The Korea Herald

[William Pesek] Euro crash looks as inevitable as Asia in 1997

Watching Greece slide into chaos from 6,000 miles away is painful. Asia, after all, was the last region to experience what Europe may be about to endure. Asia’s implosion in 1997 toppled leaders, touched off riots, set back living standards a decade or more and tarnished the International Monetary Fund’s reputation. Expect similar developments as Europe’s grand monetary experiment cracks. Asia and

June 28, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Challenges facing Ban Ki-moon

NEW YORK ― The world can breathe easier with the reelection this month of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to a second term in office. In a fractious world, global unity is especially vital. During the past five years, Ban Ki-moon has embodied that unity, both in his unique personal diplomacy and in his role as head of this indispensable global organization.Winning reelection to lead t

June 28, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Challenges facing Ban Ki-moon

[Peter Goldmark] China as global rescuer

A hypothetical letter from the Western-educated daughter of China’s next paramount leader:To: Comrade Xi JinpingFrom: Your daughterRespected Father,As you prepare to assume the leadership role in China, I write to share with you thoughts on the global situation and China’s role that I have gained here in my studies at Harvard University.The financial tornado of 2008 and ensuing economic difficulti

June 28, 2011

[Linda P. Campbell] Free speech boundaries

How far student speech has come since Mary Beth and John Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt wore black armbands to school in Des Moines to protest the Vietnam War and got suspended as though they were common hooligans.Now, online-savvy teens get in trouble for rudely mocking their elders on social networking sites, and the ensuing court battles rattle and redefine free-speech boundaries.In Tinker v.

June 28, 2011

[Trudy Rubin] Making a stronger case for a slow Afghan exit

Many Americans probably wonder why President Obama didn’t call for a bigger troop pullout from Afghanistan.Having recently returned from Afghanistan and Pakistan, I think he could have made a stronger case for his decision to bring home only 10,000 troops by the end of this year. (The rest of the 33,000 “surge” troops he has deployed will return no later than September 2012, with a full transition

June 28, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] The irresistible charm of Seoul

Recently, CNNgo.com featured an article titled “12 Rules for Expat Life in Korea.” Under the phrase, “Avoid culture shock with our quick guide to acclimatizing Seoul,” the writer provides 12 survival tips with a fine sense of humor. “In Seoul, drinking on the job is in the contract,” he writes rather humorously. “Your work contract might say 9-5 but you forgot to read the fine print. Birthday part

June 28, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] The irresistible charm of Seoul

U.S. high school’s slow and steady turnaround

Three years ago, the last graduating class of the “old” Locke High School listened to a commencement speaker whose main thrust was that only a small number of students had made it to that point. Odd words at most graduation ceremonies, but appropriate at Locke. Under the management of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the number of graduates at this public school in Watts was regularly a fr

June 27, 2011

[Dominique Moisi] Women as ‘agents of change?’

PARIS ― Are women in Europe on the verge of becoming an engine for political change? In economic-development circles, experience and common sense suggest that progress, accountability and hard work start with and depend on women. Micro-credits, for example, are much more efficient when women receive and repay them. Perhaps because they bear children and must find the means to feed them, women are

June 27, 2011

[Dominique Moisi] Women as ‘agents of change?’

[By S. P. Seth] China’s ‘happy blossoms’

The Communist Party of China has coined and promoted many slogans from Mao Zedong’s time to the present day. A slogan-driven regime treats its people simultaneously as morons and a dangerous rabble. Mao said that China’s people were “poor and blank” and one could write beautiful things on a blank sheet of paper.In other words, Mao wanted to write his own script on this blank sheet of paper after h

June 27, 2011

[Meghan Daum] Bachmann a right-wing mom to take seriously

If I had a dollar for every time a Sarah Palin supporter accused me of not taking her seriously because I’m jealous of attractive women who’ve combined powerful careers with large families, I’d be in another tax bracket, one that might encourage me to vote for Ron Paul.Now Michele Bachmann just might shut that crowd up.She’s another attractive conservative mom, and guess what? A whole lot of peopl

June 27, 2011

[Meghan Daum] Bachmann a right-wing mom to take seriously

[Rachel Marsden] Who’ll volunteer to save socialists?

As a free-market, limited-government conservative, I find the total implosion of the Greek economy to be the most stunning example of everything I’ve ever tried to warn about in regard to socialism. Despite the rest of Europe and the International Monetary Fund promising last year to give Greece 110 billion euros over three years, the country remains in a death spiral, with its budget deficit at a

June 27, 2011

[Rachel Marsden] Who’ll volunteer to save socialists?

[Vali Nasr] Draw down troops but step up diplomacy

President Barack Obama will want Americans to see his announcement of upcoming U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan as proof that we are defeating the Taliban. But for many, his decision will only confirm that 10 years of war, more than 1,600 American lives and $444 billion of taxpayer money have been wasted. The verdict need not be so dire. It is possible to get to an acceptable outcome, but o

June 26, 2011

[David Ignatius] Rethinking America’s ‘long war’

WASHINGTON ― Gen. John Abizaid used the phrase “the long war” to describe America’s battle with Islamic extremism after Sept. 11, 2001. When I first heard him say it in the dark days of 2004, as Iraq was spiraling downward, I had the feeling that it would last for most of our lifetimes. Behind this decades-long battle, Abizaid said, was the political modernization of the Islamic world ― the explos

June 26, 2011

[David Ignatius] Rethinking America’s ‘long war’

[Max Boot] United States should stay the course in Afghanistan

President Obama announced Wednesday night the size of the withdrawal from Afghanistan after a bruising internal debate within the administration. Proponents of a fast, immediate drawdown have been making essentially two arguments, neither especially compelling.There is the fiscal argument: We can’t afford the cost of the war effort. It’s true that we are facing a budget crunch, but the savings fro

June 26, 2011

[Glenn Garvin] Doesn’t this president remind you of someone?

Back in 1987, the hot novelty item at the Young Republicans’ national convention was a T-shirt bearing the slogan: “He’s Tan, Rested and Ready. Nixon in ‘88.” The kids were just a little bit ahead of their time; it would take us an additional 20 years before we elected a tan version of Richard Nixon.Barack Obama’s inner Nixon was all over the place as Congress and the national news media finally a

June 26, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Debate on politics in Korea: Who is afraid of populism?

Recently, conservative political leaders, opinion makers and mass media have been passionately debating “welfare populism” and warning of its political demagoguery and devastating effect on the national economy. The nationwide debate focuses on free meals for primary and secondary school students, a 50 percent reduction in college tuition fees and free medical services. They cite the political and

June 26, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Debate on politics in Korea: Who is afraid of populism?

[William Pesek] Subprime god John Paulson flees muddy waters

Suddenly finance god John Paulson isn’t looking so omniscient. The New York-based hedge-fund manager was the star of the 2008 subprime crisis, capitalizing on Wall Street’s misrepresentations to the tune of $15 billion betting against U.S. mortgages. Now, fraudsters may have taken him in. That is, if a June 2 report by Muddy Waters LLC is correct and Sino-Forest Corp. lied about its finances. I do

June 24, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Belarus holds lessons for Syria

If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants a glimpse of his nation’s future, should he continue savagely suppressing his people’s democratic aspirations, he need only look north to Belarus, another venal dictatorship whose security forces brutalized thousands of citizens protesting a fraudulent election in December.With blood in the streets, hundreds in jail, scores more in hospitals with cracked h

June 24, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Belarus holds lessons for Syria

China’s fresh dairy worries

Whether 2 million bacteria in 1 milliliter of fresh milk qualifies for the label “the globally worst,” as some have called it, is probably debatable. But we do know that the new national dairy safety standards are substantially lower than before. The previous bottom-line for protein content in every 100 grams of fresh milk was 2.95 grams. Now it is 2.8 grams. The number of bacteria permitted in ea

June 24, 2011

Sovereignty saber rattles China’s neighbors

China’s surprisingly aggressive assertion of “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea has startled governments around the region, and puts the emerging superpower on a collision course with its partners in the region as well as the interests of the other, long-established superpower, the United States.Misconceptions about the issue clutter the public discourse in the Philippines, howeve

June 24, 2011