The Korea Herald

No easy way to halt carnage in Syria

Feb 14, 2012

In 1982, I interviewed Syrian Information Minister Ahmed Iskander in Damascus, shortly after the regime had killed at least 10,000 people in the city of Hama.On his office wall hung a painting of an old Hama neighborhood with one of the waterwheels for which the city was famous. “That is our lovely city of Hama,” he told me calmly. “It‘s perfectly peaceful. You should visit it someday.”He knew that I knew this neighborhood had been leveled to the ground.Back then, under the regime of Hafez al-As
[Kim Seong-kon] Expanding horizons of literary study

Feb 14, 2012

Since the 1960s, literary research has considerably expanded its scope to include cultural studies, and during the process has shed light on the alienated, the marginal and the excluded. Accordingly, students and scholars have embarked on literary studies exploring the possibilities of understanding and communicating with others who are different from us. As a result, professors of English literature now extensively cover minority studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies and gay/lesbian studies,
[Park Sang-seek] Syrian crisis: Its implications for world order, N. Korea

Feb 13, 2012

A draft resolution on the Syrian crisis submitted by Morocco in the U.N. Security Council was defeated by the exercise of the veto by China and Russia o Feb. 4. The other permanent members, France, the U.S. and the U.K., condemned the two countries vehemently. At the moment, it is very difficult to foresee how the crisis will evolve.The draft resolution, if passed, would have forced the Syrian president to cede power to the opposition, even if it did not contain any explicit provision calling fo
[David Ignatius] Nixon’s great decision on China

Feb 13, 2012

WASHINGTON ― This month marks the 40th anniversary of an event so unexpected that it created a phrase that’s become part of our political lexicon: The shorthand is “Nixon goes to China,” meaning a moment in which a leader reverses his past positions to do something that is shocking but beneficial. Richard Nixon is hardly a role model, overall; he was a devious president who encouraged illegal actions by his subordinates. But he was a clever strategist ― never more so than in the opening to China
Vilsack makes U.S. agriculture a high-growth area

Feb 13, 2012

The most avid political junkies probably couldn’t name five U.S. agriculture secretaries; Tom Vilsack, the current occupant of the post, may be about to join that short list. The farm sector is one of the few bright spots in a rough U.S. economy. Vilsack, the popular former governor of Iowa, who has an appreciation of policy and politics, is one of the success stories of the Obama administration. Usually, the Agriculture Department, started under Abraham Lincoln and celebrating its 150th birthda
Mortgage settlement picks winners, leaves losers

Feb 13, 2012

The $25 billion mortgage-abuse settlement between the states and five top banks that was announced Thursday won’t solve the nation’s housing crisis. Far from it.It will not restore the housing market. The money involved is a fraction of the amount that would make a dent in that.It will not provide direct assistance to the vast majority of distressed homeowners. Most owners aren’t eligible for its most valuable provision ― principal reduction ― because loans guaranteed by the government-controlle
Gay marriage in U.S. a dead political issue

Feb 13, 2012

Eight years is an aeon in politics. Witness the waning potency of the gay-marriage issue.During the 2004 campaign, Republican strategists put gay marriage on referendum ballots in key swing states, as a “wedge” issue to unnerve Democrats and gin up the conservative base for President George W. Bush. The Massachusetts high court had just ruled for legalization, and hostility toward the concept was the centrist position in America.This is no longer true.Granted, social conservatives voiced anger l
Foreclosure settlement falls short, still worth the wait

Feb 12, 2012

In any out-of-court settlement for alleged wrongdoing, the test of whether prosecutors got a good deal rests on the answers to three questions: Does it hold the miscreants accountable? Does it make victims whole? And does it prevent similar misconduct in the future? Thursday’s $25 billion agreement by five banks to end a 16- month investigation of abusive foreclosure practices fails on the first two counts. And we won’t know for some time whether it is successful on the third. Nonetheless, the d
[David Ignatius] The chaos in Cairo revolution

Feb 12, 2012

WASHINGTON ― What kind of democratic revolution in Egypt is it that brings charges against 19 American NGO workers who have been advocating democracy? The answer is that it’s a confused revolution, looking for people to blame for its troubles. The U.S. should stifle its anger for now ― and avoid a hasty cutoff of aid that would make a bad situation worse. The Egyptian revolution, a year on, is struggling to establish a government amid chaos. The spontaneous, leaderless uprising that toppled Pres
On the Web, no one cares if you write like a dog

Feb 12, 2012

It’s been going on for too long, right before our eyes. Inevitably, someone was going to blow the whistle, and wouldn’t you know it would be Felix Salmon, the famous financial blogger for Reuters? The name Felix Salmon (for some reason) always makes me think of those plastic singing fish that were all the rage a few years ago. You remember: They appeared to be mounted on a board (also plastic) and they would burst remorselessly into song and could be impossible to turn off without opening up the
A strategy for Russia’s Snow Revolution

Feb 12, 2012

MOSCOW ― Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet “color revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine, and ended apartheid in South Africa, for example, or, before that, the Jim Crow system in the American South. Nonviolent movements broke British rule in India and Malawi, and brought
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] European Central Bank stance reveals need for transparency

Feb 12, 2012

NEW YORK ― Nothing illustrates better the political crosscurrents, special interests, and shortsighted economics now at play in Europe than the debate over the restructuring of Greece’s sovereign debt. Germany insists on a deep restructuring ― at least a 50 percent “haircut” for bondholders ― whereas the European Central Bank insists that any debt restructuring must be voluntary.In the old days ― think of the 1980s Latin American debt crisis ― one could get creditors, mostly large banks, in a sm
Making a Fatah and Hamas partnership work

Feb 10, 2012

The news that the mainstream Palestinian group Fatah has agreed to form a unity government with the militantly Islamist Hamas may move some to dismay. Although there are ample reasons for that reaction, this development may also present an opportunity. Over the past year, the world has changed not just around Israel, but also around the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the two Palestinian territories ruled, respectively, by Hamas and Fatah. That is especially true for Hamas. The Arab Spring has driven
[Shlomo Ben Ami] The decline of the West revisited

Feb 10, 2012

MADRID ― Since the publication in 1918 of the first volume of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, prophecies about the inexorable doom of what he called the “Faustian Civilization” have been a recurrent topic for thinkers and public intellectuals. The current crises in the United States and Europe ― the result primarily of U.S. capitalism’s inherent ethical failures, and to Europe’s dysfunction ― might be seen as lending credibility to Spengler’s view of democracy’s inadequacy, and to his
Don’t let Futenma relocation stalemate become permanent

Feb 10, 2012

It is not a bad idea for the Japanese and U.S. governments to prevent the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station and the transfer of marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture to Guam from both collapsing.The two governments have agreed in principle to revise the 2006 realignment project for U.S. forces in Japan.The plan for the relocation of marines to Guam will be scaled back from 8,000 marines to 4,700. The Futenma base relocation will be separated from the marines’ Guam reloca