Personal Journal Entry 4

Noblesse Oblige



Noblesse oblige means moral responsibilities required for those with wealth and social status. As far as I know, this word was introduced to our country less than 10 years ago. Regrettably it has become well-known to Koreans because many important political and economic figures have been found out morally corrupted, not because they have shown noble and respectable behaviors.



We would take it for granted that rich people are dishonest because, we believe, they could make much money only through unfair ways. In addition to that, we’ve seen and heard many episodes that unprivileged people are harassed by their landlords, creditors or vicious entrepreneurs. Therefore, we would subconsciously suppose rich people are always greedy and poor people are sacrificed by them.



In reality, we witness many politicians and entrepreneurs are related to corruption scandals, put to prison and bailed out with a mask on their paled face in a few months. All these things make normal citizens smile in bitterness. Last year, the incident of the CEO of Hanwha was a big issue in this country, but he also followed the same track above. Now he will be resting at his house, thinking that he was extremely unlucky. I am sure that those kinds of abuses toward powerless people by powerful and rich people must have happened like every day, but they are all covered by money and power. Nonetheless, we can’t ask them to do their moral responsibilities, because whether they’ll fulfill them or not entirely depends on their will.



In this situation I’ve read a heartwarming interview with Dr. Myung-Keun Song. He is one of the top cardiologists in the world. In 2002 he decided to donate all his 20 million-dollar-fortune after his death, which keeps increasing now because he invented an artificial heart valve device and is earning loyalties from it every day. He’s also going to inherit almost nothing to his 2 sons. Now, he is more famous for a person representing nobles oblige rather than a cardiologist. Although he regrets having his decision publicized, because he is busy with rejecting too many interview requests, he does not regret making the decision itself.



There was another noble donation story beside the interview. An anonymous old woman donated a million dollar for Yonsei University. She just said that she simply wanted to help needy students because she couldn’t educate her own children due to poverty.



I feel that whether we are rich or poor, we all have responsibilities to help others in want. It doesn’t matter if you can do it by financial support or a little spare of time and efforts. In fact, we have not been educated that all of us are obliged to serve for others around us, and make excuses, saying we are too busy to take care of others. The important thing is all the participants in this society recognize the responsibilities and begin with small steps one by one.

I also read the news article about Dr. Song.
As he said too much money can spoil children, which I absolutely agree.
He emphasized the importance of simple life as well. I was amazed to see how well he manages his life.
Your journal warms my heart and makes me think how I should live.
Thanks for bringing up the topic.

The thing is that we have to cultivate the mood to easily danate money. In Korea, if someone wants to donate amount of money, especially people who have a lot of money, most of people living in our society would be against them. The people think that they want to show off that I have much money. That is why they don't want to be on the media like TV, newspaper. We only can see the poor people who donated amount of money.

I hope that we can see all the people who danate money for good things in society.


Best wishes,


Kanghoon