The Korea Herald

Wave of self-immolations against Chinese rule

PRAGUE ― The grim spectacle of young monks, nuns, and lay people setting themselves on fire to protest conditions in their homeland is a stark reminder of the gloom and despair that now prevails on the Tibetan Plateau. These acts of self-immolation ― at least 36 since March 2011 ― have been staged to protest the increasingly heavy controls that China’s government in Beijing has imposed on Buddhist religious practices. At the end of May, a self-immolation occurred for the first time, in Lhasa, th

Viewpoints June 18, 2012

The German soul and the Italian volksgeist

ROME ― The romantic side of the Germanic soul has always loved the Italian volksgeist. Like Goethe, northerners have long sought to escape, if only on temporary vacations, an unforgiving ethos of prudence and discipline in search of the charming inefficiency and sensuality of Mediterranean climes and culture.The single European currency, combined with the burdens of the Bismarck-invented welfare state that faces demographic demise and competition from the rising rest around the globe, has put an

Viewpoints June 18, 2012

China must let activist Chen return home

NEW YORK ― Western media describe my friend and colleague Chen Guangcheng as a blind activist who made a flight to freedom when China allowed him to journey from Beijing to the United States. What is essential about Chen is neither his blindness nor his family’s visit to the U.S., but the fact that he upholds a vision of universal human rights, a vision that can be fully realized only when, and if, China honors its promise to allow him one day to return home.China has a history of forcing schola

Viewpoints June 17, 2012

[David Ignatius] Lebanon sitting on the edge

BEIRUT ― For a generation, Lebanese lived the nightmare of sectarian civil war. Now they are watching a similar vortex gather velocity in neighboring Syria, and many fear that Lebanon will be sucked into a conflict that nearly everyone dreads. Already, the Syrian strife is starting to bleed into Lebanon. The Akkar region in the northeast has become a transit point for medical and other relief supplies ― and the Syrian opposition hopes to use it as a staging ground for operations across the borde

Viewpoints June 17, 2012

[David Ignatius] Lebanon sitting on the edge

[George Soros] Eurozone needs banking union to stem crisis

NEW YORK ― It is now clear that the main cause of the euro crisis is the member states’ surrender of their right to print money to the European Central Bank. They did not understand just what that surrender entailed ― and neither did the European authorities.When the euro was introduced, regulators allowed banks to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds without setting aside any equity capital, and the ECB discounted all eurozone government bonds on equal terms. Commercial banks found it adva

Viewpoints June 17, 2012

[George Soros] Eurozone needs banking union to stem crisis

[Volker Perthes] When democratic powers collide

BERLIN ― The multipolar nature of today’s international system will again be on display at the upcoming G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Global problems are no longer solved, crises managed, or global rules defined, let alone implemented, the old-fashioned way, by a few, mostly Western, powers. Incipient great and middle powers, such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and South Africa, also demand their say.Some of these powers are still emerging economies. Politically, however, m

Viewpoints June 15, 2012

[Volker Perthes] When democratic powers collide

Ethnic, sectarian unrest escalates in Myanmar

The escalation of ethnic and sectarian violence in Myanmar has not only raised questions about the future of the democratic reforms in the country but also highlighted the plight of the country’s Muslim minority.The unrest in Myanmar’s Rakhine state erupted last week when around 300 Arakan Buddhists allegedly attacked a bus in which Muslims were traveling, killing 10 passengers apparently in retaliation for the rape and killing of an Arakan girl allegedly by three Rohingya suspects. The ensuing

Viewpoints June 15, 2012

[Editorial] Patients held hostage

Doctors are threatening to stop treating patients in protest against the government’s plan to introduce a mandatory fixed-rate system for seven illnesses starting July 1.Ophthalmologists have already declared they will not perform any cataract operations during the first week of next month, asserting that the new plan would cause a significant drop in the quality of their services. Obstetricians, orthopedic surgeons and otolaryngologists have also decided to temporarily stop conducting some of t

Editorial June 14, 2012

[Editorial] Key questions unanswered

The prosecution has again disappointed us by coming up almost empty-handed after three months of reinvestigation into the allegations that officials of the Prime Minister’s Office illegally spied on civilians.Prosecutors did not bother to get to the heart of the scandal, leaving many central questions unanswered. Who was the mastermind behind the illegal surveillance? How deeply was the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs involved in the affair? Had President Lee Myung-

Editorial June 14, 2012

[Ban Ki-moon] A global movement for change

Next week, world leaders gather for a momentous occasion ― the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Will it be a success? In my opinion, yes. To be sure, the negotiations have been lengthy. Even now there is more disagreement than agreement on the details of the so-called “outcome document” that will emerge. Yet that will not be the defining measure. Far more important is what the Rio conference has already accomplished. And that is to build a global movement f

Viewpoints June 14, 2012

[Ban Ki-moon] A global movement for change

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Support aid for health care as it saves lives

NEW YORK ― The critics of foreign aid are wrong. A growing flood of data shows that death rates in many poor countries are falling sharply, and that aid-supported programs for health-care delivery have played a key role. Aid works; it saves lives.One of the newest studies, by Gabriel Demombynes and Sofia Trommlerova, shows that Kenya’s infant mortality (deaths under the age of one year) has plummeted in recent years, and attributes a significant part of the gain to the massive uptake of anti-mal

Viewpoints June 14, 2012

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Support aid for health care as it saves lives

[Mark Buchanan] What traders’ testosterone tells us about markets

An unusual study of traders’ spit may offer a taste of the future in how we understand what drives markets ― and why they aren’t as stable and efficient as we might hope. Several years ago, two neuroscientists undertook an experiment on the trading floor of a major investment bank in London. Over eight consecutive business days, at both 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., John Coates and Joe Herbert took samples of saliva from the mouths of 17 traders. With these samples, taken before and after the bulk of the

Viewpoints June 14, 2012

[Mark Buchanan] What traders’ testosterone tells us about markets

Germany, not Greece, should exit the euro

All the debate about the pros and cons of a Greek exit from the euro area is missing the point: A German exit might be better for all concerned. Unless Europe’s leaders take some kind of radical action, such as adopting and executing some of the many reform ideas they have floated, the currency union is headed for disintegration. The problems of Greece, Ireland and Portugal have spread to Spain, the fourth-largest economy in the euro area. Italy is probably next. The other members of the currenc

Viewpoints June 13, 2012

[David Ignatius] Obama’s friend in Ankara

ISTANBUL ― As President Barack Obama was feeling his way in foreign policy during his first months in office, he decided to cultivate a friendship with Turkey’s headstrong prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Over the past year, this investment in Turkey has begun to pay some big dividends ― anchoring U.S. policy in a region that sometimes seems adrift. Erdogan’s clout was on display this week as he hosted a meeting here of the World Economic Forum that celebrated the stability of the “Turkish

Viewpoints June 13, 2012

[David Ignatius] Obama’s friend in Ankara

War in cyberspace and U.S. vulnerability

Reports that the U.S. and Israel have tried repeatedly over the years to derail Iran’s nuclear weapons program by using malicious computer codes to cause machines at the country’s Natanz nuclear facility to malfunction have lifted the veil of secrecy over the war unfolding on the world’s newest battlefield. The elaborately designed and executed series of cyber-attacks reportedly slowed Iran’s progress toward getting a bomb, but they also raise troubling questions about the United States’ own vul

Viewpoints June 13, 2012

Articles by Yu Kun-ha