I recognized the setting immediately. The high ceilings, giant windows streaming natural light, marble floors, verdant plantings, and decoratively incorporated bedrock. I knew at once it was the Palacio de la Revolucion. And from what I saw of President Obama’s trip on television last week, the home to brothers Fidel and Raul Castro has changed little in the 14 years since I was there as a columnist, as part of a small delegation accompanying Sen. Arlen Specter.　The 2002 trip was a return visit

The relationship between South Korea and North Korea is unique in modern world history. The Korean people are perhaps the only ethnically homogeneous nation in the world living in two separate states in the same territorial sphere. Until the end of the cold war there were two more such peoples -- the Germans and the Vietnamese, but the Vietnamese division was resolved by the joint action of the armed revolt of the South Vietnamese communists and North Vietnam, while the German division was ended

Travelers love Virgin America, the hip, mood-lit airline backed by Richard Branson. And why not? The self-described “low-fare, upscale” carrier promises passengers that they don‘’ need to accept the dismal nickel-and-dime, fee-for-everything flying experience offered by the competition. Instead, fly Virgin and you can have it all -- legroom and the cheap ticket.　Unfortunately, telling customers they can have it all rarely ends well. And Wednesday’s news that Virgin America is seeking buyers sugg

After Brussels, President Obama’s strategy of gradually degrading the Islamic State group looks terribly risky. And much too slow.　Yes, IS has lost around 40 percent of the territory it seized in Syria and Iraq, much of it retaken by Kurdish forces with U.S. air support. But it still holds the cities at its heart: Raqqa in eastern Syria and the major urban area of Mosul in northern Iraq. Right now, it appears unlikely that either will be liberated in the near term.　That cross-border territorial

Thailand must not lower its guard against extremism in any form. 　Malaysian authorities have foiled a plot by the Islamic State group to carry out multiple terrorist attacks in the country, as well as an attempt to kidnap Prime Minister Najib Razak and two other high-ranking officials.　The plan was uncovered in January last year. Thirteen terrorists with ties to IS were involved, the parliament was informed last week by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who was also one of the targets.　“

Astronomer Fred Hoyle famously quipped in 1982 that the odds of a simple living thing assembling itself from inanimate chemicals were as slim as the chance that a tornado passing through a junkyard would leave in its wake a Boeing 747.The statement reflects the 20th-century understanding that even pond scum was composed of cells of mind-boggling complexity. Today biologists believe that modern cells evolved from much simpler ancestors -- organisms that no longer exist.Now scientists have used ge

One of the best pieces of news in years is that China is finally getting serious about cleaning up its environment. Its renewable energy use is growing rapidly while its coal use is declining. Air pollution targets are being tightened. Contaminated farmland is finally getting high-level attention. Yet all that good could be undermined if China simply exports its environmental problems elsewhere.A case in point is China’s campaign to protect its forests. For years, logging ran rampant as the coun

The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States.”Following his recommendation, I enrolled my 7-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu. Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border.OK, I wasn‘t just blindly following Gardner -- I had a position as a lec

Alarmist is when you overestimate a strategic risk. Conversely, underestimating that risk is naive. A sound strategic analysis always falls between these two extremes. It’s about maintaining a delicate balance between appreciating and courting danger.　The latest incident between China and Indonesia near the Natuna Islands incurs the risk of underestimating Indonesia’s strategic impotence against Beijing’s growing maritime assertiveness. 　When China published its “nine-dash,” or U-shaped line, ma

The world has once again been shaken by another deadly terrorist attack on innocent people. This time the target was Brussels, where at least 31 people were killed and 230 others injured Tuesday.　 The suspected suicide bombers struck the Belgian capital’s Zaventem airport as well as a metro station about 200 meters from European Commission headquarters. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility. 　It is widely seen as “an attack on all of Europe,” since Brussels is home to key institut

To an extent, a book, in whatever the language in which it is crafted, can be a matter of subjective reflection; it is up to the reader or critic to draw conclusions. 　The Indian Human Resource Development Ministry’s latest move is testament to what Amartya Sen has famously described as the spread of “unfreedom.” While facts are meant to be garnered, interpretation is free. 　As much was the underlying theme of the pedagogy of the late Ashin Das Gupta, one of the finest teachers of history at Pre

At the second presidential debate sanctioned by the Commission on Elections and held in Cebu on March 20, the candidates were asked to answer three questions without explanation, simply by raising their hands if they were in favor and keeping still if they were against. It was a made-for-TV format, but the exercise proved to be a welcome respite from the often heated exchanges that characterized the debate.　The up-or-down format used by TV5 was also a helpful guide to the candidates’ views on lo

There is apparently this mysterious line that one is simply not meant to cross. Anyone who crosses this line is simply wrong — or so say those enforcing this line.For publications that want to be considered respectable, crossing this line means dabbling in yellow journalism. But this line is being crossed willingly and frequently by local media. Everyday big and small media outlets churn out articles with catchy headlines that are sometimes accompanied by photographs that are only fit to be post

The value of catastrophic events is that they can help people face up to problems that are otherwise impossible to address. Maybe this will be the case with Tuesday’s horrific attacks in Brussels.Europe is facing a security threat that’s unprecedented in its modern history, at a time when its common currency, border security and intelligence-sharing are all under severe stress. If Europe were a stock, a pragmatic investor would sell it, despite the sunk cost and sentimental attachment. Without r

President Barack Obama dangles U.S. dollars before the Castros while Congress stonewalls Puerto Rico’s pleas for debt restructuring. The Tampa Bay Rays take the field in Havana as San Juan fends off New York hedge funds wielding legal baseball bats. The Rolling Stones play a free concert for Cubans; Puerto Rico can’t get no satisfaction.　As Cuba rises and Puerto Rico falls, it’s worth considering the diverging trajectories of these two ex-Spanish colonies that the Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodrigue

Hardly a week goes by when an old friend doesn’t contact me with the same question: Could Donald Trump really get elected president?My standard reply is that, at this point, there are two answers: “Yes,” and “Probably not.” Never say never.By all logic, the blustery billionaire has antagonized enough voters that, even if he attracts disaffected white Democrats, he’ll have a difficult time winning a general election. A substantial proportion of Republicans says they won’t support him, even if he

I have just returned from a trip to Paris, where South Korea was invited as the guest of honor country at the 2016 Paris International Book Fair.I traveled with 30 Korean writers to the book fair for a series of literary events. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, hosted a welcoming reception for us and French President Francois Hollande visited the Korean Pavilion to pay his respects to the guest of honor country, as did the French minister of culture. The 30 Korean writers enjoyed enormous popul

Moderate Syrian opposition forces claim they are strengthening their positions against extremists in northern and southern Syria as the Russian military withdraws and a fragile cease-fire takes hold with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.Two rebel commanders described the recent battlefield gains against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in telephone interviews Saturday. Their claims couldn’t be verified, and it’s too early to say whether the moderate opposition is truly expanding its

A peace treaty is being mentioned in the course of exploring an ultimate solution to the military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula. It has been suggested that a peace treaty would tame North Korea by replacing the current armistice agreement and officially ending hostilities in the region.China supports the idea of pursuing denuclearization and a peace treaty in parallel. The U.S. position has been that denuclearization should be a prerequisite for any meaningful discussion of a peace treat

Recently, McDonald’s decided to raise wages for many of its hourly restaurant workers. The rise is modest, from about $9 to about $10, but already the company’s executives claim that they are seeing improvements in service quality:　“It has done what we expected it to -- 90-day turnover rates are down, our survey scores are up -- we have more staff in restaurants,” McDonald’s U.S. president Mike Andres told analysts at a UBS conference. “So far we’re pleased with it.”　So far the company’s financi