Thank God Malaysia is not Korea?

The grass is greener where we water them. Let’s water the grass in Malaysia. 

Anas Zubedy 

My recent article “Why it is kinda stupid to compare Malaysia with Korea” attracted many interesting reactions. There are many Malaysians who have lost our ability to think straight as a result of extreme partisanship and the politics of hate.

This easy and direct article has a simple purpose; to help us Malaysians learn a simple fact. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I am not interested in making South Korea look bad. As stressed in the earlier article, each nation has their unique challenges and must rise to the occasion.

Here are some hard facts from polls done in South Korea.

Korea the OECD’s Most Unhappy Nation

Considering the state of the economy and how much Koreans work, the results of this poll are not surprising:

However, the country ranked at the bottom in terms of life satisfaction. In a survey of career interest, pride and annual leave among 1,000 people aged 15 or older in each member state in 2008, Korea finished 24th with 23.1 out of 100 points, much lower than the average of 54.3 points.

In a negative index survey of pain, hypochondria, and sadness the same year, the country averaged 61.5 points, far above the average of 35.6.

As of 2007, a Korean worked 2,316 hours, the longest among member states and 548 hours more than the average of 1,768. In terms of eight-hour work days, this means that Koreans worked 69 days more than their counterparts. The Dutch worked the shortest hours with 1,392. The Japanese (1,785 hours) and Americans (1,794 hours) also worked fewer hours.