The Korea Herald

[Park Sang-seek] English as second official language in Korea

There are 67 sovereign states which recognize English as their official language. Among the 67 states, 36 countries use English as the only official language, while 31 countries recognize English as one of the official languages.Those countries recognizing English as the only official language are either the countries whose majority of the people are English-speaking ethnic groups or are former colonies of the U.K. and are populated by one dominant language group or equally numerous language gro

June 20, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] English as second official language in Korea

Sri Lanka reneges on rights probe resolution

Colombo has reneged on its resolution to probe alleged human rights abuses during its 30-year civil war The ethnic problem in Sri Lanka defies solution as Colombo has gone back on the resolution it cosponsored with the U.S. at the 31st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.The resolution required Sri Lanka to take a number of measures, including the setting up of a credible justice process with the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges and defense lawyers, to inves

June 20, 2016

[Andrew Sheng] Dealing with the new abnormal

How can this be normal? Twenty-nine countries with roughly 60 percent of the world’s GDP have monetary policy rates of less than 1 percent per annum. The world is awash with debt, with sovereign, corporate and household debt of over $230 trillion or roughly three times world GDP. To finance their large debt and deal with deflation, both the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are already experimenting with negative interest rate policies. If these do not work, look out for helicopter money,

June 20, 2016

[Laura Black] The first Father‘s Day without Dad

My mother calls me and says, “We need to figure out what to put on Daddy’s headstone.”“How about beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather?”“No, that’s so ordinary.”She’s right. It doesn’t begin to capture who he truly was.“Can we think about it for a couple of days?”“OK, but keep in mind, the funeral home said that inscriptions cost $15 a letter.”Fifteen dollars a letter. With the meter running, I try to think of as few words as possible to capture my father’s life story.He was

June 20, 2016

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Republicans should fear losing House

Republicans need to start worrying about losing their majority in the House of Representatives.Republicans accept the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, and they know that her election would probably end their majority in the Senate. But in a year that has upended political expectations, they have clung to one comforting assumption: Their hold on the House is secure.Their majority is protected by gerrymandering, the geographic distribution of Republican vo

June 20, 2016

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Republicans should fear losing House

[Joseph E. Stiglitz & Anya Schiffrin] Learning from Namibia

WINDHOEK -- Sandwiched between Angola and South Africa, Namibia suffered mightily during the long struggle against apartheid. Yet, since winning independence from South Africa in 1990, this country of 2.4 million people has achieved enormous gains, especially in the last couple of years.A big reason for Namibia’s success has been the government’s focus on education. While people in advanced countries take for granted free primary and secondary education, in many poor countries, secondary educati

June 19, 2016

[Joseph E. Stiglitz & Anya Schiffrin] Learning from Namibia

[Elizabeth Drew] The Republicans’ agony

WASHINGTON -- This is a grim time for America’s Republican Party. While most of the party’s rank-and-file members have embraced Donald Trump as their presidential nominee, Republican members of Congress are finding it hard to accept him as their standard-bearer. Nothing like this has ever happened in American politics.It would be nice to believe that those Republicans who haven’t endorsed Trump, or have expressed misgivings, are acting on principle. And yet, while they may be concerned about his

June 19, 2016

[Noah Smith] Cut crime, boost growth by getting rid of lead

When I was a kid, adults told me that the Roman Empire fell because they used lead plumbing. Lead poisoning made them all go crazy, after which they surrendered the keys to the Visigoth conquerors. It was years before I learned that the grown-ups were pulling my leg. And yet now, in a “truth is stranger than historical fiction” sort of way, I’m discovering that lead pollution is actually an important issue in our modern Rome, the U.S.The basic reason for lead’s importance comes from biology -- w

June 19, 2016

[Paulina Neuding] Europe’s refugee culture clash

STOCKHOLM -- The international Christian organization Open Doors has reported that Christians at asylum centers in Germany -- the European country that has accepted the most migrants -- face “fear and panic,” owing to widespread harassment by other asylum-seekers. Gay asylum-seekers are offered shelter at special homes in Germany, for their own protection. In Sweden, which has taken in the second-highest number of asylum-seekers in Europe -- and the highest number per capita -- migration authori

June 19, 2016

[Paulina Neuding] Europe’s refugee culture clash

[Heidi Waltos] Like schoolyard bullies, terrorists are true cowards

The best way to hijack a person’s capacity for broad thinking, connection to others, creativity -- all of our magnificent qualities -- is to place that person in a state of fear. In this mode we shut down and run our survival circuitry; we’re relegated to fleeing, fighting or freezing. We are no longer our whole selves. Our energy for life is usurped, and we are easily controlled.This is how the Islamic State group pursues both victims and recruits. But it’s not terrorism; it’s cowardice. It’s t

June 19, 2016

[David Ignatius] Obama‘s year of resilience

A year ago this month, President Obama was delivering a eulogy in Charleston, South Carolina, after the mass shooting in a church there. As he neared the end, he took a long pause and then began singing “Amazing Grace.”　It was an unforgettable, transcendent moment. Michelle Obama had reportedly cautioned him against singing, but Obama told her on the trip to Charleston that he might do it anyway. Until he began, even he probably wasn’t sure.　Peter Manseau wrote in The Atlantic magazine about the

June 17, 2016

[David Ignatius] Obama‘s year of resilience

[Clive Crook] How Europe pushed Britain toward door

So Britain might actually do it. With a week to go before the referendum on June 23, recent polls say the campaign to quit the European Union is ahead. The government and its allies in the Remain campaign are alarmed.　Why is this happening?　The excellence of the Leave campaign certainly isn’t the reason. Advocates of Brexit made a weak case, unable to say what leaving the EU would mean for the country’s future trade arrangements or which parts of EU law would be re-adopted and which discarded. I

June 17, 2016

[Mahendra P. Lama] Implications of rising temperatures in Himalayas

Forests in the highlands act as a critical sink for carbon, thereby facilitating carbon sequestration to the highest order. And winter is the time when the forest cover is under a cold spell, which helps it to regenerate. But the Himalayan region has been witnessing unbelievably warm and pleasant winters in recent years. The rise in temperature in the region has not only affected the forest cover of the region but has also caused the drying up of many traditional sources of water. Mul phutnu (bu

June 16, 2016

[Mahendra P. Lama] Implications of rising temperatures in Himalayas

Onerous overtime practice in Japan

Working efficiently in shorter hours and leading an enriched life both at home and at work. Employing a variety of personnel resources and dealing with the declining birthrate and aging society. In order to achieve these goals, it is vital to change the culture of working long hours. The Japan government’s plan for the dynamic engagement of all citizens and the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform, also referred to as the “big-boned policy,” regards reforming the culture of

June 16, 2016

[Cass R. Sunstein] The problem with U.S. Congress

The U.S. Congress is in the midst of a breakdown in longstanding institutional norms. The latest example is the Senate’s refusal to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court -- a refusal that is probably without precedent. But something broader is occurring, and it threatens to undermine the federal government’s ability to carry out its central functions. To see what has happened and what might be done about it, we should say something

June 16, 2016

[Cass R. Sunstein] The problem with U.S. Congress

[Jay Ambrose] Obama’s rhetoric causes spikes in gun sales

To start to do something about the horror, the pain, the awfulness of mass-murder terrorism in the United States, it would help if we focused more on real fixes instead of gun control. Some believe the instruments of evil are the evil themselves and here is what happens: President Obama advocates laws that would likely accomplish zip as his rhetoric puts record numbers of guns on the streets.“Fear of gun-buying restrictions has been the main driver of spikes in gun sales, far surpassing the effe

June 16, 2016

A dumb move on path to ‘smart’ nationhood

Lending a significant push to Thailand’s ambition to become a “smart nation,” the Information and Communication Technology Ministry is to be revamped in September as the Digital Economy and Society Ministry.However, realigning the ministry and its direction in pursuit of a fully “digital economy” will be the easy part. The greater challenge will be in implementing reforms in an entrenched and undeservedly proud bureaucracy that, as matters stand, might undermine any progress made towards that va

June 16, 2016

[Ana Palacio] Tips for the TTIP

Three years ago, the United States and the European Union launched negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, promising to complete them on “one tank of gas.” But now the talks are running on fumes, with sniping on both sides and the political window for an agreement closing fast.The obstacles that the TTIP negotiations have run up against are not exclusive to that agreement. They reflect a broader trend -- one that demands a fundamental rethink of the prevailing approac

June 15, 2016

[Gordon Brown] Britain’s future lies in leading, not leaving, EU

Can the United Kingdom ever reconcile itself to being part of Europe? If recent British newspaper headlines about the June 23 referendum on continued European Union membership are any guide, the answer appears to be a decisive “no.”Proponents of leaving the EU have campaigned on fear of runaway immigration and a cascade of purported dangers -- whether delivered by boat or bomb -- to the British way of life. Their opponents, who want the U.K. to remain part of Europe, highlight another fear: the

June 15, 2016

[Gordon Brown] Britain’s future lies in leading, not leaving, EU

[Peter Sutherland] Saving our drowning humanity

In the last week of May, at least 1,050 migrants and asylum seekers died in the Mediterranean Sea, victims of the international community’s unwillingness to address the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people. More than 2,800 migrants have died at sea so far this year -- up nearly 40 percent from the same period in 2015. Almost all of those deaths could have been prevented. With every life that is extinguished, we are losing a bit of our humanity.Clearly, the international response to the re

June 15, 2016