Korean Job Discussion Forums

Jizzo T. Clown · Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Location: at my wit's end

Last time I went to Daegu I saw a guy without legs rolling around in the muck on a makeshift skateboard holding a paper cup asking for change. I see a homeless person (or two) everytime I go into Seoul, usually around the stations.

The legless guy brought back memories of China, which has the most agressive homeless people outside of Los Angeles.

IncognitoHFX · Joined: 06 May 2007 Location: Yeongtong, Suwon

Scotticus · Joined: 18 Mar 2007

contrarian · Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Location: Nearly in NK

We just had guri guy on his ritual trashing of Korea. I do wish he would leave for Japan.

Mad

jcan · Joined: 08 Oct 2006

Halifax is one hell of a city, despite the rise in violent crime over the past few years. My contract is up in a few weeks and I can't wait to go back there.

4 months left · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

Alyallen · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:48 am Post subject:

Guri Guy · Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Location: Bamboo Island

JMO · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu

Those mermaid guys with leather thongs covering their stumps(i assume they don't have legs) are pretty jarring the first time you see them.

contrarian · Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Location: Nearly in NK

guri guy"

If this isn't trashing then what the hell is it.

"As well, Korea not being a violent society is a myth. There are relatively few handguns but violence is still a big problem here. It isn't a paradise by any stretch"

If violence is a problem here, I have never seen it in 7 plus years. I had som cretin pull a knife on me in Vancouver in February. Whacked him full strength in the right ear with my cane.

sojourner1 · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:57 am Post subject:

I see a few 3D foreign worker types here and there that are begging and seem to have lost their job, but stayed in Korea and went for broke. I have also seen a few Koreans homeless and begging. What's up with those Koreans who wrap a tire inner tube or rubber stuff around their legs and scoot along the ground with sad music playing from a stereo on a wheeled cart powered by a car battery? I dunno, but it's quite an interesting act.

I am from St. Louis where there are lots of homeless beggars and where you must be careful in looking out for your wallet and personal safety. It's not that all homeless people are bad, anyone can fall a little behind and lose their step financially. When good people become desperate enough due to excessive downturn out of a matter of circumstance, they will rob or do what it takes to survive.

I give a thumbs up to Korea for having a very low risk of crime, but don't be complacent enough to go carelessly flashing your fat wallet around in public or even counting money in public.

Alyallen · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:58 am Post subject:

IncognitoHFX · Joined: 06 May 2007 Location: Yeongtong, Suwon

The Perfect Cup of Coffee · Joined: 17 Jun 2007

I used to teach mornings down near City Hall station and would just past through the station as the security guys were waking the homeless guys up before the big morning rush. They seemed mostly harmless when I was walking past them, but then again it was 6:30am, and they were more than likely still drunk judging by the half dozen empty soju bottles laying around them.

I also forgot that about a block East of Euljiro 3-ga, there's a pedestrian underpass that usually has 4-5 homeless dudes just hanging out playing cards and getting drunk.

And as for Bundang, a few times, I've seen one solitary guy sleeping in the bushes at the back side of Samsung Plaza / Seohyun station towards the road where all of the buses passing through Bundang stop. I think near Jeongja and Sunae though, the cops would be taking any homeless people for rides out to the country and dropping them off in the sticks. All of the Richie Rich families down here don't like to see that 'unpleasant' side of Korean life.

swetepete · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Location: a limp little burg

The homeless folks in Japan I've seen all live in these neat little tent cities in the parks and down by the bridges. I hear the schoolkids like to come around and set them on fire; think 'bumfight,' but more hands on and pyrotechnical.

Halifax is a pretty rough city at times, for sure, but it's nowhere near as bad as Vancouver has become these last few years. I blame 'the shard' and the warm weather that brings people out west from all over Canada.

'Shard,' or 'crystal meth', is really really bad for the head. It does heavy, permanent brain damage that makes crack-heads look like Mensa applicants, and it's dirt cheap. Ten bucks to get ripped for two days, kinda thing...it's the new glue, the new cooking wine, the new safety solvents. People who might've had some chance of dragging their sorry asses out of the gutter, ten years ago, are now royally pooched; if they hit the shard for a year or two, they quite simply can't get better, 9 times in 10. Eats away bits of you that don't grow back. Add to that the emotional and physical problems (FAS, alcoholism, mental illness etc.) a lot of the street people already have, and what we got here is an epidemic of chronic, permanent homelessness and criminality.

Bad stuff. Nice to be back to see the folks, but whenever i visit the west coast it just seems to be worse and worse in the city cores...all these thousand yard stares, and diseasy f***ed up looking kids you just know aren't going to hit 30...what a mess. Never thought I'd actually be nostalgic for the early nineties, when folks were just drunks and junkies. They were easier to outrun, and they did their dying quietly and out of sight, not twitching and screaming in the middle of the street.