(originally appeared in the May 26, 2009 edition of Seoul Weekly newsletter)
As I write these words, my students are preparing a special project. They have to prepare a presentation and discussion, in the form of a blog entry, which I will then upload to my other blog (http://richardlstansfield.wordpress.com/). The students were free choose any topic, and a fair number of them (about one or two groups per class) have chosen the topic of suicide.
It’s easy to see why it’s on their mind. According to the World Health Organization, Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.[1] It has the highest suicide rate for females in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), and for five straight years, suicide has been the top killer of Koreans in their 20s.[2], [3] Korean children and teenagers are the unhappiest in the OECD, and if you look at the numbers, you’ll notice that the older the kids get, the unhappier they become.[4] This makes sense to me, because only when they are very young are Korean children allowed to be children. As they get older, the pressure to fulfill all sorts of obligations mounts.
Since February 2005, no fewer than fourteen Korean celebrities have ended their own lives.[5] Some of them, such as actress Choi Jin-shil, were entertainment icons. From the poorest to the richest, from the unknown to the most famous, Koreans are taking their lives at an alarming rate. Despite all of this, I doubt that anyone ever expected a former president to commit suicide, but that happened this past Saturday morning.[6]
In 1953, after the Korean War ended, South Korea was one of the poorest countries on earth. Now it is one of the wealthiest, and is, officially, a developed country.[7] Koreans have diligently chased wealth and prestige, and found it, and yet clearly, they are unhappy.[8] Koreans are living proof that money can’t buy happiness. So now what? I’ve asked my students to suggest possible solutions to this problem. They are at a loss. So am I.
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