Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
Fewer Japanese people seem to be interested in traveling abroad. Even
though Japanese citizens can visit more countries without visas than any other
country, fewer than 20% of them have the powerful passports. A pre-pandemic study
also found that around 70% of the respondents say they wouldn’t travel abroad. To
travel abroad from Japan, most travelers have to fly for hours. If you take the
time, money, and hassles only to get to an international airport into
consideration, there are much more economic and convenient options within the
country. Also, Japan has been under deflation or zero inflation for decades,
which has made foreign traveling more expensive, not to mention the recent weakening
Japanese yen value. Furthermore, there are other domestic entertainments that deplete
their time and money, such as smartphones, games, and SNS. In addition, as the
country’s population is rapidly aging, once-frequent international travelers
tend to travel to domestic destinations. All in all, the people of the island
nation seem more inclined to be isolated from the world.
Enjoy reading the article and learning about how Japanese people are
happy about things around them.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/japan-never-traveler-culture-cmb/index.html
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The Koreas' DMZ: Once a bloodshed scene, now a wildlife sanctuary
The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides
the Korean peninsula roughly in half. It was established as a buffer zone
between North Korea and South Korea under the Korean Armistice Agreement in
1953. The DMZ is 250 kilometers long from east to west around the 38th
parallel north. The 4-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone is one of the world’s most
heavily militarized borders and has been a deadly place for humans, making
habitation impossible, which has ironically created an involuntary park recognized
as one of the most well-preserved areas of temperate habitat in the world. Now,
Google Street View features 360-degree views of landscapes and life inside the
civilian control line, just outside the DMZ.
https://artsandculture.google.com/search/streetview?project=korea-dmz
70 years of nearly complete isolation has made the DMZ the most uninhabited
area for humans but the most well-preserved sanctuary for flora and fauna in
the Korean Peninsula.
Enjoy reading the article and learning about what the Korean DMZ is for
nature.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64740679
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
South Korea court recognises same-sex couple rights for first time
While South Korean government is struggling with the falling fertility
rate, the Seoul High Court gave a ruling that a gay partner should be granted health
insurance coverage just like other legally recognized partners of a different
gender even though same-sex marriage is not recognized in the country. The
ruling states “Everyone can be a minority in some way. To be in the minority is
to be different from the majority and cannot be wrong itself. In a society dominated
by the principle of majority rule, awareness of the rights of minorities and
efforts to protect them are necessary.” Even though the case is likely to be
appealed to the Supreme Court, the ruling sounds like a big leap forward for
LGBT rights advocates in a country where there are conservative social norms
are still in place. Will the diversity of partnership and family style help
solve the falling fertility rate problem (Vol.3959) in South Korea?
Enjoy reading another social topic on South Korea.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64714625
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
South Korea breaks its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate
The fertility rate is the ratio between the number of live births in a
year and the whole female population of childbearing age (the average number of
women between 15 and 50 years of age over the year). Assuming no net migration
and unchanged mortality, a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is
needed to maintain a stable population. Many African countries have a very high
fertility rate of over 4.0 and about half of the countries in the world have a higher
fertility rate than 2.1. However, economically developed Asian countries like
Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China all have low fertility rates. South Korea,
known for the world’s lowest fertility rate, renewed the rate to 0.78 in 2022 with
only 249,000 new births. The average age of the mothers of these newborn babies
was 33.5. With 372,800 deaths, the country with a population of just over 50
million lost over 120,000 of its population just in a year. Why are South
Koreans reluctant to have a child or children? Are there any dominant social,
cultural, or financial problems?
Read the article and learn about the country with the world’s lowest fertility.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/22/asia/south-korea-lowest-fertility-rate-record-2022-intl-hnk/index.html
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The toxic legacy of the Ukraine war
Over 55 percent of Ukraine’s land area is arable land with fertile soil,
Ukraine is one of the world’s top agricultural producers and exporters, playing
a critical role in supplying oilseeds, sunflower oil, and grains like corn,
wheat, and barley to the global market. The year-long war against Russia has
already caused long-lasting damage to the country's environment and agricultural
productivity as heavy metals, fuel, and chemical residues from ammunition and
missiles have seeped into the soil. Also during wartime, when there's no waste
management infrastructure, waste piles up in unregulated or informal landfills
on the outskirts of towns and cities and causes damage to the surrounding environment.
The problem is that conflict pollution to the environment is not visible and
location-specific. When the war is over, substantial efforts will be needed to
assess the environmental damage and apply suitable treatment to each type of
contamination. Will the US, NATO, and their allies support the reclamation of
the war-torn land in Ukraine as much as they are providing weapons and ammunition?
Read the article and learn about how toxic the war in Ukraine is.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230221-the-toxic-legacy-of-the-ukraine-war
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Biden in Ukraine: How the president's surprise visit was kept a secret
A train journey from Warsaw, the capital of Poland, to Kyiv, the
capital of Ukraine, normally takes about 15 hours by overnight express train to
cover a distance of nearly 700 kilometers. On February 20, US President Joe
Biden cut the trip to ten hours to reach Kyiv to show himself and his commitment
to the people in Ukraine, the voters in the US, and the leaders of NATO and allies.
The unannounced visit to Ukraine where there is no US military presence is so unprecedented
that surprised not only politicians but also journalists who usually are good
at inferring such a move from small pieces of information of unusuality. How could
his staff arrange such a risky trip in secrecy? What could this trip mean to
the war?
Enjoy reading the article and learning about this surprise visit that
took place a few days before the anniversary of the War in Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64710479
Dear MEL Topic Readers,
A year of Russia’s war in Ukraine: Your simple guide
On February 27, 2014, Russian troops captured strategic sites across the
autonomous region of Crimea from Ukraine, followed by the installation of a
pro-Russian government, the Crimean status referendum, and the declaration of
Crimea's independence on March 16. After the annexation, Russia increased its
military presence on the peninsula as if it were part of Russia. That was the initial
phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Then on February 24 last year, Russian
president Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a special
military operation to demilitarize and de-nazify the country that used to be
part of the Soviet Union. Since the invasion, tens of thousands of civilians in
Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides have been killed
and wounded. Putin’s determination to stop NATO’s expansion is unshakeable. NATO
and its allies are fully committed to providing both military and humanitarian support.
And Ukrainian president Zelensky pledges no compromises in trying to end the
war, including the recapture of Crimea. Will this already-year-long war further
escalate to the point where weapons of mass destruction are deployed?
Read the article and learn about how the war started and developed in
the last 12 months.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/16/after-a-year-of-war-in-ukraine-what-might-happen-next
