The Korea Herald

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] An unbalanced IP framework

NEW YORK ― The United States Supreme Court recently began deliberations in a case that highlights a deeply problematic issue concerning intellectual-property rights. The court must answer the following question: Can human genes ― your genes ― be patented? Put another way, should someone essentially be permitted to own the right, say, to test whether you have a set of genes that imply a higher than 50 percent probability of developing breast cancer?To those outside the arcane world of intellectua

Viewpoints May 8, 2013

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] An unbalanced IP framework

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Japanese experiment requires structural reforms

NEWPORT BEACH ― After years of tweaks, Japan has now initiated a major shift in its policy paradigm, with reactions ranging from great optimism that the country may finally be lifted out of a quarter-century of economic stagnation, to concerns that the authorities’ dramatic change of course may in fact end up making things worse. But, while debate naturally focuses on Japan’s economic, financial, and political maneuvers, the tipping point could well lie abroad.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new gov

Viewpoints May 8, 2013

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Japanese experiment requires structural reforms

Malaysia’s vote is over but drama is just beginning

Judging by their giddy rally today, markets in Malaysia are beyond relieved that the country’s general elections are over. A win for the incumbent Barisan Nasional coalition, whose main party has led Malaysia since independence, appeared to promise continuity and stability. Prime Minister Najib Razak adopted a humble tone after the bitterly fought campaign, calling for “national reconciliation.” Elections in Asia, however, often prove less than decisive when the margin of victory is narrow and t

Viewpoints May 7, 2013

[Daniel Fiedler] A country without conscience?

This past week the College Board, which administers the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test, canceled the May administration of the test for the entire country of South Korea, and only for South Korea. The rest of the world took the test as scheduled. While the exact reasons were not explicitly described, an email communiqu to the applicants stated that it appeared likely that some prospective test takers here had already been exposed to some of the questions. Behind this delicate description is the f

Viewpoints May 7, 2013

[Daniel Fiedler] A country without conscience?

Commodity-price booms coming to an end

The wreckage caused by China’s great, juddering slowdown continues to spread far beyond the country’s shores. Although most commodities enjoyed a bounce on May 3, after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, the plunge in their prices over the past few months suggests the past decade’s rally is truly broken. For those of us not in the mining industry, this is actually good news ― one of the best signs yet that the global economy is returning to normal. China’s voracious demand for every conc

Viewpoints May 7, 2013

Giffords’ new life as scourge of gun violence

Gabrielle Giffords received a Profile in Courage award this weekend at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. The award is fitting, though she is displaying a different kind of courage than was celebrated by the late president in his 1957 best-selling book. In 2011, the Arizona congresswoman was gravely injured when she was shot in the head by a deranged gunman at a Tucson political event, where six people were killed. Giffords has undergone an excruciating rehabilitation and had to resign her H

Viewpoints May 7, 2013

[Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates] Toward an immunized world

ABU DHABI/NEW YORK ― For a child, receiving a vaccine takes just a moment (and perhaps a few tears). But such moments are crucial for getting children off to a healthy start in life, and for advancing progress on global health and development goals.Along with Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, we attach great importance to the world’s first global summit, being held this week in Abu Dhabi, aimed at ensuring that all children have access to the full benefits of vac

Viewpoints May 6, 2013

[Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates] Toward an immunized world

[Editorial] Cheating on tests

A group of unethical college prep schools in southern Seoul has brought shame on the nation by allegedly helping students who were preparing to get into U.S. universities cheat on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.They are suspected of having provided students with SAT questions, which they have obtained through illegal means. This has led the U.S. College Board, a nonprofit organization that administers the exam, to cancel the May test in Korea, which was slated for last Saturday.Korea has fallen in

Editorial May 6, 2013

[Editorial] New opposition leader

The main opposition Democratic Party, which was called the Democratic United Party until last week, has elected Rep. Kim Han-gil as its new leader. By picking a non-mainstreamer as its new chairman, the party held the fractious mainstream faction accountable for the successive election defeats it has suffered since last April.The Saturday leadership election was a two-way race between Kim, a seasoned politician in his fourth term as lawmaker, and Rep. Lee Yong-sup, the unified candidate of the m

Editorial May 6, 2013

The rogue rapporteur of the United Nations

If you’re looking for someone to loathe, I have a strong candidate to offer: Richard Falk, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s “special rapporteur” for the Palestinians.Falk has pursued a long and, shall I say, controversial career since he retired from Princeton University 12 years ago. But he capped it off last week when he wrote that victims of the Boston Marathon bombing had it coming because the United States is “a menace to the world and to itself.” He added: “Should we not all be me

Viewpoints May 6, 2013

Five major hindrances to counterterrorism efforts

PARIS ― In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, it’s only natural to ask why some terrorists are only caught after they’ve inflicted carnage on innocent civilians. What went wrong?Here are a few significant reasons why authorities still manage to miss terrorism until it’s too late:1. It doesn’t help that U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper understated the threat when he told Congress in March that counterterrorism efforts “have degraded core al-Qaida to a point that the grou

Viewpoints May 6, 2013

Syria turns into an enclave for extremism

LONDON ― As Syria’s civil war has progressed, the West’s views on arming the opposition have become increasingly confused, which reflects the growing muddle on the ground. While President Bashar al-Assad’s regime remains vicious and tyrannical, and some of its opponents’ motives remain altruistic, the conflict can no longer be defined simply as one of good versus evil.No unified, patriotic Syrian opposition has existed since extremists hijacked the peaceful protests in 2011. Indeed, some opposit

Viewpoints May 6, 2013

[Brahma Chellaney] China flexes muscles by seizing Indian territory

NEW DELHI ― Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China Seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier. On the night of April 15, a People’s Liberation Army platoon stealthily intruded near the China-India-Pakistan tri-junction, established a camp 19 kilometers inside Indian-controlled territory, and presented India’s gove

Viewpoints May 6, 2013

[Brahma Chellaney] China flexes muscles by seizing Indian territory

‘Abenomics’ meets curse of second 100 days

The accomplishments of the first 100 days in office are a favorite benchmark for democratic leaders. It’s thought to offer a preview of his or her worldview, ambition and political fortune. So, viewed through this lens, just how is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doing? Abe’s 100-day mark came and went on April 4, the same day his new Bank of Japan governor shocked markets with one of the most aggressive monetary jolts in history. Suddenly, Japan was in the international news for the right re

Viewpoints May 5, 2013

[Robert Reich] Xenophobia rises again in U.S.

The Boston Marathon bombing has brought out the xenophobes.Often when America suffers some large, inexplicable tragedy, we want to blame “foreigners” and look for ways to fortify ourselves against them. It’s more reassuring to believe that an evil lies outside our borders ― in “them” ― than to face the possibility that it’s randomly among us.And like the communist scare before it, the so-called “war on terror” ― a war without end ― offers a convenient means of targeting the source as a foreign m

Viewpoints May 5, 2013

[Robert Reich] Xenophobia rises again in U.S.

Articles by Yu Kun-ha