By This article from the Chosun Ilbo made no sense to me:
A seminar has found that North Korean defectors who have relocated to the South to build new lives for themselves and their families tend to obsessively pursue money and remain alienated from their communities. The seminar was hosted by the Institute for Modern Korea at the Academy of Korean Studies on Tuesday.
Over 20,000 North Koreans have risked their lives so far to escape the harsh realities of their homeland — including collectivism, oppressive rule, famine and the threat of being interned in a Soviet-style gulag — for a new life in the South.
However as they attempt to fit in to a new democratic society and raise funds to try and be reunited with those family members they left behind, many have become overrun with unhealthy ideas of materialism, or “distorted mammonism,” participants of the seminar found. [Chosun Ilbo]
Read the rest at the link, but how is it that North Koreans are “unhealthy ideas of materialism” by wanting to save money to bring their family members over from North Korea? Even if they did have unhealthy materialism it sounds like they would fit right in with many people from South Korea and western societies.
5:25 am on June 18th, 2011 1
Who is the group that determined what North Korean refugees should believe and how is it any of their business?
Not to mention the dust speck vs. roof beam thing, if we’re going to bring up “distorted mammonism” (which sounds very loosely based on the teachings of the Bible).
How do they expect someone to react when going from the tight external controls and scarcity of the DPRK to the freedom and plenty found in the ROK? Or Canada? Or the USA? Especially if they are tossed in with folks who appear to be obsessed with wealth everywhere they turn.
They (and we) are in deeper danger, however: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%201:18-32&version=GW
5:31 am on June 18th, 2011 2
Mammonism. What’s the matter? Avarice or greed are not good enough words for the Chosun Ilbo? If that writer was my student I would have knocked off 2 points for forcing me to look the word up.
6:02 am on June 18th, 2011 3
That’s rediculous. They jest want to make a new life for themselves.
7:03 am on June 18th, 2011 4
Materialistic – that just about covers every Korean.
7:32 am on June 18th, 2011 5
South Korean men are the only people who can earn money, not S. Korean women and the S. Korean Ajumma is the ONLY person who knows how to spend $$$. If you are an International bank(KEB) doing business in S. Korea and want to sell, forget it. If you’re an International investor and cash in on the KOSDAQ, it’s “foreigners” who are the cause of KOSDAQ’s decline. If you are an English teacher/migrant worker and take money home or earn too much, you are the devil.
If only the S. Korean Ajumma could take care of all the money in this world and distribute it correctly, the S. Korea way.
8:30 am on June 18th, 2011 6
The problem is they aren’t fitting in and dumping a large chunk of their newfound material assets in the collection plates of the churches/temples. That pisses off those against “mammonism” who, of course, rely heavily on material assets to continue brainwashing the masses and maintain their lifestyles. Maybe the nKorean refugees aren’t suckers anymore, having been well abused along those lines back home for many years. It’s a good sign.
10:33 am on June 18th, 2011 7
Chinese immigrants in the US and other foreign countries are VERY materialistic. It is not strange that North Korean immigrants, who were raised under Chinese ideology, to be materialistic as well.
2:46 pm on June 18th, 2011 8
As everyone is correctly implying but Choson Ilbo conveniently neglected to add, it”s only been 16 months since they published this article Koreans Most Materialistic People in the World
Gestalt projection?
2:49 pm on June 18th, 2011 9
As everyone is correctly implying but Choson Ilbo conveniently neglected to add, it”s only been 16 months since they published this article: “Koreans Most Materialistic People in the World”
Gestalt projection?
3:38 pm on June 18th, 2011 10
So, South Koreans are ‘diligent’ when they work hard to earn money, but North Korean immigrants are ‘overly materialistic’ if they do the same?
I think Cal is on to something. North Koreans immigrants aren’t as religious as the evangelical Christians would like them to be, and it’s freaking them out.