The Korea Herald

[Naomi Wolf] The rape culture embedded in the U.S. military

Jul 3, 2013

NEW YORK ― Around the world, people’s understanding of why rape happens usually takes one of two forms. Either it is like lightning, striking some unlucky woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time (an isolated, mysterious event, caused by some individual man’s sudden psychopathology), or it is “explained” by some seductive transgression by the victim (the wrong dress, a misplaced smile).But the idea of a “rape culture” ― a concept formulated by feminists in the 1970s as they developed t
China’s slowdown could slam Hong Kong

Jul 2, 2013

In the run-up to Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997, the world wondered what officials in Beijing would do with the place. Would Hong Kong’s dynamism and openness catalyze change in China, or would the Communist Party try to remake the freewheeling city-state in its image? Sixteen years on, we know it’s more the latter than the former. Beijing has shackled Hong Kong with one bad, handpicked leader after another. China’s commissars and their local lackeys continue to push anti-sedition laws, pat
A rational approach for Korea

Jul 2, 2013

Last year, a Vietnamese woman involved in a divorce from her South Korean husband left the country with their 13-month-old child and traveled back to Vietnam. Her husband pressed criminal charges against her for kidnapping and each successive court found her not guilty. Eventually the case reached the South Korean Supreme Court and the court, in its first live broadcast, heard the case. At the time choosing such a case for the very first live broadcast was roundly criticized for feeding into the
[Kim Seong-kon] Why are we still carrying illegal, defective weapons?

Jul 2, 2013

Some time ago, I heard a funny joke from one of my colleagues. When I was about to enter the women’s room on campus by mistake, a professor warned me solemnly, “If you go in there, you will be arrested for carrying an illegal weapon.” Then he added teasingly, “If you are over 50, you will be arrested for carrying a defective weapon.” Since “illegal weapons (bulbeob mugi)” rhymes with “defective weapons (bulyang mugi)” in Korean, it made a fine joke. With newspapers filled with reports of sex cri
Grumpy old Scalia versus those pesky kids

Jul 2, 2013

You may have heard that Justice Antonin Scalia referred to the majority opinion striking down the Defense of Marriage Act as “legalistic argle-bargle.” Intemperate as the dissent was, derision for Justice Anthony Kennedy’s jurisprudence of dignity and personhood was nothing new for Scalia, who has been castigating what he once called Kennedy’s “sweet mystery of life” rhetoric for a decade. What’s new about Scalia’s numerous dissents issued over the U.S. Supreme Court’s remarkable June is how muc
Why are so many college graduates driving taxis?

Jul 2, 2013

It’s a parent’s nightmare: shelling out big money for college, then seeing the graduate unable to land a job that requires high-level skills. This situation may be growing more common, unfortunately, because the demand for cognitive skills associated with higher education, after rising sharply until 2000, has since been in decline. So concludes new research by economists Paul Beaudry and David Green of the University of British Columbia and Benjamin Sand of York University in Toronto. This rever
Securing nuclear material from wrong hands

Jul 1, 2013

VIENNA ― World leaders have devoted increasing attention in recent years to the risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear or other radioactive material. That’s the good news. But all of us need to act with greater urgency in translating good intentions into concrete action.The risk of nuclear or other radioactive material falling into the wrong hands is all too real. There have been embarrassing security lapses at nuclear facilities, and sensitive material is often inadequately secured. Indeed, the I
[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Profiles in peacemaking

Jul 1, 2013

NEW YORK ― Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy did the seemingly impossible. At the height of the Cold War, he moved the two nuclear superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, toward peace. The lessons of Kennedy’s act of leadership ― one of the greatest of modern times ― are directly relevant today.I recount this remarkable story in a new book, “To Move the World.” To many, war between the two superpowers seemed inevitable. The Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 created a glo
Starving the squid

Jul 1, 2013

BERKELEY ― Is America’s financial sector slowly draining the lifeblood from its real economy? The journalist Matt Taibbi’s memorable description in 2009 of Goldman Sachs ― “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” ― still resonates, and for good reason.Back in 2011, I noted that finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP in 1950 compared to 8.4 percent of GDP three years
Sub-Saharan Africa’s subprime borrowers

Jul 1, 2013

NEW YORK ― In recent years, a growing number of African governments have issued Eurobonds, diversifying away from traditional sources of finance such as concessional debt and foreign direct investment. Taking the lead in October 2007, when it issued a $750 million Eurobond with an 8.5 percent coupon rate, Ghana earned the distinction of being the first Sub-Saharan country ― other than South Africa ― to issue bonds in 30 years.This debut Sub-Saharan issue, which was four times oversubscribed, spa
Quick move needed to save Egypt’s economy

Jul 1, 2013

Egypt is being convulsed by protests for and against the rule of President Mohammed Morsi on the one-year anniversary of his accession. Beneath the political turmoil and questions of legitimacy lie profound economic challenges that must be met by whoever governs Egypt. The nation’s hopes for “bread, freedom and social justice” are being overwhelmed by the slow pace of economic change. Instead of undertaking reforms, Egypt has been relying on its wealthy neighbors for unconditional cash injection
Mess in Honduras has U.S. fingerprints

Jun 30, 2013

The State Department issued a new travel advisory last week for a neighbor state, Honduras, warning potential American visitors that they risk being kidnapped or killed. What’s more, it said, if they face a problem, the police may not even show up.If you do go, the advisory added, lock your car doors so robbers or kidnappers can’t burst in at traffic lights. Eighteen Americans have been killed there in the last two years. Police have arrested no one for any of those crimes.By now, many people kn
[David Ignatius] No clipping these wings

Jun 30, 2013

WASHINGTON ― For an illustration of why the federal government has become so unmanageable, consider the Air Force’s attempt last year to cut its budget by retiring unneeded warplanes. This sensible policy ran into a shredder ― largely because of the political clout of the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve.Governors united across party lines to protest the potential loss of their pet C-130s and other planes. Members of Congress lined up behind the potent lobbying pressure of the Guard
Germany’s case against the ECB

Jun 30, 2013

MUNICH ― Germany’s Constitutional Court is preparing what might become the most important decision in its history. Last September, the court allowed the German government to sign the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s permanent intergovernmental rescue facility. Now, however, it may try to stop the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program (the ECB’s pledge to buy, without limit, the government bonds of troubled eurozon
Here’s the real economic crisis in Australia

Jun 30, 2013

Australia has been called many things: Oz; the land Down Under; the lucky country. But the equivalent of a collateralized-debt obligation? Canberra can’t be happy to hear its AAA-rated economy likened to one of the reviled investment vehicles that blew up amid the 2008 global crisis. Yet the comparison is being made by some economists, who see the asset underlying Australia ― demand from China ― beginning to evaporate. No country is more vulnerable to the much-dreaded slowdown in China than reso