The Korea Herald

As austere England grumbles, Scotland is all smiles

Oct 11, 2011

The TV weather map shows the U.K. wreathed in autumnal sunshine. Records have been broken. The trees are turning golden, and there are girls in bikinis in the park. There is, though, just one small cloud right up in the northwest of Scotland, and that’s the one I’m sitting under. Outside, the sky ha
Affirmative action back to U.S. Supreme Court

Oct 11, 2011

Is getting turned down by the University of Texas’ flagship campus in Austin a deprivation of individual rights so profound that it offends the Constitution?If so, there are umpteen disappointed applicants who’ll be wanting a piece of those reparations.But the Supreme Court might not be so dismissiv
[Kim Seong-kon] Dubious claims and the fall of U.S.

Oct 11, 2011

If a foreigner wrote a book criticizing Korean society or presumptuously announcing the downfall of Korea after living in South Korea for only several years, we would immediately condemn the author as an ignorant, impudent racist. Moreover, if the book was praised by the press of the author’s countr
[Peter Goldmark] Don’t try to dismantle the American government

Oct 10, 2011

There was a moment in one of the Republican debates last month when candidate Ron Paul said: “9/11 came about because there was too much government.” That statement is flat-out delusional ― yet not one of the other candidates challenged the Texas congressman’s point.I want to challenge Paul and othe
[Ahmed Zewail] As polls loom, Egypt must unify

Oct 10, 2011

CAIRO ― “Where is Egypt going?” a driver named Mohamed asked me recently. It is the question on everyone’s mind as the Arab Spring of popular revolution is giving way to the new season of free elections this autumn.At this unique moment in history, there are two critical challenges that face this na
[Meghan Daum] The Knox moral ― there’s no place like home

Oct 10, 2011

I didn’t have a huge investment in the fate of Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old American whose conviction for killing her roommate four years ago in Italy was overturned Monday. I was generally too put off and confused by the media circus surrounding the case to try to figure out the whole story. Still,
Occupy Wall Street: The new populists?

Oct 10, 2011

They call themselves the 99 Percenters. “We are occupying Wall Street,” they say, encamped by the hundreds in a park dubbed Liberty Square in Lower Manhattan’s financial district, and now seconded by satellite groups at L.A.’s City Hall, in San Francisco and in Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and dozens
[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Economic globalization and the role of governments

Oct 10, 2011

NEW YORK -- We live in an era in which the most important forces affecting every economy are global, not local. What happens “abroad” -- in China, India, and elsewhere -- powerfully affects even an economy as large as the United States. Economic globalization has, of course, produced some large
Twitter can start a party but can’t keep it going

Oct 9, 2011

Social media is the new forum for free speech ― and its suppression. Whether coordinating large protests in Cairo and Tunis or flash mobs in Birmingham and London, social media have proved in recent months that they are capable of disturbing business as usual. Governments, in response, are selective
[J. Bradford DeLong] A free lunch for America

Oct 9, 2011

BERKELEY ― Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers had a good line at the International Monetary Fund meetings this year: governments, he said, are trying to treat a broken ankle when the patient is facing organ failure. Summers was criticizing Europe’s focus on the second-order issue of Gre
Watch out for Putin, and Russia

Oct 9, 2011

The news itself was hardly startling. It has been increasingly clear during the last year that the Regent (Vladimir Putin) would recover the throne from the Dauphin (Dmitry Medvedev). But now that it seems a certainty that Russia is headed for (at least) 12 more years of Putinism, alarm bells ought
The scapegoating of Amanda Knox

Oct 9, 2011

Amanda Knox is nothing if not a good story. The pretty young American who headed to Italy for her junior year abroad, fell for an Italian boy and then landed in the dock with him, accused, convicted and then exonerated on charges of murdering another young woman in a sex game gone wild.Knox was neve
[Dominique Moisi] The nemesis of Turkish power

Oct 9, 2011

PARIS ― A few days ago, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan told Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab television network, that he would use his warships to prevent Israeli commandos from again boarding Gaza-bound ships, as they did last year. And in a speech in Cairo, he declared support for the United
[William Pesek] Sex gap isn’t just stupid, it squanders billions

Oct 7, 2011

Paul Hogan’s reptile-wrestling tough guy from the 1986 movie “Crocodile Dundee” typified Australia’s reputation for “mateship,” a creed of male friendship that often excludes women. A quarter of a century on, it’s costing the country billions. Don’t take my word for it ― take the prime minister’s. “
[David Ignatius] Drone strategies against al-Qaida

Oct 7, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Here’s the trickiest counterterrorism puzzle for U.S. policymakers: How do you stop al-Qaida from attacking the American homeland, without getting bogged down in protracted wars against insurgents? One answer would be to establish deterrence in the long war against Islamic extremis