English speakers have a humorous warning for those who love donuts, candy, and various other sweets: “A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”

The maxim serves as a reminder to all those with a sweet tooth that the pleasure of a donut is evanescent, but its effect on one’s waistline will be long lasting.

In Korea, we have a similar proverb that says, “It may be sweet on the mouth, but bitter in your stomach.” Another maxim claims, “All good medicines are bitter on the mouth.” These maxims warn us not to seek instantaneous, ephemeral pleasures, but to take a long-term perspective instead. Another Korean proverb appropriately tells us, “If you seek immediate profits only, you will end up losing many precious things.”

Regrettably, the Korean people do not seem to listen to their maxims and seek instant pleasures and profits instead. For example, many Koreans demand an expensive social welfare program. They do not care where the money comes from; they just want sweet fruits. In order to harvest fruits, however, you must plant a tree first, and take time to nurture it. Yet few people seem to be interested in this. In order to mobilize quick money for social welfare, the government will end up cutting budgets in other areas such as defense, diplomacy or cultural programs. In the long run, spending too much money on social welfare may seriously cripple economic growth and prosperity.

Similarly, many Koreans are hastily calling for government institutions to be moved to smaller cities and towns. The policy was first implemented by the Roh Moo-hyun administration under the excuse of balanced development of the nation. In fact, however, people knew it was an electoral ploy that aimed to win votes from provincial cities. At first, the policy may be sweet because it boosts the local economy. In the long run, however, we will have to live with the extreme inefficiency of running the nation with departments and institutions scattered all over the country.

In the future, many government officials will have to make frequent trips back to Seoul for conferences and meetings. And sadly, families will be separated, since most people will want to leave their children in Seoul. On Saturdays, there will be an exodus of government officials who will go back to Seoul to unite with their families. On Sunday, there will be an exodus from the capital, as officials return to their various outposts.

Perhaps it would have been much better if we had spent the astronomical amount of money poured into the project to boost the local economies in the provinces. With such funding, small cities and towns could have built factories and companies, and created jobs for local people. With the money, they could have also significantly upgraded their local universities. Unfortunately, however, such alternatives were not considered. The problem is that most populist campaigns are sweet on the mouth, but bitter in the stomach and, ultimately, bad for the nation’s health.

Most Koreans also enormously like the idea of “economic democracy.” It is undeniable that Korean society needs equal distribution of wealth. Nevertheless, pushing the idea too far when our income per person is only $23,000 may result in “equal poverty,” especially when the global economy is struggling. Yet we Koreans desperately want to savor the sweet taste of equal distribution of wealth. Some radicals even seem to admire the Communist system of government-controlled wealth and a classless society. But they only see the sugarcoated theory of Communism and fail to see that privileged people, called “party members,” exist in Communist countries as well. Radicals do not seem to realize that in Communist countries, there may be no “class” but there is “hierarchy.” Yet people are deceived by the sugarcoated ideology that is sweet on the mouth, but bitter in the guts.

Generally speaking, Koreans are known to be diligent and energetic, but impatient and impulsive. Thus Koreans are very good at pursuing and accomplishing conspicuous and tangible projects, rather than setting up long-term goals that are uncertain and nebulous. Take hallyu for example, financial support is poured into conspicuous areas such as Korean cuisine, Korean sports or Korean film, but not time-consuming areas such as Korean literature, that must be translated into 30 languages to be disseminated. We always want to see immediate outcomes and swift results. That is why we are reluctant to invest money on the translation of Korea literature, even though we constantly wish for a Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

If we like sweet things excessively, we will eventually suffer from not only cavities, but also from diabetes, high-blood pressure and obesity. Beware: A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips! 

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He can be reached at sukim@snu.ac.kr. ― Ed.