It is laudable for South Korea and China’s respective private sectors to take the initiative in coordinating on resolving the fine dust problem. A large part of the fine dust that swept over the Seoul metropolitan area and some major cities over the past two months came from ChinaOver the weekend, a group of Korean and Chinese business leaders agreed to work together to try to reduce dust in the air.Ultrafine dust is too small to be seen by the naked eye and is difficult to filter. Trapped in th

The Bank of Korea’s cut in the benchmark rate has lowered commercial banks’ interest rate offering on deposits to a record-low level.Commercial banks say they -- as well as depositors -- are also suffering low profitability as a result of the BOK’s all-time low base rate of 1.25 percent. Over the past two years, the central bank has lowered the rate by 125 basis points from 2.5 percent in July 2014.A savings product offered by a commercial bank provides customers with only a 0.01 percent rate pe

You know we love you over there and we know that you love us and thank you.However, we don’t really like the language in the headlines saying Brexit “looms” -- it sounds so ominous and a bad thing.Brexit is a good thing and nothing to be worried about.Would you be kind enough to use another word apart from “looms.” Something like “coming up” -- the thesaurus probably knows better than me.We so don’t want people to get the wrong impression of us leaving.We are looking forward to working with the

There are 67 sovereign states which recognize English as their official language. Among the 67 states, 36 countries use English as the only official language, while 31 countries recognize English as one of the official languages.Those countries recognizing English as the only official language are either the countries whose majority of the people are English-speaking ethnic groups or are former colonies of the U.K. and are populated by one dominant language group or equally numerous language gro

Colombo has reneged on its resolution to probe alleged human rights abuses during its 30-year civil war  The ethnic problem in Sri Lanka defies solution as Colombo has gone back on the resolution it cosponsored with the U.S. at the 31st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.The resolution required Sri Lanka to take a number of measures, including the setting up of a credible justice process with the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges and defense lawyers, to inves

How can this be normal? Twenty-nine countries with roughly 60 percent of the world’s GDP have monetary policy rates of less than 1 percent per annum. The world is awash with debt, with sovereign, corporate and household debt of over $230 trillion or roughly three times world GDP. To finance their large debt and deal with deflation, both the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are already experimenting with negative interest rate policies. If these do not work, look out for helicopter money,

My mother calls me and says, “We need to figure out what to put on Daddy’s headstone.”“How about beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather?”“No, that’s so ordinary.”She’s right. It doesn’t begin to capture who he truly was.“Can we think about it for a couple of days?”“OK, but keep in mind, the funeral home said that inscriptions cost $15 a letter.”Fifteen dollars a letter. With the meter running, I try to think of as few words as possible to capture my father’s life story.He was

Republicans need to start worrying about losing their majority in the House of Representatives.Republicans accept the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, and they know that her election would probably end their majority in the Senate. But in a year that has upended political expectations, they have clung to one comforting assumption: Their hold on the House is secure.Their majority is protected by gerrymandering, the geographic distribution of Republican vo

The government is leaning toward creating a supplementary budget in the second half of the year to boost the sluggish economy.Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said Friday that the government would come up with aggressive fiscal measures to cope with growing downside pressures at home and abroad.A day earlier, he had said the government would examine the option of drawing up an extra budget in its search for the right mix of policies to revitalize the economy.The minister’s remarks represent a shift in

Factional strife at the ruling Saenuri Party has been rekindled following the interim leadership’s surprise decision Thursday to reinstate the seven lawmakers who defected from the party after being denied nominations at the April election and were then elected as independents.The decision angered the party’s mainstreamers loyal to President Park Geun-hye, as the seven readmitted lawmakers included Yoo Seong-min, a former floor leader who was forced by the mainstream faction to step down from hi

WINDHOEK -- Sandwiched between Angola and South Africa, Namibia suffered mightily during the long struggle against apartheid. Yet, since winning independence from South Africa in 1990, this country of 2.4 million people has achieved enormous gains, especially in the last couple of years.A big reason for Namibia’s success has been the government’s focus on education. While people in advanced countries take for granted free primary and secondary education, in many poor countries, secondary educati

WASHINGTON -- This is a grim time for America’s Republican Party. While most of the party’s rank-and-file members have embraced Donald Trump as their presidential nominee, Republican members of Congress are finding it hard to accept him as their standard-bearer. Nothing like this has ever happened in American politics.It would be nice to believe that those Republicans who haven’t endorsed Trump, or have expressed misgivings, are acting on principle. And yet, while they may be concerned about his

When I was a kid, adults told me that the Roman Empire fell because they used lead plumbing. Lead poisoning made them all go crazy, after which they surrendered the keys to the Visigoth conquerors. It was years before I learned that the grown-ups were pulling my leg. And yet now, in a “truth is stranger than historical fiction” sort of way, I’m discovering that lead pollution is actually an important issue in our modern Rome, the U.S.The basic reason for lead’s importance comes from biology -- w

STOCKHOLM -- The international Christian organization Open Doors has reported that Christians at asylum centers in Germany -- the European country that has accepted the most migrants -- face “fear and panic,” owing to widespread harassment by other asylum-seekers. Gay asylum-seekers are offered shelter at special homes in Germany, for their own protection. In Sweden, which has taken in the second-highest number of asylum-seekers in Europe -- and the highest number per capita -- migration authori

The best way to hijack a person’s capacity for broad thinking, connection to others, creativity -- all of our magnificent qualities -- is to place that person in a state of fear. In this mode we shut down and run our survival circuitry; we’re relegated to fleeing, fighting or freezing. We are no longer our whole selves. Our energy for life is usurped, and we are easily controlled.This is how the Islamic State group pursues both victims and recruits. But it’s not terrorism; it’s cowardice. It’s t

Presidents of Korean universities seldom criticize the Education Ministry in public, as they know only too well that they gain nothing by falling into disfavor with a government agency that has the power to determine the amount of financial support they get. Yet principals of 10 major private universities in Seoul got what they had to say off their chests in a seminar held Tuesday to mark the launch of the “Future University Forum.” Choi Kyung-hee, president of Ewha Womans University, criticized

Forests in the highlands act as a critical sink for carbon, thereby facilitating carbon sequestration to the highest order. And winter is the time when the forest cover is under a cold spell, which helps it to regenerate. But the Himalayan region has been witnessing unbelievably warm and pleasant winters in recent years. The rise in temperature in the region has not only affected the forest cover of the region but has also caused the drying up of many traditional sources of water. Mul phutnu (bu

Working efficiently in shorter hours and leading an enriched life both at home and at work. Employing a variety of personnel resources and dealing with the declining birthrate and aging society. In order to achieve these goals, it is vital to change the culture of working long hours.  The Japan government’s plan for the dynamic engagement of all citizens and the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform, also referred to as the “big-boned policy,” regards reforming the culture of

The U.S. Congress is in the midst of a breakdown in longstanding institutional norms. The latest example is the Senate’s refusal to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court -- a refusal that is probably without precedent. But something broader is occurring, and it threatens to undermine the federal government’s ability to carry out its central functions. To see what has happened and what might be done about it, we should say something

To start to do something about the horror, the pain, the awfulness of mass-murder terrorism in the United States, it would help if we focused more on real fixes instead of gun control. Some believe the instruments of evil are the evil themselves and here is what happens: President Obama advocates laws that would likely accomplish zip as his rhetoric puts record numbers of guns on the streets.“Fear of gun-buying restrictions has been the main driver of spikes in gun sales, far surpassing the effe