No safe place

Just when I finished posting something about the rarity of heinous crimes here in Korea, I found this, and this.
I thought I live in a safe place. It maybe my naivete but my thought process on these things comes from what I've experienced so far. I have lived here for almost 9 years now and I am just now realizing the extent of evil here.

I've always complained about the unfair treatment of women, not just here but around the world. I knew some women who came here the same way as the Vietnamese girl in the news. They (more than one girl) met them in a hotel as arranged by the matchmaker. The man picks his type based on his preference. Like picking an apple on a fruit stand. Girls line up, man OKs, it's all set after that. Most women I've met just wanted to leave the Philippines hoping they'll find something better here. They thought since the men pay the agency to be with them, they must be special. Korean men's thought process is different ( as reported by a women's group here in Seoul), they're paying for a commodity so they can do whatever they want. It's just a pity when something like this ends with death.

There are lots of missing children here. You see photos of them everywhere. It was always thought that when a child goes missing here, especially if they're too young, they're placed at adoption homes. These homes don't report the name or where they found the child in order to receive more funds from the government. Next thing you know they're adopted by couples abroad. Google adoption and Korea and you'll find 336,000 articles about it.
Anyways, back to the missing child. Her death is a tragedy and the way she died was just barbaric. A kidnapper/murderer out on the street is just frightening.
I have kids and seeing this news makes me worry about my children more every time I send them alone to school.

Half Justice

Twelve years for murder? The guy should be jailed for life. He treated the woman as his commodity just because he paid money to the matchmaking company. This occurrence happens alot, just under-reported mainly because they happen in rural areas and in most cases, because of the language barrier.
There was once a Filipina in my area who jumped from an apartment building and died. The report said it was suicide. Her body showed signs of physical abuse. Apparently she suffered from domestic violence for a long period of time. The police couldnt do anything about it because it was a "family matter".

Murder Suicide

The recent murder/suicide involving a once famous baseball player here is on every news channel. Heinous crimes are rare here in Korea. I've read some recently like the one involving the disappearance of women; considered heinous because the killer/suspect has not been apprehended yet despite years of police work.
Anyways, back to the first topic.. there's a lot of speculations on why the crime took place. Most news channels are investigating the financial side of it. What's interesting to me is the reaction of the Korean people as a whole.
A comparison would be helpful to understand what I'm saying here:
I watch TV Patrol on the web everyday. And I am amazed at the contents. People killing people for no apparent reason, deaths caused by accidents and the never-ending idiocy in the Philippine government. Korean news consists mostly of government issues mostly bribery scandals. Then there's weather, traffic/accident, more economic issues, education; like what programs would be more beneficial etc. I've often asked why there are no crimes (even petty ones) reported. The answer given was that even if there were crimes committed, most never make it to the evening news. It's like crimes are just petty and thus filtered or just that people are more interested in the nations economy.
So when a once famous baseball player killed 4 women (mother and 3 daughters) and then commit suicide later when the police identified him as the suspect, the news/documentary channels are on their third day trying to analyze what went wrong. Most reactions I saw/heard were more of shock than disgust. One reaction that I heard more than once was "he killed for money?" implying that 170 million won (roughly 150 thousand dollars) isn't a reason for murder.
Pinoys see murder/death on the news and they shrug it off. Happens everyday, that is. We're still disgusted by most of it but unlike Koreans (shock and disgust) our reactions are that of someone who are predisposed to seeing it on the news everyday.