[Nophakhun Limsamarnphun] Silicon Valley moguls heading to Southeast Asia

Tech start-ups in Southeast Asia and India are drawing venture capitalists from Silicon Valley in California who are heading there for a new round of investment in tech start-ups that are mushrooming thanks to the region’s youthful population and fast-growing number of Internet users.　According to venture forum AVCJ of Hong Kong, the first quarter of this year saw a jump in start-up funds flowing into Singapore, the region’s start-up hub, to $199 million, compared with just $53 million in the sa

June 9, 2016

[Niaz Murtaza] Is Pakistan's democracy in danger again?

Coup options have reduced but resistance to them has grown.Islam and democracy are forever in danger in Pakistan. The danger to Islam is overblown by clerics, it being ensconced safely in millions of highly devoted hearts. Clerics may really be the main threat to it. The danger to democracy is real given past breaks. The Panama leaks suddenly threatened a democracy which was looking secure, though not delivering much. Critics say the real threat to it is from poorly performing politicians and po

June 9, 2016

The fight to save antibiotics

For once, the headlines about the latest health scare are not hyperbole: The end of the Antibiotics Era may be nigh. Staving it off will require fast and creative thinking not only in medical science, but also in public policy.Public-health officials were horrified but not surprised to find a Pennsylvania woman who had an infection with the same kind of drug resistance first identified last fall on farms in China. The E. coli found in the woman carried the same genetic mechanism of resistance to

June 9, 2016

[John-Clark Levin] Lessons from D-Day’s leaders

This year, the youngest draftees who invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944 are 90 years old. By now, our cultural understanding of D-Day focuses on the valor of those young men who fought and died on the beaches. The enduring image of the day is Robert F. Sargent’s photo “Into the Jaws of Death,” which shows American soldiers wading out of a landing craft toward forbidding, smoke-shrouded cliffs — not fearlessly, but in spite of their terror. Yet while the courage and fortitude of the everyday soldie

June 8, 2016

[Albert R. Hunt] ‘Fix’ U.S. political system at your own risk

It’s rare that President Barack Obama and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus agree. In recent weeks, they both have said that the presidential nominating process is not rigged.They are right. That hasn’t stopped those displeased with the results — establishment Republicans and Democrats who support Sen. Bernie Sanders — from insisting on changing the rules for the next election.Some tweaks are always in order, but both sides are trying to craft procedures that would have worke

June 8, 2016

The millennials will inherit the earth. We’ll all be fine

The millennials have surpassed baby boomers to become the country’s largest living generation, according to the Pew Research Center. How does that make you feel? Responses in the form of a selfie or an emoji are optional.　If you’ve never taken a selfie or used an emoji -- indeed, if you stumble over the terms -- you’re likely not a young-adult millennial. And you may wonder how things will pan out for society when they take charge. Especially since they never pry their phones away from their fac

June 7, 2016

[Lee Chang-hoon] French-Korean relations during Korea’s opening

This is the second of a three-part contribution on relations between Korea and France, which have marked the 130th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. -- Ed.France and Korea in the powers gameHaving been forced to open herself and her ports to the rest of the world in 1880, Korea became a battlefield for the conflicting interests of China, Japan and Russia. Korea entered an unprecedented crisis during which the destiny of the Korean nation as well as her cultural iden

June 7, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] Youth does not last forever, despite our divisions

Some time ago, a German commercial pulled at the heartstrings of viewers. A widowed old man home alone at Christmas sends his children false news of his death. His children gather at his place in grief only to find a sumptuous candlelit Christmas feast lay out on the dinner table. The old man shows up and asks his children and grandchildren, “How else could I have brought you all together, hmm?” Growing old is a sad thing. You become weak both physically and spiritually. Your body is no longer s

June 7, 2016

Trigger-happy Duterte justifies journalist killings

Strictly speaking, Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte did not endorse the killing of journalists, but justified it. He gave the signal to those with an ax to grind against journalists to start grinding that ax into journalists’ skulls.Last Tuesday, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte presented his cabinet-in-waiting to the public for the first time. The rite of political passage was quickly overshadowed, however, when Duterte’s news conference took a by-now-familiar turn for the bizarre.He c

June 7, 2016

[Robert J. Fouser] Ban tourist buses in central Seoul

In late May, I made my second visit to Bulguksa Temple, one of Korea’s most famous Buddhist temples. The first visit was in 1984, when I was studying Korean. The Korea I knew in 1984 came to mind as I walked around the temple and its extensive grounds. As I ended my visit and took the bus back to town, my thoughts focused on the changes in and problems with tourism in Korea.　In 1984, I visited Bulguksa Temple with two Japanese friends who had come to Korea by ferry from Shimonoseki to Busan. We

June 7, 2016

[Joshua Card] Korea should guard against pressures of globalism

After reading an article titled “Syrian Refugees Stuck in Limbo at Seoul Airport” (courtesy of Paula Hancocks and KJ Kwon of CNN International), I could not help but chuckle. I took note of how it was written to paint a picture of a humanitarian crisis, inflicting subtle yet direct blame on Korea, for not addressing the needs of those in question -- those who have been given food, but only eat bread because of their religious faith. I have seen this journalist tactic used all too often, trying t

June 6, 2016

What the Fed should do next

If the Federal Reserve was looking for reasons not to raise interest rates when its policymaking committee meets later this month, it now has two. Today’s new and surprisingly weak U.S. employment numbers, added to investor anxiety about a possible British exit from the European Union, make a plausible case for leaving short-term interest rates unchanged.That would be a mistake. The Fed needs to step back and consider. A British exit and volatile U.S. jobs numbers notwithstanding, the balance of

June 6, 2016

[Michael Froman] Windmills fueled by winds of world trade　

When the winds of change blow, a Chinese proverb says, some people build walls and others build windmills. Given the tremendous environmental challenges the world faces, it’s not enough just to build windmills. We need to develop a range of innovative environmental technologies, and we need to break down barriers to trading them worldwide.Global trade in wind turbines, water filters and other environmental goods amounts to nearly $1 trillion annually, and it’s growing fast. But high tariffs acro

June 6, 2016

Taiwan needs more nuclear power transparency

Nuclear power plants in Taiwan are still a controversial issue, yet to have more transparency and caution toward it should be a consensus.It may be debatable whether nuclear power is a safe form of energy, but there is no question that nuclear power plants must be managed with extreme caution.A nuclear meltdown has always been a nightmarish possibility haunting what supporters argue is a clean form of energy -- at least cleaner than coal-fired electricity in terms of carbon emissions.The public’

June 6, 2016