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Kim Eui-gyum, presidential spokesman until last month, had famously said, “There is no civilian surveillance in the DNA of the Moon government.” He was trying to distinguish the current liberal administration from the previous conservative rules of Lee Myung-bak and Park Ge Today [Eli Lake] When will the UN’s chief speak up for the Uighurs? There are a lot of people in the world who can plausibly claim ignorance of China’s foul campaign against its Muslim minority, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is not among them. Six months ago, the UN’s own committee on the elimination of racial discrimination released a devastating report on how China arbitrarily and systematically detains Uighurs in the western part of the country. Just last month, the UN high commissioner for human rights pressed the Chinese for access to the Uighur Today [Zaki Laidi] Algeria’s moment of truth By Korea Herald Apr 24, 2019 [Kim Seong-kon] ‘I am legend’ and have to fade away Throughout human history, there has always been a generation gap between the young and old. In the eyes of the old, young people are frolicsome and reckless, and do not want to learn from the past. In the eyes of the young, older people are hopelessly stubborn and conservative; constantly nagging about war, past poverty, and those turbulent days when they were young. “Which war?” Young people want to yell back, “Don’t you know those things are no longer our concern?” That was why Robert A. Heinl Apr 24, 2019 [Mihir Sharma] Sri Lanka’s pain is going to spread In Sri Lanka, memories of war and terrorism are very much alive. The decadeslong civil war between the Sinhala-dominated government in Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was brutal by any standards, and it ended a decade ago with a climactic battle near the Indian Ocean that took thousands of civilian lives. But Sri Lanka, beautiful and multicultural, has never had just the one fault line. On Easter morning, when hundreds of Christians and hotel guests were killed by suicide bomber Apr 23, 2019 [David Fickling] We should let China spy on us By Bloomberg Apr 23, 2019 [Ram Garikipati] Korean Air, Asiana face turbulent tailwinds By Ram Garikipati Apr 21, 2019 [Justin Fendos] Beware of those who only complain By Korea Herald Apr 22, 2019 [Robert Cheek] Robonomic question: economics of scarcity and economics of abundance A few months back, I witnessed a massive strike by Korea’s taxi drivers’ union. They were protesting the planned rollout of a ride-hailing application by a technology company. Admirable as their cause was, their fight was an exercise in futility that eventually came to a head when the chief of the taxi drivers’ union immolated himself. In response, the government placed a moratorium on the rollout of the service, another exercise in futility. In my experience, Koreans are often quick to respond Apr 22, 2019 [Cass R. Sunstein] Mueller left a strong hint on obstruction By Bloomberg Apr 19, 2019 [David Ignatius] How Xi overplayed his hand with America In the rebalancing of Sino-American relations that’s underway, the usual roles are reversed: China’s normally deft President Xi Jinping appears to have badly overreached in seeking advantage. And President Trump, who often seems tone-deaf on foreign policy, is riding a bipartisan consensus that it’s time to push back against Beijing. The two nations will probably make a trade deal soon, patching together a working relationship that has been frayed by a year of tariffs and economic brinksmanship. Apr 18, 2019 [Jeffrey D. Sachs] Our zero-emission future By Korea Herald Apr 18, 2019 [Ted Gover] Kim’s dashed expectations show Trump is striking the right balance By Korea Herald Apr 18, 2019 [Yang Sung-jin] Mysterious global impact of BTS Exactly how Jimin, RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, and Jungkook pull off one history-making feat after another is a mystery Apr 17, 2019 [Kim Seong-kon] Pleasure of reading Mendoza and Molina Recently, I read “The Truth About the Savolta Case” by celebrated Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza. In his intriguing novel, Mendoza depicts the turbulent social milieu of early 20th century Barcelona, where there were daily clashes between workers demanding a raise and company owners exploiting workers. It was a critical time when Spain witnessed a massive influx of foreign ideologies such as Bolshevism and anarchism that instigated workers, and capitalism that captivated company owners. The nove MORE 15 / 11374
