JAEWON LEE WRITES – It is undoubtedly clear that the COVID-19 outbreak led to nothing but a series of unfortunate events that stripped away my fantasies of life after the Air Force. Just as my mandatory military service was nearing its end, my discharge ceremony was canceled, I could not…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: MURPHY’S LAW SAYS …
TOM PLATE WRITES – Adept moral leadership at the top, whether in Washington or Hong Kong, is central to any serious public-health strategy. ‘Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed on the world,’ famously wrote the poet William Butler Yeats in 1919. One hundred years later, here…
Full Article TRUMP AND THE CORONA CRISIS: SCIENCE VERSUS UNREASON?
NICHOLAS WILCOX WRITES – As countries around the globe focus on combating the coronavirus by slowing their economies to a near-halt and hunkering down indefinitely, China keeps on grinding. In a move that experts in Beijing-Taipei relations are calling “unprecedented,” China carried out a nighttime military air exercise in close…
Full Article TAIWAN: EASIER TO FEND OFF CORONAVIRUS THAN THE CHINESE AIR FORCE?
CAMILLE BRYAN WRITES — It is the most basic of diplomatic issues between the People’s Republic of China and the United States: Misconceptions and fears over each country’s motives, especially in a time of global crisis, bring nerves over the pandemic to a dangerous level. Many people in the United…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: WHY THE ‘CHINA SOLUTION’ IS NO LONG-TERM ANSWER FOR AMERICA
SARAH SHARPE WRITES — Will the Asian tourism business ever fully recover from the coronavirus? A recent article in The Guardian, the brilliant London-based dally newspaper, details the effects that the COVID-19 outbreak has had on popular tourism sites, with pictures of popular Asian before and after sites: before the…
Full Article ASIAN TOURISM: THE SHOCK OF PREJUDICE – THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
EXCERPTED FROM THE ‘BUSINESS INSIDER’ — Medical workers in Wuhan, China, removed their masks after the city closed the last temporary hospital, which was panic-built to accommodate the overflow patients from the coronavirus outbreak. The viral video, which has been viewed more than three million times, showed a number of workers…
Full Article WUHAN: THE HEROIC MEDICAL WORKERS OF A BESIEGED BUT NOW HAPPILY EMPTY HOSPITAL
OUR COLLEAGUES AT THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NORTH KOREA WRITE — As COVID-19 intensifies in the United States and elsewhere, the North Korean response to the pandemic is fading from the headlines. However, NCNK is continuing to monitor the situation through regular contact with a wide range of information sources.…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: HOW BAD IS THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS IN THE HERMIT KINGDOM?
TOM PLATE WRITES – How bad will the global-corona epidemic get? ‘Only the future will tell.’ The problem with that lame cliché is that the future is not only with us now but – to scramble the possibilities – the future actually influences the past. Astrophysicist-author John Gribbin, whose challenging new book ‘Six…
Full Article PANDEMIC CORONA: FUTURE ENEMIES AND FUTURE SHOCKS, IN QUANTUM VISION
DANIEL ZAND WRITES — Fake Wagyu beef, also known as Kobe beef, is commonly sold throughout Japan. Having expensive value, Japanese restaurants and butchers are selling other types of beef claiming it to be Kobe Beef. For this reason, Japan is now finally conducting DNA testing that uncovers beefy imposters. Kobe…
Full Article JAPAN: WHERE PEOPLE HAVE A FEW BEEFS ABOUT A LITTLE BEEF!
ERIC ANDERSON WRITES-The Olympic Council of Asia has a mission: to promote cultural awareness, equality, respect, and clean and fair play through the latest sports and trends. The Council controls all sports in Asia and is one of five continental associations recognized by the International Olympic Committee, headquartered in Kuwait. …
Full Article CHINA: FUN IN THE SUN AT SANYA 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES
TOM PLATE WRITES (VIA THE KOREA TIMES OF SEOUL) — As horrible as the coronavirus spread looks right now, it may not be the worst that faces us. My worry is that even after the epidemic begins its remission, what happens is that everything returns to normal. And that’s the…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS ASIA: THE POTENTIAL PLAGUE OF COMPLACENCY
FROM THE STAFF OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NORTH KOREA IN WASHINGTON — With the spread of Coronavirus (COVID19) the National Committee on North Korea has been receiving inquiries about the situation in North Korea. We can report that a significant element of the population is at special risk given…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: IS EVEN AN ‘ISOLATED’ NATION AT RISK FROM THE CORONAVIRUS?
NATHAN RIVAS WRITES – Recently, the California legislature formally apologized for the state’s role in the incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent in internment camps during the second world war. Now, a recently uncovered artifact reveals that Loyola University, (so-called before its merger with Marymount college in…
Full Article JAPANESE INTERNMENT: AT LMU, COUNTERING INJUSTICE ONE PERSON AT A TIME
NICK WILCOX WRITES – After a tense, nearly two- week wait to obtain a U.S. visa, Zhang Weili has been cleared to enter the country on February 25- 11 days before her highly anticipated matchup against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, in UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) 248. Zhang, who had to move her…
Full Article CHINA: UFC STAR ZHANG WEILI BEATS CORONAVIRUS PARANOIA, WINS VISA, FACES TOUGH POLE
LILLY WEBBER WRITES – After sweeping the Oscars and finishing the night with four different awards, including Best Picture, the South Korean dark comedy thriller film Parasite by director Bong Joon-ho has surprised international audiences and film connoisseurs alike with its success. Parasite’s victory is unprecedented in the Oscars’ history…
Full Article SOUTH KOREAN CINEMA: ‘PARASITE’ THRIVES IN AMERICA DESPITE XENOPHOBIA