In 1997, there was a big financial crisis in Korea. The foreign-currency holdings decreased resulting from bankruptcy of many major firms. Therefore our government owed 19.5 billion dollars to IMF (International Monetary Fund). So we informally called the financial crisis as an 'IMF Financial Crisis'. But actually it was 'Asian Financial Crisis' since many of Asian nations like Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia sequentially suffered the crisis. The main reason for the Korean Financial Crisis is a failure of government's Foreign Exchange Control Law.
As I was born in 1993, I also suffered the Asian Financial Crisis but I cannot remember it. These days, I studied global economics and began to wonder about the real life during the financial crisis. So I asked some questions to my father and heard about the economy crisis.
My father was 31 years old when the financial crisis occurred. He was a teller in Nonghyup bank in Gimpo town. Today Gimpo is a city but that time it was just a little town. The bank was regional branch so there were few people working there. In the city, there were a lot of dislocated workers because the firms also suffered the economy crisis. They had no choice but to downsize the workforce. "Luckily," he continued to say more. "Nonghyup bank in Gimpo branch didn't lay off the employees because there were already a small number of people for the work." So he could maintain his job in the crisis.
Whenever my father turned on a television, it always showed him another bad news about the crisis. People got more debts, lost their jobs, and even killed families and themselves being afraid of the poverty. He grieved for that but he could not feel the crisis by himself because there were no victims of the economy crisis around him. He lived in countryside. In fact he had two jobs – teller and farmer. Since the rural people fed themselves the crisis didn't strike them as extreme. He earned money and got food from the farm which my grandparents owned.
But my father knew that the economy was bad because of the interest rate. Nowadays the interest rate is under 3% but then it was about 18%. Right before the economy crisis, my father bought land to sell it higher for the economic profits. He took out a loan from the bank. No sooner had he purchased the land than the interest rate went up to almost 18%. He barely afforded the interest because it was nearly forty thousand dollars. He had to sell other lands to pay back the debts. It was the tail wagging the dog. He got land for some margins but he rather lost his original land. Moreover the midsize cars slowly disappeared after the economy crisis. He changed his midsize car – Sonata - into smaller one, Pride. Not only him, there were countless small cars on the road. The government promoted people to have small cars not midsize cars by giving them some benefits like lowering the taxes.
One day, he got a chance to be a member of 'Gold-Collection Movement'. He invited some jewelry appraisers. Then he went around the five towns one by one and collected gold from the elders. They gave him wedding jewelry or first-birthday gold rings for babies; people give a gold ring for their babies' first birthday in Korea. And he sent the gold to the Nonghyup headquarters, and then it gave the Gimpo branches money for the people who voluntarily provide the gold to the bank. It was quite good deal because the money they received for the gold was higher than the market price. The government gathered the gold and exported them to other countries.
Beginning of 2000, he felt the economy got better by selling the land he bought. It meant the economy started to work again. And the Gimpo town was chosen as a new city in 2003. He was happy about the news. "The town would develop!" he said. The government gave my family some amounts of compensation money for the lands that my grandfather had.
Even though he didn't get much influence about the Asian Financial Crisis, he knew how the society suffered the nightmare. He said he is much happier now compared to 1997. He has a big house, nice car, and warm family. If he had not experienced the economy crisis, he would not know how valuable current situation is.
Self feedback based on textbook page 165.
ReplyDelete1. It was easy to interview my father since he talked more than my questions. He tried to talk in detail.
2. I think I wrote too general things in the first paragraph. It was boring, so I'm going to delete it.
3. I rather have to make the essay shorter. It's too long.