CAIRO ― From Nazi Germany to Rwanda, some of the most inhumane atrocities and genocides were committed while the rest of the world was watching. Today we are all witnessing the atrocities and mass destruction in Syria. Again we are observing it all unfold before our eyes, with heavy hearts perhaps, but no effective intervention to stop it.The regime of Bashar al-Assad is brutal. It is fighting a war with its own people, shelling them from the sea, bombing them from the air, and murdering them in

When Shinzo Abe, the leader of Japan’s main opposition party, talks about his vision for the country’s diplomacy and security, East Asia has every reason to prick up its ears.Opinion polls in Japan suggest the Liberal Democratic Party will win the House of Representatives election on Dec. 16, positioning Abe to become the next prime minister.He was eager to show his hardline credentials when releasing his party’s campaign pledges on Wednesday, presenting himself as a tough nut to crack if he tak

The 2012 London Paralympics captivated the world’s attention with the strength of the human spirit demonstrated by persons with disabilities. We were all moved by the determination and perseverance of the athletes to overcome the odds that defeat so many of us.What we saw of the London Paralympics gives reason to pause and reflect on the everyday struggles of persons with disabilities. Here in Asia-Pacific, there are 650 million persons with disabilities. They account for 15 percent of the popul

Behavioral economists study human errors. People don’t always make the best choices for themselves, so there’s good reason to doubt whether they will always make the best choices for others. If you’ve ever received a useless gadget, a horrendous tie or some kind of bowl, you’ll know that when people buy Christmas presents, they can blunder badly. Chances are pretty good that whatever you end up getting people this year, and however hard you try, some of your friends and family members aren’t goi

NEW YORK ― When BP and its drilling partners caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the U.S. government demanded that BP finance the cleanup, compensate those who suffered damages, and pay criminal penalties for the violations that led to the disaster. BP has already committed more than $20 billion in remediation and penalties. Based on a settlement last week, BP will now pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history ― $4.5 billion.The same standards for environ

The presidential election campaign is heating up as the two major candidates ― Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party ― scramble to take an early lead in the race.The two contenders launched their official campaigns on Nov. 27 after registering their candidacy with the National Election Commission. Besides the two, five more people have thrown their hats into the ring, but their bids are unlikely to matter much.The initial campaig

The government has announced that Korea’s trade volume will pass the $1 trillion milestone for a second consecutive year in 2012, overtaking Italy to become the world’s eighth largest trading nation.According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the nation’s trade volume totaled $888.5 billion during the first 10 months of the year, with exports accounting for $455.4 billion and imports $433.1 billion. The ministry forecast the trade tally would hit $1 trillion in the middle of next month. One

It may turn out that the editors of the English language edition of the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily, were only kidding when they ran a 55-image slideshow based on “Kim Jong-un Named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2012.” But if it turns out that they weren’t, the explanation for how such an article ended up in China’s most important tribunal isn’t so hard to parse. In three distinct ways, the Onion’s satire was perfectly engineered to appeal to editorial biases ― some

The jury may still be out on the link between climate change and natural disasters. But one thing is clear: weather-related disasters are increasing in both frequency and intensity. Witness the string of severe recent floods across Asia ― from Pakistan, to Thailand, to the Philippines ― and Hurricane Sandy in the U.S., which have vividly shown us how extreme weather events can bring entire countries to a virtual standstill. Volatile weather extremes are hitting Asia and the Pacific more often th

The Mainland Affairs Council and the Presidential Office have both stepped up and asked the PRC government to not endanger the status quo by including two pages of scenery from Taiwan, as well as a map of the PRC’s claimed territory showing dashed lines going around Taiwan’s eastern seaboard, in its new microchip passports. The dashed lines extend southward to cover a vast disputed area in the South China Sea, triggering protests from rival claimants including Vietnam, the Philippines and even I

How should Japan achieve a stable supply of power, which is indispensable for people’s livelihoods and economic growth? Energy policies will become a major issue in the House of Representatives election to be held Dec. 16.Nuclear power policies by the ruling and opposition parties have come under the spotlight due to the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.It will be difficult to resolve many issues facing

Hurricane Sandy chased me out of Boston and since I could not get out via New York, I took a flight in the opposite direction to Mumbai. India has the most wonderful bookshops, full of the latest global hits at reasonable prices, but also Indian books that are not easily available abroad. Indian writers have a flair for the English language that is inimical and lyrical, reflecting the deep cultural respect for articulation, best summarized by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s book titled “The Argumen

Ohio, the mother of all tossup states, gave its 18 electoral votes ― and with them, the White House ― to Barack Obama on Nov. 6. Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown won reelection. Yet Republicans won 12 of Ohio’s 16 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.Obama won by five points in Pennsylvania, where Democrats also swept four statewide races. But Republicans took 13 of the state’s 18 U.S. House seats.Democrats who had hoped to reclaim a majority in the House came up way short, even with

It may be surprising to learn that, of the many maritime disputes in Asia, one of the most violent in the past few years has occurred between South Korea and China in the Yellow Sea.On Oct. 16 a 44-year-old Chinese fisherman died when hit by a rubber bullet fired by a member of the Republic of Korea Coast Guard, which had stopped a Chinese trawler fishing illegally in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Past incidents include the death of two Chinese fishermen in December 2010, the kill

Before scheduling any budget negotiations at the White House, on Capitol Hill or at Camp David, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders should go see Steven Spielberg’s classic new film, “Lincoln.” It’s the best movie about Washington politics I’ve seen. The centerpiece is the American icon, Abraham Lincoln; it brilliantly captures him doing what politicians are supposed to do, and today too often avoid: compromising, calculating, horse trading, dealing and preventing the perfect from b

ASEAN members need to do a better job at high-level meetings in preventing another South China Sea storm from cracking their cohesion and credibility. Disputants have made their positions quite well known to China on other occasions. There was no need to overshadow pressing summit business in trying to advance or protect claims. Coming so publicly and soon after their foreign ministers’ unprecedented failure to issue a communique four months ago, the disagreement at the ASEAN Summit is doubly da

The nation’s 250,000 taxi drivers have threatened to hold a massive rally in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido of Seoul on Dec. 7 if lawmakers fail to pass a bill to designate taxis as public transportation by early next month.Legislators of the ruling and opposition parties rushed the bill through relevant standing committees last week. But they stopped short of pushing it through a plenary session in the face of public outcry and a nationwide strike by bus drivers.On Nov. 22, bus drive

The prosecution is facing the worst crisis since its foundation. Last week, the arrest of a senior prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office on corruption charges shook the powerful law enforcement agency to its foundations. As if it were not enough, a dumbfounding sex scandal involving a novice prosecutor has been exposed, dealing a knockout punch to the already staggering agency. The prosecutor, who has been undergoing on-the-job training at a Seoul district prosecutor’s office since ap

WASHINGTON ― The Syrian opposition took a big step forward this month by forming a broad political coalition that includes local activists who started the revolution. But the opposition’s military command is still a mess, and until it’s fixed, jihadist extremists will keep getting more powerful. As I wrote after my trip inside Syria in early October, a stronger command-and-control structure is crucial in creating an opposition force that can accomplish two essential tasks: defeating President Ba

HAVANA ― For a United States citizen, the short trip to Havana requires navigating an obstacle course, owing to the trade and travel embargo that the U.S. maintains against Cuba. It also turns out to be a trip to the past ― specifically, to 1959.Signs of this time warp are instantly apparent: the American automotive behemoths of the 1950s stand out among the few cars on the streets in Havana. Most, obviously maintained with loving care, run well and look magnificent.Unfortunately, the rest of Cu