As time goes by, memory of the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry will fade out of the minds of most Koreans. Never so for bereaved family members, whose pain and sorrow could deepen with the passage of time.
The rest of society also should not forget this disaster so soon or easily even after the ongoing search operations come to an end. The whole nation has the responsibility for sharing the surviving families’ sadness and frustration from this tragedy caused by the failure of the entire social system.
Already, however, some “secondary damages” have all but become a reality; a victim’s father attempted suicide by hanging himself, and the mother of another made a similar attempt with an overdose of sleeping pills.
Most, or rather all, of the family members will experience severe cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which experts say drive people into failing health, joblessness, divorce ― and suicide.
And this explains why the Park Geun-hye administration, which failed to prevent the worse maritime disaster in decades or rescue any after the sinking, must not fail in its efforts to sever a vicious circle in which tragedy-caused despair result in yet more tragedies.
The government should waste no more time working out a “manual” for taking care of bereaved families and prevent these secondary damages.
Western experts have pointed to the lack of family support manuals among Asian governments to cope with enormous disasters, such as the current maritime catastrophe and the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner.
Had the Seoul government acted according to such manuals, it could have sharply reduced the families’ sufferings by providing better services, ranging from more organized briefings to effective counseling services.
So it is good to hear the government will set up a trauma center for the bereaved families. The proposed facility will have to serve as a comprehensive agency for looking after bereaved families, providing psychotherapy and helping them financially, because a considerable number of parents may become jobless, whether they want it or not, for quite a long while.
It should also provide psychological support to divers, volunteer workers and government employees who were exposed to the families’ emotional disruptions for weeks.
Most egregious in this regard are some people who add insult to the injury of the bereaved families with cruel, thoughtless words. “These families are flying into tantrums as if they have become something special,” said an adjunct professor of Hongik University. “President Park is not the captain of Sewol, so why do they protest in front of Cheong Wa Dae?”
People are criticizing President Park because she is the captain of a ship called the Republic of Korea, and many behaviors of Park and her government reminds them of the incompetent and irresponsible captain and the crew of the ill-fated ferry.
And the unsympathetic, brutal remarks by the professor and others illustrate why Korea still remains so “uncivilized” a society, as these self-degrading intellectuals put it.
A society is civilized only as much as it is willing to help and sympathize with its members most in need.