The Korea Herald

[Meghan Daum] Let’s all get off the term ‘on steroids’

Not so long ago, the way to convey that something was extreme was to simply call it extreme (“X” for short.) There were extreme sports (think bungee jumping), extreme tourism (think traveling in order to bungee jump) and, of course, the “Extreme Makeover” television franchise, which took self-improvement and home improvement to new levels by throwing in hefty doses of plastic surgery and new const

April 11, 2011

[Meghan Daum] Let’s all get off the term ‘on steroids’

[Jacques Attali] Bangladeshi government’s shameful treatment of Yunus

PARIS ― Rarely does a man in the mold of Muhammad Yunus come along who has devoted his life to the least fortunate among us.Instead of living the peaceful and comfortable life he could have had, he chose to engage in a crusade against poverty through the use of micocredit that has succeeded far beyond any expectations.Yet, as happens so often in history, no man seems to be a prophet in his own cou

April 11, 2011

[Jacques Attali] Bangladeshi government’s shameful treatment of Yunus

Hope amid the obstacles in Haiti government

The victory of Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly in Sunday’s runoff election for the Haitian presidency brought his supporters into the streets to celebrate what many called a complete change from the last 25 years of rule. At this point, however, that’s more wishful thinking than reality.Many obstacles stand in the way of President-elect Martelly’s supporters realizing the positive change that they s

April 10, 2011

[Joseph S. Nye Jr.] A shift in perceptions of power

Last year, when China broke off military-to-military talks after the Obama administration’s long-expected sale of defensive arms to Taiwan, a high American official asked his Chinese counterpart why China reacted so strongly to something it had accepted in the past. The answer: “Because we were weak then and now we are strong.”On a recent visit to Beijing, I asked a Chinese expert what was behind

April 10, 2011

[Editorial] Challenge to ‘time-off’

Tensions are growing between the management and labor of Hyundai Motor Co. over the “time-off” system. The automaker’s trade union is stepping up opposition to the new system as it would drastically cut the number of employer-paid full-time union officials.The time-off system went into effect in July last year. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, as of March this year, about 90 perc

April 10, 2011

[Editorial] Care for students

A spate of student suicides has pushed the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, one of Korea’s top science universities in Daejeon, into a crisis it has never experienced before. In a short span of three months, four students took their own lives, shocking the school’s students and staff. The latest victim was a 19-year-old sophomore, identified by his surname Park, who jumped to hi

April 10, 2011

[David Ignatius] Egyptian democracy’s growing pains

CAIRO ― The political battle for Egypt’s future began in earnest last month when the country’s ruling military council held a referendum to approve its amendments to the constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood, backing the military, easily won that first test of Egypt’s new democracy, with 77 percent of the public supporting their recommended vote of “yes.” But the secular Tahrir Square revolutionari

April 10, 2011

[David Ignatius] Egyptian democracy’s growing pains

[Joshua Long] Detroit’s demise sets up rebirth from grassroots for development

These days it seems impossible to write about Detroit in measured terms. Words like “war zone,” “post-apocalyptic” and “ghost town” are often used. Stories portray it as a dystopian landscape of crumbling Gilded Age monuments, abandoned warehouses and overgrown vacant lots.Recent census data confirms that residents are moving out as fast as wildlife is moving in. A sympathetic tone of urban social

April 10, 2011

[Susan Straight] A noble profession

At a time when teachers and their unions are under fire across the nation, my eldest daughter just had a much-anticipated interview with Teach for America. She will graduate from college in May and hopes to be a teacher in the fall.She was worried that I’d be disappointed she didn’t feel a desire for graduate school.But I was thrilled. Since graduating from college in 1984, I’ve taught GED (Genera

April 10, 2011

[Ian Bremmer] Measuring the revolutionary wave

NEW YORK ― A prediction three months ago that popular protests would soon topple a dictatorship in Tunisia, sweep Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt, provoke civil war in Muammar el-Gadhafi’s Libya, and rattle regimes from Morocco to Yemen would have drawn serious skepticism. We knew that the tinder was dry, but we could never know how or when, exactly, it would combust. Now that it has, how far ca

April 10, 2011

[Ian Bremmer] Measuring the revolutionary wave

Overcoming the nuclear crisis in Japan

The crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant does not warrant optimism. Nuclear fuel in the cores of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors is believed to have been severely damaged. In the No. 4 reactor’s storage, where spent nuclear fuel is kept, water evaporated at one point, and a hydrogen explosion released radioactive substances into the environment.The governmen

April 8, 2011

[Tim Rutten] Wedge issue that’s losing its point

Wedge issues are the rhetorical enablers of the bitterly partisan politics that have disfigured our national conversation in recent years.They’re the controversial questions on which significant numbers of voters hold views that admit no compromise or nuanced disagreement. Candidates raise them to divide their constituents and to morally discredit their opponents. Abortion is a classic wedge issue

April 8, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] Property bubbles and bank NPLs

How worrisome are real estate bubbles for the banking system? Based upon the recent subprime and then global financial crisis, they are very worrisome indeed. For households, a house is likely to be the largest single investment for most families. For companies, real estate and fixed assets are often, other than inventory, the most important assets, especially as collateral for loans from banks. F

April 8, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] Property bubbles and bank NPLs

Promises made before votes are often broken

Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party’s proposal to give the three southernmost provinces some degree of autonomy sounded like a political campaign platform ― but on closer examination it looks more and more like a cheap ploy to win votes.What’s worse, its proponents are exploiting the sentiment of the Malay Muslims of the deep South, who deserve better.In this heavily centralized country of ours, decentrali

April 8, 2011

[Yu Yongding] Monetary reform to make SDR reserve currency

The fundamental problem with the current international monetary system is that the U.S. dollar is used as the key international reserve currency, which gives the U.S. central bank the “exorbitant privilege” of printing the United States’ way out of its economic difficulties.And that is exactly what it is doing. Its printing presses are running at full speed in a bid to boost the U.S. economy, rega

April 8, 2011

[Yu Yongding] Monetary reform to make SDR reserve currency

[Editorial] China’s message

The Filipino public’s consuming interest in the execution of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain was both melodramatic and inevitable. The three drug mules were the first Filipinos to be executed by China, and their personal narratives mirrored the stories and the self-image of millions of Filipinos, as hardy but unfortunate creatures of circumstance. Little wonder, then,

April 8, 2011

[Shlomo Ben Ami] The many faces of the Arab spring

MADRID ― The attack by a Western-led alliance on Muammar Gadhafi’s forces in Libya is driven largely by principled motives. Had it turned its back on the Libyan rebels, the West would have betrayed its very identity.Of course, the same principles are not being applied to save the brutally repressed masses in Yemen or the Shia protesters in Bahrain. It is doubtful whether they will be extended to S

April 7, 2011

[Shlomo Ben Ami] The many faces of the Arab spring

More even-handed budget approach is needed

Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, has proposed the most ambitious tax-and-spending plan that Capitol Hill has seen in years. His budget proposal for fiscal 2012 doesn’t merely seek to pare the enormous federal deficit and bring the national debt under control, which it would do much more aggressively than the plan President Obama offered in February. I

April 7, 2011

Quran-burning touches off a killing spree

Florida pastor Terry Jones certainly deserves a lion’s share of criticism for his symbolic burning of the Quran on March 20, having been warned for months that it was almost certain to provoke violence in the Muslim world. It did, and now 24 people are dead in Afghanistan, including six U.N. workers in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.It is important to note, however, that the reaction of Musli

April 7, 2011

[Julia Allison] Netiquette 101

Boorish relatives, vengeful exes, inappropriate work attire, unsent thank-you notes ― traditional advice columnists have spent decades offering prescriptions for these gaffes.Now, thanks to social media, the Internet and any number of gadgets and innovations, we have the means to offend or upset people on an unprecedented scale. With every new technology, there are new ways to make an absolute foo

April 7, 2011