Student's Human Right.

     Student’s human right has been issue for a long time especially in the matters of freedom of students’ hair and clothing. When I was a high school student, I also had a kind of resistance to the rule itself. But now, as a grown up, I just don’t get it what is good and bad. In some school. Students have already had the freedom of hair and it is easy to find students with long, wavy, and dyed hair in school uniform. Not even their hair, mid and high students wear heavier make up than university students, so it’s hard to tell who is a student. In this situation, I think this students’ freedom turn out to something which threaten the security of them. Appropriate appearance and behavior as a student could let others perceive that she or he is a student and they should be protected by adults and society.

     Also, I think the biggest problem here is the matter of banning punishment. After prohibiting punishment, some side effects’ raised up. Now, students started punishing teachers. Students misunderstood this law and thought they get a right to disobey teacher. Students’ human right is guaranteed, but how about teacher’s human right? I know there have been unqualified teachers who cross the line and not all teachers deserve to be respected. Anyway, the first role of school and teacher is to teach students what is good and wrong in our lives rather than to protect them. Protecting students is parents’ job, I think. And teaching involves appropriate punishment. Without this, teachers may have limits to control their students. So, before prohibiting punishment, I think we should reconsider about what is the right level of punishment and prepare a sort of system which teachers are controlled and learn the right level of punishment from. I heard from one of my table members that there is a special teacher who is only in charge of punishment at a school in America. I think it can be a possible solution in Korea too. Anyway, I hope a school become a happy place for both of students and teachers.

Minimum Wage System

     Anything related to money is always sensitive. After listening the presentation, I thought minimum wage issue is also applied to us(university students) because minimum wage system is usually applied to young and poor people who don't have certain skills. Many university students on the minimum wage do part-time jobs during school vacations. But although they work for 8 hours a day, they get around 900,000 won a month. But they should take some money for transportation fee and lunch money from it, they couldn't do anything with it. It is ridiculous to save money for tuition or travel. Not only for students, minimum wage is really serious for the poor. Minimum wage system is for workers, but workers can't even have BigMac with minimum wage. I feel it is a bit unfair because Japanese and Australian get almost eight or ten dollars per hour for their work and BigMac in Japan and Aus still cost six dollars!

     I heard that the management said that if the minimum wage goes up, products price also goes up. But it is also possible that the more money people earn, the more money they will spend. And the problem is that the rate of increase in the minimum wage never keep up with inflation rate in Korea.

 

     The minimum wage in 2012 is 4580 won. But some people are insisting that it should be negated. I hope it'll be settled well for both.

The Jeju naval base project

     When I prepared the Jeju naval base presentation, I understood it is complicated problem which is up a tree. I think both of government's position and Kangjung residents' position are understandable and reasonable. We can't give up both of national security and our environment. Even so, we should settle this problem for everyone.

 

     Reasons claimed by government for the Jeju naval base are realistic. At present, The South Korean navy doesn't have an appropriate naval station for accommodating all task forces. In addition, Korea has been constantly threatened by foreign counties, especially North Korea while so many people think we are in peace. Anyway it is true that the one who keep Korea safe is Korea. Korea need to be strong for its security. Not only for improving our military forces, constructing the Jeju naval base is still reasonable for national interests. Also everyone knows preserving our environment is really important matter especially these days. But we can't deny that without having our own land, Korea, we don't have its nature.

 

     At the same time, Kangjung residents is working hard to protect their village. Protecting environment is the matter for them because it's directly related to their living. Also the progress in inviting the naval base to Kangjung was not clear. Government should allay suspicions to have the legitimacy of constructing the base.

 

     Also, I want to mention the online poll conducted by Jejusori in last August, The question was 'what is the best solution for building the Jeju base' and almost 30,000 people voted. The result was that 75% of public thought that the Jeju base should be constructed without delaying. And 24% of them thought this project should be canceled. If this poll is not fabricated. although all Korean didn't participated in the survey, I wonder it is okay to ignore the major opinion. I think we need to consider about this.

 

     Actually I couldn't deal with everything about the base at the presentation because some sensitive matters like EEZ(exclusive economic zone), china, US and Ieodo etc. So, if possible, it would be good to look it up on the internet by yourself. At last, Jeju island is not for only Jeju residents. It is for all Korean. so I hope you are concerned about this matter.

Tear Down Houses Where Government Owns

Few months ago, I had a flick through the channels and I came across Guryong village issue just for a second. The scene I saw was a kind of black-and-white photo of Guryong village. In the photo, there were luxurious apartment buildings and shanty houses stood behind them on the brink of collapse. But I didn’t have any other thoughts about it before I got the information from the presentation.

The photo I saw on the TV and Guryong village presentation made me feel pity for Guyrong village residents at first. But on the objective view, we shouldn’t solve this problem with sympathy just because village residents are poor and pitiful. In the world, there are countless people who are in extreme poverty but still keep on the right side of the law.

I’d like to talk about questions which we discussed during the presentation. For the matter of redevelopment of the cities and some caused sacrifices, I’m positive about redevelopment. Also I’ll say we can’t deny that some sacrifices are necessary for the public good. Conflicts exist everywhere because no matter what problem it is, people have their own interests and they consider only their benefit. So government can’t satisfy everyone all the time and the public good is the top priority for government. The thing is that government should try to minimize sacrifices and prepare appropriate and realizable solutions. I read several articles about Guryong village and found out some residents have money and land. But they insist their right about illegal house because they know that they could get any kind of compensation from government in the near future. We can’t give a sympathy vote for them.

           About the last question; possible solution for this problem, I think, thorough research should be conducted in property and income of villagers first. And then offer rented apartment or shelters. I know government and cities have many policies to offer house for lower-income group. So I hope government and villagers reach the best possible middle ground in the near future.