[Kim Seong-kon] Waiting for truly great leaders

The whole world is now watching the political leaders who are dividing the world into “us” and “them”; who pretend that they are saviors who can deliver the people from the miseries inflicted upon them by the privileged or the establishment. Populists in essence, those politicians are posing as messiahs who can bring back the good old days to the disappointed, nostalgic people. Their slogan is invariably a variation of “Make our country glorious again,” whethe

Aug. 7, 2024

[Grace Kao] Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ make memes for democracy

Who doesn’t love a good cat meme? In a 2021 interview with Fox News, US Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance referred to Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” Later he adds, “It's just a basic fact -- you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC -- the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without chil

Aug. 6, 2024

[Marc Champion] Russia’s prisoner trade

Take a good look at the lists of prisoners exchanged between Kremlin and the White House. If, after that, you still find yourself admiring President Vladimir Putin for his strength and despising US alliances for their “weak” liberalism, you need help. Putin went in person to Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport to hug Vadim Krasikov as he stepped off the plane that brought him home. Krasikov is the “patriot” Putin has sought to free ever since the former was convi

Aug. 6, 2024

[Career compass] 'You can only succeed by making others successful'

Readers have requested interviews with successful individuals about their career journeys. For this column, I had the pleasure of interviewing Park Hee-je, managing director of Kohler Novita Korea, a leading global bathroom products company. Park began his career in marketing at P&G Korea, later moving on to eBay and Philips. His professional journey has taken him to Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, gaining valuable experience in each location. I have immense respect for Park's leadership,

Aug. 5, 2024

[Sheldon H. Jacobson] Who will pay for Crowdstrike outage?

Crowdstrike did not have a good day on July 19. During a routine software update, the file that the cybersecurity firm issued triggered a logic error that prohibited Windows machines from rebooting. Microsoft estimates that around 8.5 million computers may have been affected by the event. This created a tsunami of downstream consequences, as computers that supported numerous industry operations were unable to coordinate and process data. For air travel, the net effect was the cancellation of mor

Aug. 5, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Central bank independence and government policy

In countries like South Korea that adopt the presidential system of government, the president can wield much stronger power than the prime minister under the parliamentary system because the president usually rules for a fixed period. Accordingly, comments by the president or presidential officials on specific issues can carry a much stronger and wider impact on people’s lives as well as financial markets. At the same time, their comments sometimes have a different type and magnitude of im

Aug. 5, 2024

[Lee Byung-jong] Espionage or public diplomacy?

The recent indictment by the US government of former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry on espionage charges smacks of a thrilling Hollywood spy movie. As an expert on Korean affairs, she allegedly received luxury handbags and expensive meals from the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency. In return, she arranged meetings between officials of Seoul and Washington and provided sensitive US government information to the agency in a bid to influence US policies on the Korean Peni

Aug. 2, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Obscured truth in the Sado mine complex

The Sado mine complex on Sado Island in Niigata prefecture of Japan has suddenly become world-famous. On Saturday, the 46th UNESCO World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, India decided to list the complex as a World Heritage site. Japan had sought to register it since December 2021 but had not succeeded, mainly due to strong opposition from South Korea. But recently there has been a big change in Korea’s position and Japan succeeded. In Japan, national leaders, including Prime Minister Fumi

Aug. 1, 2024

[Eric Posner] Prosecutions, politics don't mix

As America’s attention turns to November’s presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the prosecutions of the former president have been all but forgotten. But Democrats hope that Harris’s previous role as a district attorney may help jog memories and persuade some crucial swing voters to ditch the felon for the prosecutor. Will it work? Or has the failed assassination attempt against Trump retroactively mythologized the sputtering prosecutions as Stations of

Aug. 1, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Cultural differences make our eyes open

Despite many striking similarities, there are a myriad of cultural differences between the East and the West. Living in Korea and the US, I can attest to the plethora of such differences. Those differences reflect how Koreans and Americans perceive things differently. The way of disciplining a child is a good example. For instance, American parents usually “ground” a badly behaving boy by confining him in his room, probably with no TV or computer. On the other hand, Korean parents pu

July 31, 2024

[Lisa Jarvis] Extreme heat hits mental health

On July 22, planet Earth achieved a terrifying milestone: Global temperatures reached their highest level in recorded history, breaking a record set just one day before. This year is expected to be the hottest in centuries. Heat waves are hotter, longer and more frequent than they were in the 1960s. By now, most of us understand that extreme heat is bad for our health, making our hearts, lungs, kidneys and other organs work much harder. But too often we overlook the quieter, less obvious toll he

July 30, 2024

[Grace Kao] Asian Americans in US Census counts

The United States is a land of immigrants, with many racial and ethnic groups. How the US government counts them changes regularly, and the latest revisions affect all minority groups, including Asian Americans. For immigrants to the US, including those from South Korea, it is often a shocking transition for them as they are identified via the racial categories in the US. Certainly, for new arrivals from Korea, China, India, the Philippines and other countries in Asia, it’s not obvious why

July 30, 2024

[Heidi Boghosian] Perilous to rely on tech overloads

Starting Thursday of last week with ripple effects for days afterward, a routine software update caused a record-breaking freeze across much of the world. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity vendor deployed by Microsoft systems, installed an update that analysts say probably skipped quality testing. The result disabled an estimated 8.5 million computers in perhaps the largest cyber event in history. Affected were Microsoft-powered systems critical to the online operations of banks, hospitals, police fo

July 29, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] Fake peace or path to real peace?

Addressing the Republican National Convention on July 18, a few days after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump said that “it’s nice to get along with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons.” He said he got along very well with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. “He’d like to see me back too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.” Trump’s attempt to reach a breakthrough on North Korea’s nuclear arms failed to yield substa

July 29, 2024

[Robert Fouser] President Kamala Harris?

On July 21, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party's nominee. The announcement came after weeks of turmoil following his disastrous debate performance at the end of June. Biden tried to resist calls for his withdrawal but bowed to reality as support for his candidacy collapsed in the Democratic Party amid weakening poll numbers in the race against former President Donald Trump. Trump

July 26, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Problems beneath political polarization

Political violence and unprecedented upheavals are taking place around the world, and the level of anxiety is also being raised. Former US President Donald Trump was shot, but saving his life with some millimeters of margin escape was enough to shake the global community. About a week later, President Joe Biden said he was stepping aside as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. Earlier in May, Prime Minister of Slovakia Roberto Pizzo was shot and almost killed by a gunman. In June,

July 25, 2024

[Lisa Jarvis] Biden's COVID and summer surge

Last week the White House announced that President Joe Biden had tested positive for COVID-19, making him the most prominent example of this summer’s mini-surge. Each summer, COVID-19 seems to catch people in the US off guard by defying our assumptions about how viruses ought to behave in warm weather. The flu, for example, typically goes underground until the winter holidays. But COVID-19 burbles back up to ruin our vacation plans and force us to offload summer concert tickets. Based on w

July 25, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] To have or not to have children, that is the question

These days, one of the primary questions of young couples in South Korea is “Shall we have children or not?” In the past, however, Koreans not only took having children for granted but many customarily raised five to six children per home. At that time, Korean parents’ primary concern at childbirth was, “Is it a boy or a girl?” In the past, Koreans preferred sons to daughters. When a mother gave birth to a baby girl, therefore, she felt ashamed as if she had committ

July 24, 2024

[Robin Epley] Avoid all-female Democratic ticket

The question everyone has been asking in hushed tones now grows to a roar: Does Kamala Harris have what it takes to beat Donald Trump? God, I hope so. The future of American democracy might depend on it. Harris’ sudden candidacy represents hope that is desperately needed among the centrist and left-leaning American electorate, many of whom could not imagine President Joe Biden beating Trump. Now that the party has listened to voters and Biden has been convinced to step aside, it’s

July 24, 2024

[Grace Kao] Webtoons in college classrooms

While TV dramas may portray college classes with assigned readings, essays and tests, the truth is that professors also must adapt to technological shifts, especially in terms of media consumption. Webtoons are an important medium through which the Korean Wave flows. For those of you who are unfamiliar, webtoons are vertical “scrolling comics” built for viewing on a cellphone. They originated from and were developed in Korea. They enjoy a large fan base. For some people outside Korea

July 23, 2024