Tensions in the Korea Peninsula

It's all over the internet news- there's a war going on in South Korea.

I checked out the ABS-CBN news website, half hoping that they're just rumors (South Korea is one of my favorite places in the world), and because they're rumors, surely they can't be that bad. Surely it's been magnified a thousand times, because that's the way rumors work. Like a worldwide game of Chinese Whispers.

I read the headlines and almost felt my stomach drop from disappointment. So it is true. The headline says, "Rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula: What do these means for the Philippines?" So, what does that meant for the Philippines? At first I thought, 'It doesn't mean anything for the Philippines. The Philippines depends on America. It doesn't have anything to do with South Korea.' I almost immediately realized that I couldn't have been more wrong. Well, of course the Philippines have something to do with South Korea.

Apparently, "North Korea unleashed a barrage of artillery," described by the ABS-CBN news as the "fiercest attack in decades." Korea is one of the Philippines' largest investors, registering over 130 billion pesos from 2004-2009 at the trade department. And, Koreans makes up almost 50% of the tourists that go in the Philippines. Plus, there's a huge number of OFWs working in South Korea, sending remittances in the Philippines to fuel up consumption spending in the country.

So let's start thinking here, shall we? If North Korea continues this war, bombarding places in South Korea with shell bombs, setting buildings on fire and killing marines, South Korea's market would eventually fail. Korean employers would fire their Filipino employees, who, in turn, couldn't send remittances to the country. OFWs would go back to the country, Korean tourists would stop going to the Philippines for holidays, and the government wouldn't be able to cover up expenses. Therefore, the government would (surprise) borrow from another country (possibly America), whose money, let's face it, we wouldn't be able to pay back.

But then again, South Korea has quite a lot of investments. If South Korea's market collapsed, there's a good chance that a few other countries will collapse with it. And if that happened, other countries that have the few other countries that have South Korea would fail as well. Just thinking about it makes my head swirl.


OPINION:

I realize now that we are all like grass. We have one root, that branches to other different roots, that branches to us. We're INTERCONNECTED. Everything we do have consequences for other people, whether we know it or not. Unlike grass, though, we have feelings; we think. We feel the pain of others. This is exampled by the relationship South Korea has to Philippines, as well as a country to another country. There's a saying that ''one man's pain is another man's pleasure.'' I beg to differ. In a world where a man depends on his family that depends on their community that depends on it's town that depends on it's country that depends to the rest of the world, it's one man's pain is another man's pain.




What do these means for the Philippines?