In March 1964, the New York Times reported that 38 witnesses saw or heard a brutal, drawn-out, and ultimately fatal attack on a woman called Kitty Genovese, but none did anything to help her, or even summoned the police. The report was later shown to be erroneous, but the “bystander effect” is real. As many psychology experiments have shown, an individual is less likely to come to the aid of another if they can see that other people who could help are not doing so. Last month, in th

The population of South Korea declined for this first in history in 2021, according to recently released official statistics. The decline marked the beginning of a downward trend that will accelerate in the middle of the century. The news prompted another spate of editorials calling on the government to enact measures to arrest the decline. The drop in population affects regions and cities in the country differently. The population of Seoul, for example, peaked at nearly 11 million in 1992 and

China’s live-fire military exercises in the waters near Taiwan, which began Thursday, are a worrisome escalation from Beijing. The People’s Liberation Army has gradually ramped up its warplane incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, airspace around the island over which Beijing claims authority, but China hasn’t performed live-fire drills so close to Taiwanese shores in nearly three decades. Comparisons to the last such incident, the Taiwan Strait Crisi

A week after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Seoul via Taiwan, political ripples continue here over President Yoon Suk-yeol skipping a face-to-face meeting with the third most powerful person from the closest ally of South Korea. Was he just acting in serious consideration of national interest amid the deepening power contest between the US and China, or was it a diplomatic blunder by an inexperienced president who needs more time to master his job, people wonder, mostly with regret. Fri

US Senate Democrats’ compromise bill, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, addresses not just inflation, but also several key longstanding problems facing our economy and society. There is a simmering debate about the causes of today’s inflation; but regardless of what side one takes, this bill represents a step forward. For those worried about excessive demand, there is more than $300 billion in deficit reduction. And on the supply side, the bill would mobilize $369 billion of inv

Recently, I came across two intriguing articles that I read with great enthusiasm. One was “On My 100th Birthday, Reflections on Archie Bunker and Donald Trump” by Norman Lear and the other was “Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine” by Slavoj Zizek. Both articles were penetrating and insightful, tackling vital issues regarding the crisis of democracy and world peace we are now facing. In a column that recently appeared in the New York Times, Norman Lear

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fingerprints appear to be all over the recent political developments that culminated in Mario Draghi’s resignation as Italy’s prime minister. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Draghi responded decisively by supporting strong sanctions against Russia and by offering political, financial and military support to Ukraine. But both acts required overcoming resistance from populist parties within his own national-unity

With so much attention fixed on soaring prices for gasoline and groceries, one can almost overlook the fact that we’re also enduring an affordable housing crisis. The question is, why? Spanning the pandemic era from February 2020 through May 2022, home prices soared 43.5 percent. Over the past 12 months, home prices are up 19.7 percent, while residential property prices in the United States, adjusted for inflation, are now 6.7 percent above the prior all-time record levels of the 2006 bu

I heard great news this year in June: Lim Yun-chan got the first prize in the Van Cliburn Piano International Competition. He was the youngest winner since the competition was first established in 1962. The news was sensational in the field of classical music. When the news came out, I saw many people around the world start to get interested in classical music and Korean musicians. Usually, when a person becomes a winner in major competitions, he/she gets famous quickly and tons of scheduled pe

When it comes to the United States Congress, nothing is ever over until it’s over. But as of late July, it looks as though two major pieces of legislation will soon be on President Joe Biden’s desk, awaiting his signature. The first is the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act, which will provide tens of billions of dollars to support domestic semiconductor production and research. The second is the Inflation Reduction Act, a slimmed-down version of the fa

Four individuals weigh heavily on my mind these days. One survived a monthlong, self-tormenting sit-in to change the excruciating conditions of subcontract labor in shipbuilding; the other three lost their lives in the gray zone of confrontation -– and occasional, brittle mood of peace –- between the democratic South Korea and the authoritarian North Korea. Yoo Choi-an, a 41-year-old welder, on June 22, crumpled himself into a small steel structure in the main dock of Daewoo Shipbu

The defeat of Donald Trump to Joseph Biden in the last US presidential election brought celebration and relief for half of the American people, but frustration and fury for the other half. At that time, America was sharply divided by two groups that were constantly blaming each other. For example, the Democrats blamed Trump for the division of America, but the Republicans asserted that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were responsible. Perhaps both sides had a point. During the Clinton era, campa

It was four in the afternoon on March 10, 1991, when the first planned explosion of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons went off at the US weapons depot in Khamisiyah, Iraq, and the first gray-white smoke cloud that would come to be called the Plume wafted skyward and drifted over the troops. There would be many blasts that day. Bill Florey, a young and proud-to-serve E4 specialist, had just parked his truck after a day’s work. Francesca Yabraian, who would become his friend and woul

It never rains but it pours. Every day this summer we are bombarded by bad news -- raging forest fires, the continuing Ukraine war, random shootings in different cities, a mutating omicron, monkeypox and rising debt distress all over. The good news for some is that the United States dollar is stronger than ever. Or is that bad news for others? In the Bali G-20 Financial Ministers and Central Bank meeting held last week, there was concern that currency volatility could trigger more instability

During my recent visit to South Korea, people often asked me about the popularity of K-pop overseas. Answering the question was always a bit of challenge because I’m not a fan of K-pop and don’t follow it closely. I have a sense of its popularity in the US and, to a lesser extent, Japan, but don’t know much about the rest of the world. I start the answer with these limitations, partly in the hope that the conversation will soon move in another direction, which is usually does.