason or b) the old guy heard the foreigner on the phone yapping and told him to shut up (either in broken English or in Korean) Who knows, he might not have even used 니가.... he might have dropped the 네가, which is supposed to be the most disrespectful 'you form' (actually it's meant to be used to younger people, so in this case not really offensive), which also sounds a bit like the N-bomb. "네가! shut up (썃엎!)" Anyway, the guy snapped. I hate to see this stuff. But hey, we've seen the EXACT same videos with Korean on Korean violence--- the key here young vs. old, not black v. korean.

Scary stuff. I hope the quality of food in developing countries, like here in China, but I seriously doubt it.