Islander Issue 27

27: FORWARD THINKING

The ‘Islander’

title ‘Forward Thinking’ conjures up ideas of a weird and wonderful future as imagined in many Sci-Fi films or poorly produced TV series with sets that shook and velour costumes. Star Trek, Doctor Who and 2001: A Space Odyssey were all very influential. My other visions of the future came from a BBC programme called ‘Tomorrow’s World,’ which demonstrated the latest inventions and modern thinking. It all looks very dated now but it was high tech at the time.

Forward Thinking is in part predicting the future and in part preparing for the future. It could also be seen as shaping the future. Is the predicted future inevitable or can it be altered by our current actions? We all plan in advance, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. We use stereotypes to predict the likely outcome of a situation - our prejudices are often used to keep us safe. We buy food because we know we will be hungry, we wear a coat because we think it might rain and we work hard for good grades because we think it will give us better opportunities in the future. When driving, we constantly assess the environment and predict the behaviour of other drivers. Does this in part explain our fear of driverless cars or indicate why we should welcome them?

Forward Thinking implies a cognitive or theoretical pursuit but perhaps the term should be expanded to involve actions. Modelling future outcomes is an important part of the scientific process. When considering Forward Thinking, we tend to focus on science but there are many other disciplines that encourage us to contemplate the future and our possible impact.

Visual Art can be a representation of what is happening at the time but it can attempt to further contemporary understanding and even predict the future. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Anatomical Studies and Drawings focused on an accurate depiction of human physiology.

He linked the human body to geometry in the ‘Vertruvian Man’ and suggested the possibility of flight with his ‘helical airscrew’ drawing.

Music is a powerful medium for associating emotion and thought. It has the ability to make us consider our future. The lyrics of ‘Imagine’

by John Lennon conjure a vision of utopia that can only be achieved if we all work together to a common end. To achieve this, we must relinquish our possessions and prejudices. This is forward thinking but with strong religious, spiritual and political undertones.

In literature, did George Orwell’s ‘1984’ influence people’s political stance and enhance the fear of centralised control and mass surveillance? Written in the 1940s, it is argued that it was in part responsible for the movement in the 1960s and 70s for free speech, freedom of expression and individualism. The novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated. Fake news springs to mind.

There are numerous other novels that warn of a dystopian world and hence encourage us to think differently and act accordingly to prevent this from coming to pass. ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley written in the 1930s, is where citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy. The novel anticipated scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning. Society is based on Henry Ford's assembly line: mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods. Globalisation or ‘Starbuckification’ me thinks.

The cinema also has a role, playing on our fears whilst also suggest

ing that this future is not inevitable. ‘Blade Runner’ explores the moral implications of human mastery of genetic engineering and the effects of technology on the environment. It examines what it means to be human and our fears of implanted memories. The ‘replicants’ are unaware that they are not human, which exploits our deep-seated fear of letting technology control us, rather than us controlling technology.

Author Nelson Henderson said, "The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." But are we able to understand our current and future effects on the world? Can we act altruistically for the benefit of people we will never know? Are we hardwired to be selfish and hence our inability to act now, and potentially reverse global warming, is unlikely to happen?

A recent study examined if an individual’s levels of egoism and altruism affected pro-environmental behaviour. The simple answer was ‘yes’. Individuals dominated by egoism were shown to perceive having less control; that is, they believed that it was too difficult as well as pointless to do much about environmental issues. They were less willing to pay higher taxes and prices as well as cut their standard of living for environmental protection. In contrast, individuals rated highly on altruism were shown to perceive having more control and showed a greater willingness to make sacrifices. So when making climate change policy decisions it is important to realise that the moral and ethical argument is only effective on some of the population.

Not all forward thinking is positive. Moral and ethical dilemmas abound in the development of ‘enhanced soldiers’. The weakest link in armed conflicts continues to be the fighters themselves so should neuroscience, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence be used to enhance soldiers? Is this morally acceptable for society in general and the individual in particular?

Are human beings unique in forward thinking? Psychological evidence is contradictory on this point but several species do plan for winter by storing food. In species that bury food, it was discovered that they have a more highly developed hippocampus; a part of the brain linked to spatial memory. Other species migrate to warmer climates and homing pigeons fly great distances before accurately returning home. We have bird feeders in our garden and one has a particularly narrow entrance. Only one type of bird can enter the feeder. When all the other bird feeders in the garden have food, these birds feed from them. When all the food has run out, they return to the feeder that only they can access. Surely an indication of planning and forward thinking?

Forward Thinking is important. As Einstein said “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”. Planning, preparing and shaping the future are all key for the advancement of humankind but not all developments are positive. Not all so-called progress is good. We should move forward in harmony with our environment, not in conflict with it. Maintain what is good, protect the limited resources of the earth and move forward together, not at the expense of others.

Mr D Coll Vice Principal

ALUMNI 校友面谈 Hannah Heewon Seo, Interviewed by Minseo Cha 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of NLCS Jeju. As English novelist Thomas Hardy said, time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change. During the past decade, our school has been through numerous changes but its ethos remained unchanged. The school continues to provide academic excellence, broad experiences, and global citizenship that prepares students for future success. Hannah is one of the students who joined NLCS Jeju in 2013 and has shared its journey ever since. An interview with her tells us much about her and life at NLCS Jeju.

Q. Nice to meet you, would you like to introduce yourself?

A. Hello! My name is Hannah Heewon Seo. I’m an alumni from the class of 2019. I’m a freshman at Australia National University, studying International Relations.

Currently, I am working as a gap assistant for Mulchat Girls and the History Department at NLCS Jeju.

Q. Could you describe your typical day as a gap assistant?

A. My typical day starts at 10. I attend history lessons with year 7, 8, and 9 where I assist staff with student activities. After school, I’m either at a house competition cheering for Mulchat, or I’m in cocurricular activities such as MUN, Islander Magazine, or Basketball.

After that, I’m in break out, which

is supervising students in the music department or at the sports centre. In the evening, I’m on my duty helping out with prep and completing the bedtime routine.

Q. Seems like your day is full of meaningful activities! I wonder how different the world of work is from that of being a student?

A. Well, for me, the world of work is not very different from that of being a student. Gap assistant is such a privileged position because I feel more like a “big sister” rather than staff. I have a huge responsibility to take care of NLCS students in terms of their well being. But I think it’s a lucky position to be in between students and staff and know what the students’ daily lives and concerns are, so I am very proud of it.

Q. What do you like and dislike about being a gap assistant?

Gap assistant is a lucky position in which you can build solid relationships with students in class and especially with the ones in the boarding house (Go, Mulchat!) and at the same time, you get to work together with the amazing staff in school.

I am so glad that our Mulchat girls made me feel comfortable as it helped me to understand the different aspects of students outside of classrooms. The memories from house competition and weekend house activities is something I will keep for the rest of my life.

If I have to pick one which I dislike, it would be to say goodbye

to our fabulous Mulchat staff and the wonderful Mulchat Girls by the end of this year. I would like to say thank you so much for making me feel part of the Mulchat family and that I will miss you a lot to Ms DC, Ms Stevens, Mr Brown, Mr Roden, Tresan,Thomas, Minjin, Soyul, Ellie, Amy, Hyunseo, Liz, Gabs, Gloria, June, Angela, Esther, Yena, Jiwoo, Stella, Regis, Ashley, Hannah, Jenny, Una, and Tiffany.

Q. How did the education and experience at NLCS help you?

What do you see as its strengths?

A. Before I came to NLCS Jeju, I had a lot of interests, but I wasn’t sure what I was good at. 7 years of NLCS Jeju life definitely helped me to become someone to look up to. The education, especially the IB Diploma, has prepared me for university life. I took History Higher Level and became fascinated about the Cold War during the course, which led me to major International Relations with a Bachelor’s Degree. EE, IA, and essays all helped me to be equipped with the practical skills that can be used in college. The co-curricular activities NLCS Jeju offers also helped me in terms of structuring my life beyond the school curriculum. My participation in the student council, Islander Magazine, and video projects with the marketing department have guided me towards a future career in journalism.

Q. I totally agree that the skills and experiences we gain here at NLCS Jeju help us with preparing the future. Which one word do you think can sum up your experience at NLCS? Grit. Seven years of NLCS Jeju was challenging with different issues at different stages. But I always wanted to be someone who is the

first to to be thought of in my field.

Those times kept me challenging myself by setting expectations for myself and breaking the glass ceiling.

term, I look forward to the journey of becoming a journalist!

Q. What is the most significant change you have gone through in your life?

I remember the exact date, 17th December 2016: the day I decided to become a journalist, specialising in International Relations and foreign affairs. As a Korean journalist Sohn Suk-hee said, the position of the media lies between the government and civil society, and its role as a mediator is to represent a rational civil society for the government and convey the truth to civil society. The political scandals with the former president Park Geun-hye changed the entire pathway of my life.

That moment led me to pursue becoming a “specialised” journalist who covers international issues that are unintentionally neglected

by Korean news. I would like to deliver international affairs equally and fairly, as people are entitled to “the right of knowing.”

Q. You mentioned that you aspire to become a journalist. Could you explain further?

A. I would like to be an international journalist who mainly covers global affairs. It has been my dream since Year 11. Hopefully, you will see me on the television covering evening news in ten years time!

Q. What do you look forward to?

A. Well, I have a lot of expectations for my life but in the short term, I look forward to another year at NLCS Jeju as a gap assistant as it will be a completely different experience compared to that of when I was a student. In the long

As time passes, change is inevitable and the future is often difficult to predict. However, as long as we remember our philosophy and where we are heading to, we will eventually arrive at our destination. Wishing you all the best in achieving your dream as a journalist and your future, Hannah!

SOCIETY

Pandemic : What about the

CRISIS?

BY ANN HAN YEAR 9, MULCHAT T h e C o v i d -1 9 p a n d e m i c h a s certainly plunged the world into the worst recession since the Great Depression, highly disrupting standard economic activity throughout the globe. It has created many economic changes that are shown in the various fields from the tourism industry to supply chains. As these massive changes are showing among the global economic systems with the restricted regulation of the activities, the fact is that a "Great Lockdown" cannot be denied. Looking at the current economic situation around the world, the crisis requires an urgent response to prevent no more negative economic consequences from the pandemic.

However, since the progress on Covid-19 treatments is taking a big challenge, the prospects are that the concentrated developments in adverse economic effects will continue.

The economic challenges created

by Covid-19 can be mainly divided into three parts: personal income, public sector economies, and the global economy. Firstly, individual earnings are one of the major concerns that are considered as the economic new-norm found as a result of the pandemic crisis. Government, however, has stepped in and provided people with income. Some people in the US could

make more off the government scheme than they made out of working. The job seekers have faced difficulties as most businesses and the private sector postponed hiring. Besides, the number of people who are in employment but "could not work at all for the past week" increased by the largest margin, and this will also be continued unless the shutdown of businesses finishes.

Far worse, following the employment shock, shrinking global supply can cause disruptions in component supply, leading to an impact on the other industrial fields like being unable to get the parts or materials required for production..

The long-term effect of the current crisis is discovered in transportation and storage, automotive, and tourism.

The Covid-19 crisis has increased economic uncertainty, much of the public infrastructure and tourism industry remaining unconsumed.

However, unlike the negative consequences of the crisis, numerous advantages were also shown. Information technology and professional services related to the healthcare systems, stand to benefit from the pandemic. More digital tools and services will be demanded due to physical distancing in social and economic activities, increasing the

need for development in such areas.

Going further, the crisis will also open the new normal around the globe. Covid-19 pandemic represents an exceptional disruption to world trade, as production and international trade. It is also resulting in disruptions in service supply chains. The crisis is leading to more concentration on online supplies, including health, education, telecommunication, and visual services. Since then, the suppliers are making efforts to expand their online activities, leading to the potential increases in online service supplies and trade in future.

Although numerous aspects of new normal in economics are displayed at the moment, the possibilities for the future are unpredictable as Covid-19 seems very erratic.

How medical facilities adapted to

d i v o C

BY ASHLEY KOO YEAR 9, MULCHAT Here is an indisputable fact: covid-19 is a pandemic. Having brought 36.2 million cases and 1.06 million deaths worldwide, it has brought significant alterations to the medical world. Initially starting in January of 2020, we can easily see the impact on the medical sector. The quarantine systems, methods of how patients receive medical care, and many other systems have been developed and implemented.

To understand the concept of how the quarantine system had been refined for covid-19, we must take a closer look at South Korea. Numerous experts and professionals studying how to create a suitable quarantine system for covid-19 were able to achieve a successful system . By implementing an “everyday quarantine system,” based on epidemiological investigations, the system mostly focused on the people who are arriving in South Korea from foreign countries. Applying special immigration procedures to those people, recording the travel history of all the travelers landing in South Korea, and sending those to all medical institutions, the results brought t h r o u g h t h e s e p r o c e d u r e s we r e accurate and sufficiently processed.

Not only has a new quarantine system been developed and refined,

how patients were treated altered significantly. The medical field began to share more information with the patients, increased public safety promotion, reprioritized routine visits, screenings, and reduced the overall contact with patients. The increase of information sharing was because the people with a professional degree in the medical field decided to release as much information about the pandemic they knew of. Hospitals have tried to minimize medical procedures on patients that might increase the threat of spreading the virus and reduce the contact that the people in the hospital have with one another. Patients can now communicate through video monitors and tablets in rooms with their families, friends, and doctors without anyone entering the room.

Although many aspects and procedures in the medical field have gone through numerous changes, more and more changes will continuously happen as pandemics resembling covid-19 evolve and significantly impact various medical institutions.

From minor modifications to changes on a massive scale, each alteration is what the medical field's people decided after going through constant discussions.

THE

DISGUSTING AND SICKENING NGO THAT IS

‘FIGHTING FOR

HUMAN RIGHTS’ How Amnesty fails to go forward, and is actually holding us back from fixing human rights issues.

BY BEN KO YEAR 12, HALLA NORTH Amnesty International, a famous known NGO, is fighting for human rights, all around the world. It’s HQ is based in the UK, having more than 8 million members / supporters all around the world. Their whole ideology and foundation is based on the human rights issue. In the past, there were a number of cases in which they participated. From demanding better working conditions, fighting for better women’s rights, and even holding up a banner criticising Trump on the day to his visit to the UK. Yes, it all sounds perfect, doesn’t it? A NGO, founded in the UK, fighting for a better world. Almost sounds TOO perfect.

Like almost any other organisation, it pathetically failed to remain ‘pure’. It is especially miserable to see that an organisation fighting for human rights is doing the actual opposite.

The best word to describe the workplace culture would be ‘toxic’.

There has been many reports that truthfully reported bullying, public humiliation, discrimination, and abuses of power in the workforce of Amnesty International. If we look at the staff wellbeing report it reports a number of horrifying statistics and stories. The wellbeing report was undertaken and led by the KonTerra Group (a group that tries to improve working conditions) and a number of

psychologists. According to the report, the workplace environment was full of bullying and public humiliation.

The senior managers routinely abused the workers, using discrimination, swearing, and even threatening. It was reported that the managers were found to be belittling staff in meetings. They deliberately excluded certain staff from reporting, and used demeaning and menacing language to their staff such as: ‘You’re s***!’ or: ‘You should quit! If you stay in this position, your life will be a misery.’.

T h e we l l b e i n g r e p o r t s h ow n above also announced that two staff members committed suicide, as they felt that the workplace atmosphere was ‘Us versus Them’. It has also mentioned how there is severe lack of trust in senior management, and there is clear evidence of nepotism and hypocrisy.

Many staff of Amnesty International have described their employment as a ‘vocation’ and had said that they had a “significant risk of experiencing secondary stress or vicarious trauma” due to the nature of the work.

However, the workplace wellbeing report also found, the “lion’s share” of wellbeing issues were not isolated to exposure to trauma or suffering.

Instead, the adversarial culture, failures in management and pressures of workload were among the most

significant contributors to wellbeing issues.

The review was based on a survey of 457 staff, which is approximately 70% of the workforce of Amnesty International secretariat. The report also pointed out that during their time at Amnesty International, the workers experienced ‘significant distress’.

Most of the staff reported multiple accounts of discrimination on the basis of race and gender and which women, staff of colour and LGBTQ+ employees were targeted or treated unfairly. Also, the reviewers provided Amnesty’s secretary general with a private report on allegations of abuse of power, discrimination and unfair treatment, which merited further investigation. They found multiple instances of alleged favouritism or nepotism in hiring and cases where “it appears that positions or individuals may have been made redundant without due process”. One of the issues facing the organisation was a “martyrdom culture”, in which staff would sacrifice their own wellbeing by taking on huge workloads – a clear “recipe for overload and burnout”. The restructuring of the organisation, from where the problems sprung, had “taken a considerable toll” on staff wellbeing, it said.

The following statements are from the Konterra report itself:

1. “Amnesty International had a reputation for doing great work but being a hard place to work. Across many interviews the word ‘toxic’ was used to describe the Amnesty work culture as far back as the 1990s. So were the phrases ‘adversarial’, ‘lack of trust’ and ‘bullying’.”

2. “Given Amnesty’s status and mission – to protect and promote human rights – the number of accounts the assessment team received of ‘bullying’,‘racism’, and ‘sexism’ is disconcerting,” 3 . “A m n e s t y c a n n o t effectively strive to make the world a better place while perpetuating an organisational c u l t u re d e e ply m a r ke d by secrecy, mistrust, nepotism and other forms of power abuse.”

Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said the review was a difficult and a profoundly troubling read. In a statement (pdf), he said he would bring forward a reform plan by the end of March.

When the Times reported on the work culture problems in May, 2018, Gaëtan Mootoo had killed himself after complaining of stress and overwork.

Six weeks later, Rosalind McGregor, 28, an intern in Amnesty’s Geneva’s office, killed herself at her family home in Surrey. After their deaths, one of the staff members reported that it has ‘upset many of us a lot’ and stated that Amnesty International ‘tried to cover up’ their suicide, and their loss. Mootoo’s death was followed by several reviews. One, conducted

by James Laddie QC, found that “a serious failure of management” had contributed to his death. However, in a separate inquiry published by Amnesty International itself, it reported that McGregor’s death wasn’t related to the organisation at all. It pointed out that her death was related to her distress for ‘personal reasons’ and that they bore no responsibility for her death.

Not only does this case point out the poor working environment, but it reflects all of the working environments in many other countries. It may come as a shock

that an organisation like Amnesty International - an organisation that you would least suspect of bad practices is drenched in the foul odor of sexism, racism, and discrimination. It gives us an idea that before fighting for others’ rights, we should look into ourselves, and ask if the man in the mirror is the actual problem.

LEE

BY KEVIN ALLA H , 12 R A YE EAST

Spotify, Lands on South Korea

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It is reported that it is busy signing contracts with a number of local entertainment companies such as SM, JYP, YG, and Kakao M to supply as many songs as possible. Some predict that Spotify will release the service this October in time for YouTube Music to be charged, but this is a tight schedule to prepare for the launch of the service.

Rumors have it that the company is making all-out efforts to resolve the copyright issue before the launch of the service, as it once failed to make inroads into Korea due to the breakdown of discussions regarding the distribution of copyright fees. The strengths of Spotify are the provision of customized recommended music services, high-quality sound sources and the vast number of songs.

It is expected that Spotify will have

a considerable catfish effectierwhen a strong competitor is added to a weaker group and monopolizes the market, in the domestic music market when the service is launched. Coincidentally, Korean music companies have been looking for changes since early this year when Spotify was reportedly seeking to enter Korea. As music such as K-pop will be provided, there are already many enthusiasts in Korea looking forward to the entry. Consequently, some cautiously predict that Spotify will overwhelm Korean companies. Industry analysts are paying particular attention to whether Spotify's entry into Korea will put the brakes on Melon's dominance, who has a USP of cheap price and events keeping their original customers.

According to Korean Click, a statistics and analysis website, the number of monthly active users (MAUs) of six domestic music streaming companies based on mobile devices totaled 15.9 million in January, 2020. Among them, 6.79 million Melons, run by Kakao, are maintaining their undisputed Number 1 position. This is followed by 4.14 million Genie Music, 3.12 million Flo, 670k Vibes, 550kBugs and 620k.

Naver Music Launched in Stockholm, Sweden in 2008, Spotify has dominated the global digital music market, advocating "the world's best audio platform." As of October 2020, there were 248 million users and 113 million paid members.

With Spotify’s power, it is predicted to dominate the Korean market soon after its arrival.

How do sports clubs train

BY IAN YOON, YEAR 10, NORO

To be a big cohesive sports club in the Premier League, to play well in the Premier League, it is essential to have a good training system for young players. Especially because of COVID-19, many of the sports schedules are very tight, many of the sports clubs require strong depth in their squad which is why training players for the future will be crucial. This article will focus on future plans of top sports clubs, and what system they are planning to employ to bring on young players.

First of all, lots of sports clubs in the Premier League have a strong system to train players under 23. For instance Tottenham Hotspur, a top club in the Premier League, who recently went to the Champions League final, invests a lot in their

young players. Key players like English captain Harry Kane, Harry Winks, and Danny Rose were all trained from the Spurs youth academy and this is why currently they are at the top of the league with players of average 26 years old, which is quite a young squad.

The Spurs youth academy employs a large team of staff to identify, recruit, coach, develop and support the talented 205 young players.

They also have clean and convenient facilities which help them to comfortably focus on training. For clubs that are struggling in lower leagues the problem is mainly because they have a poor training system. For example, when a player in the first squad gets injured, it is hard for them to call up players from the youth squad which makes

for a bad cycle. Therefore by having a strong training system for the young players, the club is able to find themselves towards the top of their league.

Secondly, with a draft system in baseball, some clubs get to pick the best young players that they can train. This draft is very important for the teams because it gives them the opportunity to make a star player without spending lots of money. Usually, the teams that were ranked in the lower spot of the league get the first choice to pick players which is a huge advantage because they are able to pick the players that they want and are considered the best. Even though the players get picked by the draft system, the rate to actually succeed as a professional player

is 17.6% for baseball. In addition, to compare baseball to football, for football players they don’t have a draft system so the success rate is only 1%, which is very low compared to the success rate in baseball. This is why it is hard for football players to succeed because in soccer the roster is very small and very competitive whereas in baseball, there are major league and minor leagues giving many players opportunities to succeed.

Thus, another way top sports clubs select players for the future is by the draft system which gives more opportunities for players to succeed. To drive the point further, the sports club provides other jobs and ways for the young players who haven’t succeeded as a professional player. For instance, big football clubs have meetings with players that have a hard time succeeding and suggest a different option for them. The jobs are team trainer, physical therapist, sports manager and playing coach. These opportunities can provide different ways for sports players to take which can

lessen the pressure on them.

To conclude, many of the sports clubs train players for the future by having a youth academy, usage of the draft system and providing multiple opportunities for the players that have failed to be a professional player. The youth academy trains multiple players that have the possibility to become a star player and it is essential for the sports clubs in future. Not only does the youth academy prepare future players but also the draft system is a great opportunity for the clubs to pick young players and train them.

Lastly, providing other job opportunities for unsuccessful players can also encourage them to take risks and try even harder.

The

Future might not be As Fascinating As we might Believe.

“Aaah!”, Marty screamed as a shark tried to bite him.

Soon after, he found out the shark was a hologram, and soon after, the shark vanished. Marty looked around.

He could see flying cars passing by, as a machine fueled a flying car by itself. In the movie Back to the Future 2, Marty McFly visits the year 2015 to see the future. This might seem to be ridiculous, but this kind of misconception in the future could easily be seen in the media, most commonly seen in the outdated films and books. Nowadays, people are interested in artificial intelligence, civilian spacecrafts and all the other new technologies, believing these evolutionary technologies will come out during their lifetime or in a few years, in some extreme cases. People’s beliefs have been exactly the same as the 80s, when everyone believed they would soon be able to visit the space freely at any time and replace cars with hovering vehicles. But as we can see now, even after all these decades, none of the 80s dreams have come true.

Interestingly enough, the beliefs on the future have always been exaggerated throughout history. What is the reason behind the misconceptions and why does it always exist. It is the ultimate question of mankind.

In the year 1899 the world was in the midst of the industrial revolution where astonishing new technologies and inventions came out everyday.

In France, an artist named Jean-Marc Cote drew a series of artworks about the world he imagined to be by the year 2000 on postcards. In his drawings, he introduced some ideas unlikely to come true, such as aero-taxi and winged firefighters. The important fact however is that none of his drawings were achieved even by the current year 2020 even 20 years after the original year 2000 in his artworks.

But Jean-Marc Cote was not the only person who believed the world to be more dramatic than it really became. H.G.Wells, for example, was another person who imagined the future during the similar time period.

As an author, H.G. Wells was famous for the science fiction he wrote, most notably by The Time Machine. The novel is about the travels of a Victorian engineer who travels the time using his time machine. The novel presents the world of the future as doomed after the human divides into two separate species. Like H.G. Wells and Jean-Marc Cote, countless people had extremely high expectations for the future especially during this period. During the economic and scientific growth due to the Industrial revolution and less

BY IAN JUNG YEAR 9, JEOJI

understanding of science compared to today, the impossible achievements like aero-taxi seemed possible and near. Similar to this instance, the ridiculous expectations of the future were popular around the times of high development. This is evident from the fact that science fiction was popular around the 1960-70s during the Apollo programmes. Science fictions based on the future as Star Trek, Back to the Future all came out during these times.

To m o r r o w ’ s W o r l d , a B B C television series, is an example of the misconceptions of the future.

This tv series first aired in 1965, during the space race. With high interest in science among people, the program was popular, suggesting new technologies that might come true in the future. Sadly, only just a few of the technologies introduced came to be used in actual life.

Similar to this case, the technologies we believe to come true in the near future have a possibility of being exaggerated. The future might not be what we believe to be, but we should not be disappointed by it.

HYPERLOOP or

HYPER LOOPY?

BY JI-MIN LEE, YEAR 9, NORO

The Boring Company, a joint team of Tesla and SpaceX, founded by the tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk have revealed their new ambitious tunneling project, Hyperloop.

Hyperloop is a system of tubes that contains low air pressure which enables travel without any air resistance or friction. Using the least amount of energy it can, it implements people movement in a fast manner.

The Hyperloop could convey people or objects at airline or hypersonic speeds while being very energy efficient. This would drastically reduce travel times versus trains as well as planes over distances of under approximately 1,500 kilometres (930 miles).

The company is setting out to build a 3-D network of tunnels to alleviate transportation congestion. Elon Musk struggles with traffic in Los Angeles and wants to change that way people travel, removing the stress of waiting in traffic. Street level elevators will move cars down on a skate to a tunnel at which point the car skate will navigate the tunnel, no driving is required. As soon as this project takes off it’ll be good to be an elevator technician. Top speeds of 200 km/h or 124 mph. Elon Musk started the Boring Company as a hobby more or less and has purchased some used boring equipment. The

company takes around 2-3% of his time and is worked on by some interns and part time by some Tesla staff.

The Boring Company has a pet snail named “Gary” after the snail from SpongeBob Squarepants. Gary travels 14 times faster than current boring machines. The company’s goal is to beat Gary or increase tunnel boring speed over 14 times. Elon Musk is not seeing the future in flying cars everywhere as they would generate a lot of noise, and further increase stress and anxiety travel. Having thousands of objects in the air overhead will add the potential of those objects coming down and doing harm to people and property while a tunnel would contain any accident within its own little area.

Musk also plans to show off the autonomous cars that will carry people through the test tunnel, which runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under the streets of Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters. He's also planning to unveil elevators he says will bring users' own cars from street level to the tunnel.

One of the loops, known as the Dugout Loop, would take Los Angeles baseball fans to Dodger Stadium from one of three subway stations. Another would take travelers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport. But The Boring Company

faces opposition and recently canceled its plans for another test tunnel on Los Angeles' west side after a neighborhood coalition filed a lawsuit expressing concerns about traffic and disruptions from trucks hauling out dirt during the boring process.

The tunnels are deep underground and currently mines on Earth are far deeper than skyscrapers are tall, with humanity’s current technology it makes much more sense to go underground than above ground.

Part of the motivation to build these tunnels comes from the fact that autonomous driving will actually increase the number of cars on the road. Elon’s plans for having Tesla cars driving around like driverless Uber's will at some point make bus travel relatively more expensive as more and more Tesla’s hit the road.

Let us wait and see the tunnels of the future we will all be ‘driving’ in on the skateboard.

Why are Smart Cities the Best Choice for the Future?

BY JUYEON MA, YOONKYO KANG BOTH YEAR 9, GEOMUN

C u r r e n t l y, u r b a n i z a t i o n i s happening faster than any other time in recorded history. Experts predict that by 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion people and two-thirds of them will live in the cities.1 billion vehicles are bringing urban areas to a standstill. Cities are consuming three-quarters of the world’s energy every year, responsible for half of the greenhouse emissions. Now it is time to consider the environs people will inhabit - “Smart Cities” are the answer, a smarter choice for everyone since they create a safer, cleaner, and faster community.

Safety has always been a priority to check when choosing a place to live. Smart cities can satisfy this condition because they aren’t simply “ lo c a t e d” i n a s a fe a re a b u t u s e technology to protect the community.

In our uncertain and changeable environment, 87% of MIT Senseable City Lab’s survey respondents agreed new technology can help citizens to evacuate from natural disasters.

Additionally, smart cities can also raise awareness of other impending threats. The Underworlds project at MIT Senseable City Lab is collecting information about viruses, bacteria, and chemicals washed into a city’s sewers. Architect and engineer Carlo Ratti said they have built small robots to source samples from sewers to detect fluctuations in urban health parameters. They are planning to use this information to help health clinics, hospitals, healthcare providers, and general citizens to prepare for viruses

and proactively respond to them rather than being reactive as we have been with Covid 19. As the outbreak of coronavirus is currently an issue, health and safety will become a more significant aspect to check when people choose their dwellings.

Furthermore, people also look for cleaner communities: Marius Sylvestersen, a project manager at Copenhagen Solutions Lab, says that people will want a city that is “clean and green”. For instance, in Copenhagen, 68 percent of citizens cite air quality as of high importance when it comes to what makes their city attractive. To monitor pollution levels, Copenhagen Solutions Lab, currently working with Google, has installed monitoring equipment in its Street View car to produce a heatmap of air quality around the city.This project gives a glimpse of the future where data, collected in real time by sensors all over the city, can positively impact on decisions we make. In one Danish municipality the streetlights turn to red when alternative energy is no longer powering them reminding citizens of their need to conserve energy. Sylvestersen says that we will start to manage our traffic patterns in relation to the consequences on air quality in the city- it’s not just about transporting as quickly as possible but also minimising the amount of pollution.

In the future, fast transportation will be the key aspect to include when people are choosing where to live. Smart cities can use technology

to control the transportation within them. For instance Seoul, a megacity in South Korea, has a population density twice that of New York. They use sophisticated technology to transform their underground public transportation. The subway system transports 7 million people daily and the entire network, from wheels to workers, relies on continually updating information. Mr. Kim, the manager of City Hall station, says that the data is gathered at the station, sent and uploaded to their system, and used to plan the transport schedule.

Also, the speed and frequency of the trains can be constantly adjusted to keep everything running smoothly, “Smart” cameras measure how many passengers are boarding, and sensors on the trains and tracks monitor every last component to provide early warning of when maintenance is required. This equipment makes the subway trains of Seoul move as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Smart Cities use huge amounts of technology and the citizens themselves will create much of the data, making itself healthier, cleaner, and faster.

However, worries have been expressed about potential misuse and threat to our privacy since data on individuals is being collected everywhere. Still, if data is used in the right way, it can greatly increase citizen participation and engagement. Therefore, we think public trust that the government establishes with citizens will be the key to open the door to the smart city, our future dwelling places.

THE STOPPAGE OF ALL SPORTS

BY IAN YOON, YEAR 10, NORO Recently, there was a disastrous pandemic disease that shocked the world, Covid-19. Phenomena is an “observable fact or event” and the stoppage of all sports is a great example of phenomena.

We can observe that there are no major sports being played. Our TV live sports slots are filled with games we already know the results of. Not quite the same experience. People, including your author, who watched sports at least twice a week, now feel very weird, awkward, and also realize how heavily sports entertained us and took an inordinate amount of time in our lives. This essay will focus on the phenomenon ‘stoppage of all sports” caused by Covid-19 and how it affects our daily lives.

To begin with, I want to talk about the biggest issues these days, Covid-19.

The pandemic started in Wuhan and spread as quickly as it could all around the world, especially more so in Europe and America. To connect with the topic stoppage of all sports, Europe and America are the places in the world where sports are very popular such as baseball

in America, and soccer in Europe. The Premier League stopped on March 13th and it has been nearly three months since the last live play. In addition, the Champions League was stopped in the round of 16 which is only the second time since world war 2. Major League baseball was also ready to have the opening series on March 26th but they couldn’t manage it mainly because the American government didn't deal well with the disease.

Secondly, Coronavirus is a virus that can easily spread through contacts by people so this is also a major reason why all the sports have stopped. For example, in our school, we play football for cca and this time we played non contact soccer which is to not tackle or 1v1 during the match. In addition, Rugby is a sport that involves the most contact among all the sports and unfortunately, it is also stopped too. However, recently the premier league decided to resume the league from the 17th of June as there wasn’t any infected person in the teams so they decided to resume. Thus, these were the situations that happened be-

cause of the COVID-19 crisis and the sports are all closed but getting better.

All in all, by the COVID-19, people all over the world have felt the enormous amount of time we spend on sports because nowadays we feel really bored and lonely. Especially in Europe, the heart of football, they probably feel more bored than us. The COVID-19 also has changed our daily routines and forced us to stay at home without any sports or events. To conclude, the stoppage of sports by COVID-19 was a very rare experience and it made people think about how important sports were in our lives.

PRICE GOUGING AND HOARDING AMIDST THE CORONAVIRUS

OUTBREAK

BY DONGWOOK WARRICK KWON, YEAR 10, NORO Desperate times call for desperate measures. When the coronavirus struck the world out of the blue, socio economic aspect sof the world were impacted in unprecedented ways. In some nations, such as Vietnam and South Korea, it provided the opportunity for proving how adept they were in dealing with a pandemic. In others, such as Britain, where 5G phone masts are burnt due to some people believing the ‘urban myths’, it revealed how much some citizens were not willing to accept scientific theories. Regardless of the discrepancies between nations, one common characteristic found in all states suffering severely from the crisis was that hikes in prices followed by hoarding of goods, where the demand is insensitive to the price, occurred frequently: the purchase of large quantities of a commodity. However, the concept of price gouging is not a new concept; long before the Covid19 outbreak, governments desperately attempted to drive down the prices of commodities in such ‘desperate times’.

To illustrate, various Attorney Generals from US states impacted by natural disasters, such as Florida, have issued statements warning storeowners against price gouging. However, both empirical and theoretical reasoning suggests that efforts from the government to combat price hikes will only backfire. Ergo, government intervention should certainly not be the cure to recent supply shortages or price gouging in areas facing a national crisis such as natural disasters

and epidemics.

Primarily, the government intervention to combat price gouging severely infringes upon individual property rights. Property rights aside, it is principally a false dichotomy to label retailers and owners of the desired products as evil opportunists. The direct cause of this is because the sale of products at higher prices should not be considered an act of greediness. Price inflates simply due to the increase of demand and stagnant supply. Of course, this does not mean that people suffering from harsh situations do not deserve pity and empathy, but in national crises, everyone is a victim.

People are inevitably influenced by each other based on social phenomena. The most recent Covid19 outbreak not only impacted Wuhan’s regional economy, but net transactions in and out of China declined drastically,contributing to the overall decline of the SSE Composite Index. Thus, when everyone is a victim of circumstance, just because one happens to have what others do not cannot be the yardstick of evil and good.

What is incriminating, is the fact that the government is intervening in the flow of private property. By no means should the government interfere in individual property and liberty since property rights are the crux of the success of capitalism. Consequently, by seizing the right for individuals to reap

what they have sown, the government is undermining the very pillars of our society. Yes, some people do get these wrong. For instance, individuals who react poorly towards the demands of the market lose their property in terms of diminished value. It is better to let market forces drive price down so that the same mistakes are not made. Evidently, it is true that in a natural state, market forces are able to correct themselves. The concept of owning property gains meaning only when one is not entitled to necessarily ‘do’ something for another individual in exchange for their belongings. This was established long before us, through the concept of the ‘Invisible Hand’ proposed by a Scottish economist named Adam Smith.

Thus, just as one can decide not to sell products, one is completely justified to freely choose whom and where to sell their products to, selling to anyone who wants the product for the price being charged. If the government decides to intervene in the free will of suppliers and consumers by controlling prices of products, it is clearly a violation of private property laws. The simple fact that one happens to be a supplier of essential goods such as water, electricity and medical supplies during a national crisis does not give the government the right to dictate the business decisions of companies.

How do price hikes resolve the problem faster? In this argument, we will discover the advantages of a laissez faire economic model when combating

natural disasters or the outbreak of epidemics. The underlying reason is that the market corrects itself. In this case, profit plays a pivotal role in correcting the market. The significance of profit in an economy is that it enables rapid changes and influx of goods to disaster-stricken-areas. When the price of goods escalates, it signals to the private sector to participate in these markets thereby significantly increasing the supply of goods. Ultimately, this signals supply chains and individuals around nations to manufacture and supply more products. With profit acting as a signal in an economy, the increased supplies of goods can drive prices down and ultimately solve supply shortages.

In contrast, with capped prices, none of this would happen: supply will not increase due to the lack of financial incentive which is going to be even more harmful for individuals going through these crises. Ergo, it is clear that the private sector is the only agency that can help resolve the problem effective immediately. It is therefore absurd to consistently argue that the government should be the sole party handling the problem.

On the other hand, proponents of government intervention as a solution to price gouging tend to argue that governments can simply subsidise factories to produce more in order to deal with supply shortages. This is naïve: why decide to spend more of the taxpayer’s hard-earned money and harm the integrity of the system as a whole when the market clearly works? In short, there is no basis for the government to disregard a viable solution and choose to implement a totally ineffective and illegitimate solution. Even if price gouging were to be harmful for society, there are existing checks and balances in the market. First, price gouging is doomed to fail. There has to be minimumal competitors in order to buy up huge portions of the market and manipulate the flow of supplies.

However, the moment where profits for producing goods increase even a little, more suppliers will be involved in the

market after receiving the signal. Ergo, cornering the market will be impossible after all. Second, firms have the innate motivation not to hike their products to unreasonable levels. With unaffordable price tags on their products, firms will be condemned and will be forced to lower their prices. If they do not comply with such societal pressure, they will face a public relations crisis resulting in the decimation of their company image.

As a result, the claim that products will become unaffordable for the majority when price gouging occurs is unrealistic. These are many reasons why the free market economy can deal with price gouging better than any other government intervention.

This, of course, is not the only view.

Critics claim that from a utilitarian perspective, the government creates greater utility or value through intervening within market forces. If the government can help its own citizens escape the horrible conditions they face, they explain that market forces can be violated or restricted. These ideas focus on institutional responsibility rather than individual responsibility since after all, citizens are the ones who are directly affected by the shut down of the economy, not the government and it is the government which decided to close the economy. Moreover, they question the effectiveness of the market correcting itself. The direct cause of this is because higher prices for products with low profit margins such as eggs or milk will not necessarily bring forward any extra supplies. There will be a limit towards motivating individuals to allocate their supplies of goods if they think it is not simply ‘worth it’ to take the risk and go into specific areas. Also, the speed of supplies will eventually have delays which means that goods may not reach the individuals who are really in need of them. Consequently, in a situation where price and supply mechanisms are failing to function properly, the government has a responsibility to interfere and correct the market forces to better deal with the crisis people encounter.

Nevertheless, a scenario where price gouging is present is more beneficial

than the counterfactual. In a society without price gouging, supply shortages will never be resolved. Suppliers will not be motivated from supplying products into these areas if profit margins are not greater compared to other regions. If supply continues to be an issue, it is inevitable that black markets will increase in order to sell scarce products at a higher price. This will even decrease the accessibility of prerequisite goods for individual survival. Moreover, significantly low costs of products mean that irrational consumer behaviour triggered by fear and uncertainty will increase. As a result, essential products will be less available to the most vulnerable ones which is why simply capping prices without contemplation may be counterproductive. Conversely, in a society with price gouging, it has been shown that the supply and demand will adjust to levels which resolve the problem effectively.

Even if we say that supply does not increase sufficiently to give everyone access to supplies, it is still beneficial. In cases such as the corona outbreak, less public exposure leads to the less spread of the disease. Similar attempts made by foreign governments such as China and Italy prohibiting public appearance have seen to be more effective than South Korea’s response to the outbreak: giving out masks at a government-regulated price. In both scenarios, efforts to tackle price gouging is never the ideal solution to solve national crises.

Evidently, government interventions are not necessarily the best ways in tackling the issue of price gouging. The idea of viewing government intervention as an ultimate panacea is flawed. Rather, the glorified solution is oftentimes not effective due to mechanistic factors: realistic infeasibilities of actually ‘stopping’ hikes from happening and the delay of signals due to limited profit margins. Not only on a practical level, it is fundamentally wrong for governments to compromise the building blocks of our nation because of something that might be effective. Ergo, the excessive emphasis on government intervention is something that must be re-evaluated

DO YOU KNOW THIS GUY?

By Ian Jung, Year 9, Jeoji

There is this man with his eyes hidden under his black fedora with a mysterious expression on his face.

Yet, this guy just seems to be normal.

However, on the internet ,countless images of him as different characters exist and it is very easy to find a person with one of the images as their profile picture. Furthermore, as recently as the start of this year, 2020, only a few knew his existence. Here comes the question: Who is this guy and how did he become a phenomenon of the modern era?

Firstly we must know his name to begin with. He is called Um Jun Sik, with a surname of Um and a given name of Jun Sik. This might sound like a stereotypical Korean name, but ironically, his peculiar name is one of the key factors that made him so popular.

Unlike any other Korean name which has a meaning on it, nobody knows the true meaning behind this name Um Jun Sik. Anyways, Um Jun Sik was previously called PD Amumu, a nickname based on a League of Legends champion, Amumu. As could be seen from

his name, he was a game streamer. But one day he was streaming a video while driving, and due to his carelessness, he had a car accident with a taxi. In the process of dealing with the car accident, the taxi driver asked him for his name, and he told the driver his name Um Jun Sik. However, the taxi driver did not understand his name clearly and replied, saying “what kind of name is it?”

People who were watching also thought his name was hilarious and began typing his name in his videos. Um Jun Sik eventually banned people from posting his name on his channel, and people wrote his name on other channels then.

What kind of meaning did his name have? Does it stand for Ummagga junbihan siksa (meal prepared by mom)?

Nobody knows.

Nowadays people mentioning his name could be seen in nearly every place on the internet but on the other hand the haters also increased as well.

Young people shouting his name out without context often annoys other people. In some extreme cases even his name itself is banned. Due to this

unexpected popularity Um Jun Sik is now experiencing severe panic disorder and hence he quitted streaming. This meme has some disadvantages as well as the advantages. Therefore you should not make fun of someone’s name.

Still today, calling his name without his permission is strongly prohibited and this act has a possibility of getting into legal trouble. Therefore if you want no trouble and easy life you should not use his name to make profit or record his name anywhere. Hopefully he will not read this article and I won’t annoy him!

Daycare

Future Directions for Preventing Child Abuse in

BY AIN LEE YEAR 11, MULCHAT In January 2015, at a day-care centre in Incheon, a four-year-old child was forcefully hit on the head for spitting out the food she was chewing. Based on this incident, it was suspected that a number of other children were potential victims of child abuse in that nursery, as parents reported that their children have shown fear and refused to go inside the nursery multiple times in the past.

This incident provoked outrage in the public, and there have been comments about the need to install more surveillance cameras in child care centres. Accordingly, the government amended the Child Care Act, including new regulations about the instalment of CCTV and updating several other areas of the legislation that needed improvement. However, the amended act that has been enforced since 2015 failed to address the fundamental issues of child abuse in child care centres and was unable to prevent child abuse cases from surging every year.

The amended Child Care Act states that the instalment of CCTV in all child care centres and that offline staff training are now mandatory. There are no new regulations about staff-to-child ratios, despite the remarks by experts that they should be reduced. Instead, the amended act suggested an alternative solution that could presumably serve the same purpose while maintaining low costs, which is that child care programs should hire more assistant teachers. However, there are no specific regulations that child care programs have to conform to, which makes it difficult to be implemented in reality.

Due to Korea’s regressive laws about child protection, Korean children are particularly susceptible to violence in child care centres. In comparison to other countries, Korean laws impose sentences that are disproportionately short on those convicted in child abuse. In 2018, when child abuse had caused death, 23.3% of

those convicted were given a 5 to 10year sentence. On the contrary, in New Mexico, U.S.A., the law mandates a 30year sentence when child abuse leads to death. Criticizing the weakness of child abuse punishments in Korea, Professor Changhyun Lee claimed that “laws requiring longer sentences won’t prevent child abuse directly but will help change the society’s perceptions of child abuse.”

In the UK, a ‘Cinderella law’ has been included in the legislature to prevent emotional abuse by parents.

Korean child protection laws tend to focus only on the physical aspects of abuse, which causes people to overlook the impact emotional abuse can have on children. However, installing CCTV and toughening punishments won’t help in resolving the fundamental issues. Thus, efforts should be made to improve the actual quality of child care and education to prevent child abuse.

This may start by improving staff working conditions. In 2017, 2,400

child care centre staff participated in a survey conducted by the Child Policy Research Institute, and the majority chose ‘stress due to poor working conditions’ as the major reason for child abuse. 2018 research showed that within the average working hours (9 hours and 18 minutes) of child care staff members, only 18 minutes is allowed for them to rest. To reduce staff members’ stress caused by long working hours, a law requiring child care centres to implement a shift system should be employed. Child care staff members, parents, and other stakeholders should urge the government to address the necessity of this change.

Furthermore, screening should be conducted on all staff members.

Currently, this includes personal interviews, reference from previous employers, and criminal background checks. However, this basic level screening is insufficient to confirm that the person can truly care for and respect the children. Therefore, psychological testing could be undertak-

en as well. For example, Situational Judgement Tests test how employees handle pressure under common difficult situations. The Myers Brigg and The Big Five are also existing psychological tests commonly used for employment purposes to provide information about employees’ perceptions or determine a potential employee’s abilities to work under stress.

The importance of early childhood development is often failed to be noticed. A tremendous amount of emotional and social development occurs during this period. Young children are very dependent on their caregivers, and the traumas they experience can severely affect their health in adulthood. Better training would alert those who work with children to potentially damaging situations and improve the effectiveness of child welfare policies.

Therefore, people should realize the severity of child abuse in child care centres and put a higher emphasis on improving the quality of child care and education more successfully.

The Meritocratic Society Behind my Window

To know about how the inequality problems and the rich-poor gap unstoppably widens, as a fellow Young Geographer, it was my pleasure to read about ‘The Meritocracy Trap’. This book is written by Daniel Markovits who is a professor in the Law School of Yale University. For like the United States and Republic of South Korea as they are extremely advanced capitalist societies, most people would agree that they are recognized as much as one’s ability. I was especially surprised how Daniel Markovits, the self made man of success, criticized the meritocratic society as the elite professor in Yale. He first pointed out that there were also disadvantages for the world to change from hereditary nepotism society to meritocratic society. From the 1960s to 1970s, the most important factors of going into elite universities, like Harvard, depended on their family’s race and wealth. Therefore, Harvard and Yale students weren’t clever enough to be in their positions, thus a lot of old Americans even said it’s a place to learn how to play and be merry. So, Markovits concluded that because the rich were incompetent, they needed a lot of supporting troops - since Chief executive officer was lazy the role of vice president and rest of the hierarchical system became important. This was the reason why there was a great growth of the middle class in the past. However, moving onto 1980s and 1990s, the profile of Harvard and Yale students changes. Only the system of selecting academic achievements and credits was implemented. Therefore, people with a good work ethic started to join the elite schools’ alumnus. Since they are used to being good at their work, companies started to scout them. So, in the old days, it used to be a ‘CEO’ who would distribute work to the middle class, but now it’s turned into a ‘CEO’ who would do the work of the middle class on their own. This remarkable analysis is also interpreted as the change from ‘aristocracy’ to ‘meritocracy’. By moving onto the meritocratic society, the rich became very competent and diligent in their work in which it eliminated the jobs of the middle class.

Then, let’s talk about the gentrification that happened in South Korea. Most of the rich inherited from their parents their factories or land. So, society had to turn around in such a way that a rich man lived in the centre of the factories, and all of the middle class were scattered around its centre. But, when the society turned meritocratic, the gathering of smart people began to increase. Elite villages began to emerge and those people began to live collectively in such places like New York or Seoul. Therefore, the lives of the elite and the middle class have completely changed - different schools and different brands. This caused the middle class and elites to be no longer at ease. This is why the Future Integration Party (representing the rich) and the Deomocratic Party (representing the poor) in South Korea can’t have easy conversations together.

The most serious rich-poor gap in the modern society is between the middle class and the elite, and among the elites within that one percent, the rich-poor gap can be found to be polarized. Therefore, the lives of the middle class become much similar to those of the poor, which amplifies anxiety and anger of themselves.

Last of all, how does this mechanism affect our society? In the past, because there were no people who earn billions of dollars by their own success through elite universities and companies, there was a wide range of career choices. For instance, one could choose to be a teacher or a banker. However, because the banker’s wage is nearly 20 times that of the teacher, society has been transformed into one where people change jobs as long as they can become a banker even if one wants to be a teacher. Also, since teachers’ wages are too low, their status is also found to be low which is a serious problem. Then, the question is addressed to the rich people, “are they happy with their lives?” And, surprisingly, the answer is no. In the old days, the rich could enjoy their own life because they ran a factory

By SM Chung, Year 11, Sarah

full of hard working middle classes. However, today’s society has changed the way inheritance is handed down in which it leaves with very high intensity training. So, I get to question myself, “maybe I’m living a life of exploiting myself without knowing my ideals”.

Therefore, I say unto my friends and neighbors, that this meritocratic society created a very unhappy elite, but also a very poor middle class. As much as our country, there are only a few societies where people work hard to prove themselves and achieve high certificates through studying. As a Young Geographer who attends a very prestigious school in Jeju island, it was an opportunity for me to reflect on what kind of social structure our obsession with proving our identity through studying has created.

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hands”.

This is a quote from a famous novelist, Neil Gaiman. Since a very long time ago, humans have made their own languages and characters to deliver their thoughts and wills to others. They soon began to write these letters as a pile of papers, and as the time passed by, it has been advanced into a book that we now know these days.

Until now, books were thought of as one of the most efficient and useful media we can use to gain information and also as an indoor hobby for numerous people.

Like we all have experienced, there was a Covid-19 outbreak very recently and people are recommended to stay in their homes and prevent physical contact with others as much as possible.

This has caused many people to feel isolated, and depressed, which is called “corona blue”. To get rid of this corona blue, the CDC (Center for disease control and prevention) has recommended some ways that people can feel less isolated.

One of the recommended ways that can prevent the Corona blue was to have a mentally relaxing time, such as reading books. Then what phenomenal, interesting books are there? These phenomenal facts about the books might engage you to be interested in some books, and enjoy during your social distancing at home.

The number of copies of the book sold is aneasy to tell whether that book has been loved by many people, or not. It also can show what the people take the most value of. Then what would this book be, a famous novel of a legendary writer? Or maybe a study that contains a huge idea that gives a solution for one of the major problems over the world? Surprisingly, the book with the most copies sold is known as “The Bible”, followed by ‘The Holy Quran’

in second place. There are approximately 5,000,000,000 copies of the bible, according to the Guinness world record. Moreover, the bible even takes the first place as the most read books, too. The bible is a Christian scripture and it consists of the old and new testaments. This is an example that effectively shows how religion is taking such a huge part in numerous people’s lives. The first copy for the bible is the Gutenberg bible, which is currently housed in the New York Public Library.

Then how has the bible taken the first place as the most read and copied book?

To understand the reason, we need to know how the religion has been developed and how it has affected the people in the past. About 84% of people on Earth are known to have a religion and 2.3 billion people are Christians. Like this, the religion has been closely related to humans throughout the development of history and, even now, an uncountable number of people are having their religious beliefs. The bible is a necessary item for the Christians. Therefore we can see why the bible is the most read book in the world.

To move on, let’s talk more about some of the most phenomenal books.

Novels are steadily loved by the readers by how it can throw a huge message with concise, but deep literary, expressions.

One of the shortest books in the world, is a powerful example that shows how a writer can deliver a massive impression to the readers with minimum words. This short novel is written by a legendary writer, Ernest Hemingway, who is also known as a writer of “The old man and the sea”. The following story goes like this: “for sale: baby shoes never worn.”

It is only formed with six words, but makes the reader feel what exactly the story is about. This short story is about the baby that was stillborn, and the parents are trying to sell the baby products, which were never worn or used. Such as this, books can deliver sometimes impression, happiness, sadness only with the words, but not with any visual materials. This shortest novel makes us feel that the writers, who can illustrate everything in life, truly deserve the title of ‘magician of words’.

Along with the shortest novel, what would be the longest one? The longest book that’s recorded is called “Remembrance of things past (À la recherche du temps perdu)”. It was written by a French novelist, Marcel Proust. This book is well-known for its length, which contains 9,609,000 characters. Also it sometimes gets named as one of the best books written in that time. His literary style was famous for long sentences with a massive amount of beautiful metaphors. There was this episode that the editor sent a letter saying, “I don’t understand why we need over 30 pages just to describe the main character tossing and turning before he falls asleep”.

The ‘Remembrance of things past’ is the author’s autobiographical novel.

Therefore it has an abundant amount of realistic experiences that he has felt during his life. He was very passionate about this book, he even stopped the printer to modify the manuscript to write what emotions he felt just before his death. After he was dead, the rest of the series was finished by his brother. The story starts with a middle-aged man during the period right after the first world war, casually gets to eat a madeleine with a

cup of tea, which leads him to his memories from a long time ago. This character of the man has many things in common with Proust, that they want to be, or are writers, they write a story, and both lived during the world war. By this, we can infer that the main character is pretty much reflected in Marcel himself. Now this book is recorded as one of the longest books in the world, on the Guinness world record.

There are endless piles of books that we can read, and every single one of them delivers us impressions and knowledge.

Reading books can be one of the best hobbies for people, especially when we are indoors. Knowing about, and being familiar with some of the phenomenal books might make you feel closer to the books than before. There are various types, genres, sizes, and lengths of books in the world. However, they all have the commonality that they can provide us with knowledge and messages that others have discovered. How about discovering more about the books and have a new hobby during your social distancing term? They will be the best chance to fill yourself with rich ideas and knowledge that other people have discovered and felt themselves.

By Sunwoo Heo, Year 9, Noro

How might Covid-19 affect our society in 2021 and beyond?

By Judy Lee, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East

The world beyond COVID-19 is going to be very different. The various changes that COVID-19 brought are to the extent we have never imagined before. The social atmosphere of refraining from face-to-face contact, the unprecedented drop in stock prices since the time when IMF support was received, the change in the educational environment in which educational institutions postpone lectures, and the blockade of each country which causes recession in international trade and transport industries, are unlikely to be resolved easily. These changes are common in countries around the world.

As the vaccine development for COVID-19 is

in full swing, it is expected that vaccines will be produced in the near future due to the advance in modern medicine and will be much more stable than the current chaos. However, a lot of experts believe that the global trend of the pandemic will have a long-lasting impact on our society even if vaccines are released.

So, how might COVID-19 affect our society beyond in the future? First of all, although it has been the case until recently, research and development in the pharmaceutical, bio industries and technological development will accelerate further. The pharmaceutical and bio industries are classified as high-risk and

educational environment caused by COVID-19 is expected to promote the generalization of the existing system of online universities, and the more educational institutions that did not take deep consideration of this environment, the more they feel the need to invest in this field.

high-return industries. Thus, if the initial R&D returns to nothing, it is exposed to enormous investment risk. Many experts expect that the pharmaceutical and bio industries will have a higher share, and the government's policy support will also increase.

Secondly, the growth of non-face-to-face industries is inevitable; it had actually continued to grow even before COVID-19 crisis. For instance, the typical types are the home shopping and internet shopping industry. However, the nonface-to-face industry after COVID-19 is expected to grow at an unprecedented pace.

Lastly, it is expected that the proportion of online lectures in the field of education and the speed of technological development in related industries will increase after COVID-19. The development of IT technology has evolved to compensate for the shortcomings of existing offline education in the field of education. There have been many cyber universities in Korea, and online open classes such as MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) are also being held at leading universities overseas. The change in the

The horrors of COVID-19 that our society faces will bring about changes in many areas in the future. As always, certain social problems may be somewhat relieved over time, or our fatigue from continuing tension may cause us to adjust in some way. However, even if they are relaxed or adapted, they are likely to show different aspects before and after that. COVID-19 is more contagious than SARS or MERS in the past, and the aftereffects will be much greater.

In subsequent societies, the proportion of pharmaceutical and bio industries will increase, the growth of non-face-to-face industries will stand out, and the education sector is expected to see the popularization of online education and the development of related industries. Also, the social demand for counseling psychology and psychiatry in the medical sector that will help solve people's mental loneliness and psychological fundamental problems is expected to surge.

What will happen to Africa after covid?

By Jian Yeo, Year 7, Noro Edited by Minseo Cha, Year 12, Halla East The coronavirus pandemic. We can see it as a disease which spreads widely from small areas to huge areas. Lockdowns are causing lots of problems for people and the economy.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world and most of the countries there are suffering from poverty. But, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Africa is suffering more than most countries with poverty and the coronavirus. The poverty of Africa meant people couldn’t get sufficient medical treatment when they got coronavirus.

Now, there are about 1,306,750 cases in Africa and the country with the most cases is South Africa with 639, 371 cases. Due to Africa’s serious poverty and the lack of development, people who were infected by coronavirus are suffering more than people in other countries and are not getting enough proper medical care to help recovery. This allows us to predict that the number of people in poverty will increase in Africa. As more well off countries cut demand for goods, Africans will suffer lower incomes. Also Africans will have less foreign currency to buy

medical equipment to help people. In addition, Thumbi Ndung'u, professor of infectious disease at University College London, said that Africa will be facing a catastrophe and that they have less developed hospitals, Africa has to deal with massive amounts of people who got infected. To be accurate, he said “The last possibility is that it may just be a matter of time before it hits Africa as much as it hit other places. If that’s the case, and we get community transmission in subSaharan Africa at the rates that we’ve witnessed in Italy, we could be staring at a catastrophe.”

Dr William Hanage said: “The issues with Africa – like many places but even more so – are that the lack of testing means we don’t have any secure understanding of the true amounts of infection”.

These were not the only opinions which people

found themselves in poverty. As the coronavirus got more serious, the lockdown increased by 65%.

We know that the lockdowns are making people struggle to go to work and this means people earn less money or no money at all.

stated. The UN officials predicted that COVID 19 will put about 30 million people into poverty.

The WHO (World Health Organization) warned that Africa may be the next epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. If this was what it will happen in the future, this would be likely that the spread of the coronavirus will increase because Africa has the second highest population. The WHO also said that in 3-6 months, more than 10 million people will get infected.

As the coronavirus is getting more serious in Africa, people started to be stricker and by this, people are facing urgent situations. The global health respondent said that if coronavirus is all over Africa badly it will turn out to be more serious and dangerous than the other countries and continents like Europe and the United States.The number of imposed lockdowns are increasing and it is hard for people to go out easily and buy supplies for their survival. By this, about 9.1% of sub-Saharan Africa immediately

Even though there are lots of negative impacts in Africa because of coronavirus, some people are saying that this pandemic will lead to a better future for the continent. Everyone is working hard to get rid of the virus and this makes Africa become a more social and economic country.

Also, it allows the countries and states of Africa to invest in their health systems. Hence, there are advantages even from these bad situations.

So, we have to step up and help countries and the continents which are facing big challenges with their country’s development and coronavirus.

Covid Around The World

By Chloe Kim, Year 7, Noro Edited by Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East Is Covid 19, also referred to as coronavirus, serious? It originated from Wuhan, China.

Some scientists said Covid 19 is caused by bats or snakes.

However, other scientists said that China made this virus by design within the lab. We don’t know what's correct until China announces the results of their investigations. Few countries urgently need vaccines, like the USA, the UK, India, Italy, Russia, Yemen, and Mexico. Hitherto it's spread to a minimum of 115 countries. How will the Covid 19 be in the future? Will it stop or will it continue?

How d o e s Cov id 1 9 s pre ad and what are the symptoms?

So, Covid 19 spreads through contact with the airborne or respiratory droplets.

Sometimes, circumstances may occur. After you are full of

Covid 19 the foremost common symptoms are fever, dry cough, tiredness. Some of the fewer common symptoms are aches, pain, inf lammatory disease, diarrhea, and headaches. To induce recovery from Covid 19, it'll take seven to 10 days.

However, it depends on how sick you are.

So far, the USA has the foremost confirmed people and is the most dangerous country but Yemen has the highest death rate. There are some reasons why Yemen has a high death rate; its rustic, still at war, has the world's worst humanitarian crisis where the health system has already collapsed and also the doctors themselves are suffering due to coronavirus.

This virus has more effects on the poor than rich people.

I f y o u l o o k cl o s e l y a t t h e countries that have the foremost confirmed by continents. So, firstly, we could examine the USA, which has the foremost cast within the world and North America. In the USA, there are 10,568,714 confirmed and 245,943 deaths.

Among 50 states within the USA, Illinois has 114,931 which has the foremost confirmed.

(11.11.2020). In Brazil which has the foremost confirmed in South America, there are 5,701,283 confirmed and 162,842

open after 6:00 am. Spain has new local lockdowns and a state emergency in Madrid.

You can’t leave or enter Madrid unless you'll move to work or school. In the Netherlands, a partial four-week lockdown has happened and restaurants can open but they have to shut before 8:00 pm. In the German lockdown Gyms and swimming pools must adapt to new protocols quickly.. In Belgium, bars and restaurants close but football fans can return. Food markets can stay open, but Christmas markets, winter v i l l a g e s , a n d s e c on d-h a n d markets aren't allowed to open for customers. Lastly, Sweden and Portugal both are having an identical situation, they are not allowed to assemble in a bunch of more than 50 people.

deaths. (11.11.2020). In India, in line with the 11.14.2020 report, there are 8,773,479 confirmed and 129,225 deaths which is the most confirmed in Asia. Among plenty of nations that have few high confirms, consistent with the 11.14.2020 report, France has the foremost confirmed number in Europe with 1,922,504 confirmed and 43,892 deaths. Lastly, South Africa where there are lots of untamed animals has the foremost confirmed in Africa with 746,945 confirmed and 20,153 deaths

per the 11.14.2020 report. (These numbers of conf irmed and deaths pieces of knowledge are supported corona board.kr) After the USA, Europe is additionally having a tough time to scale back the cases of Covid-19. Countries in Europe are having lockdowns. In France and Italy night-time curfew are in place in nine cities. Bars and restaurants are closed in some cities. Some bars or restaurants are open; however, they have to shut before 9:00 pm and

These are some easy precautions that you just can follow to stop covid 19. Firstly, social distancing (maintain a distance of 6 feet between yourself and others). Secondly, if unnecessary, avoid going outside and touring in places where people are crowded.

Nex t , avoid t o uc h in g yo u r face, nose, mouth with your potentially contaminated hands. Fourth, wash your hands frequently with soap for 20 ~ 30 seconds. Lastly, wear your mask if you're going outside. If you follow these precautions safely we are able to reduce cases and forestall the spreading of Covid 19. Protect yourself, you'll protect others.

The Phenomenon of Sloth

Productivity is a prime concern for people across the world, especially for students. There are various techniques and methods developed by productivity gurus that claim to turn you into a busy bee without fail. Every student encounters the pomodoro technique or the so-called systematic planning techniques. However, these techniques barely work and many students relapse into procrastinating soon. On an individual level, this lack of productivity is often a result of a phenomenon known as the student syndrome, in which humans tend not to complete work ahead of schedule even if they are able to. Furthermore, the reason why so many organisations fail to increase productivity, or even experience a reduction in productivity despite increases in the organisation’s size, is because of Parkinson’s law which states that the number of officials and the quantity of work done is unrelated. Both phenomena work in undermining a bureaucratic organisation’s productivity.

First, the student syndrome is a widespread phenomenon that describes planned procrastination, in which people will only start to put their full effort into a task at the last possible moment just before the deadline. An academic paper by D.C. Smith at the University of Cape Town (2010) suggests that the student syndrome occurs because it puts a high level of urgency to ensure the proper amount of effort is put into the task. More commonly, people will have excuses such as, “I work better under pressure.” Another factor that accounts for the student syndrome and procrastination in general is the psychological phenomenon of delay discounting, which is defined as “the depreciation of the value of a reward related to the time that it takes to be released” according to Adriana da Matta (2012). A study by Leonard Green (1997) supports the existence of this behaviour when it found that people are willing to sacrifice $17 for an instant reward than a reward in the future. This psychological phenomenon has significance in various disciplines, including economics, in which the discounted utility model is based upon this behaviour. For us, we experience this when we seek instant gratification by watching a Netflix film over completing a homework that is due next week. It is only after the utility of completing the task has increased due to the impending deadline that we choose to work

By Young Sun Sean Hong, Year 13, Halla North

on the task. This supports a compelling argument in favour of procrastination and the student syndrome: it is a rational economic decision based on the utility each choice brings.

(It also means teachers should set short deadlines - ED.) However, there are some glaring weaknesses of procrastination in terms of one’s well being and overall satisfaction in the long term. First, it puts an enormous amount of pressure and stress on the student, which is detrimental to one’s health. Furthermore, the work produced under pressure is often non-satisfactory. While people argue that pressure enables them to put their full effort, it is often the case that they produce works below their potential. Research from David Arnott and Scott Dacko, of Warwick Business School, found that assignments submitted in the last 24 hours before a deadline suffered up to 5% lower grades The mean mark of assignments submitted 24 hours before the deadline was 64.17% and the mean mark of assignments submitted at the last minute was 59%. This translates into a drop of grade and leaves a cautionary tale for students around the world. Furthermore, another danger of relying on planned procrastination is that it relies heavily upon the existence of deadlines. While students might have produced an acceptable level of work within the deadline via planned procrastination, the real problem occurs when there is no deadline to complete a task. These tasks include starting a business or getting fit, when there are normally no advisors around to set deadlines and sanction you for not meeting them. Since there are no deadlines, people will postpone doing the work indefinitely, ultimately getting no progress done at all. These problems suggest that relying much on planned procrastination is extremely dangerous and one should try to get out of the habit.

While it could be argued that the student syndrome could be overcome by educating people with better planning skills and making them more disciplined, there is another major problem that undermines the productivity of organisations: Parkinson’s law. This law stands in contrast to the conventional wisdom that the amount of work done within an organisation is proportional to the size of the organisation. This is because of the Law of Multiplication of Subordinates and the Law of

Multiplication of Work. The Law of Multiplication of Subordinates states that, in a bureaucratic organization, an official who is overburdened with work will look for appointing two subordinates rather than having a colleague on the same level as him in the hierarchy. This way, the official’s promotion is not at risk. However, the same law works on the two newly hired subordinates, who will employ two subordinates each to share the burden. Therefore, the size of the organization increases exponentially, which is much larger than what is necessary.

Furthermore, the Law of Multiplication of Work states that the work required to complete the same task multiplies as the size of the organisation increases. This is because there are additional responsibilities created for senior officers as the size of the organisation increases. They have to review the work done by subordinates, edit it and even reject it because the subordinates are less skilled than the senior officers. The subordinates also become less productive as the organisation increases its size and becomes more complex because they have to respond to different hierarchies within the organisation and the senior officers might disagree with themselves. These inevitable inefficiencies of a bureaucratic organisation ultimately mean that the same amount of work is done even though the size of the organisation has increased significantly. Parkinson’s law explains the bureaucratization of organizations and its inefficiencies. Therefore, attempts to make organizations more productive have been made throughout the world, from setting individual task deadlines and reducing daily decision making to the debureaucratization of organisations. However, whether these are successful needs to be studied further.

In conclusion, the phenomenon of sloth both at the individual and the organisational level, can be seen throughout the world in examples such as the student syndrome and Parkinson’s law. While many recognize that being unproductive should be avoided, it is the case that the forces that make us slothful are too strong in many cases. Although it is a cliche, one can only definitely overcome the phenomenon of sloth by improving self-discipline and working out innovative methods to become more productive.

NEW DEAL VS NEW DEAL

opinion piece by Hannah Heewon Seo

In 1933, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal to restore prosperity to Americans who had suffered from the impact of the stock market crash (also known as “Black Tuesday”) and the Great Depression since 1929. 87 years later, President Moon Jae-in in the Republic of Korea announced the start of the ‘Korean New Deal’ to recover from the economic crisis after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Korean New Deal is the blueprint for South Korea’s next hundred years,” said President Moon Jae-in.

What is the New Deal? And will it work?

Roosevelt’s New Deal = ‘Relief, Recovery, and Reform”

The Great Depression Resulted in the 'New Deal' 1933 was the darkest year during the Great Depression, recording the highest unemployment level. By 1933, Toledo, Ohio’ had reached 80 percent, and nearly 90 percent of Lowell, Massachusetts was unemployed. Therefore, the newly elected President in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt had to come up with the enlightening solution for this economic failure.

And it was the New Deal.

Many of his reformations were made within “The First 100 Days” of his presidency.

And what did the New deal do?

Most of all, it addressed the unemployed. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Cor ps (CCC) were established to allow s h o r t - t e r m g ove r n m e n t a i d , providing temporary jobs such as construction projects and youth work.

The New Deal promoted recovery compared to the Hoover ye a r s . T h e Fe d e r a l D e p o s i t Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ensured the government insurance for the bank deposit for the banks in the Federal Reserve System, meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) protected the public from the stock market.

The New Deal did tackle structural refor m in American society. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) increased the q u a l i t y o f A m e r i c a n’s l i v i n g

by covering a seven-state area, supplying cheap electricity and preventing f loods, improving navigation, and producing nitrates.

Historical value? Yes. but…

In general, Roosevelt's New Deal was extremely expensive, but it has value as it is the first example of government intervention to solve the economic crisis. Based on John Maynard Keynes’s theory a b o u t i n c re a s e d g ove r n m e n t expenditure and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the economy out of the depression, it made a dramatic change with an economic difference and a sense of security in America, for example, the unemployment rate decreased by 11.5% within four years from 25.2% in 1933 to 13.7% in 1937.

This was the reason why they had the second and even the third New Deal later.

H o w e v e r, t h e N e w D e a l failed because Roosevelt and his administration failed to point out what caused the Great depression.

It was a wrong cure.

However, the glory of the New Deal did not last long and had limitations in making a spectacular rate of recovery.

The biggest chance for the recovery of America was from World War II with the increased explosive demand for war production, creating jobs towards the end of the depression.

Why do we need the ‘New Deal’ now?

-The world after COVID-19 Historically, economic depression such as the Great Depression, the Asian Financial crisis, and the Financial crisis of 2008-2009 created huge reform in economics.

As the number of confirmed cases in the world rapidly increased, most countries reacted by banning transportation, stopping people from moving around.

Due to this reason, many economists are expecting a different ‘New Normal’ in the future.

COVID 19 will affect income distribution fatally.

Damage focused on the vulnerable social group Recent movement restrictions and social distance affect the vulnerable social group worldwide. Decreased employment and income from COVID-19 lead to the lower income of the vulnerable social groups (part-time job workers and owner-operators).

In Korea, the number of employers decreased to a large number, particularly the ones in lodging, food, and wholesale and retail industries.

Increase/Decrease with number of employers in Korea compared to 2019, in million (20.2 - 20.4) - compared to same month,last year

Increase/Decrease of loan with individual business in Korea compared to previous month, in trillion won (20.1 - 20.5/1st~20th)

Looking at the previous economic crisis, it will take a long time to recover from unequal income distribution from the vulnerable social group even if the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

Extreme job polarization As the COVID-19 pandemic got longer, it improved the quality of the digital economy, however, it naturally decreased the amount of simple repetitive work that humans did and the demand for workers in the lowskill industry and labor-intensive manufacturing.

During this process, the income of high-skilled workers continually increases while low-skilled workers’ income will be staged because the labour supply in low-skilled sectors increases greatly as the middleskilled workers move to low-skilled jobs with low entry barriers.

Through government-supported job training, lowskilled workers can learn digital-related skills, but in reality, it is not practically possible to learn and utilize in a short period.

Stagnation of income for low/middle income groups in rising countries In recent years, as globalization took root, it worsened the gap between rich and poor around the globe, leading to the stagnation of income for low and middle-income groups. “The gap between rich countries and the rest of the world in their resilience to crises will widen further. Economic nationalism will reinforce this” (Adam Simon Posen- President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics).

Meanwhile, Increased global trade and exchange of technology resulted in the larger scale of globalization, reducing the income difference between developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, after the COVID-19 pandemic, if the developed countries expand the “reshoring” of their own national companies and minimize direct foreign investment, this will worsen the growth of developing countries.

BY EUGENE JEAN CHO, YEAR 8, MULCHAT

MONUMENTS OF

PHENOMENON

Phenomenons are remarkable people, things, or events, and artifacts are one of them. Did you ever wonder about historical artifacts or about how they were built? In this article, I will be telling you about two historical artifacts such as pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

Pyramids are pyramid-shaped, ancient structures located in Egypt. Most pyramids were built as the pharaoh’s tomb believed by the Egyptians to have eased the monarchs’ passage into the afterlife. The Great Pyramid (Khufu’s pyramid) was built of approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone and stood nearly 50 stories high upon completion.

Its base forms a nearly perfect and level square, with sides aligned to the four cardinal points of the compass. It was a mystery of how this ‘perfect’ structure was built in ancient times, which makes the pyramid a phenomena.

The exact method by which these architectural masterpieces were built is not definitively known, but the leading theory is that the Egyptians who built the pyramids may have been able to move massive stone blocks across the desert by wetting the sand in front of a contraption built to pull the heavy

objects. Physicists at the Amsterdam University figured out that dampening the sand in front of the device reduces friction on the sled, making it easier to operate. The researchers took evidence from the wall painting.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, England.

One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones that is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. Work started on this super stone circle around 5,000 years ago in the late Neolithic Age, but it took over 1,000 years to build!

Archaeologists believed that the final changes were made in about 1,500BC, in the early Bronze Age. The lighter stones weigh about 3,600kg each, the same weight as 2 cars, while the bigger sarsen stones each weigh as much as 22 tonnes! So how did Stonehenge get built? A legend from the 12th century claimed giants placed the monument on a mountain in Ireland, before a wizard named Merlin magically moved the stone circle to England. However, there is no certain solution to this question and the Irish wizards would likely have prevented such a theft!

Each year, on June 21st, the longest day of the year, the sun always rises over the Heel Stone at Stonehenge – a large stone which stands outside of the main monument.The sun always sets over the Heel Stone on the shortest day of the year, December 21st, so the researchers suspect that Stonehenge might have been used as a ‘calendar’, and so to the study of the stars.

In 2007, the New 7 Wonders Foundation held a contest to name the “New 7 Wonders of the World.” Still, there are more Wonders of the World that have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world’s most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures. Yet, there are things to be figured out from these wonders. No doubt the revelation of these secrets will be phenomenal.

THE PHENOMENAL DECLINING POPULATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY IN

KOREAㅍ

By Ki Myoung Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East

Everyone would concede the assertion that a low fertility rate is detrimental for a country; South Korea is currently undergoing such a calamity. As one of the countries with an excessively low birth rate per woman, innumerable disadvantages occur due to declining working population which I will further explain later. According to the CIA World Factbook, with a 1.26 fertility rate, South Korea remains at 219th place among 224 countries. This imminent disaster is already affecting the country’s economy and eventually could lead to more serious problems.

One of the negative consequences is the damage to companies due to a labor shortage. Since South Korea is running out of young people who are able to function efficiently, industries which call for youths to work are on the verge of confronting labor scarcity.

Thus, companies would need to raise their pay to attract young people to join them. Because of such increment in personnel expenses, many companies would suffer great damage. Loss in human capital will influence not only companies but also consumers. Prices of products would increase significantly to make up for the possible loss to the company. Then, the citizens would need to pay a higher price to purchase necessities. The impending calamity will not stop here. It will continue unless the government provides a pragmatic solution.

Subsequently, the corporations’ revenues will be curtailed because of decline in consumption by the public.

Why would people spend more to buy unnecessarily expensive products? Not simply merchandise companies would

face this crisis, but also industries for health-care or high-tech manufacturing companies will suffer from labor scarcity. This evidently shows how labor shortage can affect the economy unfavorably.

But there is a solution for this catastrophe; robots can be used to replace the position of humans. Robots are in the ascendant in terms of accuracy and will do a marvellous job in place of young workers. Another solution would be to resolve a fundamental problem of low birth rate. But unfortunately, despite the investments of more than 100 trillion won by the government, no advancement was achieved. Another solution would be to invite in more foreign born workers or to encourage Koreans who have migrated abroad to return.

Regarding the elderly people, who do not work anymore and therefore do not have income anymore, have to survive with pensions provided by the government. The government provides that pension from tax collected from the working population. In other words, working populations are paying their money to sustain elders’ lives.

Such payment generates unfairness to the working population. People would be reluctant to pay more tax to help strangers to maintain their lives. Some might contend that the elders are not complete strangers but fellow Koreans who have already devoted their lives regarding their nation. However, it creates immense burden on the current labor population, thereby forcing them to cope with evermounting pressure to earn more cash. Nobody wants to make money for others to benefit from but, in the long run, current taxpayers

will become the pensioners of the future. Ultimately, the government might encounter fiscal problems if they don’t budget properly to ensure that there is sufficient money available to pay the pension. In order to do this we might need to put off the day when people retire by making them work longer before they can benefit from a pension. As we are on average, all living longer this will be a viable solution so students now can look forward to a longer working life. Some people might see this as an advantage but, I suspect, a lot of people will see this as a disadvantage.

In conclusion, population decline in a specific country would beget several negative impacts. The utmost effect would be labor shortage; companies cannot employ young workers due to loss of human capital. However, problems with labor scarcity would ameliorate through using robots and AIs in the future. Another problem is the development of unfairness and pressure to the working population. They will have to drag their heels and be left with no choice but to continue slaving away for more hours to reluctantly provide for the elderly. Encouraging back the Korean diaspora could prove difficult as they have established new lives for themselves abroad and may no longer have the language skills to interact with the rest of the population. They would, however, come back with more advanced skills and could improve productivity if the Korean economy can provide appropriate jobs for them.

What we need right now is any viable solution to rescue us from this tragic situation and it will remain as homework for us to resolve.

BENJAMIN JUN YEAR 7, MULCHAT

Where is

everybody?

Imagine an ant colony. It does not have any other neighbouring ant colonies near, and they live in the middle of a big city. One day, it strikes one of the ants that there might be other forms of life other than themselves. They immediately launch expeditions with teams of three, searching for pheromone signals that may be trying to communicate with them. They search for a vast area of twenty roadblocks, but they don’t find anything. Humans simply pass by and ignore the ants, because they don’t really care about these little creatures, and anyway, they had enough homework to do! As the colony grows, it may or may not run into other ants, or it could, after some time, realize the existence of humans. This may seem like a silly story, but really, that may be exactly what we are doing right now.

The first thing I will discuss in this article is how advanced zs are. I will use the Kardashev scale to sort them out. The scale separates aliens into categories depending on how much energy they have access to. Here’s a simplified version of the scale:

Type Type Type Type Type Type

0: 0 W I: 1016 W II: 1026 W III: 1036 W IV: 1046 W V:infinity (more or less)

A type 0 civilisation would be something like bacteria. No consciousness, just A type 0 civilisation would be something like bacteria. No consciousness, just reproducing themselves. It’s still nice to know that we are not alone, but we probably won’t be able to have a conversation with them, or pretty much anything except for experimenting on them.

A type 1 civilization has access to all the energy available on its planet. We are already pretty close to this, for we can change the atmosphere, dig up the fossil fuel, create and destroy forests, mutate animals as we please, send a cute rover into space and give it a name, and even invent Burger King (like, seriously, the wappers are great; you should try sometime if you haven’t already).

A type 2 civilization will have access to the energy of their star. The Dyson sphere could achieve this: it is a giant structure enveloping a star, and converting its heat and light energy into usable energy that the civilization can do whatever they want with. The star would be tamed and would provide energy for her ‘owner’ to the end of her life. This civilization would actually be immune to extinction unless they make some big mistakes, such as starting an interplanetary space-war. No phenomenon currently known to science will be able to wipe out such a civilization. Even if there was an unknown object the size of our moon flying towards their tiny planet, they could move the entire solar system out of the way; playing a galactic game of dodgeball, if you will. Pretty sweet.

A type 3 civilization will have control over its entire galaxy. They would have more or less complete knowledge of energy. They probably won’t be completely biological. They could be cyborgs (semi-biological beings), or even completely mechanical beings. Maybe something else. They would colonize all of the stars in their galaxy. They might have trouble going any further as they travel slower than light speed. They would reach a point where they would have to stop, where they cannot find another star or planet within their reach unless they invent some new means of transportation such as wormholes.

A type 4 civilization would have control over multiple galaxies, possibly the entire universe. We are not quite sure what they would look like at all. They might live in supermassive black holes or something.

Actually harnessing this much energy is currently considered ‘impossible’. Kardashev thought that adding a stage IV would be pointless, and stopped there, but stages were added as time passed.

A type 5 We have no idea whatsoever about what these would look like, how they ever got to that stage, or what they would do with that much energy. For now, we are assuming that they can control the multiverses. Those ants I mentioned above again. If they noticed us somehow and decided to observe our behaviour, they would not be able to understand some of our behaviour, such as riding roller coasters, going to school, reading magazines.

But what should we do when we find aliens? Our current approach is to go right off and strike up a chat. But is that a smart choice? Stephen Hawking says no.

He says that aliens are dangerous, not because they might want to kill us with their Type III tech; they would probably be surprised and happy and worried at the same time - just like us. The real reason is that if aliens and humans come into contact, there is a pretty high chance that we would spread extraterrestrial illnesses to each other. Bacteria are more or less the most basic form of life, and they will probably be around wherever there is life. Some of them may cause illnesses which may come from a completely different planet.

Doctors will have no idea whatsoever as to what to do with the patients. And this will be a serious problem. Just look at us right now in 2020’s major event: Covid. If a pandemic happened with extraterrestrial illnesses, which we will not

have a clue how to cure, this would probably wipe out a lot of us humans. Type III may also have run out of fuel, or something else that they need, and are roaming the universe in search of it. They may be looking for water, wood, hydrogen-3 atoms, who knows? And if we have a lot of it, we could be invaded without warning, or maybe we could be ‘visited’ and asked if we wanted to be robbed and have a major pandemic in return. If we don’t have much of that resource, we may actually be of no interest to them. They may think of us as ‘yet another tribe of apes’, especially if extraterrestrial life is common, and we would simply be out of their interest.

Another question: We are fairly sure that aliens are out there somewhere. Then why are we not seeing them? If there are intergalactic civilizations of ETs building Dyson spheres and flying around being nosy, we would have noticed by now.

Here are some explanations: 1. Aliens are something that is… unimaginable with our brains. We have no idea whatsoever what they are like, and we may not know if we had one right in front of us. This would mean that their idea of aliens would be totally different from us too, which will mean it will be some time until we finally realize that aliens were huge spherical balls of plasma and that we were orbiting around one. This is very likely because, so far, for we are the only example we have.

2. Maybe they already know about us, and they decided to be cautious, and hide from us for a while. They may think that we would want to wage war with them, or they may think that they weren’t ready to meet us. Perhaps they are making the smart choice.

3. We are primitive compared to them, and they know of our existence, only they think of us as an experiment. We are an extraordinary phenomenon to them, and they may want to study us as we study AI. This may mean that they are confident that we are of no threat to them - yet. They may want to destroy us if we start to catch up with them. They may already have an emergency button that would immediately lead to our destruction. This is what we do with AI; we develop them, and carefully observe them, but we are always ready to shut the system down if necessary.

4. Just a last thought: maybe we are alone after all. We have been searching in vain for any sign of extraterrestrial means of communication all this time. In that case, all we can do is to expand our territory, work on our technology, until we become a type V civilization. Keep asking questions, and exploring, until we don’t have any questions to ask, no corner of the universe we haven’t thoroughly explored. For now, we just have to keep together and try our best not to blow our little blue planet up. The universe is too beautiful not to be lived in, with all of its mysteries.

Future isn’t as far as you imagine, but it is not necessarily a good thing. As humans develop technology, industries and medical supplies for their convenience, there are consequences. Polar bears and arctic animals are losing their shelters because of the melting ice sheets, and other wild animals are being left homeless as well. Humans had success in developing technology, but it came at a price, some of which are natural disasters, food shortages, and global warming. Food shortage is being mentioned as an important issue in the world, and one of the problems that needs to be solved. While one side of the world is dumping food, the other side would have difficulty getting food and people dying from the scarcity of food.

To solve these situations, scientists are finding ways to make artificial foods which give adequate nutrients and that does not harm the environment.

There are a few ways to help others who are underfeed by donating food and money. However, if the whole world is suffering from starving and food, donating doesn’t help, we need another way to solve this problem. Scientists are predicting that global food shortage will hit the world in 2050 when the world population will be touching 10 billion people and each will eat on average 12% more food than we did in 2000. Malthus had the same idea but was proved wrong.

BY BELLA LEE YEAR 9, SARAH

What's on

A way to resolve the problem is artificial foods, created by humans to imitate natural foods. If there are real foods and artificial foods, we can’t distinguish the real one because they look and taste similar. Most sweets, for example, are part of artificial foods which are made with man-made flavour that mimic the taste of natural foods. Not only sweets and desserts, but some drinks like orange juice also have artificial ingredients added to them such as calcium and protein.

Furthermore, artificial foods don't only encompas sweets, pasta and fruits can also be artificial foods. As technology is developing, the range of the man made foods and ingredients are getting wider. As a result, now we can get ingredients artificially that we could only previously get from nature such as fruits and vegetables. The Dutch first made lab grown meat and Mark Post finally succeeded in making lab made burgers. The tasters said it was “close to meat, but not that juicy” and “like an animal protein cake”. Making foods is not impossible and unachievable.

Moreover, artificial foods not only

replace natural foods, but they also help people to gain nutrients that they need. Folic acids and fluorides are ones which are usually added to foods. Folic acid is usually added to enriched grain products such as bread, pasta, rice and cereal and this method is called fortification. Folic acid is a chemical substance that is needed for pregnancy for women’s health and babies. It is important for pregnant women to take folic acids because they make cells grow and it is important in prenatal health.

Folic acid is also known as Vitamin B9 and is mostly found in fruits and vegetables. However, pregnant women need to eat what they want, not only eat fruits and vegetables everyday.

Thus, folic acid is added to grain products so they can gain the nutrients.

Unfortunately, there are also results that man-made foods are harmful to humans and their health. However, if we improve the results and technology, we would be able to satisfy people by replacing natural foods with artificial foods. We are already beginning to familiarize ourselves with man made foods. The future isn’t far away.

We the People

By Victoria Park, Year 7, Sarah

Uganda. For most, you will only be able to think of the equator, wild life, or perhaps you have never heard of the nation Uganda. Essentially, Uganda is not prominent as a nation. It’s issues are also buried deep inside its borders.

One of the issues in Uganda is homosexuality. Inside the walls of Uganda, homosexuality is forbidden and a taboo – at least for now. The future, though it may seem fixed, may differ from what we imagine, and I believe that the topic of LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda is worth a reflection.

Before moving onto the possible ways Uganda will turn out in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, a history of LGBTQ+.

The duration which Uganda opposed homosexuality is not as long as one would imagine; the concept of homosexuality itself is a foreign one, too. It was only in 2009 that Uganda decided to propose a death sentence for acts of “aggravated homosexuality”. Although it was passed in 2013 as a “law”, it was then softened due to international criticism. If this was the case in the past, then what awaits Uganda in the future?

There are, to answer, only three ways in which the future of Uganda’s LGBTQ+ rights will be: Uganda’s opinion may change little, the opinion might turn

to favour of LGBTQ+ rights, or the opinion may be worse than ever on the topic. These opinions, however, will differ from which perspective we are looking from: the public, the government, and the church.

The first perspective is the public – 42.72 million people who may have the ability to sway the “minds” of politicians. According to the Pew Research Center, an opinion poll revealed that 96% of Ugandans were against homosexuality, with only 4% of the whole population supporting the rights of homosexuals. Interestingly, the older they were, the more accepting of homosexuality they were too; this suggests that it will be hard for public opinion to be open to LGBTQ+ rights, as the future of the Uganda will be shaped by the younger people. In addition to this, only a few people turned up for Pride Marches in Uganda. In one case, the people organising a pride march expected more than or about 500 people however, according to the gay activist Moses Kimbugwe, less than 200 people actually came. Moses Kimbugwe suggests that even though some may wish to march “with them”, they are afraid of the Ugandan government. If what Kimbugwe suggests is true, the per-

spective of the public may not matter at all – even if more than half of Ugandans support LGBTQ+ in their hearts, they will never be able to speak out. Yet, although there is only some evidence to support the idea of the public thinking positively of LGBTQ+ rights, there is a hope to hang on for. “We are here to walk for those who can’t walk, who are afraid to walk. We are here to celebrate our rights.” This is what Kimbugwe said in 2015. Behind this simple quotation is the determination of the Ugandan activists. Though not much evidence is there to support a positive future for the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, the simple determination of the gay rights activists may win over the statistics and reports.

However it is highly unlikely that the Ugandan public will be supportive of LGBTQ+ Rights Movement.

Another perspective to consider is the government. Currently, Uganda is a presidential republic, meaning the President of Uganda has the power of both the head of state and the head of government. There are multiple parties in the political system of Uganda – however, if counting only the recent dates, there was only one President of the Ugandan third republic: Yoweri Museveni (1944–). Most likely, he will

v

be the President of Uganda for some time. If this is the case, it is most likely that the policies will not change. In 2014, Yoweri Museveni signed the infamous ‘Kill the Gays’ bill. This is a policy where the penalties for gay people and their sexual acts are toughened, including life sentences for gay sex or same-sex marriage. Unless there is a strong rebellion from the National Resistance Movement side or a stronger one from the people of Uganda, it is most likely that Yoweri Museveni will continue to preside in Uganda with his prejudicial ideas on LGBTQ+ rights.

Even if Museveni lost his status most of the other politicians are unsupportive of LGBTQ+ rights. This is unless, by some miraculous chance, some other elective who supports gay rights stands up and becomes the President of Uganda. Then, most likely, things will turn out differently. But this is an inordinately improbable scenario, as most candidates — and voters— are against LGBTQ+ rights.

The final perspective to look at is the Church. Church is, though not overwhelmingly, significantly important when discussing gay rights. This is partly because the start of Uganda’s opposition to gay rights began when

American conservative evangelicals came to Uganda and promoted such ideas — they worked so hard that finally Ugandans were convinced.

Currently, there are several different bishops and clergymen who support, or at least aren’t against, LGBTQ+ rights — but this is the case for mostly small churches, generally insignificant local churches. However, even if there was a major bishop who took a stand for LGBTQ+ rights, they are most likely to be forced to step down by their fellow bishops who do not support such rights. In 1974, Christopher Senyonjo was installed as the Right Reverend of the Church of Uganda. Senyonjo was supportive of gay rights and worked for equality. However, as soon as his acts became significant, the Church of Uganda declared him no longer eligible as a bishop, then took away his remaining privileges and involvement with the Church. It is most plausible that this will also be the case if anyone does promote LGBTQ+ rights as an influential religious leader in Uganda. As for now, the Archbishop Stanley Ntagali declared that “homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture”. From this, one can probably guess that the Church will remain the same as ever: preventing the revolution that Uganda desperately

needs. In other countries, like Ireland, where the church was equally strong, the situation changed in a generation and now marriage equality is widely accepted with Ireland being the first country in the world where the majority of people, not politicians, voted to accept same-sex marriage. Attitudes can and do change over time.

After considering these perspectives, it is most likely that the future will be the same as the present. Those in a homosexual relationship will be criminalized, blamed, and humiliated. The unjust rule will remain and dominate the society, slowly eating away all freedom in the country. Logically, it is unlikely that the situation will change at all, as no solid evidence supports the idea that Uganda’s anti-gay spirit will subside.

However, logic is not everything. It is inaccurate to say that Uganda will never be free from being the devil’s henchmen in suit and tie. You cannot be sure of anything. No one can find the rewind button; the least we can do is to march forward with bravery and might, fighting for what is right, and never stop believing. The future is upon our hands, waiting for our decision.

BEING A BETTER VERSION OF OURSELVES:

al n e nom

e h P

BY JEONGHYUN SOPHIA PARK, YEAR 9, JEOJI

We only live once. Although this is a popular belief, many do not act like this. Doing things that we regret is one of the examples. Like this, in life we should try to make the most of our actions. One of them is to make a huge impact on others so that they can remember good things about you. One type of person is called a phenomenal person. So how can we be one?

Before we learn how, let’s see where we are currently at. Most of us would be currently normal. By the word ‘norma’,l I mean what you think as normal.

Some may think that helping others is the most kind deed while others think differently about it. In the past, we would have performed some actions that are hurtful to others. These hurtful actions could have been something so hurtful to some people that they can’t even change their mind about us while some may just think of it as a joke and move on. Also, there would have been some grateful actions, when someone is having a hard day, you could have just moved your chair and started to listen to what they are saying. These types of actions would be considered as a nice and friendly move to people near you. The people you had a positive impact with would remember you and it could have been something so little to you, yet it could have been something so important and valuable to others.

However, the people who gained pain, would not think the same way. If those actions become constant, those people may think of you as a nightmare. But we don’t want that to happen. What we want to be is a better version of ourselves and if we think that we are good enough, we should always try more because no one really is perfect.

I believe that the first step starts with being a great listener. We have one mouth and two ears. This is because we should listen more than talking to others. It is great to reduce some words, and listen. Of course, there would be people wanting to speak more. Even with those people, do not correct them

and say that since I heard your story you should listen to mine, just listen more. In other words, just keep on listening. Later on, when you meet people within the same group, you would have much more of an impact as a person who always had wide ears to listen. During this process, it is even better to be empathetic. Everyone has a bad day. In these bad days for someone, if you were to sit there and agree with her situation, it would make an even stronger impact on them. But this is not compulsory so it is okay, but it is even better to emphasize with others as you listen.

Secondly, we should spread happiness with others. Although happiness is not the most important emotion of all of the emotions, it feels better when we are happy rather than being sad.

Therefore, try every single day to plant a smile on the faces of others. For that to happen we should smile more ourselves. By being cheerful in ourselves, it easily spreads to the people near you.

Other people mirror your expression so smile and the smile will return to you.

In this process, it is important not to force others. Other people have feelings too, and it is okay to be sad. Sadness is also an important experience to have.

But, if they seem like they are worrying a lot, try to make them happier by spreading positivity. Try to be the ones who give their hand when others are in the dark. For people who stick through thin and thick are the ones they would most likely love being with.

Also, it is important to be kind to others. Help maybe just one type of action to demonstrate kindness. It is important to help others. However, do keep in mind that some hate to feel helped. The people who hate to feel helped think like that because they think that others are demeaning themselves, lowering the people’s ability to do things. In this case, it is easy to examine their face, which expresses their emotions, showing all the things that one means. Those who are wanting

to say help me have a lot of puzzled looks and seem like they are exhausted because even if they try to keep everything inside, it rarely works and, as a result, would be shown on their faces.

If we help people in this situation, they would be thankful, and you could also make a remarkable memory for them.

While it is important to try some new attitudes that show kindness to others, always remind yourself to treat yourself. Doing all these jobs is hard, just for one day. But to do it for a long time is even more difficult. It is more important to make a habit of these such as meditating, playing sports, reading books so that, as time flows, it would just come out like your second skin.

Always compliment yourself for having a great day, be grateful for the things that happened. Do not just read this and pass on to the next page. Close your book, and help the next person who needs help. Smile to one feeling sad today. These little steps could help you be a phenomenal person.

The structure of Korean ‘New Deal’ The Korean government is pursuing a creative economy through a new economic paradigm that will help turn the development strategy for catching up with advanced economies into a pace-setting strategy.

There are few areas that Korean New Deal tries to aim for; 1. Digital New Deal As the transition to the digital economy accelerates with COVID- 19 as an opportunity, the promotion of ‘digital nation + non-face-to-face promising industry' is being made a)Strengthen DNA system b) Transition to virtual/digital education c) Investment in untact industry with R&D and capital investment d) Digitalization of SOC 2.Green New Deal As the importance of responding to climate change and transitioning to a low-carbon society emerged with the COVID- 19 pandemic, it will be promoted toward a carbon-neutral society such as infrastructure/ energy green conversion and green industry innovation through a) Urban,space,lifestyle infrastructure green transition b) Low-carbon, distributed energy diffusion c) Building green industry 3. Strengthen the social security system It focuses on overcoming the short-term employment shock caused by COVID-19 , as well as changes in the structure of the employment market in the future , and is promoted in the direction of reinforcing employment and the social safety net plus expanding human investment from a)employment & social security b) Job training

Conclusion The change of economic system due to the COVID-19 around the world is not completely brand new which no one expected. Historically, the economic crisis catalyzed the changes in the structure which was steadily progressing. Considering previous cases in history, this COVID-19 will accelerate some global trends such as anti-globalization, the spread of the digital economy, and change to a low carbon economy.

During the pandemic, the structure of economics such as the trading system, labour market, and the role of government will develop in the long term. Since these structural changes do not proceed independently but are influenced by each other, they may appear differently in various directions and speeds by country, rather than a single steady state.

Personally, the idea of the Korean New Deal can prepare for the time to recover from the recession due to the COVID- 19 by cushioning its impact on society. This pandemic clearly shows that the role of government and the quality of leadership in all countries is virtual to react to this global-scale economic crisis which makes people adapt to new environments that might change their lives entirely.

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BY BONNIE HYUN YEAR 12, HALLA EAST

Has the future for trade got brighter

Expectations are growing that the trade war between the U.S. and China will ease further in the wake of the Joe Biden administration. If President Donald Trump, who has put forward his own protectionist "America First" strategy, has maintained a hard-line stance toward China by hitting indiscriminate tariff bombs, then Biden, who values multilateral cooperation, is expected to at least implement a "less aggressive" trade policy toward China. Expectations are growing that uncertainties in the trade environment that Korea has been experiencing will also decrease.

As a result of Biden winning the election, the U.S.-China trade relationship is expected to change as well. South Korea, which suffered from a dispute between China and the U.S., the No. 1 and No. 2 export partners last year, has no choice but to pay keen attention to the issue. The two countries account for 39 percent of Korea's total exports. As the U.S.-China trade relationship reached its worst during the

Trump administration, South Korea seems to be welcoming Biden's victory. The industry expects global trade volumes to increase as uncertainties in trade friction decrease in the Biden administration.

Oxford Economics, a global economic analyst, expected the Biden government to implement a less aggressive and predictable policy toward China. They have predicted that 7.5 percent tariffs will be removed on 110 billion dollars worth of consumer goods imported from China. This could lead to a 0.2 percentage point increase in China's GDP this year, it predicted. They also added that "the Biden government's policy will be economically beneficial to China. We expect China's exports to increase as the U.S. grows faster next year, which will increase overall economic activity."

It is also possible to have a scenario in which the US-China trade war will continue with minor changes. "Biden's victory is not a victory for China," said Capital Economics, an-

other global economic analysis agency.

"He will not reverse the trend of 'decoupling' between the U.S. and China."

They say Biden will not impose tariffs on Chinese imports as an "indiscriminate target" like President Trump, but could put forward new trade conditions. "Biden proposed a climate plan to impose carbon adjustment fees on imports of carbon-intensive goods," Capital Economics said.

They said "President Trump is willing to agree on China's pledge to strengthen imports of goods to the U.S., but Biden focuses on structural issues, including intellectual property rights and industrial policies, and thinks China is far less willing to provide them," adding, "even if the tariffs are canceled due to the resumption of negotiations between the two countries, China's concession will have to be preceded."

Some further predict that trade conflicts between the U.S. and China could become more acute in the Biden administration. "Some indus-

tries in China may face higher U.S. trade barriers," Capital Economics said.

"The Biden administration's policy of purchasing domestic products, 'Buy American', could make it more difficult for Chinese companies to export their products to the U.S." Biden also supports the Huawei sanctions and has promised a security review of Chinese technology companies such as Tik-Tok. He also announced a "Made in America" plan to reduce economic dependence on China.

Capital Economics said, "The increase in political tensions between the U.S. and China in the Biden administration could cast a shadow over the economy," adding, "President Trump did not confront China on human rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang despite the trade war." But Biden is much more critical of this. "If Biden takes a tougher stance on issues other than the economy, it will be more difficult to resolve economic tensions," he said.

Historic recurrence, is it a phenomenon or a pure coincidence?

Does History repeat?

Approximately a billion years have passed since humanity emerged on Earth, which has been recorded by different forms of media, from texts to the movie, from fossils to stone cuts. However, despite the long history of humanity, historians point out that historic recurrence is constantly occurring regardless of the timeline. While some similar events could be seen after a year, some similar events happen after decades. However, some historians point out that this reoccurrence is just a pure coincidence that involves similar events happening, and people misunderstanding it as a reoccurrence. Is this idea of historic recurrence a valid observation, or did it just resulte from chance?

The idea of historic recurrence first appeared as the phrase “Rufus Historiae” by the English novelist George Eliot in the 1800s. She started to sense that there were some similar events that constantly happen, regardless of location or gaps of time between them. She first named these similar events happening irregularly as historic recurrence. However, the historians’ opinions are divided, as while some claim that this recurrence is a considerable phenomenon with various factors contributing, some claim that the repetitive events are only a pure coincidence that seems to be similar to the previous events.

Various examples of historical recurrence could be found in various countries’ civil wars. Until the 21st Century, the major civil wars that happened had common elements, especially the ideological conflict of two sides. For example, the American Civil War started due to the ideological conflicts over whether slavery should be maintained and legalized. While Lincoln and his United States of America agreed to abolish slavery and recognize African-Americans as their own citizens, General Lee and the Confederate

States of America still needed to maintain their slaves for their agricultural industries. This ideological conflict of slavery became the underlying factor that caused the start of the American Civil War. This led the entire USA to be divided into two separate states: the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America. Despite the initial trend of the Southern Army leading the war, the Northern Amry started to regain control of the Civil War after winning the Battle of Gettysburg. This Civil War later ended in 1865, by the surrender of the Southern Army, which led to the complete abolishionof slavery. However, this war is considered to be the first national conflict that occurred as a domestic war between people with identical nations. However, the same event happened again in 1950, when the Korean War occurred. This war also was a civil war among two identical nationalities, along with the independent nations being formed. The Korean War was caused due to the ideological conflict which argued whether the Korean Peninsula should be ruled by a capitalist or communist government. This became the underlying cause of the Korean War as North Korea invaded South Korea on the 25th of June. Despite the initial trend of North Korea almost conquering the entire Korean peninsula, the UN army, and the remaining South Korean army started to regain control of the peninsula by successfully ending Operation Chromite, which took over Incheon and cut the supply lines of the North Korean Army.

This success ended in the war is almost over, as the UN army and South Korean army almost reached the end of North Korea. However, this also caused China to intervene in the war by sending supplies and an army. As a result, the war reached a stalemate, until it was ended by dividing the Korean Peninsula into two countries: the Republic of Korea, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. These two Civil Wars are often stated as an example of historical re-

currence since these two events have significant common features. These two events both occurred between people in one country and from ideological conflict. The result of the war being maintained until the 21st century and the involvement of surrounding countries also became the main reason why these events are considered to be a historical recurrence. These events also involved the initial trend or leading side of the battle not gaining complete victory after the war. These two events are further stated as historical recurrence, as they both involved some foreign interventions, such as the UK in the American Civil War, and the US and USSR in the Korean War. However, some historians point out that these two events are not historical recurrence since these two events happened due to different ideological conflicts and the Korean War involved countries regardless of regions, while the American Civil War was only limited to America and European countries. These foreign interventions were also undertaken in a significantly different method, which was economic trade regulations and supplies in the American Civil War, while the UN army mainly directly intervened in the war and sent the army in the Korean War.

Another example of historical recurrence could also be found by comparing issues regarding the anti-refugee between 1780 and even now. Starting from 1780, various authorities, including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and American president, started to claim that they need to prevent refugees from entering their countries.

In 1780, John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, claimed that “Papist immigrants are wrecking our economy with their fecundity. We must erect a wall of brass around the country!” This quotation was in his speech which he claimed America should not allow refugees to ruin their domestic economy. In 1920, similar events also occurred in Germany.

As this time period involved Germany being controlled by Adolf Hitler’s authoritarian state and anti-semitism ideologies, Nazi propagandas also stated that they should prevent other refugees along with Jewish people taking a major role in the German economy. They claimed that due to the extremely high number of Jewish and other refugees, the German domestic economy couldn’t manage itself. This ideology also is happening now, especially by Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. He claimed that the Mexican refugees are ruining the American economy by refusing to assimilate and taking away the jobs that American citizens need to take. As a result, he literally built a large wall in order to prevent Mexican refugees from migrating to American states. Regardless of the time period and the background environment, the anti-refugee ideologies constantly occurred and were stated as another example of historical recurrence. Since this ideology was mainly claimed by the people from the countries that already have a stable domestic economy or are already receiving economic aid from other major powers, some historians claim that this is just a limited example of countries with similar economic situations, rather than a phenomenal recurrence. However, this is often used as an example of historical recurrence, since this ideology managed to be maintained regardless of the happenings of other events, such as World War 2 or Cold War.

Based on these two examples, do you think there is a historical recurrence? Or is this just a coincidence that is limited to a few countries?

By Sunghyun Tom Lee, Year 13, Halla East

The New Normal:

The

21st Century

BY LUNA KIM YEAR 9, SARAH The Covid-19 crisis had caused people to rethink their normal lives and start wondering about what the ‘new normal’ becomes. The term ‘new normal’ will contribute to the expanded thinking in relation to society in the fields of education, medicine and the economy. The changes are expected to lead to modifications in daily life around the globe.

Educational changes had responded to the outbreak of Covid-19 , where it is true that the current pandemic had disrupted t h e o r i g i n a l s c h o o l i n g s ys t e m s .

Despite all the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic disruption brought the new possibilities in the educational system.

From March, all the schools had locked down and soon, all the educational platforms were closed too. Due to these obstacles in learning, online learning was the replaceable media in the current situation. Furthermore, current sixth formers are also having trouble preparing for their exam, the less they have time to go to school, the more they are having difficulty with grades. Likewise, the world is changing, especially education, and altered with the new-normal era.

The key aspect discussed is online learning. Though nations are at varying stages of their COVID-19 outbreak rates, globally there are actually

more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school delays due to the pandemic. Children up to the age of 11 are returning to nurseries and schools in Denmark after initially closing on 12 March, but students in South Korea are responding to online roll calls from their teachers. With this abrupt change away from the classroom all around the world, others are questioning if post-pandemic acceptance of online learning would continue to exist, and how it will affect worldwide education. In Wuhan, for example, online classrooms have been used widely since mid-February after a quarter of a billion full-time students were ordered by the Chinese government to resume their studies via web-based platforms. This culminated in the biggest internet revolution of about 730,000, or 81 percent of students, attending classes via online S c h o o l i n Wu h a n . T h i s m a s s ive number shows the change of education to online lessons.

To prevent students from panic, IB developed their programme using online platforms, which are the onscreen examination. Firstly, if a school is unable to perform tests because of government constraints, students enrolled in the MYP e-assessment will be able to remotely take a variant of on-screen exams, referred to as the

'alternative task review.'

Despite the fact that Covid-19 creates massive amounts of deaths, the world is shifting and makes a colossal development. Among the different subjects, education has made notable changes.

How do

Coral Reefs adapt to

Climate Change?

Coral reefs are the most co n s e r va t ive s o u rce s i n m a r i n e e c o s ys t e m s , h av i n g t h e h i g h e s t biodiversity under the ocean. It acts to perform various functions - subsisting food, protecting from flooding, and sustaining fishing. Due to climate change, with rising temperatures and higher carbon emissions, more coral reefs are bleaching white, indicating the death of the habitat.

Global warming is one of the biggest threats to the marine environment, the temperature is currently rising by the amount of carbon emissions that are exposed from industrial factories. When the temperature abruptly changes, corals are observed expelling symbiotic algae living in their tissues, which are responsible for their colour. Its scientific name is ‘Symbiodinium’, and this is a microscopic algae that harvests light and produces chemical energy in the form of carbon rich compounds.

Just a small difference (1–2°C) in ocean temperatures sustained over several weeks can lead to bleaching, turning corals white. If this time elongates, corals eventually die.

The recent study projected from the California state universities, shows that coral reefs, through genetic adaptations, could reduce the rate of bleaching from 20 to 80 percent of

levels expected by the year 2100 if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The other research from the University of Miami observed the sensitivity of two types of corals found in Florida and the Caribbean waters. Their adaptations were tested under the circumstances of high temperatures and acidic conditions.

The researchers placed a staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and the other mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) to be exposed under elevated temperatures of 32°C and increased carbon dioxide levels for nine weeks.

By the end of the nine weeks those corals that were still surviving were recovered at the cool temperature and normal pH to determine their capacity. The result, the staghorn coral was more sensitive to heat stress. It experienced 100% mortality after 25 days at the elevated temperature of 1.5°C above the mean temperature in Florida waters. On the other side, the mountainous star coral survived 62 days in the same condition. So, how did the mountainous star coral endure longer than the staghorn coral? It had a special type of algae, called D symbionts, allowing the coral cells to adapt suitably. This is also known as the ‘Clade D Symbiodinium’, and it’s thermally tolerant coral endosymbionts that confers resistance

BY SM CHUNG YEAR 11, SARAH to elevated sea surface temperature and bleaching to the host.

Cool-water corals can adapt to a slightly warmer ocean, but only if global greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. The study found that some corals in the normally cool waters of the Cook Islands carry genetic variants that predispose them to heat tolerance.

In this work, the scientists identified genes that make some individual corals more heat tolerant than others.

They ran computer simulations if coral could survive both in mild and moderate, and severe scenarios.

Corals were successful in surviving in moderate temperature, but, in severe cases, their future extinction to climate change became much clearer.

Over the past few years, coral reefs have experienced the worst bleaching and mortality events in the recorded history of the marine environment.

Life on earth is becoming harder due to the warmer water and unsafe habitats.

New Starts Aren't Alwawys Good

BY THERESA LEE YEAR 8, JEOJI

At the start of the 21st century, people were pretty hyped for the new century. After all, the last century was pretty disastrous, two world wars, a depression and hippies wering flares in the 1960’s!. When New Year’s Eve of 1999 rolled in, it seemed that people were press-ganged into celebrating new hope. People spilt onto the streets to congratulate each other for making it to the new century. They watched as the clock ticked to midnight, waiting in anticipation. Wishing for a better future for their children, parents smiled blissfully at their future. If the world had known what would await them for the next hundred years, they would have prepared for the worst rather than best.

Things didn’t work out as planned as numerous natural disasters and violence crushed their remaining optimism. Still, people were annoyingly, or more like stupidly, stubborn. They lived on, creating more generations to clean up the mess they had made.

What started as hope for future generations ended up being the diametrically opposite.

And that is what James did, cleaning the mess his mother and father had made. He had celebrated the new decade of 2070 by himself, in a rundown shoe factory where his grandfather used to work. It had been closed for almost fifty years after the last global

pandemic now known as Corona or Covid-19. James had learnt all about it during his school years. How both his grandparents were lucky enough to stay safe. Almost 20 years ago, when James was only a toddler, he had heard from his family how the government was trying to protect them from yet another virus and a financial drop. He smirked slightly. The government… when was the last time the government acted like one? He had learned about all sorts of different governing systems; all flawed and abandoned a long time ago. Anarchy, from James’ point of view, was the worst of all and naturally was the only type of government he got. Total chaos. No law to ground the citizens, no government protection, leaving them to act however they desired to fend for themselves. Morality was a long-forgotten act, as was empathy. No one had made a move to start a brand new government; even if they did, they were quickly oppressed by their foes or the protesters. James stood up, dusting off his pants and left the factory to scavenge through the streets and, hopefully, stumble across something edible.

Trudging through the abandoned ruins, he noticed an abnormal group of men in business suits standing in the alleyway he used to hang out with his old friends, all of whom had passed a long time ago through nu-

merous, unexplained causes. Cautiously, James crept into the alleyway making sure the men hadn’t spotted him. The group seemed to have been in the middle of a ritual of some sort; they were muttering nonstop, stringing words of nonsense. There it was, in the middle of the official-looking men, a young boy, about nine or ten years old, lifeless, bleeding out, soaking the ground with blood. James felt his legs collapse and he had to force himself to stay on his feet. The hunters. They were right here - in his grubby neighbourhood. He had to escape. Cautiously, James slipped out of the alleyway, biting his lips to make sure no words escaped his mouth. The small boy’s corpse must have been collected by now; leaving a stack of food behind.

That’s what once-powerful politicians have been reduced to a pack of hunters killing people in exchange for a meagre amount of food. When James’ feet landed on a broken bottle, the sound of shattering glass echoed through the deserted streets. While most would just ignore the loud ruckus and would think of it as a mild disturbance, James saw it as a death sentence. He didn’t try to run - he knew it was pointless.

He just closed his eyes as he felt the cold blade dig into his back and fell in a deep slumber; one where he would never wake up.

Transportation of the Future

BY SEAN PARK YEAR 9, JEOJI

What sort of transportation do you expect to be launched in the future? Transportation has been used by humans from way back in 4000 B.C when the first wooden wheel was invented in Iraq to 1886 where the first car, a Benz Patent Motorwagen, was invented by Karl Benz. Propelling people by wheel looks br\egan to be replaced by propulsion in flying machines. And in 1903, the Wright Brothers (Wilbur and Orville), made the first airplane to soar like birds in the sky. One day, Humans thought to fly beyond the skies; the first manned spacecraft was made and operated by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Past evolution is now set to become revolutionary.

But what kind of evolution? Artificial Intelligence inside vehicles? Flying c a r s ? We l l , a c c o r d i n g t o ‘ T h e Economist’, future automobiles will have self-driving technologies and new electric car companies; Tesla has already made cars which come with advanced hardware providing autopilot features and developing fully automated driving systems.

OIa n Pe a r so n fro m Bu s ines s Insider claims that transportation will change more in the next 10 years than has been the case for the past

100 years. Also within 30 years he claimed that space travel will become a common thing and the Hyperloop™ system, a quick transportation system using a loop created by a joint team involving Tesla and SpaceX, will be ubiquitous around the world. We can also see futuristic automobiles around the world, Hypercars; cars that are constructed with aerodynamic bodies and resulting in more accurate balance on downforce making them faster and lighter compared to regular cars as exemplified by the Senna and P1 from McLaren, Chiron and Divo from Bugatti. These cars are currently being sold by dealers in many different countries including the US and Europe for customers, with deep pockets, to experience the rapid changes in the industry.

As cars are becoming electric, the oil-powered car industries such as BMW and Porsche are hiring new expertise from design industries; engine sound design. Since electric cars use batteries to move, they cannot project the sound of oil-powered cars.

Some people like the powerful sound of the cars and safety campaigners want sound to warn people of oncoming traffic. People living by

major roads might have been expecting a reduction in noise but they will be disappointed. So, BMW has hired Hans Zimmer to design the engine sound for an upcoming electric car; Vision M. Humans have made a considerable number of airplanes since 1903 when the first airplane was made. Technology for developing airplanes has improved exponentially including that for both war and civilian aircraft. For example, the airplane company Boeing made the first passenger plane; Boeing 737 in 1967 which became the best selling airplane ever with many successive versions. Also, the Boeing 747, which first debuted in 1969 at the Paris airshow, was phenomenally successful becoming the workhorse of the skies.

In 2020 British Airways retired their fleet of 747’s, a remarkable lifespan for an aircraft.

But, even with improvements in functionality and engines of planes, the exteriors are still looking similar to what they were in the 1940s. Will there be any changes to the exterior of the plane? According to CNN Travel, NASA have developed the design of Boeing with wings attached to tails and the engines of the plane are attached to the back just like B-2 Spirit Stealth

bomber. There has been mind-blowing technology added to Boeing from 1967.

For example, Boeing 777X has longer and composite wings and uses GE engines that boost the efficiency by 12% from previous versions. Changes to the power of the planes is on the horizon as well. Eplane, introduced in 2019, can fly fully on electricity.

These sorts of evolutions through technologies and exteriors will take airplanes soaring to a new level with the possibility of much quieter flying through electric engines, increasing the number of flights, reducing the price of tickets and opening travel further to presently poor customers.

Formula 1 introduced SingleSeater Racing sports in 1950 and today F1 represents the pinnacle of motorsports. According to the FIA, in 2011, Jean Todt, in a bid to make F1 more environmentally friendly, is credited with the idea for Formula E which uses electric motors to run the cars. Formula E held its first championships in 2014-15. So, in conclusion, motorsports are gradually changing in the same way as standard cars change to electric. And these changes will reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide.

As we can see, these evolutions through transportation and motorsports are mostly changing power through electric systems t o m a ke t h e m e c o f r i e n d l y, b u t there are also some improvements in performances such as faster acceleration. These improvements will develop more in future and will take transportation further down the evolutionary road.

How is the world responding to the

COVID-19 Outbreak?

BY RYAN KIM, YEAR 9, NORO

Look around you. Are people wearing a mask? Are people socially distant? Are people following the response manual for the COVID-19 posted almost everywhere around us? Cases of COVID-19 are increasing daily, on average 125 people per day in South Korea, but tens and thousands of patients are discovered worldwide.

Even though the world is yet to be provided with a vaccine for this virus, the rate seems rather extreme.

Therefore, I believe that there could be external sources of reasons for such increase of digits every day, and some fundamental flaws that hold us back from defeating the virus. There are a significant number of people getting the virus due to the lack of awareness of the virus. After observing the environment around myself and through different sources, I came up with the following: there is a low awareness level of the virus in people and a lack of seriousness towards the suggestions and restrictions given by the government. Therefore, I have brought some cases to reflect on the peoples’ views on the virus, how differently countries reacted, and how some people are preventing the spread on their own.

When considering the current awareness of the virus set in people’s minds, it is rather unsurprising that the infectants of the COVID-19 virus increased each day. When the whole COVID-19 crisis started, most of the

people showed a lack of seriousness and a sense of danger towards the virus. However, the problems with peoples’ perspectives to the matter did not get any better even when the governments warned people of the virus. While wearing masks and being socially distant is proven to prevent the spread of the virus by 82% according to the WHO (livescience. com), the reports of mass infection are repeatedly being reported in recent times. As people tend to lose tension when with close relations such as in businesses or relatives, they often get rid of protection gears such as masks and spend time together. However, these beliefs of the people that there is a low chance of being infected between close family causes the increase of infection rates. In fact, I am pretty sure that there are people around you who tend to meet each other without masks, regardless of the dangers. These people who think that they can be free from wearing masks and keep safe as long as all the members are their friends or families, are not invincible at all.

For example, there has been a recent situation where 21 people got infected at their workplace while not wearing masks. Though their job required them to answer calls it was not easy with masks on, an enclosed space with around 60 people inside could not have been safe without masks. If cases like these continue repeatedly with people not acknowledging the true dangers,

the pandemic will not cease. This will also include a higher tension between families or colleagues when there is a possibility of infection, preventing any chances of the spread as much as possible. In particular, in the culture of South Korea that involves face-to-face interactions between people, keeping the distance seems more important Therefore, I feel that there is a need for a stronger sense of awareness towards the virus set in all people to control the virus and retrieve our old lifestyle back.

However, while there are people who still have not realised that their actions can affect others’ safety, the major outbreak this time could have some positive aspects in the long term.

Fortunately, South Korea is known to be one of the countries that replied to the outbreak most appropriately.

From the early periods of the virus to today, the Korean community where we currently live has expedited lockdowns, school closures, providing free checkup for the citizens which enabled fast responses to new cases, and many other systems to minimize the spread. South Korea’s response to the virus better stands out compared to other countries in the western part of the world. While the United Kingdom and the United States showed a comparatively low sense of danger towards the virus when the virus spread to South Korea, the current graphs of new cases report a trend of

increases in the U.S and U.K, jumping in thousands, South Korea’s newly reported cases do not go over 600 since the major spread in February this year. For these results, I believe that the difference occurred when the outbreak started.

Unfortunately, the other two co u n t r ie s , U. K a n d U. S , re a c t e d differently. Firstly, in the U.K, the people seemed to think that they we re f re e o f t h e d a n ge r s o f t h e virus. Instead of being protective of themselves, they have reacted racist to the Chinese students studying in the U.K. As a matter of fact, the hate crime rate against the South and East Asians experienced an uptick of 21%, according to an article reported this May (The Guardian, 2020). This data portrays that the people of U.K around May were not serious about the virus, blaming the situation to the Asians, even when they had thousands of daily cases. Then in the case of the U.S, their president has objected to the usage of masks and making them mandatory.

Therefore, I believe that some western countries have been rather unfortunate in taking care of the pandemic. Still, for the large impact of the virus this time, I believe that the western countries that saw the global disaster due to the spread of the virus will be ready to respond more appropriately if another outbreak occurs in the future. After all, the reason why South Korea could have been better readied was mostly

because of the environments that were suitable to handle the outbreak, after the spread of MERS in 2015.

However, we cannot give up our work and living. Instead of waiting until the world stops functioning, people have chosen to change the culture. As a result, society today appears to be very different compared to the world we knew last year.

The government is creating laws to mandate masks, such as the 100,000 won penalty for not wearing masks, or instructing the police to warn those objecting to follow the COVID-19 rules. Furthermore, not only has the government changed the policies but the Corona virus has caused facilities such as super- markets to have strict restrictions against those who do not follow the prevention guides. When we visit any shops of any size , they have set up the basic thermal-cameras or placed hand sanitizers for people to use when they enter. One example of a supermarket brand that reinforced their attitude to the virus is the Asda supermarkets. As dangerous as it is for people to visit places in the U.K, Asda required 639 of its retailers to have “safety marshall” roles in the stores.

Furthermore, according to an article on the BBC, it is said that “those who fail to do so can be fined by the police - up to £100 in England (soon to rise to £200), or £60 in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.” Moreover, Asda supermarkets have masks readied in

their stores which customers can use, which they can pay for when they exit.

Moreover, supermarkets are planning to change their displays, having the hand sanitizers placed near the busiest sections of the store. Companies, such as Amazon and Zoom, had their values boosted, achieving $88.9 billion of sales and $48.17 billion additional profit respectively. These incredible profits, especially in the case of Amazon which experienced an additional 40% sales compared to the previous year, would not have been achieved so suddenly without the COVID-19 crisis in some ways. To sum up, even though there still are dangers of the virus, people have adapted their culture to be able to enjoy lives that are closest to the ones before the outbreak, as safely as possible.

In conclusion, the Coronavirus outbreak has affected many parts of the world. Not only has it killed innocent people, but it has changed our living patterns. However, it is true that the situations could have been better prevented. Still, as humans have always done, the world will change and has changed to respond appropriately to such situations. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak has happened and ruined many lives. Still, if we are able to overcome the spread of the virus, I am very much certain that the humans as a community will become stronger from the experience.

How will law look in the

21st Century?

By Stella Yeom, Year 12, Halla East

The practice of law in the 21st century will involve utilizing technology and innovative approaches to engage with clients and deliver legal services efficiently. However, it can be a challenge to keep up with the evolving tools available in the market.

Thus, it is crucial for lawyers to be able to adapt. Legal professionals must be ready for change to develop the complementary skills that are needed for success in the 21st century.

Current and forthcoming generations of lawyers are ‘digital natives’, having been immersed from a young age in a technological world, in which computers and internet tools are the norm. These generations may more comfortably adapt their practices to benefit from all the possibilities that innovation brings to the legal sector.

To fully activate their potential, the panelists suggested, law schools and law firms would do well to step up and integrate technology training into and alongside traditional legal education.

E m p a t hy a n d l e a d e r s h i p a r e necessary skills that a 21st century lawyer is expected to possess. To be successful, lawyers working in the 21st century must demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills, use empathy to create meaningful connections, and be able to adapt to new methods.

The panelists mentioned the concept o f t h e “ T- s h a p e d l a w ye r ” a s a n example. Those who thrive in the 21st century legal industry have a deep understanding of an area of law, which is complimented by an additional set of skills and abilities coming from

diverse disciplines. This well-rounded professional is able to provide a unique approach to their practice.

Emerging legal technologies, including those falling under the umbrellas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain need not be seen as a threat. Instead, the experts explained, 21st century lawyers could understand them as an opportunity to improve their practice and better their delivery of legal services. With more access to legal support through technological means, consumers are empowered to choose a mode of service delivery that suits their wants and needs.Emerging generations of lawyers are leveraging technology to absorb the repetitive aspects of their work. Their openness to technology and innovation improves their efficiency, and frees up time for the qualitative work of relationship building and connecting with clients.

T h e s e b e n e f i t s u n d e r s c o r e h ow fundamental it is to build an awareness of innovative processes and technology in the legal industry.

In addition, it is important for future students who are aspiring to study law to realize that the spectrum of law is changing. Future law school students are expected that they also understand the business skills as they provide a means of understanding one’s own client’s business; they offer the toolkit for running one’s own organization, whether that be a law firm or in-house legal department; and they help maintain one’s own professional marketability, particularly in an era of blurred professional boundaries.

Addressing the first of these reasons, Ben W. Heineman Jr., William F. Lee, and David B. Wilkins write in “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century” that, “No law student - and particularly no student who is going to spend at least some of his or her career in a law firm or in-house legal department - should graduate without having a basic understanding of the tools that managers use to understand and evaluate business opportunity and risk. Among the competencies that should be emphasized are financial l i t e r a c y (i n c l u d i n g a cco u n t i n g ) , firm economics, market definition, competitive strategy, supply chains, and risk assessment.”

While learning business skills is critical to understanding one’s own clients and their needs, one must not lose sight of that fact that they are also important within a lawyer’s own professional context, whether at a law firm or an in-house legal department.

Derek Davis, the executive director of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession and a long-time law firm partner, notes that business skills are just as critical as lawyers navigate their own firms. “Lawyers have to understand that the firms they work in are businesses,” Davis says.

“There is rent. There are accounts receivables. There are write-offs. There are expenses. There are matters of leadership and personnel management.

The list goes on. Particularly when you become a partner, understanding the business-side of the law firm is

critical.” Having business skills is important as lawyers venture outside the confines of the legal profession and explore other career options, most notably in business roles.

Data from both the After the JD and the Harvard Law School Career Study found that though most graduates begin their careers in law, upwards of 20 percent migrate out of law to other professions, most notably to business, over time. Spier, who previously was a business professor at Northwestern University, says in an interview with The Practice, “I have had many students who are not destined to go on to the top law firms.

That’s not necessarily their aspiration.

Many of my students are interested in smaller parts of the market. Many of them are interested in going to consulting groups or into the financial sector. Many of them are interested in becoming entrepreneurs and they’re thinking maybe I’ll practice law for a short period of time and then start my own company.

While law schools cannot cater to every student’s aspirations, there are clear indications that law graduates are pursuing a multiplicity of career options, including many with strong business components. In a dynamic, global talent pool, legal professionals need to have the skills to compete, and students wishing to jump in this field must bear this in mind.

The Grounds for the

Implementation of Land Value Tax

BY WARRICK KWON, YEAR 10, NORO

Owning a house has increasingly become a luxury but you may well own one sometime in the future.

Imagine! It has become the ‘dream’ of the people to own a house under their names. These houses are not grandiose mansions; they are just basic houses with small dining rooms, living rooms and two bedrooms at most, not to mention the astronomical sums of money people pay to reside in heartof-the-city residential districts such as Knightsbridge in London. Escalation in housing prices seem to be a worldwide pandemic, as not only do Western cities like London and New York have absurdly high real estate prices, but Eastern cities such as Hong Kong and Seoul suffer from these problems as well. Hong Kong takes this even further with Hong Kong’s median housing price at 12 times the GDP of a single Hong Kongese resident. However, the problem is not just about residential pricings, but a more complex network of real estate in commercial districts and residential districts tied by an even more complex set of regulations and interest groups. Why prices have increased to such unaffordable levels continues to puzzle economists and policy makers who try to tackle this issue. Nevertheless, real estate seems to have given the thinkers of the past similar headaches evident from previous attempts to slow down rising prices. One of those was proposed by

Henry George, referred to as Georgism after his name.

So, what is Georgism?

Georgism in essence argues that land should not be a commodity held by private actors but instead a public good owned by all, managed by the government. George believed that the right to access land should not be limited, arguing that “Land, like air, is natural, necessary for life”. Thus, since no one pays anyone to breathe air or to use patches of the sky, people should equally not be allowed to own land and prevent others from using it without payment. Georgism therefore principally denied the very existence of Landlords: people who profited from extracting rent or natural resources from the land.

As much as the principle is appealing to the general public who despise evil landlords, nations have a c t ive ly a t t e m p t e d t o a p ply t h e theories of Georgism over time. The Singaporean real estate market is one example of where the government strictly implemented the principles of Georgism into its policymaking decisions. To illustrate, the government has control over all land value and sells leases which are long-term contracts given to individuals for residential and business purposes along with banning all speculative investments on land.

What George argued to be the practical implication of his ideas,

however, takes a less radical approach through implementing Land Value Tax (LVT) which is the policy-up-fordiscussion in today’s article. Contrary to popular belief that such heavy taxes are ‘socialist’ policies, prominent economists such as Milton Friedman called LVT the ‘Least Bad Tax’ in terms of market efficiency and equity. This extensive, heavy taxation on land will be levied according to the value of the land: the higher the profitability of that land there will be a higher tax while lower value land will have negligible taxes. Ultimately, if there is any value attached to a land that exceeds its real value, the owners will have to pay a higher tax while not actually getting anything in return.

Thus, the results will be two-fold: make the landlords lower the land price to pay less tax, but still maintain the value as to have a reason to keep it or pay so much tax which will be given to the people; cancelling out the harms people get in the process of lack of access The government will also tax real estate regardless of whether they are currently used, penalising speculative real estate purchase: expectation of making windfall profits later as the land gets more expensive.

Oftentimes, the key to economic policymaking is not a single-facetedissue. Regardless of its success, a certain economic stimulus package

would be fundamentally unjustified if it necessitates the complete negligence of individuals in need. Ergo, let the article now examine the principle soundness of LVTs. F u n d a m e n t a l ly, i t i s t h e government’s obligation to impose Land Value Taxes to landlords who own high quantities of high-value real estate properties. The direct cause of this is because the government has an obligation to intervene in unhealthy market structures. In order to maintain the system of capitalism, the government has a unique responsibility of ensuring that the economy is composed of fair competition and healthy markets.

However, the current real estate market cannot be considered healthy due to the exclusive nature of real estate commodities.

P r i m a r i ly, t h e va l u e a n d t h e possession of land is determined by arbitrary factors. Land value is primarily determined by three things: the desirability and beauty of the area, the already-existing economic activity of the area, the value of surrounding institutions. However, none of these are determined by the land-owner’s own hard work; rather, it is the hard work of others, who make a particular area profitable and desirable i.e. the actual economic activity that makes a particular piece of land, or absolutely arbitrary dictates of governments that

decide to build government facilities in a particular area. Thus, the private ownership of land allows landlords to leech off other’s efforts simply because they came into possession of the land by pure luck of ‘owning’ it at some point in history. By extension of the intuition that it is wrong to steal from others, private ownership of arbitrarily obtained land is unjustified.

In addition, what makes land special is the fact that it has an extremely inelastic supply compared to other goods. Land is the only resource in the economy that has a perfectly inelastic supply: there cannot be production of land and therefore there is a cap on how much land people can use. In contrast, given that people will always need a physical place to do business in and live in, they will have to buy or rent real estate at whatever the prevailing market price is making demand inelastic as well. In other words, land is limited, but the number of people that want to use it constantly increases driving prices up as the supply is always below the demand for that land. This makes real estate such an attractive investment opportunity: insofar as private ownership of land exists, real estates will be able to maintain steady and high returns.

Ultimately, this motivates the rich to buy up all the land or makes the landowners the richest people in that community. As land value constantly

goes up, the rich will keep on getting richer while the others constantly have to pay rent to these people creating a vicious cycle. Evidently, landlords sit on a de facto monopoly where they can abuse their position through price hikes expecting the rise of land value creating bubbles as well. It can be thus concluded that if such massive wealth derived from pure luck is enabling the same individuals to reinvest this wealth back to real estate forming market failures, there exists a unique justification of extensively taxing land in order to prevent these selfish behaviours threatening the lives of countless individuals.

Not only do governments have an obligation to intervene in unhealthy market structures, the policy gains momentum especially due to the promising impacts of implementing LVTs. Perhaps the most significant impact is that it increases general economic efficiency within the nation.

Since LVTs tax you even if you are buying the land to wait for prices to go up without actually utilising the land, this will discourage squatting and even pressure owners to sell their land to those that are willing to actually use the land for productive means.

This is another major humanitarian benefit of the policy: since land ownership by the government takes away this investment incentive and allows people to buy more affordable

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BY SEUNGHO HAM YEAR 12, HALLA EAST The growth of the economy means that more choices are available. It may seem like nothing to write like this.

But if you look at the example of the Republic of Korea, consider what everyone has at this point in time compared to when the national income was $1,000, when refrigerators and fans were massive luxuries. The country, which used to import all of its refrigerators because it could not make its own, is now able to make not only refrigerators but also a full range of white appliances, and beyond that, to export ships, semiconductors and steel products to the world all of high quality. With this development in mind, we can think about how signif-

icant economic growth is. So how does growth work? This is a question that economists have explored. The SolowSwan model, from the 1950s, seemed to solve this question to some extent, but then several limitations were revealed, suggesting that this was not the answer. There was someone here who did forward-thinking and shook the foundation of macroeconomics, Paul Romer.

To study the development of the economy, economists tried to quantify the state of the economy by incorporating mathematics into economics.

With these attempts, research into economic growth has been revitalised as the state of the economy can be summarised into economic indicators such as GDP, GNI and GNP. In the 1940s, the first model to contrib-

ute significantly to economic development was the Harrod-Domar model.

The primary significance of this model is that it has mathematically calculated the right amount of investment and economic intervention for economic growth. This is the result of more forward-thinking in Keynes's theory of investment. However, no matter how much the Harrod-Domar model calculated the appropriate amount of investment and involvement depending on the situation, the model holds the limitation that the factors that calculate investment and intervention are from outside the model. Exogenous means an independently changing constant, meaning that the total amount cannot be controlled endogenously (or from within), and that the conditions satisfied by the cutting board model are limited. That means there is no guarantee that this theory will always be established. Thus, the Harrod- Domar

cutting board theory suggested that it was difficult to achieve sustained growth in the long term with all production factors balanced in the free market economy.

The limits of the Harrod-Domar model were clear, but the implications of this model were significant. Many economists tried to quantify economic development, and a man named Solow tried to overcome the limitations of the Harrod-Domar model by creating a Solow-Swan model by doing more forward thinking. In addition to the savings rate, the labor force, and technology, were also seen to affect economic growth. In addition, he tried to identify the limitations of the Harrod-Domar model, which had only been applied to limited situations, and to connect each exogenous element. As a result, Solow concluded that the reasons for capital growth were high savings and low population growth, excluding stable economic backgrounds, which made a decisive contribution to breaking down the limitations of the

previousmmodel. This, additionally, has solved some of the problems of the Harrod-Domar model, but criticism of what 'technology' really means has yet to be avoided. This error has been studied for more than 40 years, but no one has mathematically calculated the endogenous growth of technology.

This is because the development of technology has been so explosive that it has made it possible to do things that were previously considered impossible and greatly expanded the scope.

Forty years later, an economist argued for a dramatic shift in perspective rather than calculating technology.

This epoch-making transition has begun to completely change the factors that have been believed to be the truth of macroeconomics, and has provided room for a new look at economic development. The economist's name is Paul Romer. Romer first pointed out the errors in the way of calculation rather than to calculate the technology directly endogenously. The way Romer measures the technology he claims is based on human resources. The first is the 'object gap' that the Solow model emphasizes. Countries with abundant physical capital, such as factories and machinery, achieve economic growth

while countries with insufficient capital, cannot escape poverty. This is evident in preparation for South Korea, which uses forklifts and other construction equipment for flood recovery projects, and North Korea, which still uses cattle and ploughs. The second is the idea gap (with the endogenous growth model) that Neo-Confucian theory 5 emphasizes. Will we be able to achieve growth on our own if we bring machinery and equipment to countries that lack physical capital?

That's not true. If you don't know how to use the machine, physical capital means nothing. After all, the important thing is how to use the resources efficiently.

To sum up, the history of modern economic development theory began with an attempt to mathematically analyze the national economy. These attempts have led to exploring ways to make the national economy develop efficiently in the long run, and the Harrod-Domar model has for the first time succeeded in mathematically calculating the amount of investment and flow of capital needed for national economic development. Adding forward thinking to this, Solow succeeded in separating the exogenous elements by creating a Solow-Swan model. With forward thinking added to this, Romer has succeeded in logically organizing technological advances. Just as economists have defined economic development, multi-dimensional forward thinking on a subject can produce innovation.

homes, it guarantees the people the right to be able to live with those who you love and enjoy what are essential components of living a humane life. Whilst currently landlords are extracting values from local mom-andpop shops and families by raising rents to unsustainable levels for those who are least able to afford it, burdening landlords with Land Value Taxes helps the most vulnerable members of society as well.

Additionally, the owners, who can no longer extract the rent-value of land will be directed to invest into more productive channels like the stock market creating jobs and innovative products. This increases the amount of capital flow within the economy due to business actions, but moreover, LVTs can improve the liquidity of capital flow within the market. Demotivation from investing in real estate means that individuals will no longer be anchoring their wealth in illiquid real estate commodities. This is especially important since currently a significant amount of the nation’s wealth is tied in real estate preventing the money from being actually spent. By transferring this value into a tax, this would increase disposable income fuelling wider scale consumption throughout the economy. This creates ‘trickle up’ economics where domestic markets start to thrive through increased consumption.

Evidently, what this policy does is it takes away the private individual’s ability to profit purely off of the value of land and redirects it to more productive and circulatory economic activity than real estate investment.

Doing so, because excessive taxes on land value drag down real estate asset prices to much more affordable levels, more families will enjoy their stable lives in their own houses along with a stabler housing market devoid of the threat of a housing bubble.

Now, this is the new, equal world that we want to live in: a world in which I do not have to worry about paying my mortgage every day which Ge o r gi s m b a c ked LVT taxes can successfully create.

SCIENCE

The Fault In our planet

By Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Ms Hannah Heewon Seo, Mulchat Gap Assistant

The moon has turned slightly red, and it’s likely we are responsible. New research finds that Earth’s atmosphere may be the cause of such a phenomenon.

Rust, also known as iron oxide, is a reddish compound that forms when the iron is exposed to water and oxygen. It is the result of a common chemical reaction for nails, gates, and even Mars. But not all environments are suitable for rusting. For iron to turn rusty red, it needs an oxidizer, a molecule such as oxygen, that removes electrons from a material such as iron. However, in the case of the moon, due to the sun’s solar wind, a cascade of charged particles constantly hits the moon with hydrogen which has the opposite effect. As hydrogen donates electrons to other molecules, unless the moon has a shield to protect solar winds (magnetic field for our planet), rust should not be formed on the moon.

But how?

The moon does not have an atmosphere of its own, as we do, to provide sufficient amounts of oxygen, but does have infinitesimal amounts emitted by Earth’s atmosphere, according to the NASA Spaceflight article (Rust on the Moon.

How is that possible without oxygen and liquid water?). This oxygen travels to the moon along the earth’s magnetic field called a “magnetotail.”

Magnetotail can reach the very near side of the moon, where the majority of the hematite was found. But whenever the full moon rises, the magnetotail blocks 99 percent of the solar wind from hitting the moon, resulting in a temporary curtain over the lunar surface. Such curtains provide periods of time for rust to form. But still, there is another crucial ingredient required for rust to form: water.

The moon is not a usual place for water to exist, except for the frozen water in lunar craters on the moon’s far side, distant from where most hematite was found. The researchers from NASA

postulated that rapid dust particles that bombard the moon could have freed the water molecules, which were locked on the moon’s surface layer, allowing the water to contact with the iron.

Another proposal suggests that the dust particles themselves might have been carrying water molecules. Their impact could create heat that is capable of increasing the oxidation rate.

Even more surprising is that small amounts of hematite have been found on the far side of the moon. As it would be too far for Earth’s oxygen to reach even with the planet’s magnetotail, the scientists are struggling to provide an exact reason. The possible causes behind such a phenomenon are still hypotheses and more data will be required to understand thoroughly why the moon is rusting. To gather more data for these unsolved mysteries, NASA is working to develop an updated version of the instrument that has been capable of collecting all the information about the moon’s mineral composition. Once it is done, it may help NASA to map water ice on the moon’s craters and may be able to reveal new details about hematite as well.

But currently, the fact that rusting is still ongoing, even at low speed, leaves us to be aware of the consequences - regardless of what the cause is. Eventually, the light from the moon will disappear, and thus leave us to live lives without a moon. While a moonless sky would not affect most of our day-to-day lives, it would distort the lifestyles of many nocturnal animals. For example, animals like moths have evolved over millions of years to navigate by the light of the moon and stars. Also, newly hatched turtles use the moonlight to find their way to the ocean as artificial streetlights lure them in the wrong direction, without a moon, they will struggle even more.

The most ideal situation would be to take action to prevent further rusting after the exact cause has been diagnosed. Until that time, being cognizant of the danger would be the only option left for us.

Newcomers of the cinema industry in its crisis of COVID-19

Recording the highest ever year over year loss

BY ALESSIA KIM of 97% in ticket sales at the box office, it is quesYEAR 9, GEOMUN tionable whether the cinema will survive the rank hammer blow of COVID-19. To sit row by row together, the cinema culture is unlikely to be popular in the post-COVID-19 contact-free world. It can be foreseen that people will choose alternatives rather than visiting the movie theatres including movie streaming services and home cinemas. How will the culture of movies change in the future with these alternatives?

Netflix and Amazon's Prime video are the most on-trend alternatives to the cinema. These streaming services seem to influence the future by encouraging the cinema audiences to subscribe to the service and possibly stay home, rather than doing

the tiring work of getting ready and purchasing the ticket. It is already well known that humans develop in the direction of convenience. Online streaming services provide the comfort that people search for.

167 million people subscribed to Netflix by the end of 2019; more people are subscribing now. More people prefer the quick, easy, convenient version of the theatre, Netflix. However, even before Netflix's current streaming service developed, a system was developed that promoted the homebody life, movie rents, and home theatres. Netflix started as a DVD rental service. People could rent their own choice and take it home to watch. While the movie rental service was popular because people did not have to choose only from the movies in theatres, it was also popular because people preferred to

stay home, choose their snacks, and get comfortable. Shown a home cinema room photo, people are amazed by such a comfortable and luxurious private room they would like to have.

This may replace what people now regard as rather tiresome. Homes of the future for the mass market may well feature these types of rooms.

Such new systems of watching movies suggest a new world, a shift of familiar and unfamiliar, to the next generation's next generation. Yet, people will not feel fulfilled when faced with their limitations. Streaming services and home cinemas are not 4D; they do not have excellent audio systems. However, people say that streaming services provide people with the same type of realistic audio as cinema to the audience when the audience can afford a high-quality audio system and a high-resolution TV. The cinema can be seen as too big an industry to fail with its long and complicated history. The movie industry's future may be new, but maybe not necessarily the theater with the cinema disappearing. Cinemas, though, in the past, have adaptes to market trends. Gone are the days of a cinema in a town only showing one movie a week in a large auditorium. Smaller cinemas within a multiplex adapted to a variety of customer desires to show a number of movies simultaneously.

Who’s to say that cinemas won’t still exist in the future, perhaps for specialised live performances of, say, opera or theatre productions that people can’t get to see? One of the things about going to the cinema is to talk about th emovie after you have watched it with your friends. Will this experience be the same if you watch the movie alone or only with close family? What range of views will you get if you know the people very well and will you bump into a stranger with alternative views in your own home cinema? Food, including popcorn, for thought!

Future uture

games

We tend to find something more entertaining as we become more affluent.

Our standard of living has increased, so now we can afford ourselves more things for our genuine pleasure.

Tetris, Space Race, Pong... Starting from analog games, which were played by our parents’ generation, we are now able to create our virtual reality world.

Surely this is a significant development for the gaming industry and this has been possible as games were consistently loved by the public for a long time.

Now anyone can access the world of games.

There are several factors for the development of the gaming industry but the most essential factor is its improvement of technology. The shift from analog games to digital games was phenomenal. Digital games enabled gamers to be connected wherever they are. Most of the games have become a global arcade where all the players are involved in that giant network. Nobody would have expected these events to happen when those analog games existed. This begs the question, how will the games in the future look?

The biggest issue discussed in recent days is VR games where the players are basically in another world, able to do anything they want. Digital games expanded their field by using the giant

network where its merit was enabling interactions between the players.

Whereas in the case of the VR games, they would not only enable the players to interact but players to be the character itself in the games.

Although current VR games are showing their limitations in terms of driving the player itself completely into the game, they are making some successful changes to develop VR games, such as the release of the popular ‘Pokemon Go,’ where the reality and the virtual world are blended - adding digital elements to a live view often by using the camera on a smartphone. This was a significant change since it was adding virtual elements to the reality where it controls the players’ sight to view ‘pokemon’ in real life.

The ultimate goal of VR games is to remove the boundaries between the virtual world and reality for the individual players. VR games reveal their need to take control of the player’s senses to make the players believe that they are in reality. For instance, ‘Pokemon Go’ has already succeeded in altering the players’ sight even though we have the definite perception that the graphics are fake. However, once we are enabled to touch and smell things in the game, we will start to believe that they exist. If this goal is achieved, we will undoubtedly see another revolutionary shift in the gaming industry very soon.

Whether this could be done or not in the future, there is indeed an infinite potential for the gaming industry.

Another possibility is the development of AI (artificial intelligence, non-player characters) which would contribute to the games and interact with the players making the game much more intriguing but the development of VR seems to be the central topic in the gaming industry these days.

What would be the next alteration?

The use of AI is definitely an astonishing development for the gaming industry but the most attractive aspect for the players is that the players cannot predict how non-player characters make decisions. This hugely influences the flow of the game which improves the weakness of the games having consumable characteristics since those non-player characters will bring completely unexpected results depending on their situations.

However, considering that development of AI is still progressing, application of perfect AI in games will take some time and therefore I believe that VR games will be the next huge wave in the gaming industry.

Phenomenon:

Reduction of Nuclear Power

By Woojin Sam Choi, Year 12 The idea of pandora’s box is that there are unspeakably horrible things inside a box, which to the naked eye, appears harmless. The idea of pandora’s box is a common way to describe nuclear power.

This is because, while on the outside, nuclear power is an efficient and clean source of power that can mediate between fossil fuels, which are biased on efficiency, and renewable resources, which are biased on cleanliness. It is seen as a pandora’s box in that while the previously mentioned aspects of nuclear power are seen to be hiding the ‘horrible aspects’, which are summed up perfectly by the painstaking tragedies of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.

With the nightmares of nuclear disasters still fresh in our minds, fresh since the atomic bombing of Japan, it is expected that there will be voices that try to halt investment into nuclear power.

This side argues of the dangers that nuclear power enforces upon the environment and human society. Radiation is not a safe thing.

The other side argues that nuclear power must be kept in use as it still pollutes far less than fossil fuels, and is far more efficient than renewable fuels.

This side argues that the advantages of using nuclear power is far higher than the small chance of nuclear catastrophe. It is notable that the two infamous accidents, Chernobyl and Fukushima, were caused by external factors, ineffective bureaucracy and an earthquake respectively, not by flaws of nuclear power itself.

The arguments made by the two sides overlap each other.

In conclusion, is nuclear power bad?

No. Is it good then?

No. The trouble is that nuclear power is a sword of two blades. Excluding fossil fuels, currently nuclear power is the most efficient out of all generation processes, whereas renewable resources, the obvious other choice, has far to go.

The eventual aspect of denuclearisation depends on what the final turnout must be.

My Future, Your Future, Our Future

BY ALICE YEO YEAR 9, SARAH The world of the future, I guess it’s going to be so different from yesterday.

Our technology has been developed so there is less work and only some labour has to be used. Second, I guess we won’t drive anymore. Self-driving cars have replaced our human lack of concentration. Life can be much more comfortable with these machines. Cars are already able to fly so I can imagine how our technology will develop. We can use them, for example, for chores and some stuff that we always feel really bothers us.

Now, we have many jobs. We work for a company, in house management, flights, on-line shopping malls and stuff like that. But in the future, machines will replace that spot. That will

cause our unemployment, and it will be worse and worse. But to prevent unemployment, we have to make or search some new jobs that only humans can do, for example, which involving psychology, or which requires a lot of judgments and jobs where a lot of variables pop up. These jobs are ones which only humans can do, so we don’t have to be worry about unemployment. On the other hand, our jobs are going to change.We need to try to change our future to be nicer to each other as we will have lots of leisure time to devote to sports, leisure activities and other face to face pursuits.

People will need to be more confident, developed in so many ways, and this is going to continue for quite some time.

The

cash consuming

virus.

BY INJOON SO YEAR 10, SARAH

“The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency”, the World Health Organization warned the world. Coronavirus has significantly impacted our daily lives in a relatively short period of time.

Spreading all the way from China to America it resulted in a considerable amount of casualties daily. Many parts of our lives were restricted and we lost the ability to go places. This induced lots of economic impacts on society, deterring us from making purchases. For example, the coronavirus has caused many offline shops to close because the number of customers who bought the products was significantly reduced. Such examples demonstrate the colossal impact that the Coronavirus has brought to the world economy.

Many countries heavily rely on tourism for their income. The Coronavirus has significantly impacted these nations and it has ended up cutting off the benefits of tourism this summer, hotels, restaurants and attractions used only by locals, if at all. This caused tourist dependent countries to suffer. For example, a graph from the world economic forum states that the top three countries affected by the coronavirus were Mexico (15.5%), Spain (14.3%), and Italy (13.0%). These are also top tourist destinations.

To overcome these situations,

countries are developing several alternatives. For instance, one might be a ‘Virus-free zone’. Virus-free zones are places where literally, the people can socialize in these areas without the fear of being infected by viruses. The first feature of virus free zones is that these places suit customer demand.

Today, when people are tired of social distancing, places where people can interact with each other are essential.

In addition, virus-free zones are especially special in today’s situation so these virus-free destinations could be priced higher than normal tourist places solving the problem of reduction of income due to the virus. However, there are some requirements to make a virus-free zone. For example, people mainly visit places like islands to have a tour. In order for these places to be virus-free zones, isolation is one of the biggest issues. This is the area that requires the most effort. Once they take care of the isolation issue, other parts like restriction and sustainability would be solved. As virus-free zones are the places that have the potential to grow up as new tourist hotspots, a lot of tourism dependent nations are investing attention on this solution.

Countries should act together to overcome the significant impacts that the coronavirus has caused to the global economy. Collective actions of the nations would be the best solution to solve the dilemma.

The Futurastic Solution to

PLASTIC POLLUTION

By Juliet Kim, Year 7, Geomun Edited by Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North

Plastic, for all intents and purposes, is strikingly cheap, extremely convenient and mainly crucial. The invention of plastic has been a most influential aspect in various areas, and was considered significant over a period of years. Almost one-trillion tonnes of plastic is used annually over the world and it can be easily reduced. There are well-known advantages, along with some disadvantages, which were essential factors when increasing its consumption. Overly, plastic changed our lives in a beneficial direction, utilized by an infinite number of people.

However, the overuse of the plastic caused the disastrous ‘plastic pollution’. If plastic continues to grow at its current pace, it will actually bring the undeniably negative hormonal or chemical effects to our bodies and water systems. Despite the fact that pollution caused by the plastic is almost reaching the stage that can not be reversed, there are only a few voices particularly arguing for the reduction in the amount of plastic consumption Aware of the serious consequences of plastic pollution, scientists are finding an exquisite solution. In fact, there actually are already various ways to definitely resolve this situation, such as simply reducing the amount of plastic by replacing it with alternative materials.

However, most of the solutions actually are not completely suitable for the current situation and require a certain period of time to be ideally installed around the world. Surprisingly, the most realistic solution was discovered by an unexpectedly successful experiment -the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

The revolutionary researchers developed a step from an existing PETase enzyme. Both of the enzymes- the existing one and the highly advanced one- were found on a Japanese waste site in 2016. The specific concept of the discovery is connecting both the developed and undeveloped model to increase the speed of breaking down the plastic; they are effectively stitched together by a long chain, which allows them to connect the DNA. The astonishing PETase is now able to come back to its original form and can be reused multiple times. This would be a vast energy saving to our world, since the use of fossil fuels will remarkably decrease when it is able to recreate the previously used and discarded plastic. Project co-lead John McGeehan used the ‘Diamond Light Source’, which makes it capable of observing the individual atoms needed to design the structure of the model. Moreover, the PETase enzyme is made concisely, so it is definitely strong enough to attack the flat and crystalline surface of the plastic. This discovery was a huge step towards the plastic pollution crisis and creates a hopeful potential solution.

However, there are other voices warning a note of caution. Emily Freshman, a fellow researcher from the University of Oxford, stated that “the improvements to the PETase activity for the most part were not dramatic, and we are nowhere near an answer to our plastic crisis.”

This opinion can be considered as partly proven since there is no actual decrease in plastic pollution and there is room for improvement until we reach the stage where the decrease is visible to all. There is still more work to be done by the researchers, so the model can be flexibly controlled advantageously. However, the majority of scientists believe the invention of the plastic-eating enzyme is important, but there are some angles still to work out.

BY JUHYUN KEVIN LEE, YEAR 12

NATURAL PHENOMENONS

The 21’ st century allows the public to access the media easier than before with technological developments. In the media, there are a variety of photos and videos around a wide range of topics.

One part of the visual media is pictures from nature, which astonishes people and are often considered surreal. These photos, staggeringly, are in a group called the “Natural phenomena.”

The first phenomenon is the Volcanic lightning. Volcanic lightning is an electric discharge caused by a volcanic eruption, which differs from an ordinary thunderstorm. Static electricity, generated by the collision between fragmenting particles of volcanic ash leads to a dirty thunderstorm. This process leads to a stunning image consisting of various charging mechanisms. These include ice charging, frictional charging, fracto emission, and radioactive charging, which are chemical reactions providing an astounding picture for the public.

When people search for wallpapers for their computer or other devices, there are images of clouds that are never spotted easily by people walking pass their town or cars.

One kind of these clouds is polar stratospheric clouds, also known as PSCs, which are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at extremely high altitudes of 15,000~25,000 m.

One primary type of a PSC is known as nacreous, implicated in the formation of ozone holes, made up of supercooled droplets of water and nitric acid. PSCs have different types within each other in terms of chemical phases and physical looks.

Halo is a kind of optical phenomena, produced by the interaction of ice crystals and light in the atmosphere.

This phenomenon has various forms, including white rings, arcs, and spots in the sky. Out of these forms, the bestknown type is the circular halo (The 22° Halo), and their rarity differs in a wide range. Halos are usually sighted near the sun or the moon, often in the sky above the Nepal mountain base camp.

Including the three phenomena, there are numerous phenomena accessible in media, and each having different formations, each unique in form.

Bluetooth Technology

By Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Judy Lee, Year 12, Halla East

Bluetooth is a wireless interconnection technology standard used for data transmission between electronic devices over short distances. Bluetooth is widely used around the world, and most electronic devices incorporate this technology. It is commonly used for wireless hardware including headphones, keyboards and game controllers. Bluetooth technology was named after Harald Bluetooth Gormsson, the Danish king who united Denmark and Norway in the 10th century. The initials from Harald Bluetooth represent the Bluetooth trademark, which is formed from two symbols of the Danish Runes H and B. The development of short-distance technology was initiated in 1989 by Nils Rydbeck, the CTO of Ericsson Mobile.

His aim was to create a wireless shortlink data transmission technology so that signals could be transmitted from computers to wireless headsets. When the invention was in its early stages, different companies were also working to develop the same short-range radio technology. With the purpose to create a standardised and interoperable short-

range radio technology, on 20 May 1998, technology companies Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba have decided to found the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The group collaborated to develop a proper technology and, in 1999, they successfully launched the first consumer Bluetooth device–a hand-free headset–which received the “Best of Show Technology Award” at the COMDEX computer exposition in Las Vegas.

Modern smartphones, computers and other devices are mostly supported by Bluetooth 5.0, the latest version of Bluetooth technology. Following the previous version Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth 5 was released in December 2016. According to SIG, the greater efficiency of Bluetooth 5 enables “richer connectionless, beacon-based Bluetooth solutions.”

Devices with Bluetooth 5 transfer data at the fastest speed of 2 megabits per second (double the speed of Bluetooth 4.2) and communicate at the maximum distance of 240 meters (four times the distance of Bluetooth 4.2) without obstacles in between. Unlike previous versions, Bluetooth 5 allows the user to connect

two wireless headphones to a single device and play audio for both headphones.

Because Bluetooth 5 is more efficient than the previous versions, it uses less energy hence improves battery life. The sound quality of wireless speakers and headphones aren’t improved compared to the previous build of Bluetooth, yet the connectivity of devices have advanced.

Despite Bluetooth technology’s usefulness, the technology comes with some disadvantages. The most critical disadvantage is poor security. Bluetooth has weak security compared to other network technologies, which makes Bluetooth vulnerable to hacker attacks–for instance, nearby hackers can hack other devices through Bluetooth connection.

To prevent such attacks, users can disable Bluetooth when not using it since hackers cannot access other devices when the function is off. In addition, Bluetooth transfers data at a slow speed. This is because faster transmission requires higher energy consumption, and Bluetooth is designed to be energy efficient hence is relatively slower than other technologies.

Can steroids be a reliable treatment for COVID-19?

BY JUNGWOO WON YEAR 10, NORO The end of the Covid-19 crisis, which seemed very close not too long ago, is now becoming increasingly opaque. Senseless gatherings and non-mask-wearers are aggravating the problem, while the modern generation is only commencing its adaptation to the circumstances.

On September 1st 2020 the international clinical trials performed confirmed the hope that a particular steroid drug called ‘corticosteroids’ can be accessible as a treatment for seriously ill Covid-19 patients. The Journal of the American Medical Education (JAMA) published the findings, and

WHO updated its treatment guidance to recommend the use of steroids for critical cases of Covid-19.

After evaluating the results of using three types of corticosteroids dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, and methylprednisolone - in more than 1,700 hospitalized patients, the researchers ended up with the conclusion that the drugs drastically reduced death in the patients. It reduced deaths by approximately in people with Covid-19 on ventilators and in patients who needed oxygen support.

What are corticosteroids? Corticosteroids are a class of drug that alleviates inflammation, swelling and pain in the human body. It is also known to reduce the immune system activity.

The role of this steroid is to resemble ‘cortisol’ when injected to the body.

Cortisol is a hormone that is necessary to keep the body healthy. It is naturally produced by the adrenal glands - which are endocrine glands that are found above the kidneys - and is included in a wide range of processes in the body such as metabolism, immune response, and stress. Doctors use corticosteroids to treat asthma, allergic reactions, some types of arthritis, and certain cancers.

Corticosteroids are a commonly used treatment to lower inflammation in the body. Now you will have this question: how can this help Covid-19 patients? The reason is because many Covid-19 patients die not of the virus, but of the body’s overreaction to the infection. This is called ‘cytokine storm’ or ‘hypercytokinemia’. Cytokine storm is the term to describe a physiological reaction in which the innate immune system causes an excessive and uncontrolled release of inflammatory immunological proteins called ‘cytokines’. Normally, cytokines are part of the body’s immune response to infection, but sudden release of cytokines can result in multisystem organ failure and death. There is a special cell called the T-Cell in the body which has various forms that exist to combat infection. They release cytokines when activated, which triggers additional production of T-Cells.

One of the types is cytotoxic T-cells.

These are able to roam the body and kill infected cells in order to stop the increased production of viruses like Covid-19. Normally, cytotoxic T-cells only target infected cells to be killed.

Furthermore, a chemical indicator, that ideally tells overzealous immune response cells to stand down once the threat has been neutralized, is present. However, when our body is going through a cytokine storm, the immune response gets so amped up that it stops

differentiating between infected and healthy cells, and attacks everything in its path. This can be critical for the Covid-19 patients since, not only is the Covid-19 virus killing the cells in our bodies, our malfunctioning immune system is too. Corticosteroids can be effective because it can possibly calm the cytokine storm.

The results of the investigation with tocilizumab and Covid-19 patients supports this idea that assuaging the overdrive of the body’s immune system will reduce the deaths in Covid-19 patients. According to a new study by a team from the University of Michigan, the use of an immunosuppressive drug called tocilizumab curtailed the number of deaths in critically ill Covid-19 patients, a decrease of 45%. Furthermore, the patients who received a single dose of this drug were more likely to get discharged from hospital or be off of a ventilator, after approximately one month after treatment. Tocilizumab is different from corticosteroids as a type of medicine, yet they share similarities in the respect of their comparable functions and the fact that they are a common treatment for diseases such as arthritis.

The findings of this study and the previous study dealing with corticosteroids support the idea that the immunosuppressive drugs can possibly be a treatment for Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms.

Recently, several findings on steroids and Covid-19 were announced, and studies suggested the likelihood that some specific steroids have the potential as a reliable treatment for Covid-19 patients. In response to the studies on corticosteroids, Dr.Derek C. Angus, chair of the department of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, who co-authored one of the new studies and the analysis said, “This is a case of, ‘A question asked, a question answered,’ and that’s so rare.” It is anticipated that, in the future, medicine such as corticosteroids might be the key for the resolution of the Covid-19 crisis. However, it is important to recall that the use of steroids can be hazardous.

The harmful side effects of steroids - especially in elderly patients - such as leaving patients susceptible to other infections, raising blood glucose levels, and causing confusion and delirium, aren't negligible. Solving these problems caused by the limits of steroids as a medicine will be the next task for scientists and the new generation.

Future Health

BY HYUNSEO KIM, YEAR 9, SARAH

“I believe that the future can be bright for us”

- John F Kennedy

The world in 2020 is suffering from the coronavirus outbreak. This pandemic reminds people of the importance of medicine to society. The development of medical technology is still in progress with its massive transitions. Numerous investments and experiments are implemented for the future medical development. Digital technology is used for the system’s development, accelerating the speed of development, helpful in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public health care provision provides everyone with access to public service. However, it does not include every nation. In South Korea the oldsters, kids, and people with no jobs receive the privilege through the public health care system. The employer provides employees with health care, paid by employers. The reason why people do not tend to take health insurance is because of its extremely high cost. In the United States, people with extremely low income and people of age over 65 benefit from medicare. The rest of the people must pay for themselves. Employers also pay for health insurance for their workers, a means of ensuring workers are productive because they fear losing their job and their health insurance. Univer-

sal health care should be compulsory in every nation. The system provides for citizens to stay strong. Therefore if all nations would implement mandatory universal health care, the government would gain trust from citizens.

Government would not just be the one which benefits from the universal health care system. As citizens would save their money, the nation might develop economically. Government could ensure everyone is covered and would have an interest in ensuring everyone is treated quickly and efficiently so as to prevent others suffering such as an emplyer who is left without an employee because of illness.

Big data also provides an improvement to health care. The way we can improve the nation's public health is utilizing data such as medical records.

Recorded data provides information on patient’s ailments and remedies to enhance patient condition. This is a big advantage of a health service. First, a person with huge risk can prevent the disease, by checking themselves frequently. Also, with big data based health care, one person can save personal information and try to fix and change out of their own habit. Health care supports everyone including healthy people and patients, also peo-

ple who need to get checked frequently.

With free health care the nation might develop in the short term.

Health insurance costs a lot and therefore, people refuse to take health services. The United States has the highest total health spending per capita, spending twice compared to the other countries. But US citizens might have less opportunity to check their health, compared to the other nations. If the nation decreased the cost of health insurance and checking services, people would also lessen their individual demands.If a nation gains higher social trust, it can be a great opportunity to boost the nation’s overall growth.

Then, the nation can grow and boost its economical resources.

Public health brings together every single person. Big data is used broadly in public health, accumulating each patient's data and using it. For every individual who is in a different health conditions, they all have access to health care and health services. Some nations such as the United States have high insurance, it might be a problem for few people. However, the nation might struggle to provide every citizen with an opportunity for health care.

Five Future inventions Our lifestyles and living circumstances have become far better than the old days like the 1800s. The main reason that these days things are much more convenient and better developed than the old days and we benefit from clever inventions. Inventions like lights or engines are the examples of Inventions that changed our lives completely, and even inventions that seem unimportant, such as chocolate bars and pencils with an eraser, completely changed our lives.

If gadgets are still being invented now, they will they also be invented in the future. What Inventions might be invented in the future?

1. Flying Car This invention is simply a car that can fly like an airplane. It has boosters on its doors for gliding and has small wheels under the vehicle. The advantage of this invention is that it will be very interesting for us toglide through the sky with our own vehicles, which is much cheaper than buying jets or airplanes. The only disadvantage is that even though it can fly, some of the driving ability will have degenerated. Porsche and Boeing estimated that flying cars will be sold sometime in 2025, but some people think that it might come out in 2021. Lots of people will like this invention because of its uniqueness. It will have an impact like needing separate paths for f lying cars or having different places to park in the future when we get f lying cars. Hyundai, KT, and Incheon Airport are currently planning for flying cars.

They will be working on the construction and operation of vertiports, which are vertical landing sites for flying vehicles, and jointly designing a road map for the urban air transportation industry. It has already demonstrated its concept for a flying taxi, dubbed S-A1, in a joint effort with Uber Elevate at CES 2020 in Las Vegas in January 2020. relevant infrastructure Hyundai E&C will build the infrastructure for vertiports, while KT will construct the necessary telecommunications infrastructure, including a traffic management

system for unmanned aerial vehicles. The airport corporation will build the relevant infrastructureat Incheon International Airport and connect existing air traffic management systems with the UAM traffic management system.

2.Hologram phone The Hologram phone is an invention that turns the phone into a hologram. It is a bracelet that visualizes the screen of the phone and also enables us to touch it. It works in a similar fashionto the smartboard and has the same functions as a phone. The advantage of this invention is that it has magnificent portability and unique features. The disadvantage of this invention is that the phone has better graphics and the screen is not as accurate as that of the phone. There is no exact date for the release of this invention but some people might be waiting for it very patiently. Although the phone has a better function than the hologram phone, some people who like unique things will be pleased by this invention.

3: Animal translator Ever wanted to know what your dog was thinking, wait no longer. A device that translates animal thoughts or languages into human language: the animal translator!. This invention has already come out for dogs, but is only able to translate their barks, not their thoughts. The new imaginary invention is a gadget that allows people to hear what the animal is thinking or saying in human language. It works with any animal if the sensor is attached to the correct area. This invention will be helpful in understanding what animals are thinking in their daily lives. Being able to identify the thoughts of a creature will be very useful to understand the creature's features and characters.Economically, if this machine is made and made successfully, it will greatly enhance the level of zoology.

5. Lightsaber This invention first appeared in the movie Star Wars in 1977, and it was so popular it became the symbol of Star Wars. Lots of people tried to make this imaginary invention in real life, but they failed to create a version that completely resembles the lightsaber so they just created it as a children’s toy with much less detail. There were different versions of the toy lightsaber, and one of them was a simple LED light sword mainly covered in plastic. Even now, scientists and inventors are wondering and researching how to make a real lightsaber. If this invention comes out soon, I think it will be dangerous enough to commit a crime and will be very dangerous for kids to contact. Also, similar to the time machine, I think that this invention should also be given only to certain people like guards of the presidents or policemen. It is possible to construct a lightsaber, according to a physics professor from UC Berkeley. In conclusion, this invention will come out in society very soon.

Welcome back Luke Skywalker!

4. Time machine

Time machines are frequently mentioned in cartoons and movies. The basic features of a time machine is that it enables us to travel forward or backwards in time. It will be helpful for the world if it is made in real time, but there isn’t any news about when it will come out. Maybe they need to invent the machine first! This imaginary invention will be helpful for society when dealing with problems like crimes or managing countries.

The drawbacks of this invention is that there might be more crimes and chaos in society. For instance, if everyone gets a time machine, it will be easy for people to disappear or commit a crime. Our full history might change with this dangerous invention, so if this invention comes out, we should only allow specific people to use it. Time machines have more drawbacks than advantages so I think it is better to not make this invention.

By Antony Choi, Y7, Sarah Edited By Minseo Cha, Year 12, Halla East

The most earthlike planet

BY ALBERT CHOI YEAR 10, GEOMUN The discovery of a super-Earthsized planet orbiting a sun-like star brings us closer than ever to finding a twin to our own world. But NASA’s Kepler space telescope has captured evidence of other potentially habitable planets amid the sea of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Three likely candidates are…..

Just 22 light-years from Earth, lies GLIESE 667Cc. It is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth and researchers aren't sure whether or not it's rocky or gaseous. However, the star is a red dwarf, which is the smallest and coolest star in the main sequence, considerably cooler than the sun, so the explanet is thought to lie in the habitable zone. It is possible that Gliese 667Cc may orbit close enough to be baked by flares from the red dwarf.

Kepler-22b lies 600 light-years away. It was the first Kepler planet found in the habitable zone of its parent star, but the world is considerably

larger than Earth - about 2.4 times our planet’s size.

Kepler-69c, which is about 2700 light-years away, is about 70 percent larger than Earth. So, researchers are unsure about its composition. The planet completes one orbit every 242 days, making its position within its solar system comparable to that of Venus within our system. However, kepler-69c’s host star is about 80 percent as luminous as the sun, so the planet appears to be in the habitable zone.

Among these planets, GLIESE 667Cc is the most suitable planet to replace Earth. It is because the planet GLIESE 667Cc is the closest planet among the candidates. Also the star for the planet is stabilized, making the planet a better place to live. Therefore the planet GLIESE 667Cc is the best planet to replace Earth. Sometime in the future, we may be able to explore this further.

Have I imagined it or what?

BY JUNE KANG YEAR 9, MULCHAT Our world feels already destroyed.

Somebody says we are living even though we are not supposed to. I can’t believe that I'm alive. These days I am kind of confused about the point of living. My day starts with surviving in my bed. Have my breakfast, out of a can, beans and tuna, and some water which is rationed to only one cup per meal. Also, we always need to take a pill. I think it has a vitamin that we need or something like that. After having lunch, I sit on a silla (chair) to start my online lesson. This is my usual schedule weekdays. On the weekend, I usually have physical education classes in my home. Same schedule lasts until the end of July. The, lo and behold, the most unique, strangest, scariest, dangerous, and adventurous day in my life, because it was the first day that I went outside.

I only heard and saw the outside world on my nursery robot, Heather.

The outside world was dangerous and it was the worst thing that I ever saw.

The strange things started to happen when I woke up. There was nobody in my house, this was very unusual, because most of the time, my parents are working in the working room for

their work, but today they weren’t in the working room, even not in the house, so I got so confused and I asked Heather about my parents. ‘BBBppp!!..

BBBppp!!..ERROR’.. I suddenly felt something was going wrong. I was trying to also ask my online friend Kinney, but there was no outpu from the device. I panicked and suddenly there was a big sound from outside.

I was too alarmed to calm down.

Suddenly the locked door swung open. First thing I saw was a pile of garbage coming out. I was so frightened to go out of the house to check outside. However, I needed to make my choice to go outside because I had a strong feeling that all of the problems started from outside. I put my device and a money wristlet, which also is my registration card, into my pouch. I got ready for my first journey to the outside world. I was very nervous and also afraid to go out. After a minute, I finally stepped outside. It was very bright and it was very..very…. ternatives. For instance, one might be a ‘Virus-free zone’. Virus-free zones are places where literally, the people can socialize in these areas without the fear of being infected by viruses. The

first feature of virus free zones is that these places suit customer demand.

Today, when people are tired of social distancing, places where people can interact with each other are essential.

In addition, virus-free zones are especially special in today’s situation so these virus-free destinations could be priced higher than normal tourist places solving the problem of reduction of income due to the virus. However, there are some requirements to make a virus-free zone. For example, people mainly visit places like islands to have a tour. In order for these places to be virus-free zones, isolation is one of the biggest issues. This is the area that requires the most effort. Once they take care of the isolation issue, other parts like restriction and sustainability would be solved. As virus-free zones are the places that have the potential to grow up as new tourist hotspots, a lot of tourism dependent nations are investing attention on this solution.

Countries should act together to overcome the significant impacts that the coronavirus has caused to the global economy. Collective actions of the nations would be the best solution to solve the dilemma.

The development of Electric Cars Endlessly operating factories, overflowing waste products, and constant deforestation. Factors that have triggered and catalyzed pollution can be listed in abundance in the modern world. However, within this big pool of factors, scientists specifically single out, and blame, vehicles for having the greatest responsibility. Vehicles are now one of the most common things to find on the road.

Despite the initial purpose for vehicles was to simply move faster, it’s role became more vital in society as it started to contribute to diverse aspects such as trading and businesses.

In tandem, due to this heavy reliance on vehicles, the pollution issue has once more ignited, and the demand for a solution is being highlighted.

As a remedy for this horrible circumstance, electric cars were spotted. Surprisingly, the concept of the electric car was already invoked in the early 19th century. Electric cars, derived from the idea of battery cars, passed the step of electric motors, and finally came to have the concept of a current electric car. One of the early figures who contributed to the modern electric car was William Morrison, a chemist who lived in Des Moines, Iowa. Despite that his invention only

had a top speed of 14 miles per hour, which is barely faster than a bicycle, he is being praised for his contribution of giving the insight of electric cars.

Followed by the initial idea of electric cars, there were lots of contestants running toward the goal of making successful electric cars. Due to the intense rivalry, successful outcomes were achieved, replacing one-third of the vehicles on the road in 1900. Even some of the taxis were powered by electricity as well. Behind this gradual interest that electric cars gained, there were acceptable reasons. For example, easier gear change and the absence of smell and noise was the profound reason at that time, since it differed from the gas cars.

The main target for electric cars were upper-class people, who had higher social status and financial background in society. Since this group of people normally cared about their social reputation and their name more than others, an electric car was a better option provided for them.

Then at this point, it might seem strange why electric cars are experiencing a sudden comeback in the 21st century once again. Logically, electric cars should have been common these days on the road if the trend in 1900

had continued till now. However, because of a significant fall in demand for electric cars at some point in the past, gas-powered cars have become more common type cars these days. To look at the specific reason, we have to look at the individual - Henry Ford. It was Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T that led to the demise of electric cars. Introduced in 1908 with lots of distinctive performance, the Model T made gasoline-powered cars widely available and affordable. Then in 1912, with Charles Kettering’s introduction of the electric starter, which allowed the elimination of the need for the hand crank, the cost of gasoline cars fell to $650, while an electric roadster remained at a high price of $1,750. This increase in gas-powered cars catalyzed the decline of the electric vehicle. By the 1920s, when the U.S. roads system of connecting cities had improved, and gas became cheap with the discovery of Texas crude oil, rural Americans were readily available for the travel - Americans wanted to get out and explore.

However, because of the relatively expensive price and low quality, very few Americans outside of cities had electricity at that time. In the end, electric vehicles all but disappeared by 1935.

But once again, despite the decline

Brian Yoon Y10 SARAH Edited by Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North that occurred around the 1930s, electric cars are experiencing a rebirth in modern society. One of the biggest reasons behind this change is due to the pollution issue around the world.

As the air pollution problem rose to the surface, people tried to find solutions for this problem. Recognizing that gasoline cars are the factor that has the biggest responsibility for the air pollution issue, the government and scientists are trying to find an alternative turning to electric cars. The government incentivizes people to buy electric cars nowadays by supporting them with a certain amount of money. Moreover, since the electric cars are compatible and competitive with gasoline cars in respect to quality and cost these days, there are more and more electric cars appearing on the road. Lastly, as Tesla, one of the companies which make electric cars, announced that they can make a ‘100 mile battery’ in the future, stepping one step forward to the future where electric cars dominate the market.

Governments around the world are also helping to solve this issue by banning the sale of gas powered cars.

So what goes around comes around you better get out of the way of the car!

Tipping points of

Global Warming

“Climate change poses a fundamental threat to the places, species and people’s livelihoods” says the World Wildlife Fund. As the quote says, rising temperatures will change what we know of the world today if not dealt with effectively. Starting with the death of wildlife and changes in biomes, global warming will soon affect our environment, humans included. The effects of climate change can be categorised into two, gradual changes and tipping points. Whereas tackling gradual changes is fairly straightforward, tipping points provide massive changes in the environment, which cannot be stopped at the last minute, and are more difficult to undo.

Luckily, these tipping points are not expected to happen in the near future.

However, as the name suggests, these changes can be quite sudden and when they do happen, these will contribute to the phenomenon significantly.

Firstly, despite the fact that the ice is melting in Greenland and Antarctica, evidence suggests that the melting of these sheets of ice can accelerate massively from a certain tipping point, dramatically increasing the speed of the melting of the ice. At 1.5°C warmer than the tipping point, the ice could take 10000 years to “unfold” whereas at 2°C warmer, this could take 1000.

Due to the lack of observational data, researchers are yet to completely

BY ALEX KIM YEAR 12, HALLA NORTH

determine the exact value of this tipping point and how fast the ice would melt after this point has passed.

There are other problems with the ice melting and the rising sea levels. In the Arctic permafrost and ice beneath the seafloor, there are areas where a large amount of methane is trapped.

When these sheets of ice melt, this methane is getting closer and closer to freedom and being in the atmosphere.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, it is approximately 28 times more effective than carbon dioxide, and if large volumes of methane were to be released into the atmosphere, it could increase the rate of global warming significantly. These increases could result in more methane entering the atmosphere as the ice sheets are now even more vulnerable. Furthermore, it is argued by some scientists that this may have played a role in multiple major extinction events in the past.

Finally, as there is an increase in the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean is absorbing a lot of carbon dioxide. As more and more sea water absorbs the CO2 in the atmosphere, at some point, the sea will not be able to absorb any more.

This means that the carbon dioxide emissions from that point onwards will simply settle in the atmosphere.

Unlike the CO2 absorbed into the sea water, the CO2 inside the atmosphere

plays a role in the warming up of the globe even further, speeding up global warming, yet again.

In general, these tipping points are both cause and effect of global warming. Despite the fact that none of the tipping points mentioned above have happened, it is possible that these may happen in the future. When this does happen, the effects will be devastating. As one of the many species on this planet and the main cause of global warming, we, as humans, must act against the phenomenon of global warming.

Reaching for Space Farming

BY JOEY KANG,YEAR 12, HALLA NORTH

Most people get surprised by the fact that farming within buildings is possible. What if it’s also available in some more exotic places, like Antarctica? A first step towards space farming is about to be taken, using vertical farming technology from South Korea.

Vertical farming is an agricultural concept that allows people to cultivate within buildings, using specialised LEDs, hydroponics, and automation to substitute sunlight, water and nutrients, and labour respectively.

The greatest advantage is that it’s never affected by weather and climate conditions, as every aspect of farming such as temperature, humidity and air flow is controlled by programmed systems within the factory. Furthermore, by controlling the wavelength of the LEDs to optimum length for each species, it upgrades the productivity and quality of the products. It is also helpful in maintaining our environments in a good condition. As it uses biodegradable sponges instead of soils, the amount of wastage coming out is almost zero. Plus, it doesn’t require plowing of the ground for planting, preventing soil erosion. To sum up, we can notice that vertical farming technology is both innovative, productive, and eco-friendly. Such aspects already make vertical farming

a ‘futuristic technology’.

Such immense opportunity has enabled the global agriculture industries to deploy vertical farms, not only into their country, but also sell them to other countries. This is more explicitly effective to countries who don't possess suitable conditions for conventional farming, such as Ka z a k h s t a n , Si n g a p o re , a n d t h e Bahamas. All these countries have extreme climates or lack in land that is suitable in undertaking traditional agriculture. Vertical farming has allowed these countries to overcome these problems. However, this may not be the only problem for these small numbers of countries anymore, because the global climate is becoming more unpredictable every day. This is why the countries who rely heavily on conventional farming, such as the US, are also concentrating their research on vertical farming, through a related company called “Aerofarm”.

There is another region on our planet completely detached from agriculture, Antarctica. To get the researchers there some fresh vegetables, a vertical farm is now being initiated in Sejong Science Base, Antarctica.

Agriculture companies in South Korea have experienced another step of technological development whilst working on a way to deliver the massive vertical farm all the way

to Antarctica. They succeeded in minimising the size and the necessary input through ‘containerizing’ the whole system, so that a number of vertical farm containers can be delivered via icebreakers. Antarctica is a place on Earth where it’s environment is the most similar to those in outer space; the Moon, or even Mars, although it would require more effort. If the success in Antarctica becomes official, the researchers will take the next step in further minimizing the components for vertical farms so that it is transferable via spaceships, opening the possibility to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables in outer space.

Predictions: A Quick Look to

the Future

BY SOPHIA PARK, YEAR 9, JEOJI

Covid-19: a pandemic that has made the world into a disaster, having similar symptoms to colds, with over 27 million people suffering. This virus has made our lives change a lot. If this pandemic was predicted years ago, could it have been prevented?

A post about this that went viral on Facebook was a prediction made by a French astronomer and physician back in the 16th century. His cryptic poems are now regarded as his predictions relating to many events after his death.

From his 1555 book: “In the feeble lists, great calamity through America and Lombardy. The fire in the ship, plague and captivity; Mercury in Sagittarius, Saturn Warning.” In this quote, the plague and captivity mean the lockdown that many people went through.

The Mercury in Sagittarius was when the first cases of coronavirus were found. And the “Saturn warning” part means when Saturn passed Aquarius which was when New York City went through a lockdown. Although some are doubtful, he still has great predictions.

One of his famous predictions is the Great Fire of London.

The blood of the just will commit a fault at London, Burnt through lightning of twenty threes the six: The ancient lady will fall from her high place, Several of the same sect will be killed.

Nostradamus’ predictions are poems. The part about twenty threes the six means twenty times three and adding six which becomes sixty-six. The year of the Great Fire of London happened on September 2, 1666, which sixty-six comprises the last two digits. Some regard the ‘ancient lady’ as London itself, and ‘several of the same sect’ is about the people living in London. Many lost their lives, in the Great Fire of London similar to his prediction. Nostradamus is also known to predict the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The poem regarding this is

Near the gates and within two cities There will be scourges the like of which was never seen, Famine within plague, people put out by steel, Crying to the great immortal God for relief The event that happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated both the area and the people. It was also something the world has never seen before. The survivors suffered from radiation poisoning, which connects to “Crying to the great immortal God for relief”. Also, Japan went through a famine with the plague, making the situation worse.

Although Nostradamus has a lot of accurate predictions, it is hard to figure out if he predicted all these huge events, because his predictions are too vague. It relies on our imagination and the way we interpret matters. Some may believe the poem

to be a prediction, while others do not. But, he wasn’t the only one to make predictions. There is one daily prediction that many depend on, the weather forecast. Weather forecasts are important predictions made in the morning, which foresees the day’s weather. But people seem to question if they are reliable.

Normally, for a 5-day forecast, it is 90% correct, for 7 days it is 80% correct. However, for weather reports that are longer than 9 days, they are only 50% reliable. There are many reasons why the forecast is unreliable. One reason is the Butterfly Effect. Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist came up with a theory, which mainly talks about how a flap of a butterfly in Asia could drastically affect weather in New York City. Like this, there are always obstacles that prevent those daily predictions from being correct. However, mainly the weather forecasts are accurate because they require weather models and programs.

They also invest a lot of money in the programs they use.

Another type of popular prediction concerns financial stocks. They are sometimes useful because they help us predict or estimate power in financial markets. Since it is something so helpful, the companies should make them very accurate. However, even in these financial markets, there are many er-

rors. Some companies try to use many complicated methods to forecast their financial future. Sometimes, when these methods are too complicated, the main focus can be taken away from its original focus, and it would make it easier to find more errors. For example, South Korea’s predicted GDP (Real Gross Domestic Product) growth was approximately 2.5~2.6% in 2019. However, at the end of 2019, South Korea’s GDP growth was only 2.0.% Like this, the financial results can be something fickle.

Normally many financial stocks are different from a prediction. For this cause, it may have two reasons. The first reason is that they do not use advanced technology to predict their stocks. Unlike the daily weather forecasts, they do not use computer programs that are super advanced. Not only that, for financial stocks, there are many things that do not follow the predictions. For example, in this 1st term of 2020, Covid-19 struck so many predictions made about the

economic matters were strangled. Like Covid, it is very difficult to predict financial stocks because there are always other things that are unpredictable. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, there are know unknowns and there are unknowns we do not yet know about.

Predictions are something that we encounter in our daily lives. To believe, or not to believe is always the reader’s choice. But, always do remember that not all predictions are so true. Some predictions that use a lot of specific tools are really accurate while those that are moved just by words are less accurate Therefore, always doubt before believing in a prediction.

Future of food: Finding the Best Way for both People and the Earth

BY ASHLEY YOON YEAR 9, JEOJI

“Food” is an irreplaceable object for human beings for survival in this world. Therefore, the history of food has emerged since the start of mankind. At first, in most of the Stone Age, people lived as hunter-gatherers.

Traveling around, they hunted wild animals and gathered ripened fruits.

Humans learned to cultivate their own crops and began to settle in one place, and make their life prosperous. Later, spices such as pepper, salt, and sugar were discovered. Spices enabled us to cook and preserve a wider range than before. Today, food has gone beyond the function of life support and has been embedded into our lives as one culture. So then, what will be the future of food? Recently, the development of technology has made a lot of people think about this question. Today, I’d like to write about the future of food, focusing on how and what people will eat in the future. As food is an implicit part of human’s life, we can learn about the future life of mankind if we study the evolution of the food industry.

Making decisions about what to eat is a major problem in our everyday lives. People should consider various things such as personal tastes, culture and the combination of the food that they decide. While selecting their meals, most consumers consider

their health and nutrition problems, and aim to eat a balanced and healthy diet. Personalization is emerging as one of the most discussed food & beverage trends in recent times. This trend means by customizing each person’s meals and recommending an appropriate time to digest it. Platforms such as online surveys, big data, athome DNA testing, and machine vision help companies that use personalization. A specific example of personalization can be related to the “biochip”- which is a future technology and is an outcome of the fields of computer science, electronics and biology. A biochip implant, collects information about our body and sends it to us. Then the service recommends food that fits to our own nutritive conditions. Also, the service collects the history of selected dishes along with the user profile in a database. It will be able to discern the consumer’s personal taste and predict the next dishes. Like this, in the future, people will select their meals according to their health and preferences by recommending services such as biochips inserted under their skin.

Today, the food that we eat has developed a lot and people have been able to taste various menus. Without limitations, we can find diverse food

in restaurants and supermarkets.

However, there is a severe problem in the food industry which is “Food Waste”. The issue of this phenomenon is not just about consumers creating waste. The problem with food waste begins at the start of the food production process- including the growing of crops, livestock and even during the manufacturing process.

What will be the solutions to the problem of food waste and loss?

Experts state that most loss occurs during production of food and therefore, new types of meals should be invented. Soylent is an example of a company which produces eco-friendly food. Soylent sells powder and drinks that contain everything the body needs to thrive, which are meal replacement products. Founders started their business thinking that in a world with a growing population and decreasing resources, people need a chance of nutrition that is cheap and easy to consume. They found out that soy has a high bioavailability and only needs a few resources to produce food.

Decades ago, people, including women, started to concentrate on their work so they got less time to cook food for themselves. A variety of restaurants and markets opened to provide meals to these kinds of people.

However, modern people got even busier so they were trying to find the most convenient way to get food on their own dishes. Because of this, a lot of food delivery services emerged in the world to quickly relay food to their consumers. A company called “Foodfly” in South Korea is included in these kinds of businesses. Foodfly is a food delivery service which delivers dishes of famous restaurants to consumers’ houses. If consumers just click on the menu that they want from the application, the riders will deliver their food in a safe and quick way.

In the future, experts are expecting that machines including drones, will deliver meals to us. Drones will fly to the consumers’ houses and drop the ordered food- just like the deliverers have done before. Interestingly, Amazon has already unveiled its Prime Air delivery drone in June 2019, with plans to deliver packages from the Amazon platform.

So far, we have looked at how the industry of food will change in the future. As technology develops, people will be able to eat food that is customized for their own nutritive conditions. Moreover, they will select healthier and eco friendlier food, also using machinery delivery services to decrease the time it takes to prepare

food. In my personal opinion, it is a positive that the food industry develops in an eco-friendly and convenient way.

However, it is questionable whether eating meals that perfectly fit the human body will enhance happiness.

Preparing food with our family even if it is more inefficient, and eating it, even if it is less healthy, can make us happier, because food is an important “culture” in our lives. From now on, we should also think about the future of food culture. Instead of simply focusing on "functionality," we should consider how humans can enjoy their meals in a better way.

Water everywhere but we need to

Use It Better

BY LEO JO, YEAR 8, JEOJI

Countries, economists and people are reflecting on the importance of water. LEDC are competing to seize water territories and currently 19 obscure hostilities are being played out.

For example the dispute between India and Pakistan, which began in 2006, illustrates the problems of using rivers as borders between countries. The problem started from the boundary between the two countries because the boundary cut a river tributary. The water tributary was separated with India having 39% and Pakistan 47% of the water. This impacted both countries, Indian people were terrified as Pakistan knew what to do and conquered more land from eastern Afghanistan so securing their water. The problem is that both nations want to use the same water. If one country soaks up the water then there is less left for the other.

Africa’s most important water factor, one of it’s largest rivers, the Nile, is currently causing conflict between two countries, Egypt and Ethiopia. For the geographical region to be distinct the map shows the Nile passing through Sudan to Ethiopia. The

dispute began from the Ethipoian dam, which they want to fill with water.

A Tik Tok video from an Ethiopian guy distracted the attention of the Egyptians so Ethiopia was able to grab more water to wash, irrigate land to produce more crops to feed themselves and supply to their growing manufacturing industries.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that the world population will increase to 8.1 billion people by 2040. Also, according to CBS news in 2019, American will pay an average of $104 per month in water and wastewater bills, up more than 30% in less than a decade. This is a shock for poor American families who are only receiving low wages, even in the most developed country around. People not having enough to maintain basic hygiene costs the rest of society in the spread of disease. However, higher prices for water encourage people to use less so there should be better use made of the water.

On Jeju, despite the rock being basalt and acting as a sponge for all the water that comes down in the monsoon season, Jeju residents and industries like the leisure sector,

overuse water and, in the not too distant future they will find the water running dry Increasing population, over five-hundred thousand now live on Jeju, but economically not expanding their technology will result in an island, surrounded by water, lacking it.

Therefore, for a vivid future, water needs to be saved so that disputes are less prevalent and we can all benefit from using the water we do have more efficiently.

CONFIRMED

BY NASA!

BY STEPHANIE HUH YEAR 9, JEOJI

Krafft Ehricke wanted to emphasise the point as to how we can use the moon as a springboard to inflate human civilization into the solar systems.

NASA is finally attempting a trip back to the Moon which relates to a trip to Mars, an aspiring and impractical goal of sending astronauts by 2024. However, this mission is actually more than just getting humans up on the lunar surface. Nasa and the USA are expecting for the Moon to be the base to reach Mars. The Moon is a perfect starting base that can make the programme follow for the travel onto Mars. For both destinations, the goal isn’t simply to plant a flag and return to Earth; it is to maintain a permanent presence for people to simply survive in Mars and come back safely. There are issues going on these days; whether Mars will be our future home. The Moon is a preferred place to simulate a Mars mission, particularly when it comes to Gateway. Since the planned space station was designed for lunar orbit. It will serve as a staging ground for any NASA missions to the lunar surface, as well as for deep-space missions to Mars later. The first two elements of Gateway (the power and propulsion module, and the habitation module) are slated to launch in 2023.

“We’re going back to the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits,and inspiration for a new g e n e r a t i o n o f ex p l o re r s ,” N A SA administrator, Jim Bridenstine In order to ensure that these habitats can stay over time, Nasa will need to construct something sustainable. Launch windows for Mars missions, when the planet is closest to Earth, come only every 26 months.

Which means that any round-trip Mars mission would have to involve some time waiting for this window

to open up again. If the journey takes 9 months you’ll need to spend a few months on Mars before it would be feasible to start returning home.

Let us hope it all goes well.

“If God wanted man to become a

Spacefaring Species,

he would have given man a Moon.”

History of

Predicting the Future

BY TOM LEE, YEAR 13, HALLA EAST

Future could be considered as that rare element that humanity failed to completely understand. As a result, people have started to focus on the opposite of the future, the past, to analyze and predict the future as accurately as possible. This attempt to overcome the ambiguous area of the future started centuries ago. This article will analyze the various tactics used by the previous generations along with possible technologies that could be used in the near future.

The first prediction of the future started with religious authority.

Catholic churches and Christian authorities first claimed that the signs of the future could be seen in two distinct methods: natural elements and prophecy. The Bible introduced several examples of people who received prophecies and used supernatural elements to justify their predictions.

For instance, Moses and his brother Aaron mainly used natural incidents, such as sandstorms and diseases to justify their prediction of the future the Israel slaves would be released by Egypt and Egypt would fall. Despite the Pharaoh’s decision to kill all of the Israeli slaves after allowing them to escape, Moses further justified his prediction of the future by opening the middle of the Red Sea. This common prediction of future events using religious prophecies was also deployed in other parts of the Bible and other religious books, such as the Koran.

Since predicting the future is extremely complicated and almost impossible to prove, the Bible’s prediction of

the future is mainly justified by the occurrence of supernatural events, which are believed to be orchestrated

by God himself.

This prediction of the future started to change to astronomy and my t h s a s h u m a n i t y a p p r o a c h e d the medieval era. Especially, the observers and scholars thought that the sequence of stars could be linked with possible events. For instance, some of the Chinese astronomers believed that the location of Mars could determine whether their family or friends would experience tragedies in the future. This was also closely linked with mythologies, such as the Greek mythologies. However, unlike the Bible, people only relied on the stories they heard from the immediate previous generations instead of directly observing the supernatural elements.

This caused people to question the validity of predicting the future just by looking at the natural elements s i n ce eve r y pers o n’s p red ictio n could be different despite the natural element being identical. As a result, this led to the significant development of technology and scientific skills, following industrial revolutions.

Following this progress, predictions also started to appear in various media such as novels and movies. Various scientific fiction authors started to discuss methods to predict the future using technology. In the novel “Time Machine”, which involves a traveler using the time machine to see what happens in the future, the author combined the obsession of predicting

the future with science to make predictions more familiar.

Obsession with predicting the future also led to the formation of academic concepts, including Historic recurrence. This involved people constantly claiming that previous historic events are repeating themselves and so could be used to predict the future. Historians compared various historical events, such as the American Civil War and the Korean War, to find the similarities between the events and how similar circumstances could be happening.

However, some historians also criticize this prediction, since the majority of the historical events have various different factors that distinguish them from other events that happened centuries ago.

People’s fascination with predicting the future will continue in the media or just through imagination, until the technology develops enough to satisfy their curiosity.

Future Art

BY LUCIA KIM YEAR 7, SARAH

The question starts with this. What will art look like in 20 years? I tried to ignore the present day art in my mind.

I considered the art piece ‘Sunflowers’

by Vincent Van Gogh. The painting has some of the sunflowers stood up as if they were carried well, some were withered and some have leaves fallen off. This painting described the sunflower realistically. However, when it comes to the future, the pictures will change to being colourful and splendorous. While the subject of the paintings may be the same as today, one will be getting towards the technological art, the other will be getting back to the simple, impact painting. I personally think that in the future the painting will go back to the past and start at the same place that the painting is in technological art. The reason that I think that the art will not be the same is because usually things do not stay still. Things change, change, and change to make their own shape.

This includes the art. However, all of these predictions have a possibility.

The first prediction was that it will stay the same. The reason is that in the current situation the artist can not really make something and post it to the museum. The second prediction was that it will go back to simple pieces of drawing. The reason is that already, there are many drawings that

are colourful so I believe that many people would want to make the future drawings simpler and create a strong impact. The third prediction is that art will turn to the electronic artificial drawings. The reason is because if we stay the same, it would be too boring to do only one thing. However, if use is made of old drawing methods, it will turn around. So, the last prediction is that the electronic artificial drawings will turn into using the internet and combining with art drawings. I believe that it will change the future electronic art. However, I personally want the art drawing to change to the old drawing method. The reason is that if there is a big impact, even though the drawing and the internet meet, then this will grab the attention. It is also because today, technology is improving so that we can use the Internet many times in many ways. Therefore, I personally think that art will change to technology art.

Psychology’s new future:

UX Design

BY MELANIE KANG, YEAR 12, HALLA EAST

Have you ever wondered how the height of your chair was decided?

The height is decided through the international statistical average of leg length in each country; the height that is suitable for an individual's leg length. This is UX design, the User Experience Design. UX design is the design that provides meaningful and relevant experiences to users. The designers prioritize the entire process of acquiring and integrating branding, design, usability, and function. From the elephant story, where the king asked 4 men to describe the elephant in the dark, the king acknowledged all explanations made by different people, due to their diverse mindsets and values. A visual designer approaches UX design from one point of view, the interaction designer from another, and the programmer from yet another. It can be helpful to understand and even experience the part of the elephant that others are experiencing. UX design forsees an optimistic future in Psychology, since it revolutionizes Psychology as it applies and utilizes Psychology in daily lives. This is deemed as th e ‘ New No r ma l’ i n Psychology.

S ke u o m o r p h i c d e s i g n i s t h e design elements that are created in a pragmatic style to replicate the real life objects through technology.

Although Skeuomorphic design was regarded as a controversial approach to User-experience, due to the claim that designers created theatrics rather than experience, critics have claimed that Skeuomorphic design diminished the ease of use, interface scalability and navigability, which led to the response from the design community; designs were created to be more adept to responsiveness by fitting it in webs and mobiles. As technological advancement took place, the latest trend of Skeuomorphic design can be exemplified as the growth of VR/ AR technology, representing precise designs. The explicit details such as highlights and shadows can be observed. Designers can copyrighting with diverse contrast in hues, which leads to balanced visual hierarchy with uses of high-quality photos and animative elements.

Furthermore, storytelling plays a crucial role in the digital aspects of UX product design, as it encapsulates communicating data to the users via informative and creative paths. It is said that storytelling creates optimistic relationships between the brand and the user, as one’s individual story elevates the brand making it more memorable and aids users so they feel like they are part of the products or service. Through the use of personal

pronouns, the headline appeals the reader’s attention and aids them to substitute themselves into the ‘work of art’, encouraging the audience to engage with the magazine’s story and products. The Darling Magazine seeks to create a story that challenges cultural norms of beauty through the publication of a magazine that encourages beauty in every type of woman. Darling narrates their story by challenging the social benchmark in beauty, how typical magazines portray “unattainable beauty, along with the idea that ordinary women are always in need of adjustment”. As society fabricates a benchmark for beauty and manipulates the media for perfection, the magazine challenges the societal standard of beauty and perfection. At the same time, it challenges gender issues, in a way the audience can perceive. Despite the typical deception of the unimportance of gender inequality, Darling conveys the inherent norms in society that are implicitly shaped and distorted by media, such as magazines. Darling aims to straighten the misconceptions in the benchmark of beauty and to empower women to respect the individuality in beauty. Recently, Darling released their “Go, Be You” video series, where they recruit viewers in the storytelling process as

Darling Magazine and Alaska Airlines explore eight unique destinations and “discover hidden gems that define the personality of each city”. This series impels the readers into the action, encouraging them to find themselves in each destination they dream to be in. Storytelling is an acme factor in marketing, as it makes the users be part of the product and service.

UX design advances from the past, based on its experience. As the lifeblood of industries, UX aspires for bigger aims, implying various applicability in daily lives. As users navigate, scroll through, find elements and objects when opening a website, the user would acclimatize with the webpage to operate. UX design must be ‘friendly’ enough to attract and captivate the user to the website.

Incorporating the experiences of the users; when the designer is fully acknowledged of what ideas general users would expect from typical websites, UX design is implied in our lives, in forms of Neymorphistic design and storytelling, and is impacting the population while advancing from its experience. Thus, creative forms of psychological science such as the UX design holds high expectations for the future and encourages users to unleash their creativity.

Architecture b Amore P headqu David Chipperfield has agonized over two major factors, how to create a building that can contribute to the urban landscape and, while doing so, a building that reveals Amorepacific’s ideology. The surroundings change very quickly in Yongsan. At the time of the plan, it was not certain how the surroundings would change, but it was possible to speculate that there would be more skyscrapers later. When Yongsan Park is completed in the longer term, the entrance to the new building will serve as an entrance from the city to the park and further expand the park’s role.

He also agonized over the standard of beauty suitable for the new office building of cosmetics company Amore Pacific. Korean moon jars have become the motif of this moderation. This is because while the white porcelain is restrained, its presence is strong. Of course, the moon jar is not exactly the same as the head quarter. The moon jar is close to the ideal Chipperfield was trying to pursue. When discussing the starting point of the project with Seo Kyung-bae (CEO of Amore Pacific), the white porcelain became the basis for forming a consensus on “this is what beauty we seek.”

Throughout David Chipperfield’s career he emphasized that space can have various roles and purposes. He preferred community space where people interact and play various roles such as restaurants and kindergartens.

He thought space in a cube was appropriate to build this multipurpose space. And this large space of 2,000 square meters was divided into smaller pieces so that it could be used for each purpose. His goal was to use a Louver or expand the volume in four stages, and to make it a small step scale that people could recognize through the opening.

The first stage of Amore Pacific headquarters was built with an extended atrium. David Chipperfeild was attracted by the fact that atrium is a space with a public character. It lets people flow in all directions naturally. He pursued forming this space where not only employees but also local residents can perform various functions such as cultural exchange. Hardware will

beyond its use, Pacific uarter

By Taehwan Lee, Year 11, Noro always have to be able to respond flexibly and cope with the changes in people’s way of life as society develops. At the same time, it needs firmness to withstand the changes of the times.

Atrium is an independent space that is not related to the company’s work, but it is a flexible space. I think that through these spaces, the building itself becomes a permanent and universal alternative, and continues to be used as a social space for people.

Chipperfeild’s meticulousness extended even to the external appearance of the headquarter. In fact, it is challenging to express the weight of a building made of glass. However, he secured a sense of weight by using louvres that act like folding screens. It adds depth and cheerful details to the exterior. Also, since it is a glass building, the amount of sunlight is inevitably high, but it uses aluminum-based rubbers to prevent glare caused by direct sunlight and shade the building to lower the heat load. It is a matte-finished louvres that makes the oblique reflection of light larger and increases the amount and quality of light entering the room.

In addition to the louvres, he includes a courtyard within the huge block of construction. Attracted by the courtyard of a Korean traditional house, which has an open yet privacy-friendly character, it was drawn into the building to design the Loop Garden. No matter where employees work in the building, they can breathe closely with nature, feel the change of seasons, and communicate and relax comfortably.

Since the three large opening spaces open toward the city center are connected with the external environment, they capture not only the city but also the distant mountain scenery to establish the direction and identity of the building. In other words, it is a window and frame that connects to the city.​ David Chipperfeild, a phenomenal architect, designed Amore Pacific headquarters with its use as an office space.

His conscientious construction gives a comforting place for one to work. However, beyond its use, the design enables cultural exchange and a place where community can mingle.

THE EARTH HAS MUSIC FOR THOSE WHO LISTEN.

03

FICTION小说

Spring in Winter

By Stella Lee, Year 11, Noro E Edited by Mr. Davies

Spring in Winter Spring came during the winter today. The birds teetered along the tightly strung wires and clumps of worms withered on the ground.

I remembered the news from yesterday saying that although spring was here this year, this would be the last. The four distinct climates being reduced to a mere summer and winter; two extreme endpoints. Before spring became a rare occurrence, my mother and I used to wait for the migrating birds. She had always waited until the swallow came. I was worried if she’d feel sad although it was impossible for the dead to feel emotions. For her sake, I tried hard to recognise the birds lumbering above. The flock consisted of sparrows and other miscellaneous winged creatures. Yet the swallow was absent.

Walking away, I wondered if summer and winter would also disappear, merging into a single unidentifiable season. It would be a much-needed uniformity. Balancing out everything else in disarray.

My uniform is grey, perfectly matching the concrete walls of apartments in the cloudy sky.

Most people are asleep at this time of the day, an oblivious cocoon safely nestled inside the warmth of boilers and goose down blankets.

When they wake up, they’ll struggle to stay awake, futilely, whilst doing meaningless tasks.

I couldn’t sleep at all because the desks were too hard. But that’s what life is, one pathetic defect after another. All the things that happen to me, positive or negative, quickly dissipate into the blanching white of daily life. It’s hard to recall what happened a few days prior because nothing interesting happened.

Yet, I vaguely remember yesterday. It was when the teacher assigned group four to clean the classroom before tomorrow. I didn’t realise that I was in group four until Yuna came to me.

‘Can you please do it?’ she pleaded with wide blue eyes and a red pouting mouth. Against the bleakness, she stuck out like a sore thumb, vibrating with a certain enigmatic energy. Unlike me, she couldn’t blend in into the bleary grey of dying spring. Instead, she was glowing with a life of her own, undisturbed and careless. The tinted contact lenses made Yuna blink rapidly.

Her vibrant colouring was jarring, so I accepted.

In the background, I saw Yuna high fiving with the other guys before noisily departing, their joyous shrieks fading away. Someone turned off the lights and locked the doors from the outside before they left.

There’s little time left before others come and so far, no one has cleaned the classroom. It doesn’t matter since by the time they come, I won’t be here and Yuna will be the one in trouble.

Absentmindedly, I picture the implications of a red stain on the tarmac or the tragic story behind my demise. It’s the trivial details that trigger images in my mind; their erratic reoccurrence staining my thoughts. The world is always cold in the early mornings, making me ache until my body becomes numb. Once I fall into that state, there’s no more pain. Outside, there’s an undeniable absence of smell and colour, the sky a blank white with sketchy edges. It’s all quiet until I hear a faint chirping noise. Near the windows, there’s a lone swallow mechanically raising and lowering its wings. It weakly cries out again when I struggle to open the window. Upon looking closer, I see that the bird had built a nest along the dusty frame. I wonder if it has nowhere to go, now that spring will be gone forever. So small and pitiable. I open the window. The bird struggles then leaves. I lean out to see that it’s spiralling towards the ground. Expressionlessly plummeting down, down, down.

By Sabrina Huh, Year 7, Jeoji

Hope you remember all of this

2nd October, 2045 Today was one of the most special birthdays I’ve ever had. It was a flashback to my childhood since I was talking to my daughters, like my mum did to me and my sis. Now, I became a mother of two daughters, Savanna and Sienna. The only reason for the storytelling was because Sienna, who is curious about everything all the time, questioned me with a serious look, “Mummy, what happened in 2020? Was there something cheerful or sad that happened when you were only a little girl?” I was eleven when my mum told me all about her experiences and in my head, I was recalling 2019~2020…

I started the story with the unfortunate news of the coronavirus (COVID-19), which had put us in danger for quite a while. But even before I finished talking, Sienna asked, with her cute baby voice, “Why was it called the coronavirus?”

“And what’s different about coronavirus and COVID-19?” Savanna continued.

I replied, “Calm down girls, let me explain everything from the beginning…” I talked about the disease being a crown shape and that the name COVID-19 came from the Corona Virus Disease 2019. Luckily, our family wasn’t infected with COVID, but a total of 97 people suffered from it in Jeju.

Pope Francis, bishop of Rome, even had

to deliver his blessing to an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican because people were asked to avoid crowds and limit their travel. Despite the severe impacts of COVID, the vaccine for the disease was developed.

Also, I informed them that Kobe Bryant, a legend player in the NBA team, and his daughter Gigihave passed away in a helicopter crash. I still remember that moment so clearly when I read the news about it. One of the reasons I cried was because I used to love sports when I was young. Basketball was especially my beloved sport and I even preferred it more than football or volleyball. To show you that I was a real fan of basketball, I didn’t take part in any global competitions unless it was basketball. Gigi dying at the young age of 14 left a huge impact on me. Both of my cuties had their tears halfway down their face before my husband quieted them down.

Moving on from all of the depressing parts, I started talking about my life in NLCS Jeju. Noticing it so quickly, Savanna exclaimed full of joy, “Mum! That’s where you met daddy and you know, got close right?”

“Knew that you would get it right away. But let me keep it short.” I replied.

After living for six years in Russia and going to a British School, I migrated to Jeju and got to join NLCS. Everything

was fresh since it was my first experience in the Senior School. and as I have heard, Maths was a tough subject.

Maths was the hardest subject at NLCS Jeju – It was another level when comparing it to that of the British International School of Moscow in Russia.

When I continued to talk about what my first day at NLCS Jeju was like, Savanna and Sienna were eager to find out about the ‘love story’ of us, knowing that the story happened at the beginning of the year. I started talking about Wednesday when the Jeoji Year 7 boys and girls finally met in Jeoji House. We didn’t feel awkward at all, surprisingly.

Playing a football game was a delight after a tough, tiring day, and talking about how the attacks are being played and protection of the goalkeeper, etc, it was the first time Vernon and I had a chat together. I didn’t ‘fall in love with him’ since it was only the third week of school when we met in our houses but, over time, we became closer.

About a week later, we had each other’s phone number from my friend who goes home on the same bus as me.

Since my friend was on a call with him, he asked her to pass the phone and give my number, so I did. Later on, my phone rang and I told him about living in Russia and for some reason, he was shocked. I only thought of him as a friend, not much more or less because

Year Seven was the start of senior school. Harsh reports were what I was afraid of. Although I got 7 (highest grade) for more than half of the subjects, I was worried before receiving it.

It took an hour to get through the basic information about myself with my daughters, so I quickly moved on to talking about the education at NLCS Jeju. People’s predictions in 2020 were correct. They said that students in the future will work on iPads, not books. The prediction happened even before I got to sixth form! I can vividly remember reading a news article about AI robots talking to human beings. The people in the company of technology asked them ‘Do you believe in god?’, so they answered ‘Yes’. They questioned why, and the robots’ reply was ‘because it will make humans’ personality and behaviour better.’ Because of such replies, humans / researchers had to leave the AI robots inside as in not revealing to the society, since that might cause job issues.

Dear loving daughters, thank you for joining our family and coming here. I hope it was a fabulous day for both of you. My only wish to you is that you will stay as my daughters forever, meet a warm family and tell a story of your childhood to your kids. Love you my darlings!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Writers Stella Lee Y11 Juliet Kim Y7 Antony Choi Y7 Jian yeo Y7 Judy Lee Y12 Chloe Kim Y7 Andrew Cheon Y12 Ain Lee Y11 Albert Choi Y11 Alessia Kim Y9 Alice Yeo Y9 Bella Lee Y9 Benjamin Jun Y7 Bonnie Hyun Y12 Hyeonseo Kim Y9 Ian Yoon Y10 So Injoon Y10 June Kang Y9 Jungwoo Won Y10 Kevin Lee Y12 Kristie Youn Y11 Minjin Kim Y7 SeungHo Ham Y12 Sophia Park Y9 Theresa Lee Y8 Alex Kim Y12 Ann Han Y9 Ashley Koo Y9 Ashely Yoon Y9 Ben Ko Y12 Ian Jung Y9 JiMin Lee Y9 Joey Kang Y12 Juyeon Ma Y9 Yoonkyo Kang Y9 Leo Jo Y8 Lucia Kim Y7 Luna Kim Y9 Melanie Kang Y12 Ryan Kim Y9 Sean Park Y9 SM Chung Y11 Stephanie Huh Y9

Tom Lee Y13 Warrick Kwon Y10 Aileen Lee Y12 Editors Aileen Lee Y12 Mr Davies Minseo Cha Y12 Andrew Cheon Y12 Hannah Heewon Seo SeungHo Ham Y12 Bonnie Hyun Y12 Bella Lee Y9 Juhyun Kevin Lee Y12 Ain Lee Y11 Kristine Youn Y11 Stella Yeom Y12 Melanie Kang Y12 SM Chung Y11 Designers Seyfried Sung Y12 Layla Bu Y12 Ginger Kim Y12 Alex Hwang Y11 Joy Lee Y11 Jeremy Lee Y11 Taehwan Lee Y11 Seobin Lee Y10 Luna Park Y10 Jake Koo Y9

Special Thanks Mr Raymond Maher Mr Scott Davies Hanna Heewon Seo

Sincerely,

Change for the Better

BY MINJIN KIM YEAR 7, MULCHAT

“I can’t breathe" Did you ever guess that these three words were the last words of a dying man?

It is about time we start to think about the world. What the world will be like when we grow up. How the world will see us. How the world will accept certain people.

Actually, a tragic event involving the acceptance of certain people happened not too long ago. In May 2020, an African-American man named George Floyd was choked to death by a policeman. After he was gone, it left us all wondering the same question; would Mr. Floyd be dead if he was white? Probably not. This was not a normal police action of justice. This was a heinous act of racial oppression.

And this idea spread like wildfire all across America, and soon the world. People of every color, gender, and personality were united for a single purpose; equality.

I happened to be there, standing in this vast crowd of people, listening to them speak their stories with tears in their eyes. I also happened to be there when people wrote various insults on the pavement. I happened to be there when people raided the shops in my town. That’s when it started to sink in; the world could do much better.

There is racism everywhere, not only in the US. It’s everywhere in the world, however big or small. Let me give you an example. In India’s Bollywood, the majority of actors and actresses strive to have lighter and whiter skin. According to Sanjay Srivastava, a sociologist at the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi, colorism, discrimination based on the color of skin, is common even in Bollywood.

Furthermore, society's preference for lighter skin has resulted in a thriving global business in skin lightening products. The international market for skin whitening cosmetics is forecast to be $6 billion in five years, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts in 2020. However petty it sounds in comparison to serious racism and colorism, it matters.

However, we can change for the better.

Today, there are many non profit organisations that advocate for non racism and equality, such as Black Lives Matter, Save the Children, and Inadi. What you can do to help is to donate money and resources to these organisations, to reach out, step by step, to the world.

No matter what ethnic group you are in, whatever you believe in, whatever gender you are, what you look like, or whomever you love, you must be welcomed with open arms. We are humans, equals. And this is exactly what we should aim for, a world where everyone is equal, where everyone is welcome, and where no one dies wheezing “I can't breathe” squashed under the knee of a policeman.

Of Dragon and

BY KRISTIE YOUN YEAR 11, NORO

Deaths

He was a young boy of seven when his sister died. He only vaguely remembers all the sobbing, so young was his age. She had died of an accident, she had fallen off the roof of their small winter storage while playing around with her friend, playing tag. Her neck had broken, killing her the moment she hit the ground. It was a unique happening even for an old town like this. There had been more wandering knights than someone dying of an accident in this town: at least until now. His sister had been ten years old when she died, a playful child known for her gayness in manner and bright smiles. It was the first death he’d ever met through his life; now it was only a thin mist of recollections that only holds soft sadness from time to time. He remembers that he used to like his sister much, although she did often pull pranks on him, she would be remembered as a dear and poor sister who met the fall too soon.

The next major death he experienced was of his friend, whom he used to play ‘knights on a horse’ with. His friend had been an imaginative and strongwilled boy, with dreams of becoming a knight - it was a common dream to have

in those days. He would call himself a knight and make the less enthusiastic boy play dragon or princess for him.

Then one day, well after they had grown out of their knight playing habits, there had been a huge fire in his friend’s farm. He clearly remembers the heat, he can still hear his friend’s father screaming, his own throat hurting because ofl the cry he gave; the only thing he can’t clearly recall is his friend’s dead body. He knows that at some point he’d seen his friend’s remains, cried for him and sent the boy away; he just doesn’t remember the face of his friend. Some traumatic events cause the brain to forget some really painful memories, I’ve heard. He still doesn’t, to this date, remember what his friend looked like.

The biggest tragedy for him was yet to come, it wouldn’t just be a person dying this time. He lost his family to a plague when he was in his early 20s, just being trained in a camp to become a professional knight - what his friend killed by fire much aspired to be. He received the news from a family friend, an urgent yet calm message telling him about how they’d died. His father had received a deer as a gift from his long-friend, whom the boy knew from his younger days, had eaten it that day as a family dinner, caught a disease and died. Father’s friend was burying him-

self with guilt, his relatives and friends were coming, so he’d better come too.

All that still lives in his mind, but the most memorable moment must’ve been this: when he’d read the last line of the letter sent to him: that the dead were already gone, so the living can take time, to go.

He had taken the message seriously, trained and tried to move on. Life was there running, then suddenly after a night, his life was cycling with him again. After a fortnight from the funeral he returned to the camp to finish training as a knight. His first few tasks given by his designated lord were of less to no importance, such as fetching something from a land afar, getting rid of foxes and rabbits in his lord’s garden.

He was in a training stage still, which he would have to endure for about four more years. One day he was put into an especially dull duty, to go climb the mountain in the South and bring back a flag his lord had placed there some moons ago. He went to the mountain and climbed it with his armour. Getting undeniably tired, he soon discarded his guards and placed them in a crack

to retrieve later, taking only his sword - then resumed his journey. Just when he reached the height where he could see the top of the mountain, with his lord’s flag placed on top and wethered from wind and rain, did an earthquake start. Soon enough a dragon emerged, great, black and silver.

The boy stared at the dragon, only stared, for that was all he could do: he knew. He looked at the dragon, now craning its neck. He recalled he had been a dragon often when he was in the knight plays. He was calling all the deaths he’d seen until his own was to begin. That was why he could see nothing but an imagined ray of light as the dragon’s claw struck him: the dragon had spared him from its fire and its teeth - which also meant that it was only killing for either panic or delight.

When he died, it was simple. His body fell to the ground and laid motionless, as everyone did. The dragon was gone, nothing touched his body except some wind and dust. His death was as simple and quick as it could’ve been; his sword slipped away from his hand, to lose its owner forever.

Would the state of our environment improve over time through COVID-19?

By Cathy Kim, Year 8, Jeoji Edited by Judy Lee, Year 12, Halla East 2020, we’re in the clutches of COVID-19, only able to contact each other through our computer screens, rarely stepping out of our homes. Now, when we venture out into the once-busy streets, we find that the road is practically desolate.

Some newspapers state that the coronavirus was environmentfriendly. Others disagree. How did the global pandemic which threatened people’s lives, change the environment? What might our environment look like after COVID-19 is finally under control?

Many people argue that COVID-19 has brought a positive effect on our environment, what they call ‘the silver lining of COVID-19’. They argue that because citizens were ordered to stay home to avoid infection, the amount of fossil fuel used in cities had dramatically decreased. In Paris, the number of flights taken in 2020 has decreased compared to 2019.

In the image pictured below, you can see that the aeroplanes that illuminated that Paris night sky were nowhere to be seen in 2020. Light pollution was, and is, seriously reduced due to the virus.

Paris, number of flights at 2019 and 2020 (eurocontrol. int/covid19, last accessed September 21st 2020) Virat Bahri, Associate Director

Business IBEF India suggested that COVID-19 had brought “an opportunity for the world to reset, rejuvenate, and heal itself. One obvious area is the abuse of nature. This crisis would last long enough for some changes to become permanent, in my view.” All the damage we caused over the years on the environment, is now being undone.

How COVID - 19 affected the intensity of traffic jams in a week (europeandataportal.eu/ en/impact-studies/covid-19/ covid-19-related-trafficreduction-and-decreasedair-pollution-europe, last accessed September 21st 2020) Above is a graph depicting the amount of traffic jams in a week. The graph clearly shows the change of the intensity of the weekly traffic jams. Since the closing of schools, restaurants and bars, the traffic jam intensity has fallen to nil, week 16, 2020, from a high point of around 420,000 per week in week 16 of last year. The absence of traffic jams and cars, a major contributor to greenhouse gases, had decreased due to enforced immobility because of COVID-19, the silver lining. A study had revealed that there were 11,000 fewer deaths from pollution in the UK, and elsewhere in Europe. 6,000 fewer children were developing

asthma, 1,900 avoided emergency room visits, and there were 600 fewer preterm births due to the cleaner air.

Nitrogen dioxide and PM 2.5, two causes of pollution that were responsible for taking the lives of approximately 500,000 people in the world, decreased by 40% and 10% respectively.

COVID-19 changed the lives of thousands of people, optimists say, and that is the silver lining of COVID-19.

On the other hand, others argue that COVID-19 had changed the environment for the worse. The use of plastic and disposable materials had increased steadily since the outbreak, which were disposed of in the easiest possible way, incineration.

Burning the plastic waste brings dioxin and furan, not only harmful to the environment but also to the lungs, and can bring cancer when the victim is exposed to the toxic fumes over time. Environmentalists argue that while we were gushing over the rosy side of COVID-19, we missed the increasing threat of overflow from plastic materials, which will eventually influence marine life, the ozone layer, the air quality, and, finally, us.

Gyms temporarily closing due to coronavirus concerns (https://www.wusa9.com/ article/news/health/coronavirus/ coronavirus-gyms-

closing-temporarily/26986873ed4-bd88-4660-941fbf9a967ac985, last accessed November 11th 2020) COVID-19 influenced our lives in other ways, they argue, and not for the better. The pandemic raised the fear of infection and, on the advice of the government, many people went into hiding. COVID-19 brought closures of parks, gyms, fitness studios, and other public places. Regular visitors of workout gyms thinned down.

People, who, before the covid outbreak, exercised daily, were now stuck at home. Healthline reports that “physicians say they are seeing more people reporting unexpected weight gain during the pandemic”, and that “stress eating, snacking out of boredom, challenges finding healthy food, and more time spent sedentary” probably resulted in weight management problems. Stress from the coronavirus had taken their minds off exercising and keeping in shape; and this brought the sudden obesity problem.

They also claim that environmental causes, which were gaining in public interest before the COVID-19 outbreak, have been pushed down the news agenda. Before the COVID outbreak, environmental social movements like “Fridays for Future” were the main headline in the news; that was until the coronavirus pandemic broke. Hasty to be the first in line outside the store to buy masks, we had forgotten about the Australian wildfires, about the Amazon and Californian rainforests burning its inhabitants into crisps. Face to face with a contemporary issue that threatened our lives, we had disregarded the

‘future’ problems like climate change. All the work that the environmentalists took to build up the world’s attention, had gone up in smoke.

No one can say for sure if COVID-19 had changed the environment for the better or the worse. Although coronavirus has decreased the amount of greenhouse gases, this miracle wouldn’t last: the amount is likely to skyrocket after the virus is under control. But, one thing is for sure: through the pandemic, our environmental status has changed, and it has changed for good in the short term.

Portrayal of future from literature From dystopia and utopian novel: The view of the future from the 1940s

By David Noh, Year 11, Sarah Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Future, the most perplexing but interesting period of time,intrigues.

People have predicted the future in diverse media: literature, drama, and movies. These artistic endeavours left significant impressions on future generations, and some of them keenly portrayed the future.

The ideology of utopian society was first introduced by Thomas More, a famed Irish writer, in the 18th century.

Indeed, it was a notably novel notion for contemporaries as it introduced the perfect society apparently with no flaws. Few subgenres of European literature can be said to emerge from a single human imagination, but Thomas More’s Utopia claims pride of place as the instigating text of utopian literature. More’s book, first published in Latin in 1516 on Continental Europe and in an English translation in 1552, was not entirely sui generis; it engages with a variety of sources, many quite ancient, as well as making a wide range of references across European literature. But the word utopia, which has come to define the genre, was the invention of More. Ever since the notion of utopia and dystopian literature were introduced, poets and writers have been enthusiastically wondering about the future.

Branching out from the new ideas in Utopia, the English philosopher John Stuart Mill coined 'Dystopia', meaning 'bad place', in 1868 as he was denouncing the government's Irish land policy. He foreshadowed life in a dystopian society, highlighting the fear of failing to achieve the dream of a utopian society. Indeed, dystopia was ironic and the word itself has come to represent a society in which individuals are repressed, personal freedoms lost and creativity stifled.

Despite the negative connotations, portrayal of the future was vividly depicted through different genres of novel, mainly utopian and dystopian.

Indisputably, ‘1984’ by George Orwell, ‘Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess, and ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley strikingly

became the representation of 20th century utopian and dystopian society.

From the telegraph and the gramophone to cinema and cyberspace, 20th-century literature frequently addressed the wondrous and weird nature of the emerging future. For example, telescreen from ‘1984’ has been a symbolical image of 20th century literature, predicting the feasibility of further development in technology. Although telescreen is now a trifling element of life, in 1948 it was revolutionary ideaㅡ provoking conventional thoughts.

Moreover, ‘1984’ portrayed advanced society with ‘speakwrite’, ‘floating fortress’, ‘versificator’.

To briefly explain about these technologies, ‘speakwrite’ is similar to the dictation services in gadgets, and ‘floating fortress’ could be recognised as an aircraft carrier, and ‘versificator’ is compared to the AI system which recommends music.

Undoubtedly, the descriptions of such technologies in the novel currently exist.

Furthermore, Huxley predicts that future society will clash with orthodox and stereotypical ways of life in ‘Brave New World’. In the novel, John, who lived a primitive life in a ‘Savage Reservation’, contradicts the immensely developed society.

He struggles to adapt to the changes made by scientists and scholars.

Civilization drove John to an unstable mindset, finally he commits suicide by whipping himselfㅡwhich is notably barbaric and shocking. Similarly, even in the 2000s, people decline to follow advances in society. They choose to live in primitive societies, providing for themselves without the help of technology. For instance, North Sentinel island in the Indian sea, tribes obstinately refuse to communicate with the civilised world. This clearly exemplifies that the view from literature was reasonable, and it is indeed happening.

As inferred from the phrase ‘swinging sixties’, people desired a change of

life, striving for the development from a depressed society as well as an inactive life. People were exhausted by a sombre life working to maintain their economic status. ‘Clockwork Orange’ strikingly depicts society with detrimental and notable changes.

Members of the society obligatorily dose drug laced milkㅡmetaphorically symbolising purity, innocence, and life. Also, they wear new and fancy apparels which are indeed similar to the fashion-boom in the 1960’s.

Society promotes unity, efficiency, and order, even though it is often ruptured by small groups within. This rhetorically induced readers to reflect current society which frequently confronts the clashes between ideas.

Expanding this notion, ‘Clockwork Orange’ demonstrates the microcosm of the Cold War, the historical period when the United States and Soviet Union came into conflict due to the difference in political regime.

The quote by Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist, “books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science”. This depicts the significance of literature and the inevitable correlation with history.

These observations and comparisons with current society and past novels interestingly concludes that literature reflects the future.

Future Paths to Cure Planet Earth

By David Noh, Year 11, Sarah Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Planet Earth is changing from a mother of life to a furious father. Unstable climates are causing serious damage to countries around the world.

The continuous meltdown of the North pole and the increase of CO2 have resulted in temperature increase around the world over multiple years.

Recently, the dry weather and reduced rainfall generated, what we now call, the ‘California fires’. As a wildfire, the damage made is sudden and critical. They are spreading out not only in the state of California but also Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada. Even though the federal government and state governments are trying their best to cut off the disaster, the fire itself is too powerful to resist. Moreover, the change of air pressure, temperature, and direction has created super typhoons in Asia and fire tornados in the USA. We, humans, have the responsibility for these natural disasters. However, some ‘disasters’ can be ‘manageable’ if we are more prepared. Constant warnings by intelligence and environmental units are still present, waiting for a response by the world. As a group, or as a society, people are making their way to solve further issues humanity can face. However, what are some future solutions to protect our environment and the planet?

One of the simplest solutions is the satellites. With developed space technology and clear images, the sky cameras assists the human race with a wider

view. It is therefore possible for people to detect typhoons and other natural disasters.

However, satellites made for environmental prevention do not exist yet. Because the world is now a connected town, the need for more specific and simple news are recommended for everyone. To do so, nations or groups should unite. Since it is impossible to produce an enormous satellite alone which could be used for a long period of time and for the public, society should be able to access the opinions of various individuals to make this work. If they do so, natural changes or movements such as wildfires, floods, and tsunamis can be detected and the public informed, preventing dangerous situations or losses of innocent lives. In the case of the California wildfires, satellites can be useful since the climate is unpredictable and can cause larger damage in a short amount of time. In the movie ‘Geostorm’, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites called the ‘Dutch Boy’ to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. There can be hazards such as hacking, breakdowns, or overreliance on satellites. However, I say that global satellites can act as the final barrier to prevent further natural disasters which can threaten humans' existence on Earth. Therefore, Global Satellites can function as a national barrier to prevent worldwide disasters like wildfires and super typhoons.

Another solution is the communication with the Antarctic and North pole. These regions are used to investigate geographical changes and scientific phenomena happening at the coldest extreems of the world. With professionals working around the clock in harsh areas, the analysis and results from change can be related to environmental issues.

For example, the polar bases played a significant role in finding the evidence for the rise of the sea level which was due to temperature rise and ice melting from the North pole.

Moreover, they found that the decrease of ice surfaces results in fewer polar bears, negatively affecting the food chain of the North pole.

Now it is time to end the research and take a step forward to prevent environmental issues.

During the California wildfires, it has been seen that the wind currents from the North pole brought dry, strong wind in the region of the western coast of America. Also, the high global temperatures are burning the Siberian forest. The region has never experienced such temperatures like 40 degrees.

Considering these changes, people should not only sit back and watch but react to what can be a life-threatening situation.

Luckily, the bases in the North Pole and the Antarctic are accompanied by more than 42 different countries and professionals. Now the investigation bases must cooperate with each other not only for their individual good, but also to protect our planet so that the next generation doesn’t suffer from what we have done. Since the North Pole and the Antarctic has

always been a marvelous land where we can discover new facts, the interaction and the communication with bases will act as a beacon to block the damage to planet Earth.

Even with these suggestions, the environmental changes and issues will not stop if no one is interested in movements.

If students are aware of the future threats of environmental issues, it can be possible to spread out the request for support throughout a community, a society, and to the world. As students mature, the commitment inside a society is of as much importance as their academic work. There are issues around the world which are significant for students and teens to learn. They can come in any form such as public news, campaigns, and even the internet social media.

Let’s take the example of the recent US presidential election.

Joe Biden suggested that the US should go on lock down and shouldn’t open public workplaces while Donald Trump told people to live and work as usual. Some students can say that Trump doesn’t know the seriousness of COVID-19.

Democrats focus on the wellbeing of every citizen in the country while the Republicans tend to aim on the nation’s economic growth. In this case, people can understand the reason why the two candidates made such claims. COVID can be a factor that threatens wellbeing, but lock down for safety can lead to economic decline for the nation. Students, who will grow up to lead to a new future, should know what is going on in their world. If the next generation knows why disasters like Super-typhoons and

wildfires occur, they are more likely to act. Internet sites, posters, interviews, and even public announcements will turn humanity’s attention to save our planet. Without the fresh, new people, solutions won’t be established.

Planet Earth has been polluted and damaged more than ever before. But there are less actions taking place. Hence, students, as future leaders of this land, must acknowledge the importance of the nature of the world. When the hope of solving environmental disaster comes together, humanity can cooperate to construct weather controlling systems or contact with the stations located on the poles to take action. Some may wonder why they should help someone suffering that they have never known. However, the next victim of disasters like typhoons and wildfires can be you. Therefore, I believe that environmental issues can be prevented with student actions, a new technology used by every nation, and the cooperation with the investigation centers at the poles.

The new normal The 21st century

By Luna Kim, Year 9, Sarah Edited by Mr. Maher

The Covid-19 crisis had caused people to rethink their normal lives and start wondering about what the ‘new normal’ becomes. The term ‘new normal’ will contribute to the expanded thinking in relation to society in the fields of education, medicine and the economy. The changes are expected to lead to modifications in daily life around the globe.

Educational changes had responded to the outbreak of Covid-19 , where it is true that the current pandemic had disrupted the original schooling systems. Despite all the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic disruption brought the new possibilities in the educational system. From March, all the schools had locked down and soon, all the educational platfo r m s w e r e c l o s e d t o o .

Due to these obstacles in learning, online learning was the replaceable media in the current situation. Furthermore, current sixth formers are also having trouble preparing for their exam, the less they have time to go to school, the more they are having difficulty with grades.

Likewise, the world is changing, especially education, and altered with the new-normal era.

The key aspect discussed is online learning. Though nations are at varying stages of their COVID-19 outbreak rates, globally there are actually more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school delays due to the pandemic.

Children up to the age of 11 are returning to nurseries and schools in Denmark after

initially closing on 12 March, but students in South Korea are responding to online roll calls from their teachers. With this abrupt change away from the classroom all around the world, others are questioning if post-pandemic acceptance of online learning would continue to exist, and how it will affect worldwide education. In Wuhan, for example, online classrooms have been used widely since mid-February after a quarter of a billion full-time students were ordered by the Chinese government to resume their studies via web-based platforms. This culminated in the biggest internet revolution of about 730,000, or 81 percent of students, attending classes via online School in Wuhan.

This massive number shows the change of education to online lessons.

To prevent students from panic, IB developed their programme using online platforms, which are the on-screen examination.

Firstly, if a school is unable to perform tests because of government constraints, students enrolled in the MYP e-assessment will be able to remotely take a variant of onscreen exams, referred to as the 'alternative task review.'

Despite the fact that Covid-19 creates massive amounts of deaths, the world is shifting and makes a colossal development.

Among the different subjects, education has made notable changes.

People Over The Screen

By Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North Edited by Ms Hannah Heewon Seo, Mulchat Gap Assistant the long term.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has caused education disruptions and prolonged school closures all around the world, which affected most of the world’s student population in the switch to online distance education using online platforms such as google meet, zoom, and skype.

This online learning affected both inside and outside of class/ school.

The use of online platforms for education has both positive and negative effects on society. In the short term, this attempt in the new system can increase attention and appreciation of the distance learning system, possibly bringing further development in changing the whole educational system, and also growing the understanding of teachers’ role in the community. In the long term it can increase the scope of education to all segments of society, and also develop innovative models for higher education, and provide some new jobs for the students, the future workers.

However, there is a possibility that this new form of education will decrease the overall quality of not only education but also life during the lockdown.

Something most urgent to solve is the existing gap between learning implementation on the national and international levels, which leads to variations in students’ academic attainment based on those gaps and causes inequality related to educational services provided to students in

Equity and digital division.

Clearly, there are groups that are marginalized and disadvantaged in the new forms of learning. This problem will continue unless the infrastructure is enabled, making it available for everyone and ensuring that it can accommodate all updates occurring in educational platforms and resources. This will likely be supported by the institutions of learning or government, to establish regulatory policies and frameworks, handling emergencies and ensuring quality and equity in education in all circumstances.

Another problem that needs to be solved is a practical part of education. While the theoretical part of the curriculum is undertaken with online learning, applying those ideas to practical uses will be a task we need to solve. Habilitating education authorities to develop and vary their teaching and learning methods for distance learning will help both teachers and learners to adapt to the changing reality of the educational process.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 also brought students another big concern. Service to the community is one of t h e d e s i ra b l e a c tivities for universities. However, due to the pandemic, the majority of them became no longer available, which led students to consider the virtual volunteer

options. There are several services that became popular. If students are good with children, they volunteer to tutor younger students virtually. They can tutor anyone they already know, or can also contact local elementary schools to see if they can connect them with a young student who needs tutoring. Also, simple but helpful, students who can sew can make face masks at home and donate them to a charity or to medical professionals.

There are also studies of authentic objects of interest gathered by professional researchers, like images of faraway galaxies, historical records, and diaries, or videos of animals in their natural habitats. By answering simple questions about them, they are able to help contribute to the research results. This is suitable for students since those researches do not require any specialized background or training, and also can contribute to real academic research, on their own computer, at their own convenience.

It is true that COVID-19 brought huge chaos not only to teachers and students but also to society in general. However, if we do not avoid parts of society that need help, we will be able to manage the situation and create an even better system for future generations.

The Development of Folding Phones

By Alice Kim, Year 7, Sarah Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East

In modern days, folding phones have become almost ubiquitous after their launch in 2019 by Samsung and Huawei.

Such phones have critical differences from the ones in the 1990s or the 2000s. The main differentiating factors between them are the display, hinge design, specs, and exterior design. Though there are several advantages to foldable phones, they remain a controversial topic due to their prices and durability.

The durability of folding phone displays is a major concern for most customers in the technology market. Since the displays have to fold but technology doesn’t yet allow glass, which is the material used for phone screens, to fold, most tech companies use plastic for their folding displays.

In February 2020, Samsung made a claim that they made a leap in foldable technology by incorporating ultra thin glass into the display for their new model, Galaxy Z Flip. Though this is partly true, several experiments demonstrated that the plastic layer over the UTG technology doesn’t improve the durability of pla s t i c d i s p l a y s a n d c a n easily get scratched, even with fingernails. When companies find a way to actually fold glass, these durability issues would be mostly solved.

I would argue that the hinge is the most important part of folding phones. Without the hinge, folding phones wouldn’t

be ‘foldable’. At the moment, the hinges of folding phones are fragile and aren’t water or dust resistant. A hinge of high quality would attract more customers as there would be a quality experience everyday.

Each company has its own unique hinge. For example, Motorola created an innovative hinge, which has neither a crease down the middle when opened nor a gap between the two parts when closed. This was accomplished by using steel plates that go across the width of the phone which slide out when closed and push against the screen to help it stay flat.

On the other hand, Samsung uses a different type of hinge.

Though Galaxy Z Flip’s hinge creates a small gap when closed and has a noticeable crease, its hinge is more durable. Although it isn’t water or dust resistant, it is firm and has a brush mechanism inside to keep dust out. Z Flip’s hinge also allows users to make the most out of the folding form factor; you can adjust the angle and the standing point of the device, which enables efficient multitasking.

The hinge also allows users to use the foldable phone as a tripod. Hinge designs aren’t completely usable for customers who prioritise durability over cool form factors and have a long way to go. However, thanks to the risks that some companies took in the past year, they have commenced a whole new era for technology.

Exterior designs are crucial for attracting customers to buy their company’s products. When compared to Motorola Razr 5G, the Z Flip has a 1.1 inch small exterior display, which can be used to take good quality selfies using the back cameras. The exterior display also shows time, date, small portions of text messages, etc. This, however, isn’t the most efficient use of the big space on the back of the phone. The back of the phone is made of glass, which allows for wireless charging and elegant colour choices. On the flip side, Motorola Razr 5G has much better use of the ample space on the back compared to the Z Flip, taking up almost half of the space. The phone also has a nostalgic design which attracts customers who have used Motorola Razr phones back in the days.

Companies have experimented on different designs other than the basic clamshell design since their first reveal. There are phones that fold horizontally or backwards, and Microsoft’s foldable phones can fold 360º and have separate sections, which allows glass to be used for the screens. Companies are still working on bringing flagship specs into folding phones, as well as making glass material that can bend and fold. As the folding phone industry has only started in 2019, companies still have various aspects to improve on with durability and specs of foldable phones.