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Opinion

Blogs

Wed, April 14, 2021 | 23:47

Walking in the Footsteps of the Past: Mount Gyeryong - “Chicken Dragon Mountain”

While traveling to Nonsan in the autumn of 1884, Foulk jotted down in his journal that the hills had ended and he was provided with a view of “Keryong san” (Mount Gyeryong). It is a shame he did not translate the name into English - Chicken Dragon Mountain - as his parents migh...

Walking in the footsteps of the Past: Foulk's 1884 trek around Nonsan

In the fall of 1884, George C. Foulk, an American naval ensign assigned to the American legation in Seoul, undertook an extensive tour through the southern part of the Korean peninsula. His observations - carefully recorded in minute detail in his travel journals and letters ho...

The Korean blacksmith

According to an old Korean saying, there are no good knives in a blacksmith's house, meaning the blacksmith sells all the knives he makes and keeps only the old worn-out ones for his own family's use. It is a matter of interpretation as to whether this implied the blacksmith wa...

In defense of Donald John Trump

The lawyers employed by Donald Trump have amassed an impressive pile of arguments to defend him against charges that he incited a mob of his supporters to stage an armed insurrection in the Capitol and to murder people in an effort to stop the selection of his democratically el...

The nightmare born when technology took the place of science

Even small children are starting to sense that we live in an age when literally none of the information provided is reliable or believable. Information on a global scale is subject increasingly to Gresham's Law: low-quality information spreads everywhere and the truth is hoarde...

'Silhak' tradition as a solution to the current geopolitical crisis

South Koreans are having tremendous trouble grasping how familiar political and academic institutions in the United States have ceased to function as they once did. Koreans are confused to see Harvard professors promote nonsensical arguments about COVID-19 or to see politicians...

Voices from the North - Casey Lartigue Jr.

I was in a North Korean propaganda video

A few years ago, I became a regular guest on a talk show about North Korea called the “Moranbong Club.” It is an entertainment show, so I didn't have to talk about my personal story. It was fun until everything got serious when another panelist on the TV show was sent back to N...

When I escaped to South Korea, I felt guilt

When I was a university student, I couldn't understand why South Koreans were against reunification. However, after living in South Korea for more than 10 years, I can understand that there are various reasons to be opposed to it. It started with a documentary about the Korean ...

My experience of teaching English to North Korean defectors

Working with Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and the U.S. Embassy has been one of the best experiences I have ever had. As someone for whom English was not my first language, learning to speak English was a challenge for me, too. When I was learning English I received a lo...

Shall we boycott Beijing 2022?

In 2017, a world champion did something most remarkable: they refused to take part in a competition which they believed was prolonging human suffering. In doing so, they forfeited both their titles and considerable prize money but retained their dignity. Obviously this wasn't a...

Portrait of a xenophobic Facebook troll

When a person attributes all or part of a country's misfortunes to the presence of “foreigners,” and if they propose that problems can be solved by expelling said foreigners, we might be told that they are merely expressing an opinion, and moreover, that they have a right to th...

Who likes BTS? A survey of 400,000 fans around the world

A sociological survey on more than 400,000 BTS fans took place between July and September 2020, and the results were finally released last week. To ensure maximum exposure, the survey was translated into 46 different languages and featured responses from over 100 countries and ...

Parchment Made of Sheepskins - Scott Shepherd

America wakes up

For years, America and its allies have been on the back foot. Struggling with internal division and domestic politics and now a pandemic, democracies seem to have been having a bit of a rough ride.

Are mandatory coronavirus tests racist?

A lot of anger has come about as a result of the recent announcements by the governments of Gyeonggi and Seoul that all foreign residents working in those regions must be tested for COVID-19. There is obviously justification for the testing of workers in crowded workplaces wher...

Who wants to be a cryptomillionaire?

An acquaintance once told me I should buy some bitcoin. I think it was some time in 2015, when the price was around $330. This time last year one bitcoin was worth nearly $9000; as I write this, the value is nearing $50,000, and by the time this is published, a bitcoin could ea...

Locust outbreak

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