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Opinion

Columnists

Mon, October 21, 2019 | 06:37

North Korea's own goal

There were no spectators, no live TV coverage, no reporters, no grass pitch and no goals for a bizarre South and North Korean football match to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup in the entirely empty Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang, Tuesday.

2019-10-17 17:14

Society sans respected elders

When Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, the nation's first Roman Catholic cardinal, who was a signature guiding star of South Koreans in their crusade for democracy for three decades, passed away 10 years ago in 2009 at the age of 86, many people lamented that they had lost their final “respected elder.”

2019-10-03 17:05

Hypocritical behavior

We Koreans often use “nae-ro nam-bul,” an expression certain to make non-Korean speakers tilt their heads and question: “What does this mean?” It is a coined Korean term (with an English word inserted), a four-syllable abbreviation from “naega hamyeon, 'romance'; nami hamyeon, bullyun.” In short, it means: “If I love someone, it is a romance; but if others do, it is an affair.”

2019-09-19 16:06

Common sense society

Common sense is the talk of the town, regarding the ongoing unproductive and consumptive brawls over the qualifications of Cho Kuk, a former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, to take the justice minister post as nominated by President Moon Jae-in.

2019-09-05 17:30

Flood of banners on streets

When it comes to pollution, we are almost always reminded of air, water or noise, all of which are directly related to our living. Yet, we have been ignoring a deep-rooted evil or public nuisance unwittingly for decades: “pollution of banners on streets.”

2019-08-22 17:09

Brazen-faced Juventus and Ronaldo

Two weeks have passed since Christiano Ronaldo of Juventus enraged Koreans by not taking to the pitch for the Italian football clubs' pre-season game against a K League All-Stars in Seoul in a breach of contract requiring the Portuguese “superstar” to play at least 45 minutes.

2019-08-08 16:35

Abe grows worse

Four years ago, I wrote a column titled “Abe's absurd, abnormal remarks” after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe desperately distorted historical facts about Korea-Japan relations in an apparent bid to win the support of far right-wingers.

2019-07-25 17:03

Coward politicians

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian, left an immortal saying in his posthumous collection of fragments on theology and philosophy, “Pensees (Thoughts)” published in 1670: “Man is a reed, the weakest of nature, but he is a thinking reed.”

2019-07-11 17:11

'Turtleneck syndrome'

“Who do you think will be one of the most popular medical specialists in the coming decades and who is losing popularity instead?” A retired prominent heart surgeon and a friend of mine asked one day jokingly.

2019-06-27 17:39

Our proud young ones

At six o'clock on Wednesday morning, a TV newscaster began his program: “Here comes the first bright news in a long time. Our under-20 FIFA World Cup team has advanced to the finals.” The talk of the town was the South Korea-Ecuador semifinal of the 2019 global youth football extravaganza now being held in Poland. A common question of the day at each work place was: “Did you see it?”

2019-06-13 18:17

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