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Mon, December 10, 2018 | 19:30

Opinion > Columnists > Jason Lim >

Last analog president

George H.W. Bush was my first president as an adult, and I wasn't impressed. It felt like we were getting the second fiddle to the larger-than-life Ronald Reagan, a listless holdover from an analogue era struggling to understand the new digital age with MTV attention span. Perhaps it was inevitable that Bush lost to Bill Clinton after a single term. Clinton was charismatic, energetic and polished, everything Bush wasn't.

Jason Lim | 2018-12-09 18:22

Being thankful on Thanksgiving

In today's hyper-commercialized society, it's easy to lose track of what the original intent of various holidays was. If we were to perform a word association test with everyday folks for Thanksgiving, the words that would pop first in one's mind would be SALE, Black Friday, turkey, fried, stuffing, traffic, crowded airports, family arguments, racist uncle, and the like. Actual gratitude would be far down the list.

Jason Lim | 2018-11-23 17:46

Neuroscience of inhumanity

A Nov. 6 New York Times article stated, “Over 200 mass graves holding as many as 12,000 bodies have been found in areas of Iraq once controlled by the Islamic State,” citing United Nations figures. The findings were highlighted in a joint report released by the United Nations mission to Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which called the sites a 'legacy of terror.'”

Jason Lim | 2018-11-12 18:18

Dangun's box of bones

Reuters recently published a story titled, “North Korea's box of bones: A mythical king and the dream of Korean unification.” It claims that Dangun, although a myth, nevertheless has the narrative power to be the unifying cultural lynchpin for an eventual Korean reunification.

Jason Lim | 2018-10-28 17:50

Accidental (Sri Lankan) arsonist

A gasoline storage depot in Goyang City blew up, sending out thick, dark plumes of smoke that could be seen from Seoul. The fire consumed 2.6 million liters of gasoline over 17 hours - this was actually fortunate since only one tank exploded and no casualties were reported.

Jason Lim | 2018-10-14 17:37

Juche as addiction, not ideology

A Mother Jones article titled, “Inside the Radical, Uncomfortable Movement to Reform White Supremacists,” Wes Enzinna writes, “de-radicalization activists argue that much of what the left thinks it knows about shutting down racist extremists is misplaced. When it comes to changing individuals, denunciation may counteract rather than hasten de-radicalization. If that seems like surrender, consider that some researchers who study hate groups think we should view violent extremism not only as a problem of ideology, but also as a problem of addiction: a craving for group identity...”

Jason Lim | 2018-09-28 16:59

Who am I in 4th Industrial Revolution?

No, I am not writing about one of the oldest and most frustrating questions in human history and spiritual quest. I actually want to explore the topic of identity in the context of the coming 4th Industrial Revolution.

Jason Lim | 2018-09-21 16:52

Korea's peculiar tribalism

So, it was South Korea vs. Japan in the gold medal match for soccer in this year's Asian Games. Besides being a dream match for the game organizers and TV studios, the biggest news seems to be about Park Hang-seo, the South Korean coach of the Vietnamese U-23 team that made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to Korea.

Jason Lim | 2018-09-02 17:10

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

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