Some 500 residents in a northern Seoul village Sunday went too far in demanding a Catholic church in their vicinity scrap a plan to have a charnel house in its basement, showing a typical example of NIMBY, or not-in-my-back-yard, syndrome.
The apartment dwellers living in Gongneung-dong, Nowon-gu, staged violent demonstrations against the planned facility for the ashes of the dead at the Taeneung Church, even pelting Cardinal Cheong Jin-suk with eggs, although the head of the Korean Catholic Church came to the church just to attend a regular Sunday mass.
The villagers' mass violence testifies to the seriousness of NIMBY, a ``phenomenon in which residents designate a development as inappropriate or unwanted for their local area, even if the development is clearly a benefit for many.'' It also surpasses all imagination that they attacked the cardinal in that he is a symbol of the church itself and receives deep respect from worshippers.
The residents claim that the charnel house, if opened, will aggravate the traffic condition due to continual funerals in the area and harm the academic environment for their children attending nearby elementary and middle schools.
It was not the first time for them to take to the streets for violent protests. During the hot summer nights, they even used loud speakers to chant their slogans, oblivious to other peoples' right to sleep. They also let their children miss school.
They should have considered how their children thought of parents who dared to use violence just to achieve a selfish purpose. It is no wonder that such a violent action is harmful to the education of their children.
This kind of NIMBY phenomenon is not unique. The mayor of Hanam City in Gyeonggi Province had vigorously pushed his plan to build a huge crematorium in his city, but faced all-out objections by citizens who were worried about the possible drop of housing prices in the area. Finally they requested a recall vote against the mayor for the first time in the history of local autonomy and as a result he has been suspended from his duties.
Government data show that the rate of cremation will increase up to 70 percent by around 2010. Current facilities can never meet the demand. It is crystal clear that our society will face a serious situation if the residents still hold fast to the NIMBY phenomenon, blocking the construction of more crematories and charnel houses.
In this law-abiding society, the use of violence to deter the building of facilities for public use should not be allowed. Public interests are more important than private ones. The Catholic church and the residents have to make joint efforts to solve the problem through dialogue instead of violent demonstrations.