Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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Speaker floats dual citizenship as solution to falling births
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[Salman Haidar] Mending relations between India and Pakistan
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to India originated in his desire to make his devotions at the shrine at Ajmer, the famous pilgrimage center where great and small, rulers and ruled, persons of every condition and rank, have been drawn through the centuries. They come from every corner of South Asia in an unending stream; several heads of state and government have preceded Zardari, and doubtless there will be many more after him. So from one point of view it is nothing extraordinary t
April 13, 2012
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High-tech apps could prove to be new crime fighting sensation
Many tend to imagine cities to be a place where people keep to themselves and strangers don‘t talk to strangers. The fact is that in any given day strangers spend time with strangers, sometimes alone, in a closed room on thousands of occasions. It is called a taxi ride. Some taxi drivers like to share their views on current political issues. Some passengers like to chat with their cabbies about their daily routines. Some rides are almost silent except at the beginning when the passengers announc
April 13, 2012
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Man with beer in airport is economic indicator
Ethiopia isn’t the first place you would look for clues about Asia’s economies. Nor does Jose Rabacal, a 29-year-old Filipino sipping beer at an Addis Ababa airport cafe, think he’s a human economic indicator. But he is, and so are his 10 compatriots as they bided their time recently during a multihour layover. Each moved to Africa from the Philippines for opportunities that leaders failed to offer at home. Each left behind a family they see once a year, if they are lucky. “I haven’t seen my thr
April 12, 2012
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Sea dispute between ASEAN and China reopens
Over the past decades, the Philippines used to be benign with its defence strategy over the claims in South China Sea.Domestic turmoil, economic down-turn and southern rebellions kept the country at arm’s length on this key security issue. However, since July 2010, the government under President Benign Aquino III has displayed assertive foreign policy postures in the relations with the U.S. and China ― which has currently moved in an opposite direction. At the last week’s ASEAN summit in Phnom P
April 12, 2012
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Iran talks must yield a solution that even Reagan could accept
Apologies to Ronald Reagan as we mangle his catchphrase, but what the U.S. and other world powers need to do in negotiations with Iran later this week is to “accept, but verify” an Iranian nuclear-fuel program that’s limited to producing low civilian-grade fuel. Only the most reckless gambler would bet on a breakthrough in the talks, due to take place in Istanbul on April 14. Ten years of abject diplomatic failure, distrust and Iranian filibustering have fed a justifiable cynicism. Nor is an ele
April 12, 2012
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[Fiorello Provera] Persecution against Christian minorities in the world
BRUSSELS ― Recently, the human-rights activist, former Dutch politician, and Somali exile Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about a global war on Christians in Muslim countries. She discussed at length the appalling phenomenon of violent intolerance towards Christian communities, and cast blame on the international community and prominent NGOs for failing to address this problem.In almost every part of the world, reports emerge on a daily basis of Christian communities falling victim to harassment and perse
April 12, 2012
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To improve global health, reinvent the toilet
The toilet is a magnificent thing. Invented at the turn of the 19th century, the flush version has vastly improved human life. The toilet has been credited with adding a decade to our longevity. The sanitation system to which it is attached was voted the greatest medical advance in 150 years by readers of the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately it is an impractical luxury for about two-thirds of the world’s 7 billion people because it relies on connections to water and sewerage systems that m
April 11, 2012
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[Shlomo Ben Ami] Iran’s nuclear grass eaters
MADRID ― After long years of failed international efforts to end Iran’s cunning drive to develop nuclear weapons, the question today is no longer whether the West can prevent the nuclearization of Iran’s military arsenal, but whether the Islamic regime collapses first. Unfortunately, if it does not, the only option for stopping Iran is war ― and war is a very bad option.Pakistan is worth invoking when assessing whether the sanctions now imposed on Iran will force it to surrender its nuclear prog
April 11, 2012
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India and Pakistan should expand trade ties
Recently in Karachi, I dropped in on a talk by the Pakistani journalist and TV anchor Kamran Khan at a Rotary Club meeting. Describing relations between India and Pakistan at a “crossroads,” Khan exhorted his audience to feel shame about Pakistani involvement in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 that killed 164 people and have frozen India- Pakistan relations ever since. Khan lamented the many missed opportunities for a comprehensive agreement between India and Pakistan. Finally, he expres
April 11, 2012
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Strip-search case reflects death of American privacy
To be the swing voter, you have to be willing to swing. In the last three weeks, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has shown how it’s done. First he wrote the majority opinion in a landmark 5-4 case establishing a constitutional right to an adequate lawyer in plea-bargaining negotiations. Liberals were enthused. Yet in his tough questioning during the Obamacare arguments, he shook up the conventional wisdom that mandatory coverage would be upheld comfortably. Liberals were not enthused.
April 11, 2012
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[Park Sang-seek] New world order emerging as U.S. hegemony weakens
The second Nuclear Security Summit and the Fourth BRICs Summit took place almost back to back in late March although their venues were not identical. The NSS was participated in by 53 countries, including all great powers, and the BRICs Summit by five great powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The purposes and agenda of the two summits are different: The former for the security and reduction of nuclear materials and the latter for the reform of the international economic and f
April 11, 2012
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To Seriously Improve Global Health, Reinvent the Toilet
The toilet is a magnificent thing. Invented at the turn of the 19th century, the flush version has vastly improved human life. The toilet has been credited with adding a decade to our longevity. The sanitation system to which it is attached was voted the greatest medical advance in 150 years by readers of the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately it is an impractical luxury for about two-thirds of the world’s 7 billion people because it relies on connections to water and sewerage systems that m
April 11, 2012
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Latin America breaks rank with U.S. over drug war
Latin American countries are rightfully fed up with fighting Washington’s war on drugs. In the four decades since President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs, its battles have been fought predominantly in Latin American nations ― leaving behind a trail of death and corruption while failing to achieve any of its goals.After a bloody, decades-long war in Colombia, the epicenter of drug trafficking simply moved north to Mexico. Upon taking office five years ago, Mexican President Felipe Calde
April 10, 2012
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[Daniel Fiedler] A culture of killing among Koreans
Last week a Korean man living in Oakland, California, shot and killed seven people. The man had moved to America and was pursuing his dream of becoming a nurse. When that dream fell short amid rumors of ill treatment, he took out his frustrations on his classmates and teachers. A month earlier, in February of this year, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, another Korean man shot and killed four of his relatives before committing suicide. In his case there were reports of family discord that alleged
April 10, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Future of hallyu: Pop to highbrow
As Korean television dramas and K-pop spreads across Asia, Middle Eastern countries and even some parts of Europe, some Koreans have begun asking, “Does Korean entertainment represent true Korean culture?” A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched an advisory committee to promote Korean culture overseas. Specialists in Korean culture gathered to discuss the prospects and problems of hallyu. They all agreed that dramas, movies and K-pop are not a comprehensive represen
April 10, 2012
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Time for a presidential campaign experiment
We got our first real glimpse last week of how President Obama and his now-almost-certain Republican rival, Mitt Romney, intend to wage their campaigns in the lead-up to the general election.In a speech last Tuesday, Obama painted Romney as an out-of-touch patrician who doesn’t care much about the troubles of hardworking people low on the income ladder. Romney soon fired back, painting Obama as an out-of-touch liberal who doesn’t care much about the struggles of honest businessmen who want to cr
April 10, 2012
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High-speed rail takes Californians for a ride
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has a serious public-relations hurdle: how to sell its proposed Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bullet train without the word “boondoggle” attached. But the rail authority’s latest compromise plan to solve this problem ― with its focus on building the system in a “better, faster, cheaper” manner ― not only doesn’t fix the system’s fundamental flaws, it may plant the seeds of its destruction. In November 2008, California voters ― notorious for approving huge
April 10, 2012
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Global oil prices at the mercy of geopolitics
Oil prices and oil supply unambiguously tie China and the United States together, as both nations are heavy importers of oil. The United States imports about 65 percent of its oil and oil products, while China imports about 56 percent of its needs, which will undoubtedly increase over the next few years.The rising trend in oil prices over the past three years has by no means been a classic recession response and the climbing price of crude oil may undo the U.S.’ fragile economic recovery and wil
April 9, 2012
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] World Bank: Whose bank is it?
NEW YORK ― U.S. President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jim Yong Kim for the presidency of the World Bank has been well received ― and rightly so, especially given some of the other names that were bandied about. In Kim, a public-health professor who is now president of Dartmouth University and previously led the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department, the United States has put forward a good candidate. But the candidate’s nationality, and the nominating country ― whether small and poor
April 9, 2012
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Quality human resources needed in nuclear fields
How can Japan secure and develop human resources who will work in the nuclear power field? This task needs to be jointly tackled by the government and the private sector.The number of students wishing to study nuclear power has declined since the crisis started last year at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In addition, many young people have become reluctant to take jobs in nuclear-related industries.The seriousness of the Fukushima accident certainly
April 9, 2012