Ignorance over things that matter

I live and work in Seoul, South Korea. If I have to be honest ... I don't really like it here but the money is good ... We have set certain financial goals for ourselves and by keeping those goals in mind, Korea seems a little more baerable.

There are still some things about the Korean culture and the Korean people that I really find hard to swallow. The fact that they somehow believe that they are a species all on their own, untouchable by any foreign entities is probably the thing that bugs me the most.

My most recent experience has been this:

I am in the process of changing jobs and my new employer sent me a medical form I had to complete as part of the visa application process. I was dumb struck by the following question on the form :

9. ARE YOU OR WERE YOU HIV (AIDS) POSITIVE?

At first I thought that maybe it was just a language thing ... and that they didn't really believe that anybody could actually "have been (WERE) " HIV positive. I decided to ask my head teacher at school (whom I've always cosidered a bit more open minded and informed than the rest of the unwashed masses). My worst fears were confirmed. She also believed that HIV can be cured and even explained to me that it depends how you contract it. "If you get it through blood transfusion for example, it is quite curable." OMG!!!! Have I died and gone to kimchi hell?

After I explained to her that HIV/AIDS is in fact not a curable desease and that it is in fact killing millions of people over the world, she apologized and explained that HIV isn't really common in Korea and that that is why they don't really know all the facts.

Now I know for a fact that HIV is a much bigger threat in Korea than they can ever realize, but because they still believe that this is a foreign virus that cannot be contracted by Koreans they still choose to look the other way.

And I am left to wonder : Is there life after kimchi?