That War
How soon we forget. Truth to tell it is not those who have experienced the hideous misery of war, a conflagration of partner-countries at ideological war against one another; one the aggressor the other the defender, and in the process millions of their populations dying whose memory lapses. They recall, and they shudder, and they fear repetition, and they walk softly and sleep uneasily.
It is their offspring, the children born well after the fact for whom the dread memories of their parents and grandparents are history. Dead history. Events that occurred once and simply will not again. Because their sunny aspirations for themselves have no room for apprehension. What happened, happened. The future will have none of it. This is a device, a coping device that assists human beings to survive.
So even while North Korea's defiant troglodyte of a leader waxes effusive about his country's military might while his people starve through lack of nutrition and opportunity, and the country's resources are plowed into more technologically advanced missile systems and the refinement of nuclear warheads, young South Koreans feel nothing to be amiss.
This is, after all, what they've always lived with. The understanding that they are singularly fortunate to be South Koreans, and North Koreans are unfortunate to live where they do, oppressed by a dictator who is also a primping thespian on the world stage of absurdity linked with danger. That North Korea's military deliberately shot a South Korean vessel, disabling it and killing 46 seamen in the process is unfortunate.
It is also a signal act of war, one that other countries would promptly respond to, in like kind, intent on delivering the message that their countrymen's lives have value and their sovereignty is not to be tampered with. But China urges caution, and China prefers non-confrontation, and China hesitates to rein in its puppet too strongly, lest it too suffer the backlash of extreme embarrassment.
And South Korea, which has the backing of Japan and the United States and that of the United Nations, which wrings its hands over the 'unfortunate' incident, restrains itself as it must. The Cheonan is not exactly dispensable, nor was its crew, but this must be put behind them, for the time being. Peace at almost any cost. As for the younger generation of South Koreans?
"I don't believe that North Korea is a threat. I read the articles in the newspapers, but I don't buy it." And South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak is held in somewhat lower esteem because of his offended reaction to the deaths of 46 seamen and the sinking of the Cheonan. For young South Koreans see no need in 'confrontation'. "Most of the younger generation has a similar opinion; that North Korea is a political issue, not a security issue."
The older generation? "I worry about the younger generation because they don't think North Korea has done anything wrong... they don't know about the war. My generation really knows it, and expects that the war could be possible again."
It is their offspring, the children born well after the fact for whom the dread memories of their parents and grandparents are history. Dead history. Events that occurred once and simply will not again. Because their sunny aspirations for themselves have no room for apprehension. What happened, happened. The future will have none of it. This is a device, a coping device that assists human beings to survive.
So even while North Korea's defiant troglodyte of a leader waxes effusive about his country's military might while his people starve through lack of nutrition and opportunity, and the country's resources are plowed into more technologically advanced missile systems and the refinement of nuclear warheads, young South Koreans feel nothing to be amiss.
This is, after all, what they've always lived with. The understanding that they are singularly fortunate to be South Koreans, and North Koreans are unfortunate to live where they do, oppressed by a dictator who is also a primping thespian on the world stage of absurdity linked with danger. That North Korea's military deliberately shot a South Korean vessel, disabling it and killing 46 seamen in the process is unfortunate.
It is also a signal act of war, one that other countries would promptly respond to, in like kind, intent on delivering the message that their countrymen's lives have value and their sovereignty is not to be tampered with. But China urges caution, and China prefers non-confrontation, and China hesitates to rein in its puppet too strongly, lest it too suffer the backlash of extreme embarrassment.
And South Korea, which has the backing of Japan and the United States and that of the United Nations, which wrings its hands over the 'unfortunate' incident, restrains itself as it must. The Cheonan is not exactly dispensable, nor was its crew, but this must be put behind them, for the time being. Peace at almost any cost. As for the younger generation of South Koreans?
"I don't believe that North Korea is a threat. I read the articles in the newspapers, but I don't buy it." And South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak is held in somewhat lower esteem because of his offended reaction to the deaths of 46 seamen and the sinking of the Cheonan. For young South Koreans see no need in 'confrontation'. "Most of the younger generation has a similar opinion; that North Korea is a political issue, not a security issue."
The older generation? "I worry about the younger generation because they don't think North Korea has done anything wrong... they don't know about the war. My generation really knows it, and expects that the war could be possible again."
Labels: Human Relations, Realities, Technology, Traditions, World Crises
posted by Pieface | 7:30 PM
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