Hurry Up!

I remember the first time I came to Korea. Buildings went up so quick here and it always made me wonder how easily and quickly they were built. One day a building would be demolished, the next week a new building would be constructed in the same place. It's always a race against time here in Korea. The expression 'Ballee ballee' (Hurry, hurry) is way overused. 'Hurry up and eat', 'Hurry up and come here', 'Please, give it to me as quickly as possible', are some commonly used expressions everywhere you go.

After seeing a recent documentary on the issue of building safety in Korea, I was shocked at some of the ways Construction CEOs and Government officials almost got away with making a quick buck. A lot of construction companies purposely stop a job, take all their employees off site and demand MUCH more money to complete the project. Sometimes corners are cut and less products are used as well. This was ofcourse a much bigger problem in the late 1980s and even resulted in some major tragedies. This building below was the Sampoong Shopping Center and it crashed down because of a lot of engineering flaws. I saw the documentary on National Geographic and I recommend anyone living in Korea to look it up on the website and search for Seoul Tragedies, Sampoong Superstore.