I haven't written about suicides in Korea in a long time. It's not that interesting to me and, frankly, it's a sad topic about which I don't want to write.
But a slew of recent suicides at Kaist, one of Korea's most prestigious universities, is making me wonder if the country will finally take notice and do something instead of just continuing to take the top spot in OECD rankings for suicides year after year.
Check out this article in the New York Times about what's happening. The article paints a pretty accurate picture of student life here, from my experiences anyway.
As much as Korea has changed over the last 25 years -- and will continue to change -- I doubt they'll ever snap out of this. Suicide is almost encouraged when someone is humiliated or, more appropriately, humiliates themself in some way.
I don't want to write about this anymore. It's a bummer. So read the article and let me know what you think.
2 comments:
In the early '80s Korea had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world.
I didn't know that. So what changed between then and now?
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