The Korea Herald

[Shlomo Ben Ami] Muslims find hope in Europe

ViewpointsMay 4, 2012

MADRID ― Mohamed Merah’s killing spree in and around Toulouse in March, like the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 suicide attacks in London’s Underground, has highlighted once again the dilemmas that Europe faces with regard to its growing Muslim minority. No social-integration model has proven to be free of flaws. But is the picture really so bleak as those who despair of an emerging “Eurabia” would have us believe?Neither the multicultural ethos (respect for “cultural diversity in an at
Modest steps at the IMF

ViewpointsMay 4, 2012

The biannual meetings of the world’s leading financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are generally pretty staid affairs ― after all, how riled up can gatherings of central bankers and finance officials really get? In recent years, the answer is “pretty much.”Then again, a global financial crisis that refuses to go away, overlaid with (and compounded by) complaints about how the global financial architecture is run, makes for a combustible mix.At last month’s m
Taint on celebrities’ gloss

ViewpointsMay 4, 2012

The influence of celebrities is an asset they can exploit, but they should be careful that their endorsements do not backfire and damage their image. The appeal of celebrities is an invaluable resource for brand publicity. When they recommend and praise certain products, audiences unconsciously link their reputation and personalities with the products, as if the quality and effectiveness of the products are naturally guaranteed. But appearing in advertisements is a double-edged sword for celebri
Problems of renewable energy purchases

ViewpointsMay 4, 2012

A feed-in tariff system for electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power will face many difficult problems.An expert panel of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has made a proposal on prices at which electric power companies will purchase electricity generated by renewable energy under the system.The government will officially decide on recommended rates within May, and power companies will become obliged to buy the electricity from July.The proposed rates are 42
[Andrew Sheng] EU trilemma and global dilemma

ViewpointsMay 4, 2012

The European think tank Breugel recently produced a report suggesting that there was a fundamental trilemma between the European monetary union, national banking systems and the lack of fiscal union. This added a twist to the old argument that for a single currency, you need a single fiscal policy. The argument for a banking union arose because European national governments were able to finance their deficits largely through their national banks, which could buy their long-term paper. This creat
[Editorial] Heed OECD’s advice

EditorialMay 3, 2012

The OECD has recently published two reports on Korea that offer valuable advice to Korean politicians as well as government policymakers. One is the latest OECD economic survey of Korea while the other is the first OECD assessment of the Korean government’s urban policy. The OECD Economic Survey of Korea 2012 focuses on the two key challenges confronting the Korean economy ― sustaining economic growth in the face of rapid population aging and improving social cohesion by reducing inequality and
[Editorial] Voting fraud at UPP

EditorialMay 3, 2012

The United Progressive Party is in crisis. An internal investigation team has confirmed that the party’s process of selecting proportional representation candidates for the April 11 parliamentary elections was riddled with irregularities. The left-wing minor party won a total of 13 seats in the election, seven from local districts and six by proportional representation. Of the six proportional lawmakers-elect, three were selected through online and offline voting within the party, while the othe
A universal digital library is within reach

May 3, 2012

Since 2002, at first in secret and later with great fanfare, Google has been working to create a digital collection of all the world’s books, a library that it hopes will last forever and make knowledge far more universally accessible.But from the beginning, there has been an obstacle even more daunting than the project’s many technical challenges: copyright law.Ideally, a digital library would provide access not only to books free from copyright constraints (those published before 1923), but al
[Lee Jae-min] Outsourcing and quality control

ViewpointsMay 3, 2012

In an age of globalization, states and corporations are struggling to strike a balance between traditional purity and cost reduction. On the one hand, they are desperate to maintain the supremacy of their crown-jewel national brands (and geographical indications) by imposing requirements that certain portions of products be manufactured domestically, or products be produced in a certain way to be eligible to carry the brands. With tightened quality control, they try to serve the traditional cust
Chaebol under pressure to clean up their act

ViewpointsMay 3, 2012

Do elections really make a difference? In the wake of parliamentary elections in South Korea last month, critics of the nation’s chaebol could be forgiven for thinking that they do not.“Chaebol” is the Korean term for the large, family-controlled conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy. They are particularly associated with the sort of alliances between the state and the private sector that developed under the authoritarian regime of Park Chung-hee.Chaebol are also known for their l
Yes, torture can work, and yes, it’s still wrong

ViewpointsMay 3, 2012

The anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden has renewed a yearlong debate in the U.S. The question: Did torture of captured al-Qaeda agents provide intelligence essential to that operation?Former government officials, including the CIA director, the deputy director for operations and the attorney general, say yes. In a statement last week, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called these assertions “wrong.” The committee’s compr
[Meghan Daum] Who can comment on motherhood?

ViewpointsMay 3, 2012

In my recent column, I weighed in on the latest round in the “mommy wars”: the firestorm ignited when Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen accused Ann Romney of “never working a day in her life”; a statement President Obama then condemned, saying, “There is no tougher job tougher than being a mom.”By way of exploring the ways in which Americans are obsessed with and define themselves according to circumscribed notions of work, I submitted that maybe it was time to let go of the idea that motherhood tr
[Charles Tannock] Russia’s alpha-dog leader returns

ViewpointsMay 3, 2012

BRUSSELS ― Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin as Russia’s president was always a foregone conclusion. But, when he is sworn in on May 7, he will retake formal charge of a country whose politics ― even Putin’s own political future ― has turned unpredictable.Putin’s return to the presidency, following a period of de facto control as prime minister, was supposed to signify a reassuring continuation of “business as usual” ― a strong, orderly state devoid of the potentially destabilizing effects
[Editorial] Who’s next?

EditorialMay 2, 2012

A criminal investigation into a corruption scandal involving a shopping mall developer took a new turn when prosecutors summoned Park Young-joon, a former vice minister of knowledge economy and one of President Lee Myung-bak’s closest protgs, for questioning Wednesday.An inquiry into Park’s potential involvement in the scandal followed the arrest of Choi See-joong, a former chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, who was often dubbed Lee’s political mentor. Choi is suspected of taking h
[Editorial] Quasi-national debt

EditorialMay 2, 2012

The process of writing the 2013 budget bill starts this month, with government agencies set to have submitted budget requests by May 31. The budget officers at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance will then review the requests, start consultations with the agencies and fix budget allocations ― a time-consuming process that will continue until a final report is prepared for submission to the president on Sept. 21.The guiding principle for the 2013 budget bill is to ensure the government lives wit