Many tend to imagine cities to be a place where people keep to themselves and strangers don’t talk to strangers. The fact is that in any given day strangers spend time with strangers, sometimes alone, in a closed room on thousands of occasions. It is called a taxi ride. Some taxi drivers like to share their views on current political issues. Some passengers like to chat with their cabbies about their daily routines. Some rides are almost silent except at the beginning when the passengers announc

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to India originated in his desire to make his devotions at the shrine at Ajmer, the famous pilgrimage center where great and small, rulers and ruled, persons of every condition and rank, have been drawn through the centuries. They come from every corner of South Asia in an unending stream; several heads of state and government have preceded Zardari, and doubtless there will be many more after him. So from one point of view it is nothing extraordinary t

Many tend to imagine cities to be a place where people keep to themselves and strangers don‘t talk to strangers. The fact is that in any given day strangers spend time with strangers, sometimes alone, in a closed room on thousands of occasions. It is called a taxi ride. Some taxi drivers like to share their views on current political issues. Some passengers like to chat with their cabbies about their daily routines. Some rides are almost silent except at the beginning when the passengers announc

Now that the parliamentary election is over, political parties are shifting their focus to the presidential race. The Wednesday election was widely viewed as the precursor to the December poll. Yet there is no guarantee that the Saenuri Party victory will be repeated in eight months’ time. To win the crucial election in December, political parties should listen to the vox populi expressed in the parliamentary poll. This applies to the ruling Saenuri Party, as well as to the main opposition Democ

On Wednesday, about 800 Japanese right-wingers gathered in Tokyo to reiterate their claim that Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets, is Japanese territory and urge the Tokyo government to act on the issue.The rally, organized by Shimane Prefecture of western Japan, is notable as it was the first of its kind held in Tokyo. Furthermore, the participants included some 60 Japanese lawmakers and senior government officials. Some of the politicians at the rally made highly provocative comments. For insta

Ethiopia isn’t the first place you would look for clues about Asia’s economies. Nor does Jose Rabacal, a 29-year-old Filipino sipping beer at an Addis Ababa airport cafe, think he’s a human economic indicator. But he is, and so are his 10 compatriots as they bided their time recently during a multihour layover. Each moved to Africa from the Philippines for opportunities that leaders failed to offer at home. Each left behind a family they see once a year, if they are lucky. “I haven’t seen my thr

Over the past decades, the Philippines used to be benign with its defence strategy over the claims in South China Sea.Domestic turmoil, economic down-turn and southern rebellions kept the country at arm’s length on this key security issue. However, since July 2010, the government under President Benign Aquino III has displayed assertive foreign policy postures in the relations with the U.S. and China ― which has currently moved in an opposite direction. At the last week’s ASEAN summit in Phnom P

Apologies to Ronald Reagan as we mangle his catchphrase, but what the U.S. and other world powers need to do in negotiations with Iran later this week is to “accept, but verify” an Iranian nuclear-fuel program that’s limited to producing low civilian-grade fuel. Only the most reckless gambler would bet on a breakthrough in the talks, due to take place in Istanbul on April 14. Ten years of abject diplomatic failure, distrust and Iranian filibustering have fed a justifiable cynicism. Nor is an ele

BRUSSELS ― Recently, the human-rights activist, former Dutch politician, and Somali exile Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about a global war on Christians in Muslim countries. She discussed at length the appalling phenomenon of violent intolerance towards Christian communities, and cast blame on the international community and prominent NGOs for failing to address this problem.In almost every part of the world, reports emerge on a daily basis of Christian communities falling victim to harassment and perse

The toilet is a magnificent thing. Invented at the turn of the 19th century, the flush version has vastly improved human life. The toilet has been credited with adding a decade to our longevity. The sanitation system to which it is attached was voted the greatest medical advance in 150 years by readers of the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately it is an impractical luxury for about two-thirds of the world’s 7 billion people because it relies on connections to water and sewerage systems that m

MADRID ― After long years of failed international efforts to end Iran’s cunning drive to develop nuclear weapons, the question today is no longer whether the West can prevent the nuclearization of Iran’s military arsenal, but whether the Islamic regime collapses first. Unfortunately, if it does not, the only option for stopping Iran is war ― and war is a very bad option.Pakistan is worth invoking when assessing whether the sanctions now imposed on Iran will force it to surrender its nuclear prog

Recently in Karachi, I dropped in on a talk by the Pakistani journalist and TV anchor Kamran Khan at a Rotary Club meeting. Describing relations between India and Pakistan at a “crossroads,” Khan exhorted his audience to feel shame about Pakistani involvement in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 that killed 164 people and have frozen India- Pakistan relations ever since. Khan lamented the many missed opportunities for a comprehensive agreement between India and Pakistan. Finally, he expres

To be the swing voter, you have to be willing to swing. In the last three weeks, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has shown how it’s done. First he wrote the majority opinion in a landmark 5-4 case establishing a constitutional right to an adequate lawyer in plea-bargaining negotiations. Liberals were enthused. Yet in his tough questioning during the Obamacare arguments, he shook up the conventional wisdom that mandatory coverage would be upheld comfortably. Liberals were not enthused.

The toilet is a magnificent thing. Invented at the turn of the 19th century, the flush version has vastly improved human life. The toilet has been credited with adding a decade to our longevity. The sanitation system to which it is attached was voted the greatest medical advance in 150 years by readers of the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately it is an impractical luxury for about two-thirds of the world’s 7 billion people because it relies on connections to water and sewerage systems that m

This week is a crucial week for North Korea and its young leader, Kim Jong-un. Amid global outcry, the impoverished country is ready to launch a long-range rocket to mark the April 15 centennial of the birth of Kim Il-sung, its founder and the grandfather of the 20-something leader.Underlying the planned rocket launch is the paranoid regime’s desire to demonstrate to the outside world as well as its disgruntled people that it has attained its long-cherished dream of becoming a “strong and prospe

National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Hyun-oh has stepped down to take full responsibility for the bungled police investigation of a recent murder case.The police came under fire following reports that the 112 emergency service center carelessly handled a desperate phone call for help from a woman who said she was being attacked. The 28-year-old victim in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, reported her exact whereabouts during her call but police failed to figure out her location. By the time police of

Latin American countries are rightfully fed up with fighting Washington’s war on drugs. In the four decades since President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs, its battles have been fought predominantly in Latin American nations ― leaving behind a trail of death and corruption while failing to achieve any of its goals.After a bloody, decades-long war in Colombia, the epicenter of drug trafficking simply moved north to Mexico. Upon taking office five years ago, Mexican President Felipe Calde

Last week a Korean man living in Oakland, California, shot and killed seven people. The man had moved to America and was pursuing his dream of becoming a nurse. When that dream fell short amid rumors of ill treatment, he took out his frustrations on his classmates and teachers. A month earlier, in February of this year, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, another Korean man shot and killed four of his relatives before committing suicide. In his case there were reports of family discord that alleged

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has a serious public-relations hurdle: how to sell its proposed Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bullet train without the word “boondoggle” attached. But the rail authority’s latest compromise plan to solve this problem ― with its focus on building the system in a “better, faster, cheaper” manner ― not only doesn’t fix the system’s fundamental flaws, it may plant the seeds of its destruction. In November 2008, California voters ― notorious for approving huge

Oil prices and oil supply unambiguously tie China and the United States together, as both nations are heavy importers of oil. The United States imports about 65 percent of its oil and oil products, while China imports about 56 percent of its needs, which will undoubtedly increase over the next few years.The rising trend in oil prices over the past three years has by no means been a classic recession response and the climbing price of crude oil may undo the U.S.’ fragile economic recovery and wil