중앙데일리

For Whom the Highway Tolls?

I recently met Park Geun-hye, the vice president of the Grand National Party, in Berlin. I asked her, "Do you know how your father, former President Park Chung-hee, felt about Germany? What the country meant for him?" "Of course, I do," she said. "He planed to build Kyongbu Expressway after seeing the German autobahn, and mapped out the Saemaul (New Community) movement inspired by German farm villages." In December 1964, then President P…

Nov 30,2000
The Beatles and Lee Mi-ja

Beatles fever is sweeping the world again. "1," the newest Beatles album was released in mid-November and has sold like hotcakes around the world. The album, which was released 30 years after the Beatles broke up, contains 27 singles that topped British and American charts in the 1960s. Among its songs are "Hey Jude," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Come Together" and "The Long and Winding Road." "1" was the best-selling album in 19 co…

Nov 30,2000
Days of Terrorism and Tenderness

Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese management strategist, contributed an article to a Korean newspaper last month. He wrote that he had hoped North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would apologize for the North's past terrorist activities at the inter-Korean summit held in June. He was surprised that the leaders of the two Koreas shook hands without a word of an apology. In his article, Mr. Ohmae asked why South Koreans would forgive the North unconditionally…

Nov 28,2000
When Gossip Turns Hateful

In 1996, the Korea Folklore Society held a national scandalmongering competition. The competition was meant to acknowledge the positive and negative roles gossip and insulting language play in Korean culture. The event attracted people well-versed in the art of verbal warfare and gossip from across the nation. They hurled epithets and invective at each other the way good friends might engage in highly animated banter. In every neighborhood th…

Nov 28,2000
Do DJ and YS Fly on KE and OZ?

Many presidents of the United States had nicknames. Thomas Jefferson was called the Red Fox, and Franklin Pierce was called Handsome Frank. Honest Abe was the nickname of Abraham Lincoln. Nicknames were usually drawn from special characteristics of a leader's personality, appearance, achievements or interesting events in their lives. Since the turn of the 20th century, initials of presidents' names have become widely used. Theodore Roosevelt…

Nov 26,2000
Agricultural Policy Is Fallowing

In the "Shih chi," the authoritative record of ancient China by the historian Ssu Ma-chien, the scholar advanced the notion that agriculture formed the foundation of a nation. According to this classic work the emperor of the Han Dynasty issued a royal edict extolling the virtues of agriculture. Other historical records confirmed the importance of agriculture, noting that it not only nourishes a nation, but also plays an important role in the…

Nov 24,2000
The Enemy Within Our Society

Japanese director Iwai Shunji screened his film "April Story" in Korea not long ago. In the film, Matsu Takako, a Japanese actress who plays the lead role, attends a university because an upperclassman she has been in love with since high school goes there. It is an unrequited love. Out of boredom and loneliness, Matsu spends time at a movie theater. The movie that Matsu watches as the audience watches her is a fictionalized account of the d…

Nov 24,2000
Novels, Nobels and Self-Discipline

France has won the most number of Nobel Prize in Literature in history. Gao Xingjian, this year's recipient, is a Chinese dissident with French nationality and writes in French. Including Jean-Paul Sartre, the 1964 Nobel literature winner who refused to accept the prize, and Mr. Gao, 13 French writers have won the Novel Prize in Literature to date. The 30-year period surrounding World War II was the golden age of French literature in the 20th…

Nov 22,2000
Spiritualism in a Material Age

The winter winds have begun to blow. Cold rain falls like icy needles. When the rain stops, the temperature will plummet and the snow will come. Soon, many people will lose their jobs due to restructuring and some will find themselves on the frozen streets of the city. Without job prospects, some university graduates will huddle alongside laid-off workers on the wind-swept desolate streets. The National Assembly is frozen not by the cold, but…

Nov 22,2000
Is Circumcision Necessary?

Male circumcision was introduced in Korea after liberation in 1945 when the country was exposed to American culture. The United States military influenced Korea in many respects, and their presence on the peninsula advanced circumcision in Korea. Despite the medical view in the West that retention of the foreskin on the male sexual organ was safe, Koreans believed the foreskin impaired sexual performance. Doctors insisted that only a small n…

Nov 20,2000

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