Not only a japanese phenomenom- Hikikomori!

Hey guys!

As some of you may know, it´s my birthday this Sunday and I am turning 19. I know that 19 years isn´t that old but today I had to sincerely think about my current living situation.
At the Moment I am living together with my mother and my sister in our house. Since I had the opportunity to study in my hometown, I don´t know if it would be smart to pay Money just to live apart from my Family. I think that I still have time to do that and I am sure there will come a time when I can´t stand living with my family anymore. Until this happens I will probably stay at home in my comfy room.

Although I am quite happy with my decision, I suddenly  had to think about a phenomenon which is very well known all over the world. This phenomenon has its´origin in Japan and is called "Hikkikomori".  In Italy it is called "Mammoni". These Terms refer to young adults from 18 to 35 years, which still live at home with their parents. These young adults don´t need to do homework, wash their clothes or make food for themselves.

I am mostly familiar with the Japanese theory of "Hikkikomori" because I worked on that topic before and I was left speechless after I got to know all the Facts.
The Japanese theory goes back to 1950 caused by the World War II. The term "Hikkikomori" refers to teenagers and adults that stay at home nstead of going to School or working.

Japan is the perfect example for a society which is oriented on hard work and perfect education. After some time the teenagers broke down because of the pressure they are under.After the mental-brekdown they went trough, they stay locked up in their room and stop speaking at all. They occupy themselves with video games or Mangas and often they find their own families through games or chat rooms.
The reasons for the behaviour of the adolescents are too much social pressure which they experience through their parents, teachers and friends. Today you need to study at one of the best universities. Otherwise you won´t be able to find a good job. The cause for this problem is the economic crisis we are still experiencing.

Altough this psychological illnes has been acknowledged for a long time but still most parents ignore their childrens´problems. There are two therapies from which you can choose nowadays. The first one is, in my opinion, mostly for ignorant parents. The "Hikkikomori" will be treated with pills to ease their mental Problems without any kind of psychotherapy.
The second  possible therapy works with group therapy. That means that the patient will be treated in an unknown environment, together with other patients which are alreay healed. Additionaly, they become medicine and attend psychotherapy.

I hope none of you will experience similiar probems in the furture. I, for my part, think it is horrible that those People can´t even rely on their parents. These people are mentally ill and need all the help they can possibly get.

I hope you stay healthy and happy :)
Yours Sabi!!!

BBC lead students into a trap in North Korea!

Matching to my last post, I came across this very interesting article about a travel to North Korea. As most of you may know, it is extremely dangerous for journalists to travel to North Korea, because they will have to face sanctions and prohibitions to ever travel to North Korea again.
For this reason BBC used a group of students from a London School of Economics to cover their reporter. In fact, the reporter went to North Korea for a programme which will be aired on the 15th of April.

BBC knew that the students of this group can get involved in this case, due to the assumption that they apparently knew what the purpose of the travel for the reporter was. Actually, the members of the school weren´t fully notified that the BBC used this trip to cover their filming for a Panorama programme with the name "North Korea Undercover".

After both the School and the students commented on the whole situation publicly, BBC decided to release a statement in which they said that “the group was deliberately misled as to the involvement of the BBC in the visit. The line used was that “a journalist” would join the visit."

After BBC admitted that they wronged the students, the school ended the whole situation with one last statement: "What the BBC did was reckless and ethically reprehensible and I am just glad we are not facing a situation where our students are being detained in North Korea."


 

For me, the behaviour of BBC was incomprehensible, because I can´t understand how they can use people like this just to produce a programme. I don´t even want to think about, what I would have done in this situation. I am also happy that nothing happened but this article seriously shocked me.






for further information read the Article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9992716/BBC-accused-of-putting-students-at-risk-after-journalists-infiltrate-university-trip-to-North-Korea.html 

How dangerous is North Korea really?!

Hey guys!

Some of you may already know that I am especially interested in Asian cultures and one of the, for me, most exciting countries is South Korea. Both the Korean lifestyle and the culture are completely different from European cultures. Due to my interests in various aspects of this country, I decided to travel to the capital of South Korea - Soul - during this summer.

Unfortunately, like most of you already know, North Korea declared war against South Korea and the USA.  Kim Jong- un, the North-Korean dictator told tourists and any other non-Korean persons to leave the country immediately, which - to be honest - does not sound too nice. 

Since I really want to travel there and many people told me that it would be too dangerous, I tried to inform myself better through various media. I don`t if any of you are also interested in what is going between Korea, China and the USA but I decided to provide some information for you.

In fact, the troubles  between the South and the North of Korea existed since the Korean war and never died down. The North got Support from China, while the South got acknowledged by the western world and became as important in terms of economy and technology as Japan. From then on the North always threatened the South and the citizens learned to live with the threats.
For this reason the current Situation isn`t something new for the people there.

On Youtube I watched a Video in which an expert evaluates the Situation:

for me it sounded like Kim Jong- un is a little Boy who wants to Show his toys. Of course, he can become dangerous for other countries but he sincerely has to think about whether he wants to Keep China´s Support or if they really want to challenge the USA and South Korea.

I, at least, am sleeping a bit securer, because I am quite sure that this very young and inexperienced man won´t attack any other country. Instead, I think, that he just wants everybody to know that he exists and "can" do anything he wants.

With this I want to say bye for today and I hope I could gie´ve you a brief overview.
Bye!