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Opinion

Columnists

Mon, November 18, 2019 | 20:27

Political parties are integral to all modern democracies. President Park’s Saenuri Party and its recent routing in local elections proves that when the electorate has choices at the ballot box, it will reward or punish accordingly. Internationally, the last few years have been some of the most interesting in terms of observing the ebb and flow of political parties and their waning and waxing fortunes.

2016-07-04 16:40

Joseon Hell (II)

The Joseon Dynasty, Korea’s last monarchical reign, ruled for five centuries. Much of modern and contemporary Korean culture, such as Confucianism, familial patriarchy, a high emphasis on exams for social mobility, the writing system (Hangul), and traditional Korean food is derived from this period.

2016-05-02 16:17

Trump the chump

Some of my friends, Westerners and Koreans alike, are shocked about Donald Trump’s political rise, asking me what I think about it.

2016-04-04 16:58

The new, old China

Since her administration began, President Park's been playing a smart game of placating China by not officially endorsing America's deployment of THAAD missile batteries on the peninsula. Rightly, she did this in the hopes of convincing China's President Xi to take a harder line against its client state, North Korea. This was an admirable, but unattainable diplomatic goal. China will try its best to keep the Kim regime alive, even tolerating the crime and dysfunction on its border with North Korea, so long as the DPRK’s government doesn’t disintegrate.

2016-03-07 16:03

Apart from kimchi, K-pop, and sadly, North Korea, Korea's vigorous and often unhealthy focus on education is well known worldwide. Koreans believe a solid educational background, including acceptance into a top-ranked university, will ensure access to gainful employment and successful lives.

2016-02-22 17:03

Cultural appropriation

Is cultural appropriation appreciation? Elvis Presley. Katy Perry in Geisha attire or cornrows. Iggy Azalea's rap career. Eminem. Every other K-pop singer. It would take a month of Sundays listing all the artists subscribing to traditionally African-American music and culture, often becoming more successful than the black artists they copied from.

2016-01-11 17:09

Are you still in Korea?

America: Land of bigness. The hamburger. The television. The endless fields of wheat and corn and suburbia stretching out in all directions. The country is a marvel; our beautiful scenery; our vastness. It's a pleasure to be home.

2015-12-28 17:03

What is terrorism?

Remember the good old days? Where you didn’t have to take off your shoes or surrender your hand lotion when traveling by air? Remember how passing through airport security was once a brief encounter? I miss those days. After 9/11, we expect the long wait and the slow strip tease: no shoes, no belt, no jewelry, no jacket. Security agents may pat you down, spread your legs, pass a wand under here, over there.

2015-12-14 18:07

Guns and governance

Recently, gun murders in Korea have rocked the nation. Loss of human life should always be mourned, and certainly, murders are newsworthy, yet the amount of attention the few incidents garnered in the national media was surprising at first, at least to this American. But that surprise quickly dissipated when I remembered a few social statistics.

2015-11-30 16:57

Welcome to Korea II

“I Seoul You” has been roundly criticized as a rather trite slogan for the city’s tourism sector. I’m non-committal about it.

2015-11-16 16:13

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