영국사람

A little something about AFEK…

As some readers may know, I maintain the website for AFEK, a site for F-visa holding expats. It seems that some people (The SeoulPodcast) consider AFEK an extension of this blog. That is not true. This blog is my blog. I started it long before AFEK was formed, and though I took a break after the birth of my daughter, I had always intended to return to it.

Zenkimchi thnks that AFEK should be pushing for social change. AFEK is a social networking site for F-Visa holders in Korea. It is not an advocacy group. There are no plans for AFEK to embark on political campaigns, publish press releases, or push for any kind of change in Korea. That is not the point of the site.

Here is what the AFEK forum is about:

• Networking and finding people in a similar situation in YOUR area.
• Living in Korea: Banking, Visa issues, buying cars, furthering your education, Family registration issues, getting passports for children.
• Working: Job opportunites and advice (teaching and non-teaching), setting up a business, publishing.
• Travelling.
• News.
• Socialising: Family days out (a kids picnic could be on the table soon).

The other areas of the site include:

• A Chatroom
• An F-Visa relevant wiki (which will be public at some point in the future)
• A library of guidebooks and legal documents (in multiple languages where possible)
• A gallery to share family photo’s

AFEK is not “old school”. We are family guys (and gals) who are trying to network in order to create a base of friends with similar circumstances in the country we have made our home. My wife is happy about AFEK, as she now has Korean women with whom she can bitch about me and they will understand her complaints. I now have foreign friends who can advise me on bringing up my daughter in Korea.

Some people (actually… that will be the SeoulPodcast group again) think that AFEK is an anti-ATEK group. Again, this is not true. I have been anti-ATEK, but the number of vocally anti-ATEK people who are also AFEK members can be counted on one hand. Most people are fence-sitters, though some are pro-ATEK. Whilst I still fit on the ‘one hand’, I have kept myself out of all ATEK discussions since my last posting on the matter, which was on this blog, and now consider myself a fence-sitter too.

What I find most amusing is that The SeoulPodcast, always quick to admonish the Korean press for their lack of fact-checking has not bothered to contact AFEK to find out what they are about. Joe Zenkimchi is eligible and could have joined up. Instead, he jumped to the conclusion that anybody who has a Korean family and wants to network is a paranoid schizophrenic who is in cahoots with Anti-English Spectrum. Had he contacted me and made that allegation, I would have forwarded the comment that was made on this blog by a member of that organisation in which the sick fuck named my daughter. I could have shown him the post that was later removed (after I cooled down) in which I call out that particular shitbag, and I could have told him the name and the address of the PC Bang that was used to type it. As it is close to the town that Joe lives in, he could have visited it and asked the prick himself. If he had a pair.

But no… I said some bad things about his friend, so that means that all F-Visa holders are bad. And he thinks the Korean media should be held accountable for their yellow journalism? Twat!

NOTE: These comments are the opinions of the author, and are not to be mistaken as official AFEK policy, as AFEK has no official policy.