Jun 13, 2019

[Min Gab-ryong] Brave new world requires brave new answers

Universal usage of the internet has allowed humanity to venture into a domain our ancestors would have never dreamed of: cyberspace. The extensive freedom and convenience brought by the development of information and communication technology makes it very difficult to recall the days that lacked the fancy tools and services we relish today. Can modern man’s life be described well without referring to cyberspace and the connectivity it brings? Most would say otherwise. This shift towar

Jun 13, 2019

[Kim Hoo-ran] Lee Hee-ho’s legacy as activist, first lady offers lesson for all

When former first lady Lee Hee-ho, who passed away Monday night aged 96, and Kim Dae-jung tied the knot in 1962, they entered into a lifelong partnership that would endure numerous hardships and tribulations.By all accounts, most people on Lee’s side opposed the marriage. She was a well-educated woman who had studied sociology in the US and was playing an active role in the country’s nascent women’s rights movement. Her colleagues and family thought that marriage to Kim, an opp

Jun 12, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Reading Zack Rogow's poems in this harsh world

When I first heard Zack Rogow reading from his deeply moving poem, “Skating Lessons” at a poetry reading in San Francisco in 2006, I was mesmerized by his exquisite poetic sensitivity in the way he rendered a little girl’s painful initiation into adulthood on an ice rink and her father’s sad feelings of parting with her. The poem beautifully captured the moment of a father’s last skating lessons for his daughter: “I tugged my six-year-old around the rink/ shoc

Jun 12, 2019

[Lee Jae-min] A well-intended policy gone awry

After four deferrals in eight years since 2011, the revised Higher Education Act goes into effect this August. With roughly one month left, colleges and universities are preoccupied with how to implement new requirements under the law. There are still many unanswered questions and missing details. If you have any doubt, this is a well-intentioned law in all respects. It aims to protect the rights and working conditions of part-time lecturers at colleges and universities nationwide. Their employm

Jun 11, 2019

[Andrew Sheng] On board SS Planet Titanic

World Environment Day (June 5) was a good time to reflect on the existential threat of climate change.After five of the hottest years in living history, there is little doubt that climate change is moving center stage in the global agenda. The UN has warned that a million species are in danger of becoming extinct, with climate scientists claiming that we may have less than 10 to15 years to correct our carbon emission trajectory. It is no longer IF climate disaster will happen, only WHEN and how

Jun 10, 2019

[David Ignatius] Trump disdains postwar architecture

President Trump spoke the right words in commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but did he mean them? So far, his presidency has been about defying the postwar order that was based on shared values and global partnership, rather than cementing its legacy. Trump spoke here Thursday at what he rightly described as “freedom’s altar,” the burial site for nearly 10,000 Americans who died in the 1944 invasion of Normandy and in subsequent battles that ultimately led to Nazi Ger

Jun 7, 2019

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russia after Vladimir Putin

Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has, outwardly at least, been one of the world’s most stable and predictable regimes -- an assertive authoritarian government propped up by a mix of repression and acquiescence at home.So it’s only natural that some of the country’s leading analytical minds are looking to life after Putin is scheduled to depart in 2024: The present is too depressing to discuss.The Free Russia Foundation, a Washington-based th

Jun 7, 2019

[David Ignatius] Britain is club Trump wants to join

President Trump’s love-hate relationship with Britain has been on display in London this week. This ambivalence takes an especially bizarre turn in comments by the president and his supporters about British intelligence, historically America’s most important secret partner. After bashing prominent British figures on his way to London, Trump was on good behavior Tuesday, after a glittering state dinner the night before with the queen. He paid ritual homage to the special alliance betw