Perhaps one reason I often feel so deeply annoyed with foreigners in Korea who rant on and on about all the things wrong with present-day Korea is that it shows such a striking lack of historical perspective. Do they have any idea of where this country came from? Of what it’s been through? I recently came across some amazing photos taken by a U.S. soldier who was stationed here in the 1960’s. Please… please go look at them.
My own historical perspective is perhaps provided by the fact that I was here as a soldier, myself, in 1991. And the change in this country – even from that time – until now is stunning to behold. Imagine taking the Korea shown in those photographs, linked above (and sample at right), and the Korea of today, and finding the half-way point – the average of them… the transition. That’s what I was seeing when I was here in 91. South Korea in 1955, in the aftermath of the war, was one of the poorest countries on earth. Poorer than Haiti, for example. In 1991, Korea was still about the same level as, say, Mexico. I think one reason I “connected” with Korea in 91 was because of all the weird similarities, cultural and socio-economic and political, that I perceived between this country and my beloved, benighted Mexico.
And yet the South Korea of today has rocketed beyond its historical circumstance. It is a material incarnation of market-driven optimism-without-bound. It makes one realize that the struggles of a country like, say Mexico, or even Haiti, are not insuperable – obviously, if Korea can take this road, other peoples and countries can do the same. That determination and culture and willpower all mean something, that there’s more than fate and malice in the world.
And that’s what I have to say to the grumpy, Korea-complaining foreigners that seem to abound here.
