Korea Ascending

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea was awe inspiring. The pyrotechnics were dazzling, the special effects mesmerizing, the political overtones, stunning. Photos of South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, shaking hands with Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean president Kim Jung-un, hurled across the Internet.

South Korean President Moon and Ms. Kim, sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jung-un,
shake hands at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea
(Reuters Photo)

Thankfully, Americans are becoming increasingly aware of things Korean. It's long overdue. As they try to sort out the current news emanating large from these 2018 Winter Olympics, their understanding of Korea blends with what they've vicariously absorbed over the years: K-Pop tunes, the Samsung refrigerator standing in their kitchen, the Hyundai car parked in their driveway, the Korean restaurants sprouting everywhere. Many people have asked me, "Hmm, South Korea, is it really safe over there?

Think of the last time you were meeting a friend in a coffee shop. The coffee, the people, your conversation, hover in the foreground. Meanwhile, the music, mostly unrecognizable, quietly paints the background. Similarly, the threats emanating from the North, have largely become background music in the lives of busy South Koreans who are far more focused on their jobs, the latest fads, and just plain keeping up with the daily stress of being Korean.

I recall sitting in a Korean restaurant in Daegu in the mid-70s when I served there as a Peace Corps Volunteer. An article I was reading described the economies of North and South Korea as being remarkably equivalent. The per capita GNP of a South and North Korean were nearly identical. But North Korea was confronting decreasing support from Russia, while South Korea was having to adjust its 1967-1971 5-year plan upward after just the first year because its economy was booming. Today, the per capita GNP of a South Korean is more than 20 times that of a North Korean, $26,000 vs. $1,152.

Here in the U.S., the threats to our democracy are very much more than just background music. Our road and bridge infrastructure has recently been rated D+ by engineering experts. Some observers have even suggested the very nature of our world leadership is at serious risk; they reference the decline of the Roman Empire, by way of historic example.

Meanwhile, South Korea's world class high-speed trains keep getting faster. High speed internet, available everywhere, is said to be the best in the world. Its national airport in Incheon, is regularly rated one of the top airports in the world. Getting from one end of Korea to the other, is often a seamless process. Subways in most Korean cities are clean. Stations are spotless and almost always bike and handicap friendly.

The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul were certainly a demarcation for South Korea's economic coming of age. I recall the new subway lines, sports venues, and electronic billboards that were redefining Seoul's landscape. The modernization of Korea that began in Seoul has long since permeated the entire country. The world's largest department store can be found in Busan, Korea's second largest city on its southeastern coast. Daegu, another major southern city, sports a new monorail that operates autonomously, connecting its other two sophisticated subway lines.

Daegu's Yellow Line, its new monorail system, cuts diagonally across
Korea's 4th largest city, connecting its two older subway lines.  Its quiet, smooth and driverless operation is typical of Korea's world class transportation system.

With these 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea reintroduces itself to the world. The size of Indiana, South Korea sports the world's 11th or 12th largest economy. Its current leaders are carefully bending toward creating a dialogue with its longterm adversary, North Korea. The United States should carefully temper its more belligerent impulses. The political antics that are eroding our country create risks for the opportunities for peace on the Korean peninsula. South Korea is ascending, let us support, rather than hinder, its upward trajectory. Go Korea!

North and South Korean athletes join together to light the Olympic flame.
Both sides are attempting to create dialogue. Will these efforts lead to
agreements that are more than symbolic?
(BBC Photo)

Stop Trashing Korea

Haeundae Beach, courtesy of the Korea Times

A recent photo of Busan's famous Haeundae Beach awash in trash left me aghast and deeply saddened. My friends know that I love my second home, Korea. But as Korea continues to urbanize and modernize, the collective habit of impulsively leaving trash anywhere, anytime, must be addressed. In many places you simply cannot find a trash bin. Unseemly piles of litter grow on corners, next to poles, almost anywhere along Korea's streets. 

In my Korean neighborhood, trash piles up around a clothing donation box creating unsightly and unsafe conditions for children who play nearby

For reasons no one can quite agree on, many Koreans litter 
blithefully, as if someone else is going to come along and pick up after them. A number of people say it's due to the near universal absence of trash bins. Koreans, like folks in many other countries, must pay for municipal garbage bags which they use to dispose of trash at home. A popular belief is that left on their own, Koreans stuff these public trash bins with their household trash to save what amounts to a few dimes. In response, municipal officials avoid placing these bins in public places.

Wood, glass, refuse of all kinds, pile up in a children's park
in a Korean residential neighborhood

In our brave new world of high octane terrorism, the widespread availability of trash bins takes on new meaning. In Singapore, for example, the belief was that trash cans could house Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and as a result, bins were removed to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks. Singaporeans, it seems, have readily learned to carry their trash. Their streets remain remarkably clean.

So too in Japan. I have walked in cities there for hours without seeing litter, even as much as a cigarette butt, along that country's streets. And yet, there are few garbage bins. What makes Singaporeans and the Japanese so different from Koreans when it comes to keeping their public spaces free of litter?

We have seen Koreans "step up" before in support of their country. During the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, when their economy was collapsing before their eyes, Koreans dug deep to proudly save their country. As reported by the BBC, "It's an extraordinary sight: South Koreans queuing for hours to donate their best-loved treasures in a gesture of support for their beleaguered economy." Most Koreans willingly donated their precious gold jewelry in the form of wedding rings, athletic medals and trophies and even gold "luck keys," a traditional present given on the opening of a new business or a 60th birthday--all to be melted into gold bars. Amazingly, ten tons of gold was collected during only the first 2-days of the campaign. All this to pay back loans granted to Korea by the International Monetary Fund. 

Understandably, Koreans want their country to be taken as a serious international tourist destination. Seoul is one of the world's most fascinating cities. Busan, and the ancient capital city of Gyeong-ju, rival their oft visited Japanese counterparts, Osaka and Kyoto. But streets and other public places lined with trash seriously erode realization of that vision.

South Korea will soon play host to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Surely, there can be no better time, or reason, for a national initiative to make Korea litter free. If Koreans could save their country from financial ruin, they can certainly save it from ruination by trash. It's time to stop trashing Korea! To my Korean friends I say, you can do better!

SooHorang, Mascot for the 2018 Winter Olympics,
Pyeongchang, South Korea