중앙데일리

Do Law Enforcement Authorities Serve the Public or the Powerful?

An ominous pall shadows the economy and functional politics have vanished from the Korean political landscape. Rarely do we hear news of Korean players winning an Olympic medal, and no solution is in sight for the medical stalemate. A typhoon recently brought havoc to the Korean peninsula. Consumer prices keep on rising, along with apprehension of a second financial crisis. Culture and Tourism Minister Park Jie-won finally decided to hand in…

Sept 20,2000
Market Crash Casts Pall over Kyongui Railroad Optimism

On Monday, October 19, 1987, a deluge of sell orders poured in as soon as the New York Stock Exchange resumed operations after the weekend. Wall Street immediately fell into a panic; the stock index took a dizzying nosedive. During the course of this single day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sustained the steepest fall in its history, plunging 508 points, or 22.6 percent. So many investors clamored to dump their holdings that the brokers could…

Sept 19,2000
Gov＇t Must Take Steps to Dispel Doubts over Abuse of Power

I once saw a foreign movie in which a powerful government bureaucrat murdered a congressman for opposing a bill his agency wanted to pass into law. The scene of the crime was accidentally captured on a camera that had been rolling to observe birdlife. The people with the film, who had no idea of its significance, were either murdered by the agency as it tried to cover up the crime, or falsely accused and sought by the law enforcement authorities.…

Sept 18,2000
Korean Temperament a Double-Edged Blade

In the early 1980s, when the nation was under the iron rule of the Chun Doo-hwan administration, General John A. Wickham, then commander-in-chief of the United States Forces in Korea, sparked a great controversy by comparing the national characteristics of the Korean people to rats. Wickham uttered the comment at a private gathering. He committed a major blunder by likening Koreans, who blindly follow transitory trends and fashions, to a pack of …

Sept 17,2000
Korean Temperament a Double-Edged Blade

In the early 1980s, when the nation was under the iron rule of the Chun Doo-hwan administration, General John A. Wickham, then commander-in-chief of the United States Forces in Korea, sparked a great controversy by comparing the national characteristics of the Korean people to rats. Wickham uttered the comment at a private gathering. He committed a major blunder by likening Koreans, who blindly follow transitory trends and fashions, to a pack of …

Sept 15,2000
Conditions for Continued Inter-Korean Reconciliation

Three months have passed since the deeply stirring June 15 Joint Declaration was issued. Looking back over these months, we realize that South Koreans have succumbed to their emotions, rather than keeping their cool. We became wildly excited, for example, over Chairman Kim Jong-il＇s unprecedented personal appearance to greet President Kim at Pyongyang Airport. We indulged in the fantasy that the South and North had almost become one as we watched…

Sept 14,2000
Ways to Resolve the Medical Stalemate

The key cause of the protracted medical impasse is the nation＇s medical insurance system, which does not even compensate the doctors for the basic cost of treatment. The current medical insurance system, hurriedly put together by several scholars and bureaucrats during the past military dictatorship, had at least one merit. It offered the majority of people easy access to cheap medical treatment by rapidly expanding to cover the entire population…

Sept 13,2000
Ways to Resolve the Medical Stalemate

The key cause of the protracted medical impasse is the nation＇s medical insurance system, which does not even compensate the doctors for the basic cost of treatment. The current medical insurance system, hurriedly put together by several scholars and bureaucrats during the past military dictatorship, had at least one merit. It offered the majority of people easy access to cheap medical treatment by rapidly expanding to cover the entire population…

Sept 08,2000
Why Ancestral Rites Should Continue

According to government authorities, an estimated 26 million people are expected to travel to their hometowns during this year＇s Ch＇usok holidays, the Harvest Moon Festival falling on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The endless lines of people trapped on the highways are not refugees crossing national borders to flee from occupation forces, nor are they slaves being transported to work on sugar cane farms in a colony somewhere. In fact no…

Sept 07,2000
Why Korea Should Welcome Japanese Businesses

Korea and Japan are taking steps to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA). A positive result would undoubtedly surprise the international community, as it would signify that the two countries - both notorious for their exclusiveness towards foreigners - intend to engage in free trade. Certainly, both countries harbor doubts as to whether such an agreement can be reached. There are heated arguments both for and against the proposed Korea-Japan FTA. Ma…

Sept 06,2000

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