Imagine being a low-income parent in the District of Columbia. As a parent living below the federal poverty line in one of the country’s most expensive cities, the options available for your child’s education are limited.There are the D.C. Public Schools, which rank 51st in the nation on measures of academic achievement, but first in terms of school violence. And there are D.C. Public Charter Scho

Viewpoints April 12, 2011

Paul Ryan is John McCain, circa 2000, or Barack Obama in the last presidential election or Bob Strauss and Jim Baker for their entire careers: the darling of the Washington commentariat.The chairman of the House Budget Committee, who released a budget last week that calls for dramatic spending cutbacks to politically sensitive programs such as Medicare, has been called a “rebel with a cause” by th

Viewpoints April 12, 2011

When rain fell last week, workers at some potable water reservoirs were busy covering their large facilities with vinyl sheets to prevent “radioactive” rainwater from being mixed with the drinking water. Cynics remarked, “Why don’t we cover the whole Han River?” This reveals the great psychological impact Korea had from the natural disaster that hit Japan a month ago. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake

Editorial April 11, 2011

In the best-selling crime novel “Millennium Series” by Swedish journalist-writer Stieg Larsson, the heroine Lisbeth Salander freely breaks into the computers of individuals and organizations for her private investigative work and even makes a fortune by penetrating into the domain of a corrupt media magnate. She is a member of the international hacker community called the “Hacker Republic.”Technol

Editorial April 11, 2011

It will soon be one month since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck the nation on March 11. The prevailing atmosphere in Japan is one of serious and sombre jishuku (self-restraint).Various artistic activities, sports events and even traditional festivals have been canceled or postponed.A great many people died in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. An even larger number are still missing, an

Viewpoints April 11, 2011

The victory of Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly in Sunday’s runoff election for the Haitian presidency brought his supporters into the streets to celebrate what many called a complete change from the last 25 years of rule. At this point, however, that’s more wishful thinking than reality.Many obstacles stand in the way of President-elect Martelly’s supporters realizing the positive change that they s

Viewpoints April 10, 2011

Last year, when China broke off military-to-military talks after the Obama administration’s long-expected sale of defensive arms to Taiwan, a high American official asked his Chinese counterpart why China reacted so strongly to something it had accepted in the past. The answer: “Because we were weak then and now we are strong.”On a recent visit to Beijing, I asked a Chinese expert what was behind

Viewpoints April 10, 2011

These days it seems impossible to write about Detroit in measured terms. Words like “war zone,” “post-apocalyptic” and “ghost town” are often used. Stories portray it as a dystopian landscape of crumbling Gilded Age monuments, abandoned warehouses and overgrown vacant lots.Recent census data confirms that residents are moving out as fast as wildlife is moving in. A sympathetic tone of urban social

Viewpoints April 10, 2011

Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party’s proposal to give the three southernmost provinces some degree of autonomy sounded like a political campaign platform ― but on closer examination it looks more and more like a cheap ploy to win votes.What’s worse, its proponents are exploiting the sentiment of the Malay Muslims of the deep South, who deserve better.In this heavily centralized country of ours, decentrali

Viewpoints April 8, 2011

The Filipino public’s consuming interest in the execution of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain was both melodramatic and inevitable. The three drug mules were the first Filipinos to be executed by China, and their personal narratives mirrored the stories and the self-image of millions of Filipinos, as hardy but unfortunate creatures of circumstance. Little wonder, then,

Viewpoints April 8, 2011

In January, President Lee Myung-bak said there was something fishy about domestic gasoline prices. When international crude prices soared, he said, domestic prices of gasoline seemed to go up correspondingly without delay, but when crude oil costs dropped, retail gasoline prices appeared to fall slowly and by a smaller margin.The president’s comment was a signal that the government would step up p

Editorial April 7, 2011

Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, has proposed the most ambitious tax-and-spending plan that Capitol Hill has seen in years. His budget proposal for fiscal 2012 doesn’t merely seek to pare the enormous federal deficit and bring the national debt under control, which it would do much more aggressively than the plan President Obama offered in February. I

Viewpoints April 7, 2011

Old business practices die hard. For an example, look no further than the pharmaceutical industry. Some unscrupulous drug producers are unable to quit the bad habit of offering kickbacks to doctors and pharmacists to boost the sales of their products.According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, it has received more than 100 tip-offs about illegal kickbacks since November last year when the rel

Editorial April 7, 2011