Singapore’s hosting of the Formula One Grand Prix until 2017 is being received differently here, fraught as it is with cost-benefit factors that do not lend themselves to precise measurement. The race’s cheerleaders point to the winning aspects of the event ― a combination of clockwork efficiency, a Singapore trademark, and thrills. Spectators, whether in the stands or around the world, see not just the sleek cars but also the brilliant Singapore night skyline. The association can heighten the i

The nation’s expenditures are projected to exceed its revenues next year, albeit by a miniscule margin of 0.3 percent, as is shown by the administration’s budget request. The budget deficit will undoubtedly be seen as a major setback for President Lee Myung-bak, whose administration has repeatedly promised in the past to balance the budget by 2013.The administration says it has had to make a tradeoff between its promise on fiscal balance and the need for a stimulus package, adding that it has se

The administration has decided to scrap the provision of free day care for all newborns to toddlers aged 2, beginning in March next year. It has also decided to cut subsidies for in-home child care as well. Of course, a cost overrun is behind the decision.As a result, families in the top 30 percent income bracket will have to pay part of the bill when their children are sent to day care facilities. In addition, subsidies will be halved for in-home child care by mothers.The ruling Saenuri Party d

In the article “Easter Island’s End,” Jared Diamond described the steps that led to the deforestation of a subtropical, fertile paradise. Over a few hundred years, inhabitants used the gigantic palm trees around them as rolling surfaces on which to haul stones; they then used more trees to lever the stones into place on platforms. Competing chieftains built larger statues on larger platforms. Eventually, the last tree was gone and the island was covered only in grasses and shrubs, leading to sta

You don’t have to be an Islamophobe to say, “Enough already.”It’s time for U.S. officials to stop apologizing for the YouTube video that supposedly sparked recent riots in Islamic countries. The video is merely a convenient pretext for religious radicals and irresponsible politicians to stir up anti-Western anger; they would have found another excuse if it hadn’t surfaced.In an effort to avoid violence in Pakistan, the U.S. embassy in Islamabad broadcast ads on local TV showing American leaders

Few Koreans could deny that building a harmonious multicultural society has become a crucial task for enabling their country to keep economic growth and social viability. In June, Korea became the world’s seventh nation with a population of more than 50 million, whose per capital income exceeds $20,000. The celebratory mood, however, was overshadowed by a somber demographic projection that the low fertility rate would reduce the number of working-age people by more than 7 million over the coming

Watching Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, apologize for the excesses of her late father’s oppressive rule during a news conference Monday, most people including her supporters must have thought the act of contrition should have come earlier.Park certainly went farther than had been largely anticipated in admitting the negative aspects of President Park Chung-hee’s 18-year reign, which ended with his assassination in 1979. She said constitutional values

Records coming to light as a result of litigation against Irving-based Boy Scouts of America demonstrate yet again the fundamental lesson about handling child molestation allegations: The interests of institutions can’t override the obligation to protect the most vulnerable.Time and again, it’s been shown that when adults ignored or covered up or denied or simply failed to follow through, abusers were enabled, children got hurt and justice wasn’t served.The Catholic Church, Penn State University

Director Ridley Scott found a new muse for his next thriller: Japan’s earthquake-devastated northeast. “Japan in a Day” opens the Tokyo International Film Festival next month, and many anticipate that the documentary charting Japan’s recovery from natural disaster will lift spirits and revive a sense of purpose among the nation’s 127 million people. Hollywood disaster flicks have nothing on March 11, 2011. Tsunami waves as high as 133 feet left more than 19,000 dead or missing, wiped out whole t

In one of the most famous First Amendment cases in U.S. history, Schenck vs. United States, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. established that the right to free speech in the United States is not unlimited. “The most stringent protection,” he wrote on behalf of a unanimous court, “would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.”Holmes’ test ― that words are not protected if their nature and circumstances create a “clear and present danger” of harm