I'm back...
Dear reader,
I've been away for a long time because I was lazy. My apologies. My goal now is to mention all the little things I've learned about Korea--and am learning daily.
First entry: On all the Seoul subways in the morning, little old men like cockroaches run up and down the cars (one per train) collecting the newspapers that people leave in the seats or on the racks. They collect them in huge bags and sell them, I think, back to paper plants. This is their job. Other old men roam the streets all over Korea pulling big carts behind them that they fill with recyclables: cans; boxes, paper, even Styrofoam. Koreans have nowhere to put their garbage on this small peninsula, and new resources are not cheap, making these men's careers both viable and essential.
The men are all old though, which is really interesting. Their children must have missed the development boat, or else there is no way these guys would still be working. And no one from the younger generations, it seems, is willing to fill their shoes. Despite appearances--Seoul is so crowded and many university grads cannot find good jobs and I teach lots of little kids--Korea has an ageing, shrinking population. Koreans are used to homogeneity, but already you see Filipinos doing manual labor, especially construction. This is a trend that will have to continue. Koreans are ageing fast--their birth rate is decreasing as their life expectancy is increasing. And, the overall population is shrinking. According to the Korea Herald, "the population is predicted to decrease 13 percent to 42.3 million by 2050". So Korea will have to start to import its manual labor.
But the Filipinos here are hardly treated equally. They are often not granted citizenship. Mixed couples--and children--are looked down upon, making integration difficult. And many Filipinos do not even speak Korean, making integration nearly impossible. English signs are posted as much for the Filipinos (just as Spanish is posted in the U.S.) as for wealthy tourists.
Korea, once a peacefully homogeneous society, is on its way to becoming a radically stratified, like an Arab state that must import Indian laborers. Koreans seem reluctant to deal with this. But someone is going to have to collect their newspapers when these old men die. And it is not going to be a Korean.
I've been away for a long time because I was lazy. My apologies. My goal now is to mention all the little things I've learned about Korea--and am learning daily.
First entry: On all the Seoul subways in the morning, little old men like cockroaches run up and down the cars (one per train) collecting the newspapers that people leave in the seats or on the racks. They collect them in huge bags and sell them, I think, back to paper plants. This is their job. Other old men roam the streets all over Korea pulling big carts behind them that they fill with recyclables: cans; boxes, paper, even Styrofoam. Koreans have nowhere to put their garbage on this small peninsula, and new resources are not cheap, making these men's careers both viable and essential.
The men are all old though, which is really interesting. Their children must have missed the development boat, or else there is no way these guys would still be working. And no one from the younger generations, it seems, is willing to fill their shoes. Despite appearances--Seoul is so crowded and many university grads cannot find good jobs and I teach lots of little kids--Korea has an ageing, shrinking population. Koreans are used to homogeneity, but already you see Filipinos doing manual labor, especially construction. This is a trend that will have to continue. Koreans are ageing fast--their birth rate is decreasing as their life expectancy is increasing. And, the overall population is shrinking. According to the Korea Herald, "the population is predicted to decrease 13 percent to 42.3 million by 2050". So Korea will have to start to import its manual labor.
But the Filipinos here are hardly treated equally. They are often not granted citizenship. Mixed couples--and children--are looked down upon, making integration difficult. And many Filipinos do not even speak Korean, making integration nearly impossible. English signs are posted as much for the Filipinos (just as Spanish is posted in the U.S.) as for wealthy tourists.
Korea, once a peacefully homogeneous society, is on its way to becoming a radically stratified, like an Arab state that must import Indian laborers. Koreans seem reluctant to deal with this. But someone is going to have to collect their newspapers when these old men die. And it is not going to be a Korean.
posted by Brian at 3:23 PM
1 Comments:
great to have you back!
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