Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s autobiography “Living to Tell the Tale” (2002) begins with an anecdote from his youth. One day his mother asks him to assist her on a journey back to the world of his grandparents, Aracataca, the place where Garcia Marquez grew up. The grandparents have passed away, and their house is about to be sold. The house, however, turns out to be worthless, too old and damaged.In fact, the whole town has turned into a withering memory of bygone days, a place living in the past ra

The question at the core of America’s upcoming presidential election isn’t merely whose story most voting Americans believe to be true ― Mitt Romney’s claim that the economy is in a stall and Obama’s policies haven’t worked, or Barack Obama’s claim that it’s slowly mending and his approach is working.If that were all there was to it, last Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the economy added only 96,000 jobs in August ― below what’s needed merely to keep up with the growt

WASHINGTON ― As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his almost daily demands that the U.S. announce its “red line” for going to war with Iran, the question puzzling the White House is what the Israeli leader wants beyond what President Obama has already stated. Obama believes he has drawn the U.S. red line as clearly as a superpower ever should, given that some ambiguity is useful in deterring an adversary. For the record, Obama said in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic

Today every member of ASEAN claims to be a free and just society, but where do these countries stand vis-a-vis the rights of ethnic minorities? Although there is lot of discussion about rights within the region, there is no coherent legal framework or strong laws to fight against systemic prejudice, blatant discrimination and the undermining of the rights of minorities. Caste, religion, language, ethnicity and gender ― all these are divisive forces.ASEAN diversity, instead of becoming an asset a

PRINCETON ― In contrasting decisions last month, a United States Court of Appeals struck down a U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirement that cigarettes be sold in packs with graphic health warnings, while Australia’s highest court upheld a law that goes much further. The Australian law requires not only health warnings and images of the physical damage that smoking causes, but also that the packs themselves be plain, with brand names in small generic type, no logos, and no color other than

NEW DELHI ― America’s strategy in Asia for more than a century has sought a stable balance of power to prevent the rise of any hegemon. Yet the United States, according to its official National Security Strategy, is also committed to accommodating “the emergence of a China that is peaceful and prosperous and that cooperates with us to address common challenges and mutual interests.” So America’s Asia policy has in some ways been at war with itself.In fact, the U.S. has played a key role in China

In an effort to appeal to popular public feelings, politicians in South Korea often make asinine proposals. The latest such proposal is the bill submitted to the National Assembly last week providing for court ordered physical castration of convicted sex offenders. Initially this proposal appears to be a focused solution to a previously insolvable problem ― that of recidivism among sex offenders ― however the proposed law not only violates a number of South Korea’s international commitments to h

We now live in a world in which smartphones have become a must ― an object you must carry at all times no matter where you go. During the Joseon Dynasty, our ancestors almost always carried a long bamboo smoking pipe wherever they went. But that was primarily for the pleasures of inhaling nicotine and exhaling stress. Of course, smartphones, too, provide entertainment and even narcotic pleasures if you’re an addict. Unlike traditional smoking pipes, however, smartphones keep us busy all day long