The bloody images coming out of Egypt invite Americans to pick white hats and black hats: to punish the generals who staged a coup and, rather than listen to American pleas for restraint, killed many demonstrators. Or to hold our noses and work to restore a democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, no matter how much we disagree with his Islamist agenda.In determining what America should do, there’s no satisfying answer. But there is an obvious one: The U.S. shou

Viewpoints Aug. 22, 2013

The pork barrel scam ― whose intricate web of ghost projects, fictitious beneficiaries, and fake nongovernment organizations is unraveling before the nation’s eyes ― is a good example of a “discrepant event.”This is a term used in science education to refer to something that happens contrary to expectation, a phenomenon without a visible cause, begging for explanation. I think we may use the concept to describe the kind of governance we have ― a way of doing things for which no one takes respons

Viewpoints Aug. 22, 2013

It is beyond imagination more than 100 officials and staff are under investigation for allegedly embezzling public money after a probe into the Henan branch of the China Grain Reserve Corporation.The probe was launched after the branch’s head fled to the United States last year with money he had embezzled.The Henan branch of the grain reserve reported to the higher authorities that they had bought a certain amount of fresh grain to keep in reserve and sold the grain they had in storage. They the

Viewpoints Aug. 22, 2013

An increasing number of young people are so obsessed with using smartphones and computers that their health and schoolwork are being undermined. Prompt measures should be taken at school and home to deal with this problem.According to a recent survey by a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry research team, about 520,000 middle and high school students are addicted to the Internet, particularly for online gaming and e-mailing.The survey shows that 9 percent of middle school students and 14 percent

Viewpoints Aug. 22, 2013

The new regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning up the heat on corruption there, and is making sure you can read all about it. Stories of graft, official excess and corporate malfeasance abound, not only in foreign news outlets but also in China’s emboldened domestic publications and social media.Xi, who took office in March, has responded aggressively to public complaints about official misconduct. He has denounced corruption as a threat to the existence of his ruling Communist Party.

Viewpoints Aug. 21, 2013

Climate change presents two distinct problems. The first is linear: A little more warming causes a little more damage. The second is nonlinear: A little more warming pushes some part of the climate system past a tipping point and the damage becomes catastrophic.We need smart climate policies that address both problems, so we can slow incremental damage while also taking out an insurance policy against the growing risk of catastrophic damage.The Arctic is a prime example of a potential tipping po

Viewpoints Aug. 21, 2013

The benefits of technology are pervasive. We are flooded with the fruits of technological progress ― the iPad, iPod, electronic gadgets like smartphones, smart TVs, etc. The spread of technical progress is like a double-edged sword, creating winners and losers. The Schumpeterian perspective on technological progress under capitalism is well discussed in economics where it endangers creative destruction. Recently, in a book by Evgeny Morozov named “To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Tec

Viewpoints Aug. 21, 2013

Education is said to be a project that requires a far-sighted plan spanning at least a hundred years. Unfortunately, in Korea, education has been a very hit-and-miss affair. Policy flip-flops have been frequent, confusing students, parents and teachers.The latest case in point involves autonomous private high schools, which are, together with Meister vocational high schools, symbolic of the preceding Lee Myung-bak government’s educational policy.Autonomous private schools refer to private school

Editorial Aug. 20, 2013

Only two days are left before the parliamentary probe into the National Intelligence Service’s alleged intervention in the December presidential election comes to an end. Yet there are few signs that the long drawn-out political standoff is thawing.If anything, partisan gridlock is likely to deepen as the main opposition Democratic Party is threatening to step up its fight for NIS reform even after the parliamentary investigation ends.Some DP lawmakers are calling for the appointment of an indep

Editorial Aug. 20, 2013

Of all the reporting trips I made in my Washington days, flying with Lawrence Summers to Beijing so he could kiss Zhu Rongji’s ring ranks among the most fascinating. Anyone who has spent inside of five minutes with Summers knows he’s not the groveling type. But this was in January 1998, when Summers was deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and Bill Clinton’s White House feared China would devalue the yuan and toss more fuel onto Asia’s already blazing crisis. As we landed in Beijing, Zhu, Chin

Viewpoints Aug. 20, 2013