The Korea Herald

[Shashi Tharoor] Opening Burma’s doors to world

NEW DELHI ― U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Myanmar (Burma), noted largely for a memorable photo opportunity with a wan but smiling Aung San Suu Kyi, signaled a significant change in the geopolitics surrounding a land that has faced decades of isolation, sanctions, and widespread condemnation for its human-rights violations.Twenty-one years ago, after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) swept a general election, the results were annulled, the party’s leaders a

Dec. 14, 2011

[Shashi Tharoor] Opening Burma’s doors to world

North Korea finds new course in ties with Beijing

The legacy of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung’s decision in the early 1990s to pursue a strategic partnership with the United States has run its course. In its place, the focus of Pyongyang’s policies has decisively shifted to Beijing. However wary the North Koreans may be of their neighbor, the fact is that from Pyongyang’s viewpoint, the Chinese have delivered and the United States did not.Any shards remaining from the North’s previous, decades-long effort to normalize ties with the U

Dec. 13, 2011

[Lee Jae-min] After $1tr in trade still much to do

The nationwide gold ring collection in Korea in November 1997 was an interesting phenomenon in the eyes of Westerners. Seeing the country undergoing unprecedented economic turmoil in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, ordinary people chipped in to rescue the country by donating gold rings that they kept at home.Of course, piles of gold rings themselves may have hardly made a dent in the total borrowing of Korea from the International Monetary Fund, but it was the spirit of collective e

Dec. 13, 2011

[Lee Jae-min] After $1tr in trade still much to do

Smartphones, dumb drivers

Can you safely talk on a cellphone ― or for that matter, check your email or scroll through Google Maps ― while driving? Well, of course you can. But those other folks with their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road are a public menace.Unfortunately, that sums up the attitude of many American motorists, who widely acknowledge using their phones while behind the wheel but insist they’re safe drivers. Meanwhile, the number of people worried about the other guy is soaring. When the state

Dec. 13, 2011

The causes behind SlutWalk protest marches

Imagine walking down the street and on the other side of the road stands young women in provocative clothing holding up signs saying “I’m a slut.” What do you think would be the first thing that comes to your mind? This kind of movement is spreading all over the world, starting in Toronto. It first took place on April 3 when one police officer suggested that, in order not to be victimized, women “should avoid dressing like sluts.” Then what does this have to do with young women on the roads shou

Dec. 13, 2011

Trade-pact plans may split Latin America into Pacific and Atlantic blocs

President Barack Obama’s recent announcement that he will seek to create what may be the world’s largest trading bloc along the Pacific rim raises an interesting question in this part of the world: whether we will see a de facto split of Latin America into a Pacific bloc and an Atlantic bloc.It may be already happening. Obama’s recent proclamation that “the United States is a Pacific country” and his announcement that Washington will seek to dramatically expand the nine-member Trans-Pacific Part

Dec. 13, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] The ‘Angry Generation’ in Korea

When they say there are two Koreas, it naturally means North and South Korea. These days, however, it also means the division of South Korea into two antagonizing groups like east and west, conservatives and progressives and left and right. It is lamentable that today’s South Korea is radically divided into two hostile extremes, tearing the already half-reduced country into two again.Perhaps the only comfort is that Korea is not alone in experiencing such a phenomenon; people say that there are

Dec. 13, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] The ‘Angry Generation’ in Korea

[David Ignatius] Receding U.S. global influence

WASHINGTON ― Is American power in decline, relative to the rest of the world? That question is at the center of a provocative study by the U.S. intelligence community exploring what the world might look like in 2030. The answer, judging by comments from a panel convened to discuss the topic, is that America faces serious trouble: The U.S. economy is slowing, relative to its Asian competitors, which will make it harder for the country to assert its traditional leadership role in decades ahead. Th

Dec. 12, 2011

[David Ignatius] Receding U.S. global influence

Carbon tax is best way to fight climate change

The Durban climate-change talks ended in what negotiators agreed to call a success. Governments, including China and India for the first time, said they would devise a new global system for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases and make it operational by 2020. This promise, however, has uncertain legal force, the form of any new regime is unclear, and the meeting failed to set any new binding targets. Don’t be too disappointed. The ambition to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a similar but truly

Dec. 12, 2011

Palestinians’ next ‘invention’ will be a state

In November 1947, shortly after the United Nations voted for partition of the Holy Land into separate Arab and Jewish states, Chaim Weizmann was cited by the New York Times as saying that “the most important work now was to build Palestine.” What? To build Palestine? Yes, in 1947 the word “Palestinian” ― if it meant anything at all ― referred to Jews living in Palestine. The Palestine Post (now the Jerusalem Post) was the Jewish English-language newspaper. The Palestine Orchestra (now the Israel

Dec. 12, 2011

[Jeffrey Frankel] Escaping natural-resource curse

CAMBRIDGE ― Libyans have a new lease on life, a feeling that, at long last, they are the masters of their own fate. Perhaps Iraqis, after a decade of warfare, feel the same way. Both countries are oil producers, and there is widespread expectation among their citizens that that wealth will be a big advantage in rebuilding their societies. Meanwhile, in Africa, Ghana has begun pumping oil for the first time, and Uganda is about to do so as well. Indeed, from West Africa to Mongolia, countries are

Dec. 12, 2011

[Jeffrey Frankel] Escaping natural-resource curse

The pitfalls of cutting college tuition in half

Having already succeeded in giving free school lunches to all the needy (and unneedy) elementary students in Seoul, it seems newly minted Mayor Park Won-soon has now gone in on the next big populist policy, one even more unnecessary and potentially negative than school food, half-price tuition.Park has approved a budget which includes cutting tuition at the city-administered University of Seoul, likely the top public university in the Korean system dominated by private schools in rankings, from

Dec. 12, 2011

[David Ignatius] Obama, Erdogan ― odd couple

WASHINGTON ― They are unlikely partners: a cool and unflappable American president, and a proud, sometimes hot-tempered Turkish prime minister. But they have developed a working relationship that is one of the most important but least discussed developments shaping this season of change in the Arab world. If you’re looking for factors that can keep the Arab Awakening from turning into a nightmare, this American-Turkish partnership is mildly reassuring. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister R

Dec. 9, 2011

[David Ignatius] Obama, Erdogan ― odd couple

Class war: What’s so awful about the 1 percent?

The class war is on. It’s the 99 percent of “us” versus the 1 percent of “them.”In the rhetoric of this war, we are fighting the 1 percent because they possess most of the nation’s wealth, bankroll their handpicked political candidates, control the banks and get million-dollar paychecks and billion-dollar bailouts; yet they don’t pay enough taxes or invest their wealth in creating American jobs. They’re the “millionaires and billionaires” President Obama has called out as needing to pony up more

Dec. 9, 2011

Secretary Clinton’s visit a milestone for Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just concluded a historic trip to Myanmar. Her visit heralds a breakthrough in relations between the two countries, and a shift in political dynamics in Southeast Asia could be anticipated. While optimism is warranted, it should be tempered by caution; Myanmar has a long way to go before relations between it and the United States ― and indeed the world ― can be normalized.Myanmar’s military rulers have long displayed indifference to the accepted norms

Dec. 9, 2011

On reforming social security, the time for hard work has arrived

The government and ruling parties, which proposed an integrated reform of the social security and tax systems in June this year, have now begun efforts to work out the concrete details and put their plan in place.The Headquarters of the Government and Ruling Parties for Social Security Reform has been established with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as its head. At its first meeting, Noda said, “I will tackle the reform with unflagging resolve.”The reform headquarters is scheduled to come up with

Dec. 9, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] European debt depression ― the state vs. the market

In the 1930s, the American economist Irving Fisher first outlined the dangers of debt deflation dynamics. The first stage involves distress selling of assets by the borrowers to reduce their debt. Stage two affects bank balance sheets that contract when customers are paying off their debt. A general fall in asset prices, signaling the reversal of the asset bubble, creates a further fall in business net worth. The consequent decline in the profit level cuts back trade volume when households feel

Dec. 9, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] European debt depression ― the state vs. the market

Wal-Mart battles against Marx’s ghost in India

India has a Wal-Mart problem. This may not sound remarkable, considering that China and the U.S. do as well. China’s preference for sweatshops to supply the Arkansas-based behemoth impedes the creation of a vibrant domestic market. America’s addiction to cheap goods made in China helped kill a once-prosperous manufacturing sector. India’s challenge in allowing Wal-Mart to enter its market is more complicated. It’s a question of whether the ninth-biggest economy moves forward or backward and a de

Dec. 8, 2011

[Pierre Buhler] Putin’s Brezhnev syndrome

PARIS ― The winner of Sunday’s legislative election in Russia was a foregone conclusion: United Russia, organized by Vladimir Putin. Likewise, there is no doubt that Putin himself will win the presidential election due in March 2012. But the public enthusiasm that ratified Putin’s rule for a decade has vanished, something demonstrated by the poor performance of his party, United Russia, in the just concluded elections to the Duma.Unlike Europe, beset by a sovereign-debt crisis, and the United St

Dec. 8, 2011

[Pierre Buhler] Putin’s Brezhnev syndrome

Antibiotics overuse increases threat of superbugs

A new study of pediatricians’ prescribing habits told us something old and something new. It told us that antibiotics are overused. It also told us ― and this is the new part ― that doctors are using the wrong antibiotics, even when the bacteria-killing drugs are called for. According to the study, which looked at tens of thousands of visits to pediatricians outside hospitals from 2006 to 2008, in more than one in five cases doctors gave their young patients antibiotics. Very often (23 percent o

Dec. 8, 2011