Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear energy is a monumental policy shift that might threaten the competitiveness of the German industry.The country’s coalition government decided Monday to abolish all of its 17 nuclear reactors by 2022. Older nuclear reactors built before 1980, which have already been taken off the grid, will remain offline permanently. The remaining nine reactors will be phased

Viewpoints June 10, 2011

Philippine President Aquino told reporters in Brunei last week that a military confrontation between the Philippines and China would be “no contest.” In terms of military strength, China has “a great advantage,“ he said. “Even in a boxing match, there’s one and half billion of them, (while) we are barely 100 million.”All true, of course. But stating the obvious seems totally unnecessary and counte

Viewpoints June 10, 2011

Media reports that the prices of new homes in major Chinese cities are plummeting at double-digit rates amount to nothing more than bunkum and wishful thinking. Admittedly, shrinking sales of new apartments can be observed in most Chinese cities nowadays. But this is just a possible harbinger, not evidence, that property prices have begun to drop. China’s rocketing housing prices are so unpopular

Viewpoints June 10, 2011

The Pentagon is developing a new cyberwarfare strategy that calls for the use of military force ― including conventional weapons ― in response to certain kinds of damaging online attacks on U.S. institutions. That’s fine in theory; if foreign agents launch a cyberattack on, say, the nation’s electrical grid, it may be both reasonable and proportionate to fire missiles at, say, the attacker’s energ

Viewpoints June 9, 2011

The editorial in The Korea Herald, June 7, 2011, states that “The spreading of English-only lectures in Korean universities is likely to slow, as presidents and deans have concluded that they have been largely ineffective because of the unpreparedness from both professors and students.” This is not forward thinking in a global society that embraces English as the language of science and business.

Viewpoints June 9, 2011

Pretend you’re Darmin Nasution, Indonesia’s central bank governor, and inflation is running at about 6 percent. Do you raise interest rates or cut them? This isn’t a trick question, but one facing Asia’s monetary authorities as they brace for a possible third round of U.S. quantitative easing, an effort by the central bank to get more money into the economy. No matter what Federal Reserve official

Viewpoints June 8, 2011

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced his bid for reelection. In a news conference held in New York on Monday, he disclosed that he had asked the 192 member countries of the world body to consider him for a second five-year term. His current term ends Dec. 31.Wire reports say Ban’s reelection is virtually assured, as he faces no opponents and has the backing of the five veto-wielding me

Editorial June 8, 2011

The confrontation between lawmakers and prosecutors over the fate of the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has taken a new turn following the presidential office’s opposition to the parliamentary bid to scrap the powerful investigation unit.The presidential office advocated on Monday the continued existence of the CID, saying that the prosecution needs a strong in

Editorial June 8, 2011

America’s education-reform movement ― the most significant social movement of our time ― is just completing another productive school year, with hundreds of districts beefing up accountability and standards. Amid grim news about budget cuts, the year brought new awareness that relying on seniority alone in determining teacher layoffs is mindless. It’s like saying that if the Chicago Bulls wanted t

Viewpoints June 8, 2011

The protests in Inner Mongolia were the result of an unfortunate mixture of economic and ethnic grievances, which spilled into public protests after a Mongol herder was run over while trying to block a convoy of coal trucks coming in from the grasslands.The fatality galvanized latent discontent over the mining industry’s penetration of the region. Critics see this as resource exploitation that deg

Viewpoints June 7, 2011

What annoys you? Traffic jams, car alarms, flight delays, phone trees, junk mail? People who cut in line? People who talk loudly on cellphones? People who eat noisily and clip their nails in public? You’re not alone. These are just some of the irksome things we confront daily.Since annoyances are ubiquitous, and so many people are annoyed so much of the time, you might think that science could off

Viewpoints June 7, 2011

The spreading of English-only lectures in Korean universities is likely to slow, as presidents and deans have concluded that they have largely been ineffective because of unpreparedness from both professors and students. In a symposium on the efficiency of English-speaking lectures at Yonsei University last week, the participants agreed on the need to make more use of English in university classes

Editorial June 6, 2011

The U.S. government is reported to have designated Sung Kim, the special envoy to the six-party denuclearization talks, as new ambassador to Seoul. If the Senate endorses and Seoul accepts him, Kim will become the first U.S. ambassador of Korean descent in the 129-year history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.In Seoul, he will represent the national interest of the United States.

Editorial June 6, 2011

Last week, tens of thousands of Israelis flocked to Jerusalem to celebrate the anniversary of the unification of the city in the Six-Day War. They gave us locals the usual traffic jams, they sang the praises of Jerusalem at the top of their lungs and then they went away, leaving us struggling with the realities of our city, which are becoming more complex every year.Jerusalem has always invoked de

Viewpoints June 6, 2011