Where is their rights?
As much as I know that information posted on the net is not all accurate…but if what I read was true, and I don’t think an issue as big as this is false (exaggerated maybe). And also, if what was revealed for false, SM would do whatever it takes to stop this kinda “false” info from spreading, even as far as suing for defamation.
It’s really disbelieving. What do you think they are? It’s obvious they’re your money tree. But your slave?
Do they have no rights?
Do they have no freedom?
Do they have no minds?
It’s very 卑鄙of them. They recruit them when they’re in their teenage years, a period when hopes and dreams are aplenty in their minds. They then put them on vigorous training for years. If they see potential in them and if they’re still young enough, they sign them on, package them and sell them to the public. Then they suck from them like a vampire does, blood, sweat, tears and money all wallop.
This is where the problem lies. What does a teenager know? Besides the possibility of making their dream come true, besides the spirit and enthusiasm to take on the world, what does a teenager know of the harsh reality of life? What do they know about the unethical and unimaginable clauses that go into the contracts? Do they have no right to understand every single word that is in the contracts? And do their parents have no say, no right to look through what’s in the contract? Do they have no right to protect their beloved children?
Even if it is right for them to repay you for your “kindness”, “goodwill”, “care”, "栽培" from all those training years, is the investments so enormous that they only get less than 5% of what they generated in revenue, minus their expenses? What’s even more outrageous is that the “salary” is their group income, not their individual income. Where’s the logic? Where does the other 95% of revenue go? What exactly does the company do with that much money? And their accounts last year even showed loss of dunno how many billion won. Is that even logical? They have serious issues in finance management then, if the loss is indeed true.
There’s more. Choice in their schedule and activities, freedom of speech, ownership of their own compositions, duration of contract, etc. If you read what’s (most probably, coz the validity of the info hasn’t been verified yet) in the papers, you’d get riled up and dumbfounded like mt and I did.
The thing that angered me most was that everything that was in the contract will make even the most opinionated, headstrong, resourceful, determined person helpless. The penalty of the termination of the contract, no matter whose decision it is (artist or the company), the artist has to pay. And how much do they have to pay? 3 times the amount the company invested in them and 2 times the amount of profit they will miss out on after the termination. It’s robbery I tell you. Robbing their lives and their identities away.
I can’t imagine what it’s like for their parents. How sad, heartbroken and helpless they must be feeling.
What all of us fans most wish for now, is that they get what they deserve to. They deserve to feel ultimate happiness and pride in what they do.
I’m having a serious case of cognitive dissonance here. I’m now questioning myself. Questioning the possibility that what sucked me in to the vortex was a sham. Questioning the hypocrisy of it all. Questioning the injustice of it all.
What’s bothering me now is the question of whether to continue supporting them. I’m 100% positive that I’ll stick by them to the end. (Yes, I’m that hardcore already, main factor for my cognitive dissonance.) But how do I do that? If I continue collecting their albums and concert documentaries, I’m contributing to the scam, the unethical businessmen, the injustice, and the hypocrisy. If I don’t, how does that make me their fan? How are they gonna make their living then? What will happen to their career? What will become of them? What will it do to their psychological and emotional well-being?
But then again…if I continue supporting their merchandizes and concerts, the company will exploit them further. And again what will it do to them physically, psychologically, and emotionally?
Give them mental support lah! Show them your love! You say? The brutal reality is, sometimes it’s not enough.
The world today is too tied up with possessions, fame and power. As much as one would like to move away from them, they’ll come back to the same place. Not to say that it is impossible, coz there is a handful of people from the earth’s population who lives like that, having no care whatsoever. The fact is: we ordinary people are ordinary. We are not as spectacular, not as unmoved, and not as determined as these people.
And in that industry of theirs, especially in Korea, it’s real ugly. I wonder how those still in it cope. I’m amazed they didn’t get themselves broken. Those who have, you know what happened. Sometimes I wish they’d leave it, live another kind of life.
But then, if they’re not doing what they’re doing now, they’d still be chasing their dream, hoping and praying that they’ll do what they love, hoping and praying that they’ll make it one day, and still chasing for something that might not be. And that itself could also be a psychological and emotional distress. *sigh*
And…I wouldn’t know them; I would have one less outlet for stress; I would have one less source to draw strength from. [serious case of poisoning, huh? I think so too. I also think it’s selfish of me]
Everything comes at a price. To achieve their dream, they have to sacrifice privacy, complete honesty, ordinary lifestyle, and now…freedom. The main question is: Is it worth the sacrifice? And if it is, how then, do you find balance between the two extremes?
I hope they find that balance. I hope they already do.
It should be time that I find that balance too. God knows I’m in a serious disequilibrium right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment