Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Debt-Ridden Family Found Dead in Car

A couple in their 50s and their 32-year-old son were found burned and their bodies chained together in the back of a car on a beach in South Chungchong Province yesterday. Although believed to be a suicide pact due to the family�s large amount of credit card debt, police are not ruling out the possibility of foul play.

The 32-year-old son, identified by the surname Lee, was found in the backseat of the car along with his 58-year-old father and 53-year-old mother named Oh.

The car was on fire when it was first spotted by a tourist in Anmyondo, South Chungchong Province. The fire was put out about 10 minutes after the National Emergency Rescue service arrived on the scene after a call from a security guard at a nearby hotel.

A suicide note was found in the mother�s purse. "We are sorry for everyone who helped us," the note reportedly said.
Sept. 8, 2003
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200309/kt2003090818200411980.htm

[peter07]

[Sarah-in-Korea]

This isn't furthering the discussion of the topic particularly, but in the above article that Peter07 suggested the writer mentions the song "Gloomy Sunday" popular in Hungary in the 1950's. There is actually a movie that came out just recently with this title and I saw it on dvd at my local video store in Anyang. It's a European movie about that song, with English and Korean subtitles. It's fictional, but is about the writer and the love affair swirling around him. I really recommend it, it's cute and witty. My dad recommended it to me, so it's not just a chick flick.

I've heard about SAD before too and think that it deserves recognition. I also believe that some people are more prone to suicide that others because of some chemical imbalance in the brain. This has been found to be the case for particularly violent people also who have less of a chemical which fascilitates reasoning. Mental well-being is determined by chemicals in our bodies. Just think about what drink, drugs and food do for us. I've heard several times that chocolate induces the release of a hormone (probably seratonin) which makes you feel like you do when you first fall in love (to a lesser extent) which is probably why women love it so much.

Interesting. Let's keep this going.

[peter07]

Let's also not forgot that during times of recession in the West, the suicide (and crime rate) level also rises. People get desperate in such trying times, and for some, the only escape is to end their life. This is NOT exclusive to Korea or Asia.

By the way, I also saw "Gloomy Sunday." I think it struck a chord in that I always get depressed on Sunday (much less in Korea, but I digress).

[VanIslander]

The rates of suicide and the feelings of proud independence are part of an undercurrent in the values, communicated through language, of some of these peoples.

Here is a small chunk of history that high school books usually leave out:

The Hungarian, Finnish and Korean languages all come from the relatively small and distinctive Finno-Ugric branch of languages. All three peoples migrated west, north and east from the area of Westernmost Siberia, next to the Ural mountains. They were proud horsemen, exceptional in history for the fierce resolve to resist assimilation, into German, Swedish and Chinese, among others. [This explains the un-European tenacity of Finns in hockey; plus, Dracula was a Finno-Ugric bogeyman for the Indo-Europeans who wished to demonize the Other.] Estonia, as the only Finno-Ugric people among the Baltic Soviet states, was the only such state to massively resist becoming Russified. And toward the east, the Finno-Ugric people of the Mansi and Khanty who remained in Western Russia (known to Russians as the Voguls) have been a thorn in the side of Moscow compared to other Siberian peoples. All Finno-Ugric languages share some linguistic characteristics and attendant beliefs. For example, they all lack a verb for "have", so they say "There is a book with me". That means you don't possess or lose something, so you can't lose your life either. They all stand out among their neighbouring cultures as too stubborn, too proud and too resistant to outsiders.

Koreans don't like to think of their place in the Ugrian diaspora, and they contribute less to Uralic Studies than their now-European counterparts. But there is an ethno-futurism movement to identify and re-connect the strands of their shared history, and suicide will be a topic at the next World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples to be held August 15-19, 2004 in Tallinn, Estonia.

So, yes there is a genetic link of sorts, between Hungarians, Finns and Koreans. Though when it comes to explaining suicide there may be a less chemical and more perspectival explanation. Some of the simpliest concepts we learn as a child shape our world view and our place in it. And language changes much more slowly than does facial characteristics, working conditions and dietary practices (though the hot Hungarian red pepper and the Korean eagerness for hot spices are exceptional when compared to their neighbouring cultures). As we speak, there is a Korea-Hungary exchange of university professors studying these and other similarities in culture, language and history.

Suicide is influenced by many factors, of course, and the dynamics between them are rarely studied in the Western world out of great shame for the taboo. While working as a journalist in Western Canada I was amazed at how many suicides by First Nations native peoples went unreported in the media. The despair and hopelessness among the youth is coupled with an amazing sense of kindness, generosity and humour. Some days I think of Koreans as a sort of aboriginal people trying to survive in a world that's giving them just enough foreign culture to hang themselves with.

[Medic]

VanIslander I thought the Korean language was unique. Didn't their king Sejong develop the Hangul that's being used to-day. I know it took something like 400 years before the language became the lingua franca so to speak, and I'm sure it has been quite bastardized since then (hope the koreans will forgive the use of the term. Don't know anyother way to describe it).

Or did the Hungarians, and Finnish some how make it over this way long ago, and take the basics of Hangul back with them?

[VanIslander]

Hangeul was the system of WRITING the ancient oral language, and by following his advisors advice, King Sejong is one of the nation's greatest heros for bringing literacy to the people and providing a means for Koreans to develop a discourse apart from the colonizing Chinese. That's what a Korean teacher said.

[peter07]

[HardyandTiny]

Korea's a tough place to live if you're a Korean because other Koreans don't care about you, as an individual.

[the_beaver]

[jvalmer]

[Len8]

I remember reading about some young guy who actually brokered for meetings betwen people here in Korea who wanted to commit suicide. He used some webb site, and did all the work for them to contact each other. Think he even charged clients for his services, and do believe he arranged for them to commit suicide in the most painless way posible.

Bit of a Devorokian.

Most books written about the subject call the practice the "Last Taboo"