Minsoo Lee Case

The question about the Sewol ferry accident

Minsoo Lee

My question about the Sewol ferry incident was 'what can you do to make Korea more safer country right now?' In fact, I already had got an answer to my question.

Many Koreans easily break the rules like the traffic laws. They often think that it's a trivial thing. This is not, however, a trivial issue. They could think like it because accidents don't happen very often. The starting points of all kinds of man-made disasters are small violations. The sunken ferry disaster was not an exception. The crews of the ferry didn't know well about the safety rules and how can they evacuate people when a problem happens.

While trivial things can cause a terrible disaster, very small changes of our behavior can make positive result. When I talked about my question with other classmates, they didn't get my intention. Hye-Jung Cho's answer to my question was the government and schools need to educate students to know the safety rules. I think her way of reaching a solution was not only a good way, but it is not a point.

However, her answer, ironically shows what I want to talk about. When the accident happened, many people just called the government to account. Just to be clear, I am not defending the government. Their incompetence is much to be deprecated. But Blames don't make changes. My point is that for making changes, we need to change ourselves first. We usually think our behaviors are nothing. But it's not true.