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Mon, August 20, 2018 | 20:17

Opinion > Columnists > Jason Lim >

What if the rich lived forever?

Everyone knows the famous story of how Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, made a fool of himself trying to live forever. He entrusted the magician Xu Fu of Zhifu Island with 6,000 virgins, untold riches, and a fleet of ships to travel to Pengal Islands where eight immortals kept the elixir of life. Even when the magician failed to return, the emperor entrusted other charlatans with riches to go out and bring back a way to live forever. Ironically, the emperor ended up overdosing on pills made of mercury, which was a common ingredient in elixirs of life.

Jason Lim | 2018-08-19 16:55

Preordained analytics of big data

In an article titled, “What we buy can be used to predict our politics, race or education _ sometimes with more than 90 percent accuracy,” the Washington Post describes a study done by University of Chicago Booth School of Business economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica that shows that consumer behavior patterns can reliably predict whether someone is white or not in the U.S.

Jason Lim | 2018-08-05 17:16

Is xenophobia in Korea's DNA?

Aylan Kurdi was a three-year old Kurdish Syrian boy who washed up on the shore of a beach in Turkey in September 2015, drowned when the boat carrying the refugees sank off the coast. The visceral image of an innocent child victimized so cruelly by circumstances beyond his control led to an outpouring of grief across the globe. Expressions of public grief were likewise plentiful in Korea, with everyone conveying heartfelt sympathies.

Jason Lim | 2018-07-22 17:22

Thai boys and Sewol children

Thank God they were found. The twelve boys and a coach from a local soccer team were found inside flooded Thai caves after going missing for ten days. As each day ticked by, there was mounting dread that the boys would never be found. They would either be drowned already or, even worse, desperately clawing out the last days of their short lives in sheer terror against the unrelenting darkness and water.

Jason Lim | 2018-07-10 17:27

Breathless in Korea

I am not exactly unfamiliar with Korea. I worked here for a few years way back when, and have been back frequently enough to pass as a local. But every time I visit, Korea always manages to present me with little odds and ends about its culture, people and things that give my brain either a brief pause or a longer-lasting freeze. Not necessarily bad, but different or unexpected enough to notice against my own cultural and behavioral paradigm that I have become accustomed to living in Washington D.C. During this current visit, the little things about Korea that I knew were always there but go...

Jason Lim | 2018-06-22 17:15

What about the expats?

When the tension was near the breaking point last fall, with both President Trump and the official North Korean mouthpiece hurling insults and threats at each other on a regular basis, there were many handwringing reports of how a war _ or even a limited military engagement _ would cause untold havoc and loss of Korean lives in Seoul and surrounding areas. But what about the lives of foreign residents of Korea?

Jason Lim | 2018-06-10 16:45

Fossils in blue jeans

Such was the title of the press release by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company on their findings in an assessment of South Korean corporate culture and organizational health. This was the second report following their first one 2016.

Jason Lim | 2018-05-27 16:57

My culture is not your… prom dress

Them's the fighting words that Jeremy Lam tweeted over seeing Keziah Daum, a Utah high school student, posting photos of herself wearing a red Chinese qipao, or cheongsam, to her school prom. The tweet led to an onslaught of cultural appropriation accusations against Daum for wearing the traditional Chinese dress.

Jason Lim | 2018-05-13 16:14

N. Korea as lean startup

The question foremost in everyone's mind is, “Why now?” Why has Kim Jong-un engaged in the full-court press rapprochement with his key geopolitical stakeholders at this time? What made 2018 so special to Kim?

Jason Lim | 2018-04-27 17:05

'Your user agreement sucks'

During a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees this week, Joe Kennedy, the Republican senator from Louisiana told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Your user agreement sucks. The purpose of a user agreement is to cover Facebook's rear end, not inform users of their rights."

Jason Lim | 2018-04-13 18:19

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