Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Demophobe]

Korea, in my view, is filthy. Garbage everywhere, the water is beyond even boiling for safety (again, my opinion...I boil the bottled water), the air in a lot of the country is unsafe, the farmers fields are covered in plastic, cans, buckets and styrofoam, nooks and crannies between buildings are used as landfills, building interiors are always covered in a layer of dirt/dust...I really just don't understand it.

It's easy to say things like "it's a small country", "there are too many people" or "Korea has many dirty industries", but these evade the reality.

Koreans throw garbage anywhere. There are very few trash cans. They don't clean up after themselves. Farmer's fields, for example. They assume no responsibility for what they themselves didn't do. Companies dump into rivers. A few weeks ago a company was busted for buying huge amounts of toxins underground. Constuction sites are a war zone and the area just never seems to recover. We have all seen this....the workers leave their debris behind daily...cans, bottles, wood, nails, cement, bags, styrofoam...then when the building is complete, the ajoomas come in (towel-heads), and do the clean-up. The area however, maintains this "incomplete" quality about it. Bricks, pipes, wires, nails...these things just get overlooked.
Children buy ice cream and candy, and as they walk away from the store, they unwrap the product and just drop the wrapper. Cigarette butts everywhere.

How do the aforementioned excuses cover all of this? It's a small country, so I don't clean up my mess? There are too many people, so I don't care? We have dirty industries, so I pollute as well?

I really just can't believe these "reasons".

I am starting to believe that Koreans (for whatever reasons; they don't excuse the filth) just don't care, are extremely apathetic about the situation, and have no respect at all for the earth.

Sorry Korea, but hiring the elderly and mentally challenged to go out with a pair of barbeque tongs and a bag doesn't cut it.

What riggered this tirade? Well, I went to get another roll of TP from the balcony, and looked at the name of the product:

" �� �� �� �� �� " "Clean country"

What kind of delusion is that? Mass delusion. Cars on TV driving through rolling, snow-capped mountains, families in soaps living in pristene neighborhoods, ads depicting "clean life". What about reality? Cars navigating tight, narrow, dusty, garbage-laden allys? Families living in decrepit, decaying buildings? People walking outside coated in a film of gunk 2 minutes after leaving their clean, white, operating theatre-esque bathrooms? Or how about the moldy, grouty, cracked tile, poorly-lit bathrooms that seem more pervasive than the sterile environments on TV? Totally deluded.

They are obsessed with personal cleanliness...their clothes (debateable), bodies (suspect), homes (objectable), cars (arguably not)..but don't care about anything else. Ahh...here comes the "Confucious" reasoning. I don't buy into that either.

"Green", "White", "Clean", "Natural"...these words are ironically very popular in Korea, and carry the same meaning and implications as in the West, but they are unfortunately empty, hollow delusions.

Yes, I am having a "moment". I am upset. Perhaps I shouldn't be posting right now. I do believe, however, (even on a good day) that this country is doomed if no grand, sweeping change is enacted.

This thread was to ask you all the simple question:

Why is Korea so dirty?

[animalbirdfish]

[Demophobe]

Yes, their homes are usually spotless, but that leads me to another topic: The stay-home ajoomas with more time than they know what to do with. No reason for a physically-able, unemployed woman with no real duty outside the home to have a dirty house.

[calypso]

Please don't judge Korea by the streets of Seoul. Bundang seems very clean.

[Demophobe]

[crazylemongirl]

It really depends on the area... my city is clean but part of that's because my students 'volunteer' to pick up rubbish after school.

[Mashimaro]

Why is Korea dirty?
50 million people in this tiny little country.. gee I couldn't hazard a guess

I actually think it is surprisingly clean. If everyone here littered like Australians you wouldn't be able to move for the garbage.

[Demophobe]

Look, folks...there are exceptions to every rule. Canada is considered a clean country, but has some really crappy areas.

Why do posts go off topic? Because nobody really reads.

Korea is generally dirty. Why? This is the question. It's not about liking or disliking the country. I like Korea for many reasons...this is my home now. Get off of that old, tired train of thinking. Read the post. Don't read anything into it.

I am talking about the pollution and it's origins. That's all. My generalizations about Koreans within the post are not applicable to all Koreans, but they are made through experience, and they do hold a lot of water. I don't lie about people just to blame them.

Tell me that the people in Budang have a different river going through it, with a wholly different mindset, a different set of values and environmental ethics, a bubble over it...whatever. These things change nothing. They are the hub of eco-friendly Koreans...so, what about the other 99%?
An area that's clean because some kids are forced to clean it tells me what exactly? If you told me they do it in their free-time out of love, then we have an issue. Otherwise, it just strengthens the idea that they don't care. Why is volunteer in quotes? There is some catch...they are told to do it or are rewarded somehow.

[TJ]

For the whole 2 years I lived in Donghae, Gangwan Do, there was a pile of garbage against the wall of a certain shop. I'm going back to Donghae soon after an absence of almost 2 years. What's the betting that same pile of garbage will still be there?

[Demophobe]

[frogrocket]

ha ha ha!

The garbage in the farmers fields! It's so true!

I noticed where ever there is a hole...ie. city workers are trying to put up new lamp posts...(or in my city just lamp posts...not new ones) and they dig a hole, leave it one day and then go to fill it the next...it's FULL of garbage....


HONESTLY, check it out. Where there is a hole there is garbage....I think they would shove it into the cracks of the sidewalks...if they had sidewalks!


OH KOREA!

[Happy Bear]

I am so sick of the piled up garbage in the streets, or even worse the bigger dumps in abondoned lots.

I have seen trashcans and have used them here when walking about, but then again, they are usually over-flowing.

We have a lot of children who think that writing on the walls and putting thier trash in holder under their desks is acceptable.

You would think with all of the people living here, they would try to atleast keep it clean. I bet it was all squeeky clean when the Olympics and World Cup were here.

But then again, it's how they choose to live and what their parents teach them, and how the goverment motivates them to behave. Korea should be kept clean, it would be so much more beautiful that way.

And for some strange reason, I get the worst earwax here in Korea.

[lush72]

Countdown to the apologists invading this thread....4...3...

[Korea Newfie]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

Keeping the cities clean is a cost without a financial payoff, they are more concerned with developement, putting up another building that will generate cash.