The Pakistani love affair with meat has been a long and enduring one. In decades past, every neighborhood, rich or poor, featured a butcher shop, whose front prominently featured a fresh carcass swinging from a hook. Housewives would debate quality with the butcher or argue over the price or the freshness or the cut.　Those were different days, of course, when all relationships of consumption involved trust, when the city was not a megacity and the village was not a town. Even the birds got into

Sept. 17, 2015

As families around the country prepare to hold big reunions over the Chuseok holidays next weekend, grumblings can already be heard here and there over how the holidays have become so stressful for everyone.What should be a happy occasion when extended families who live far apart gather around a large feast and take delight in catching up with one another has somehow become a thankless chore. 　It is no longer just the daughters-in-law griping about slaving away in the kitchen for days. It is not

Sept. 17, 2015

For the first time in many years, the national budget for the fiscal 2016 contains no spending plan for any mega-scale infrastructure project. The Park Geun-hye government’s budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly show piecemeal increases in expenditures for welfare, education, defense and “creative economy.” 　Successive administrations in the past spent a lot of money on the construction of high-speed railways, establishment of a wholly new administrative city, relocation of major pu

Sept. 16, 2015

“The Martian” is a science fiction novel by American author Andy Weir. I read the book in an electronic version on my Kindle over a period of three days. It is a book that’s hard to put down. But before I go any further, here’s a warning: anyone planning to read this novel or watch its film adaptation due out early next month will be advised to avoid reading this spoiler-infested column.Now that you’ve bravely decided to read on, I feel much better talking about the fascinating storyline of “The

Sept. 16, 2015

Fall is upon us and will soon deepen. In the United States, the fall before a presidential election year gives shape to the long race to follow. The campaign so far has defied the experts as establishment candidates who once seemed invincible have faltered, while insurgents have gathered strength. For political junkies, it is one of the most fluid situations in recent memory, which makes for good sport.Earlier in the year, it appeared that Hillary Clinton would cruise toward the Democratic nomin

Sept. 15, 2015

Recently, I reread Philip Pullman’s epic trilogy, “His Dark Materials,” with great enthusiasm. I first came across these novels in 2005 and found them mesmerizing. I read them again 10 years later and found them as gripping as ever in every sense.　In his lecture in 2000, Pullman argued that the most serious threats facing human civilization today were the destruction of the ecological environment, the tyrannical power of big businesses and nuclear power states. He went on to add that the scaries

Sept. 15, 2015

Dean Acheson, who is often seen as one of the great American secretaries of state, wrote in the final chapter of his memoir, “Present at the Creation,” about what he called “the struggle through illusion to policy.” 　So many things that he and his colleagues had believed about geopolitics were wrong, Acheson explained. “Only slowly did it dawn upon us that the whole world structure and order that we had inherited from the 19th century was gone.”　This sense of a world turned upside down has been

Sept. 14, 2015

There is just one lens through which the undecideds, semi-decideds, wavering/quavering-decideds and the 24/7 punditocracy need to be viewing the Iran nuclear deal. Martin SchramIt is the only lens that will allow us to discover whether that internationally crafted, imperfect deal merits a yes or no vote.　(Frankly, it is mind-boggling that President Barack Obama and his sales team haven’t been imploring us to use this lens from the outset. It’s pathetic that Republicans were so eager to attack Ob

Sept. 13, 2015

It’s been nothing short of astonishing to watch Germany embrace the role of moral leader in Europe -- no, make that the world -- on the migration crisis that has sent thousands of Syrians and others streaming into the continent by land and sea. Doyle Mcmanus“This can make us proud,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said, praising the ordinary Germans who joyfully welcomed refugees in train stations across the country. “It is a true miracle,” German political analyst Josef Joffe told Politico.In Germany,

Sept. 13, 2015

Young Korean men and women now seem more ready than ever to find fault with what they see as the selfish attitude and behavior of the opposite sex. In a reflection of this atmosphere, many online communities have recently sprung up to provide a space for men to ridicule or vent their anger at women they deem to be insensible, and vice versa. Posts there are often filled with vitriol and even swear words, prompting their operators, who themselves are far from neutral and objective, to ask users n

Sept. 10, 2015

An economy depends fundamentally on public morality — shared standards about what sorts of activities are impermissible because they so fundamentally violate trust that they threaten to undermine the social fabric.At a time when many Republican presidential candidates and state legislators are furiously focusing on private morality — contraception, abortion, gay marriage and what people do in their bedrooms — America is experiencing a far more significant crisis in public morality.　CEOs of large

Sept. 9, 2015

The ride to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is turning out to be a mighty bumpy one.   　First it was the stadium. The budget was too high and had to undergo some drastic cuts. Then, the official emblem was pulled after it was found to be a rip-off.  　But this is only the tip of the iceberg, according to critics, who say that many decisions regarding the games were made without consensus. 　For instance, the public was never adequately informed of the criteria for choosing Kenjiro Sano’s emblem design. 　A

Sept. 9, 2015

The Los Angeles Times on Aug. 9, 2004, featured a rare reunion. In Santa Ana, California, 200 Vietnamese-Americans wholeheartedly welcomed a retired Korean commercial vessel captain Jeon Je-yong. Jeon was the captain of Gwangmyeong 87 that rescued 96 boat people in November 1985 in South China Sea.Upon encountering the people adrift in the sea, he immediately contacted the company headquarters in Busan but the order from the company was not to get involved in the refugee issues: Understandably,

Sept. 8, 2015