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Fri, December 8, 2023 | 10:54

Let's ban smoking

Let's ban smoking

Earlier this month the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced proposals to ban anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from ever legally buying a cigarette in England. The proposal mirrors a similar law passed in New Zealand by then-Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s government. And you know a policy is special when two politicians as different as Jacinda Arden and Rishi Sun...

2023-10-28 15:26

Korea's summer of hell

Korea's summer of hell

This summer I went to the land of my birth, the United States, for the first time in almost a decade. I only had sporadic access to the internet, and I didn't really keep up with the news. But throughout the trip I extolled the virtues of Korea at any chance I got. “What delicious food it has!” I would tell my interlocutors. “How convenient! What good public transportation! O...

2023-09-09 12:11

Yoon's Real Suneung Problem

Yoon's Real Suneung Problem

The details about the hullabaloo are almost boring in their predictable uniformity: a politician's statement, the outraged response, the government's hasty clarifications, meetings, more statements. Someone gets fired, but not the person who made the initial statement.

2023-06-24 12:18

Entry prohibited for foreigners

Entry prohibited for foreigners

“Oegugin churip geumji,” said the doorman. Entry prohibited for foreigners. This article was nearly a very angry one. After I was denied entry to a bar two weeks ago for not being Korean, I was fulminating internally over the piece that I would write.

2023-04-29 12:22

Yoon's Japan plan: compromise or betrayal?

Yoon's Japan plan: compromise or betrayal?

This week has been a busy one in Korean politics. While everyone was still debating the rights and wrongs of President Yoon's diplomatic trip last week to Japan, main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was indicted Tuesday on charges of corruption and bribery. My attention has yo-yoed between the two stories all week, though there are some clear links between them.

2023-03-27 15:10

Conformity and courage

Conformity and courage

For about five months now, two lines of Rudyard Kipling's poem “If” have been going around my head: “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too.” The climax of the poem states that if you can indeed do this (and a dozen other things), then “Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, / And - which is more - you'll be a Ma...

2023-02-25 13:33

Resolution remains elusive for Seoul's disabled accessibility issues

Resolution remains elusive for Seoul's disabled accessibility issues

Following some 75 protests on Seoul's subway network since December 2021, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon declared a zero-tolerance approach in the last week of 2022.

2023-01-14 09:13

The Blue House, Korean Age - what next?

The Blue House, Korean Age - what next?

I've never really been able to wrap my head around the Korean age system, although I can understand it in principle, I just can't figure out what it means when someone tells me that a person is 10 or 20 or 30 in Korean age. I find myself unable to picture a Korean-age 10-year-old in the same way that I can instantly imagine an international-age 10-year-old. In response to the...

2022-12-25 16:56

Europe's sins and the World Cup

Europe's sins and the World Cup

Gianni Infantino, the head of football's governing body, FIFA, gave a pretty strange speech a few weeks ago, just before this year's World Cup started. It touched a nerve with a lot of people for all kinds of reasons. While he said plenty of things that merit no attention whatsoever, Infantino made one colorful claim that really sticks out to me: “I think for what we European...

2022-12-03 11:37

K-Censorship

Last month I wrote a piece for the Korea Times in which I argued that the New Jeans song “Cookie” contains strong sexual connotations and is therefore inappropriate for minors to be singing. When I sent it to my editor, I asked if she thought there would be any legal trouble considering the sensitive nature of the topic. She told me that she thought the article seemed fine bu...

2022-10-29 13:11

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