The Korea Herald

Digitized textbooks key to educational future

Oct 7, 2011

Change does not always come easy. It often comes with the sacrifice of people whose livelihoods depend on the old way of things and against the influence of the powerful who are heavily invested in keeping the status-quo. However, sometimes change is not an option but rather a challenge a nation sho
Find common ground with Okinawa on Futenma

Oct 7, 2011

The issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture cannot be delayed any further.How can we avoid a situation in which the air station will remain where it is? The central government must talk with the Okinawa prefectural government earnestly and search for comm
[Andrew Sheng] European debt crisis: IMF as enforcer of last resort

Oct 7, 2011

Travelling in Europe before the IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C., there was an air of worsening crisis. A series of bad news fed the fear factor. Shortly after the Swiss National Bank intervened in the Swiss franc, a UBS rogue trader was charged with losing 2.3 billion euros in unauthorized tr
[Trudy Rubin] As world turned, we became our own worst enemies

Oct 6, 2011

These days, any assessment of American foreign policy seems to circle back to whether we can get our act together at home.This country cannot command respect overseas when its domestic politicians act like irresponsible children. The world looks agog at our paralyzed Congress. A sagging superpower u
[Ban Ki-moon] The power to terminate poverty

Oct 6, 2011

NEW YORK ― Growing up as a child during the Korean War, I knew poverty first hand. I saw it around me every day; I lived it. One of my earliest memories is walking up a muddy track into the mountains to escape the fighting, my village burning behind me and wondering what would happen to my family an
Tiny Qatar’s big plans may change U.S. policy

Oct 6, 2011

Qatar, a country of fewer than 2 million people set on a peninsula smaller than Connecticut, seems an unlikely candidate to become a regional power. Yet with little fanfare and less warning, tiny Qatar has emerged as one of the Middle East’s most influential states. As the U.S. struggles to understa
[Naomi Wolf ] The worst places in the world to be a woman

Oct 6, 2011

OXFORD ― The top and the bottom of the list of countries in Newsweek’s recent cover story, “The 2011 Global Women’s Progress Report,” evoke images of two different worlds. At the top of the list ― the “Best Places to be a Woman” ― we see the usual suspects: Iceland and the Scandinavian countrie
[Shlomo Ben Ami] Has Palestine won battle at U.N.?

Oct 6, 2011

TEL AVIV ― The somber spectacle of Israel’s isolation during the United Nations debate on Palestinian statehood marks the political tsunami that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s critics warned would arrive if Israel did not propose a bold peace initiative. But, more importantly, the speeches at t
Yemen drone strike shows careful balance of U.S. policy

Oct 5, 2011

The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric, by a drone strike in Yemen was a minor U.S. victory that raises major questions about the evolving fight against global terrorism. These include: How important was al-Awlaki? Is the U.S. justified in targeting its own citizens
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Spend more to cure the economy

Oct 5, 2011

NEW YORK ― As the economic slump that began in 2007 persists, the question on everyone’s minds is obvious: Why? Unless we have a better understanding of the causes of the crisis, we can’t implement an effective recovery strategy. And, so far, we have neither.We were told that this was a financial cr
A win-win strategy for the Palestinians

Oct 5, 2011

Everyone knows that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for statehood through the U.N. Security Council will fail. Even if the Palestinians get the nine votes needed, the United States will veto it. And yet the strategy is brilliant. Why? Because the Palestinians win even if they lose
[William D. Cohan] Getting rich from others was never easier

Oct 5, 2011
[Joel Brinkley] U.N. can’t save dissidents, but it can give them a voice

Oct 5, 2011

UNITED NATIONS ― Listening to dissidents from around the world speaking at a conference here, you come away thinking there has to be a school somewhere for evil, vicious despots. From Africa to Asia, Europe to Latin America, the gambits these men use to quash dissent sound remarkably similar, state
U.S. Supreme Court tests strength of rights

Oct 4, 2011

In the term that began Monday, the Supreme Court will address issues as diverse as the limits of copyright law, the appeals process for owners of wetlands regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and whether the government of California can order reductions in Medi-Cal reimbursements. It is
[Lee Jae-min] KORUS FTA enters home stretch

Oct 4, 2011

At long last, the 51-month marathon is about to finish. The runners are passing the main gate of the stadium and entering the final stretch. Fifty-one months and three days have passed since the trade ministers of the two countries signed the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement in Washington on June 30,