[Kim Seong-kon] Cultural understanding in business and diplomacy

When I was president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, I once held a workshop on cultural differences so my staff could learn and discuss foreign cultures. At that time, I felt it was imperative that my staff was thoroughly informed of cultural differences because of an incident that had embarrassed us. A Korean institution that had donated hundreds of Korean-language textbooks to India discovered that those books were just piled in a warehouse, never having been used. Among th

July 7, 2021

[Martin Schram] A 2014 memo explains our 2021 news

  Summertime, and the livin’ ain’t easy. News screens keep showin’ How people die. We look away, ’cause we know what we’re seein’. Our pain’s not just knowin’ -- It’s knowin’ why. Newsbreak: Our worst nightmares are being splashed across our news screens, one after another. Unfortunately, the tragedies seem way too familiar -- because today’s tragic news reads like pages ripped right out of warning memos in which governmen

July 7, 2021

[Andrew Sheng] Glocalization should be welcomed rather than feared

Why is Marxism thriving in China and not in Marx’s place of birth? Why is Buddhism more practiced in East Asia than in India? Why has Islam more followers outside Saudi Arabia? Ideas and religion spread through globalization, but it was really their localization that created more believers and followers. What succeeded was not globalization, but glocalization, the internalization of universal ideas and beliefs by the many, and not just the few. Few Westerners see the irony of a suppose

July 6, 2021

[Bobby Ghosh] Macron, Erdogan suddenly playing nice

While US President Joe Biden took the center stage at his first NATO summit last month and German Chancellor Angela Merkel got some of the limelight for her last such appearance, a little-noticed piece of theater was playing out in the wings: The alliance‘s most antagonistic members were making nice. Meeting in Brussels, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Turkey‘s Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to a “verbal ceasefire” during what French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian de

July 5, 2021

[J. Bradford DeLong] Trumpism's analogy to Maoism

How does former US President Donald Trump still command the Republican Party’s complete allegiance? Everyone knows he has terrible judgment and a vindictive, petty personality. Even Trump’s own daughter and son-in-law are reportedly distancing themselves from him. And yet, whatever Trump says is still gospel for the overwhelming majority of Republican officeholders and commentators. For recognizing the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election, Representative Liz Cheney of

July 5, 2021

[Chung Mong-joon] Remembering former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

When I heard the news that the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld passed away, I remembered meeting him in Washington 10 years ago. In October 2011, I visited the former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld‘s office in Washington, DC to discuss various issues, including ROK-US relations. The conversation was later written in my book titled “Communications with Leaders of the World” published at the end of that year. I had met Secretary Rumsfeld several times before, but it was

July 4, 2021

[Digital Simplicity] Don’t return the new iPad yet before reconsidering its core functions

Eleven years ago, I was awestruck when I watched the then Apple CEO Steve Jobs presenting the iPad. Since there were some leaks about Apple’s new tablet computer, I was somewhat prepared to witness a new device. What surprised me the most was that Jobs sat down in a classic Le Corbusier LC-3 chair and rested the iPad against a crossed leg before browsing the internet and demonstrating apps with his fingers. It was an intricately orchestrated body posture, but I couldn’t resist the

July 3, 2021

[Robert J. Fouser] An early look at 2022 election

July marks the beginning of the second half of the year. In the first half, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news in South Korea as it has elsewhere. As vaccine rollout continues around the world, with predictable difficulties, hope for an end to the pandemic is tempered by fears of new variants. After a slow start, the pace of vaccination in South Korea has picked up, raising hopes for the second half of the year. Aside from the pandemic, the big story in the second half of the year wi

July 2, 2021

[Jeffrey Frankel] America’s false imbalance syndrome

One obstacle to productive public debate in the United States is the media’s tendency to engage in “false imbalance” when reporting on economic policies. No, I don’t mean “false balance.” False imbalance refers instead to the temptation to disparage policies that are in fact reasonable attempts to balance competing objectives. We have recently seen examples of this in US health care reform, as well as fiscal and monetary policy. The problem of false balance i

July 1, 2021

[Kim Myong-sik] Opposition confidence grows in race to power

With eight months to go until the next presidential election, South Korean voters are beginning to guess what kind of administration will replace the one that has put their country into an unprecedented level of political and social conflicts. Will it be as vindictive in treating the past ruling elite and as ideologically obsessed in pursuing socio-economic goals as was those now in power? Parties have drawn up charters and platforms in accordance with political ideals they chose, oftentimes h

July 1, 2021

[Andreas Kluth] Individualism makes us altruistic

Individualism is good, collectivism is bad. That’s what I first concluded as a teenager after reading Friedrich Hayek’s seminal treatise, “The Road to Serfdom.” Every life experience since then has confirmed my hunch. That makes it all the more irritating when opponents of individualism, out of ignorance or bad faith, keep distorting what it is. A particularly misleading charge is that individualism should somehow be tantamount to selfishness and egoism. Individualists t

June 30, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Angry Young Men’ in 2021 Korea

The Angry Young Men were a group of young writers from the UK who were disillusioned with the conservatism of their society in the 1950s. Inspired by John Osborne’s monumental 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” and Leslie Paul’s 1951 autobiography “Angry Young Man,” this group of young writers powerfully indicted the empty promises of postwar British society and its obsession with tradition through their literary works. The leading figures in the movement included

June 30, 2021

[Trudy Rubin] Lessons from shutdown of HK’s pro-democracy daily

As Senate Republicans were blocking a bill to expand voting rights for Americans, the Chinese government was destroying Apple Daily, the pro-democracy tabloid that campaigned for greater voting rights in Hong Kong. The comparison is worth making, because of the way China has systematically shredded Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms over the past year. Under cover of a new national security law, and COVID-19, Beijing has diminished voting rights, while arresting pro-democracy activists and m

June 29, 2021

[Clara Ferreira Marques] Pandemic’s end as messy as start

China has now delivered more than 1 billion vaccine doses, hitting that COVID-19 milestone the same weekend that Brazil passed one of its own: more than 500,000 deaths. Daily case numbers remain worryingly high, and those hospitalized and dying include larger numbers of young people. India, meanwhile, is at risk of a third wave of infections sooner than predicted, after a devastating second. The end of the pandemic is almost here. But the tail is long and -- thanks to shortsighted global and na

June 29, 2021

[Noah Smith] Automation is a race US can’t afford to lose

The US has traditionally been a nation of optimists about technology. But just when the world seems poised for a technologically-driven productivity boom, Americans have acquired a dour outlook about the march of progress. Growing fears that not everyone will share in the benefits is leading to resistance that threatens to hold the nation back. Recapturing the bold attitudes of yesteryear will require more than rhetoric -- it’ll require sweeping policy changes. You’d think now would

June 28, 2021

[Carl P. Leubsdorf] The most significant result of Biden-Putin meeting

In the 75 years that the United States and Russia have dominated global power politics, their underlying goal has remained remarkably constant: maintaining enough stability and predictability to prevent their differences from sparking a nuclear war. It was the mutual renewal of that concept that, if maintained, will be the most significant long-term result of the recent summit meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially after the unpredictable tenure of

June 28, 2021

[Serendipity] Innovations should be natural

The government recently launched a new round of publicity blitz to promote Korean culture abroad, this time involving the screening of a “fashion film” set in a Joseon period palace that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The aim is two-fold: Let the world know the beauty of Korea’s palaces and, perhaps more urgently, send a clear message that hanbok belongs to Korea. The latter aim has gained urgency as Chinese media have been claiming that hanbok originates from China.

June 25, 2021

[Lee Kyong-hee] Do not ostracize but protect sexual abuse victims

“Would the perpetrator have been arrested if the victim was a young woman?” This is a question from Hyo-jeong, the 69-year-old protagonist in the 2019 movie “An Old Lady.” While hospitalized with an injured shoulder, she is sexually assaulted by a 29-year-old male nursing assistant, but the authorities do not believe her and repeatedly reject demands for an arrest warrant. Helpless, she chooses her own way of pursuing justice. Hyo-jeong may be right in considering her

June 24, 2021

[Joe Nocera] Era of exploiting college athletes is ending

The dam has broken. College athletes are going to be paid -- eventually. And it’s about time. The Supreme Court on Monday confirmed unanimously that the National Collegiate Athletic Association is a business that has to conform to the same antitrust rules as any other business. That means its days of operating a multibillion dollar industry on the backs of an unpaid labor force -- the players -- are dwindling rapidly. The issue in NCAA v. Alston, which was argued before the court in Marc

June 24, 2021

[Karl W. Smith] America should become a nation of renters

Rising real estate prices are stoking fears that homeownership, long considered a core component of the American dream, is slipping out of reach for low- and moderate-income Americans. That may be so -- but a nation of renters is not something to fear. In fact, it’s the opposite. The numbers paint a stark picture. After peaking at 69 percent in 2004, the homeownership rate fell every year until 2016, when it was 64.3 percent, its lowest level since the Census Bureau started keeping track

June 23, 2021