[W Forum] The Lie of Saying "I'm Okay"

It was written at the end of April that South Korea, which is fighting well against COVID-19, is truly an advanced country. It was a fact and also a sustainable hope. A professor from the University of California, Berkeley, whom I met just before returning home, smiled and said, "I want to follow you to Korea too." He expressed his frustration about the situation in his own country, which had earned the unfortunate title of the number one COVID-19 infection country. It was not a statement about abandoning the United States, but an impartial acknowledgment of the patience of Koreans and the responsible quarantine measures of our government.

After returning home, I went through a period of self-quarantine. After becoming free, I went out cautiously and continued my daily life carefully?until the situation changed rapidly. After the Gwangbokjeol rally, the coronavirus battle became one without a separate front line. The reliable K-quarantine system, which meticulously tracked and managed infection routes, developed cracks. Although triggered by the ignorance of a few, it endangered the whole. It is regrettable that stubbornness without reflection still persists. We want to turn back time, but that is impossible, and we must face the current reality coldly. That is probably why social distancing in the metropolitan area was raised to level 2.5.

What do we need most right now? We must not be complacent by thinking it is okay or be arrogant thinking it will be okay. We must strictly adhere to the main principle of 'physical distancing' set by the quarantine authorities. That is the most important. Those who violate this must also be held strictly accountable. When people overlook it thinking, "It’s just me," or when judgment is clouded by rampant fake news, the patience that the entire nation has endured so bravely will be in vain. Even a well-built tower collapses if a small stone falls out.

We must not forget to exercise other imaginations. For example, the term 'self-quarantine' redefines the concept of home. The 'quarantine' of someone living in a two-pyeong (approx. 7 square meters) goshiwon and someone living in a hundred-pyeong house means different things. Some people have a good house that is a hell. We need to look more carefully at the mindset with which each person lives there. In the U.S., the lockdown order equivalent to Korea’s level 3 is softened and expressed as 'Shelter at Home.' Hearing that, I wondered what would happen to those for whom home is not a shelter and the homeless without a home. In California, homelessness was a big concern, but the city government made agreements with local hotels to accommodate them for free. It was a difficult decision, but those who had been exposed to COVID-19 without protection were finally brought under the national safety net.

The virus penetrates regardless of wealth disparity, but infectious diseases deepen discrimination and exclusion. When a disaster occurs, the first to be sacrificed are the weakest. We must seek them out. I hope for flexible and proactive policies that can more carefully embrace self-employed people struggling to make a living, the homeless, out-of-school youth, and the elderly excluded from the online environment. New imagination about ways of gathering and meeting, and new sensibilities about boundaries and relationships are also necessary. It is a small idea, but it would be good to improve walking trails or paths into 'one-way streets' so that citizens living confined lives can breathe a little easier. There is a possibility of infection from the spray expelled while running, so it is dizzying to meet people running without masks on narrow walking paths.

We must establish a new perspective on solidarity and freedom based on the premise that this situation is not okay and that we are not equal as we pass through this disaster. Instead of vague illusions that things will soon return to the old days. Otherwise, even if this disaster ends, we will face another disaster after the disaster. Recognizing the lie that it is okay. Fearing stubbornness. Seeking a life of coexistence. Hope begins there.

Jeong Eun-gwi, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.