Thoughts on the South Korean Ferry Sewol Disaster

Tessa's Note: This blog is in the process of being edited for the sake of clarity. I wish I were perfect the first time I try to express my ideas, but I need practice. For the sake of relevance of time, I wanted to start the discussion sooner rather than later, so this post did not wait on a final revision before being published.

This week I started a new exercise regimen one-on-one with a trainer. The first class was rather early in the morning, and I've been waking up early because I go to bed so early after a hard workout and a full day at work. Now that I'm not regularly swimming at the crack of dawn, I have had the opportunity to finally tune in to Seoul's TBS EFM 103.5 English language news programs in the mornings this week.

The radio station seems to have a lot of good info. I remember a long time ago, they were educating expats about how to file taxes. Most information is for practical public knowledge and explanations of the political and social atmosphere in the city, and it's a good way to get all the recent news in days before it might ever hit BBC or the New York Times (or even get translated for the local English newspapers).

As most of you may well know, South Korea has been grieving the tragedy of the sunken ferry carrying mostly high school students on an overnight school trip to Jeju Island. In the last moments of the sinking, 174 passengers and crew were rescued of the total 476 on board (according to today's news from Yonhap). As of this morning, 156 bodies have been retrieved and the missing still stand at 146.

There has been a lot of action from various sources--Samsung has sent cranes to help pull up the ferry. Japan was said to have pledged resources, and though it may be of little consolation, even North Korea sent its condolences. However, this doesn't relieve the pain of those effected, and the outpouring of sympathy from the public has been enormous.

But nearly 9 days after the shock of the accident, and after most of us have lost hope in finding survivors, there is a major concern and anger over government responsibility. A new debate has unfolded about what the government should have done and what it should do.

So far there have been the following actions highlighted in the media:

• Prosecutors have filed charges against 11 of 29 surviving crew members, including negligent murder and failure to conduct safety inspections.
• The offices and homes of many responsible for the command and ownership of the Sewol ferry and its operators have been raided, and the government has confiscated a handful of hard drives. 
• Reports have uncovered the shady history of the owner of the ferry operation owner including embezzlement and tax fraud. The owner seems to be a businessman, whom I would say is nearly a business mogul who was one of the lucky people to ride the wave of wealth from South Korea's industry boom in the 1980s.
• Conflicting statements by rescuers and politicians are being thrown around about how the ship will be handled. Some want to keep it still until the last body is recovered (keep in mind, the divers have not yet been able to access all parts of the ship and have little visibility or control over currents, making that idea sentimental, but highly challenging). However, TBS radio has said that tomorrow will be the day that the workers will now be working on a recovery project, and it is no longer considered a search and rescue, as there is at this point nearly no chance of any survivors remaining. Note: All of those rescued were rescued within the first two hours after the mayday was sent.

As one could imagine, lots of fingers are being pointed and an extreme amount of blame put on the government. Though this sentiment is certainly not unfounded, my personal opinion is that this mentality is in the long run unproductive and unsustainable. There will be no end to this retroactive blame. 

The radio this morning had a guest on the show that put into words the thoughts that I could not until this point fully organize on my own. This applies for nearly all political systems, and I would not go so far to say that the problem we faced in the lacking regulation that led to the Sewol disaster is unique to Korea.

THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE

In broad terms, it is the definition of government to protect its people. Laws and regulations are created to prevent damage and the government provides means to punish those who do not comply. The extent of clarity of these regulations and the executive power's enforcement of them are less than perfect. Go through any legal matter dealing with the police or legal courts, and you will quickly find that the world does not operate with the omnipotence of TV shows like CSI and Law & Order. 

The truth is, enforcement is mostly retroactive. Punishments are placed after someone does something wrong. It is hard, and in most cases impossible, for the government to be able to prevent any wrongdoing before it happens. Legally, I mean. (For example, I had to wait nearly two months after my paychecks started to go missing for me to file in full with the Ministry of Labor, even though I knew the money wouldn't be coming in after the first month. Legally, the payday had to pass--my employer had to do something wrong first, otherwise he is still innocent on paper).

In today's day and age, with the uproar of the NSA's projects and data collection, and even selective monitoring, proactive routes taken by the government are often faced with large opposition from the public. The potential for abuse and lack of transparency causes suspicion. So that leaves people to voluntarily report themselves (for example, US taxes, or in Korea, the TV tax) and then any misreporting runs the risk of getting caught in a random audit perhaps years down the line. This is the same thing that is happening with the owner of the Sewol operations. He had some baked books, and now that something has gone horribly wrong, the government (or perhaps, the media) is frantically flipping through files.

Now... I'm not saying that the government now needs to become something from Minority Report. Rather, I want to offer a different concept:

The government is needed as a safety net for when the system fails. But "better safe than sorry" should be the first thing people think, not "the government will handle it." We need to place a more balanced responsibility on the community to be able to prevent and react to accidents. Papers in a filing cabinet do not save lives. People do.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

It would be nice if the government could repel down from the sky to an isolated sinking ferry or to a terrorized subway, but that's just unrealistic. In Seoul, the government has put a lot of funding and investment in public safety. The subways are all equipped with platform doors that open only when a train is aligned at the station. They have even made bridges more psychologically comforting to prevent jumpers.

Sure, there's always more that we will say should be done. But as long as it isn't realized, the danger remains prevalent in our day to day lives. I will give the following comparisons:

Murder is illegal. There are court proceedings for those who violate that law. But there is no way for government to prevent it. There is a way to discourage, and there are sometimes ways to quickly respond. However, if there is no way to prevent murder, then why isn't homicide an epidemic? It's a social taboo. Society says that it's bad, and we personally feel a responsibility not to kill the person next to us, no matter how much you want to. I don't not kill the person who shoved me on the subway because I don't want to face the courts. I don't kill them because I feel it's wrong. I'm sure most people would agree here. 

Let's move to a little more practical and less extreme case. 

Why do you feel uncomfortable when you see someone throw their trash on the ground? Are you angry that they aren't being slapped with the legally mandated fine that was enacted in your state law? Or are you upset that they're contributing to an unclean environment?

Most people would realize, yes, I feel uncomfortable because I know littering is bad. This is a societal norm. People are educated about the effects of human waste on the environment, educated about how to prevent waste, and then, in turn, practice and encourage the same behavior. 

In South Korea, we have laws. We have fines. However, there is mostly a lack of concern for implementing the behaviors and habits that these laws uphold. Copyright is defended by the courts, but university professors let copyright infringement slip everywhere. They copy textbooks to make makeshift course readers and don't think once about actually paying royalties. Students copy things they find on the internet, and most kids don't even know how to make a citation. It's painful to watch... for me, anyway.

The point is, if people don't understand the implications of their actions, or if they are not educated about how to react to a dangerous situation, there is no amount of power that the government has to guarantee anyone's safety. The first responders are in fact the people present at ground zero, not professionals, not rescue teams.

CONCLUSION

The government (and the community) needs to work on instilling a mentality of social responsibility. What I'm thinking of works on two levels. 

1. Public safety: Things like having regular fire drills for students. Enforcing straight lines and following the right side of the stair well. These things are often taken for granted, but if not taught, lead to a very big debacle when the time comes for order and security. I have been working with kids here for a long time. We have not once had a fire drill. We (the faculty) have not been told what to do in the case of a fire. I can use my knowledge from my education in the States, but I cannot assume everyone else has the same ideas. My last school's fire extinguishers were not even fully pressurized.

2. Regulation: The shady practices of this businessman who owns the Sewol operations is not a surprising case. Bad practices often go unchecked and no one lifts an eyebrow until something goes wrong. There is no sense of guilt when you bake your books or stretch the truth in inspections because there is no pressure from others to be completely honest Why? In the end it doesn't directly effect me and if I say something, I'll be a labeled rat and cause a big uproar. This is a situation that is highly undesirable in Asian culture. **I have had a lot of feedback from my Korean friends about this part of the essay. They say that they have an unspoken burden when it comes to things like this, and they feel unable to change wrongdoing because they fear being troublemakers. I will be working on addressing it in another post later.**

My post has run long, but I hope that it sheds some light on the environment of this disaster. This disaster was the result of a long line of neglect across many sectors. The fault doesn't lie 100% on lack of regulation on the government's part, but also lack of foresight and preventative interest from society at large. I think starting with wholeheartedly upholding safety and transparency is the foundation for any progress in preventative policy. 

Actions, not words.