We know Americans value independence and self-reliance. As soon as you graduate from high school in America, you are regarded as a grown-up and expected to be on your own. Upon entering college, often your parents will help you with either your tuition or living expenses, but rarely both. Of course, the extent of parental support differs by each family, and it is well known that partial financial support for a child’s college education is common in American society. Often, American college stude

In recent years, a lot of people have been concerned about the relatively low numbers of science majors among American college students. The percentage of science and engineering graduates in the U.S. has been far below that in China and Japan. On various math and science tests, the performance of U.S. students has fallen below that of students in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, England, Finland, Israel, Australia and Russia. This is a real problem, because science majors can contribute to econom

WASHINGTON ― After the Egyptian revolution in February 2011, the U.S. had a good idea: Why not create an “enterprise fund” to make loans to small and medium-sized Egyptian businesses? President Obama announced the plan “to build networks of entrepreneurs” in Egypt in a speech on May 19, 2011. But more than two years later, the fund has yet to make a single investment. And the question is: What happened? The story of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund is another example of why almost nothing w

Last weekend’s revelation that J.K. Rowling is the author of the critically acclaimed and ― until now ― commercially unsuccessful crime novel “The Cuckoo’s Calling” has electrified the book world and solidified Rowling’s reputation as a genuine writing talent: After all, if she can impress the critics without the benefit of her towering reputation, then surely her success is deserved. And yet what this episode actually reveals is the opposite: that Rowling’s spectacular career is likely more a f

These days the news from abroad is mostly grim. So it was inspiring last week to watch Malala Yousafzai ― the Pakistani teen shot in the head by the Taliban because of her campaign for girls’ education ― standing erect on a U.N. podium on her 16th birthday. It was even more inspiring to hear her moving speech, delivered in a clear, confident voice, which called for free, compulsory schooling worldwide.She recalled the October day when a talib jumped into her school van, aimed at her forehead poi

PARIS ― Bastille Day, the French national holiday, was glorious this year. The military parade, dominated by the celebration of “victory” in Mali and the joint participation of African and United Nations troops, had the perfection of a gracious, albeit muscular, ballet.The classical concert that preceded the magisterial fireworks that ended the day was the closest thing to a French version of the Proms in London, mixing light classical and popular songs. The Eiffel Tower imbued the evening with

MOSCOW ― In a recent speech in Berlin, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed his commitment to nuclear disarmament and proposed steps toward achieving that goal. But Russia has made clear that it does not plan to pursue further reductions to its nuclear arsenal any time soon.In the speech, Obama announced that the United States is prepared to cut its nuclear arsenal by up to one-third. He also proposed major reductions in the number of tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) deployed in Europe. Moreove

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts ― The release of revised GDP data by the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics in late June seemed like an occasion for cheer, because growth had not quite been negative for two consecutive quarters in the winter of 2011-12, as previously thought. The point, as it was reported, is that a second UK recession following the global financial crisis in 2008 (a “double dip”) had now been erased from the history books, and that the Conservative government would take s

LONDON ― Egypt’s crisis has been called the worst in its history. But in fact, it bears a striking resemblance to a previous episode, almost 60 years ago.On February 28, 1954, almost a million protesters besieged Cairo’s Abdin Palace, then being used by Gamal Abdel Nasser and other leaders of the July 1952 coup. The protesters’ main demands were the restoration of Egypt’s fragile democratic institutions, the release of political prisoners, and the army’s return to its barracks.The two-month cris

President Park Geun-hye’s plan to reform the current Basic Old-age Pension is likely to be scaled back due to the worsening economic situation. On the campaign trail, Park promised to transform the old-age pension into a “basic pension” by doubling its monthly benefit from the current 97,100 won to 200,000 won and making it a universal plan covering all senior citizens aged 65 or above. Currently, the state program only pays the benefit to elderly people in the bottom 70 percent of the income sc

The government has come up with a well-designed policy package aimed at fostering the tourism industry as a growth engine and a job-creating machine.The package has heightened expectations as it consists of practical measures that are likely to make Korea a more attractive tourist destination.One such measure calls for refunding foreign tourists the 10 percent value-added tax on their hotel bills. Domestic hotels have long called for the VAT reimbursement, which would have the effect of giving t

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants a mandate in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, and voters look set to give him one. The question is whether he understands what he’s getting. Polls show that Japanese want Abe to fix the economy. Optimism and stock prices shot up earlier this year after the Bank of Japan began a massive quantitative-easing program and Abe’s government announced stimulus plans to rouse Japan from its 20-year funk. The prime minister now says he needs control over both cham

Can we please have a moratorium on the word “Likonomics”? Premier Li Keqiang’s plans to overhaul the Chinese economy have hardly earned such a grand moniker yet. Say what you will about “Thatchernomics” or “Reaganomics,” but Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan fundamentally altered the British and American economies. No one is rolling their eyes at “Aquinomics,” President Benigno Aquino’s thus-far successful prescription for the Philippines, the onetime “sick man of Asia.” By contrast, Likonomic

On Tuesday, about 90 investigators from the prosecution swooped down on the homes of former President Chun Doo-hwan and his family and the companies established by his two sons in search of his hidden assets. The search continued the next day.The massive raid, which even put a metal detector to use, followed the establishment of a special task force by the prosecutor-general, the revision of a law by the legislature and the incumbent president’s determination to put an end to the case that has r

In his address on Constitution Day on Wednesday, Kang Chang-hee, speaker of the National Assembly, proposed to create a special committee empowered to draft an amendment to the Constitution. He was right to say that the basic law needs revising as the Korean society has outgrown some of its devices, with the power structure being most notable among them.When the Constitution was being revised in 1987, the overriding concern of the public was how to prevent the military-backed Chun Doo-hwan dicta

By now it’s clear that the U.S.’s new policy toward Syria ― we use the word “new” advisedly ― remains unclear. The question is what President Barack Obama is willing to do about it. A month ago, the administration announced it would begin training and arming opposition fighters in Syria. Now it emerges that this aid hasn’t yet hit the ground, and when it does, it will involve only small arms in uncertain quantities. What exactly is the administration’s policy here? If the goal is to roll back th

JAKARTA ― In recent years, Indonesia has emerged as a robust democracy with a dynamic economy. Now, as the largest and most influential member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia must leverage its newly acquired strength to confront the challenges facing it and its regional partners, while avoiding foreign-policy recklessness.Indonesia has reason to be confident. Less than two decades after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis ravaged the economy and provoked a socia

Japanese people can be surprisingly vague when stating their opinions. This can be seen either as a practical way to handle difficult topics without offending the other person or a way of avoiding humiliation.Questioned on his attitude toward Japan’s past, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to be ambiguous by employing aimai, literally a doubled-edged approach.He complains that part of Japan’s history has been made a diplomatic issue, willfully ignoring the fact that Japan’s militarist

There is an irony to the sell-off in emerging markets recently. It is the result of a rare dose of uplifting news from the developed world ― the U.S. economy is showing enough strength to prompt the Federal Reserve to signal a paring back of its quantitative easing program.In tumultuous times such as these we must look at the economic fundamentals to separate the “signal” from the “noise.” The key question today is: Are the emerging markets fundamentally broken, or is this a brief phase in which

NEW DELHI ― On July 4, Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and putative prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, became the most-followed Indian politician on Twitter, with more than 1.8 million followers. (Full disclosure: the long-time leader whom he eclipsed was me.) The occasion was celebrated by BJP supporters across the Internet, and triggered a spate of assessments of social media’s growing impact on Indian politics.Four years ago, when I first went on Tw