NEWPORT BEACH ― A year ago, Egyptians of all ages and religions took to the streets and, in just 18 days of relatively peaceful protests, removed a regime that had ruled over them with an iron fist for 30 years. Empowered by an impressive yet leaderless movement ― largely of young people ― the country’s citizens overcame decades of fear to reclaim a voice in their future.While much has been achieved since those euphoric times, Egypt’s revolution today is, unfortunately, incomplete and imperfect

As the April general election draws near, political parties are competitively pouring out corporate reform plans. The sudden impetus toward corporate reform could be seen as the customary practice of political parties bashing chaebol before a major election. But this time, there seems to be more to it. Their attack on the chaebol is gaining traction amid a growing perception that the incumbent government’s corporate policy has only benefited chaebol at the expense of small and medium-sized enter

The ruling Grand National Party has decided to change its name next week. The party’s emergency leadership council announced on Thursday that the party would hold polls on potential names among party members from Friday to Sunday and adopt a new name on Monday. The plan reflects the scandal-ridden party’s desperate attempt to project a new image before the April general election. In recent years, the party has suffered a series of unsavory scandals that tarnished its image irreparably. Hence, a

It’s a rare economic story that involves Facebook Inc., God and credit ratings. Leave it to Indonesia to serve up a saga that speaks volumes about the obstacles facing Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Although Indonesia doesn’t often make global headlines, one event last week should have received more ink: Moody’s Investors Service returned the country to investment grade for the first time since the Asian financial crisis. It was an overdue recognition of how far Indonesia has progressed in th

WASHINGTON ― The foreign-policy theme that should dominate this year’s presidential campaign is “American renewal.” Each candidate claims to have a strategy for halting the nation’s decline, but their versions often amount to “more of the same” ― which ain’t gonna work. For a bracing discussion of what a revival of U.S. power would actually require over the next few decades, I recommend a new book called “Strategic Vision,” by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to Presiden

As disturbing as the controversy over why Salman Rushdie was misled into believing that his life, and the literature festival, would be endangered if he turned up at Jaipur is the manner in which the home ministry opted out of taking the lead role in a security-related situation. It may be technically correct that law and order is a state subject, but when the larger issue of the nation’s global prestige is at stake, and when more than one state government is involved (Maharashtra and Rajasthan

An underwater tug-of-war is intensifying among countries such as China, Russia and the United States in the seas around Japan.Vietnamese Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, who comes from Vietnam’s army, requested an inspection of a Maritime Self-Defence Force submarine when he visited Japan in October.He visited the Makishio, a main submarine of the MSDF Submarine Flotilla 1, in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. Made in Japan, the state-of-the-art submarine boasts a displacement capacity

“Where there is sugar, there are ants,” is perhaps the appropriate phrase to visualize the ongoing and increasing struggle among the major powers over influence in Asia ― the continent with the world’s fastest growth and abundant natural resources. Along with these colliding interests, comes the race to exercise control and to tap the continent’s resources and huge potential.The struggle among nations, particularly superpowers like the United States and the rapidly emerging power China, to gain

NEW HAVEN ― In his classic Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1724), Bernard Mandeville, the Dutch-born British philosopher and satirist, described ― in verse ― a prosperous society (of bees) that suddenly chose to make a virtue of austerity, dropping all excess expenditure and extravagant consumption. What then happened?The Price of Land and Houses falls;Mirac’lous Palaces, whose Walls,Like those of Thebes, were rais’d by PlayAre to be let; ... .The building Trade is quite

Although the phrase is now somewhat out of fashion, the issue of corporate responsibility is at the heart of many of the debates on economic policies around the world. Should corporations simply maximize profits and let the invisible hand do its wonders, or do they have some obligation to be good corporate citizens as well? As with many politicized debates, this one has been captured by two extreme positions, neither of which are, to my mind, particularly sensible. At one extreme are “pro-respon

The forthcoming April general election is important not just because it is a precursor to the December presidential poll. It is important more because it offers a rare chance to reshape the nation’s election culture. The April 11 election is the first major election in Korea where candidates and their supporters are allowed to fully utilize the Internet for electioneering ― unless they poison the election atmosphere by attempting to defame their rivals. Previously, the Internet could not be used

Many consumers wonder why beef prices in department stores and other retail outlets remain high even as cattle prices have plummeted at livestock farms. The Consumers Union of Korea has come up with an answer.According to a report released by the union, a top-notch 600 kg Korean cow fetches its owner about 5.8 million won on average. But the cow’s final consumer price is slightly over 10.04 million won, generating a distribution margin of 42.3 percent.The report has found out how the large margi

It’s one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It’s quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Romney’s critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future.Don’t hold your breath.Newt Gingrich says Bain under Romney carried out “clever legal ways to loot a company.” Gingrich cal

In this age the complex relations developing between individuals outside of the workplace or the family, whether those that develop through online communications within organizations, or those found in social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are having a profound impact on our society. Connections between people from vastly different backgrounds, who serve at different levels within organizations, can subtly, or bluntly, influence policy. Almost all actions within social networks

In North Korea, the king is dead, long live the king. Now what? I say we need to find a new way forward. Let me explain. At its meeting last October, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Korea (http://www.weforum.org/content/global-agenda-council-korea-2011) called for a “New Model” for relations between North Korea and the world. That call is even more valid with the death of Kim Jong-il. I chaired that Global Agenda Council and I will present the “New Model” at the WEF’s full m

BRUSSELS ― Throughout the crisis period, the European Central Bank’s behavior has been conditioned by the tension between what it can do and what it is allowed to do.The ECB is the only institution in the European Union that is able to provide unlimited funding to governments, but its governing statute prohibits government bailouts. Nonetheless, the ECB has provided large amounts of liquidity to the financial system, indirectly softening the pressure on government debt refinancing. For 18 months

“Broken Arrow,” a court drama film depicting a laid-off professor’s unsuccessful challenge to what he believed were unjust legal proceedings, was a box office leader during the lunar New Year holiday. It can be taken as yet another testimonial to the dwindling public trust in the nation’s justice system, although some attribute its success to the popularity of the two top actors Ahn Sung-ki and Moon Sung-keun.It was only last autumn that another court film, “Dogani (Melting Pot),” stirred contro

Changes are happening fast in Korea, even in such tradition-bound areas as funeral culture. In 2000, only about one-third of the dead were cremated; now more than 70 percent of families choose not to bury the dead in tombs. They extend their funeral period by one or two days to secure a slot in the crematorium operated at full capacity.High expenses for burial with limited availability of cemetery spaces and the posterity’s uncertain prospect for properly taking care of the ancestors’ tombs are

In planning to withdraw two of the U.S.’s four combat brigades from Europe, the Barack Obama administration is drawing on an unlikely inspiration: Donald Rumsfeld, when he was secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, wanted to do the same thing (the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made the idea moot). Not that this will make Obama immune to partisan criticism: Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, likened the administration’s proposed de

Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings are the troika of U.S.-based global credit rating agencies. The roots of these credit rating agencies date back to the middle of the 1800s in the U.S. The origin of Standard & Poor’s was when Henry Varnum Poor published History of Railroads and Canals of the United States in 1860, which compiled information on railroads companies, the most capital intensive industry at the time. Their scope of information coverage expanded gradually