Most of us in Korea remember the Sewol ferry sinking on April 16 last year as if it had happened only yesterday. Many of us remember where we were when we first saw regular television programming interrupted for breaking news. We remember thinking that the passengers would probably be rescued as the ferry lay on its side. What weighs most heavily on our collective memory today, as we mark the first anniversary of that tragedy, is that more than 300 perished instead.

In the days and weeks that followed, the country was united in its justifiable wrath: wrath at the shipping company that ignored safety measures in its greed for money, wrath at the Coast Guard who failed to rescue the passengers, wrath at the collusion between businesses and bureaucrats that allowed the aged and dangerous vessel to set sail, and wrath at the government and officials for the inept handling of the crisis and its aftermath. Koreans vowed that such a senseless loss of life should never again take place. President Park Geun-hye called for a complete reform of the country, pledging that Korea post-Sewol would be radically different from the Korea before it.

A year after the tragedy that plunged the country into despair and remorse, how different are we today? What has changed? Are we any safer? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are largely negative. A year after the tragedy that the optimists among us hoped would be a turning point for Korea, there have been few meaningful changes for the better, much less an overhaul of the country.

How are we to feel safer when we read news reports of a high-speed train operating with its faulty washer liquid cap duct taped in place? Industrial accidents continue to happen, toxic chemical leaks at plants still occur, sink holes suddenly appear on major thoroughfares, and nearly 106 cars collided on a highway bridge in foggy conditions, killing two people. These are but a few incidents that come to mind when one thinks about the year since the Sewol ferry sank, overloaded, ballast water insufficient, and without the captain at the wheel.

The Sewol special law was finally passed in November, but the special committee charged with investigating the disaster has yet to start work as the Sewol ferry victims’ families reject the government’s Sewol special law enforcement ordinance. Even the ruling Saenuri Party has found the enforcement ordinance wanting and called for its revision.

Following earlier reluctance to salvage the ferry ― the cost and the risks involved did not justify it, it was argued ― the government now appears to be close to making the decision to pull it from the water.

Indeed, for the families of the victims, there has been no closure to the tragedy.

Yet, we are urged move on, told to try to forget the incident. The Sewol ferry sinking that put the entire country in a prolonged period of mourning was blamed for the slow economy, and we were told that we needed to snap out of our collective grief.

Park leaves on a 12-day tour of South America Thursday, after attending a Sewol-related ceremony in the morning. Yes, it may be that departing on the anniversary of the tragic day could not have been avoided. But it is hoped that at whichever Sewol ceremony Park does attend, she will ask the nation to remember the incident always, so that it will serve as a reminder for us to do better. We should have the Sewol tragedy seared into our collective memory.