This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Why is South Korea such an advanced country?

Scroll to see replies

You talk about "genetics", with your logic, do you think less developed countries have "bad genetic stock"?!

No one said anything about 'bad genetic stock' (well at least I didn't).

But I'm not going to deny my view that it is tantamount to spitting in the face of everything we know about genetic phylogeny to deny that races will have developed different traits on account of group breeding due to geographical separation over millennia - and to somehow accept that New Labour's equality legislation has changed God's laws of science is not something I can stomach (though many - even highly knowledgable biologists - clearly can).

'Good' and 'bad' as value adjectives do not come into it. That is something that people who hate on so-called 'scientific racism' always shoe-horn into the views of scientists who research the differences between races. Invariably the differences between races will lead to some benefitting from an advantage at various points in history, and correspondingly others suffering disadvantages.

Nothing I have said is in the slightest controversial in science.

Socioeconomic and environment are by far the biggest factors.

Not at all related to what I said so I won't go down this path (different debate).

Also I saw a really horrible vulgar thread you made yesterday about 'sex with black men' and you said it is a source of shame, I was shocked and going to rant but I thought against it,and now I saw this, what is all this about?!

Wtf - no you read someone else's post or inferred that out of nowhere.

I made a thread 'white girls - have you ever had sex with a black man to get at your racist parents' lol - it's not a source of shame, I did not say that and I do not think that. In fact, I was advocating white girls with racist parents to get jiggy with some local black youths to spite their racist parents.

Are you trolling? I doubt you are racist just VERY misguided (I hope).

No not trolling. Not racist (at least I don't think so - though some have described me as a racialist which I would not contest really, even on the little understanding I think I have).

How exactly am I VERY misguided? That is quite an allegation, so please do explain it if you can. :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 41

Nick100

Original post by natchina

What do the north and sour Koreans have in common despite their ideological differences.

For a start, they are both very low crime societies. How can this be?

North Korea's crime rate is unknown; no information from the country's government can be trusted. And what about the crimes committed by the government? The country has over 200,000 people in death camps and all accounts from people who have escaped those camps indicate that the guards regularly murder, rape and torture prisoners (amoung other things). There are also witch-hunts for dissidents in which suspects are given show trials and then publicly executed. In light of that it is absurd to say that North and South Korea have a similar crime rate.

Reply 42

Nick100

Original post by No Man

You're wrong there.

That source seems to be flawed; according to it Germany and the UK each have half as many crimes in total as the USA despite having much smaller populations.

Reply 43

DJkG.1

Original post by Summering

Okay I think this gets to the heart of it, what do you mean by racialist? Do you believe in racial superiority, this all sounds very odd?

Lol read my above reply to you closely - obviously I do not believe in racial superiority, that should have been clear.

As in regarding some things you said which I thought were worrying, eg race

This is exactly what I dislike - an honest discussion of race invariably is met with allegations of racism and racial supremacy where there was no suggestion of it.

I'm not blaming you for it, certainly there is a correlation between those who go on about differences in race and those who believe in a racial hierarchy, but the correlation is not necessary.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 44

Tabris

By making Starcraft their national sport.

Instead of striving to become footballers and the like, South Koreans strive to become advanced humans fighting aliens in the far depths of space. They can't do that without advancing themselves.

Reply 45

vbn87

oh wow, I'm south korean and I feel that south korea started really growing quickly maybe 5-7 years ago. Koreans are very ambitious and we do push ourselves a bit too much, yes. I live in New York currently ( have been in the last 5 years ) and I constantly hear people being amazed by koreans in IT and about how koreans work in general. Now not only in IT,but also all different fields. even in fashion design ( I study fashion design, so I know ) people say koreans are going to take over. ( don't really know about this lol hehe )

New Yorkers are very very driven as well ( the most driven people I've ever seen to be honest ) but they talk about how crazy koreans are when it comes to work. koreans try very hard. most of the korean workers in korea, they get multiple certificates if not 7-10 something during the uni and even when they have secure jobs, they still study after work for self improvements. I'm not sure about people in different countries if they do the same.

however it's such a small country and we used to have nothing. like my mum, from the 60's, she wanted to study so much, but she had to work at a factory during the day when she was 13 ( didnt even get to go to high school ), she tells me she used to take these pills to keep herself awake, so she could study after her 18 hour shift was over. she never slept more than 3 hours a day. and still, a lot of people are like that. ( they probably don't work at a factory though ) So, I have to say, there is definitely something more than the support coming from the US.

but now I think about it, maybe it's not about our ability or talent. I wonder if it comes from our general personality haha, in korea, EVERYTHING HAS TO BE DONE RIGHT AWAY when asked. really. really. everything quick quick quick. really quick. so I guess korean workers accomplish loads more work than what other people would normally do. so maybe that's the way koreans can achieve more. koreans always joke about it :tongue:

Reply 46

scherzi

Original post by No Man

It probably has something to do with it, since they seem to share the same kind of quiet patriotism that Japan have, which had an equally sharp rise in development after the war. I think they share the same powerful work ethic based on 'honour' that Japan has as well, which is probably another variable in the equation. They are also heavily valued by the US as well, like Japan is.

There is a good work ethic and people tend to do things well. I'm not sure about 'honour' being behind the work ethic; they do what they have to do, but somewhat unfortunately these days education and work there are so competitive that it's pretty forced if you want to do well (I think it's immensely easier in the UK than in Korea to get yourself to a great standard of living). The patriotism thing is a good point (very different of course to the kind you see in somewhere like America). They went through a lot of tough times throughout the last century, and with adversity comes resilience, which I think has remained in subsequent generations.

Korea's economic growth has been very impressive but I think it has a long way to go before becoming truly advanced. From what I've seen there are deep social problems which will be difficult to uproot (and whereas the culture of honour is at times seen as good in the West, it's become very detrimental imo) - the suicide rates reflect on this quite a bit

Original post by Danen

This. democracy, capitalism and work ethic.

South Korea had to wait till the late 80s for democracy. A lot of its industrialisation and growth came under dictatorship

Reply 47

Tudball

Just decades ago, South Koreans were no more politically or civilly free than their northern counterparts.
Their export-led economic development was initiated under a strongman military government, so I wouldn't cite "freedom" or "democracy" as a necessary component.

Reply 48

username638250

I'm South Korean and I believe it's the fierce competition that has created a massive work ethic. In South Korea, everyone is their rival and unless you try your best, you won't get anywhere. Unfortunately that's a major factor of the high suicide rate, which I believe to be the highest out of all the OECD nations.
Industrialisation happened in 1980s. The president Park Chung-Hee improved the economic situation, although he was a dictator.
South Korea has few natural resources, so yes, it's all export-led hence why we export so many electronics.

Reply 49

Kittythecat

Maybe they are hard workin and passionate :cool:

Reply 50

JonathanNorth

Let's look at the difference between the people's of South Korea and the UK.

UK people can't eat spicy food, where South Korean people can eat extremely spicy stuff.

Reply 51

pol pot noodles

Original post by Nick100

That source seems to be flawed; according to it Germany and the UK each have half as many crimes in total as the USA despite having much smaller populations.

The data is legit, albeit a decade old. There's also a disclaimer saying
Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.
Also, it depends what is actually counted in a country's crime statistics, for example Iceland includes all trafic violations, which actually gives them the highest crime rate per capita in the world.

Reply 52

Joyluck72

I assume that it is nothing to do with population. Korea was one of poor countries in1950's as someone mentioned above. One of reasons that increased the infant mortality rate was starvation. People wanted to survive from hunger, and eating food as much as they could was their dream. They did not want their children to follow their footsteps, and believed that education was the only way to escape from poverty. They devoted themselves so that their sons and daughters could go to school and university. As a result, the outcomes of their efforts and hard working have been manifested; no one says Korea is a poor country any more.
Korea divided into two parts, such a small country, and not enough nature resources.. Koreans know this fact well, and they still strongly believe providing younger generation with a good quality of education and developing human resources are the ways they can and or have to rely heavily on..