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[FOUNTAIN]Infection appears deep

Published: 22 Nov. 2006, 23:32

During the Spring and Autumn periods in Chinese history, a duke felt seriously ill and called a doctor. As the doctor hurriedly traveled to examine the patient, the duke had a dream. Two children appeared in the dream and had a conversation. “I heard the doctor who has been called is really excellent. What should we do?” one child said. “What about hiding deep inside the body near the heart? No matter how good a doctor he is, he will have no way to save the duke if we hide there,” the other replied. Awakened from the dream, the duke was examined by the doctor. The doctor told him, “The illness has already entered deep inside your body and cannot be cured.” Sure enough, the duke soon passed away.
The two children who appeared in the dream of the duke were the demons of ill health. The duke saw in his dream that they decided to hide in the innermost part, when they learned that a noted doctor was soon to arrive. In the end, the duke faced death. The idiomatic phrase, “disease already in the inmost part,” from the Chinese history book “Zou Zhuan,” is derived from the story. The inmost part in the story indicates a small, fatty part at the tip of the heart and the space between the heart and the diaphragm. This part is located deep inside the body where it is dangerous to perform acupuncture.
The latest key policy direction of the government gives the impression that the level of trouble in the state administration is incurable with the usual remedies.
When the unification minister designate, who will oversee the administration’s North Korea policy, was asked at the National Assembly confirmation hearing whether the Korean War had been ignited by the invasion from the North or from the South, he replied, “It is inappropriate to talk about that at the moment.” His answer is simply incomprehensible. Even China, the foremost ally of Pyongyang, acknowledges North Korea’s invasion of the South. Moreover, it is completely inadequate that the minister in charge of North Korea policy expresses an ambiguous opinion on a point directly related to the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea. The president has made an even bigger blunder. During a recent tour of foreign nations, he called the Korean War “a civil war.” The citizens are growing more anxious as the head of state uses a term of leftist scholars advocating a theory of northward invasion. With the real estate market completely out of control, the administration’s public welfare programs have fallen seriously ill, along with the North Korea policy. Maybe, the two children in the patient’s dream have already penetrated to the inmost part of the body.

* The writer is the Beijing correspondent
of the JoongAng Ilbo

by Yoo Kwang-jong