Balloon is not a Time Machine

When I was sitting in my favorite café with two of my house dance mates, writing a poem referred to <In the Middle of Life> by Luise Rinser about filling my life with things I would experience only once, I could never have imagined that five years later I would be on an island among the archipelagos in the south of Finland, eating peas and berries and playing Yatzy.

If you find yourself somewhere completely unexpected, somewhere you never imagined you would be, you might think, "Where am I? Who am I?". Becoming conscious of where you stand can sometimes make you acutely conscious of your existence as a living being. Oh, I am breathing on the other side of the earth now.

This trip gave me not only a strange feeling about 'where I am physically', but also about 'where I am on the axis of time'. That feeling came when I met my friends' parents. 

I still don't fully understand why it felt extra special to meet my Finnish friends' parents. Maybe it was because, unlike other times, I was already in such a different environment, and I had only ever imagined Finland as the setting for my favorite movie. It was a real pleasure to meet them, and great fun to notice the traits they shared with my friends. Listening to their stories about when they were young and what they felt from life experiences was also deeply meaningful.

A void between my generation and my parents' generation became vividly clear to me. Whenever I met people abroad who often spoke about their parents, how well-educated they were, and what they had experienced in life, I would just think to myself, Well, so what? Mine are cute and funny. 

But this time was different. I had never heard any stories about my friends' parents from them before. I met them as individuals, as members of the older generation, and as parents speaking to me in person. As I listened to their life stories, I suddenly realised -  wow, Korea has actually really developed so rapidly - because I felt that their grandparents' generation seemed more similar to my parents' generation. Never been abroad, had little interaction with foreigners, and rarely spoke English, and so on. 

I had known this in theory, but this time I could truly feel it on my skin. And I began to feel deeply appreciative of my parents for allowing me to meet these girls, these people, and this world. 

Here, I thought about another part of the world. Somewhere like the space between my parents' generation and mine, staying in a first-industrial era space and being surrounded by a fourth-industrial era space.

The world is, of course, different for everyone. How we encounter, recognise, and interpret it varies from person to person. But to some degree, there is an objective sense of relativity. Different speeds, different paths. This sense of relativity pushed people and societies to align themselves with a single standard, one set by the first runner. So, obviously, there is a tension. 

This in-between space has gravity from both the ceiling and the ground. They should rise because the world is developing, but they should also stay at ground level because the world needs someone to take charge of ground-level jobs. 

I have read the book <Kicking Away the Ladder> authored by Ha-Joon Chang, talking about how developed countries have advanced in ways that benefit themselves through protectionism, and have kept developing countries from following the same path, forcing them to open the doors for their own advantage. In a globalised world, every door is open, and competition has already become unfair. So, a timeline of the country with properly divided steps called generations cannot be created at their own speed and path; instead, the axis of time is cut at certain points, and one block becomes isolated almost forever. 

Therefore, for them, two options remain: either creating a bridge with a hard push and living with deep scars, or staying on one block and building their own timeline from there. 

The idea of catch-up industrialisation has been discussed among scholars, focusing on how the developing countries can achieve development. Keun Lee, an economics professor at Seoul National University, wrote a book suggesting that 'when the ladder from developing to developed countries is kicked away, latecomers can still catch up with their forerunners by taking detours (e.g., capability building) and flying on a balloon, meaning leapfrogging out of windows of opportunity' 

It would be really hard not to see the surrounding thick and long time-sticks from other countries, but the important thing is that a balloon cannot be a time machine. Development is not an instant mac and cheese.  If it is too quick, it must be unhealthy. Sorry to say that, but look at the big conflicts among the people in Korea. I am so proud of being Korean, but it is hard to deny that rapid economic growth has brought so many troubles. 

Some countries simply let a transnational company settle in so that it can hire a large number of people, instantly boosting the employment rate. Other countries rely on debt from abroad to establish infrastructure quickly. It may be inevitable and could even be considered a kind of strategy, but being mindful that nothing can be built at once, or in a fraction of a second, is of the utmost importance. Development may be similar to how a person's life and achievements unfold. If this principle is ignored, some will find themselves torn between moving forward and staying in the same place. 

We are now seeing many different timelines unfolding along different paths in the world. Comparisons will follow, but diversity is beautiful. It will also be important to let them be themselves.

Thanks to Fanny, Elias, and Sini for inviting Finland, and Julie, always the best company:)