The Korea Times - Columnists, Opinion, page 1

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Opinion

Columnists

Wed, September 18, 2019 | 05:41

Schadenfreude, Korea style

I have to admit that I am surprised at the groundswell of outrage that seemed to take over the Korean society against recently appointed Minister of Justice Cho Guk's alleged hypocrisy. More specifically, outrage against how his daughter managed to do a student internship at a medical lab and be listed as the primary author on a paper that was published in a respected medical journal, which she supposedly used to enhance her college application.

2019-09-15 17:34

Quantifying stakeholder value

Granted, all politics is local, but the myopic and overwhelming focus in Korea on Cho Kuk and his daughter has been pretty blinding. Fortunately for Korea, the world doesn't revolve around Cho, the Seoul National University professor turned senior presidential adviser nominated for the post of justice minister, and the alleged abuses of privilege. Just in the last week or so, there was the G7 Summit, a still-raging Amazon fire, the latest in the Brexit saga, a floating pumice island and so on.

2019-08-30 18:14

Transitional justice in Korea

As I write this column, Korea is celebrating the beginning of its Liberation Day, which, once again, has become all about Japan. In a sense, this is inevitable since Korea is celebrating its independence from Imperial Japan. From another perspective, however, it also shows that Korea still has not grown out of the identity framework originally defined by the trauma it suffered under Japanese colonial rule.

2019-08-18 17:19

Remembering Kent Davy

I didn't know Kent Davy. I never met him. We were merely casual Facebook friends. And it was Facebook that told me that Kent had passed away suddenly from an aggressive form of cancer. He was apparently showing positive responses to new therapy when he suddenly passed. I guess these things happen with cancer, a terrible disease that takes too many loved ones from us too early.

2019-08-02 17:10

Yoo isn't really about Steve

When we had a boy several years back, it was a surprise to me that my son was considered a Korean citizen although he was born in the U.S. Just because my wife was a Korean national at the time of his birth, he automatically became a dual citizen without any input from us.

2019-07-19 18:32

Where is George R. R. Martin's NK script?

It's true that last Sunday's meeting between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un was more of a flash mob than a deliberate, calculated summit between heads of nations. However, give credit where it's due. Today, no one is worried about an impending shooting war on the peninsula happening anytime soon when this was a distinct possibility less than two years ago.

2019-07-05 19:10

Korea's forced marriage

Forced marriage usually refers to the tradition whereby a young man and woman are arranged to be married to each another without regard for their personal preferences, because of advantageous family ties. They don't even have to know each other. Most likely, they wouldn't meet until they were sitting across from one another during the marriage ceremony. In fact, until Korea's modern age post-1945, this was the mainstream means to marriage, especially for the upper class.

2019-06-21 18:00

Lee's everywhere in golf

So, Hank Haney must feel vindicated now that a Korean “Lee” won the LPGA's U.S. Open tournament. It just goes to show that Haney still doesn't think he did anything wrong when, prior to the tournament, he said on his SiriusXM PGA TOUR radio show that a Korean player with a surname of “Lee” would win. He was suspended for his remarks by SiriusXM at the request of the PGA TOUR.

2019-06-07 17:12

SAT adversity vs. diversity

Admitting that parents' wealth, education levels, home locations, etc. are better indicators of SAT scores, the College Board has announced the implementation of an “adversity score.” It's an index score based on several metrics which purports to represent the amount of adversity a student would have faced.

2019-05-27 17:23

Democratize deplatforming decisions

It's called deplatforming when social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter ban certain individuals or groups from using their platforms to engage with followers or friends. Facebook recently deplatformed InfoWars' Alex Jones, ex-Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, white supremacist Paul Nehlen and anti-Islamic activist Laura Loomer. It also banned Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, whose fiery rhetoric was controversial long before social media was a thing.

2019-05-12 17:23

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