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The order and public manners displayed by citizens cheering in the streets during the World Cup match between Korea and the United States were moving. That 400,000 people gathered in the Gwanghwamun and City Hall area of Seoul to a total of one million people in close to 70 locations around the country in complete safety and relative cleanliness is a testimony to our mature civic consciousness, and it was an achievement to show this to the world.
It was nice enough to see people not using their umbrellas so that others could see in the heavy rain, but it was also a beautiful sight indeed to see young people cleaning up the streets while being rained upon. And amidst it all there were no unfortunate incidents, and concerns about anti-American rallies turned out to have been unfounded.
It is particularly something to be proud of because the order and consideration for others did not suddenly happen in response to direction from authority, but spontaneously and voluntarily. Korean's are criticized for maintaining not even the bare minimum of public order, but the self-control and giving attitude shown between Gwanghwamun and City Hall Plaza was nothing short of the standards in advanced countries. When you have no trash where a million people came and went, and when you see people in stadium seats that were just hot with excitement, you see hope for Korea's future.
It has been a new discovery to see Korean's energy and latent capabilities explode like an volcano no longer dormant, but it was also a valuable lesson to see order in public plazas and the arrival of a culture of public celebration that everyone can enjoy. Foreign news media that worried about chaos and confusion if crowds gathered are praising the Korean public for what they saw, and it speaks of our potential. Lately many have worried about our identity and a certain warlike attitude in the air, but through the World Cup we find a new kind of self-respect and a strong, but controlled passion that is a whole different kind of victory. Passion and order like this have to continue well after the World Cup is over.
June 12, 2002
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