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The Korea Times

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Jason Lim

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

Sri Lanka and social media

The day after the Easter Sunday terrorists bombing that killed over 250 people, the Sri Lankan government shut down popular social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube for fear of fake news and conspiracy theories that could incite further violence. This was largely met with support and even relief from the international community.

2019-04-28 18:05

Roe vs. Wade Korea style

South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the current abortion law wasn't consistent with the Korean constitution and will have to be amended by the National Assembly by end of next calendar year. There seems to be a widespread support for this shift, especially since there really hasn't been enforcement against abortion for the last few decades.

2019-04-14 17:08

Korea's original sin

After being promoted from a provincial-level park to a national park, Taebaek National Park authorities are pursuing a policy of cutting down the Japanese larch trees and replacing them with indigenous Korean trees. Currently, they estimate that there are about 500,000 Japanese larches in the park, consisting of 11.7 percent of the entire tree “population.”

2019-03-31 17:03

Captain Marvel and my little boy

Last Sunday, weather in Washington, D.C. was still cold and foggy; March, after coming in like a lion, had calmed down somewhat, but was still growling menacingly. Tired of being cooped up, my family decided to brave the weather. So, we drove down to Georgetown, thinking that we'd have a quick breakfast in the city and then stroll along the waterfront.

2019-03-15 17:37

Sequencing will not work

Hand wringing over the sudden end to the much-anticipated summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim in Hanoi follows several well-worn paths. The most common one blamed the Cohen hearing that sucked the media energy out of what was happening in Hanoi and Trump's reluctance to announce anything that would be buried in that Cohen avalanche.

2019-03-03 17:41

Cardi B is 'ajumma'

A Facebook friend posted, “I just realized Cardi B actually reminds me of a Korean ajumma. She has an ajumma spirit.”

Do Je-hae2019-02-17 17:47

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