July marks the beginning of the second half of the year. In the first half, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news in South Korea as it has elsewhere. As vaccine rollout continues around the world, with predictable difficulties, hope for an end to the pandemic is tempered by fears of new variants. After a slow start, the pace of vaccination in South Korea has picked up, raising hopes for the second half of the year. Aside from the pandemic, the big story in the second half of the year wi

One obstacle to productive public debate in the United States is the media’s tendency to engage in “false imbalance” when reporting on economic policies. No, I don’t mean “false balance.” False imbalance refers instead to the temptation to disparage policies that are in fact reasonable attempts to balance competing objectives. We have recently seen examples of this in US health care reform, as well as fiscal and monetary policy. The problem of false balance i

With eight months to go until the next presidential election, South Korean voters are beginning to guess what kind of administration will replace the one that has put their country into an unprecedented level of political and social conflicts. Will it be as vindictive in treating the past ruling elite and as ideologically obsessed in pursuing socio-economic goals as was those now in power? Parties have drawn up charters and platforms in accordance with political ideals they chose, oftentimes h

Individualism is good, collectivism is bad. That’s what I first concluded as a teenager after reading Friedrich Hayek’s seminal treatise, “The Road to Serfdom.” Every life experience since then has confirmed my hunch. That makes it all the more irritating when opponents of individualism, out of ignorance or bad faith, keep distorting what it is. A particularly misleading charge is that individualism should somehow be tantamount to selfishness and egoism. Individualists t

The Angry Young Men were a group of young writers from the UK who were disillusioned with the conservatism of their society in the 1950s. Inspired by John Osborne’s monumental 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” and Leslie Paul’s 1951 autobiography “Angry Young Man,” this group of young writers powerfully indicted the empty promises of postwar British society and its obsession with tradition through their literary works. The leading figures in the movement included

As Senate Republicans were blocking a bill to expand voting rights for Americans, the Chinese government was destroying Apple Daily, the pro-democracy tabloid that campaigned for greater voting rights in Hong Kong. The comparison is worth making, because of the way China has systematically shredded Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms over the past year. Under cover of a new national security law, and COVID-19, Beijing has diminished voting rights, while arresting pro-democracy activists and m

China has now delivered more than 1 billion vaccine doses, hitting that COVID-19 milestone the same weekend that Brazil passed one of its own: more than 500,000 deaths. Daily case numbers remain worryingly high, and those hospitalized and dying include larger numbers of young people. India, meanwhile, is at risk of a third wave of infections sooner than predicted, after a devastating second. The end of the pandemic is almost here. But the tail is long and -- thanks to shortsighted global and na

The US has traditionally been a nation of optimists about technology. But just when the world seems poised for a technologically-driven productivity boom, Americans have acquired a dour outlook about the march of progress. Growing fears that not everyone will share in the benefits is leading to resistance that threatens to hold the nation back. Recapturing the bold attitudes of yesteryear will require more than rhetoric -- it’ll require sweeping policy changes. You’d think now would

In the 75 years that the United States and Russia have dominated global power politics, their underlying goal has remained remarkably constant: maintaining enough stability and predictability to prevent their differences from sparking a nuclear war. It was the mutual renewal of that concept that, if maintained, will be the most significant long-term result of the recent summit meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially after the unpredictable tenure of

The government recently launched a new round of publicity blitz to promote Korean culture abroad, this time involving the screening of a “fashion film” set in a Joseon period palace that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The aim is two-fold: Let the world know the beauty of Korea’s palaces and, perhaps more urgently, send a clear message that hanbok belongs to Korea. The latter aim has gained urgency as Chinese media have been claiming that hanbok originates from China.

“Would the perpetrator have been arrested if the victim was a young woman?” This is a question from Hyo-jeong, the 69-year-old protagonist in the 2019 movie “An Old Lady.” While hospitalized with an injured shoulder, she is sexually assaulted by a 29-year-old male nursing assistant, but the authorities do not believe her and repeatedly reject demands for an arrest warrant. Helpless, she chooses her own way of pursuing justice. Hyo-jeong may be right in considering her

The dam has broken. College athletes are going to be paid -- eventually. And it’s about time. The Supreme Court on Monday confirmed unanimously that the National Collegiate Athletic Association is a business that has to conform to the same antitrust rules as any other business. That means its days of operating a multibillion dollar industry on the backs of an unpaid labor force -- the players -- are dwindling rapidly. The issue in NCAA v. Alston, which was argued before the court in Marc

Rising real estate prices are stoking fears that homeownership, long considered a core component of the American dream, is slipping out of reach for low- and moderate-income Americans. That may be so -- but a nation of renters is not something to fear. In fact, it’s the opposite. The numbers paint a stark picture. After peaking at 69 percent in 2004, the homeownership rate fell every year until 2016, when it was 64.3 percent, its lowest level since the Census Bureau started keeping track

Situated between World War II and the Vietnam War, and overshadowed by the Cold War, the Korean War has inadvertently become the “Forgotten War.” Strangely, people have kept silent about the war and seem to have forgotten it completely. Whenever I see the epigraph “The Forgotten War” at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, I am as heartbroken as I can be because we should remember the Korean War forever. The Korean War was much more than a civil war. Rather, i

In South Korea, June is known as the month to commemorate patriots, veterans and service members. During the month, we have two very special national holidays: Memorial Day, honoring those who have fallen serving the country, and Korean War Memorial Day for those who sacrificed their lives fighting for democracy. My mind often feels solemn on this month as the country recognizes our service members, patriots and veterans. For more diverse and professional music studies, I decided to study in th