The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Blame is misplaced in deportation row

The Philippines sent a special envoy to Taipei on Monday to explain away a misunderstanding in regard to its deportation of 14 Taiwanese nationals to China rather than Taiwan for trial on fraud charges. Manuel Roxas, a former senator and confidant of Filipino President Benigno Aquino III, refused to apologize on Wednesday for what Manila calls a regrettable incident. It all started right after 24

Viewpoints Feb. 25, 2011

[Zhang Monan] Demographic dividend: A loss not to worry about

Labor shortage, previously felt in some of China’s economically developed regions, is becoming a reality in the rest of the country now. This became evident again when some inland provinces entered into a fierce battle with eastern and coastal areas for laborers shortly after lunar New Year. The supply of abundant and cheap labor, called “demographic dividend” by many, is considered one of the mos

Viewpoints Feb. 25, 2011

[Zhang Monan] Demographic dividend: A loss not to worry about

[Yang Sung-chul] The ‘homo electronicus’ revolution

The two recently fallen dictators in the Middle East, Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s dictator-president of 23 years, and Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s autocratic president of 30 years, sternly reminds us that liberty is worth fighting for. A political cataclysm is now reverberating in the region and beyond. Libya’s brutal dictator for 42 years, Moammar Gadhafi, too, is at a tipping point. So is Yemen

Viewpoints Feb. 24, 2011

[Yang Sung-chul] The ‘homo electronicus’ revolution

[Robert B. Reich] A strategy to split working Americans

The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class ― pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.By splitting working America along these lines, Rep

Viewpoints Feb. 24, 2011

[Robert B. Reich] A strategy to split working Americans

[Editorial] Next two years

According to a recent newspaper opinion poll, 44.7 percent of the respondents approved of President Lee Myung-bak’s performance in the past three years of his presidency. On the other hand, the rate of disapproval stood at 51.4 percent.Responses to another poll, this one commissioned by a business daily, were far less favorable. More than 54 percent of the respondents said they were worse off now

Editorial Feb. 23, 2011

[Editorial] Risks still high

Fear of a bank run is subsiding after the five savings banks whose capital adequacy ratios are lower than the 5 percent mark, and three other insolvent ones, were forced to suspend operations during the past two months. But the financial regulators still have much work to do before they declare the crisis over.The latest case involved a Chuncheon-based savings bank, which the Financial Services Co

Editorial Feb. 23, 2011

Taking tobacco out of the baseball game

It’s good to see the boys of summer back on the baseball field. It will be even better if more players take the field without a pinch of chewing tobacco tucked under their lower lips.Sure, that puffed-out jaw of Lenny “Nails” Dykstra will live in the memory of every Philadelphia Phillies’ fan who ever watched him tear up the base paths. And ballplayers’ chewing habit goes back more than a century,

Viewpoints Feb. 23, 2011

Kansai alliance and decentralization in Japan

The expanded Kansai regional alliance, which has the promise of becoming the first such organization to achieve efficient administration beyond prefectural boundaries, is hard at work.In this connection, there is no need to be obsessed with prefectural administrative borders in effect since the Meiji era (1868-1912). Transport conditions and the communications environment have changed drastically

Viewpoints Feb. 23, 2011

[Li Peilin] On road to balanced society

China has taken giant strides toward economic and social development. This has expedited its transformation from the previous class structure of workers, farmers, cadres and intellectuals to a more complicated one that comprises more classes and groups. To find the best way to handle and coordinate the interests of all classes and groups in today’s changed and pluralistic society and form a vigoro

Viewpoints Feb. 23, 2011

[Lee Jae-min] Return of the Machu Picchu artifacts

A foreign government suing Yale University? That is an odd combination of opponents in a legal dispute. But that is what is happening in the U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C. In December 2008, the Peruvian government filed a complaint against Yale to reclaim Machu Picchu cultural artifacts from the Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale University. The artifacts are pottery, textiles and b

Viewpoints Feb. 23, 2011

[Lee Jae-min] Return of the Machu Picchu artifacts

[Joel Brinkley] A temple and a tempest at the border

Across the Middle East and beyond, kings and dictators are quaking in their castles, afraid their people will throw them from power. All except one, that is.In Cambodia, long-time dictator Hun Sen, like his fellow potentates around the world, watched the news and figured out his own strategy. He decided to give a speech and threaten his people.“I would like to tell you that if you want to strike a

Viewpoints Feb. 23, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] A temple and a tempest at the border

[Editorial] A farcical thriller

A 50-strong Indonesian government and business delegation visited Seoul for three days last week to promote trade and cooperation in defense industry projects. The group, which included defense, industry, trade, economic planning and investment ministers, came here under an agreement between President Lee Myung-bak and Susilo Yudhoyono in Bali last December.They made a courtesy call on the Blue Ho

Editorial Feb. 22, 2011

[Editorial] Bloodshed in Libya

Moammar Gadhafi of Libya looked firmly in control when popular protests brought down the autocratic ruler in Tunisia to the west and toppled another long-running regime in Egypt to the east weeks ago. Even when angry residents of some Libyan cities stormed into the construction sites of Korean firms, injuring workers and destroying furniture, it was seen as a simple outburst of discontent at the g

Editorial Feb. 22, 2011

[Howard Davies] G20 summit and Sarkozy’s moment

LONDON ― A little more than three years ago, just as the financial crisis was getting into full swing, I published a guide to the international system of financial regulation, “Global Financial Regulation: The Essential Guide.” It described an elaborate spider’s web of committees, councils, and agencies with overlapping responsibilities, unrepresentative memberships, and inadequate enforcement pow

Viewpoints Feb. 22, 2011

[Howard Davies] G20 summit and Sarkozy’s moment

[Doyle McManus] Debt and a tough-talking governor

President Obama’s new budget contains no serious proposal for solving two of the biggest fiscal problems facing the federal government: Medicare and Social Security. And though Republican leaders in Congress are happy to take swipes at his proposals, they haven’t come up with a serious plan of their own to fix those popular programs either.But one potential Republican presidential candidate recent

Viewpoints Feb. 22, 2011

Articles by 최남현