The Korea Herald

ASEAN is living dangerously in South China Sea

The South China Sea’s benign environment of the past has effectively been destroyed. In the past few months, it is clear that the tension has increased manyfold. If the temperature continues to rise, it could reach boiling point. It is possible that there will be armed conflict in the area as never before seen. After all, the territorial claimants have acted in such ways that other claimants can n

June 24, 2011

[Takeshi Nakagawa] The concept of keeping harmony

About 30 years ago, I drove northward from Sotobo in Chiba along the coastline in Fukushima and Miyagi as far as accessible by road, passing through inland areas in Iwate to Miyako again, and went up north to the Shimokita Peninsula. The purpose was to see various cultural building properties around those regions. At that time, I did not have tsunamis in mind particularly.Now I am reminded, howeve

June 24, 2011

[Takeshi Nakagawa] The concept of keeping harmony

Why social media isn’t

Mexican food and beer. That’s what retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor suggests might pull this fractured nation back together again. Those were the tools she used to reach consensus in the 1970s when she was a leader in the Arizona legislature.“I’ll tell you what I did,” she said last week at a conference in Washington, sponsored by Arizona State University’s Center for Social Cohes

June 23, 2011

Kindle vs. books: The dead trees society

Several weeks into December last year, my parents suggested I might like a Kindle for Christmas.I was sitting in my room at school, and my eyes darted to the bookshelf on my left. From the silence on the line they could tell I wasn’t enthusiastic; I muttered something about not needing another gadget, mostly because I couldn’t find a way to shape my reluctance into words. The conversation was tact

June 23, 2011

[Dick Polman] GOP begins to question value of Afghan war

In the waning minutes of last week’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney was opining about Afghanistan when he uttered something that, in past years, would have been condemned by virtually all Republicans as dovish blasphemy.He said: “I also think we’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation.”It’s rare to hear a Republican front-

June 23, 2011

[Nouriel Roubini] That stalling feeling in the world

NEW YORK ― Despite the series of low-probability, high-impact events that have hit the global economy in 2011, financial markets continued to rise happily until a month or so ago. The year began with rising food, oil, and commodity prices, giving rise to the specter of high inflation. Then massive turmoil erupted in the Middle East, further ratcheting up oil prices. Then came Japan’s terrible eart

June 23, 2011

[Nouriel Roubini] That stalling feeling in the world

For African-Americans, a divide over Obama

It was the kind of insular, issue-driven, black-on-black debate that ordinarily doesn’t attract the media spotlight, even on the slowest news day. But thanks to the unprecedented profile of Barack Obama, the most famous black person in modern history, this one got hot.Last month, in an interview with Chris Hedges on Truthdig.com, Princeton professor Cornel West gave a scathing assessment of Obama’

June 23, 2011

[David Ignatius] Efforts to avoid a summer of blood

WASHINGTON ― “Peace is at hand,” Henry Kissinger famously announced in October 1972 after a seeming breakthrough in Vietnam negotiations. But it wasn’t at hand. It took three more months to complete the Paris Peace Accords, which collapsed in 1975 when North Vietnam overran Saigon. This Vietnam history is a caution against premature optimism about diplomatic solutions to deeply embedded conflicts,

June 23, 2011

[David Ignatius] Efforts to avoid a summer of blood

Mission’s end for the American space shuttle

“Roaring into space on two mighty blowtorches and a magnificent column of steam, the space shuttle Columbia was given a go-ahead Sunday to complete the 54-hour mission that is expected to open a new space frontier. The liftoff ― the world’s most spectacular space launch ― awed veteran space watchers at the Kennedy Space Center here.” ― Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1981.Thirty years ago, space shuttl

June 22, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] Asia after the war in Afghanistan

TOKYO ― July will mark two milestones in America’s sometimes-tortured relations with Asia. One is the beginning of the end of the nearly decade-long struggle in Afghanistan ― the longest war in United States history ― as President Barack Obama announces the first troop withdrawals. The other is the 40th anniversary of Henry Kissinger’s secret mission to Beijing, a turning point in the Cold War and

June 22, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] Asia after the war in Afghanistan

[Meghan Daum] The insecurity of Anthony Weiner’s inner geek

Anthony Weiner, the disgraced New York congressman whose sins certainly don’t need to be spelled out again, has, we are told, checked himself into rehab. We can’t be sure exactly what kind, since his spokeswoman said only that he was seeking “professional treatment to focus on being a better husband and a healthier person.” That’s code, in a lot of people’s minds, for a sex-addiction program, like

June 22, 2011

[Meghan Daum] The insecurity of Anthony Weiner’s inner geek

[Marlene Zuk] Animal webcams: Days of their lives

Thanks to modern technology, peering into private lives all around the world has never been easier.When Su Lin, the San Diego-born daughter of Chinese parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao, had her first medical exam, eager viewers proclaimed that she was the cutest baby ever. When a mother of three died in an airplane accident, leaving the father to care for the family alone, thousands of people across the

June 22, 2011

[Guy Verhofstadt] EU must unite for the economic governance it needs

BRUSSELS ― Two lessons have emerged from Europe’s financial crisis. First, there is no substitute for timely and coordinated action when the single currency is under pressure. Second, all eurozone countries are effectively in the same boat. If the boat springs a leak, everyone sinks.A quicker and more concerted response might have limited the fall-out from the crisis, and thus its cost. The Europe

June 22, 2011

[Guy Verhofstadt] EU must unite for the economic governance it needs

America’s life expectancy starts to decline

In large swaths of the nation, life expectancy has stopped increasing and even declined slightly over the decade that ended in 2007, particularly among women. This historic reversal of a long-time trend toward longer life expectancies in the world’s richest nation is virtually unique in the developed world and appears largely due to the growing inequality of American society.To be sure, this week’

June 21, 2011

[Simon Tilford] Europe’s competitiveness trap

LONDON ― A flawed understanding of what drives economic growth has emerged as the gravest threat to recovery in Europe. European policymakers are obsessed with national “competitiveness,” and genuinely appear to think that prosperity is synonymous with trade surpluses. This largely explains why Germany is routinely cited as an example of a strong, “competitive” economy.But economic growth, even in

June 21, 2011

[Simon Tilford] Europe’s competitiveness trap

[Rachel Marsden] How to survive a political sex scandal in the U.S.

Democratic New York Congressman Anthony Weiner decided to take some photos of himself minimally burdened by cloth, send them to a few girls he met online, then complain that his phone was hacked when the details dribbled out in the press. After a few days of strident denial, he called a press conference to confess to everything. Weiner has reportedly decided to undertake a treatment program ― pres

June 21, 2011

[Rachel Marsden] How to survive a political sex scandal in the U.S.

A cautionary tale of three fiscal crises: The U.S., Britain and Greece

In today’s world, there are three kinds of fiscal crises brought on by too much government spending, and three kinds of responses. We can call them the nightmare scenario, the preemptive experiment and the head-in- the-sand model. In the nightmare scenario, a country runs large deficits for a decade or more ― and the financial markets are happy to buy its debt at low interest rates. But then the m

June 21, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Going back to childhood, innocence and purity

Recently, in the United States, there has been a campaign to return to the innocence and purity of our adolescence in order to solve social problems such as racial prejudice and ideological antagonism. During childhood, indeed, we are so pure-hearted that we hardly have prejudices against others. As we walk into adulthood, however, we gradually become racially biased and ideologically prejudiced.

June 21, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Going back to childhood, innocence and purity

Help bio-designed cassava save the world

The human population, now approaching 7 billion, may top 10 billion by 2100. Agronomists predict food shortages in our future, and it doesn’t take an advanced degree to understand why: When food production fails to keep pace with population growth, billions go hungry, including many Americans. To avert disaster, we must find a way to squeeze more grains, fruits and vegetables from ever less farmla

June 20, 2011

[David Ignatius] End of U.S.-Pakistan love affair?

WASHINGTON ― It’s always painful to watch a love affair go sour, as the unrealistic expectations and secret betrayals come crashing down in a chorus of recrimination. That’s what’s happening now between the U.S. and Pakistan, and it has a soap-operatic quality, in Washington and Islamabad alike. “How could they treat us so badly?” is the tone of political debate in both capitals. If this were a fe

June 20, 2011

[David Ignatius] End of U.S.-Pakistan love affair?