[Serendipity] In these unusual times, adversity may be unforeseen opportunity

The young men have done it yet again. The trailblazing K-pop boy band’s latest single, “Dynamite,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first South Korean music ever to do so. The announcement, which followed on the heels of the seven-member group’s impressive win of four awards -- best pop, best group, best choreography and best K-pop for “On,” released in February as the lead song for “Map of the Soul 7” -- at the MTV Awards held only a few

Sept. 4, 2020

[Tyler Cowen] No, America will not be canceled

One of the most hotly debated questions among my friends and acquaintances lately is this: Is America headed for a future in which just about everyone has been canceled? Fortunately, while “cancel culture” and political correctness have become stronger and more influential over the last few years, these movements have built-in limitations. They will prove to be a durable element of American culture, but by no means a dominant one. How do I know? I don’t, of course, but consid

Sept. 4, 2020

[Ana Palacio] A Democratic Doomsday?

In 1947, two years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated by nuclear bombs, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists launched the Doomsday Clock to convey the world proximity to annihilation -- and to spur action to “turn back time.” Today, it is worth considering the need to create a clock to show how close our democracies are to collapse. On such a Democracy Doomsday Clock, we would be rapidly approaching midnight. Liberal democracy is founded on the idea that individuals acting

Sept. 3, 2020

[Lee Kyong-hee] An artist’s life -- checkered and forgotten

The nation is at war. The war is raging on two major fronts. One is against the invisible coronavirus. The other, much older and deep-seated, divides the country, so accustomed to politicizing and ideologizing along unclear lines of right and left, or conservatives and progressives. In a situation like this, it must seem insensitive, or even like a luxury, to discuss art or an artist’s life. However, I was attracted to one particular art exhibition devoted to Pai Un-soung. Pai occupies a

Sept. 3, 2020

[Tim Culpan] China just called Trump’s bluff on TikTok

Imagine a bidder wanting to buy KFC, but being told the deal might not include the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices. That’s effectively what Beijing has told the list of US companies keen to purchase short-video app TikTok: The key ingredients may be out of reach. At first it looked like the Trump administration had it all figured out. ByteDance, it decided, was a risk to national security and the Chinese company’s main product for international markets had to be sold.

Sept. 2, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Things that make us sad these days

When German poet Anton Schnack wrote the celebrated essay “Things That Make Us Sad” last century, he referred to sentimental, melancholic objects such as a small dead bird found in the garden, drizzling autumn rain and indecipherable graffiti in a desolate castle. He also mentioned old letters from a deceased father that read, “My son, you gave me so many sleepless nights.” In 2020, a plethora of things make us sad in Korea, too. Unfortunately, however, we do not have th

Sept. 2, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] The big China disaster you’re missing

The world’s largest dam is under pressure in the massive flooding that’s wiping away billions of dollars of value in China. The predicament symbolizes a looming crisis for Beijing. Climate change is bringing more frequent and intense deluges that threaten the economic heartland, and infrastructure defenses installed with the disasters of previous eras in mind can’t keep up. There’s very little time to prepare for what’s coming. The problem isn’t that Chi

Sept. 1, 2020

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Trump’s international economic legacy

It would be foolish to start celebrating the end of US President Donald Trump’s administration, but it is not too soon to ponder the impact he will have left on the international economic system if his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, wins November’s election. In some areas, a one-term Trump presidency would most likely leave an insignificant mark, which Biden could easily erase. But in several others, the last four years may well come to be seen as a watershed. Moreover, the long s

Aug. 31, 2020

[Noah Smith] Abe leaves behind a better Japan

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, is resigning due to ulcerative colitis. He leaves behind a Japan that is both economically stronger and more socially liberal than the one he inherited. When Shinzo Abe took over Japan’s leadership in late 2012, I was extremely skeptical. After a short and unimpressive tenure in office in the mid-2000s, Abe seemed unlikely to rise to the challenge of Japan’s faltering economy and unequal society. And the fact he emerged from

Aug. 31, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Doodling as a way to stay calm amid pandemic

When I was a kid, I enjoyed drawing. I created, in my view, not-so-bad paintings. I won some awards at drawing contests. My classmates said I was talented. I even dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. Full of confidence, I had asked my parents to pay for a private art class. I attended art class far more enthusiastically than regular classes at school, learning various basic techniques from simple drawing to watercolor and oil paintings. Naturally, drawing is one of my main hobbies. Somehow, I h

Aug. 28, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] The resurgence of COVID-19

South Korea’s battle with COVID-19 took a turn for the worse as cases started to jump in the middle of August. Unlike the first wave, which centered on Daegu, the recent spike in cases has been nationwide. The government has strengthened rules on social distancing and is considering a national shutdown if the situation worsens. After its success in squelching the Daegu-centered outbreak in the spring, many nations looked to Korea as a model of how to deal with COVID-19. In the US, major n

Aug. 28, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] Moon distances Christians in coronavirus politics

  Last Sunday, many Christians in Korea held online worship services from their homes, as requested by the government. Sitting before their computers or holding smartphones, they listened to sermons by their pastors standing at the pulpit in the empty chapel and prayed individually for an early end to the pandemic. It was the second time this year that the churchgoers were forced to stay home since they had the first such experience in March when outbreaks surged in the nation. At that t

Aug. 27, 2020

[Francis Wilkinson] Republicans feed persecution complex

The Republican National Convention may be built around the cult of personality of Donald Trump, who is stronger, faster, smarter, richer, more magnanimous, truthful and handsome than any human in history, but even the unparalleled glories of Trumpism are, in the end, mere reflections of the party’s true obsessions: persecution and aggression. Those themes shape the rhetoric that conveys conservative values and inform the fantasies that occupy the party’s large and growing cohort of

Aug. 27, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Repondez s’il vous plait!

When you receive a card that says RSVP, which stands for the French “repondez s’il vous plait,” it means you must reply immediately whether you accept or decline the invitation. The same thing goes for emails and text messages, even though there is no RSVP attached. Since it all depends on the person -- we cannot stereotype people. However, it is undeniable that older Koreans are notorious for not responding to emails or text messages. The only problem is that older people fr

Aug. 26, 2020

[Daniel Moss] There’s apparently no way to tackle coronavirus pandemic

Many of the governments once lauded for their textbook COVID-19 responses, replete with strict lockdowns, sophisticated contact-tracing apps and clearly articulated policies, got tripped up by something in the end. In Singapore, it was an outbreak in foreign worker dorms. In South Korea, it was the premature reopening of nightclubs. Then there were other countries that did nothing glaringly wrong and still suffered. It only goes to show that there’s no winning the coronavirus recovery.

Aug. 26, 2020

[Andreas Kluth] Epidemic of depression, anxiety

Of the coronavirus’s many side effects, perhaps the least appreciated are psychological. Those who’ve had a bad case and survived, like people who’ve been in war or accidents, may suffer post-traumatic stress for years. And even people in the as-yet-healthy majority are hurting. Young adults, in particular, are getting more depressed and anxious as SARS-CoV-2 uproots whatever budding life plans they’d been nursing. It’s long been clear that COVID-19, like any major

Aug. 25, 2020

[Jeffrey Frankel] Dark heart of gold as an international reserve asset

The price of gold reached an all-time high of $2,000 per ounce in early August. And while mainstream economists have treated gold as a sideshow since the world abandoned the gold standard in 1971, this recent price spike is a significant signal. Three explanations for the elevated gold price -- related to US monetary policy, risk and investors’ growing desire for a safe-haven alternative to the dollar -- have been offered. Each contains some truth. The US Federal Reserve has eased moneta

Aug. 25, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] Floods, COVID, chaos shake China

One of the most severe floods in decades is ravaging the industrial heartland, just as China struggles to shake off the impact of COVID-19. The Yangtze River’s inundation has so far caused direct economic losses of 178.9 billion yuan ($25.7 billion), including collapsed buildings, flooded factory floors and homes and livelihoods lost for millions of people. Average rainfall for June and July surpassed previous years; fixing the damage has barely begun. The latest disaster feeds into a pic

Aug. 24, 2020

[Mac Margolis] COVID response brings out Bolsonaro’s inner leftist

When he took office early last year, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had what looked like a plan: Crush corruption, rescue Brazil from social liberalism and revive the economy from the worst recession in a century. Nineteen months on, that bold agenda is mostly history. It’s tempting to blame the flop on the coronavirus pandemic -- a “meteor strike,” in the words of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes -- and its devastating toll on lives and livelihoods. But that gets the story

Aug. 24, 2020

[Serendipity] Wishing it were a movie

It felt as if I were a character in a zombie movie. I was driving home from the office Monday evening when, over the airwaves, I heard a crisp, measured male voice announcing the number of new daily COVID-19 cases: 188 local cases and nine from abroad. This cannot really be happening, I thought. I panicked at the surreal nature of it all, despite having been bombarded by hourly updates on the increasingly grave situation all day. The imminent danger had not really sunk in until I heard it on

Aug. 21, 2020