SchneiderWeb

For the past two weeks the Korean media have focused on one story to the exclusion of all others: the sinking of the Sewol ferry, in which 302 people--the majority of them high school students on a school trip--perished needlessly. The story of the tragedy kept even Obama's visit to Korea from the lead headline. The tragedy has caused Korea, a nation already profoundly concerned with how it is perceived internationally, to become deeply self critical. From the cowardice and criminality of the captain and crew, who told the passengers to stay put while they abandoned ship, to the tragically slow and inadequate initial response of rescuers, to the chaotic and combative rescue effort in the subsequent days involving multiple government agencies, to the inappropriate and opportunistic remarks and actions of political figures and their children, to the pervasive corruption of government regulatory agencies that allowed a substandard, overweight ferry to pass inspection, to the at times ...