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South Korean Cartoonists Cry Foul Over Edgy Simpsons Intro
theodp writes "When asked to animate a dark commentary about labor practices in Asia's cartoon industry — the edgy title sequence for the Simpsons' episode 'MoneyBART' — staff from the South Korean production company Akom raised a rare protest. Even after being toned down, the sequence created by British graffiti artist Banksy depicted a dungeon-like complex where droning Asian animators worked in sweatshops, rats scurried around with human bones, kittens were spliced up into Bart Simpson dolls, and a gaunt unicorn punched holes into DVDs. The satire, Akom founder and president Nelson Shin argued, gave the impression that Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when they actually animate much of The Simpsons every week in high-tech workshops in downtown Seoul. Still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their American counterparts, and Shin declined to comment on the full extent of the work his company has outsourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio of North Korea. Some argue that the Banksy sequence's gray and forlorn atmosphere more accurately depicts the sweatshop-like conditions in North Korea."
You forget that the Asian workers, smiling and happy as they may be in their productive 1/3 western salary paradise, have taken away jobs from Western workers, who could never live on competitive salaries. So one country's gain is very directly another country's loss. You don't like the angry satire, but it strikes home for a lot of the people for whom The Simpsons is made. That's the nature of good satire: someone always feels the heat.
I'm glad that South Korean society is doing so wonderfully. America put a fair amount of investment into the place in the 1950's in both money and American blood. I'm glad it's all working out. But things aren't working out so well for us over here, and I seriously doubt that there will be many South Koreans lining up to help out the United States, without whom South Korea would be very likely be run by a little shit with big square glasses that has so badly fucked up their neighbors to the North. Please excuse us all to hell if there's are some sore feelings over here when people are out of work because their jobs happen to be passing through South Korea on their race to the bottom. And enjoy it while you can because there's going to come a place where people are happy to work for less than South Koreans and the white knight corporatists who opened plants in South Korea will pull the plug on you without a second thought, just like they did here. Bit of advice: don't spend all your money on consumer electronics. Save a bit or you'll end up like us here in the US, carrying a load of personal and public debt and losing jobs left and right.
America says "You're Welcome".
You are welcome on my lawn.
The thing about sweatshops is that they're better than the alternative.
False dichotomy. There is not a single alternative. Logic? You fail it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"