Greece’s euro exit won’t look anything like 2008

Seoul may be the most poignant place one could pick in Asia for a spectator seat at Greece’s economic implosion. South Korea’s crash in 1997 turned a regional financial crisis into a global one, as a Greek exit from the euro is sure to do. The difference might be that South Korea came back strong, while it’s hard to see how Greece could do the same. There’s another difference: What is happening in Europe has the potential to be far more disruptive to Asia than its own crisis was for the rest of

June 12, 2012

English lessons for needy neighbors

What a pity that Koreans’ English language fluency is now effectively segregated by family income. I have been involved with ESL/EFL education for years, but rarely have I had the privilege of working with a young person of limited means. There are many thousands of English-speaking educators in Korea. I have no doubt that many would trade English lessons for Korean-language immersion or even a simple home meal. While some private tutors charge hefty fees, there are just as many English teachers

June 12, 2012

Is American economy healing fast enough?

NEWPORT BEACH ― Six internal factors suggest that the United States’ economy is slowly healing. For some observers, these factors were deemed sufficient to form the critical mass needed to propel the economy into escape velocity.While I hoped that they might be proven right, the recent stream of weak economic data, including May’s timid net job creation of only 69,000, confirmed my doubts. With this and other elements of a disheartening employment report now suddenly raising widespread worries a

June 12, 2012

Acquitting Egypt oppressors a major judiciary mistake

CAIRO ― “Bashar should abandon power and retire safely in Egypt. The general-prosecutor is murder-friendly,” a friend, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told me as we watched former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s trial in the Police Academy’s criminal court. Although Mubarak and his interior (security) minister, Habib al-Adly, were handed life sentences at the conclusion of their trials, the generals who ran Egypt’s apparatus of repression as deputy interior ministers were acqui

June 12, 2012

Catholics deny themselves wisdom of women

Mathematical certainty is elusive, but here’s a number that I can cite with absolute confidence: So far, 100 percent of the truly bad homilies I have ever heard at Mass have come from the male half of our species.Could women give bad homilies at Mass? Theoretically, of course. It just takes lack of preparation and a dearth of talent, and presto: a homily that puts the faithful to sleep or makes them want to run from the church, screaming. In fact, a lot of Catholics have already quietly run from

June 11, 2012

Which should come first ― your sanity or your job?

Last year it hit the newspapers that Korea had one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Experts scrambled to explain this phenomenon, but perhaps one of the foremost contributing factors to this statistic is that in Korea people tend to not seek or even shun therapy when dealing with distress. The reason for this is that employers can view your mental history in the interview process. Basically, you have two choices: seek help or remain employable. No one should have to make this choice, b

June 11, 2012

A Canadian’s take on MBC program on foreigners

“The highest result of education is tolerance.” (Helen Keller)I’m a permanent resident residing in Busan, South Korea.I came to South Korea in 1996 to take advantage of Korean people, especially women, and to generally be a bad influence upon Korean culture.My Korean wife is a victim of my trickery and my children are the result of our relationship. Wait a second, wrong story. I’m just waking up from my MBC-induced bad dream. If you watched “The Shocking Truth About Relationships with Foreigners

June 11, 2012

The single-mom catastrophe

The single-mother revolution shouldn’t need much introduction. It started in the 1960s when the nation began to sever the historical connection between marriage and childbearing and to turn single motherhood and the fatherless family into a viable, even welcome, arrangement for children and for society. The reasons for the shift were many, including the sexual revolution, a powerful strain of anti-marriage feminism and a “super bug” of American individualism that hit the country in the 1960s and

June 11, 2012

The United States is already at war in Syria

What happens when a brutal regime gets replaced by an alternative and largely unknown entity? Exhibit A: Libya.Shortly after Moammar Gadhafi bumped his head on a bullet, the “rebels” took over and promptly declared Sharia law. It’s a start ― I guess. Though a start of what, no one’s really quite sure. This week, a new set of Libyan “rebels” has emerged to replace the old ones, seizing control of Tripoli airport and diverting flights. It’s just like the game Whack-a-Mole: Knock one down, and five

June 10, 2012

The root causes behind the racism in MBC’s report

The word culture is defined by the Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary as the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. I chose the above definition because a disease exists and we ought look for the cure. The main symptoms are obvious: racism, xenophobia, and ignorance. However, I don’t wish to simply eliminate the symptoms. I want to play doctor

June 10, 2012

For good or bad: The U.S. military buildup in Asia

Proclaiming its fate to be strongly tied to Asia, the United States unveiled on Saturday detailed plans to build and strengthen its military presence in the region. Time will tell whether the growing U.S. presence becomes a positive force for the peace, development and prosperity of Asia, or simply heightens the tensions in a region already convoluted by an arms race.Asia is increasingly caught in the paradox of prosperity: as countries become more prosperous, they spend proportionally more of t

June 10, 2012

Can an island of strife lead Mideast reform?

Bahrain is tiny ― an island kingdom off the Saudi coast with a half-million citizens and as many expatriate workers. It’s also a strategic spot that hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet. And the turmoil there says a great deal about the sectarian forces at work in the Mideast and how conflagrations could be avoided with judicious leadership. This week, Bahrain’s government announced measures to ban a Shiite opposition party that has played a major role in anti- monarchy protests, apparently for minor techni

June 8, 2012

Philippines’ strategic silence on Syria

The question has to be asked: For how long will the Philippine government maintain its “strategic silence” vis-a-vis the civil conflict in Syria, which gets bloodier with each carnage reported, the latest being the killing of 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, in Houla on May 25? The death toll in the 14-month-old conflict is reported to have climbed past 10,000, but the Philippines continues to keep to a see-hear-and-speak-no-evil mode. In fact, it was the only one absent when the

June 8, 2012