Crisis for Korean seniors

By Bernard Rowan

Advanced nations create many opportunities and benefits for their citizens and for people of the world. Longer lifespans, new technologies, rising incomes, and advances in health and education, to name only a few. South Korea has entered the ranks of advanced nations in many respects, a miraculous story of development following the Korean War that continues to unfold.

Nonetheless, advancement itself is no cure. It brings problems, or perhaps threats along with the opportunities. These might include social dislocation, over-urbanization, uneven development, inequality, and loss of community. No human construction can achieve perfection; at least that's an argument I want to make.

One of the problems attending Korea's progress concerns the de-emphasis and neglect of mature citizens, seniors or the elderly. Korea's population of elders continues to grow, and that trend won't reverse itself anytime soon. In turn, we see a division of seniors by class. The lifestyles of the elderly with low socioeconomic status deserve attention, respect, and action.

A recent CNN article cites the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stating that nearly fifty percent of Korea's elderly live in relative poverty (October 23, 2015). That's a shocking statistic. If roughly six and a half million Koreans are 65 or older, that means over three million seniors are poor.

Korean culture places a great emphasis on respect for the elderly, but present-day life and work have many families leaving their parents and grandparents to fend for themselves. That may include their emotional lives too. A great many live incredibly alone.

Korean life expectations have grown. The ranks of the elderly living alone have too. Social welfare, non-governmental, and policy led efforts to ameliorate their living conditions have lagged far behind the demand. State pensions instituted under the Park government are just a beginning, but not much of one. Are only a few hundred dollars a month the best one of the top 15 global economies can muster? Many seniors don't receive the pension at all.

The people who deserve large parts of the credit for Korea's development in becoming a global powerhouse of technology, literacy, and economic strength are too often and too much forgotten and neglected. The aftermath of this is that many of the elderly turn frustration and sadness back on themselves. They commit suicide or live in depression. The rates for elders are just too high. What an enormous drag on the zenith of your great country and people!

I also know that many Korean elders often continue their industrious and energetic lives through work, leisure, and volunteering for others. I'd like to suggest several ways to harness this latent and underutilized pool of wisdom and experience for the continued advance of Korean society.

Korean developers and policymakers should act to encourage creating multigenerational living communities. In cities, suburban areas, and the countryside, experiment with creating new residential settings that bring together young families and unattached elders. Elders can serve as mentors, guides, tutors, and in many other ways. Children, teens and younger adults can show concern and care for seniors, checking in on them, performing odd jobs, providing meals (organizing provision) and spending time. This should frame a modern instance of Confucian morals.

The government should stress the needs of Korean seniors and develop a full-scale array of services and support. Korean elders should be able to apply and work or volunteer in hospitals, religious settings, museums and other places that tap their knowledge and experience. All qualified seniors should receive training to serve as mentors and hosts for younger people and foreigners, for example.

Universities need to speed up related programs of study. They should create engines for research and development of technologies, policies, and social support to make the conditions of Korean seniors better. Public and private partnerships should unfold with haste. A socially responsible company should honor the existence of Korean seniors where it counts: in their physical and emotional lives.

Several most pleasant conversations with Koreans occurred when I met elders in public. On a subway, at a park or in a neighborhood, they have spoken to me and engaged me in small talk that showed great warmth, openness, and interest. The faces of men and women walking in Korea's cities and towns do not reveal the countless others left to grow old by themselves. Korea's people would only strengthen their society through intergenerational efforts.

Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 22 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.

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