David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
I can't breathe!
By David Tizzard
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By David A. Tizzard
A four-year-old boy and his first day of kindergarten: He has waited eagerly for this, watching with anticipation as his cousins leave the house each day, bags on their backs, bows at the front door and off into the big wide world.
Finally, the day arrives. He wakes early, filled with both excitement and trepidation. His clothes, some of them sent from the U.K. by his grandmother and uncle, are neatly laid out. Eggs and strawberries are on the table for breakfast.
Yet with it there is a message from the government. Sent to all citizens and arriving now via smartphones with an all too familiar din heard in houses, classrooms and subway cars.
It instructs the people of South Korea that all elderly people and children are not to go outside.
But it's not the commies that will get you. It's not the nuclear bombs, not the terrorists, not the contrails nor flat-earthers. Now it's the very air that you breathe.
The thing upon which humans rely and strive is now seemingly that which may prove our undoing.
Just as South Korea grew to prosperity through the qualities of competition and hard work, now those very same values seem to be suffocating many.
But this is not a dystopian novel or a post-apocalyptic computer game with super mutants and infected zombies. This is South Korea in 2019. This is the country that just a year ago held the Winter Olympics.
This is a country recently voted the ninth healthiest country in the world, according to the latest Global Wellness Index. Canada, incidentally, came top, which reminds me it's probably time to go and re-watch some old “Trailer Park Boys” episodes.
Domestically, about 74 percent of middle and high schools are not equipped with air purifiers here in South Korea, something causing great consternation among parents as they watch their beloveds traipse out the door every morning, some still wearing their winter long padding jackets as protection against the outside.
Some have even claimed that they are thinking of leaving the country because of the deteriorating air conditions and subsequent effects it might have on the respiratory systems of their children.
Social media has been testament to the severity of the situation. British diplomat Philip Kendall has been seen sporting a black mask on his trips around Seoul while historian Robert Neff regularly plays a game of “how far across the city can we see today?” on his jaunts along the Han River.
Twitter, however, has seen those based in America, but with a certain Korean-centric ideology, trying to downplay the reality of the situation. The “Ask a Korean” blogger, who has about 17,000 followers, recently claimed that South Korea's air quality has “been improving for the past two decades.”
I guess perhaps it might seem that way if you live in California.
But rather than argue about its portrayal in the digital realm, we should look at how it's being addressed. President Moon Jae-in was elected with one of his pledges being to create a country that was fine-dust free.
History is a fabulous collection of leaders that have reneged on the promises that brought them to power ― whether it is Obama's promise to close the still-open Guantanamo Bay prison or President Park's claims to focus on the elderly of the nation ― so we should not be too surprised by the unfolding of events.
However, one does wonder where we would be now if the past two years had seen City Hall and government institutions emblazoned with messages about the environment rather than peace with the North that retains its nuclear weapons.
The nuclear issue is perhaps pertinent. The current administration has moved away from any plans to use nuclear energy domestically despite selling technology and nuclear reactors to the United Arab Emirates.
One wonders whether South Korea is prevented from using nuclear energy here because of the many promises that have been made of a “denuclearized peninsula.” Do inter-Korean relations affect the produce and consumption of domestic energy in any way?
President Moon has promised to deal with China in addressing the issue, with one of the measures put forward being the creation of artificial rain to cleanse the air. Moon has also created a supplementary domestic budget to help deal with the problems that arise.
Whether either of these measures will deal with the situation effectively remains to be seen. It is good to see something being done, however.
Author and co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies John Feffer has suggested approaching inter-Korean relations through the lens of climate change. He believes such regional problems will only be solved in harmony with others and this particular topic might be one able to unite people behind a common apolitical goal.
Elsewhere, Emanuel Pastreich of the Asia Institute, and a writer for The Korea Times, often talks about the mindless materialism of the modern age that has given rise to these problems and romanticizes the noble savage of literature.
He seemingly envisions a world in which corrupt institutions are torn apart and the zombified citizens of Seoul are whisked away to an Eden-esque paradise without laptops, the internet and capitalism. The air will no doubt be better, but at what cost?
My Chinese undergrads tell me the air in their home country is worse. While this shocked their Korean and other international classmates, it does serve as a warning that things will not get better unless they are addressed.
Societies are limited entities with finite resources. To improve one aspect of the totality of people's lives comes as part of a trade-off. You enhance one section only by diverting time and energy away from another.
Thus in the democratic society that South Korea has so successfully created, unlike its northern neighbors, the conversation for the citizens should now be focused on the following question: What are we willing to trade for cleaner air?
What would your answer be?
For now, all I know is that the four-year-old needs picking up from kindergarten.
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University.