Why I now care about Korea...

Growing up in school, I am ashamed to say that all I ever learned about Korea was that it was in Asia, somewhere near China and Japan, that there was a war there from 1950-53, which was the only war ever fought under the UN flag, that as a result of the war it was divided in half, with an oppressive dictatorship in the North, and a liberal South… oooo… and that South Korea is one of the “Asian Tigers” that is always cited as a successful case of where capitalism, and trade brought a quick path to development.

Today I learned SO much more! It all started with a small question at breakfast this morning somewhat related to “how did Korea get to be a separate country from such a powerful place as China.” It turns out the answer was loaded! Before that conversation I never knew Korean people were an entirely different ethnicity from Chinese, or that the people have been subjected to attacks, plundering, devastation and imperialism at the hands of its powerful neighbors for thousands of years. I did realize that it was completely destroyed and it had nothing after it acted as a meeting ground between the USSR and the US during the Cold War. I definitely did not realize that it is still a meeting ground today, only now it is between the US and China. I did not know all the outside influences that are playing out in this country, and that are actually to keep an oppressive dictatorship that is starving 25 million people in place.

There are so many things that I did not know about Korea before today, but that I know now.

Thank you Hanmin!

If you are interested in knowing more about the world we live in please join us for breakfast next week. After today we thought it would be much more valuable to make this a time where interns can share about their home countries, whatever they want to share.

Does anyone want to go next?