The Eternal Victim

While a strong sense of national pride can be found in many corners of the globe, there are few countries in which that pride is firmly rooted in the endless suffering of its citizens. Of course the worst kind of suffering comes from being a victim of others and so endless suffering means being the eternal victim. Far and away the world's most accomplished actors in the role of The Eternal Victim can be found in Korea. Whether it is historical victimisation by evil colonists, present victimisation by an upstart neighbour or being the future victim of a rapidly dwindling population, no opportunity is missed to don the mask of The Eternal Victim and then hobble feebly around the international stage reminding the world of their timeless, unjust suffering.

Politicians, the media and academics alike routinely exploit every opportunity to remind the nation that South Korea is, once again, the blameless victim of yet another injustice. As a former 'protectorate' of Japan, Korea was not only the victim of brutal Japanese colonialism but is still subject to Japanese imperialist claims over the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima Islands. 

The Dokdo/Takeshima Islands (also Liancourt Rocks)
46 acres of international tension

 As a neighbour of North Korea, South Korea is constantly being harassed by Kim Jong-Un, the 'Comrade of the North'. But of course it doesn't stop there; beyond North Korea there is a 'darkly conspiratorial China', 'deliberately refusing' to reign in North Korea so China may take advantage of the instability on the peninsula. Then there's any number of daily injustices reported in the media, including;

• Koreans are the real victims of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki;
  http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/05/27/chinese-korean-media-attack-obama-hiroshima-apology/
  
  http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/south-korea-a-bomb-victims-angered-by-obamas-hiroshima-visit-1412418

• Koreans are the real victims of Japanese economic policy
  http://qz.com/66982/south-koreas-shock-gdp-slump-shows-abenomics-has-claimed-its-first-major-victim/

Since Japan has driven down the value ot the Yen,
Psy is reportedly the only Korean export to buck the trend of slowing growth of Korean GDP

• Koreans are the real victims of Japanese schoolbook propaganda
  http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Po_detail.htm?No=117689

• South Koreans are the victims of North Korean espionage
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160720000677

• South Koreans are the victims of everybody else's air pollution; industrial emissions from China, yellow dust from Mongolia's deserts, smoke from Indonesia's forest, etc, ad infinitum
  
  http://www.ibtimes.com/smog-korea-coal-power-plants-not-china-are-major-culprits-says-greenpeace-1835638
  
  

Curiously the media has not yet proffered a boffin to explain how these dangerously high levels of 'foreign pollution' concentrate in a cloud over the centre of Seoul while the rest of the country remains relatively unpolluted.  No doubt the first person to do this will become a national hero.

Air quality indices across South Korea on 10 Aug 2016.
Red indicators in and around Seoul show dangerously unhealthy concentrations of PM2.5 particles.
Pollution in the surrounding countryside are low by comparison 

Since the Korean war ended in 1953 and the emergence of two separate Koreas instead of one, South Korea took on the persona of the smallest kid in the playground; the one who is misunderstood, is especially vulnerable, has no friends to speak of and is regularly victimised by all the other kids in the neighbourhood. Fortunately the biggest kid in the playground flexed its muscles, pledged its unswerving support and so for decades the US has maintained a fully equipped deterrant of approx 30,000 troops in South Korea. The annual US/South Korean military drills on land, at sea and in the air are a regular show of that commitment. 

Observers might have hoped that with the huge clout of friends like the US, South Korea would have used its boosted international status to move past the mistakes of the colonial era, to bury the greivances of WW2, to mend fences and build new bridges with its neighbours and go on to take a leadership role in an economic community of south Asian powerhouses, through which to promote trade, prosperity and stability of the entire region. This would not be an unreasonable achievement for a hard-working, rapidly industrialising, wealthy nation with a little vision and firm US backing. Sadly, the inability to let the dust settle on the events of WW2 (which ended 70 years ago) and the penchance to mewl constantly about the injustice of it all to anyone who will listen, ultimately prove to be the defining characteristics of what could have been the most highly achieving nation of the modern era. 

Instead the smallest kid in the playground remains content to stand on the shoulders of the largest kid, from where it simply thumbs its nose at its neighbours and paints them all as the bad guys. While the little kid enjoys the comfort and security of an unassailable ally, he fails entirely to win any credibility or respect for himself in the playground. His neighbours look forward to the day then the biggest kid moves on, at which point the smallest kid will wish that he had made more friends when he had the chance. 

President Trump: Things that make you go; "Hmmm......"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36423319

The First Law of Blame: action and inaction shall not increase blame

If you can, cast your mind back to high school; specifically those desperately frustrating physics lessons. Frustrating for all of us but for very different reasons. The students were mostly frustrated by the nerdy need to impress the girl 'accidentally' sporting a black bra under a tight white blouse, bathed in sunlight over at the window. Frustration peaked every time she casually linked her fingers behind her, locked her arms and arched her back, allowing the glancing rays to reveal every hidden silhouette of her perfect form and lingerie. Eager observers were so mesmerised by this display that none of them checked to see for whose attention this show was actually being performed. 

The new physics teacher was equally frustrated, but mostly for other reasons. Having proudly obtained a degree in physics but without the hunger for a career in research, he didn't know what to do with himself and therefore thought he would try teaching until some better idea sprang to mind. 

(It never did !).  

Watching all this from above were the great icons of our Scientific Age; long-deceased boffins like Newton, Faraday and Hooke whose great discoveries were either fairly or unfairly attributed to them or to someone else, but in any case, great leaps of learning which can now be conveniently compressed into a 45 minute lecture delivered by a bored teacher to a class of horny toads who were overdosing on their own hormones. 

St Trinians - the antidote to physics lessons every time

In one such class the teacher would have explained the Second Law of Thermodynamics, describing the tendency of every system to adjust itself to achieve the lowest possible state of energy. For example, a round fruit released into a bowl will roll around the bowl until it comes to rest at the very bottom, thereby achieving the lowest state of energy. From this point the fruit will never move up the side of the bowl to a higher state of energy. In Korea the same principle applies to blame; every person, group or organisation continuously adjusts its position, coming to rest only when each is satisfied that they have minimised their responsibility. From this point, nobody will take any further action - even if there are clear advantages to doing so - if such action might increase responsibility or the risk of being blamed.

Here follows an actual real-life example. During a management meeting of a complex project already facing huge financial losses due to under-estimated challenges, it was explained that a particular draft subcontract contained many flaws which would incur additional heavy losses. The Project Manager replied that fortunately the contract was drafted by the legal department, which would be blamed for the flaws and the losses. Project Management would not revise the draft contract, even to avoid the losses, because by redrafting, the Project Management would assume responsibility for the subcontract. Basically it was ok to use a knowingly flawed contract because the flaws could be blamed on another department. This example is typical of the conflict of interest running at every level; how to achieve the best overall result when individual teams are focused only on minimising their own responsibility and deflecting blame.

This mind-set is so indelibly ingrained that the only scenario which will prompt some action is if the blame for inaction might outweigh the blame for taking action. An interesting case in point being emergency management plans. For more than a year it was impossible to convince the Human Resources management of a certain high-rise office building to prepare an emergency plan, to practice staff evacuation and to coordinate the response of the emergency services. Excuses were made that the necessary cost, time, resources, etc just couldn't be "justified". The subtext was that since no emergency had occurred before and was therefore thought unlikely, there was minimal risk of being blamed for not having an emergency plan in place. However if an emergency plan was prepared, then somebody would have to take responsibility for preparing it along with any imperfections which might subsequently come to light. All things considered it was simply safer to keep looking the other way. 

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
This meaning of proverb varies around the world.
Sometimes it encourages a person to be of good mind, speech and action.
In the West it refers to those who deal with a problem by simply ignoring it.

Some people finally woke up in April 2014 with the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry during which passengers were told to remain in their seats as crew quickly abandoned ship. The ferry crew, operators and owner were later charged with the negligent homicide of 304 people, mostly school children, suddenly bringing into focus the duties of those responsible for large groups of people.  The national outrage over the ferry disaster was so acute that the blame for having no emergency procedure could now be worse than the blame for having one which is imperfect.  Overnight a previously uninterested Human Resources rapidly demanded emergency management plans, building evacuation drills, coordination with emergency services, etc, etc; in fact everything which they had previously refused.  In other words; soon as there became a need to deflect blame, suddenly everything that couldn't previously be justified was immediately possible.

The Sewol ferry disaster, 16 April 2014

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/south-korea-ferry-disaster-new-report-announces-sewol-ferry-was-licensed-through-false-documents-and-9594188.html

It is curious that since New Year many commuters can be seen on the subway wearing t-shirts sporting the slogan

"Making mistakes is better than faking perfections" 

Let's see how long it takes to put the concept into practice.