Korean Job Discussion Forums

Rock · Joined: 25 Feb 2005

Let's face it. You're here, making money, perhaps a boatload of cash. You're going to stuff it into your bank accounts, head home. Maybe you're stuffing it into other places here.

It doesn't cross your mind Why. It's the good life. The standard of living, for the most part, is up to your expectations: modernization, clean water, safe society, freedom.

This last word is what I wonder about being abroad. This word, and democracy, have made me think all the more harder. I'm here, betwixt monsters, China and North Korea, and the sense of something surreal is constant. So is the sense of self.

Is it democracy that made me? Do I make democracy? What's right to believe in as a 'universal citizen?' What's wrong? Do you still retain your democratic 'bill of rights' from back home? Dare to expound upon it to others?

Well, it's seeping into my bones. This nightmare, thinking I'll wake up, nowhere, cold and distant as the deserts of Darfur, dying without doing justice to the name 'democracy.'

Or is democracy really a reflection of what the communists and others have believed all along: a reflection of capitalism and greed?

unknown9398 · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Location: Yeongcheon, S. Korea

Were you drunk when you wrote that? LOL

Rock · Joined: 25 Feb 2005

I don't know, but that name 'unknown' kind of says something about what your identity means, no?

VanIslander · Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:37 pm Post subject:

safeblad · Joined: 17 Jul 2006

oneofthesarahs · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Location: Sacheon City

So donate some money to some charity and stop posting drunk rants on Dave's.

oneofthesarahs: Offering great advice since 1984.

Rock · Joined: 25 Feb 2005

hugo_danner · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Location: korea

Maybe this thread should have been titled, "Is Your Time on Dave's a Reflection of Stupidity!?!?"

venus · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Location: Near Seoul

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Life is a reflection of every human aspect. I let a guy with one item in the grocery line behind me go first not out of greed. And I want to make as much money as possible out of greed. So what?

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

http://www.alaindebotton.com/status.asp

Rock · Joined: 25 Feb 2005

This post wasn't intended to be about politics. It was intended to make you think about why you're here in correlation with democracy, this being something I think is overlooked.

Due to the nature of things in Korea, and these days, ie, America, North Korea, Iraq, Taiwan, China, and so on, POLITICS HERE, ON THIS BOARD, HAS FULLFILLED THE OLD ADAGE: TALK IS CHEAP. I wrote this post therefore to inquire if anyone here's really felt as if living in Korea has made them think all the more harder about democracy.

Why?

I just think it makes sense that you're closer to the front lines here, if not literally, so that you have to reflect on the rightness of the type of life you're living and that in light of your political beliefs, 'despite money.' Or does everyone here just wish to believe democracy's inconsequential and this has no bearing whatsoever as to why they're here, the life they live, the standard of living in Korea, or whether or not you wish to change sides?

Gotta a guy here where I work spouts off he's Marxist, this guy being from America and all. Has a Michael Moore attitude, a kind of liberal fascist. So I get tired of many putting down America, or countries that are teetoring, facing odds, and that have at least grasped a concept of 'the pursuit of happiness' while many stradle the fence, like this guy at work, running from creditors, blasting out his aircon every minute of the day, living it up in a democratic country and yet biting the hand that feeds him.

But my main point is, doesn't living in another country make you think of the rightness of yours, and that in light of democracy?

Let's face it. A lot of what's ill-spoken here is predicated upon the fact we feel there's an infringement of our basic human rights, a bedrock democratic principal.

Treefarmer · Joined: 29 May 2007

it's tricky tho isn't it

capitalist democracy isn't really that free, it's ok for us, because by the fact that we are educated and have decent jobs we are in the top 5% of the world, for us it is a free country, but is it a free country for the guy who begs in the subway? he isn't allowed any of these benefits

or even the guy who works a 50 hour week and brings home half what we do (like most koreans)

i know it's hypoctical of me to criticise the system while i sit at the top of it, but i think it's even worse to pretend that it is fair. i wish i had the courage to fight for what i believed in, but it's hard to know what to do, so i just try and live a normal life and not hurt anyone else in the process