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| Black kite / gettyimagesbank |
Korean economy should take cue from 'black kite'
By Park Hyong-ki
Once a black kite, a bird of prey, reaches an old age, its wings, beak and toes become weak, useless and ineffective.
So it has to decide ― will it continue to fly tired, old and unable to catch his prey until its death? Or, will it restart by completely abandoning its old self?
If it chooses the latter, it must go through 130 days of pain of pulling out every single feather and toenail to grow them back anew. It also has to sharpen its beak against a rough, hard rock, according to a fable.
The process is intolerable and insufferable. Just imagine pulling out your fingernails.
To the bird of prey, 130 days may seem like 130 years.
But the black kite has no other option, if it wants to renew and transform itself to head for the next stage of life.
After that period, the kite is no longer the raptor it used to be, but a totally different one that can fly faster, higher and stronger with sharper senses.
Our economy ― old, tired and rusty ― is at this critical point such as the kite faces when reaching that moment in life.
Which path will it decide on? Will it conform to the ways and industries it has been used to? Or restart and refresh through complete abandonment to its old self?
Our economy and society shout and cry for transformation, while seemingly trying to avoid the risk, pain and hardship ahead.
This country may be one of the world's fastest adopters of technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.
But transformation and adoption are totally different.
One's painful and the other is painless. One economically involves a really hard landing, and the other a soft landing.
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C.S. Lewis, a renowned British writer, English literature scholar and theologian, described transformation as not a horse that gets to run faster and jump higher, but a "horse that gets wings and flies."
And that horse will inevitably face risk and pain to gain those wings in transformation, he said.
Lewis is known for his books "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Mere Christianity," and was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the famous author of "The Lord of the Rings."
Transformation is a biblical term.
The apostle Paul has used this word many times. He wrote in his Letter to the Romans in the Bible's New Testament do not conform to the past, but transform oneself through the belief in the savior Jesus Christ.
One that seeks transformation and redemption will have to go on the path of pain.
And the economic concept of innovation is based on this belief.
It is the new beginning at the end of one's old self.
The Korean economy will have to go through this stage as did the black kite and the horse.
