[Park Sang-woo] Stressing the benefits of international marriages

Nowadays there are many international marriages not only in Korea, but also around the world. Since 1990 the number of men has increased more than women. So the number of international marriages has also increased and most international marriages are arranged marriages with people who live in poorer countries. Because of this, arranged marriages with people who live in other countries are looked down on. However, this is not good for Korea in this age of globalization. Eight years ago, my brothe

Nov. 29, 2011

The euro area is coming to an end

Investors sent Europe’s politicians a painful message last week when Germany had a seriously disappointing government bond auction. It was unable to sell more than a third of the benchmark 10-year bonds it had sought to auction off on Nov. 23, and interest rates on 30-year German debt rose from 2.61 percent to 2.83 percent. The message? Germany is no longer a safe haven. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, investors have focused on credit risk and rewarded Germany with low interest rates

Nov. 29, 2011

Defense and democracy in America

LOS ANGELES ― The failure of the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach agreement on budget cuts now sets the stage for $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions to begin in January 2013. Should these cuts go into effect, the U.S. Defense Department, which already must implement $450 billion in reductions over 10 years, will take half the hit. But pushback has already begun, with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arguing that further reductions will impose “substantial risk

Nov. 28, 2011

Do Koreans want to go it alone?

Whenever U.S. soldiers in Korea misbehave egregiously, Koreans naturally soul-search on whether USFK should withdraw. This is proper; soldiers sexually assaulting teenagers is horrific. The debate also usefully signals to the U.S. that Korea not be taken for granted. But in the end, Koreans have always hewn to the U.S., even after George W Bush famously alienated South Korea by placing N.K. on the ‘axis of evil.’ South Korea is the overwhelming beneficiary of a very one-sided relationship and te

Nov. 28, 2011

[Dave Tonetti] A rebuttal to ‘harmful’ English education

A story ran in the British newspaper The Guardian recently with the following headline: South Korean parents told: Pre-school English ‘harmful.’ The sub-headline was: “Pressure group argues that money spent on early year classes is wasted and urges starting at age 10.” The operative word here is “pressure group,” but I’ll come back to that in a moment. For now, I will content myself with dissecting the arguments in the article, and dissection they need.The very first line in the article attribut

Nov. 28, 2011

Save money ― hire more police officers

At a recent Capitol Hill rally for the administration’s job creation bills, Vice President Joe Biden urged America to hire more police ― even in this era of austerity ― or accept that crime will increase.His point is worth considering. Although crime in the United States on average has shown a historic decline since the early 1990s, a recent Rand Corp. report shows that a 10 percent increase in the size of a police force decreases the rate of homicide by 9 percent, robbery by 6 percent and vehic

Nov. 27, 2011

Is Korea really younger, smarter brother of China?

Korea the younger, smarter brother of China? The clich cumulates too many “no-nos” to be sustainable. First, nations are not anthropomorphic entities you can compare on moral grounds. Second, Northeast Asian relations can be as touchy as minefields, and the epicenter of Confucianism is not the ideal playground for audacious familial metaphors. Ask a Chinese nationalist, and he’d rather consider South Korea and its actual sibling, North Korea, as mere provinces bound to get back to their Motherla

Nov. 27, 2011

Obama’s tripwire postpones Australia’s destiny

Barack Obama’s visit to Australia prompted the people of Darwin to take out $50,000 worth of insurance to cover him against the risk of a crocodile attack. The gesture seemed to delight the U.S. president. In a speech to about 1,000 Australians troops, his praise of the “legendary Diggers” (soldiers who fought in trenches) and “true blue Aussies” (Australians loyal to local values) went down a treat. The applause from troops at Robertson military base showed their support for a deployment plan t

Nov. 27, 2011

Americans Elect: Another presidential gene pool

A few weeks ago I wrote about an effort to put a centrist “third party” candidate on the presidential ballot next year, launched by an organization called Americans Elect. The privately funded group plans to stage a wide-open primary on the Internet, to enable voters to choose a ticket drawn from the middle of the political spectrum. Voters can propose anyone they like, but the process is designed for potential centrist candidates such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Sen. Evan Bayh,

Nov. 25, 2011

Flood disaster reveals the true national spirit

The government and the public will have to work together to rehabilitate the nation after the flood crisis, to ensure that we emerge stronger. Beneath the lower growth-rate forecasts recently announced by some economic institutes, there are a number of issues that the government will have to tackle to ensure the nation rebounds in the long run.Instead of focusing on bolstering short-term growth, Thailand should have a comprehensive platform to address future natural disasters, to win back the co

Nov. 25, 2011

Cyber cooperation needed

The United States continues to blame China for alleged intrusions into U.S. government and defense industry computer networks. This month a report released by the Project 2049 Initiative, a U.S.-based think tank, details China’s signals intelligence organization, and what role it thinks the People’s Liberation Army has in collecting cyber intelligence. And last month, a draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission claimed that cyber hackers “achieved all the steps requi

Nov. 25, 2011

Should Monju reactor program be scrapped?

The Government Revitalization Unit has proposed a drastic review of the Monju program, which aims to develop a next-generation nuclear reactor. The review will include whether the program should be scrapped.During the unit’s policy review session that started Sunday, all seven members of the screening committee, which includes Diet members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the program. “More than 1 trillion yen has been injected so far, but the program has borne no fruit,” one

Nov. 25, 2011

Giving thanks for productive insurgents, U.S. resilience

Scanning the public arena, some might be hard-pressed to find cause for thanks. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, inflicting pain on millions of Americans and undermining the futures of millions more. The economy at large is skittish, bracing for the sound of other shoes dropping in Europe. The national debt just surpassed $15 trillion. What’s more, the U.S. is sharply divided along ideological lines, with the opposing sides sorting themselves with dispiriting consistency by race, age and so

Nov. 24, 2011