Opinion - The Korea Times

From Darfur to Japan

By Jason Lim CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ Rebecca Hamilton is a joint degree student at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School. She worked in Sudan last year and is a cofounder of the Darfur Action Group. Rebecca is widely recognized as the person who began the difficult process of building the momentum of information and outrage at what was happening at Darfur. Almost single-handedly, she triggered the news cascade that crested over the critical mass of public awareness over the Darfur crisis. She did this all as a student. Recently, Rebecca spoke at my Followership class. What she said shocked me. She didn’t shock me because she used words laden with vivid imagery of the killings, rapes, and brutal violence. She didn’t shock me because she presented us with numbers of those suffering that seared into our hearts. In fact, Rebecca was passionate but very matter-of-fact, something that made her words harder to ignore. No, Rebecca shocked me because she said that the image of the U.S. in the world is so negative that a U.S. based movement to alleviate the sufferi

May 14, 2007By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Thank You, Ambassador Lee

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ For ethnic Koreans, hearing that the Virginia Tech killer was also a Korean was shocking in an almost physical way. Although I can speak only for myself, I feel a primeval sense of horror that someone connected to me by ethnicity could commit such a foul act against everything we hold sacred and decent in our common humanity. Of course this was an act of a lone, disturbed individual who could have been from any race or ethnicity, but I cannot deny that his being ethnically Korean somehow brands me with a mental Scarlet Letter that is visible only to me but nevertheless seethes painfully against the screen of my self-identity as a Korean. While being an ethnic Korean neither automatically qualifies nor obligates me to speak to this horrible heartbreak any more than any one else, there is a terrible connection here that is inexplicable yet all too easy to feel. Judging by the outpouring of anger, condolences, and grief from Koreans everywhere, I am apparently not alone in feeling a terrible connection to this tragedy. However, I was surprised at the angry r

Apr 30, 2007

Jason Lim

Uncomfortable ‘Followership’

By Jason Lim CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ Recently, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, denied that the Imperial Japanese Army had anything to do with the establishment of the Asia_wide system involving the systemic rape of women perpetrated by Japanese soldiers during WWII, euphemistically referred to as the ``comfort women.’’ Abe has also given implicit support to an effort led by his close advisers to overturn the 1993 Kono admission of official Japanese involvement with comfort women. Many have been trying to paint this debate as a conflict between Japan and Korea, or Japan vs. the rest of Asia. Others have portrayed this as a failure of leadership, mainly on the part of Japanese politicians to show courage in facing the unpleasant past. Still others framed the issue as part of a larger international issue of Northeast Asia’s security system for the future, warning that the comfort women issue could inflame nationalistic passions and destabilize the region. Such characterizations do not represent the whole picture. The comfort women issue is not only about regional conflict, i

Apr 16, 2007By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

Organic Leadership via Networking

By Jason Lim CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ This spring semester, I will take a course named, ``Building Organizational Social Capital: Informal Networks Within and Between Organizations’’ taught by Professor David Lazer. The impressive (and long) title makes it sound more imperious and ivory-towerish than it is because the course is simply about networking and how it can help you do your work more effectively. In fact, it is the least ivory-towerish and in fact most practical course I have taken here at the Kennedy School because the course actually makes you aware of the various components that go into a network and how they can be analyzed, designed, and manipulated to achieve the desired goal of a network. The message of the course is not just that networks are good for you; it’s how networks can be good for you. More importantly, it’s how you can make networks that can be good for you. And since any organization, regardless of size and complexity, can be fairly described as an amalgam of various networks on multiple dimensions, both formal and informal, understanding how networks org

Apr 8, 2007By Jason Lim

Jason Lim

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From Darfur to Japan

Thank You, Ambassador Lee

Uncomfortable ‘Followership’

Organic Leadership via Networking

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