By Lee Min
Just like most of the high school students in Korea, I am also busy spending my winter vacation studying and preparing for the next College Scholastic Ability Test.
Even though there is no time for a preliminary high school third grader to do something else other than studying, there was an unbelievable issue which caught my attention: the Gaza crisis.
Israel's inhumane attack against the Gaza strip has continued for more than 20 days, and the death toll in the conflict passed 1,200 recently. It is said that about half of the casualties are civilians and more than 300 children were killed.
The bloody conflict was temporarily halted under a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, meaning no one can be sure how the situation will change.
However, what surprises me more than the Gaza crisis these days is the indifference of Korean students to the issue.
As I try to share my ideas about the Gaza crisis with my friends, their reactions are mostly the same: ``What exactly happened there?'' and ``Where and what is Gaza?''
It seems like the 1,200 death toll is just a figure for most Korean students. In other words, the Gaza crisis is not a matter of concern for the little bookworms in Korea. It's just a conflict happening somewhere else in the world.
The roots of this indifference and lack of knowledge among Korean students toward global issues can be found in various social factors.
Probably the most influential reason for it would be the overheated interest in education and preparation for college. There are many students in Korea who seem as if their goal in life is ``entering a college.'' Most high school students are spending their days moving from schools to private institutes and from private institutes to schools. This particular environment keeps students away from developing an interest in things happening outside of the country.
The secondary reason could be the overall tendency in Korean society to usually focus on domestic issues. World news doesn't really take up a big portion in Korean mass media, and most Koreans' interest in global issues is seriously lacking. This can be easily proved through observing the protests against Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip which took place in various countries and the efforts of nations around the world to bring peace to the region, which apparently contrasts with the Korean government's trifling reaction: the statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Of course, there were some small protests in Korea, such as a march around the Israeli Embassy, which took place on Friday. However, the problem is that the scale of these social movements is extremely small.
Surrounded by this kind of atmosphere, a student growing up in Korea can be nothing but a big fish in a small pond. In order to produce global leaders for a bright future, the whole society needs to change: We should all care more about our companions around the world.
Lee Min is a third grader at Eunkwang Girl's High School.