They’ve gone dark: Afghans who helped the U.S. military, trained as American-style journalists and rode the wave of women heading to higher education are destroying the diplomas, transcripts and résumés that prove how they built civil society in the country that the U.S. has left behind.
Observers’ debate: Why aren’t women part of the Presidents Cup?
Photo by Wojciech Migda used under Creative Commons 3.0 license
By Abby Kwon, Hailey Lee, Irene Kim, Jennie Ahn and Karen Han
GSS correspondents
Why aren’t women a part of the Presidents Cup? In a total of 10 interviews with Songdo residents, students at Incheon University, and international visitors, half said that women should be included, while others expressed that the competition should stay the way it is.
Won Sang Lee, a physical education teacher at Shin Jeong public school in Songdo said there are many golf competitions for female players, so it’s not necessary to include female players in the Cup. Similarly, Mun Gyu Kang, visiting from Australia, said that the Cup began without female players, so there is no need to include them now. Kang said male golf competitions are more dynamic and have more popularity among golf fans.
A 64-year-old golf fan who would only give his name as Yoo said male and female golfers differ in important ways. “Men and women have different power levels,” Yoo said, adding that it would be “messy” to have more diversity among players.
On the other hand, Songdo resident Kyung Min Choi said she would “wish to have female players included in the event.”
“There aren’t just top male players, but there are also top female players,” Choi said. However, she mentioned that it’s not only the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) that is responsible for the makeup of the Cup; female golf players must also speak up to earn their position in global competitions.
“Honestly, the Korean president (Geun Hye Park) is also a woman, so I don’t see the reason why women players are not included in the conference,” said Sam Lee, an 8th grader from Chadwick International School, in Songdo.
Lee suggested that the PGA should work towards improving the situation to include more women golfers in the tournament.
Most people who were not interested in golf or the Presidents Cup also argued that women players should be included.
“Sport should not be biased,” said Lalit Kumar Pandey, a post-doctoral student at Incheon University.
But Incheon University student Seok Jin Cho said that a “golfer’s performance is the most important factor to consider.”
Female golfers are provided with an opportunity to perform in professional tournaments by the Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (LPGA). Similar to the Presidents Cup, the U.S. and Europe hold a joint tournament called the Solheim Cup for female golfers. However, there is no tournament for international women players, including those from Asia, Africa, Australia and South America.
—This story was published with cijournalism.org, the student-led news website of Chadwick International School. For more information, contact CI Journalism editors-in-chief Diana Minjin Kim mkim2016@chadwickschool.org and Sarah Choi s2choi2017@chadwickschool.org.
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