BBC 방송. 박카스 아줌마 집중 조명(원문 첨부)

BBC 방송. 박카스 아줌마 집중 조명

이성훈

파리 특파원

E-mail : inout@chosun.com

편집부·사회부·스포츠부 등을 거쳤으며, 산업·경제 관련 취재를 ..

편집부·사회부·스포츠부 등을 거쳤으며, 산업·경제 관련 취재를 한 시간이 많았다. 2011년 말부터 파리특파원으로 일하고 있다. 유럽 각국을 취재하면서 국가의 수준은 결국 국민이 결정한다는 걸 실감하는 중이다. 다른 사람의 이야기를 잘 들어주는 편이다.

서울대 정치학과 졸업

2001년 조선일보 입사

 

입력 : 2014.06.10 15:05 | 수정 : 2014.06.10 15:09

 

BBC 방송 “돈 없는 한국 할머니들, 결국 몸까지 팔아”

“저축한 돈도, 실질적인 연금도, 의지할 가족도 없다. 그들은 자신의 땅에서 눈에 보이지 않는 이방인이 되었다.”
영국 공영방송 BBC가 9일 인터넷판 뉴스에서 ‘성을 파는 한국의 할머니들’이라는 제목으로 일명 ‘박카스 아줌마’의 삶을 보도했다.

‘박카스 아줌마’는 노인을 대상으로 음료수와 함께 성(性)을 파는 여성을 이르는 말이다.

방송은 서울 종로3가 지하철역에서 계단에서 자양강장제를 팔고 있던 김 할머니(71)를 통해 한국의 노인 빈곤 문제를 다루었다. 그 근방에서 자양강장제를 파는 여성은 400여명. 음료수만 팔면 하루에 겨우 5000원을 번다. 김 할머니는 “일부 사람들은 자양강장제 이외에 다른 것도 판다”며 “나에게도 남자들이 다가와 (성매매를) 제안하지만 난 늘 거부한다”고 말했다.

 

 

BBC 방송은 종묘공원이 노인들의 은밀한 성매매 장소가 되고 있다고 보도했다. 이곳에서 만난 김모(81) 할아버지는 “이곳에서 친구들과 술 한잔을 하고, 여자 친구도 찾을 수 있다. 그들과 잠자리를 하는데 2만~3만원이 들지만, 안면이 있으면 깎아주기도 한다”고 말했다. 또 다른 남성은 “술을 마시고 돈을 슬며시 주면 일이 시작된다”며 “남자들은 나이가 들었든 아니든, 성적 매력이 있든 없든 여성과 관계를 갖고 싶어한다”고 말했다.

BBC 방송은 노인 빈곤과 성매매가 한국 사회의 변화에 따른 현상이라고 진단하며 “한국의 노인들이 경제 성공의 희생양”이라고 보도했다. 한국의 노년 세대는 열심히 일해 경제 기적을 이룩하고, 다음 세대를 위해 아낌없이 투자했다. “유교 사회에서 성공한 자녀가 최고의 노후 연금이었다”는 것이다.
하지만 치열한 경쟁 사회로 변해버린 한국에서 자식들은 부모 세대를 부양할 능력이 부족하다. 김 할머니는 “자식에게 의지하는 사람은 바보다. 우리 세대는 부모 말을 잘 따랐지만, 지금은 교육을 받았다며 우리 말을 듣지 않는다”고 말했다. 또 다른 여성은 “돈도 없고, 자녀도 도와주지도 않는다. 아이들도 자기들 노년을 대비해야 한다”고 말했다.

BBC 방송은 기사에 한국의 최신 휴대전화 광고판 앞을 지나는 노인의 사진을 게재했다. 첨단 제품을 만들어 경제적 성공을 거두었지만, 정작 노인의 빈곤 문제는 해결하지 못하는 한국 사회의 현실을 보여주는 장면으로 이 사진을 선택한 것으로 보인다.

BBC 방송은 “한국 노인들에게 음식은 비싸고, 성은 싸다. 어떤 값을 치르더라도 인간의 온기를 느끼기는 쉽지 않다”고 보도했다.

[출처] 본 기사는 프리미엄조선에서 작성된 기사 입니다

 

 

 

(원문)

 

 

The Korean grandmothers who sell sex

 

9 June 2014 Last updated at 23:06 , BBC

 

By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Seoul

 

Continue reading the main story

 

Koreans could once be sure that their children would look after them in their old age, but no longer - many of those who worked hard to transform the country's economy find the next generation has other spending priorities. As a result, some elderly women are turning to prostitution.

 

Kim Eun-ja sits on the steps at Seoul's Jongno-3 subway station, scanning the scene in front of her. The 71-year-old's bright lipstick and shiny red coat stand out against her papery skin.

 

Beside her is a large bag, from which comes the clink of glass bottles as she shifts on the cold concrete.

 

Mrs Kim is one of South Korea's "Bacchus Ladies" - older women who make a living by selling tiny bottles of the popular Bacchus energy drink to male customers.

 

But often that's not all they're selling. At an age when Korean grandmothers are supposed to be venerated as matriarchs, some are selling sex.

“Start Quote

I can't trust my children to help - they're in deep trouble because they have to start preparing for their old age”

End Quote Mr Kim

 

"You see those Bacchus Ladies standing over there?" she asks me. "Those ladies sell more than Bacchus. They sometimes go out with the grandpas and earn money from them. But I don't make a living like that.

 

"Men do proposition me when I'm standing in the alleyway," she adds. "But I always say, 'No.'"

 

Mrs Kim says she makes about 5,000 Won ($5, or £3) a day selling the drinks. "Drink up fast," she says. "The police are always watching me. They don't differentiate."

 

The centre of this underground sex trade is a nearby park in the heart of Seoul. Jongmyo Park is a place where elderly men come to while away their sunset years with a little chess and some local gossip.

It's built around a temple to Confucius, whose ideas on venerating elders have shaped Korean culture for centuries. But under the budding trees outside, the fumbling transactions of its elderly men and women tell the real story of Korean society in the 21st Century.

 

Women in their 50s, 60, even their 70s, stand around the edges of the park, offering drinks to the men. Buy one, and it's the first step in a lonely journey that ends in a cheap motel nearby.

The men in the park are more willing to talk to me than the women.

Find out more

Listen to Lucy Williamson's report for Assignment on the BBC World Service on Thursday - or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer

 

Standing around a game of Korean chess, a group of grandfathers watch the match intently. About half the men here use the Bacchus Ladies, they say.

 

"We're men, so we're curious about women," says 60-year-old Mr Kim.

 

"We have a drink, and slip a bit of money into their hands, and things happen!" he cackles. "Men like to have women around - whether they're old or not, sexually active or not. That's just male psychology."

Another man, 81 years old, excitedly showed me his spending money for the day. "It's for drinking with my friends," he said. "We can find girlfriends here, too - from those women standing over there. They'll ask us to play with them. They say, 'Oh, I don't have any money,' and then they glue on to us. Sex with them costs 20,000 to 30,000 Won (£11-17), but sometimes they'll give you a discount if they know you."

 

South Korea's grandparents are victims of their country's economic success.

 

As they worked to create Korea's economic miracle, they invested their savings in the next generation. In a Confucian society, successful children are the best form of pension.

 

But attitudes here have changed just as fast as living standards, and now many young people say they can't afford to support themselves and their parents in Korea's fast-paced, highly competitive society.

The government, caught out by this rapid change, is scrambling to provide a welfare system that works. In the meantime, the men and women in Jongmyo Park have no savings, no realistic pension, and no family to rely on. They've become invisible - foreigners in their own land.

“Start Quote

One Bacchus woman said to me 'I'm hungry, I don't need respect, I don't need honour, I just want three meals a day'”

End Quote Dr Lee Ho-Sun

 

"Those who rely on their children are stupid," says Mr Kim. "Our generation was submissive to our parents. We respected them. The current generation is more educated and experienced, so they don't listen to us.

 

"I'm 60 years old and I don't have any money. I can't trust my children to help. They're in deep trouble because they have to start preparing for their old age. Almost all of the old folks here are in the same situation."

 

Most Bacchus women have only started selling sex later in life, as a result of this new kind of old-age poverty, according to Dr Lee Ho-Sun, who is perhaps the only researcher to have studied them in detail.

 

One woman she interviewed first turned to prostitution at the age of 68. About 400 women work in the park, she says, all of whom will have been taught as children that respect and honour were worth more than anything.

 

one Bacchus woman said to me 'I'm hungry, I don't need respect, I don't need honour, I just want three meals a day," Lee says.

 

Police, who routinely patrol the area but are rarely able to make an arrest, privately say this problem will never be solved by crackdowns, that senior citizens need an outlet for stress and sexual desire, and that policy needs to change.

 

But law-enforcement isn't the only problem.

 

Graffiti on a street on Seoul

 

Inside those bags the Bacchus Ladies carry is the source of a hidden epidemic: a special injection supposed to help older men achieve erections - delivered directly into the vein. Dr Lee confirms that the needles aren't disposed of afterwards, but used again - 10 or 20 times.

 

The results, she says, can be seen in one local survey, which found that almost 40% of the men tested had a sexually transmitted disease¬ despite the fact that some of the most common diseases weren't included in the test. With most sex education classes aimed at teenagers, this has the makings of a real problem. Some local governments have now begun offering sex education clinics especially for seniors.

Hidden in a dingy warren of alleyways in central Seoul, is the place where these lonely journeys end - the narrow corridors of a "love motel" and one of the grey rooms which open off them.

 

Inside, a large bed takes up most of the space, its thin mattress and single pillow hardly inviting a long night's sleep. on the bed-head is a sticker: for room service press zero; for pornography press three; and if you want the electric blanket, you'll find the wire on the far side of the bed.

 

So here you have food, sex, and even a little warmth all at the touch of a button. If only it were that simple outside the motel room, in South Korea's rich, hi-tech society.

 

But for the grandparents who built its fearsome economy, food is expensive, sex is cheap, and human warmth rarely available at any price.

 

Listen to Lucy Williamson's report for Assignment on the BBC World Service on Thursday - or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer

 

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