중앙데일리

Government Must Be Accountable

The Task of Parliamentary Inspection Is To Expose Waste and Inefficiency "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other class," wrote Voltaire, the 18th century French philosopher and writer. Replace "taking" with "collecting" and the observation by Voltaire rings true today. Two conditions must be met before citizens will consent to the government takin…

Nov 18,2000
Workers Must Be Market-Friendly

Unemployment is projected to soar as corporate restructuring moves into high gear and economic stagnation sets in. To add to the woes, university graduates are entering the job market in search of their first jobs. All of this contributes to the gloomy forecast that unemployment will rise above 4 percent by early next year with more than 1 million people out of work. Labor disputes also show signs of snowballing as the job market becomes so tight…

Nov 16,2000
A Rash Step to Revive Soccer

"When France won the World Cup in 1998, more people than the crowd that gathered after victory was declared in World War II rushed to the Champs-Elysees to celebrate. We should try our best to feel the same joy during the 2002 World Cup," said Chung Mong-joon, co-chairman of the Korean Organizing Committee for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan (KOWOC) and chairman of the Korea Football Association. Now, the Korean government has moved to…

Nov 16,2000
Banking on the Fog to Clear

Among poems singing the praises of autumn, the work of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke has universal appeal. Rilke''s "Autumn Day" evokes the season and all its splendor. "Lord, it is time. Let the great summer go, Lay your long shadows on the sundials, And over harvest piles let the wind blow. Command the last fruits to be ripe; Grant them some other southern hour, Urge them to completion, and with power Drive fina…

Nov 16,2000
Inter-Korean Economic Pact Is Prickly

North Korea Should View Trade With South as Domestic That the systematic framework for inter-Korean economic cooperation, agreed to by delegates from South and North Korea, is still subject to ratification by the National Assembly does not diminish the historic significance of the preliminary accord. The recent inter-Korean economic cooperation agreement was designed to guarantee investment, prevent double taxation, settle account payments …

Nov 16,2000
Powerful Drama of Democracy

The electoral system used in United States presidential polls is confusing, and even political pundits sometimes struggle to explain it clearly. Primary elections, in which candidates from one party compete against fellow party members for the right to represent their party in the general election, are also unfamiliar to many people. The indirect and, one might say, undemocratic electoral college system of awarding the electoral votes of each sta…

Nov 14,2000
Large Firms Can － and Should － Fail

An early attempt at analyzing the success and failure of U.S. companies resulted in Gibrat''s Law, which posits that there is no correlation between the size of a company and its ability to grow in the future. A large successful company and a small successful company both have the same probability of survival. Until recently, this rule did not seem to apply in Korea. The government stepped in to save large companies from failure, while strong…

Nov 14,2000
Problems with 3 Financial Reforms

Destitute Banks Should Be Allowed to Go Bankrupt I wish to take issue with three of the reforms the government is pursuing in its attempts to solve the problems endemic to the South Korean financial sector. The first has to do with the partial deposit insurance system. After the appointment of a new finance and economy minister, the ministry conducted surveys for 70 days and finally decided on a scheme that would guarantee individual deposi…

Nov 14,2000
Art Lovers Are Korean Patriots

A permanent gallery exclusively dedicated to Korean art opened at the British Museum in London last week. It showcases works of fine art and beautiful artifacts that give vivid evidence of the splendid cultural accomplishments of the Korean people. Covering more than 390 square meters of floor space, the gallery even includes an installation of a traditional scholar''s study called a sarangbang, which portrays the beauty of Korea''s traditional a…

Nov 12,2000
Correct the Record, Then Build a Hall

Some time ago I watched a late night television discussion program on the controversial suggestion to build a memorial hall honoring former president Park Chung-hee, whose administration ran from 1961 to 1979. A professor on the panel said, "President Park is known as a clean leader, but it is not true. After his death, hundreds of millions of won were found in the Blue House safe, and there is firm evidence that he deposited a substantial am…

Nov 12,2000

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