The Korea Herald

[David Ignatius] High stakes, ‘blood money’ in Lahore

WASHINGTON ― One way out of the mess surrounding the Jan. 27 arrest in Lahore of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, say senior U.S. and Pakistani officials, is a Muslim ritual for resolving disputes known as “blood money.” This approach would require a prominent Islamic intermediary ― perhaps from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates ― who would invite relatives of the two men Davis killed to the G

Viewpoints March 6, 2011

[David Ignatius] High stakes, ‘blood money’ in Lahore

[Editorial] No to airport plan

Until recently, the nation had 19 airports in operation. But the government had to close four of them during the 2002-07 period because they did not handle enough flights. Only a few others are faring any better than those four. But they are somehow in operation, wasting tens of billions of won in taxpayers’ money each year.A case in point is Muan international airport that opened in South Jeolla

Editorial March 6, 2011

[Jiang Liping] How to combat water scarcity in China

Water resources management, highlighted in the No 1 central document issued in January, will in all probability be discussed at the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Water resources management is very important for China because the per capita availability of water in the country is about one-third of the world average. Pe

Viewpoints March 6, 2011

[Gregory Rodriguez] A conglomeration of U.S. tax incentives

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what your country has done for you lately.With apologies to John F. Kennedy, that’s what concerned citizens should be doing to get their heads around the debate in Washington about the appropriate size and role of government.Despite how riveted we are by Washington blood sports, average citizens don’t always understand what “government” means. That’s n

Viewpoints March 6, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] Asia’s chains that bind manufacturing

TOKYO ― Asian manufacturers have always migrated in search of cheaper labor. Until recently, China seemed their ultimate destination, claiming an ever larger share of investment by Asia’s huge production networks. But three developments in China ― rising wage inflation, the coming of a new five-year plan that will seek to shift dramatically the Chinese economy’s focus from exports to domestic cons

Viewpoints March 6, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] Asia’s chains that bind manufacturing

Push for energy-efficient growth in China

As the world’s second largest economy, China’s continuous and concrete efforts to raise its energy efficiency are important not only for itself, but for the world. That China has managed to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 19.06 percent between 2006 and 2010 on the 2005 levels is a cause for both optimism and caution. It is encouraging to see that the Chinese economy ha

Viewpoints March 4, 2011

Take a no-fly zone in Libya off the table

No one doubts the importance of U.S. action to end the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. Unlike Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose overthrow inspired a resistance movement in Libya, Gadhafi has made war on his own people. The United States’ response has been muscular, if delayed. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton explicitly have called for Gadhafi’s removal, a dramatic de

Viewpoints March 4, 2011

[Khaled Mattawa] Shaking off the fear in Libya

On April 7, 1977, members of the revolutionary committees had plastered a poster of Moammar Gadhafi’s image on my father’s car. On that same day they had, under the dictator’s direct supervision, publicly hanged several dissidents in Benghazi.On the day of the execution, the Ghibli winds blowing from the desert filled the air with dust and turned the sky into a reddish-gray canopy. I’d taken a bus

Viewpoints March 4, 2011

We are suffering pain without purpose

BERKELEY ― Three times in my life (so far), I have concluded that my understanding of the world was substantially wrong. The first time was after the passage in 1994 of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), when the flow of finance to Mexico to build factories to export to the largest consumer market in the world was overwhelmed by the flow of capital headed to the United States in searc

Viewpoints March 4, 2011

Japan’s 2011 budget faced with hurdles

The Democratic Party of Japan and its junior coalition partner People’s New Party managed to pass the fiscal 2011 92.411 trillion yen budget through the Lower House early Tuesday morning. The opposition-controlled Upper House is certain to vote down the budget. But the budget will be enacted anyhow. Article 60 of the Constitution says that the budget will be enacted within 30 days of being sent to

Viewpoints March 4, 2011

[Editorial] Debt and income

Household debt is at an alarmingly high level. Worse still, interest payments are growing three times as fast as disposable income. But there are few signs indicating that the debt burden will shrink anytime soon. On the contrary, interest rates are rising as inflationary pressure is increasing.According to a recent report from the Bank of Korea, household debt, including purchases on credit, stoo

Editorial March 3, 2011

[Editorial] Deplorable act

Those who have passed the state-run judicial examination are required to complete a two-year training course at the Judicial Research Training Institute before entering the legal profession. With the judicial examination being replaced by the Korean bar examination administered for law school graduates, the training at the institute is set to continue during a transitional period lasting until 201

Editorial March 3, 2011

[Peter Singer] Global justice and military intervention

MELBOURNE ― The world has watched in horror as Libya’s Colonel Muammar el-Gadhafi uses his military to attack protesters opposed to his rule, killing hundreds or possibly thousands of unarmed civilians. Many of his own men have refused to fire on their own people, instead defecting to the rebels or flying their planes to nearby Malta, so Gadhafi has called in mercenaries from neighboring countries

Viewpoints March 3, 2011

[Peter Singer] Global justice and military intervention

[Hans-Werner Sinn] Why European Union needs automatic haircuts

MUNICH ― Having already agreed to double the AAA-rated lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility, the special fund created by eurozone states to provide assistance to troubled member economies, European Union countries are now discussing the conditions under which the EFSF’s funds will be made available. The crucial issue is the extent to which creditors will have to participat

Viewpoints March 3, 2011

[Hans-Werner Sinn] Why European Union needs automatic haircuts

Consequences of Mideast democratic tsunami

In recent weeks, dictators across the Middle East and North Africa must have been afflicted with a severe case of agoraphobia ― the morbid fear of open spaces. After all, the groundswell of antigovernment protests have all occurred in squares ― Tunis’ Nov. 7 Square, Cairo’s Tahrir Square and, more recently, Tripoli’s Green Square.By far, Libya’s experience has been the most tragic. On Tuesday, Col

Viewpoints March 2, 2011

Articles by 최남현