Internet Newspaperes in Korea

One of the reasons why I dreaded coming to Seoul was all the crimes I had read in online newspapers. It seemed that more than just "often" people got mugged, beaten, raped, abducted, and so on. How does anyone live in this godforsaken country? was my initial reaction. To me South Korea was Somalia of East Asia, cleverly disguised in the glamour of prospering IT industry and the forest of skyscrapers. Since I'm a suspicious wuss that would take extra caution with everything the fear seemed legit enough.

The scary thing is that all this is true to some degree. Even though Seoul has become safer than before and as long as you know where you are going you should be fine,  from time to time reports of heinous crimes are plastered all over the news.
I remember this one time when a group of middle school boys raped a teenaged girl and, when she passed out from pain, they set the house on fire, leaving the girl to perish. The incident was shocking as it is even without hearing that the perps were young boys. But it happened. Many were reported to be remorseless and refused to apologize to the victim's family.

People who target the helpful kind are also prevalent. Vancouver (or was it Toronto?) has seen something of this sort as well; a woman pretended she was in trouble on the road with her car and when passers by came to help, she and her accomplice held them at a gun-point and robbed them.
In Seoul I read that it's common for criminals to employ children who would in turn ask strangers to help them find their parents. When the stranger comes to an isolated location, s/he would be abducted, never to be seen again (or so I've heard...) I speculate that women are sold into prostitution and men are forced to work at factories or illegal dealings. Or something even worse.

Ever seen David Fincher's Se7en? Morgan Freeman's character says that we live in a society where apathy is a virtue. It is better to turn a blind eye to atrocities than to stand up to injustice. I believe this to be true. I am always caught between the need to be comfortable and that to be just. Be it in Korea or Canada, it takes real courage to be a person of principles.

I got a little sidetracked here, but what I really wanted to say is that people still manage to live on in this country. The Korean media capitalize on tragedies (as do those of other countries) and when you just read the newspapers you wonder how people come out of their homes every day without the fear of being kidnapped or tortured.
They do regardless, apparently. A proper mixture of suspicion, apathy, and caution is a concoction compulsory for everyone. Kindness and generosity must be practiced under utmost care, and one must always be ready to face the consequences of being... NICE.