i got 2 talkin’ 2 a few of the guys in the office over lunch today about state welfare. don’t ask me how, it just happened (we normally talk man stuff like beer, baseball & girls). i didn’t learn anything by virtue of the fact that i already knew that korean society has, financially @ least, little tolerance for the unemployed or the old; there is no such thing as dole & once retired it’s the responsibility of the oldest son 2 fend for & financially support his parents for their remaining days, one of the main reasons male births are still favoured over female births (that is slowly changing however… slowly). the conversation got exciting when i dropped the bombshell that one can sit on their arse @ home in ireland & the government will give them the €200 a week 2 do so, the equivalent of ₩350,000, quite a tidy sum over here (that little ₩ is the symbol for the korean unit of currency won, pronounced ‘one’). there followed a lot of korean banter, a bit of number crunching, counting on fingers, exasperated sighs, & glances at yours truly 2 confirm that what i was telling them was accurate/true.
“yep, pretty high… higher than here.”
still though, that didn’t take the gloss off the revelation. the impression i took from the conversation was that they now think i’m mad 2 be in seoul, 8 time zones from home & spending my days in an office with them, which is strange considering i’m employed here & we were talking dole payment amounts. i’m sure it would have been lost in translation had i attempted 2 explain 2 them that, a free ₩350,000 per week aside, ireland is crippled, hasn’t a penny 2 rub together, & anyone who can is getting out. i wonder what they’d have thought of that revelation.
spent a bit of the work day today updating the blog album covering the events of the last 3 weeks. oh the fun i’ve had with culture & nature.
from the 'living with seoul' photo album, october 2nd 2009
‘livin with seoul’ video
I like this.
what I’m listening 2 right now
