Suicide among elders in South Korea

Južna Koreja je v zadnjem desetletju postala svetovno znana velesila. Gotovo ni osebe, ki ne bi poznala njihove svetovno priznane glasbe K-pop ali njihovih z oskarjem nagrajenih filmov. Ta sloves je za mnoge razlog za ljubosumje, saj se veliko drugih držav ne more kosati z južnokorejskim vplivom, ki jih imajo na teh trgih. Pa vendarle je Južni Koreji svetovna priznanost prinesla le pozitivne stvari. Vprašanje je, ali lahko zasledimo tudi negativne posledice mešanja dveh izredno različnih družbzahodne in tradicionalne korejske. Proces izmenjave in mešanja se je začel že v obdobju Joseon (조선), ko se je Južna Koreja prvič odprla zunanjim vplivom, in traja še danes. Med tem obdobjem so bili izseki, ko je zelo naglo prišlo do hitrega napredka. Če v družbi zelo hitro pride do velikih sprememb ali mešanja kultur, ima to izjemno negativen vpliv na dobrobit vseh pripadnikov kulture, katere moč peša zaradi vdora tuje in nove kulture. Ena izmed hujših posledic mešanja dveh kultur je povečanje števila samomorov, ki so bili do sedaj večinoma obravnavani z zdravstvene, psihološke in ekonomske perspektive, žal pa primanjkuje obravnav s sociološke perspektive. Durkheim je eden vodilnih avtorjev, ki so se prvi ukvarjali s sociološko platjo samomora, in že takrat je v svojem delu Samomor (1897) postavil hipoteze o nevarnosti še takrat neznanega pojava, ki ga lahko dandanes žal zasledimo v južnokorejski družbi, posebno pri starejših prebivalcih.South Korea has become a world-renowned superpower in the last decade. There’s certainly no person who wouldn’t know their world-renowned K-pop music or their Oscar-winning films. This reputation is a matter of jealousy for many, as many other countries cannot compete with their influence in these markets. But did this world recognition bring only positive things, or can we also trace the negative consequences of the mixing of two extremely different societieswestern and traditional Korean? The process of exchange and mixing began as early as the Joseon period (조선) when South Korea first opened up to outside influence and continues to this day. During this period, there are sections where rapid progress was made very swiftly. If great changes or mixing of culture occur very quickly in society, this has an extremely negative impact on the well-being of all members of a culture whose power is waning due to the intrusion of a foreign and new culture. One of the more serious consequences of mixing of the two cultures is an increase in the number of suicides, which so far have been mostly treated from a health, psychological and economic perspective, but unfortunately, there is a lack of treatment from a sociological perspective. Durkheim was one of the leading authors who first dealt with the sociological side of suicide, and in his work Suicide (1897) he hypothesized the danger of an occurrence that was then still unknown to the public, but unfortunately can be found in South Korean society today, especially among the elderly