Korea – Page 8

Reaching for the sky

I’m a bit of an armchair architect. I enjoy keeping tabs on some of the new, aestetically appealing buildings currently under development around the world. I saw the new artist’s rendering of the new Seoul City Hall in today’s Korea Times. I like the new design. When completed in 2009, it will be a beautiful building reflecting the symbolic significance of the taeguk, the blue and red harmonic symbol featured on the South Korean flag. It will blend in well with Seoul’s central district and sit in a stately position next to the current city hall building, a relic built by the Japanese in 1926 during the Japanese Colonial Period. It will also accent the green circular park in front of the city hall. Considering that most buildings in downtown Seoul are late 1980’s-style block, concrete and steel structures, the futuristic city hall will be a welcome addition.

The new Seoul City Hall is hardly the only new, exciting building to be built in Greater Seoul. From 1985 to 2002, the 63 Building in Yeoido, Seoul’s financial district, held the title of Korea’s tallest building. However, in 2002 it lost this distinction to the Mokdong Hyperion Tower, also in Seoul. One of the Samsung Tower Palace buildings located in the Gangnam area of Seoul currently holds the title of Korea’s tallest building. However, plans are in work for an American firm to build a 151-story, 2,000-foot skyscraper named Incheon Tower in Incheon, Korea. If completed, it would become the world’s second tallest building. This building would be almost 50% taller than any other existing skyscraper and taller than any existing structure.

It seems that virtually every developer is attempting to earn the mantle of the world’s tallest building for their mega-structures. The Petronas Towers (452 meters, 1,484 feet) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia lost the title of world’s tallest skyscraper in 2003 to Taipei 101 (509 meters, 1,671 feet) in Taiwan. The Freedom Tower (541 meters, 1,776 feet) in New York, which will replace the World Trade Center, the Shanghai World Financial Centre (492 meters, 1,614 feet) and the Fordham Spire (488 meters, 1,600 feet) in Chicago are all current bids to become the world’s tallest structures. The Incheon Tower would surpass all of these. However, it would still be the world’s second tallest building after it is completed in the distant future.

Why? Because the Burj Dubai (est. 808 meters, 2,650 feet) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will become the world’s tallest building in 2008. It is currently under construction and already rises about 60 stories. The Burj Dubai will likely remain the world’s tallest building for a long, long time, in spite of feverish efforts by architects to design buildings that reach for the sky. In fact, the architect of the Burj Dubai has been mum on the actual height of the building to thwart would-be copycats who want to build their structures even higher. Once completed, the structure will be almost 80% than the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101. That is an absolutely massive structure!

While all this magnificent engineering is spectacular, it makes one wonder–is man really made to reach for the sky? Did we not learn any lessons from the Tower of Babel or the World Trade Center? Call me fatalistic, but I believe that what goes up must eventually come down. Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, only the Pyramid of Giza remains standing. The Pharos Lighthouse, a 40-story, 121 meter structure built around 290 B.C., was once the world’s tallest freestanding structure, until it fell in 1323 during an earthquake. How long will the Burj Dubai, Incheon Tower, or any of these other mega-structures remain standing? I don’t want to be around to find out.

Gaming away their future

Over the past few weeks, the western media picked up on the latest trend in Korea–the alarming rise of addiction to online gaming, particularly among youths. BusinessWeek published an article on September 11 highlighting this rising problem. The magazine highlighted the results of a government survey reporting that over 540,000 Koreans between the ages of nine and 39 are so addicted to the Internet that they need counseling to curb their addiction. That’s about one in 88 Koreans, a staggering number. Last week the Korea Times reported that the Korean government will introduce "No Internet Day" one day per week at Korean schools to counteract this growing addiction. The problem is apparently so bad in Korea that Internet addiction has eclipsed alcohol, gambling, and drugs. Much of the addiction stems from the prevalance of online gaming, which is much more widely available in Korea at a higher less of sophistication than in the United States. The government estimated that youths spend at least 15 hours per week online. Some youths spend so much time online that some have died from sleep depravation, starvation, or emaciation.

Experts concur that gaming is addictive and that men (and boys) are more prone to play video games. I often see students walking the streets of Seoul, but more often than not, the students are girls. I have often wondered why. I have suspected that female Korean students are more apt to socialize with each other in public settings, such as in public shopping areas. I also believe that male Korean students are more likely to head directly to their local PCbang (computer room) to entertainment themselves with online games; hence, fewer of them are on the streets once school lets out. It’s just a hunch, but the news of the rising problem of Internet addiction among Korean youths confirms to me that too many are heading from school to the PCbang for gaming.

Korea’s lagging productivity

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a United Nations organization comprised of the world’s 30 largest economies, South Korea’s average hourly productivity between 2000 and 2004 was $10.40 per hour, equating to $10.40 earned in economic output produced each hour by a Korean worker. In contrast, the average productivity of a U.S. worker between 2000 and 2004 was $40.00 per hour, nearly four times more than that of the average Korean worker. U.S. productivity on a per hour, per worker basis exceeded that of any other OECD nation, including runner-up Japan, whose workers each produced on average $39.90 in economic output per hour. The U.S. was more productivity during this period by this measure and than that of any other economy, including all European countries. My friend married to an Austrian who insist that Austrians are more efficient than Americans can put that myth away.

If you’re a working American, it’s OK to smile knowing that you’re one of the most productive people on the planet, even more efficient than the vaunted Japanese salaryman. If you’re an American expatriate working long term in Korea, you may also nod your head upon reading this statistic, because the OECD confirmed what has been gnawing at you for quite some time–the feeling that on a per-hour basis you are more productive than your Korean counterparts. Still, the OECD’s statistic does not quite tell the whole story. For one, Koreans work about 25% more hours annually than Americans do. This boosts their overall annual productivity by 25%. In addition, the OECD statistic measures the period 2000-04. Koreans are no doubt more productive in 2006 than they were in 2000, the beginning of the period measured by the OECD. In addition, Korean productivity gains very likely exceeded American productivity gains during the same period. Korean workers are also more likely to be involved in manufacturing than their American counterparts, who are more likely to be engaged in services. While productivity gains occur in both sectors, productivity advances in service sectors frequently outpace manufacturing gains.

Yet, any way you look at this statistic and try to explain it away, one fact is indisputable–Americans can still get almost four times as much done in an hour as Koreans do!