By Moojong Park
Park Moo-jong, president-publisher of The Korea Times, joined The Korea Times as a trainee reporter in 1974. He has been working with the nation’s oldest English newspaper since then. He served as city, sports, culture, economic and political editor, respectively, until he became chief editorial writer in October 2000. In March 2004 Park was named president-publisher of the daily. He is now serving his third term.
While working as deputy sports editor during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he was in charge of editing ``Seoul Olympians,’’ the official newspaper of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee, edited and printed by The Korea Times. The 64-page tabloid was published for 33 days both in English and French.
In recognition of his contribution to the success of the Summer Olympic Games, the government conferred him an Olympic medal.
He is a vice president of the Korea-Bangladesh Forum and a member of the board of directors of the Korea-Indonesia Friendship Association. He is also a director of the Korea-Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee
Slow food as opposed to fast food, represented by hamburger, among others, is now a familiar word to Koreans who are second to none in the world as far as eating fast is concerned, after the term was introduced first 24 years ago in Rome.
Carlo Petrini of Italy started a movement dedicated to the protection of the right to taste on the occasion of the first McDonald’s in Rome in 1986. The campaigners launched the International Slow Food Movement the next year. They said in their manifesto: “We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: fast life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat fast food. In the name of productivity, fast life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our and landscapes. So slow food is now the only truly progressive answer.’’
For Now, the Slow Food Movement, with a little snail as its symbol, boasts more than 100,000 members in 153 countries, including Korea. Korean history, dotted with numerous foreign invasions, is apparently responsible for the fast-eating culinary habit and development of dishes that can be prepared and served in a couple of minutes, like “seolnongtang’’ or “ramyeon’’ to name a few.
The large family system also contributed to the formation of such a habit as young brothers and sisters had to compete to eat food on the table faster than others in the days of poverty and insufficient food supply.
Old habits die hard.
As a matter of course, most Koreans hate to wait for their meals at restaurants and instead love to be served quickly, irrespective of the quality of the meals. Owners of popular restaurants also favor customers who east fast and leave quickly, so that they can serve those waiting to be seated for bigger income.
Still, waitresses, abusing such a eating habit, even force groups of customers to order the same dish for faster service, warning that it takes a “long’’ time to prepare different dishes. Some famous family restaurants and fast food chains, mostly from the United States, tempt customers with an ad saying that orders will be served in 15 minutes, otherwise they will be free of charge.
The popularity of the boilermaker or “ppoktanju’’ (bomb liquor, if translated literally) is the very result of Koreans’ peculiar desire to get drunk in a short amount of time. A Korean adverb, “ppalli ppalli’’ meaning hurry up or quickly, has already become a word familiar to foreigners, especially Southeast Asians, as they hear it often from Korean tourists.
the term has both positive and negative meanings: agility and smartness or impatience and a quicker temper. The problem is the negative meaning. The impatience has earned the Republic of Korea the disgraceful title of the nation with the highest death toll from traffic accidents, even contributing to the creation of a dreadful phrase for drivers: If you try to arrive five minutes earlier, you may die fifty years earlier than you should.
Korea of today owes much to the agility and swiftness of its people, who work hard, even through the night, in order to achieve their goals in short period of time. They are also efficiently and actively coping with the fast change of the world.
There is no doubt that workers should have swift hands, athletes should be faster and surgeons’ hands should be agile. Yet, we have to consider sincerely whether hurrying up is the prime virtue of life.
Ernie J. Zelinski, an American author and consultant, wrote “Don’t Hurry, Be Happy’’ in 1999, featuring “650 ways to slow down and enjoy life.’’ He suggests: “There is an interesting paradox you should keep in mind if you don’t want to feel so hurried with your life. Contrary to public belief, speeding up and rushing around in a mad frenzy is not the way to create more time for the more important and enjoyable things. The best way to create more time in your life is slow down. Then you can really live. Enjoy the moment, no matter what you are doing, and life won’t be so hurried.’’
He insists “hurry sickness’’ results in health problems such as excessive stress, bad nerves, ticks, indigestion, high blood pressure, heart problems and ulcers, noting that researchers suggest that hurry sickness can ultimately contribute to heart attacks and certain forms of cancer. Instead, a better work/life balance can relieve stress, improve moods, increase life satisfaction and even boost the immune system.
But we know how difficult it is for us to translate into action such suggestions, no matter how much we will benefit from doing so, because we are living in a modern society that is changing fast, requiring us to be faster in our daily living.
The problem is that the faster we move, the more we are forced to move faster, or the better we are adapted to the demand. Everybody is busy working hard in order to keep up with the rapid change of society, as if he or she lives up to the saying, “To work is human and to loaf is divine.’’
When it comes to slowness, many think of the negative meanings, like laziness, foolishness, clumsiness, stubbornness or disliking change. However, it also has positive meanings, like composure, patience, not being overly swayed by changes in environments as well as resoluteness under any difficult situation.
A shortcut to enjoy slowness in our daily living is definitely to protect the right to taste.
Basically, Korean food or “hansik’’ features slowness, except for those prepared in advance to be served quickly, requiring a plenty of time to cook like “bibimbap’’ that has emerged to be a top favorite among foreign people.
The nation’s first Slow Food event was held in Namyangju City, Gyeonggi Province Sept. 10-11 with the attendance of the very founder of the movement Petrini.
We have been so busy being busy that we have not taken enough time for ourselves.
Let’s take enough time for ourselves, starting at the dining table. |
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