Is Korea a Third World Country?

By Deauwand Myers

No. Korea is not a Third World country by any means. And yet, you'd be surprised how many of my expatriate counterparts vehemently make this claim.

Their arguments:

Those who hold this Third World view complain most about the lack of cultural and racial sophistication prevalent throughout Korean society, where even the logistics of actually living in the country prove daunting. They point to the inane, complex and altogether difficult processes of getting a visa, a cell phone, an apartment, the papers, fees, long waits, criminal background checks, HIV testing, hospital visits and the like. They say the many hoops one has to negotiate simply to function in the country, as a foreigner, is ridiculous.

They are right. I've said in past columns and shall say again: Korea wants to be called international, and thus reap the economic benefits and global status such a nomenclature promises, without doing the real work of changing the mindsets and attitudes of the body politic. Recent, erroneous comments by GNP lawmakers claiming the widespread and problematic crimes committed by foreigners, specifically and especially E2 teachers, only amplifies the conflicting juxtaposition of some in Korean society: we want foreigners to live, work and invest here, but not so much. More succinctly, they fear ``the other."

I'm an E1 visa holder, but I've had an E2 before, and can relate to the mind-numbingly complicated and unnecessary exercise it is to legally work in this country.

Further, I know a bit about being considered the other. A dark-skinned person, of the American variety, in particular, is marked with a scarlet letter, desired for his cultural attributes but deemed undesirable all the same. Fairer-skinned folks fair better in Korea, relatively speaking, but are still confronted with the rank racism and xenophobia espoused by some within the society at large, too often by those with some power and influence in the matter.

I do not excuse or condone this behavior and have written about it on more than a few occasions. I, in fact, vigorously argue against "the other" versus the Korea paradigm some Koreans so tenaciously employ.

My Argument:

Racism, discrimination, arcane laws, homophobia, sexism, classism, androcentrism, nationalism and stupidity do not, I'm sorry, relegate Korea to the shadows of third-world status. If it did, what country could be called ``first-world?" America? Please. Five words for you: conservatives, the South, the Bushes.

America's myriad of socio-economic/political/cultural problems proves too extensive to enumerate here, but an abbreviated version goes as such: literacy, income/wealth distribution, violent crime, educational opportunity and health access/outcomes. Sadly, the vast majority of the states most plagued by these problems are conservative Southern states, conservative states, Bush states, who often battle against and yet would prosper from the very progressive policies meant to ameliorate the aforementioned social ills in the first place.

We are the richest, most powerful country in all of human history ... which must be mitigated when considering how so few Americans are so fabulously wealthy and that our power comes from having so many nuclear weapons.

Some perspective, please.

In Korea, public transportation, health care access, literacy, and general safety, are as good as or better than nations with much longer histories of economic progress. To believe, and then assert, that Korea is in anyway similar to a Myanmar or El Salvador is glaringly inaccurate. Moreover, statistically, Korea is a first world nation by almost every metric denoting such a status.

Korea is as far from being Third World as Canada is from being a warm destination. Visiting a Third World country, and studying what that term means, would clear up a great deal of this unproductive line of illogic expressed by disaffected expatriates. I have a feeling, however, this false charge is more often than not fueled by angst and dissatisfaction, and let's be honest, racially superior inclinations, by some foreigners toward Korean society, than factual, objective and unbiased analysis.

Korea is not where it should be in being culturally accepting, racially sensitive or internationally minded. Of this there is no question. But claiming it's a North Korea with better electricity is foolish, uneducated and resoundingly wrong.

The writer has a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is currently an English professor at Shingu University. He can be reached at deauwand@gmail.com.