Recently, CNNgo.com featured an article titled “12 Rules for Expat Life in Korea.” Under the phrase, “Avoid culture shock with our quick guide to acclimatizing Seoul,” the writer provides 12 survival tips with a fine sense of humor. “In Seoul, drinking on the job is in the contract,” he writes rather humorously. “Your work contract might say 9-5 but you forgot to read the fine print. Birthday part

Viewpoints June 28, 2011

PARIS ― Are women in Europe on the verge of becoming an engine for political change? In economic-development circles, experience and common sense suggest that progress, accountability and hard work start with and depend on women. Micro-credits, for example, are much more efficient when women receive and repay them. Perhaps because they bear children and must find the means to feed them, women are

Viewpoints June 27, 2011

If I had a dollar for every time a Sarah Palin supporter accused me of not taking her seriously because I’m jealous of attractive women who’ve combined powerful careers with large families, I’d be in another tax bracket, one that might encourage me to vote for Ron Paul.Now Michele Bachmann just might shut that crowd up.She’s another attractive conservative mom, and guess what? A whole lot of peopl

Viewpoints June 27, 2011

As a free-market, limited-government conservative, I find the total implosion of the Greek economy to be the most stunning example of everything I’ve ever tried to warn about in regard to socialism. Despite the rest of Europe and the International Monetary Fund promising last year to give Greece 110 billion euros over three years, the country remains in a death spiral, with its budget deficit at a

Viewpoints June 27, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Gen. John Abizaid used the phrase “the long war” to describe America’s battle with Islamic extremism after Sept. 11, 2001. When I first heard him say it in the dark days of 2004, as Iraq was spiraling downward, I had the feeling that it would last for most of our lifetimes. Behind this decades-long battle, Abizaid said, was the political modernization of the Islamic world ― the explos

Viewpoints June 26, 2011

Recently, conservative political leaders, opinion makers and mass media have been passionately debating “welfare populism” and warning of its political demagoguery and devastating effect on the national economy. The nationwide debate focuses on free meals for primary and secondary school students, a 50 percent reduction in college tuition fees and free medical services. They cite the political and

Viewpoints June 26, 2011

If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants a glimpse of his nation’s future, should he continue savagely suppressing his people’s democratic aspirations, he need only look north to Belarus, another venal dictatorship whose security forces brutalized thousands of citizens protesting a fraudulent election in December.With blood in the streets, hundreds in jail, scores more in hospitals with cracked h

Viewpoints June 24, 2011

About 30 years ago, I drove northward from Sotobo in Chiba along the coastline in Fukushima and Miyagi as far as accessible by road, passing through inland areas in Iwate to Miyako again, and went up north to the Shimokita Peninsula. The purpose was to see various cultural building properties around those regions. At that time, I did not have tsunamis in mind particularly.Now I am reminded, howeve

Viewpoints June 24, 2011