KoreaTimes - Columnists

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Jason Lim

Thanksgiving in thankless year

As I write this, the international media is reporting that Diego Maradona has died. The outpouring of grief and condolences has been universal, with perhaps the exception of English soccer fans with a long memory and equally long-lasting grudge for the “Hand of God” incident. Several weeks earlier, we also lost Sean Connery, the quintessential James Bond, who defined a manly cool that survived even today's BTS-like metrosexual culture. 2020 also marked the passing of RBG, Alex Trebek, and Kobe Bryant, just to name an additional, notable few.

2020-11-29 17:38

Social justice without fairness

By Jason LimOver 56 percent of California voters rejected Prop. 16 in a state that voted overwhelmingly (65 percent) for Joe Biden. This was a resounding defeat for a supposedly “progressive” ballot box initiative that would “allow diversity as a factor in public employment, education, and contracting decisions.” According to California's voter guide webpage, “A YES vote on this measure means: State and local entities could consider race, sex, color, ethnicity, and national origin in public education, public employment, and public contracting to the extent allow...

2020-11-15 18:02

Moon and Korea's zeitgeist: a grand narrative needed

A Facebook friend recently posted a 2017 interview Der Spiegel did with French President Emmanuel Macron that deeply resonated with me and resulted in a lingering curiosity. What is Korea's zeitgeist today?

2020-11-01 17:58

Trembling Tiger, Roaring Dragon

The Korea Society's Annual Gala Dinner held Oct. 7 was the organization's premier event of the year, held to mark the U.S.-Korea relationship and honor those who work to maintain the alliance.

2020-10-18 17:33

Pandenomics for women

Korea's young women are dying during the pandemic. Not from the disease but by their own hands. Suicides among young women were up an alarming 17.9 percent in April when Korea imposed strict social distancing measures. The overall suicide rate for people in their late teens and twenties in the first half of 2020 was up by 7 percent from last year. To note, the statistics only record successful suicides, with the consensus that women attempt far more suicides than men - they just don't succeed as often. In short, it definitely looks like that there is a parallel pandemic of suicides among you...

2020-10-05 17:20

Bradykinin hypothesis

I'll be the first to admit that I had never heard of the term, “the bradykinin hypothesis” before. Then again, I had never heard of “cytokine storms” either before the pandemic made it into a household term.

2020-09-06 17:49

To send or not to send to school

Anya Kamenetz and Corey Turner recently published an article in NPR titled, “20 Questions To Help Decide What's Best For Your Kids (And You) This School Year.” As a parent of a rising 3rd grader, I responded to the questions to see where it led me.

2020-08-23 17:16

Shattering self-betrayal

Strangely enough, when I heard that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon had taken his own life, an obscure passage from one of the Dune books popped into my head. I can't recall the specific text or the even the characters that uttered the words, but the passage featured the Bene Gesserit, an all-female quasi-religious and political society, as they were planning a conspiracy against the “Kwisatz Haderach,” the all-seeing god-king.

2020-07-17 17:14

Not your dad's North Koreans

By Jason LimNorth Koreans of the “arduous march” generation ― those who starved to death in mid-1990s in quiet desperation while waiting in their homes for the public distribution system to deliver rations that never came ― are forever gone. Today's North Koreans are market-savvy burgeoning capitalists. There is now a moneyed class ― consisting mostly of party and military officials who have profited from the trade between North Korea and China. There is conspicuous wealth, from new high-rises and department stores filled with modern electronics to pricey restaurants and amusemen...

2020-07-03 17:10

Too comfortably numb

It's pretty obvious that Lee Yong-soo “halmeoni” (grandmother) feels disrespected and disenfranchised from the very movement for which she has long been one of the most active and visible “comfort women” ambassadors.

Kim Ji-soo | 2020-06-07 17:11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Top 10 Stories

1	Korea eyes launch of 4th Nuri space rocket in 2025

2	Memorial Day 2023

3	Korea's household debt-to-GDP ratio highest among 34 major economies

4	Japanese destroyer flies controversial flag as it arrives in Korea for joint drill

5	Seoul on alert over Pyongyang's imminent spy satellite launch

6	Vietnam emerges as major market for Korean chipmakers

7	ANALYSISChina's ban on Micron tests Washington-Seoul alliance

8	Korea's diplomacy put to test amid signs of thaw in US-China relations

9	Top 20% of income earners fuel increase in Q1 consumption as pandemic ends

10	Local governments appeal to young generations through YouTube

DARKROOM