The Korea Herald

[Robert Greene] It’s not easy being Greene

Sept 6, 2011

On or about Sept. 3, 1592, Robert Greene died from eating too many pickled herrings and drinking too much Rhine wine, or Rhenish, as the English called it in those days. I learned this from a poetry anthology ― a gift from my mother ― containing some of Greene’s poems along with a brief biography th
[Kim Seong-kon] Humans between angels, demons

Sept 6, 2011

It seems that most Koreans tend to think that the world is made of angels and demons, friends and enemies, or good and bad. It never seems to occur to Koreans that demons are fallen angels, yesterday’s friends can be today’s enemies and good persons may turn out to be bad persons and vice versa.Like
Inflation as solution for the U.S.? No, thank you

Sept 5, 2011

We just endured and survived a major political crisis over the possibility that the U.S. government might default on its debts. Most people ― other than a few high-stakes poker players on the right wing of the Republican Party ― agreed that this would be a terrible thing. But now, a growing number o
[David Ignatius] David Petraeus’ CIA challenge

Sept 5, 2011

WASHINGTON ― In taking over as CIA director this week, David Petraeus will confront a tricky problem: CIA analysts who will be working for him concluded in a recent assessment that the war in Afghanistan is heading toward a “stalemate” ― a view with which Petraeus disagrees. The analysts made t
[Rachel Marsden] Go get the Lockerbie bomber from Libya

Sept 5, 2011

Does Barack Obama care that the terrorist convicted only a decade ago of killing 189 Americans is reportedly running around Libya?The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was tried in the U.K. and then released two years ago ― but only on “compassionate grounds” because he was supposed to die wi
[Meghan Daum] New English words to live by

Sept 5, 2011

Every year around this time, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary releases a list of words that will be added to its next edition. It’s lucky that the announcement comes toward the end of August, when most humans want to go on vacation and most columnists, therefore, need to write an “evergreen.”Ev
[Eric X. Li] Chinese politics: Left or right, red and redder

Sept 5, 2011

SHANGHAI ― China watchers are all talking about one of the most interesting recent developments in the country’s political and social scene: “singing red” ― the revival of revolutionary songs epitomizing the leftism of the Maoist era. It began in Chongqing, a major city of 20 million in the nation’s
N.Y.’s new attorney general stands up to big banks

Sept 4, 2011

So here’s Eric Schneiderman, of whom you’ve probably never heard, who last year was elected attorney general of the state of New York, a job that arguably makes him the third most-influential state officeholder in the nation, behind only the governors of New York and California.This is because the a
[Joel Brinkley] War costs greater than thought

Sept 4, 2011

As the congressional debt-reduction “super committee” begins work next week, it had better take into account trillions of dollars in anticipated war costs that no one in Washington seems willing to acknowledge.For decades now (and probably much longer) government estimates of war costs strove not to
[S. P. Seth] China’s hegemony to face broad resistance

Sept 4, 2011

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden’s recent China visit appears to have been quite uneventful, apart from the reported fight between a visiting American goodwill basketball team (unrelated to Biden’s visit) and their Chinese counterparts. Is this a portent of things to come?Considering China’s nervousnes
[Ramesh Ponnuru] U.S. should follow world down on company taxes

Sept 4, 2011

Nations don’t compete with one another the way companies do. Pepsi’s gain is almost always Coca-Cola’s loss, but the same doesn’t always, or even often, hold true for national economies. Governments do compete in some respects: They want to attract capital investment to their countries, for example,
[Park Soo-gil] In facing the North, politics should stop at the DMZ

Sept 4, 2011

A leading South Korean newspaper recently published a three-part series of interviews with Kim Hyun-hee, one of the two North Korean agents who bombed KAL 858 in November 1987, killing all 115 persons on board.The articles stirred up a complex strand of painful memories for me, as it probably did fo
[William Pesek] Rock ‘n’ roll line rings true in deflation nation

Sept 2, 2011

Japan needs an Arab Spring. If you’d told me 10 years ago, when I moved to Tokyo, that today I’d be writing about an eighth leader, I never would’ve believed it. Yet here we are, analyzing and philosophizing about whether Yoshihiko Noda will last longer than the last five. In April 2001, Junichiro K
[Malcolm Fraser] America’s self-inflicted decline

Sept 2, 2011

MELBOURNE ― If the broad post-World War II prosperity that has endured for six decades comes to an end, both the United States and Europe will be responsible. With rare exceptions, politics has become a discredited profession throughout the West. Tomorrow is always treated as more important than nex
DPJ must revive itself through generation change

Sept 2, 2011

The Democratic Party of Japan-led administration has for the first time a leader with a steadfast political style and well-grounded policies.In the DPJ’s presidential election Monday, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda defeated Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda in a runoff. It was a dra