the point of Apologies for Jay Park
Is anything willing to translate this and put it on Daum/Naver/Korean forums? There are lots of requests for this to be translated, but I don't know Korean, so I can't.
You don't need to be Korean, native Korean, loyal Korean or South Korean to know humanity. You only need to be human, and yet as humans we are closer to animals, so maybe that effect is cancelled.
I am not speaking on behalf of pro-Jaebeom fans. Please read the P.S.
You know that body all Korean netizens swoon over? He got it as a result of having no friends in Korea. Let me ask you, if you had no friends in a country you were forced to live in for four (?) years, with no positive sign of a future, with food you could not adapt to, a culture that you did not understand and a language you could not speak - would you harbour ill feelings?
If you're going to compare to Nickhun, don't even go there. Society has already given him an advantage by being 'good looking.' And if you look at Jaebeom's pre-debut pictures, he did not hold the same charm appeal as now.
Korean netizens, you are punishing a teenage boy at 18-20, who at the prime time of his life when he should be in college working towards his future, who had no idea where his future was going. A boy who doesn't have eloquent words or Stanford background to backup his way of saying, "I'm alone, miserable and where the hell am I going?" Probably an 18-20 year old who just hates, not Korea or Koreans, but his present. So it results in him calling everything in his presence, "stupid" or "gay." Everything in the past appeals to him.
And when you're 18-20, you do not know better as everyone would claim. Age doesn't imply reason, at least not anymore in our society. I'm in university, and I see 21 year olds who act as if they are still 16.
And now I come to the point of apologies. Jaebeom did not hide the fact that he wrote such comments, and I don't believe he should apologize for them as if they were the worst mistake of his life, or try to cover up like he never said those words. He did, and that's a fact. Others may say that he's an idol and should've known - but the point at that time was that he wasn't an idol, and he didn't even know if he was going to debut.
In my eyes, I can see that Jaebeom no longer feels the same. Watch him in the interviews, reality shows, he makes it very obvious that he wasn't happy in the past. What are those stages of grief? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. If anything, he probably was lead to believe that he may debut/stay in NYC for training (looking at previous pre-debut pictures with Min & G-Soul) then shipped to a country where he knows nothing about.
Pluck yourself out of your comfort zone and culture, then drop yourself in a country that acts totally different. Everyone has a right to say their opinion, but you have to know that not all opinions are final and true. They still can change. Maybe at first you find Americans too nosy and obnoxious, then you realize that this is their best and they aren't nosy and obnoxious, they're friendly and outgoing. But wait, if you don't have better words to describe them, what are you going to
resort to? In my mind, it must be the first insulting word your culture uses. Gay, stupid, f*g, lame, boring, sh*t, dumb... as rebellious teens deviating from strong literature bases, we don't have a very large vocabulary.
What if your parents dug up some words of hatred you said to them when you were 23. When you were 18, you wanted to get out of the house but they constrained you because you were too young. So you unleashed words of poor choice. What if they came to you now and said, "I remember when you called me a f-cking retard, and that you hated me. I want you out of my family, out of my house." Even when your ideas have changed and you apologize - do you deserve this?
The general response in anger is acceptable, but general ignorance of the present is not.
The point of apologies is that you no longer feel the same as you did before, and so you make a statement to right the wrong and make things clear. That is the offender's job.
Our job, if it is our right to forgive, is to read the degree of sincerity, beyond words and into
actions. You cannot let a person live by forcing him to pay for a past and an idea that he longer regards as relevant.
What I'm trying to get is that he apologized and explained the reasoning behind those words. I'm not saying what he said was right, but I am saying that what he DID was acceptable. The word choice was wrong, but his actions were not. He was just a child who did not use the right words to express himself and resorted to the only language he knew. And that he very evidently does not regard his surroundings the same anymore.
His expression/choice words was wrong. His feelings were not.
Oh p.s. This isn't really a just to the Park Jaebeom issue, but a general regard to everyone who just holds onto grudges. I like writing about life lessons I learn through anything. Jaebeom's controversy was just a catalyst.
edit// (My personal, personal input)
Now people are saying G-Dragon should've been the one to leave? Sometimes, people never learn - how many more tragedies do you need before it leaves immortal scars on your country's history? At least three celebrities commit suicide each year, don't you think it's a little too much and a little too late to regret and realize the extremes of your actions after each incident?
Do unto others as you would have other do unto you.
We need not to neglect those words, no matter the culture or race.
Comments
think he is soon =]
fighting jay!
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