(사진=알자지라 캡쳐)
아랍권을 대표하는 방송사 알자지라(Al Jazeera)는 지난달 29일 남코리아의 ‘안녕들하십니까?’ 대자보 현상을 보도하며 이는 남코리아사회의 불안과 불만을 알리는 시금석이라고 평했다.
알자지라는 ‘안녕들하십니까?’ 대자보를 처음 붙인 고려대 주현우학생과 중앙대 사회학과 이병훈교수와의 인터뷰를 통해 대자보 현상에 대한 사회적 배경을 설명했다.
중앙대학교 청소노동자들을 위해 대자보를 작성하는 대학생들의 모습으로 시작된 이 방송은 “세계에서 인터넷이 가장 잘 연결된 나라에서 학생들은 고전적 방법을 택하고 있다“며 ”지난 몇주동안 남코리아에서 일어난 믿기 힘든 국가적 현상의 일부”라고 분석했다.
‘안녕들하십니까?’대자보 열풍을 취재한 해리포셋기자는 지난해 12월 주현우씨의 ‘안녕들하십니까?’라는 물음으로 시작해 △사회불평등 △원자력발전 문제 △불법대선 등을 나열하며 대자보 열풍이 확산됐고 아주 많은 사람들이 ‘안녕들하십니까’라는 물음에 답하고 싶어하는 듯했다고 보도했다.
다음은 전문(http://aje.me/1ieZTJi)이다.
South Korea 'poster protests' on the rise
Harry Fawcett, 29 Jan 2014
In the world’s most wired country where social media spread news and comments in nanoseconds, these students are doing it the old fashioned way. Theirs is a specific protest for the better conditions for the contract cleaners at their university. But it’s also part of an unlikely national phenomenon that has spread right across the country in the last few weeks.
It began in December when Ju Hyun-Woo, a business student at Korea University, put up a poster asking a simple question, "How are you all doing?", going on to list a number of national issues from inequality, to nuclear power, to allegations of the Intelligence Service tampered in the last presidential election.
“Messages on SNS can spread quickly but tend to disappear quickly as it doesn’t have physical space and is usually posted anonymously. But I chose to put up a hand-written poster in my school, as it could deliver the writer’s sincerity and feeling quite well.”
The poster that went up here at Korea University was something of an invitation. After all it asked how you are all doing and what’s so intriguing about all this is across the country so many people seem so desperate to give their answers.
The Facebook page was swamped with responses; people writing their own posters complaining about poor job prospects, raising national issues, or regretting their own past political apathy. More than a thousand of such posters went up around the country.
The "how are you all doing" slogan was used in a general strike called at the end of December, in protest to the crackdown on striking rail workers. For those who took part in the anti-dictatorship protests of the 1970’s and the 80’s, in which hand-written posters featured strongly, it all has a familiar ring.
“The message reverberates because it asks 'how are you all doing?' He and his readers all thought they were doing well and want to send their messages of resistance by putting posters. Social indicators such as divorce, suicide, and birth rates are lagging behind economic ones."
In her inauguration eleven months ago, President Park Geun-Hye acknowledged that the country’s extraordinary economic growth hadn’t been accompanied by growth in personal happiness.
A simple written poster has become a touchstone for unease and dissatisfaction in the society. Its author is now collating the responses into a book in an attempt to keep up with the momentum of the movement he started, rather than write its last word.
Harry Forcet, Al Jazeera, Seoul. |
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