The Korea Herald

[Ajay K. Mehra] Gubernatorial gambit by Modi government

Jul 10, 2014

The Narendra Modi government has advised the United Progressive Alliance-appointed governors to resign. Amidst mixed reactions, four governors ― those of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland and Chhattisgarh ― have put in their papers. Initially, some had questioned the propriety of the Home Ministry’s move, but gradually there appears to be general compliance. The constitutional office has over time acquired a political character. Gubernatorial partisanship surfaced in 1952, when the Madras gov
Post-coup diplomacy and the money trail

Jul 10, 2014

Thailand’s diplomatic relations appear to have changed dramatically since the May 22 coup. The United States, European Union and Australia condemned the power seizure and, to varying degrees, downgraded relations with Bangkok. While many Thais view the coup as a gamble, realizing there is no guarantee that much-desired political reform will be delivered under military rule, countries that are responding with strong-handed measures might be taking risks too ― if they want Thailand as an internati
[Shin Yong-bae] Time to reform premiership

Jul 9, 2014

As his predecessors did each time a man-made tragedy struck the nation, Prime Minister Chung Hong-won called it quits soon after a ferry sank along with nearly 300 passengers, most of them high school students, off the southwest coast of Korea in April.Following Chung’s resignation, President Park Geun-hye, who has the right to nominate a prime minister, the second-highest official in the government, looked for a successor. But both of her nominations failed, dealing a severe blow to her preside
Born in 1988 and graduating amid high jobless rate

Jul 9, 2014

It’s bad luck to be born 20 years before a time of high unemployment. It affects your income when you enter the workforce, naturally, but that’s not all. It can keep your earnings relatively low ― and chip away at your health and happiness, as well ― for a lifetime. Many studies have documented the income effect. A typical estimate, from a 2010 study, is that every percentage point increase in the unemployment rate during the year a person enters the workforce reduces his or her wages by 6 perce
Why music is dying in age of social networks

Jul 9, 2014

Taylor Swift, the seven-time Grammy winner, is known for her articulate lyrics, so there was nothing surprising about her writing a long column for the Wall Street Journal about the future of the music industry. Yet there’s reason to doubt the optimism of what she had to say. “This moment in music is so exciting because the creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless,” Swift wrote. “In this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only a
[Kim Myong-sik] How can Park solve the Korea conundrum?

Jul 9, 2014

Occasionally, I pass by the private mansion of President Park Geun-hye in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, after attending an early morning service at the Hyundai Presbyterian Church about 300 meters away. A police car that was parked there for some time after her inauguration is no longer there and a lone patrolman stands guard to ward off any possible trespassers from entering the house now empty of its master.The president will probably return to this red brick single-story house in February 20
Is Beijing ready for another Olympics?

Jul 9, 2014

On the evening that Beijing earned the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, the city celebrated into the night. It was July 2001, and China was beginning an extraordinary decade of economic growth that would transform the capital into something that China’s leaders ― and its people ― wanted to show off. Olympics are an opportunity to signal to the world that a country has been transformed, both in how it views itself and how it wants the world to view it. China wanted to show that it was no l
China just gave Obama a second chance

Jul 8, 2014

Years from now, when the history of Barack Obama’s much-maligned Asia “pivot” is written, he may owe a debt of gratitude to an unlikely ally: Xi Jinping.The Chinese president is, of course, vehemently opposed to the U.S. rebalancing its focus toward the East. Hardliners in Xi’s Communist Party believe the U.S. president should stick to his own neighborhood and leave the world’s most dynamic economic region to China’s suzerainty. But Xi’s ham-handed efforts to assert himself in Asia are having ex
[Lee Jae-min] The tale of two city system

Jul 8, 2014

Understandably, the underlying assumption at first was that trips between Seoul and Sejong would be occasional: Ministers and government officials would stay in Sejong, and come to Seoul from time to time to attend important meetings and to discuss key national issues. Not a big deal, they must have thought. At any rate, there is a useful tool called video conferencing available. People in the two cities can be hooked up and have a quick conference. Problems are solved and decisions made. This i
Challenge to end teacher tenure revs up

Jul 8, 2014

The lineup sounds like the cast of a new “The Avengers” movie: a former CNN anchor, a former White House spokesman, and a legal team that won a landmark case in California installing a “parent trigger,” which allows public school parents to take over their schools by majority vote.This is the team that’s assembling to challenge teacher tenure in New York courts by the end of the summer. The effort follows the Vergara v. California ruling that voided tenure on the grounds that school children hav
Is Netanyahu statesman?

Jul 8, 2014

In a conflict as entrenched and hate-filled as the one between Israelis and Palestinians, there will always be people eager to make the worst of a horrific situation. Sometimes leadership consists of the simple act of resisting that impulse. Today, with a single phone call, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has displayed that vital quality. The question now is how he can build on it ― and whether it will be reciprocated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.The latest trouble began with
[Kim Seong-kon] Time bombs in Korean society

Jul 8, 2014

Recently, South Korea was severely hit by two major disasters. One was the sinking of the Sewol ferry, which cost hundreds of young lives, and the other was the shooting at a frontline barracks in which five soldiers were killed and seven others wounded. Both incidents shook the nation and stirred up the wrath of so many angry mothers, who have to send their children on school excursions and eventually to the military, which is mandatory in Korea. Experts pointed out that the tragic sinking of t
The coming apocalypse in megacities

Jul 8, 2014

The Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz once wrote that the non-Western world was “condemned to be modern.” This uncompromising verdict headlines the Mexican pavilion at the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture. The Dutch architect and thinker Rem Koolhaas has perceptively curated the Biennale this year around the theme “Absorbing Modernity.” This could have been an invitation to boastful displays of grand monuments and much arcane and pompous theorizing about architectural modernism. Happily, mo
[Rachel Marsden] U.S. may fund jihadist startup

Jul 7, 2014

PARIS ― The Islamic terrorist army often referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has made a faster womb-to-superstardom ascension than Justin Bieber. Largely unheard of just a few weeks ago, the group is now the self-proclaimed new ruler of the Islamic caliphate, or republic, extending across Iraq and Syria. These countries currently have internationally recognized heads of state ― but, you know, whatever, man. It’s not like U.S. President Barack Obama is going to stop ISIL. In f
The American way of war: It may surprise you

Jul 7, 2014

“We must resist our dreams of managing history.” ― Reinhold Niebuhr, “The Irony of American History” (1952)When you study how the U.S. goes to war, there is a prevalent though not perfect pattern. The triggering event is often a sudden crisis that galvanizes popular opinion and becomes the immediate occasion for military intervention but subsequently is exposed as a misguided perception or outright fabrication.The Mexican War began when President James Polk cited an attack on American troops in