Opinion - The Korea Times

Hairy Angel of Scotland

By Jason Lim Around two weeks ago, a 47-year old Scottish woman named Susan Boyle, unique in her frumpy ordinariness, stepped onto the stage of ``Britain's Got Talent" and blew the world away with her singing. The fact that netizens worldwide have now ordained her as the ``hairy angel" should tell you what kind of an underwhelming TV image she cut at the time of her audition. If you are one of the 50 million people who clicked on YouTube videos of her performance, then you know what I'm talking about. I know that I've single-handedly added to that view count more than 10 times. Although I was forewarned to expect something special, I was still surprised and deeply satisfied when her astonishingly obvious talent managed to turn the sneering judges and impatient audience into her instant fans before she had even finished singing her first verse. As I read some of the comments left behind on YouTube, I knew that I wasn't alone in feeling this way. We felt her embarrassment when she confided that she lived alone with her cat and has never been kissed before. We soared along wi

Apr 27, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Korea Turns Multiracial

By Jason Lim ``I am Jiverly Wong shooting the people," begins the handwritten letter sent to a news station before 13 people were killed at a Binghamton, N.Y., immigrant aid center on April 3, 2009. Wong goes on to ramble: ``The first I want to say sorry I know a little English. I hope you understand all of this. Of course, you need to know why I shooting? Because undercover cop gave me a lot of ass during 18 years … cop used 24 hours the technique of ultramodern and camera for burn the chemical in my house…" As I read his pathetic and deranged letter, the terrible connection came back. It's the same terrible connection ― inexplicable yet all too understandable ― that I felt when I first heard about the murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech in April of 2007 by a deranged Korean-American student who had sent a rambling, deluded tape justifying his unjustifiable actions to a TV station in New York. The same sense of betrayal is also back. It's the betrayal that goes to the heart of my self-identity as a Korean-American who emigrated to the United States as a third-grader a

Apr 13, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

PULP Translations

By Jason Lim When I was working as the chief of staff for the founder of an international consulting firm, I had an opportunity to bid out a contract for the construction of a mid-size real estate development in Arizona. On the appointed date and time, several general contracting and architectural firms came and presented their plans, all touting their experience and trustworthiness in sincere but predictable ways. However, one small-sized firm stood out. Knowing that we were representing a Korean interest, the presenters for this firm, which included the president of the company, had their business cards translated into Korean. During the introductions before the presentation began, the president of the firm proceeded to personally walk over to each member of the evaluation team and proudly hand out his business card. It was obvious that he was expecting smiles of appreciation for the effort, if not outright thanks for his thoughtfulness. Unfortunately, what he got were guffaws of laughter from the evaluation team. The business cards, which must have been machine translat

Mar 30, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Tao of Leadership

By Jason Lim Google ``Tao of Leadership" and you will get a listing of several Western management books and articles that mostly reinterpret Lao Tzu's ``Tao Te Ching" in an archaic, New Age-like language that flutters and dances like a butterfly that ponders the external longing of the cosmos but sighs without taking a breath in the zephyr of spring. Say what? Exactly. In fact, these leadership tomes supposedly derived from the wisdom of the East merely re-package the trite leadership maxims out there already. No wonder they sound like a New Age executive daily calendar or motivational posters ubiquitous only in SkyMall catalogues. This is too bad because Eastern spiritual mysticism has much to teach us about the true nature of leadership because it was essentially the management science of ancient Eastern civilization. It sought to provide a definite and reachable goal of intellectual understanding and mental awareness to aid in personal growth and leadership development. The trouble with applying spiritual mysticism to real-world leadership is that any attempt to ex

Mar 16, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Bait & Switch Leadership

By Jason Lim A totalitarian state is commonly defined as one in which the state has absolute power over all societal resources and controls all aspects of public and private life. One would suppose that the followers would spontaneously, and as a group, throw off the yoke of the totalitarian leader. However, totalitarian states are not prone to palace coups. Looking at the history of totalitarian states in the 20th century, we see that such states are not toppled because of internal revolutions ― as in the cases of the Soviet Union under Stalin, Germany under Hitler, and Cambodia under Pol Pot. These states usually last until the natural death of the leader or an external invasion by a greater military force. In the case of North Korea, even the death of the paramount leader did not lead to dissolution of the totalitarian leadership scheme ― the totalitarian power was actually transferred to his son in the first ever dynastic succession of a modern totalitarian state. The repressive characteristics of a totalitarian leadership scheme are well known and naturally beg the q

Mar 2, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Illusion About Protection

By Jason Lim ``Korean girls are the easiest girls in the world," one of my American teachers told me as he left for Seoul after a stint with the foreign language institute that I worked for as recruiting manager about 12 years ago. He had been with us for about two years as one of the best-regarded teachers by students and staff. Therefore, what he told me was not just crude but absolutely shocking. I felt betrayed and violated. But why? Why would I feel a sense of violation because an otherwise likeable fellow would share with me his opinion about Korean girls in the context of a party where drinks flowed freely? I mean, such things happen all the time in the ``let's-be-boys" culture where sexual conquests are exaggerated and women's virtues disparaged with wild juvenile abandon. It wasn't something that I hadn't heard already about girls who went to a rival high school, joined a preppy sorority, or hung around with jocks. But why was I so upset that he said this of Korean girls? Granted, I had every right to feel shock at his crudeness; experience disappointment at his

Feb 16, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Three Images of Japan

By Jason Lim Kamikaze, Yasukuni and comfort women ― these are words that bring out possibly the three worst images of Japan: blind fanaticism, stubborn reluctance to apologize and past war crimes. But they can also beat a path towards reconciliation and peace in East Asia, as posed by Annabel Park, one of the four panelists at the recently concluded panel discussion titled, ``War, Memory and Representation in Art: Burma, Korea, Laos, & Vietnam," hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus. Annabel Park is a 1.5-generation ― people who immigrate to a new country before or during their early teens ― Korean-American filmmaker and activist who spearheaded the passage of H. Res. 121 in the summer of 2007, otherwise known as the comfort women resolution. In addition to Park, artists and social activists Kyi May Kaung, Channapha Khamvongsa, and Peace Mural artist Huong spoke about ``how, through art, traumatic individual memories can be woven into a larger context of community grief, reconciliation, and healing." As part of her presentation, Park

Feb 2, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

First Asian American President

By Jason Lim WASHINGTON, D.C. ― By all measures, Barack Obama's inauguration represents a celebration of the momentous struggle for equality and fairness by untold generations of African Americans. By announcing that he will be sworn in with the same bible that Lincoln used at the same place that Martin Lither King Jr. electrified the world with his ``I Have a Dream speech," Obama is fully embracing his historic role in this struggle, tracing a direct line from Lincoln to Martin Luther King to himself. At noon on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009, I can see Obama mentally saluting the parade of civil rights heroes ― from Frederick Douglas throwing off the yoke of slavery with such eloquence to Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus with quiet courage to the Greensboro Four sitting stoically on the lunch counter as the crowd behind them jeered ― as he recites the oath of office for the presidency of the United States of America. It's sure to be an emotional moment for him and all African Americans, a moment that I am honored to witness right here in Washington, D.C. Writi

Jan 19, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Buddhist Monk on Marriage

By Jason Lim Holiday seasons, where families get together for celebration and merrymaking, can be anything but such a time for people like me who are way past their prime age for marriage. Some delays are expected and are even fashionable these days, but when you begin to hit that purgatory timeline for marriage defined by mid to late 30-somethings (perhaps a bit earlier for women), then the encouraging winks become frowns, soft whispers become explicit orders, and parental sighs strengthen to gale-force winds. And if you manage to get through the purgatory without marrying, then the fierce winds die down to soft zephyrs as dirges are sung over your future happiness because, for sure, you are in hell. After all, what else comes after purgatory? But if you made peace with your damnation and think you are safely nestled in the boiling bosom of everlasting fire, then you would be wrong because one of your parents will come to you during a quiet moment when your guard is down and say with the gentlest and most reasonable of whispers, ``Why don't you want to get married?'' Unf

Jan 5, 2009By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Obama-Kim Summit

By Jason Lim Although North Korea is often portrayed as inscrutable and untrustworthy, it can also represent the lowest hanging fruit in Obama's foreign policy tree because North Korea's wants and needs are fairly transparent. In short, we know where they are coming from. Let's examine the problem from the North Korean point of view. First, there is only one overriding want for North Korea: keep the current regime intact for the foreseeable future. Therefore, unless we are willing to risk the destruction and unpredictability of a forced regime change in North Korea, we must recognize and deal with this immovable condition as pragmatically as possible. Two, if regime maintenance is the overriding want, what are the threats to this want? The answer to this question is important because it will tell us what North Korea needs to fulfill its primary want. The answer is not that difficult to find. It has been well documented. North Korea is facing economic failure, international isolation, a food shortage crisis, an outdated conventional weapons stockpile and loss of peop

Dec 22, 2008By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Read more

Hairy Angel of Scotland

Korea Turns Multiracial

PULP Translations

Tao of Leadership

Bait & Switch Leadership

Illusion About Protection

Three Images of Japan

First Asian American President

Buddhist Monk on Marriage

Obama-Kim Summit

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