Jeon Tae-il (전태일) - A hero, who sacrificed himself for sake of others

This time I wanted to tell you about Jeon Tae-il (전태일), a hero, who sacrificed himself to bring better life for everyone else. I guess every Korean would know about him, since he is a national hero, but people in the rest of the world should also know his name, because he is a perfect example of a Hero (with a big letter) by any international standards.
Do you wonder now, who he is and what he did? The first thing I'll tell you is that he died at an early age of 22. Furthermore, it was a suicide by burning himself. His last words before leaving this world were "Enforce the labor code, we are not machines!” Do you have any clue by now? Let the mystery unfold :)

 
In 60s-70s working conditions on Korean factories were terrible. There were people who got tuberculosis, because of the bad ventilation on these factories; forced injections of amphetamines to keep workers awake, to make them work overtime, were a common practice. Of course, no one was properly paid for working overtime, but it was a situation, where people were afraid to complain, because at the time economy of South Korea was depressed by Korean War, so no one had any choice but to work even in horrible conditions in order to survive. At the time president of Republic of Korea was Park Chung-Hee ( 박정희), a dictator, who ignored labor regulations, whose only goal was to raise Korea by all means.
Jeon Tae-il, who worked on a factory himself, obviously knew the situation very well. At first he, with a group of other people, tried to raise awareness about an unfairness and cruel conditions on factories, and he was succeeding, but then he met a strong resistance from the Government. Desperate in his attempts to change the situation, on Nov 13th, 1970, he decided to commit a public suicide, by setting himself on fire. While burning, he was running down the street, shouting slogans. Ultimately, he was brought to a hospital, but it was already too late to save him. His last words said to his mother were: "Everything, that I couldn't do, please, continue it for me". 
His suicide had a great impact on Korean society. There is even an opinion that if it wasn't for him, current condition wouldn't get better until many years later. Thanks to him other laborers started movement against cruel working conditions, and eventually the situation got better for all laborers.
When I first heard a story of Jeon Tae-il from a friend I was really amazed. I thought “It is a bless that such people exist in this world”. Jeon Tae-il is truly a hero, who was willing to sacrifice himself, to make a world better for everyone. He was so young, definitely, it was not an easy decision to take away his own life, to give up his youth. In my mind, people like him, can inspire us to do little things everyday to make our world better. What do you think?
There is an award-winning  movie about Jeon Tae-il, called “A single spark” (아름다운 청년 전태일). As for me I haven’t watched it yet, but I am planning to watch it, when I have enough time. I know that there is also a biography of him.
Did this article make you think about something?