Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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History will judge Obama on actions, not words
PARIS ― History judges a leader exclusively through his actions and their ultimate results rather than through fleeting words. It appears that U.S. President Barack Obama is finally putting the brakes on his mouth after flooring it down Hope-and-Change Highway for most of his tenure.Remember the Syrian crisis that dominated chatter for months before all but vanishing? Recall how critics were talking about grievous incompetence and even possible impeachment? Fast-forward to today, and just try to
Nov. 8, 2013
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[William Pesek] China is choking on its success
Walking through Beijing’s Tiananmen Square last week, a German family of five surrounded me, all wearing large face masks and sunglasses. They weren’t robbing me, just asking me to take their photo. When I yelled the customary “Say ‘cheese,’” the dad joked: “We are smiling under here.”Only China’s pollution bubble is no laughing matter, and tourists tell the story. Thanks to extreme air pollution, foreign arrivals plunged by roughly 50 percent in the first three-quarters of the year. Beijing cou
Nov. 7, 2013
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Middle East turmoil finally catches up with Tunisia
While nearly every one of the nations caught up in the Arab Spring since 2011 still suffered and seethed, for a long time Tunisia, the birthplace of the revolts, stood head and shoulders above the rest with a moderate leader and a relatively peaceful, prosperous state.Middle East experts lauded Tunisia as an example for its neighbors. A Foreign Affairs magazine article early this fall carried the headline: “Tunisia’s Lessons for the Middle East.” Another magazine article last summer called Tunis
Nov. 7, 2013
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[Salim Osman] Why political dynasties persist in Indonesia
During Indonesia’s Suharto years from 1966 to 1998, a joke making the rounds in Jakarta had it that the most important qualification to become president was having past experience as a president.Since the only person with presidential experience was the incumbent Suharto, he was re-elected without challenge at every election during the New Order. No one dared step forward to offer himself as candidate. Political power remained concentrated in the hands of one man for three decades.The sheer leng
Nov. 7, 2013
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The Philippines becomes more business-friendly
Efforts to make it easier for investors to do business in the Philippines are finally starting to pay off. The World Bank and its investment arm, International Finance Corp., released last week the 2014 Doing Business global rankings, with the Philippines posting the most significant jump among the 189 countries covered by the study ― 30 rungs, from 138th in the 2013 rankings to 108th in the latest.This remarkable rise is attributed to key reforms that made it easier for businesses to get credit
Nov. 7, 2013
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Amnesty reflects the how and why of Thai crisis
This is what we were talking about ― the manner in which the “amnesty bill” has been rewritten for just one man and then rushed through the House of Representatives. This is why the term “abuse of democratic mandate” was invented and then unfortunately mistaken as an effort by “coup apologists” to defend all the things that happened to Thaksin Shinawatra. This is why the Thai democracy is so associated with corruption, so much so that we can never be sure which one is the real driving force.This
Nov. 7, 2013
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[David Ignatius] The shape of an Iran deal
WASHINGTON ― As the Obama administration moves into a decisive stage of nuclear negotiations with Iran, officials are considering a two-step process that would begin with a freeze and modest rollback of Iranian enrichment of uranium, matched by a limited easing of U.S.-led economic sanctions on Tehran. Officials hope this first phase would be followed later by a comprehensive agreement that would lift all sanctions in return for a verifiable halt in Iranian nuclear weapons capability. This secon
Nov. 6, 2013
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In the real world, everyone spies on everyone else
I guess it’s not surprising that nobody in Berlin got the joke Barack Obama told on his visit in 2008, when he pledged to a wildly cheering crowd that his election would mean a new era of “allies who will listen to each other.” True, the president’s sense of comic timing needs some fine-tuning: It took five years for him to deliver the punch line ― that he’d be doing his listening on an NSA tap of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s cell phone. But give him a break ― it took three seasons befo
Nov. 6, 2013
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[Andres Oppenheimer] Litigation imposes drag on growth
There are many reasons why potentially-rich Latin American nations are growing at a slower pace than their Asian counterparts but one of the least noticed factors ― and one in need of urgent attention ― is that a Latin American may grow old before being able to enforce a business contract in many countries of the region.A new study by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation, titled “Doing Business 2014,” provides a ranking of the world’s countries with the most cumbersome liti
Nov. 6, 2013
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Risk of reading Bible through modern diagnostics
How did David defeat Goliath? According to the Bible, it was because God was on his side. But according to Malcolm Gladwell, it was largely because Goliath had a disorder known as acromegaly, a tumor on the pituitary gland.This disorder, identified in the late 19th century, manifests as gigantism, and it may affect vision. Gladwell lays out his case in his new book, “David and Goliath.” Acromegaly could account for Goliath’s unusual size, he writes, and the vision problems it can cause could exp
Nov. 6, 2013
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Primary care technician will see you now
One obvious way to address the shortage of primary medical care in the U.S. is to train more people who can provide it. Even if this could somehow happen overnight, though, it wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem: Only 1 in 4 medical-school graduates goes into primary care (the least lucrative area of medicine), and no more than half of nurses and physician assistants do.Just as important, those who do practice general medicine are rarely drawn to work in the rural and inner-city areas where p
Nov. 6, 2013
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Change voting laws before Constitution
In shutting down the government, Congress reached a new level of dysfunction. While many pundits castigated individuals and parties, others more insightfully focused on institutional rules, such as the role of gerrymandering, closed primaries and campaign spending.Others went further. Comparative politics scholar Juan Linz famously demonstrated that presidential democracies are prone to dysfunction, which the United States has largely avoided by having big tent parties that are “diffuse” and all
Nov. 6, 2013
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[Bennett Ramberg] Iran’s nuclear quandary
LOS ANGELES ― When the United States and its allies resume talks over Iran’s nuclear program on Nov. 7-8, the vexing task of crafting Iran’s recent proposal into an enduring agreement will begin in earnest. There are many obstacles to an agreement, but among the least examined is the legacy of nuclear-disarmament efforts involving Libya and North Korea. Both cases raise issues that neither Iran nor the U.S. wants to see repeated ― but that both will have difficulty avoiding.For the U.S., North K
Nov. 5, 2013
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Internet adoptions should be shut down
If you’re desperate for a child or desperate to be rid of one, the Internet is here to help. You can save time, avoid bureaucratic interference and escape the prying eyes of child welfare busybodies. Yes, it’s every bit as awful as it sounds. But it’s true.Illinois, we are told, has some of the strongest adoption laws in the nation. But those laws “are not enough to stem the horrible practice of ‘re-homing’ adopted children who are in perilous circumstances,” according to state Rep. Sara Feigenh
Nov. 5, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] Confusing Austria with Australia
Until the mid-20th century, Korea was a secluded country largely isolated from the rest of the world. Naturally, the Korean people were unaware of international affairs and situations. Even after the Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty in China in 1644, for example, Korean politicians still stubbornly refused to acknowledge the Qing Dynasty. They even built a monument for the Ming Dynasty inside the king’s palace even though the Ming court no longer existed. Historians say that such actions s
Nov. 5, 2013
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Signs of hope despite U.S. drag on economy
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Washington right now represents far and away the most significant drag on the economy’s growth. This seems obvious given Congress’ recent behavior, which produced to a 16-day government shutdown and threats to default on the nation’s debt.Yet it is also important to consider why Washington is such an impediment to growth. And if we think it through, the picture appears less bleak, and even surprisingly hopeful.Washington affects the economy most direct
Nov. 5, 2013
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India shouldn’t buy what Japan is selling
An obsession with nuclear power makes many political elites secretive, ruthless and delusional, even as their cherished projects threaten millions of people with disaster. But the egregious examples I have in mind here aren’t Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. They are Japan and India, two countries with democratic institutions.Last week in the south Indian city of Pondicherry, I met a friend who had managed to penetrate the security lockdown around Kudankulam, the Russian-built nuclear power stati
Nov. 5, 2013
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[David Ignatius] More chatter than needed
WASHINGTON ― Several years ago, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, an in-house think tank for the intelligence community, launched what is known as the “Good Judgment Project.” The idea is to test through forecasting competitions the factors that lead analysts to make good predictions. One of the most interesting findings, according to a participant in the project, is that forecasting accuracy doesn’t necessarily improve when analysts have access to highly classified signals i
Nov. 4, 2013
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Military action needed to end Syrian horror
RIYADH ― No issue in the world today is of greater immediate importance than the need to end the civil war in Syria. The past two and a half years have been a disaster for peace, stability, and our sense of common humanity. Gut-wrenching images of unspeakable, indiscriminate violence against civilians have shocked the world. According to the latest United Nations estimates, more than 100,000 Syrians, including many children, have lost their lives as a result of the criminal behavior of Bashar al
Nov. 4, 2013
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[Naomi Wolf] Fair Food Program changes lives of tomato pickers
NEW YORK ― The last fast-food hamburger you ate may have cost you next to nothing. But what did the tomato slice on that burger cost the worker who got it there? Almost anywhere in the world ― including in the United States ― the cost can be shockingly high.Appalling wages are just the start. In Florida, tomato pickers earn an average of just $0.50 for every 32-pound (14.5-kilogram) bucket. A worker who picks all day ― backbreaking labor that starts before dawn ― is lucky to earn $10,500 a year,
Nov. 4, 2013