The US presidential election campaign has entered the final sprint toward Election Day in November.The two major party candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are the most disliked candidates in recent memory. Two minor party candidates, the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, are together projected to drain about 10 percent of votes from major party candidates, the highest percentage since 1992. Polls show that the major party candidates

The introduction of web 2.0 has provided a platform for the instant interface of millions of people. But it has also created a new kind of culture -- the culture of hate. Most cybercitizens are prejudiced against each other. We have become morally judgmental of our fellow human beings.Avatars have replaced the real identities of individuals who are now soaked in a hegemonic online world so defined by an oppressive standard of beauty that maliciously subjugates millions of unknown mortals. The ta

Sometimes the best response to overheated political rhetoric is one of those dull if worthy white papers issued with alarming regularity by Washington think tanks and research organizations. So it is with two recent reports on immigration, both useful in correcting Donald Trump’s statements on the subject.A Pew Research Center report, released this week, confirms previous findings: The number of undocumented immigrants in the US peaked in 2007 before dropping sharply -- with more undocumented Me

The US presidential election campaign has entered the final sprint toward Election Day in November.The two major party candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are the most disliked candidates in recent memory. Two minor party candidates, Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson and Green Party’s Jill Stein, are together projected to drain about 10 percent of votes from major party candidates, the highest percentage since 1992.  Polls show that the major party candidates are par

The scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and two recently established nonprofit foundations follows the same pattern as similar past cases: Media critical of the president raise allegations, opposition members play up and reproduce them and the issue becomes a hot political dispute -- regardless of the veracity of the allegations.  In the initial stages, presidential officials come forward to deny the allegations, with the president maintaining her distance from the issue. If necessary, she

 While campaigning earlier this year, Donald Trump insisted the unemployment rate in Wisconsin was 20 percent. In reality, it was about 4.5 percent then and has only dropped since. He said Wisconsin has a stagnant economy with a budget deficit of $2.2 billion. In fact, the state is on track to have a balanced budget.Lying -- they say we all do it, sooner or later. But the cost of being discovered in a lie is painfully high -- usually.Like when Hillary Clinton absurdly said FBI Director James Com

In an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se quite rightly questioned North Korea’s membership of the United Nations in light of its repeated violations of UN Security Council resolutions: “I think all members of the UN have to ask themselves whether North Korea is really qualified.” It is a highly pertinent question, which requires deep consideration -- and most school teachers would know why.Think of international relations as a schooly

Since the eurozone crisis began in 2008, the European Union has, from a political perspective, led an intergovernmental life in supranational clothing. But as the EU prepares to negotiate Britain’s exit, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the union no longer has any clothes at all. The question now is whether the EU’s status as an enterprise dominated by its member states is permanent.The supremacy of member states -- especially Germany -- in EU decision-making is far from new. It was evi

The National Rifle Association likes to say that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” This vaporous aphorism, first intoned by NRA leader Wayne LaPierre four years ago, made an appearance this week on the NRA’s Twitter feed -- but it doesn’t quite mean what the NRA thinks.In an attack at a Minnesota mall recently, a knife-wielding assailant was shot dead by a former police chief named Jason Falconer. According to a biography on his company’s website, in addi

Some startlingly good economic news surfaced last week.You missed it? That’s OK. It was easy to overlook economic news amid all the deploring and “pneumonia-ing” and “birther-ing” that made up last week’s episode of the Trump vs. Clinton show.The Census Bureau’s annual report on poverty and income showed that last year, poor and middle-class Americans enjoyed their best year of economic improvement in decades. Real median household income rose to $56,500, a jump of 5.2 percent -- the largest jum

For the past several centuries, the world has experienced a sequence of intellectual revolutions against oppression of one sort or another. These revolutions operate in the minds of humans and are spread -- eventually to most of the world -- not by war (which tends to involve multiple causes), but by language and communications technology. Ultimately, the ideas they advance -- unlike the causes of war -- become noncontroversial.I think the next such revolution, likely sometime in the 21st centur

Until recently, natural disasters usually meant floods, typhoons and droughts for modern-day Koreans. For many, the thought of encountering a devastating earthquake never occurred to them. This public sentiment -- that Korea is safe from catastrophic underground tremors -- has changed a lot since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted the Gyeongju area on Sept. 12. The temblor, the strongest ever on government record, was preceded by a 5.1-magnitude quake and was followed by more than 400 aftershocks

The case of Liaoning Hongxiang Group, a Chinese conglomerate suspected of engaging in banned business activities with North Korea, is yet another piece of evidence that China is allowing loopholes to develop in the UN-led sanctions against the North’s nuclear and missile provocations. According to a South Korea-US joint study, six subsidiaries of the Chinese conglomerate have transacted with sanctioned Burmese and North Korean entities, have been associated with North Korean cyber operators, and

When 21 more people were found infected with the Zika virus in downtown Bangkok recently, state and medical authorities were quick to downplay the news. They should not be so dismissive. This is far too serious an issue.　The confirmation raised concern among the public nevertheless that the virus appears to be constantly spreading further. And it added substantial weight to an earlier warning from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control that Thailand is a “red alert” country, a cl

Minorities are treated like second-class citizens in many corners of the globe. Sexual minorities are among those heavily persecuted in oppressive societies. We would not include Indonesia among them, but it is rapidly getting there. Countries that tend to suffocate their citizens are those that ram selected beliefs and values down people’s throats, and ensure that everyone abides by the rules.　Therefore, the oft repeated slogan of respect for diversity is getting increasingly chipped, undermine

This is the 12th article in a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. -- Ed.No one can tell for sure how many migrant workers we actually have in this country. Even the authorities and individual officials offer their own variable numbers, not so much because they have something to hide from the public but simply no one knows exactly how many of them are here.　According to the human resources

In 2012, the London interbank offered rate -- Libor -- gained worldwide notoriety when it emerged that traders had conspired to manipulate this vital financial benchmark. Clearly, the system was broken and would have to be mended. Four years later, the repairs aren‘t finished.　Given the stakes, regulators are right to tread carefully. That said, they need to start making progress -- not so much toward mending Libor as toward creating an alternative.　Libor is constructed by polling banks on the i

After the cold war was over, most people thought the age of conflict had finally ended. But humanity is faced with more conflicts than ever before: Violent conflicts between states have greatly decreased, but nonviolent conflicts between them have not. Within states, regardless of West or the non-West, all kinds of primordial conflicts have increased – perhaps more than ever before. They are racial, religious or sectarian, ethnic, tribal and regional conflicts and disputes. These domestic disput

A council on the international finance sector development kicked off with its first meeting convened this week, including panels composed of government officials, professors and economists. It aims to increase the nation’s ability to cope with rapidly changing global indices.Its establishment is laudable amid the volatility of global indexes, a series of negative external factors and mounting uncertainties in financial markets.Local market participants are pinning hopes on the council in terms o

Concerns are mounting as workers in the financial industry are poised to stage an all-out protest. Employees from some other public sectors including railways, subway lines and hospitals will follow suit in the form of a general strike against the government’s scheduled introduction of performance-based pay scheme.The Korea Financial Industry Union has already publicized its strike plan in which a dominant portion of its unionized workers will participate in the walkout this Friday.As about 100,