COVID-19 Essay Project for Anna
On August 14, 13 Corona confirmed people appeared at Sarang First Church in Seoul. Not long after that, the number snowballed to 134 in just three days, raising renewed alarm in South Korea's daily routine, which kept the daily confirmed number at around 30. On February 18, a super-proposer from Shincheonji appeared, overlapping with a nightmare earlier this year when the daily number of confirmed cases reached over 100. In fact, however, many experts say that it is more serious than that. Earlier this year, large-scale mass infections in Korea were centered around Daegu, but this time they were born in Seoul, where population density is much higher. In addition, many Koreans went on four-day summer vacation from August 14 to 17, which is Korea's National Liberation Day – the day of defeat in Japan. Including my family.
How did this happen? Sarang First Church in Seoul, Korea, is quite a heretic among Protestant churches in Korea, but in any case, small group infections have continued to occur in churches before. Of course, given the worldwide trend of infection, religious facilities are vulnerable to infectious diseases. While this risk is openly exposed and everyone agrees at this point, when the number of coronaviruses confirmed in Wuhan was soaring earlier this year, Korean church pastors preached that the reason Chinese people suffered from coronaries was a judgment for rejecting God and persecuting missionaries.
I am a Korean who believes in Christianity. The church's habit of pointing fingers at China, saying, "It's a judgment of God, it looks good," rather than shedding tears over the pain of others, without being able to imitate Jesus who had been reluctant to come out first and visit them, broke my heart. According to that logic, the Sarang First Church is also the judgment of God. Has the Bible said, "Don't call the name of God a ghost," been faded?
What matters is the problem of the system. In particular, if collective infections continue to occur in religious facilities, the following factors should be considered: The spatial layout structure that religious facilities embody, the way the community is rolling. Following the direction of the same accident, if there were frequent outbreaks of new infectious diseases in China, what was the country's quarantine system, and why was Wuhan's doctor, Li Wenliang, who was trying to disclose outside information about the new coronavirus, had to be warned and disciplined by Wuhan police in the name of spreading false information.
Compared to the global situation, it is true that I can enjoy my life safely compared to other countries in the midst of the Pandemic culture thanks to the Asian collectivist culture which is my love. As an extension, disaster does not strike everyone fairly. This is the case even in Korea, which was once praised for its success in quarantine in a democratic way, and in East Asia, where it is relatively less uncomfortable to wear masks, the aspects of corona transmission and quarantine vary slightly from country to country. This is the case even in the world. The number of strategies and options that a third-world country has to deal with the Coronavirus are too poor. As shown in one scene of an Oscar-winning parasite, a sudden rain for someone is a minor misfortune to cancel the camping trip and return, but for others, it becomes a flood that takes away the nest of life.
Korea was lucky by chance. In order to survive three consecutive years of SARS, H1N1, and MERS, a stable quarantine system could be established, and in addition, an environment should be created to effectively cope with biological and chemical weapons in the event of a war with North Korea. The national health insurance system, which provided high medical access to Koreans, was also a tool established in the 1980s by the dictator who ruled Korea as a way to appease public sentiment. In this case, we may have to thank the law of survival of the fittest.
In Korea, which has such advantages and characteristics, there is another characteristic to pay attention to. About 46 percent of Koreans believe in religion, while 27 percent of religious people - Catholics and Protestants combined - are Christians. Korea, a very insignificant country on Earth running toward the end of imperialism in the early 20th century, ironically benefited greatly from the humanitarian devotion of Christian missionaries from Western powers. Since then, the church has served as an important center in the Korean community. Through rapid modernization and rapid growth, however, some members of the church became the vested interests of Korea and lost their progressive character in the early 20th century against the colonialist system and the dictatorship of 780 years. This is clearly a sad and unique image of Korea that is not observed in China or Japan.
Disasters strip away noble systems and cultures, regardless of place. It reveals the ugly face of Korean society. The beginning of the cult, which increases the number of believers by hiding their identity and deceiving others, has contributed greatly to the Korean church society, which is somewhat sick. The sick-hearted community further amplified the disease that pervaded the body, and the vaccine-free infectious disease exploded and visible in the community's old pus. In Western democracies, which were crying out for diversity, racism was further maximized by the virus, blue-collar workers who had to work in dense, ventilation-impaired places had to catch the coronavirus in droves, and humans were sprinting toward the end of the earth through global warming.
Still, can we talk about a better tomorrow, and the next? Can Korea be a country that goes beyond the self-indulgence of K-disarmament to treat domestic foreign workers, and not ridicule the Japanese cruise ship Corona case, but can also be a country that can comfort other countries' wounds beyond the past colonial state, even if the opponent was a ruler? Can the Northeast Asian community, which has twisted this and that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not just focus on the so-called pi-fight between advanced countries, but think outside of it? Can humanity at this moment give up some of what it has in its hands and make concessions for the environment for future generations? It says so in the Bible that mankind is inherently evil, but I pray again nonetheless. May all these wishes be meaningful.
Thank you Anna for giving me the opportunity to write the above.
2020.08.17.10.48pm Done.