The Korea Herald

Judge’s murder shows Rio’s ‘problem of the decade’

Even in a city as murderous as Rio de Janeiro, the killing of Judge Patricia Acioli on Aug. 12 was a shock. According to police she was ambushed by two motorbikes and at least one car as she returned to her condominium that morning, and killed in a hail of 21 bullets. She left behind three children.

Oct. 12, 2011

Helping Egypt move toward democracy, maket economy

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Egypt’s revolution toppled a dictator in February, but the country’s future as a stable, functioning democracy remains uncertain. The West is, of course, limited in its ability to shape the transition process. Nonetheless, the potential for constructive influence remains considera

Oct. 12, 2011

[Mikhail Gorbachev] Seize the moment to bid farewell to nuclear arms

MOSCOW ― Twenty-five years ago this month, I sat across from Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, to negotiate a deal that would have reduced, and could have ultimately eliminated by 2000, the fearsome arsenals of nuclear weapons held by the United States and the Soviet Union.For all our differences

Oct. 12, 2011

[Mikhail Gorbachev] Seize the moment to bid farewell to nuclear arms

[Trudy Rubin] Pakistan must choose: Halt terror, or pay the price

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. U.S. troops are starting to leave. And NATO is supposed to turn over security responsibility to Afghans by the end of 2014 ― although the Afghan army is far from ready to counter Taliban violence.Yet the most potent threat to Afghanista

Oct. 11, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] Forgiveness, regret and justice

The culture of South Korea places a high value on honor, or face. When someone expresses regret or asks forgiveness they are seen as repudiating their inappropriate behavior and choosing proper conduct. This choice to behave in a proper manner reduces their dishonor and saves face. Admission of wron

Oct. 11, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] Forgiveness, regret and justice

As austere England grumbles, Scotland is all smiles

The TV weather map shows the U.K. wreathed in autumnal sunshine. Records have been broken. The trees are turning golden, and there are girls in bikinis in the park. There is, though, just one small cloud right up in the northwest of Scotland, and that’s the one I’m sitting under. Outside, the sky ha

Oct. 11, 2011

Affirmative action back to U.S. Supreme Court

Is getting turned down by the University of Texas’ flagship campus in Austin a deprivation of individual rights so profound that it offends the Constitution?If so, there are umpteen disappointed applicants who’ll be wanting a piece of those reparations.But the Supreme Court might not be so dismissiv

Oct. 11, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Dubious claims and the fall of U.S.

If a foreigner wrote a book criticizing Korean society or presumptuously announcing the downfall of Korea after living in South Korea for only several years, we would immediately condemn the author as an ignorant, impudent racist. Moreover, if the book was praised by the press of the author’s countr

Oct. 11, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Dubious claims and the fall of U.S.

[Peter Goldmark] Don’t try to dismantle the American government

There was a moment in one of the Republican debates last month when candidate Ron Paul said: “9/11 came about because there was too much government.” That statement is flat-out delusional ― yet not one of the other candidates challenged the Texas congressman’s point.I want to challenge Paul and othe

Oct. 10, 2011

[Ahmed Zewail] As polls loom, Egypt must unify

CAIRO ― “Where is Egypt going?” a driver named Mohamed asked me recently. It is the question on everyone’s mind as the Arab Spring of popular revolution is giving way to the new season of free elections this autumn.At this unique moment in history, there are two critical challenges that face this na

Oct. 10, 2011

[Ahmed Zewail] As polls loom, Egypt must unify

[Meghan Daum] The Knox moral ― there’s no place like home

I didn’t have a huge investment in the fate of Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old American whose conviction for killing her roommate four years ago in Italy was overturned Monday. I was generally too put off and confused by the media circus surrounding the case to try to figure out the whole story. Still,

Oct. 10, 2011

[Meghan Daum] The Knox moral ― there’s no place like home

Occupy Wall Street: The new populists?

They call themselves the 99 Percenters. “We are occupying Wall Street,” they say, encamped by the hundreds in a park dubbed Liberty Square in Lower Manhattan’s financial district, and now seconded by satellite groups at L.A.’s City Hall, in San Francisco and in Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and dozens

Oct. 10, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Economic globalization and the role of governments

NEW YORK -- We live in an era in which the most important forces affecting every economy are global, not local. What happens “abroad” -- in China, India, and elsewhere -- powerfully affects even an economy as large as the United States. Economic globalization has, of course, produced some large

Oct. 10, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Economic globalization and the role of governments

Twitter can start a party but can’t keep it going

Social media is the new forum for free speech ― and its suppression. Whether coordinating large protests in Cairo and Tunis or flash mobs in Birmingham and London, social media have proved in recent months that they are capable of disturbing business as usual. Governments, in response, are selective

Oct. 9, 2011

[J. Bradford DeLong] A free lunch for America

BERKELEY ― Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers had a good line at the International Monetary Fund meetings this year: governments, he said, are trying to treat a broken ankle when the patient is facing organ failure. Summers was criticizing Europe’s focus on the second-order issue of Gre

Oct. 9, 2011

[J. Bradford DeLong] A free lunch for America

Watch out for Putin, and Russia

The news itself was hardly startling. It has been increasingly clear during the last year that the Regent (Vladimir Putin) would recover the throne from the Dauphin (Dmitry Medvedev). But now that it seems a certainty that Russia is headed for (at least) 12 more years of Putinism, alarm bells ought

Oct. 9, 2011

The scapegoating of Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox is nothing if not a good story. The pretty young American who headed to Italy for her junior year abroad, fell for an Italian boy and then landed in the dock with him, accused, convicted and then exonerated on charges of murdering another young woman in a sex game gone wild.Knox was neve

Oct. 9, 2011

[Dominique Moisi] The nemesis of Turkish power

PARIS ― A few days ago, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan told Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab television network, that he would use his warships to prevent Israeli commandos from again boarding Gaza-bound ships, as they did last year. And in a speech in Cairo, he declared support for the United

Oct. 9, 2011

[Dominique Moisi] The nemesis of Turkish power

[William Pesek] Sex gap isn’t just stupid, it squanders billions

Paul Hogan’s reptile-wrestling tough guy from the 1986 movie “Crocodile Dundee” typified Australia’s reputation for “mateship,” a creed of male friendship that often excludes women. A quarter of a century on, it’s costing the country billions. Don’t take my word for it ― take the prime minister’s. “

Oct. 7, 2011

[David Ignatius] Drone strategies against al-Qaida

WASHINGTON ― Here’s the trickiest counterterrorism puzzle for U.S. policymakers: How do you stop al-Qaida from attacking the American homeland, without getting bogged down in protracted wars against insurgents? One answer would be to establish deterrence in the long war against Islamic extremis

Oct. 7, 2011

[David Ignatius] Drone strategies against al-Qaida