By Muhammad Nauman
I am presently employed as a researcher in Austria. I have spent five precious and peak years of my life in Daegu where I completed my Ph.D. from Kyungpook National University (KNU) in February 2020. I consider Daegu and South Korea as my second homeland where I have many fascinating memories.
The special feelings for Daegu and Korea are natural. I am still emotionally attached to my alma mater and trying my best to act as a bridge for international collaborations. It's not only my story but the story of almost all international students who study in Korea and then move to the world's highly-ranked research institutes and universities.
I know dozens of my friends and colleagues who graduated from different universities in Korea and now they are professors, researchers, and scientists in prestigious institutes and research centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Gulf countries, and almost every corner of the world. We have alluring memories of Korea and we proudly share those with our friends and colleagues in other countries.
For the last couple of months, there has been disturbing news coming from Korea through electronic and social media. A small group of residents is holding protests, distributing pamphlets, and running campaigns against a small mosque near the KNU East gate.
International students from all over the world in the vicinity of Kyungpook National University use this mosque for prayer purposes and a community meeting place. Being a part of that community for five years, I consider it my responsibility to clarify some confusion and misconceptions about the matter. International students from all over the world have been praying in the mentioned mosque for the last eight to ten years.
They are residents of different homes around KNU and have been living peacefully in the region for the last two decades. A sudden rise of such voices from a small group of local people has badly impacted the psychology and mental health of the international students in that region. Many of the students and researchers live along with their families and children and they said in an interview that such pamphlets and protests have impacted their children.
They feel concerned and fearful after such protests and slogans. These students and researchers come to Korea for a short period of time. They either return to their home countries, as most of them have jobs in their own countries, or they move to other countries and further their career.
Every sane individual considers these protests as a move of a small group of people having no relation to the state policy or general opinion of the majority of the population. But at the same time, it we cannot underestimate the role of social media and the exceptionally fast spread of information among the masses.
In the age of "big data," it's harder to control the famous "Chinese whispers" game where misinformation spreads among masses like "fire in a dry forest" and reaches every individual with a different twist. These problems created by a small group of people are extremely dangerous for the international image of South Korea. It deteriorates the nice peaceful image of Korea and creates misconceptions among the public.
A few months ago, there was a huge debate on whether Korea can be a possible replacement for Hong Kong as a financial hub of Asia or not? The anti-foreign sentiment was one of the demerits among the five reasons that presented Seoul and Busan as an unsuitable place for foreign firms to establish operations. Such actions from a small group of people will provide an unintentional supportive argument to those demerits.
Furthermore, Korea's tourism industry is a major contributor to the country's economic prosperity. It contributed 4.7 percent of GDP in 2018 and is expected to provide 1.4 million jobs or 5.3 percent of total employment. Such small incidents and their reflection in social media will also impact the tourism industry.
It's also worth mentioning that some of the individuals among the residents, human rights organizations, and professors of KNU, who believe in diversity and equity, are handling the matter quite nicely through dialogue and meetings. Logically it's impossible for a student to visit Korea and leave his or her culture and lifestyle in their country. Lifestyle and culture is an integral part of individual life and it accompanies an individual wherever that person goes.
We hope that the issue will be resolved through the proper intervention of government officials and departments and the physical and psychological safety and security of all international students and researchers in the country will be assured.
The writer is a former student and researcher in KNU and former vice president of the Pakistani Students and Scholars Association Korea (PSAK).
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The special feelings for Daegu and Korea are natural. I am still emotionally attached to my alma mater and trying my best to act as a bridge for international collaborations. It's not only my story but the story of almost all international students who study in Korea and then move to the world's highly-ranked research institutes and universities.
I know dozens of my friends and colleagues who graduated from different universities in Korea and now they are professors, researchers, and scientists in prestigious institutes and research centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Gulf countries, and almost every corner of the world. We have alluring memories of Korea and we proudly share those with our friends and colleagues in other countries.
For the last couple of months, there has been disturbing news coming from Korea through electronic and social media. A small group of residents is holding protests, distributing pamphlets, and running campaigns against a small mosque near the KNU East gate.
International students from all over the world in the vicinity of Kyungpook National University use this mosque for prayer purposes and a community meeting place. Being a part of that community for five years, I consider it my responsibility to clarify some confusion and misconceptions about the matter. International students from all over the world have been praying in the mentioned mosque for the last eight to ten years.
They are residents of different homes around KNU and have been living peacefully in the region for the last two decades. A sudden rise of such voices from a small group of local people has badly impacted the psychology and mental health of the international students in that region. Many of the students and researchers live along with their families and children and they said in an interview that such pamphlets and protests have impacted their children.
They feel concerned and fearful after such protests and slogans. These students and researchers come to Korea for a short period of time. They either return to their home countries, as most of them have jobs in their own countries, or they move to other countries and further their career.
Every sane individual considers these protests as a move of a small group of people having no relation to the state policy or general opinion of the majority of the population. But at the same time, it we cannot underestimate the role of social media and the exceptionally fast spread of information among the masses.
In the age of "big data," it's harder to control the famous "Chinese whispers" game where misinformation spreads among masses like "fire in a dry forest" and reaches every individual with a different twist. These problems created by a small group of people are extremely dangerous for the international image of South Korea. It deteriorates the nice peaceful image of Korea and creates misconceptions among the public.
A few months ago, there was a huge debate on whether Korea can be a possible replacement for Hong Kong as a financial hub of Asia or not? The anti-foreign sentiment was one of the demerits among the five reasons that presented Seoul and Busan as an unsuitable place for foreign firms to establish operations. Such actions from a small group of people will provide an unintentional supportive argument to those demerits.
Furthermore, Korea's tourism industry is a major contributor to the country's economic prosperity. It contributed 4.7 percent of GDP in 2018 and is expected to provide 1.4 million jobs or 5.3 percent of total employment. Such small incidents and their reflection in social media will also impact the tourism industry.
It's also worth mentioning that some of the individuals among the residents, human rights organizations, and professors of KNU, who believe in diversity and equity, are handling the matter quite nicely through dialogue and meetings. Logically it's impossible for a student to visit Korea and leave his or her culture and lifestyle in their country. Lifestyle and culture is an integral part of individual life and it accompanies an individual wherever that person goes.
We hope that the issue will be resolved through the proper intervention of government officials and departments and the physical and psychological safety and security of all international students and researchers in the country will be assured.
The writer is a former student and researcher in KNU and former vice president of the Pakistani Students and Scholars Association Korea (PSAK).
