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5. Mark Peterson

Home ownership and solving the marriage problem

In my last article I wrote a semi-optimistic, semi-pessimistic piece about the new year. I was optimistic that it would be a post-pandemic year with opportunities. But I was pessimistic concerning Korea's population decline, specifically the trend of low marriage rates and the low birthrate. Subsequent to writing my article, in the Korea Times where my article was published, there was an article about government policies to increase population growth. The proposal, in effect, was for the government to pay couples to have children.

2023-01-31 16:50

Upcoming social developments in 2023

I'll leave the political forecasts to others, but I want to focus on social issues. Let's look at social trends and predict where things might go in 2023. And good riddance to 2022, a really awful year - the third year of the COVID pandemic. Maybe I need to admit that this view of 2022 is highly subjective - the fact that it is perhaps the final year of the pandemic is a positive thing - if, indeed, it turns out to be the final year of the pandemic. There is hope, at this point, that 2023 will be a better year.

2023-01-05 16:52

New book on Korean history

I just returned to the States from a trip to Korea - my first trip in exactly three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an eventful and busy trip. I worked on a documentary film about the “miracle battalion” from Utah during the Korean War. I had meet-ups with my YouTube followers and made more videos with them. I attended two conferences on “Sijo” (a Korean traditional poetic form) and the spread of Sijo in America. But the events that kept me busiest were about the publication of my new book on Korean history - “Views of Korean History by a Frog Outside the Well.”

2022-12-04 17:02

Sadness upon returning to Korea

After three years of carefully observing COVID-19 restrictions at home in America, I decided that, with five vaccination shots and a decline in the number of illnesses in both America and Korea, it was time for me to return to Korea. I have been struck with so many things about Korea after this long absence, but the most unfortunate, of course, is the tragedy in Itaewon.

2022-11-06 17:00

A solution to a Confucianism problem

In recent months I have seen numerous “complaints” or “criticisms” of Confucianism on my YouTube channel. I've seen criticisms of genealogy, of ancestor ceremonies and of the seonbi (the well-educated man who takes and passes exams in traditional times). People are calling for an end to Confucianism as they know it.

2022-10-18 15:19

Death of monarchy

I am not a fan of the monarchy - British, Korean, Japanese -anywhere.

2022-09-19 15:01

Women's rights in Korea

This article, like most of mine, is quite optimistic. I've been in and around Korea for 57 years and I've seen the tremendous, even miraculous things that Korea has done. Korea has overcome huge obstacles in its way in the past, and I am optimistic it will do so in the future as well.

2022-08-23 16:41

Challenge for 'jesa'

It's hard to keep up with social changes in Korea. My finger on the pulse has been my YouTube channel, The Frog Outside the Well, and the responses and comments people post. I've been surprised to see the negative comments regarding all things related to Confucian practices. The most recent has been comments on “ancestor ceremonies,” or “jesa.”

2022-07-17 16:35

Korea's three E's - education, economy, entertainment

As an observer of Korea for the last 57 years, I have seen momentous changes. The first we should talk about is the economy and rightly so, for the Korea that I first knew in 1965 was desperately poor - $125/year/per capita income. Aid from the United States was equal to native GNP - incredible! We have seen the economy take off. Younger people haven't seen it, but they've read about it. And yet the economic miracle is actually miracle number two

2022-06-19 16:55

Today's world informed by history

For those few who don't think history is important, and for those who do as well, I thought today I would recap some of the historical issues that I've been looking at in this column to see how they inform our lives and decisions in present-day Korea.

2022-05-22 17:20

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