April 14th, 2011 Part2 @Seoul
The office of The Big Issue Korea (TBIK) is surrounded by fruit market and full of energy even late at night.
A few years ago, however, a shopping mall was built, called Times Square within 10-minuit walk.
Kim Young Hwan, working at the sales and marketing division of TBIK says, the building looks like a monster attacking old ones from behind. He also mentioned that there was one of the biggest slums in Seoul right behind the “Gozilla”.
Crossing a street from Times Square, where everything is perfectly clean, the view was totally different. Years-old vending machines, destroying roofs, mid-aged guys gathering and chatiing on the street…imperfect and unclean, but full of living energy at the same time. You can’t leave there without thinking about sweats, tears, joy and sorrow.
Can’t help realizing how fake the Time Square is when I got back there.
On the way back to the office, I asked Young Hwan, why he decided working at TBIK. Majored in social-welfare, he had been doubting the policy in his country, where government put profit and economic growth before social-welfare. “I have wanted to change their way of thinking,” he said. He met TBIK on the way to his goal.
The dream of his is becoming a social entrepreneur. Witnessing his talking with vendors joyfully, I already saw one.