중앙데일리

[NOTEBOOK]An obstinate leader, a bad war

The Middle East region saw its heaviest snow in half a century. A reporter in our international news department who was in Jordan to cover the pending Iraq war was confined to his hotel because of snow more than a foot deep. It would be too much to ask for a dry land where dust flies all year to be equipped with snow-clearing equipment. Choi Chang-mo, an academic who writes a column “From Jerusalem” for the JoongAng Ilbo, sent a picture of the …

Mar 04,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Whose sperm are you?

Adam and Eve have just married. Unfortunately, Adam suffers from azoospermia, or an absence of sperm in the semen. Eve receives the seed of Satan kept frozen at a sperm bank for artificial insemination. But before the baby appears, the couple breaks up. Without any means to make a living for herself and the newborn, Eve files a lawsuit against her ex-husband and the sperm donor, claiming that they should cover the expenses of rearing the baby. In…

Mar 04,2003
[TODAY]U.S. is blocking Mr. Roh’s vision

Dreams are the mother of reality. Presidents and political leaders are often evaluated on their ability to turn dreams and visions into reality. Five years ago, the newly inaugurated President Kim Dae-jung spoke of a dream in which Koreans would travel the “iron silk road” across the vast Eurasian continent. Unfortunately, President Kim had to leave the Blue House before he could realize that dream, confronted by the reality of North Korea’s nucl…

Mar 02,2003
[VIEWPOINT]Safety hardware needs software

Before Korea was hit by financial crisis in 1997, a deputy prime minister described the fundamentals of the Korean economy as “sound and strong.” What did he mean? Were the financial structure and governance of Korean businesses sound and strong? Were Korea’s financial institutions free of bad debts? Was Korea’s labor market flexible and trouble-free? Before the outbreak of the Daegu subway tragedy, if someone asked the Daegu mayor or other…

Mar 02,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Nationalism and racism

“The Family of Abe” is a novel by Jeon Sang-guk, a professor at Kangwon University, who has focused on the tragedies of the Korean War and the division of Korea. He depicts three rapes, one committed by Korean teenagers including the protagonist, Jin-ho, and the others by black U.S. soldiers. About the racial prejudice depicted in the novel, which most readers might have passed over, Mr. Jeon said in a new book: “A few years ago, there was a pu…

Mar 02,2003
[OUTLOOK]How to let democracy take root

The Roh Moo-hyun administration signifies the start of a new period, the post-democratization period following the 15-year struggle to install a functioning democracy here. In this period, we have reached the point in which we graduate from “simple” democratization, to borrow British sociologist Anthony Giddens’ words, to “reflexive” democratization. This means transcending the simple choice of dictatorship or democracy, acknowledging the diver…

Mar 01,2003
[INSIGHT]What about humility and love?

Strangely, no South Korean president had ever had the chance to enjoy the moment of their election victory and inauguration. They all faced challenges to prove their ability as a president. When Kim Young-sam took office, he was presented with Pyeongyang’s decision to walk away from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. President Kim Dae-jung faced a foreign exchange crisis. Today, President Roh Moo-hyun is facing challenges no less serious than…

Mar 01,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Strangled by ties that bind

Fashions in neckties seem to be simple. Ties become wider or narrower and the way of wearing them changes to a longer or shorter form. Nonetheless, neckties have the magical power to improve or lessen the impression the wearer makes, depending especially on their color. The history of the necktie is not very long. A necktie is a cravate in French, and there is a history that goes along with the word. In 1635, during the Thirty Years War, 6,0…

Mar 01,2003
[OUTLOOK]Korea in the Northeast Asia age

President Roh Moo-hyun is known to have a way with words, but that talent was not on full display in his inaugural speech on Tuesday. As the president rambled on about the “Age of Northeast Asia,” the speech seemed oddly out of step for the sobriety of the times. Where did the “Age of Northeast Asia” come from? The idea of an “Age of Northeast Asia” has been around for a long time. In the first half of the 20th century, Japan used the pretext…

Feb 28,2003
[INSIGHT]A small wonder needs leadership

What are our expectations and hopes as we congratulate President Roh Moo-hyun, who will lead the country for five years? We hope President Roh is a president who often looks at the world map. This is not to emphasize the duty of the president to explore the future of Korea in the fast-changing international dynamics. It is to ask him to always keep in mind how perilous and insecure Korea’s geopolitical position is. Focusing on the Asian co…

Feb 28,2003

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