중앙데일리

20 Minutes, 460 Billion Won Value

The Korea Development Institute has concluded that the benefits of a new 1.6 kilometer subway line extension just south of the Han River would exceed the cost of the project by 2.3 times. The extension would connect a subway line now under construction connecting Bundang, in southern Kyonggi province, directly to the downtown area. It would run from the Gangnam District Office station on the No. 7 subway line to the Apgujeong-dong station on …

Oct 10,2001
Musings on the Nobel Prizes

Holding out the prospect of a prize to a person who has not performed up to standards could be considered an inducement to improve, while rewarding a winner is considered compensation, along with encouragement to even better performance. An old saying speaks of "whipping a fast-running horse." There are obviously impudent people who desperately seek a prize for its inherent value, but prizes are the result of endeavor, not mere objects to be …

Oct 09,2001
Political Subversion by Laughter

Comic storytelling in this part of the world in the 1970s was carried on the radio and on LP records. It was a form of entertainment popularized by individual performers who made big names in the genre. The originator of our comedic tradition is widely regarded to be Shin Hong-shik, more popularly known by his stage name of Shin Bul-chul. Born 1905 in Gaeseong, now in North Korean territory just north of the border, he began with political sa…

Oct 08,2001
Truth and Its Three Impostors

While Koreans were visiting their hometowns during the Chuseok holidays as if pilgrims, the rest of the world remained busy. The United States has made full preparations for its war with Afghanistan and NATO formally invoked its mutual-defense clause Tuesday for the first time in its history. On the same day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair bluntly warned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, "Surrender the terrorists or surrender power." Still, the…

Oct 06,2001
Playing the Name Game

A great principle of giving someone a name is to make sure that it can be easily pronounced and that it sounds right. If one overemphasizes the principle in creating a name, the name may sound a little awkward. Of course, a long time ago it was customary to give a child a name that was rather humble regardless of his or her status. This was because of the commonly held belief that a child with a humble name would live long and well. The childh…

Oct 05,2001
Connections Still Trump Ability

Richard Weaver showed up at the inauguration of President George W. Bush on Jan. 20 and approached the newly sworn-in president to shake hands. The man was a nondenominational Christian minister who had a standing room-only pass, nothing that should have gotten him so close to the president. The Secret Service was understandably embarrassed. The man had pulled the same stunt four year ago in 1997 at President Clinton's second inaugural. During qu…

Oct 04,2001
Presidential Memorials

If the traditional soft medium for reviewing the old and learning the new is books, the most common hard media are museums. The word museum originated from a Greek word meaning a temple of the Muses. There were in all nine goddesses among the Muses, in charge of various fields of knowledge including literature, arts and science. Perhaps because of this, in the Western world, the museum is a combination of what in Korea are separately museums o…

Sept 29,2001
Stop Meddling in the Market

At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, presidents of 38 securities companies gathered in the conference room of the Korea Securities Dealers Association building in Yeouido. This was the third time that such a meeting had been held since Sept. 17. The purpose of the meeting was to deliver government policy, not to hold discussions. The recent meeting was no exception. Presidents of securities firms remained silent and listened to the government's view with…

Sept 28,2001
Back on Their Feet, Ready to Fight

On Sunday morning, President George W. Bush held a ceremony at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. There, the American flag was hoisted to full staff for the first time since the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11. On the afternoon on the same day, an interfaith prayer service for America was held at Yankee Stadium in New York. After the two events, the United States returned to normal life, completing the officia…

Sept 27,2001
Lessons Seemingly Not Learned

There is still a blind spot. Two weeks have passed since the World Trade Center in New York City was struck by terrorist attacks. Travelers stepped out to check the security system of airports in the United States, which was to be reinforced after the recent crisis. The outcome of the examination was surprising. The New York Times reported Wednesday that a passenger from Los Angeles heading for the Kennedy Airport in New York deliberately hid a p…

Sept 26,2001

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