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Opinion

Columnists

Sun, July 12, 2020 | 12:47

Jason Lim

Korea's religious fundamentalism

By Jason Lim When you think of the Korean Independence Movement of early 20th Century, you usually think of the March 1st Movement in which tens of thousands of everyday Koreans rose up simultaneously across the country waving the newly created Korean flag in defiance of their Japanese masters. Or you think of the independence fighters in Manchuria winning key battles against units of the Imperial Japanese army against incredible odds. Of course, you can’t leave out An Jung-geun shooting dead Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese Resident-General of Korea in Harbin. An is still celebra...

2016-09-30 17:03

Why does Park In-bee have to be pretty?

At 28 years old, Park In-bee is already a legend in the game of golf. She has 17 LPGA wins (7 majors) and just became the first Olympic champion in Women’s Golf since 1900. After her retirement, she’s pretty much guaranteed a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame at the first available ballot.

2016-09-02 16:33

How come ROK's founding day is all about Japan?

The issue of the official founding day of the Republic of Korea made front page news when President Park Geun-hye said the following in her official address commemorating the anniversary of Liberation Day on Aug. 15: “Today marks the 71st Liberation Day and the 68th anniversary of the nation's founding." This would mean that she believes that the Republic of Korea was founded on Aug. 15, 1948. Historically, it is true that the official government of the Republic of Korea was established on that day with Syngman Rhee as the president. But is that the same thing as the founding of a nation?

2016-08-19 16:44

Health and wealth Gospel of Korean Buddhism

Ven. Hyon Gak, who became a household name in Korea with the publication of his book, “Manhaeng: From Harvard to Hwagye Temple,” recently made front page news when he posted (in Korean) on his Facebook page his frustrations with the Jogye Order. He was empathizing with an article in Chosun Ilbo about prominent foreign professors leaving Seoul National University (the most prestigious university in Korea) due to challenges in working in the Korean academic cultural environment. Hyon Gak wrote (my own translation), “I understand and agree with their (foreign professors who left) thinking. I, t...

2016-08-05 16:29

Dogs, horses and Queen Min

Recently, Na Hyang-wook, a high-ranking Ministry of Education official told reporters of the progressive Kyunghyang Daily Newspaper that the general public could be regarded as “dogs and pigs,” and that the government's job was to ensure that they only be “fed and kept alive.” He defined the general public as the 99 percent. He also called for a stricter caste system in Korea that people should accept since equality is nothing but an unattainable illusion. To support his position, he pointed to the U.S. where the blacks and Hispanics have no political ambitions and no interest in climbing th...

2016-07-22 16:54

Brexit and Trump supporters

I stand left of center on most issues, especially those social and cultural. I prefer MSMBC over Fox News, follow George Takei on Facebook, support the spirit, if not all the rhetoric, of the Black Lives Matter movement, and have enjoyed watching one or two documentaries by Michael Moore. I am not an activist by any stretch of imagination, but I have Facebook friends who are vocal Bernie supporters. However, what has always made me feel uncomfortable about the progressive movement is how elitist it can be, especially with folks who support conservative causes such as Brexit or candidates lik...

2016-07-08 17:06

How Airbnb got blindsided by racists

Remember several months back when there was an enlightening little tidbit that went viral about the new sharing economy? It went something like how "Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.”

2016-06-10 17:08

Women lives matter, Korea style

A young woman took a bathroom break from having a good time with her friends in a singing room located in the heart of Seoul's fabled Gangnam District. A man in his thirties, with a history of mental illness, followed her inside and stabbed her to death. They had never met each other.

2016-05-27 16:41

Neuroscience of agency

Adam Bear, writing on the MIND Guest Blog of Scientific American, describes how the mind can purposefully “rewrite history, fooling us into thinking that this choice - that was actually completed after its consequences were subconsciously perceived - was a choice that we had made all along.” In other words, we make a choice based on some subconscious decision-making process but believe that we had actually made the same choice based on some conscious, intentional reasoning. Bear, and his partner, Paul Bloom, are building on the work by psychologists Dan Wegner and Thalia Wheatly who proposed...

2016-05-13 15:16

Why couldn't Jet Li kiss Aaliyah?

Recently, major Hollywood movie studios have released stills from movies that showed Tilda Swinton playing a character who was a Tibetan male mystic in the original Marvel comics and Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi in an adaptation of the original Japanese anime, “Ghost in the Shell.” Not unexpectedly, this created a huge uproar in the Asian-American community and accusations of “white-washing,” replacing original Asian characters with white actors in movies.

2016-04-29 16:41

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