Politics

ON MY MIND | What Americans Think (When They Do) About Korea

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As of today’s date — Tuesday, May 1, 2018 — I am officially accepting applications from any and all individuals or entities interested in becoming founding members of Liberty in South Korea (LiSK). Serious inquiries may be sent to [email protected]. What is LiSK? We are a humanitarian organization committed to freeing the South Korean people from the twin terrors of US militarism and hypercapitalism. We have all heard the stories: massacres and imprisonment of dissidents, rampant rape and murder around US military bases, strings of puppet-dictators succeeded by nepotistic puppet-heads of state, corruption suffusing every level of economic activity, widespread disillusionment with the cutthroat education system, and the second-highest suicide rate in the developed world.

Olympics Week

ON MY MIND | In PyeongChang, a Vision of Korean Peace

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I haven’t seen Black Panther yet, but I know enough of the story’s basic premise — what might an African nation, untouched by centuries of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, look like in the 20th/21st century? — to use it as a generative point of speculation within my own interests in the history of the Korean War and its aftermath. Thinking, then, along the lines of the Wakanda’s Afrofuturism, I’m prompted to ask a similar question as I watch the international spectacle and geopolitical maneuvering of the 2018 Winter Olympics unfold in Pyeongchang: what might the Korean peninsula look like today if it had never been invaded and brutalized by the United States? But wait, you might be asking, when did the United States ever invade Korea? Didn’t the U.S. military defend the South against the evil Communist regime of the North?

Olympics Week

SUNSPOTS | What Are You Most Excited About for the Olympics?

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Jacqueline Quach ’19: The flashy figure skating outfits! Where else can one appreciate such brightly colored, such meticulously designed and bedazzled fashions? Eunnuri Yi ’20: I’m most excited for all of the nationalism-tinged drama that will inevitably ensue in skating!  I’m not excited about the (also inevitably?) inaccurate and distorted news coverage on Korea, which has already started! 😡 A real quick and should-be obvious fact check: The Olympics are happening in PyeongChang, South Korea — NOT Pyongyang, which is in North Korea. Griffin Smith-Nichols ’19: I am excited to see Iceland’s 5 athletes sweep the board with the rest of the world’s 2,947. Áfram Ísland!

Culture

AN EDUCATION | Missing Connections: My Love Affair with Tinder

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I have something to confess: I love Tinder. And, disclaimer (because it’s necessary): I’m not hooking up with anyone on it. I used to think Tinder was an app that, once designed for a certain function, could no longer be subverted beyond it; an app that, once people learned of my presence on it, could only invite eyebrow-waggling and my own vague defensiveness in regards to privacy. But I won’t hide it anymore — the world is so big, and there are so many people, and there is so much to see; I’m not ashamed. Tinder, as an app, brings me joy and laughter, curiosity and satisfaction.