Opinion - The Korea Times

Dogs, horses and Queen Min

By Jason Lim Recently, Na Hyang-wook, a high-ranking Ministry of Education official told reporters of the progressive Kyunghyang Daily Newspaper that the general public could be regarded as “dogs and pigs,” and that the government’s job was to ensure that they only be “fed and kept alive.” He defined the general public as the 99 percent. He also called for a stricter caste system in Korea that people should accept since equality is nothing but an unattainable illusion. To support his position, he pointed to the U.S. where the blacks and Hispanics have no political ambitions and no interest in climbing the socioeconomic ladder. “All (U.S.) senators and representatives have to do is to provide a means for survival for such people in the U.S.,” he was quoted as saying. Not sure which U.S. he’s talking about since the last time I checked, the U.S. had a sitting African American president, and two Hispanics were leading candidates for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination only a few months ago. As if that w

Jul 22, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Brexit and Trump supporters

By Jason Lim I stand left of center on most issues, especially those social and cultural. I prefer MSMBC over Fox News, follow George Takei on Facebook, support the spirit, if not all the rhetoric, of the Black Lives Matter movement, and have enjoyed watching one or two documentaries by Michael Moore. I am not an activist by any stretch of imagination, but I have Facebook friends who are vocal Bernie supporters. However, what has always made me feel uncomfortable about the progressive movement is how elitist it can be, especially with folks who support conservative causes such as Brexit or candidates like Trump. By and large, we know who these folks are and what motivates them. They are mostly white, non-college-educated, working-class folks making less than $50,000 a year. The majority of them are men as well, those who have seen their standard of living and socioeconomic status erode most rapidly in the last few decades, mostly from the demise of unions and globalization of labor. As Jim Tankersley writes in his wonderfully insightful Washington Post article titled, &ldqu

Jul 8, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

How Airbnb got blindsided by racists

By Jason Lim Remember several months back when there was an enlightening little tidbit that went viral about the new sharing economy? It went something like how "Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.” Unfortunately, the new enlightenment ran head-on into some old enlightenment that goes something like, “People are people.” Which means that people can be wonderful, but they can also suck. Like that Airbnb host in North Carolina who spewed racist, hateful comments at a black man who had booked a stay in his home, threatening to cancel the reservation because he (the host) “hated n*****s,” kindly explaining that “This is the South darling.” Well, it’s also 2016, so Airbnb rightfully banned the jerk from using its services ever again. But racism is not so blatant all the time. According to a

Jun 10, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Women lives matter, Korea style

By Jason Lim A young woman took a bathroom break from having a good time with her friends in a singing room located in the heart of Seoul’s fabled Gangnam District. A man in his thirties, with a history of mental illness, followed her inside and stabbed her to death. They had never met each other. He had been lurking around the bathroom for the express purpose of killing a woman because he wanted to take revenge upon all women whom he felt had mistreated or undermined him in the past. The unfortunate victim just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The outpourings of grief and reactions have been massive. A huge wall of post-it notes, flowers, and other items lined the walls along Exit 10 of Gangnam Subway Station, near where she was killed. It has become a collective “There go I if not for the grace of God” moment for many women who have always felt that Korea could be a dangerous and threatening place for them. After all, the only reason the victim was killed was because she was a woman. This incident seemed to give voice to man

May 27, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Neuroscience of agency

By Jason Lim Adam Bear, writing on the MIND Guest Blog of Scientific American, describes how the mind can purposefully “rewrite history, fooling us into thinking that this choice ― that was actually completed after its consequences were subconsciously perceived ― was a choice that we had made all along.” In other words, we make a choice based on some subconscious decision-making process but believe that we had actually made the same choice based on some conscious, intentional reasoning. Bear, and his partner, Paul Bloom, are building on the work by psychologists Dan Wegner and Thalia Wheatly who proposed 20 years ago that, “the experience of intentionally willing an action is often nothing more than a post hoc causal inference that our thoughts caused some behavior. The feeling itself, however, plays no part in causing that behavior.” I think I understand what this means. It means that we only think we make conscious decisions with intentionality, but we really don’t. Some mysterious subconscious processes make those decisions for us and l

May 13, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Why couldn't Jet Li kiss Aaliyah?

By Jason Lim Recently, major Hollywood movie studios have released stills from movies that showed Tilda Swinton playing a character who was a Tibetan male mystic in the original Marvel comics and Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi in an adaptation of the original Japanese anime, “Ghost in the Shell.” Not unexpectedly, this created a huge uproar in the Asian-American community and accusations of “white-washing,” replacing original Asian characters with white actors in movies. Not being a comics or anime fan, I have to admit that I am largely ignorant of the storylines in the original works. But I am also not emotionally invested in those storylines, which perhaps gives me another perspective on this issue by asking a question. Is the original Asian ethnicity or cultural construct essential to the storytelling? If yes, then I believe the role should go to an Asian actor who would bring more authenticity to the role. For example, If Tilda Swinton is really playing a male Tibetan monk, then I don’t think she is the right casting choice

Apr 29, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Korea's entitlement pathology

By Jason Lim Remember the Macadamia Nut rage incident in December 2014 when the eldest daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, Cho Hyun-a, was accused of throwing a tantrum at flight attendants and forcing a pilot to turn one of the airline’s planes back to the gate at JFK, all because she didn’t like the way the nuts were served to passengers in the first class cabin? At the time, this became a huge deal in Korean society, with the majority condemning her behavior as beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior, even for the superrich scion of one of the royal “chaebol” families of Korea. Cho even served some jail time and was forced to resign from all official positions within the airline. If only she would have waited till 2016 to go nutty; her behavior might not have seemed so bad in light of what her counterparts are doing. More recently, it seems that the Korean superrich are outdueling one another to earn the title of the cruelest and most clueless when it comes to dealing with their employees. Kim Man-sik, the founder of Mong-go Food C

Apr 15, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Amygdala Hijack politics

By Jason LimOne of the most perplexing questions in American politics is why do white, blue-collar men ― who have lost the most socioeconomic ground in the last few decades ― continually and consistently vote for the Republicans when the latter party espouses economic policies that disadvantage labor in favor of business? Similarly, one of the most perplexing questions in Korean politics is why do the elderly ― half of whom are living in poverty, the highest among OECD countries, not to mention the highest suicide rate ― continually and consistently vote for the conservative ruling Party that hasn’t necessarily proven that it has their best interests in mind? On the surface, these are two totally unrelated questions. However, they share an common underlying curiosity. Why do certain people vote against their rational self-interest? What drives such decision-making? The answer is fairly simple: fear. More precisely: fear of change. There is the fundamental neurological truth about change. Any change, regardless whether it’s good for you or not from a ra

Apr 1, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Can AlphaGo cry?

By Jason Lim Growing up in an era where “go” was the epitome of an outdated game from a bygone era played by old men with long pipes emitting thin trails of smoke, I never imagined the day when this ancient game would become chic again and engage in a “mano a mano” with one of the most advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines in the world. According to many, Lee Se-dol’s loss to AI in go was a watershed moment in the evolution of homo sapiens itself, marking the turning point in which human beings would quickly become anachronistic and useless in the new world where AI will replace humans in most jobs. This is naturally leading to alarming warnings against Terminator-like scenarios, caution against technological elites in the shadows ruling over the rest of the humanity, or the emergence of AI-enhanced humans more akin to androids than people. While others are asking these fundamental questions about the survival of human species, I want to ask a simpler question: Can AlphaGo cry? While AI’s performance in go against a huma

Mar 18, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Where the world talks security

By Jason Lim That’s the tagline for the RSA Conference, the biggest cybersecurity event in the world, held annually in San Francisco. According to the press release, “RSA Conference is the premier series of global events where the world talks security and leadership gathers, advances and emerges.” When you are here, it’s tough to argue against this breathless self-description. There is palpable energy and excitement in the air, with tens of thousands of people from across the world converging in downtown San Francisco to hear the captains of the cybersecurity industry and leading policymakers share their insights and predictions. You can also wear out a brand new pair of shoes just walking along the exhibition floors, with hundreds of large to small businesses hawking their wares. Even nation states ― like South Korea and Germany ― have booths showcasing the best cybersecurity firms of their respective countries. The organic yet self-organizing hustle and bustle of the RSA Conference definitely gives off the impression that cybersecurity is the

Mar 4, 2016By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Read more

Dogs, horses and Queen Min

Brexit and Trump supporters

How Airbnb got blindsided by racists

Women lives matter, Korea style

Neuroscience of agency

Why couldn't Jet Li kiss Aaliyah?

Korea's entitlement pathology

Amygdala Hijack politics

Can AlphaGo cry?

Where the world talks security

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