Ok, so I've been gone a while. I'm not going to talk about that just yet. But I wanted to post this article.
One year ago today (April 16, 2014), the Sewol ferry capsized, sank, and killed most of its passengers, who were mostly high school students. Unbelievable tragedy. Since then Korea has a a "spit and duct tape" approach to caring for the victim's families and re-evaluating and implementing safety measures. And yes, on the human side, it is a horrible tragedy.
However, its also indicative of larger-scale problems.
So, I, personally, feel extremely safe here...even with North Korea and its "nuclear" weapons just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Why? Because South Korea feels very safe and modern. But, all that "safety" and modernity came to SK so quickly with a healthy dose of Western input means South Korea has not had to develop and "learn from its mistakes" in an natural, let's say "organic" manner. For example, industrialization in the US came with huge conflicts, including cost of human lives, and these events lead to some of the health and safety laws in practice today. Korea maybe hasn't had to learn first-hand from those type of events. I tend to think of it that Korea has become modern with Western cultures being a "do as I say, not as I do" type example. Essentially, Korea was told what works, so that is how things needed to be without allowing for it's own "growing pains."
Not to mention that Korea also became a "modern" country in the era of globalization and capitalism. There is a alot of talk recently about corruption in the Korean government, and arguably, it is understandable that there is. In globalized capitalism, money doesn't just talk...it screams...and trying to modernize so rapidly when money is the primary goal, well, compromises (ethical, political, health and safety, etc., etc.) are going to be made. And unfortunately, Korea has a steep learning curve.
My apologizes if this post seems a bit "all over the place" and none to clear at that. I feel like that too, and I wrote it. But, there are just too many things to cover in this particular issue that I can fully discuss in a blog post, so I tried to hit the highlights.
The article is here:
http://www.voanews.com/content/one-year-later-korean-ferry-victims-families-want-ship-raised/2718518.html?utm_content=bufferd06e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
