Most Popular
-
1
'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
-
2
Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
-
3
Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
-
4
Indonesia’s KF-21 fighter jet deal cut back -- what’s next?
-
5
[KH Explains] Can tech firms' AI alliances take on Nvidia?
-
6
Police seek arrest warrant for med student who killed girlfriend
-
7
Local filmmakers criticize ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ monopoly of screens
-
8
[Grace Kao, Meera Choi] Has money displaced romance on dates?
-
9
Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
-
10
Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
-
[Meghan Daum] Obama and the single girl
As if it weren’t enough that Lena Dunham, the 26-year-old writing/directing/acting phenom who started a revolution this year with her HBO series “Girls,” scored a $3.5-million book deal and has been granted the unofficial but unimpeachable title of “voice of her generation,” she also appears to have won the presidential election ― or at least to have been one of the driving forces behind the guy who did.In a much-talked-about campaign video for the president, Dunham used her signature combinatio
Nov. 12, 2012
-
[Peter Singer] America’s flawed election and ethical benchmarks
PRINCETON ― No doubt many people around the world, if not most, breathed a sigh of relief over the reelection of U.S. President Barack Obama. A BBC World service poll of 21 countries found a strong preference for Obama everywhere except Pakistan. Joy over the election’s outcome, however, should not blind us to its failure to meet a series of ethical benchmarks for democratic choice.According to the U.S.-based Center for Responsive Politics, spending on the election ― for President and Congress,
Nov. 12, 2012
-
Cooperation required in Obama’s second act
Second terms have rarely been kind to American presidents.Our last two-term leader, George W. Bush, ended his tenure with a financial crash so disastrous that his own party has tried to erase him from memory. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton, was more successful, but he still spent much of his second term enmeshed in a sex scandal and battling impeachment.Even our greatest modern presidents had rocky second terms: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan are all revered more
Nov. 11, 2012
-
[Jonathan Schell] Mitt Romney’s reality check
NEW YORK ― There is a kind of war underway in the United States nowadays between fact and fantasy. President Barack Obama’s reelection marked a victory, limited but unmistakable, for the cause of fact.Events in the days leading up to America’s presidential election provided a stark illustration of the struggle. Among senior aides to Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a belief developed that he was on the cusp of victory. Their conviction had no basis in poll results. Nevertheless, the feeling gr
Nov. 11, 2012
-
Mr. Xi, tear down this firewall!
This week’s meeting in Beijing of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which will inaugurate a new slate of leaders, has not exactly brought a golden dawn of free expression. In addition to cracking down on all forms of media, China’s creatively paranoid security forces are on the lookout for threats such as taxi passengers carrying pingpong balls that they might slip through windows to deliver subversive messages. Such off-the-wall measures, however, usefully highlight on
Nov. 11, 2012
-
Tyrant’s leverage wanes without Cognac Pipeline
One would be hard-pressed to accuse South Korea’s Park Geun-hye of holding a grudge. The presidential candidate wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to improve relations if she wins next month’s presidential election. That’s mighty big of Park, considering North Korean agents killed her mother in a 1974 assassination attempt on her father when he led the South. It’s also a heartening sign for this increasingly unhinged world of ours. Park, 60, is the ruling party’s nominee and outpollin
Nov. 11, 2012
-
Late works reveal maturing of artistic visions
“Does one grow wiser with age,” Edward Said ponders in the book “On Late Style” (2006); “and are there unique qualities of perception and form,” he continues, “that artists acquire as a result of age in the late phase of their career?” Usually, Said argues, we think of late artistic works as the crowning achievements of a career; works that exude resolution, serenity, harmony. Old age is accompanied by an acute awareness that the late artistic work is at the same time the artist’s final word; a
Nov. 11, 2012
-
Afghanistan project is money ill-spent
Now it can be told: United States government auditors are finally acknowledging that Afghan security forces will be incapable of defending the nation from the Taliban after Western forces withdraw in 2014.What does this mean? The Taliban, obviously determined to return to power, will most certainly retake most of the nation. The hapless Afghan army will probably just run away. That’s what it did almost as soon as the Soviet Union, the last foreign occupier, pulled out.Does that mean the U.S. has
Nov. 9, 2012
-
[Robert B. Reich] The new American civil war
The vitriol is worse than I ever recall. Worse than the Palin-induced smarm of 2008. Worse than the swift-boat lies of 2004. Worse, even, than the anything-goes craziness of 2000 and its ensuing bitterness.It’s almost a civil war. I know families in which close relatives are no longer speaking. A dating service says Democrats won’t even consider going out with Republicans, and vice versa. My email and Twitter feeds contain messages from strangers I wouldn’t share with my granddaughter.What’s goi
Nov. 9, 2012
-
ASEM forum is a chance to foster cooperation
Asian and European leaders meeting in Vientiane this week have an opportunity for frank discussion on inter-regional issues of concernThe Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) this week in Laos will mark a good opportunity for leaders to discuss political and economic cooperation and a future direction so that the two regions can work constructively together.The meeting this year is held against the backdrop of many incidents that will shape the future of inter-regional cooperation, including the ongoing c
Nov. 8, 2012
-
Japanese offices lack awareness of critical fiscal condition
Central government offices, it appears, are unaware that state finances are in a critical situation.This is the only deduction that can be made from an annual Board of Audit report on government accounts for fiscal 2011, which lists inappropriate government spending. A total of 529.6 billion yen in state funds were misused, the second-highest on record.The report found 89 sewage treatment plants across the country were being poorly operated after being built with subsidies from the Land, Infrast
Nov. 8, 2012
-
[William Choong] Korea needs more than Gangnam Style to go global
There is something special about inviting a group of foreign journalists to your country, and showing them the key challenges of the national agenda.Last month, Arirang TV ― the BBC-like global news network of South Korea ― invited 18 foreign journalists to the country to explore wide-ranging issues such as Korean unification, the threat of North Korea and South Korea’s economic development.If Arirang TV had hoped that the journalists from countries such as Peru, Russia and Singapore would provi
Nov. 8, 2012
-
[Changyong Rhee] Asia’s stifled service sector
MANILA ― The eurozone crisis has dominated discussion among policymakers over the last few years, but the economic slowdown in Asia’s two giants ― the People’s Republic of China and India ― has become a source of growing public concern as well. How worried should we be about an additional drag on the global economy?After years of double-digit GDP growth, the PRC’s economy is decelerating. At the Asian Development Bank, we predict that its growth will slow to 7.7 percent this year, from 9.3 perce
Nov. 7, 2012
-
China’s future uncertain under its nervous regime
If you’re in Beijing this week, there are some things that you may not find. Balloons or ping-pong balls, CNN on the TV in your hotel workout room, taxi windows that roll down and dissidents.These are not random shortages. They are targets of a government crackdown aimed at preventing the slightest disruption of its 18th Communist Party Congress, which has the task of approving new leaders for the world’s biggest nation.The party is fearful of balloons and ping-pong balls because they could carr
Nov. 7, 2012
-
China’s ‘$2.7 billion problem’ says everything
Savvy investors eyeing the next big thing in China should consider cigarettes, nicotine gum and cancer-treatment providers. That is the upshot of a new Brookings Institution report that raises burning questions about the family of Li Keqiang. He is expected to be named China’s next premier at a Communist Party congress that began on Thursday. Li’s brother, Li Keming, is deputy director at China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which dominates an industry that some health officials estima
Nov. 7, 2012
-
Bombing in Beirut shows winds of change
The people of Beirut imagined the worst when they heard a sudden loud, ground-shaking blast shatter the daily hum of the charming Ashrafieh neighborhood a couple of weeks ago.When they found out that a powerful car bomb had killed Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, the country’s top intelligence official ― despised by Iran, Syria, and their Lebanese allies, Hezbollah ― they had a pretty good idea who had carried out the assassination. Syria and its allies have a long track record of killing their Lebanese e
Nov. 7, 2012
-
[Mohamed A. El-Erian] The other financial crisis less in the spotlight
NEWPORT BEACH ― Two variants of financial crisis continue to wreak havoc on Western economies, fueling joblessness and poverty: the one that we read about regularly in newspapers, involving governments around the world; and a less visible one at the level of small and medium-size businesses and households. Until both are addressed properly, the West will remain burdened by sluggish growth, persistently high unemployment, and excessive income and wealth inequality.The sovereign-debt crisis is wel
Nov. 7, 2012
-
[Daniel Fiedler] Free speech and pornography
One of the fundamental bases of a democracy is the right to free expression or free speech. This right allows the people to engage in open and uncensored discussions on the conduct of the government, on the conduct of politicians, on economic and social issues, on political issues and often on issues that may be offensive to many of their fellow citizens. The importance of this right is reflected by its enshrinement in both the United States and the South Korean constitutions. However, while bot
Nov. 6, 2012
-
Outrageous decision generates chaos in Japan
It was a baffling decision. What we feared might happen has come to pass.Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Makiko Tanaka has rejected the applications for government approval to establish three new universities. Tanaka has overturned, on her own judgment, a report by the council for university chartering and school juridical persons ― an advisory body to the minister ― that favored endorsing the establishment of the three schools. This is apparently the first time in 30
Nov. 6, 2012
-
Indonesia’s people-centered economic model
Indonesia’s most-promising politician, Joko Widodo, who was elected governor of Jakarta province last month, looks like Barack Obama: lean and coolly self-possessed in a way that seems as much Bogartian as Javanese. Emerging out of nowhere, and serenely vaulting over the heads of establishment politicians, he embodies the possibility of change. But here the resemblance to the U.S. president ends. Obama is fighting to win reelection. Jokowi, as Widodo is popularly known, enjoyed hugely successful
Nov. 6, 2012