The Korea Herald

Iran’s Last Chance?

The latest round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program between Iran and the so-called “5+1” group (the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members -- the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China -- plus Germany) has now begun. Following more than a year of deadlock, after negotiations in January 2011 led nowhere, this dialogue is for many the last chance to find a peaceful solution to a nearly decade-long conflict (in which I participated closely from 2006 to

April 20, 2012

North Korea makes a big leap backwards

In his first public speech yesterday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un praised his father Kim Jong-il’s “military first” policy. He was speaking during celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung.But the hard truth for the impoverished country is that the regime’s recent missteps have served only to aggravate its isolation.Defying warnings from the global community, Pyongyang conducted its third satellite launch last Friday. The blast-off

April 19, 2012

[Amar Bhide] Debt reckoning awaits Europe

BOSTON ― Saving the euro, say the sages of the global economy, requires radical steps. The OECD recently called for a large European firewall ― a mega-bailout fund for troubled governments and banks. Others argue for integrating taxes and borrowing in the eurozone and shedding weak members, like Greece, that struggle with a strong currency. But tall firewalls, fiscal union, or homogeneity of membership are neither necessary nor desirable. What is needed are mechanisms that recognize and accommod

April 19, 2012

[Amar Bhide] Debt reckoning awaits Europe

Europe needs to reform its social model

Forget Europe’s debt disaster for a moment and look instead at a few numbers that dramatize the underlying problem. Unemployment in the euro area just climbed to a record of almost 11 percent. Do we blame the financial crisis and its aftermath? Europe didn’t do much better before 2008. Even before the crash, the jobless rate was stuck at between 7 percent and 8 percent, not exactly full employment. So Europe’s problem is older than the fall of the House of Lehman. Now slice the data another way.

April 19, 2012

HOPE epitomizes marvels of a voluntary society

At the risk of using one too many Annie references (which is to say, one), it’s natural, upon becoming aware of the hard-knock life which orphans face, to suggest that someone should help them. Most of the time, however, this “someone” means “someone else,” whether it be the government, corporations, rich people, or simply “anyone but me.”Such was not the reaction of Joohwan Baek, who, upon becoming aware of the challenges faced by Korean orphans, as well as the barriers facing foreigners who wi

April 19, 2012

[Eli Park Sorensen] Poetry and barbarism at heart of civilized world

“It is barbaric to write poetry after Auschwitz,” the German philosopher and critic Theodor W. Adorno wrote in 1949. Adorno wanted to point out that Auschwitz presented a dilemma to writers: on the one hand, they were called upon to articulate and represent an event that could not be passed over in silence. Silence itself seemed to border on the criminal. On the other hand, to articulate the horror of an event like the Holocaust possibly exceeded what could legitimately be expressed in language.

April 19, 2012

[Eli Park Sorensen] Poetry and barbarism at heart of civilized world

The marvels of a voluntary society

At the risk of using one too many Annie references (which is to say, one), it’s natural, upon becoming aware of the hard-knock life which orphans face, to suggest that someone should help them. Most of the time, however, this “someone” means “someone else,” whether it be the government, corporations, rich people, or simply “anyone but me.”Such was not the reaction of Joohwan Baek, who, upon becoming aware of the challenges faced by Korean orphans, as well as the barriers facing foreigners who wi

April 19, 2012

Germany Reformed Its Social Model. Europe Can, Too

Forget Europe’s debt disaster for a moment and look instead at a few numbers that dramatize the underlying problem. Unemployment in the euro area just climbed to a record of almost 11 percent. Do we blame the financial crisis and its aftermath? Europe didn’t do much better before 2008. Even before the crash, the jobless rate was stuck at between 7 percent and 8 percent, not exactly full employment. So Europe’s problem is older than the fall of the House of Lehman. Now slice the data another way.

April 19, 2012

North Korea‘s big leap backwards

In his first public speech yesterday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un praised his father Kim Jong-il’s "military first" policy. He was speaking during celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea‘s founder Kim Il-sung.But the hard truth for the impoverished country is that the regime’s recent missteps have served only to aggravate its isolation.Defying warnings from the global community, Pyongyang conducted its third satellite launch last Friday. The blast-off

April 19, 2012

[Nouriel Roubini] Europe’s short vacation from crisis

NEW YORK ― Since last November, the European Central Bank, under its new president, Mario Draghi, has reduced its policy rates and undertaken two injections of more than 1 trillion euros of liquidity into the eurozone banking system. This led to a temporary reduction in the financial strains confronting the debt endangered countries on the eurozone’s periphery (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland), sharply lowered the risk of a liquidity run in the eurozone banking system, and cut financ

April 18, 2012

[Nouriel Roubini] Europe’s short vacation from crisis

Egypt Brotherhood’s mission for democracy

Two weeks ago, a Muslim Brotherhood delegation from Egypt came to Washington to convince skeptics that Islam and democracy can coexist.The question of what Islamist political parties will do after they take power is central to the Mideast’s future. Such parties have won elections in Tunisia and Egypt, and look likely to take power in Libya and, ultimately, in Syria.Egypt, with its large population and peace treaty with Israel, is the crucial test case.The visiting Egyptians, all members of the B

April 18, 2012

Is new channel for Asia from an Asian perspective?

Singapore television, which helped Lee Kuan Yew defeat his left-wing foes and stay in power for 50 years, plans to go worldwide 24 hours a day from next year.The global push by the state-owned Channel News Asia (CNA) to extend its reach from Asia to cover the United States and Europe is an ambitious project, given the adverse cable news market.Last week, America’s CNN (Cable News Network), despite its vast resources and experience, reported a ratings drop of up to 50 percent in the first quarter

April 18, 2012

Is ‘flexicurity’ EU’s post-crisis social model?

Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis has forced some countries to pare back welfare programs harshly to meet austerity targets, raising a provocative question: Is the Continent’s famed social model doomed? That’s what European Central Bank President Mario Draghi seemed to imply during a Wall Street Journal interview earlier this year, when he said that ”the European social model has already gone,” because it could no longer assure jobs for youths. Draghi’s comments have been overinterpreted, but he wo

April 18, 2012

Gender boundaries: How much should sex matter?

WARSAW/MELBOURNE ― Jenna Talackova reached the finals of Miss Universe Canada last month, before being disqualified because she was not a “natural born” female. The tall, beautiful blonde told the media that she had considered herself a female since she was four years old, had begun hormone treatment at 14, and had sex reassignment surgery at 19. Her disqualification raises the question of what it really means to be a “Miss.”A question of broader significance was raised by the case of an 8-year-

April 18, 2012

Gender boundaries: How much should sex matter?

[Lee Jae-min] A whaling war in The Hague

As the prime ministers of the two countries publicly acknowledge, fish conservation is the only area where Japan and Australia have differing views. Japan is one of the major fishing countries in the world and Australia has long been the spiritual leader of the global fish conservation group. The diplomatic wrangling between the two countries has been particularly tumultuous over Japan’s southern ocean whaling program.The “whaling” tension has continued to intensify in recent years as the Japane

April 17, 2012

[Lee Jae-min] A whaling war in The Hague

U.S. can help Iraq stay on democratic path

Iraq is on a path leading away from the reasonably democratic model the U.S. hoped to leave behind. President Nouri al-Maliki is on a power trip. More broadly, his government is pushing laws that would constrain freedoms fundamental to a democracy. Maliki, a Shiite, has gone after leading Sunni politicians, most notably issuing an arrest warrant, on what seem to be trumped-up murder charges, for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, now a fugitive. In response, Hashimi’s Sunni-dominated party, a part

April 17, 2012

Voters drawn to political extremes in France

With Rick Santorum’s decision to end his campaign, the outcome of the Republican primaries is decided. But a different republican primary is just now heating up. The French Fifth Republic is several days away from the first round of its presidential elections.The latest polls show the two front-runners, the Gaullist (and current president) Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Francois Hollande, have each captured slightly less than 30 percent of the electorate. But the real news is in the pack that fol

April 17, 2012

How good business can lift Apple’s share price

Early this month, Adrian Kingsley- Hughes made this prediction on Forbes.com: “It seems quite possible for Apple stock to hit four digits in the next couple of years, barring any missteps.” The author probably imagines future missteps such as overheating iPads, a possible unsuccessful foray into the television-set market, or the failure of the company’s new chief executive officer, Tim Cook, to live up to the legacy of Steve Jobs. Yet it is easy to imagine a whole different set of problems, such

April 17, 2012

[Kim Seong-kon] The value of minority voices in a homogeneous society

It may be a bit exaggerated to say we now live in the age of minorities and minority cultures. Nevertheless, it is undeniably true that ethnic minorities and their cultures are being recognized and appreciated in many countries these days. In the United States, for example, Americans elected Barack Obama as their president, giving tremendous hope to African Americans. President Obama also appointed ethnic minorities, including Korean Americans, to key posts in his Cabinet. A few weeks ago, Presi

April 17, 2012

[Kim Seong-kon] The value of minority voices in a homogeneous society

How the Titanic made the modern radio industry

We remember the Titanic for its epic technological hubris. But the ship’s sinking also marks the moment when a more modest technology, the wireless radio, began to transform the shipping industry.As an example of the Progressive-era faith in technology, the Titanic is hard to equal. In addition to its sumptuous interior, the ship was able to churn across the ocean at a staggering 22.5 knots. It was also outfitted with the most sophisticated wireless-telegraph technology available, with a range o

April 16, 2012