Yesterday, I guzzled my cold medicine, put on my sandals, packed some kim bap and headed to the BEACH. It was about 23c here yesterday, definitely warm enough to sit in the sun, chat with friends and read my book. Lots of the other people were drinking but cold medicine and drinking is a recipe for disaster. Two of the guys brought their guitars and improvised songs about Children's Day and being on the beach while highly amused Koreans looked on.
It was amazing to see so many young people with their family and smiling. They clutched balloons and candy and ran around to their heart's content. Of course then we had the lovely reminder article today in the Korean Herald about how frighteningly high suicide rates are among the young. Every few months someone runs an article about how Korea has the highest suicide rate in the OECD and talks about why this is so. And yet no one ever really talks about how to help...
It was amazing to see so many young people with their family and smiling. They clutched balloons and candy and ran around to their heart's content. Of course then we had the lovely reminder article today in the Korean Herald about how frighteningly high suicide rates are among the young. Every few months someone runs an article about how Korea has the highest suicide rate in the OECD and talks about why this is so. And yet no one ever really talks about how to help...
Comments
i'm not sure korea wants to
i'm not sure korea wants to solve this problem...i'm almost certain that korea is well-aware what has caused this problem: the pressure put on children to succeed academically. korea as a whole sees this as an important endeavor because if korea's children succeed, then korea succeeds. many koreans look at the past twenty-thirty years as proof that this works--korea is one of the most burgeoning economic asian societies, partially due to korea's focus on academia. as a society they see the results as the glass is half full instead of a weak minded children trying to kill themselves.
Suicide
Suicide is high here for both adults and children so it is not the schooling. The biggest factor may be due to economics. Recent studies shows suicide sky rocketing as do wages. People can not keep up with their friends and so on-and in a highly competitive culture, this leads to suicide.
If you have been here for a long time, you will even see students hate sharing and are super competitive. "Winning" is taught in a strong way here. On top of that, there are all the social rules one must abide by. And when you really look at Korean culture, it is extremely individualistic. I do not have the time to get into this but it is not a all for one society as it may appear on the surface.
If you read up on their histroy, you will see why they take care of themselves and everyone else can just mind their own biz. Look at how people drive. A perfect example. parking, turning, doing whatever they want. Kids are raised to be the center of the families universe and they expect to get whatever they want. Samsung daughter is a perfect example. She was worth 300mil-dollars, not WON. The father, Mr Samsung CEO himself, did not approve of her husband choice so she committed suicide.
Anyway, Korea is twisted but in time I think it will sort itself out. Maybe in a generation or two. And as an aside, I have read many posts on here that just attack comments. Before you do with mine-which is your right I guess, do your homework first. Dont just be defensive. There are many social problems here and like the post above, I am not sure it is a priority to really change that. It is all about economics now. A few suicides, whether famous actors, actresses, former presidents or even children is not overly important. It is easy for gov officials to talk but talk is cheap. It has been this way to quite a while and will continue to be for quite some more.