[Opinion] Refuge from Terror

The city which is the shelter for most of the billionaires in the world is London, U.K. According to the Sunday Times, 40 billionaires are living in London. Roman Abramobich, who is worth 650 billion pounds (approximately 140,000 billion won), is the most affluent person among them. Thirteen people, one-third of the billionaires in London, are foreigners. While it is no wonder why the British live in London, what is the reason for these foreigners residing in London? It is because the tax system of London is more favorable to the rich than in any other cities in the world.

For example, Abramobich can save 13,650 billion won even if tax rate decreased by just one percent. London is literally a “tax heaven,” the dream world that promises less tax. Considering an economy with less tax, the inconvenience as a foreign resident would be bearable. Celebrities, who live in foreign countries for tax benefit reasons, are not few. Korea translates “tax heaven” into “refuge from tax.” However, billionaires looking about for the lowest tax duties will insist that we should translate “tax heaven” as “the matchless heaven.”

Billionaires have another refuge to look about. This time, it is refuge from terror. A bomb terror in Spain (the number of deaths: 190) on March 11 makes us feel insecure and question if terror has finally landed in Europe. After the 9/11 terror in 2001, a large terrorist act was invoked in Moskva and Yessentuki in Russia, Bali in Indonesia, and Baghdad and Karbala in Iraq. The methods of terror attacks vary--a building, airplane, and train--and the location of the act becomes indiscriminate, including the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa. Why don’t billionaires crowd to refuge for terror at this time when the earth is frightened of this terror, if somebody makes it quickly?

Somebody analyzed that a terror group is trying to “capture the outer ring” to suppress the U.S. It will be not easy to attack the U.S., which is defending itself with the National Security Council system after the 9/11 terror. Even if nobody can say positively whether it is true or false, a group linked to Al-Qaida indicated U.S.’ allies as the targets of its attack, claiming it committed the bombing in Spain. We should not be relieved regarding Korea as the “refuge from terror” because it is possible that we can be classified as one those “outer rings of the U.S.”

Editorial Writer Bhang Hyung-nam, hnbhang@donga.com