Wong Shu Kwai’s hands are calloused from the 15 years he has spent as a dock worker, lashing containers at the world’s third-busiest port.For the past two weeks, though, they have been lying idle, twiddling on his phone or lighting cigarette after cigarette as the 49-year-old and hundreds of others wait listlessly in tents outside the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals.“We want to go back to work,” he says. “But we need Li Ka Shing to pay us what we deserve.”He and his colleagues say they drew daily

Viewpoints April 11, 2013

It never is wise to discount renewed conflict on the Korean peninsula, despite the latest brinkmanship showing a familiar pattern. If the military moves had happened in Kim Jong-il’s time, there was a reasonable predictability of a de-escalation after he was sure he had gained concessions from his interlocutors. But his young son, an enigma, now supposedly calls the shots ― and it could make all the difference.No one can claim to know if Kim Jong-un is the dominant strategist, or if he is being

Viewpoints April 11, 2013

Waste happens. Everybody knows it. Still, it is shocking to admit that we waste an estimated NT$240 billion ($7.98 billion) worth of food each year in Taiwan. Based on the Council of Agriculture’s latest figures, the local CommonWealth Magazine estimates that 17 percent of the 567 kg of food we have access to on average per person is lost or wasted every year.In other words, the Chinese-language publication points out that each person throws away about NT$10,000 per year. In Taiwan, this waste t

Viewpoints April 11, 2013

The government is reportedly rushing to take steps to protect the nation’s power grid and other critical infrastructure from possible electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) bomb attacks from North Korea.An EMP bomb is a non-lethal but highly destructive weapon that disables electrical circuits by radiating a strong electro-magnetic field. When an EMP bomb is detonated, any electrical and electronic device within a certain radius is rendered inoperative, unless it is EMP-protected.For instance, objects suc

Editorial April 10, 2013

What will it take for North Korea’s young, inexperienced leader to realize that his attempts to blackmail South Korea and its allies will not work and could instead put him on a slippery slope to ruin?As his previous provocations, such as a nuclear test and missile launches, failed to intimidate Seoul and Washington, Kim Jong-un has started to play a new card ― the shutdown of the Gaeseong industrial complex. But he should be careful what he wishes for. The closure of the complex, widely seen as

Editorial April 10, 2013

Just a few months ago, on New Year’s Day, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, gave a televised speech to the nation calling for reconciliation with the South.“The past records of inter-Korean relations,” he intoned, “show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war.” Kim added that he intended to embark on “an all-out struggle” to rejuvenate the nation’s destitute economy.That speech came shortly after the chubby new leader was photographed riding a roller coaster at Nor

Viewpoints April 10, 2013

With its provocation-a-day strategy, North Korea has almost exhausted the news media’s capacity for stories about the “ratcheting up” of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Here’s some news from the North, though, that you may not have heard: In recent meetings, the ruling Korean Workers’ Party elected Pak Pong-ju, an economic reformer, to its Political Bureau, which steers political, policy and personnel decisions, and downgraded the role of the military by reducing its representation. Subsequent

Viewpoints April 10, 2013

Margaret Thatcher was hated ― widely and passionately ― when she was U.K. prime minister, a fact that has gone largely unsaid in the encomiums that followed her death. Her polarizing nature needs to be remembered, because it defines what set her apart as a leader. Thatcher was unusual among politicians because she wasn’t first of all tactical. She didn’t shape her policies to secure the next election or to keep people happy. She didn’t triangulate. Voters accepted her not because they liked her,

Viewpoints April 9, 2013

More than any other prime minister since 1945, Margaret Thatcher changed the course of British history. In one sense, like any politician, she was a product of her times, but don’t let that mislead you: Only she could have done what she did. No other U.K. politician of her time or since has had her combination of courage and single-mindedness. To meet the challenges she faced, she needed both. While she was in office, the country’s voters never much liked her, and to their shame Britain’s chatte

Viewpoints April 9, 2013

There could never be another “Iron Lady.” That was the first thought that came to some minds today with the news that Margaret Thatcher, the U.K.’s great prime minister, had died. This is an odd reaction. Women in the developed world now routinely hold more top jobs than they did in 1975, when the 49-year-old Thatcher first assumed leadership of the Conservative Party. The No. 1 bestseller on the New York Times list is “Lean In,” by a woman holding one of the highest of those positions, Sheryl S

Viewpoints April 9, 2013