Whenever highly publicized sex crimes occur in Korea the debate on chemical castration reemerges and politicians cash in on the popularity of appearing tough.Reported recently was that the ruling Saenuri Party are “considering” making chemical castration mandatory for sex offenders. Naturally the liberal left human rights brigade will rise to defend the rights, and not the responsibilities, of the criminals while at the same time ignoring the rights of their victims. Before sanctioning chemical

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s dictator, died last week ― in a Brussels hospital.Why didn’t he get medical care at home? Look at the state of his people’s health, and you’ll understand.The government provides vaccinations for only 5 percent of the children. Fewer still receive antibiotics when they contract pneumonia. Only 20 percent of teenage girls are educated about AIDS. Is it any wonder that Ethiopia’s average life expectancy is 56 ― among the world’s lowest?Eleven years ago, 53 African nations s

BERKELEY ― When the French politician and moral philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville published the first volume of his “Democracy in America” in 1835, he did so because he thought that France was in big trouble and could learn much from America. So one can only wonder what he would have made of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.For Tocqueville, the grab for centralized power by the absolutist Bourbon monarchs, followed by the French Revolution and Napoleon’s Empire, had destroyed

Policy makers around the world have long envied China’s ability to get big things done. A huge 4 trillion-yuan ($630 billion) stimulus plan as the global economy cratered in 2008? No problem. Marshaling banks to lend trillions more? Check. Enacting sweeping regulatory changes at a moment’s notice? You bet. Ahhh, the good old days. Now, a once-in-a-decade leadership shift is getting in the way of the stimulus-happy policies to which investors became accustomed. The nimbleness that helped China st

WASHINGTON ― There is no “big idea” easier to pay homage to in principle, or harder to make work in practice, than the peacekeeping role of the United Nations. This is painfully clear in a new memoir by Kofi Annan, its former secretary-general. The latest failure of the U.N. dream was Annan’s mediating mission to Syria. For months, he tried to cajole President Bashar al-Assad into stopping the killing and starting a political transition that would avert civil war. To which he received the standa

While Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is becoming increasingly popular abroad, one of Korea’s major conglomerates Samsung lost the first round of patent lawsuit against Apple in the United States. Other than the two being Korean, what do Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and Samsung’s smartphones have in common? In my view, the two cases are sending a very important message to Korean society. Some Koreans are bewildered as to why “Gangnam Style” is receiving so much attention abroad, especially in the United States,

“The originals are not original,” Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in an essay in which he argues that the idea of originality is not only elusive but ultimately illusory. For there is a sense in which everything comes after something; that everything is always-already part of history and tradition; and that there is no pure beginning. Texts, thoughts, speeches ― even personal identities ― all seem to have precursors, antecedents, forerunners. That the concept of originality is a fairly recent inventi

As expected, Korea has flatly rejected Japan’s proposal that the two countries jointly refer their territorial row over the Dokdo islets to the International Court of Justice. Seoul has delivered a diplomatic note to Tokyo to reaffirm its stance that no territorial disputes exist regarding Dokdo because the islets in the East Sea are an integral part of Korean territory.Following Seoul’s rejection, Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said in a statement that Tokyo would take “appropriate mea

The government’s “employment first, education later” policy for students at vocational high schools is yielding results. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, about 41 percent of the students who graduated from specialized high schools in Seoul in February opted to get a job instead of going on to university. The figure represents a big improvement from 19.2 percent in 2010 and 23.4 percent in 2011. Yet it is still far lower than 62 percent in 2001.The office has found a simil

PARIS ― Some economists believe that this summer could mark the moment when some of the eurozone’s peripheral members may begin to be forced out; others think that such a scenario is inconceivable. All agree that, at least in the short term, a eurozone breakup would be disastrous for jobs and growth.But, because the outcome is unknowable, and depends on politics as much as on economics, let us leave that frightening prospect to one side and look instead at what we know about the underlying perfo

PARIS ― Syria’s most prominent military defector says the key to political transition there is to provide a “safety net” that persuades Alawites they won’t be massacred if they break with President Bashar al-Assad. “My main work is to convince the Alawites that they do not have to commit suicide along with the regime,” said Manaf Tlass, a former general in the Syrian army who left the country in July. He spoke Tuesday at a location in France where he has taken refuge. It was his first in-depth i

Ever since Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has moved steadily to the right. Yet in Tampa this week, for the seventh consecutive time, Republicans nominated a mainstream presidential candidate after rejecting movement conservatives. No one would confuse Willard Mitt Romney with a populist or movement conservative; he oozes establishment. So did the other presidential nominees since Reagan, both Presidents Bush, Bob Dole and John McCain. Like those predecessors, Romney calculated the formula f

Hailed as new heroes for bringing in billions of dollars a year to fuel the growth of the Philippine economy, many overseas Filipino workers are, in truth, martyrs for slaving abroad just to help their families survive back home.As of last count, there are about 12 million Filipinos ― more than 10 percent of the population ― working in some 200 countries across the globe. In 2011, they sent home $20.1 billion to the families they left behind.In the first half of 2012, OFW remittances amounted to

From the look of it, life couldn’t be better right now for Apple Inc. The value of the Cupertino, California-based technology giant surpassed $600 billion in mid-August to become the world’s most valuable company. Last Friday Apple scored a major legal victory over its smart device market rival Samsung, with a California court finding several Samsung devices infringed on Apple patents. Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages. While $1.05 billion is a big number, it is trivial compared to the

The overlapping claim between South Korea and Japan over the Dokdo or Takeshima islands is moving towards uncharted water. The international community thinks that, as the two most important allies of the U.S. in the region, South Korea and Japan should know how to avoid creating an environment that augurs badly for strategic cooperation. That is not true. Worst of all, this tension is happening when their giant neighbor, China, is on a meteoric rise. In fact, if the quarrel continues unabated, i

August is that time of year when Japan has to grapple with its militaristic past. On Aug 15, 1945, the country suffered an ignominious defeat to Allied forces, marking the end of World War II in the Asia-Pacific.This year, however, Japan came under even more pressure, as Tokyo saw territorial disputes with South Korea and China over two groups of islands.Earlier this month, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a historic visit to the Dokdo islands ― a move challenged by Japan, which calls t

South Koreans may face a fascinating choice come December’s presidential election: Elizabeth I or Ross Perot? Park Geun-hye, the unmarried ruling-party candidate, touts the virgin queen who ruled England from 1558 to 1603 as a role model. Ahn Cheol-soo is the businessman most Koreans want to take her on. He’s Korea’s answer to Perot, the billionaire who 20 years ago ran as America’s most successful modern third-party candidate. So far, Ahn hasn’t said if he will run. Should he do so, he could st

MUNICH ― Europe and the world are eagerly awaiting the decision of Germany’s Constitutional Court on Sept. 12 regarding the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the proposed permanent successor to the eurozone’s current emergency lender, the European Financial Stability Mechanism. The Court must rule on German plaintiffs’ claim that legislation to establish the ESM would violate Germany’s Grundgesetz (Basic Law). If the court rules in the plaintiffs’ favor, it will ask Germany’s president not to

ARCADE, N.Y. ― Kathy Hochul is a young, first-term Democratic congresswoman fighting for her political life in a solidly Republican district outside Buffalo, N.Y. Unlike most of that liberal state, this is Romney country; a poll last week showed the GOP candidate ahead of President Barack Obama in her district by a whopping 12 points.So how does Hochul hope to persuade Republican-leaning voters to cross partisan lines to send a Democrat back to Washington? One word: Medicare.“Here’s what they pr

The fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation took place last month in Beijing. The event reaffirmed China’s determination to become a privileged partner for the ongoing economic development of African countries. Now, Beijing’s rising influence in Africa prompted the attention of another emerging Asian economy, South Korea, which is looking at the African context with ever greater interest. “No matter how the international landscape may change, China will remain uncha