[Nicholas Goldberg] HK a reminder of fragile democracy

Can democracy be snuffed out? You bet it can. Just look at what’s happening in Hong Kong. My last visit there was at the end of 2019, right before the pandemic, during what seems in retrospect to have been the final stand of the pro-democracy movement. In those days, pop-up demonstrations were a regular event, including clashes in the streets between masked activists and police officers. The Hong Kong government was already cracking down on dissent and increasingly siding with Beijing&rs

Jan. 19, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Just look up: Need for action is all too pressing

Recently, the American satirical film, “Don’t Look Up,” has been attracting widespread attention. It is a small wonder why. The film features a stellar cast: Meryl Streep is president of the US, and Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio play two astronomers from Michigan State University, who have found a comet big enough to destroy humanity on a direct course to earth. The two astronomers, Kate Diviasky and Randall Mindy, try to warn the US president and the media in vain. N

Jan. 19, 2022

[Martin Schram] Sync or you’re sunk: Perceptions matter

After a half century or so in politics, Joe Biden sure didn’t need to be reminded -- by a pollster, or a political science professor or a media pundit -- of the secret of winning elections. Because this is one secret that every politico knows. Namely: A politician will never be able to convince people that their perceived problems aren’t real -- or aren’t being fixed -- if voters are sure the problem is real because they keep seeing it on the news or encountering it in their d

Jan. 18, 2022

[Antara Haldar] COVID goes to court

The coronavirus is everywhere: in the air, on surfaces, in our respiratory tracts, and, over the past week, at the US Supreme Court. On Jan. 10, key elements of US President Joe Biden’s controversial “vaccine-or-test” mandate provisionally went into force, requiring that all workers at companies with more than 100 employees be vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19. With roughly 84 million Americans affected by the mandate, all eyes were on the Supreme Court, which on Jan.

Jan. 17, 2022

[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea between power blocs

As fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine mounted, political unrest exploded in Kazakhstan last week, prompting the Kazakhstan government to invite Russia troops into the country to suppress the dissent. Russia is suddenly wielding power and influence in ways reminiscent of the former Soviet Union. The situation is a reminder that power and influence in the world remain in the hands of a few nations that have dominated world affairs for centuries. Since 2016, US New & World Report has publi

Jan. 14, 2022

[Nicholas Goldberg] When an anti-vaxxer dies of COVID

Kelly Ernby was no doubt a good person, a friend to her friends, a companion to her husband, a crime-fighting prosecutor. She presumably had all the decent qualities we usually celebrate after a person dies, when we generally say only the kindest things we can think of. But she was also a vocal critic of vaccine mandates whose posts on social media risked lives, denied science and confused Americans. She was an activist with a mini-megaphone -- an Orange County deputy district attorney, a local

Jan. 13, 2022

[Kim Myong-sik] Moon hurt by defector’s ‘roundtrip’ across DMZ

South Korean defense authorities suffered a serious loss of face at the beginning of the year when a young man crossed the high fences on the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone to escape to North Korea a little more than a year after he made a similar adventure in a reverse direction. The incident tarnished the finale of President Moon Jae-in’s five-year epic of inter-Korean reconciliation. The Defense Ministry identified him as a Mr. X who had “defected” to the South from th

Jan. 13, 2022

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Argentina’s economic miracle amid COVID

NEW YORK -- Although COVID-19 has been hard on everyone, it has not been an “equal opportunity” disease. The virus poses a greater threat to those who are already in poor health, many of whom are concentrated in poor countries with weak public-health systems. Moreover, not every country can spend one-quarter of its GDP to protect its economy, as the United States did. Developing and emerging economies have faced hard financial and fiscal constraints. And because of vaccine nationalis

Jan. 12, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] 10 propositions for Korea’s presidential candidates

Dear Presidential Candidates of South Korea, We hope you realize that 2022 is a crucial and pivotal year for your country for many reasons. As you know, South Korea is now facing unprecedented crises both internally and externally. Whoever is elected as the next president will therefore face the challenging task of skillfully navigating the “S.S. Republic of Korea” in a stormy sea, sailing the narrowest of straits between Scylla and Charybdis. As such, the Korean people expect yo

Jan. 12, 2022

[Clara Ferreira Marques] Kazakh protests will only tighten Putin’s grip

Protests that began in western Kazakhstan over a sharp rise in fuel costs have turned into days of upheaval, with demonstrators storming government buildings and the airport in Almaty, the country’s largest. That’s bad enough for President Vladimir Putin, who is wary of unrest on Russia’s fringes. But the crisis in what has been one of the region’s most stable countries is not about inflation alone. It’s a more volatile anger over rampant elite corruption, slow chan

Jan. 11, 2022

[Michael R. Strain] Extra benefits for anti-vax jobless?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and the federal government began using extraordinary measures to support workers, households and businesses, Republicans have been concerned that expanding the eligibility and generosity of unemployment benefits could slow the recovery and keep workers on the sidelines. So why have a handful of Republican-led states now extended unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs because of failing to comply with vaccine mandates, with other sta

Jan. 11, 2022

[Martin Schram] The Big Truth -- democracy’s secret weapon

President Joe Biden was addressing America from the US Capitol’s Statuary Hall Thursday morning, at a lectern bearing the presidential seal that had been precisely placed in the center of this historic chamber for what would be a most un-festive commemorative ceremony. Biden noted he was standing not far from where, a century-and-a-half ago, a young Illinois congressman, Abraham Lincoln, once sat at desk 191, back when the House of Representatives met in that grand hall. He was also not f

Jan. 10, 2022

[Erwin Chemerinsky] Top court must uphold vax mandates

Under well-established law, the Biden administration’s vaccination mandates are clearly legal. But the politicization of the pandemic and vaccines makes it doubtful whether the Supreme Court will uphold them. Cases involving two regulations that impose vaccination requirements on workers will go before the court on Jan. 7. One rule calls for employers with more than 100 workers to require vaccinations or weekly COVID-19 tests of their employees. The Occupational Safety and Health Administ

Jan. 7, 2022

[Paek Tae-youl] A view on the end-of-war declaration on Korean Peninsula

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea proposed an end-of-war declaration for the first time in April 2018. Since then he has occasionally mentioned the idea and most recently, raised the issue again in his speech at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 21, 2021. A part of his speech regarding the declaration is as follows: “More than anything, an end-of-war declaration will mark a pivotal point of departure in creating a new order of ‘reconciliation and cooperation&r

Jan. 6, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Musings on 2022 alongside Maitreya images

A concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is an annual rite to usher in a new year. The reflective passages and choral “Ode to Joy” are constants when reviewing time past and listing hopes for the dawning year. The prolonged pandemic, of course, blocked performances of the musical masterpiece. But the National Museum of Korea afforded a wonderful substitute. There, on the second floor, is a new permanent exhibition, “A Room of Quiet Contemplation.” The galler

Jan. 6, 2022

[Arvind Subramanian] Is climate finance the next bubble?

In the last few years, and especially after the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, private investors have seen an opportunity to midwife developing countries’ bumpy transition to net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions. After all, if BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and the climate activist Greta Thunberg can find common cause, then the tantalizing prospect held out by William Blake -- “Great things are done when men and mountains meet” -- comes into view.

Jan. 6, 2022

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Inflation debate will matter in 2022

Prices have been increasing at the fastest rate in decades, but we haven’t been having a debate about inflation. We’ve been having five. We might do a better job of thinking through the issues if we distinguish among them. The first debate concerns the magnitude of the current inflation: How long it will last and how high it will get. It started last spring, when some economists sounded the alarm that we were likely to see the highest inflation in a generation. Others argued first

Jan. 5, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] South Korea in the Year of the Tiger

 According to the Chinese zodiac, the year 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. Although the younger generation in Korea is perhaps no longer interested in the zodiac, it still counts for the older generation. The zodiac says that those who are born in the Year of the Tiger are bold, courageous, and confident. At the same time, however, they tend to be impetuous, overindulgent, and unpredictable. The shape of the Korean Peninsula has invited some interesting debates. Some people argue that the s

Jan. 5, 2022

[Dan Rodricks] What renders us all vulnerable to COVID-19

A team of four doctors, experts in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, are sounding a warning about Americans who remain most vulnerable to COVID-19 -- those with existing health conditions or the immunosuppressed. They can harbor what the doctors call “evolving viral swarms” and could produce even more harmful variants of the coronavirus that would undermine the nation’s and the world’s efforts to break out of the 2-year-old pandemic. T

Jan. 4, 2022

[Mark Z. Barabak] Lou Cannon, ‘Hall of Fame’ political writer, hangs it up. Sort of

One of the giants of political journalism has decided to hang it up at age 88. But anyone who knows Lou Cannon doesn’t think for a moment his retirement means more time on the beach or romping on all fours with one of his seven great-grandkids. Cannon has reached Chapter 23 of his memoirs, he said, and plans to write several more ahead of a self-imposed deadline a few months from now. Hence his departure from the professional news biz after more than 60 years of the day-in, day-out grind.

Jan. 3, 2022