“When the motorcycles come up on the sidewalks and speed past, it’s really frightening. Please do something to stop this.” That was only one of the many comments from foreigners living in the Korean capital at Wednesday’s Seoul Town Meeting. The meeting, now in its sixth year, is arranged by the Foreign Investment Advisory Council together with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and was attended by 150 people this year.

Other comments covered everything from metaphysics to garbage disposal. “It seems Seoul has no identity. What efforts are you taking to compete with other world-class cities?” “Garbage bags are too expensive,” “In some places in Itaewon there are too many street stalls and it makes walking difficult,” “There should be more exclusively pedestrian areas.” “In an emergency situation what are foreigners living here supposed to do?” “Are you just going to leave the beggars and the homeless in the subway stations like that?” “Foreigners have no road to participate in Seoul’s policy making process.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )