The Korea Herald

Sexist culture holds Korea Inc. back

Apr 8, 2014

The presidency of Park Geun-hye would appear to have settled South Korea’s gender debate. Just as some Americans like to believe racism ended the moment they elected a black leader, many Koreans figure their nation shed its sexist heritage the moment a woman became president.Neither is true, of course. In February, the same month Park marked her first anniversary in office, Korea received ominous news from the U.N.’s gender-equality office: The country ranked near the bottom yet again in the 34-
Why Starbucks won’t recycle your cup

Apr 8, 2014

When you drop that used white paper cup into the bin next to the door at a Starbucks, have you done your part to save the planet? Starbucks has long hoped that you would think so. After all, there’s no better way to attract an affluent, eco-conscious clientele than to convince customers that your disposable product is “renewable.” So, in 2008 the coffee company announced that by 2015 it would offer recycling at all company-operated branches.That seemed like the least that Starbucks ― which sells
[Kim Seong-kon] Ex-presidents and looking at things upside down

Apr 8, 2014

A few days ago, I went to the Korea National Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a lecture on American culture to high-ranking government officials. Walking toward the lecture hall, I saw a huge world atlas hanging on the wall. Interestingly, the map was upside down, so Australia was up above and Russia was down under. The unconventional map provided me with a whole new perspective of perceiving the world. Below the map was an intriguing caption: “Looking at the world u
How to unlock Africa’s economic potential

Apr 8, 2014

In the past year, I’ve visited Nigeria three times ― more than I’ve traveled to any other country except the U.S. I mentioned this to an audience on my most recent trip, saying I wasn’t sure what it meant: Am I a leading, coincident or lagging indicator? Maybe I was just there for the power outages ― they shield me from the latest news about Manchester United. (Don’t ask.)Of course I aspire to be a leading indicator ― and I’m hopeful Nigeria and much of the rest of Africa will demonstrate my far
[Yuliya Tymoshenko] Resisting Yalta temptation

Apr 7, 2014

KIEV ― The quiet period between the declaration of war in September 1939 and the Nazi blitz on Belgium and France in May 1940 is often called “The Phony War.” Since Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and began massing troops and armored columns on our eastern border, we in Ukraine have been living through a “phony peace.”There is nothing phony, however, about the efforts we Ukrainians are now making to defend our country and our democracy. Our young men and women are volunteering for military se
Putin’s rejection of the West, in writing

Apr 7, 2014

What kind of country is Vladimir Putin’s Russia? The third year of his third presidential term has offered plenty of clues: the Crimea invasion, the shuttering of uncensored media outlets, prison terms for protesters. Now, Putin is planning to put the intellectual and ideological foundations of the new regime into words.A document called “Foundations of the State Cultural Policy” has been under development since 2012. A special working group under Putin’s chief of staff Sergei Ivanov will soon r
India’s voters deserve a better kind of politics

Apr 7, 2014

The elections that begin Monday in India and unfold over the following weeks will be unusually significant. It isn’t just that they’ll decide whether the controversial chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, will assume leadership of almost a fifth of humanity. The vote also marks a deep and potentially momentous change in the character of the Indian electorate.Unlike in previous polls, when huge blocks of voters could be counted on to support dubiously qualified candidates of their own caste
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Reforming state-market balance in China

Apr 7, 2014

BEIJING ― No country in recorded history has grown as fast ― and moved as many people out of poverty ― as China over the last thirty years. A hallmark of China’s success has been its leaders’ willingness to revise the country’s economic model when and as needed, despite opposition from powerful vested interests. And now, as China implements another series of fundamental reforms, such interests are already lining up to resist. Can the reformers triumph again?In answering that question, the crucia
Scare tactics fail climate scientists, and everyone else

Apr 7, 2014

Why aren’t climate scientists winning the argument on climate policy? It sure isn’t for lack of effort.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just published another vast pile of material, this time focused on “impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.” The IPCC says that the new report’s “30 chapters, supported by a number of annexes and supplementary material” were produced by a “total of 243 Coordinating and Lead Authors and 66 review editors from 70 countries and 436 Contributing Authors
[Robert Reich] Slouching toward oligarchy

Apr 6, 2014

America is not yet an oligarchy, but that’s where Charles and David Koch and a few other billionaires are taking us.American democracy used to depend on political parties that more or less represented most of us. Political scientists of the 1950s and 1960s marveled at American “pluralism,” by which they meant the capacities of parties and other membership groups to reflect the preferences of the vast majority of citizens.Then around a quarter century ago, as income and wealth began concentrating
What Xi Jinping could learn from pope

Apr 6, 2014

Xi Jinping and Jorge Mario Bergoglio would seem like natural enemies. The Chinese president runs a government that squashes religious freedom, limits procreation and has a dismal human-rights record. Bergoglio ― better known as Pope Francis ― wants access to Xi’s many citizens in order to spread the Catholic Church’s teachings, challenge the Communist Party’s hold on dogma and even reach out to North Korea.Yet these world leaders should really be sharing notes. The tasks facing the two men who t
[Yu Kun-ha] Time to end life support for zombie firms

Apr 6, 2014

Economists have shown that one way to spur productivity growth of an industrial sector is to clear it of “zombies” ― unproductive and unprofitable companies that need support from their creditors or the government to stay afloat. These nonviable firms hinder a more efficient allocation of resources. By continuing to operate, they use up financial, physical and human resources that could be allocated to more productive companies.Furthermore, they depress economic activity by making it difficult f
Home run hitters of the U.S. Supreme Court

Apr 6, 2014

In the nation’s history, 112 people have served on the Supreme Court of the United States. Suppose that we were to select the all-time greats. Who would make the cut?To answer that question, we need a metric. It makes sense to consider two factors: historical significance and legal ability. It would be too contentious to include only those justices with whom one agrees, so let’s make this list ideology-free. We’ll also exclude the current justices, because it is too early to tell whether any wil
Korea champions global safe cities campaign

Apr 6, 2014

Nine years after the United Nations’ General Assembly endorsed the Hyogo Framework for Action to reduce disaster losses the world is making progress in building more resilient communities, cities and nations.The Republic of Korea should be proud of its significant contributions to this global effort. The country’s National Emergency Management Agency has emerged as a leading advocate of stronger disaster risk management to protect and sustain the huge development gains of recent years.NEMA, alon
[J. Bradford DeLong] Marx and Mechanical Turk

Apr 4, 2014

BERKELEY, California ― The economist Suresh Naidu once remarked to me that there were three big problems with Karl Marx’s economics. First, Marx thought that increased investment and capital accumulation diminished labor’s value to employers and thus diminished workers’ bargaining power. Second, he could not fully grasp that rising real material living standards for the working class might well go hand in hand with a rising rate of exploitation ― that is, a smaller income share for labor. And, t