How to Get Ahead
By Rick Ruffin
I've lived in the Republic of Korea for more than 13 years and nothing really has changed. Sure, there has been some progress, but how much has really been genuine?
The advent of the superhighway has cut travel time considerably, while at the same time increasing automobile sales and feeding the endless positive feedback loop leading toward more concrete and traffic congestion.
Internet access speed has increased exponentially, leading to lost time and lost productivity, Internet addiction and more. Korean movie directors have taken the world by storm, with some great, low-budget success stories.
And athletes such as Kim Yu-na, Park Tae-hwan, Jang Mi-ran, Park Ji-sung and others have made huge strides in sports, making all Koreans proud.
But in spite of these changes, Korea is largely stuck in the proverbial crosshairs of history. It is not moving forward and the signals of stagnation are many.
Geopolitically speaking, the place is a mess. The never-ending North Korea-South Korea military/ideological conflict drags on, now more serious than ever before. The never-ending six-party nuclear negotiations lumber along, unresolved.
South Korea continues to rely on the U.S. for protection. The Cold War has reared its ugly head once again, and is threatening never to go away. ``Stalemate,'' any chess grandmaster would say.
Economically, the country is in the doldrums. The Korean economy is stuck in 13th place in the world indices and has been so now for more than 10 years (and the newspapers continue to remind us of this fact every minute of everyday).
The per capita income of South Koreans shows no sign of going up, and the never-ending Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement still awaits ratification, after almost a decade of negotiation gridlock.
In the world of education Koreans continue to pour huge amounts of money into the financial black hole of test taking, while test scores show that Koreans' collective ability to speak English isn't improving.
Korean students are still thought of around the world as incapable of critical thought or innovation, and no Korean university is very highly respected, in spite of spending tons of money to lure administrators here from the West.
Socially speaking, the place is a nightmare. Suicide rates are the highest in the world. Mobs of disgruntled Koreans continue to besiege Seoul City Hall, protesting anything and everything.
Koreans still can't come to a consensus on whether to be more like the West, or more Korean. As far as civil liberties are concerned, it's not simply a question of stagnation. The Lee Myung-bak government has actually turned back the clock. South Koreans have fewer civil liberties today than they did 10 years ago.
So what can be done to break the deadlock and move ahead? Here are a few things Koreans should try in order to surmount this developmental impasse and move forward.
Koreans must learn to be more flexible. As Korea Times columnist Jon Huer states, Koreans are some of the ``most stubborn'' people in the world. To illustrate this stubbornness, let's attend an English Program In Korea (EPIK) orientation meeting.
A representative of the Korean Ministry of Education gets up and makes a speech, defending the universally dreaded ``last-minute decision.'' The gist of the speech is, ``We're Korean, and this is how we do things. Please understand.''
This is the sort of message one expects to hear from villagers wearing penis gourds and running around shaking spears, not countries poised on the threshold of tomorrow.
Koreans must learn to communicate better. This is absolutely of the essence. Koreans, generally speaking, are poor communicators, and the reasons for this are many.
One, of course, is neo-Confucianism. It just doesn't allow for an easy flow of information. The other reason is lack of curiosity. Koreans have yet to develop a genuine curiosity for the world around them.
Koreans must learn to forge their own destiny, not benchmark the West and Japan. Korea has to develop a sustainable, economic model that works for this small, densely populated, resource poor and trade dependent nation. The neo-liberal economic model does not fit South Korea. The days of copying everyone and everything are over.
When I first came to South Korea 13 years ago I immediately noticed that there was no shortage of wall clocks and time pieces in all shapes and sizes everywhere. I also noticed that no one really bothered to synchronize them.
They all had different times, as if they represented cities in different time zones around the globe.
It is now 2009 and nothing has changed. My advice is simple. If you can't synchronize all those wall clocks, then perhaps you should just throw them away.
The writer lives in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. He can be reached at rick.ruffin@gmail.com.