On Errands and Yellow Dust

I just came back from my usual weekly errands to the grocery store (that included a little shopping for clothes this time around). I was already by our apartment door removing the laces in my shoes when my housemates called out from the living room and asked if I were okay. It sounded not like how they would normally welcome me upon getting home. It was more like telling me that something catastrophic just happened outside. I then of course said I was fine and worriedly thought if I had just been numb for the nth time with what’s going on around. Then they told me it’s because of the yellow dust (황사, hwang-sa), and it would’ve been safer had I stayed home. Okay, fine. So I didn't catch today's news before going out of the house. I was mostly indoors (inside a grocery store and the mall) so I didn't really get to see the yellowish Seoul that was.

Reports have it that the worst-recorded sandstorm hit South Korea today, which prompted government officials to send out a rare, level-5 warning to the country. They usually issue such warning when the dust level has reached more than 800 micrograms per cubic meter in more than two hours.

Yellow dust is that infamous Chinese-made powder blown eastward to countries like Korea, Japan, and sometimes even far as the United States. It is said to have been brought about by the industrialization of mighty China, as the dust storm that usually occurs in the spring season carries industry pollutants that poses eye and respiratory problems. This is of course apart from apparent visibility impairments. If you google on “yellow dust” for images, you’ll actually get pictures seemingly captured on sepia mode. The yellow dust also damages agriculture and causes malfunctions in industrial equipment.

Manifestations of environmental degradation have never been this successively varied. I mean, there have been typhoons and floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. And now, we have yellow dust. While this is not believed to be 100% fatal, it surely has adverse effects in the long-run, more importantly on the health of the people. This is one issue that should be worked on together by China, Korea, and Japan. Okay, so I immediately feel those brows rising from equally egocentric Korea and Japan, putting all the blame on China. But really, if these three would just recognize how interdependent they are and how strong they would become as the “East Asian” region, then I wouldn’t have problems telling a Japanese, Korean, and Chinese apart from one another. I could just say, "Oh, must be East Asian".

These countries have surely grown economically and it's okay to be solely proud of that to some extent (I think), but they need to outgrow on some seemingly egoistic cultural preferences and work on at least recognizing that they have neighboring countries whom the rest of the world thinks look exactly just like them.