Is it inappropriate to wonder at burning yourself alive to protest the importation of beef which hasn't actually started yet?

And is the newspaper's use of "long simmering" here actually appropriate?

INSIDE JoongAng Daily: "Long-simmering tensions boiled over earlier yesterday when a 56-year-old former worker on a cattle farm set himself ablaze in an apparent suicide attempt after attending a protest.

The man, identified only as Kim, drenched himself with gasoline and set himself on fire with a lighter. The 2:35 a.m. incident was near Seoul City Hall, witnesses and the police said. Jo Yong-seok, a doctor who treated the man at Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, said Kim is in critical condition.

“My husband has attended candlelight vigils for the past two weeks,” Kim’s wife said, adding that he lost his job at a cattle farm in Gyeonggi about a month ago when the farm shut down.

The police said Kim telephoned Namdaemun Police Precinct around 2:18 a.m. warning of his suicide attempt. In a daily press briefing, a rally organizer blamed the Lee Myung-bak administration for the incident.

“This is the second unfortunate incident following that of Lee Byeong-ryeol,” the organizer said. “The government, which defrauds the people and crushes voices with combat boots, is entirely to blame for this.”

Lee, 42, set himself on fire during a protest in Jeonju on May 25. He remains in critical condition."

Comments

Unknown said…
some very cool pictures of the protest can be found on the Boston Globe's Big Picture site.
June 5, 2008 at 2:16 PM
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