NEW YORK ― Great social change occurs in several ways. A technological breakthrough ― the steam engine, computers, the Internet ― may play a leading role. Visionaries, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela, may inspire a demand for justice. Political leaders may lead a broad reform movement, as with Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.Our own generation urgently needs to spur another era of great social change. This time, we must act to save the planet from a human-i

Samsung Electronics has suffered a crushing defeat in a landmark patent battle against Apple Inc. A U.S. jury found last week that the Korean smartphone maker infringed upon a number of patents held by Apple, while the American tech giant did not violate any of its Korean rival’s intellectual properties. The jury’s judgment is widely criticized here as unfair. But it is highly likely to be upheld by the California court, dealing a serious blow to Samsung, the world’s largest mobile device produc

People who are financially strapped because of their mortgages are commonly called “house poor.” Likewise, families that are poor due to heavy spending on their children’s education are called “education poor” in Korea. According to a recent survey, a large number of Korean households belong to this category. The survey, conducted by Hyundai Research Institute, defines the education poor as families that are indebted and unable to make ends meet but nevertheless spend more than average on their

The way the Chinese government is behaving right now, you’d almost think it had converted to democracy. Half a dozen times in recent weeks, government officials have backed down in the face of angry citizen protests ― canceling unpopular industrial projects, freeing wrongly imprisoned citizens or arresting one of its own for his reprehensible behavior.That’s not how a communist dictatorship is supposed to behave.The most notorious example involves Tang Hui from Yongzhou City in southern China. T

WASHINGTON ― When reporters are writing stories and don’t yet have a necessary piece of information, they sometimes write “TK,” as in “to come.” I feel that way about Mitt Romney’s foreign policy. Other than his support for Israel and rhetorical shots at Russia and China, it’s a mystery what Romney thinks about major international issues and where he would take the country. Is Romney a neoconservative who has an idealistic vision of America transforming the world through military power and advoc

BRUSSELS ― The recent death in Brussels of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi finally brings to light what lay behind his mysterious two-month disappearance from public life. Ethiopia’s government had strenuously denied rumors of serious ill health caused by liver cancer. Now that the worst has, indeed, proven true, Ethiopia and all of East Africa will need to learn to live without the stabilizing influence of its great dictator-diplomat.Meles was certainly both. Ethiopia has undergone a rema

If Justin Bieber or the Rolling Stones suddenly decided to stage an impromptu concert in a public place somewhere in America without a permit, would the authorities ignore it and shrug it off? Doubtful. Even buskers performing in the New York City subway system can’t play without formal authorization from the city.What about taking such a musical performance into a church? If Jennifer Lopez or Madonna just showed up in a place of worship, stripped down to their skivvies and started dancing aroun

Last Friday, Paul Ryan, the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, made the most populist speech of this campaign season.“It’s the people who are politically connected, it’s the people who have access to Washington that get the breaks,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000 at a high school gym in Virginia.“Well, no more. We don’t want to pick winners and losers in Washington. ... Hardworking taxpayers should be treated fairly and it should be based on whether they’re good,

The world’s tobacco merchants are down on Australia after the country’s highest court backed the toughest cigarette-labeling rules anywhere. So far, the focus has been on intellectual-property rights, possible lawsuits by British American Tobacco Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc. and their ilk, and the plight of investors. More attention should be on how many lives will be saved and how much economic output won’t be squandered as other nations follow Australia’s lead. There’s a reason Big Tobacco waged su

Emerging Asian countries should be proud of their economic resilience. Despite a global economy plagued by weak growth, persistently high unemployment, and heavy debt loads, the region’s emerging and developing economies grew at an average annual rate of 6.8 percent from 2000-2010, propping up global output and buttressing recovery efforts.The region’s success has been underpinned by dynamic growth in China and India, which account for almost 60 percent of the continent’s total GDP in purchasing

Look out, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. A new chapter in maritime history is being written.Last week, the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long anchored in the Icelandic harbor of Skarfabakki after covering the 15,000km distance from Qingdao harbor in six weeks.The brick-colored Xue Long or Snow Dragon is the largest icebreaker in the world that does not run on nuclear power. Nearly 170m from tip to tail, it is 23m wide and can sail through 1.1m of ice at a steady speed of 1.5 knots.The journey, trav

How sad it is to have to read the story of a tagged sex offender having attacked and murdered a woman in her home in Seoul (The Korea Herald, “Ex-con wearing electronic tag arrested for attempted rape, murder”).Let me point out that the only ones to gain from tagging are private security companies who run these programs. The rest of us are left to defend ourselves against the likes of a man named Seo, who has been arrested for this latest crime.Several months ago I wrote in this paper (The Korea

PARIS ― In an exasperated outburst, just before he left the presidency of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet complained that, “as a policymaker during the crisis, I found the available (economic and financial) models of limited help. In fact, I would go further: in the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned by conventional tools.”Trichet went on to appeal for inspiration from other disciplines ― physics, engineering, psychology, and biology ― to help explain the phenomena he had exper

Just last month I made my first visit to Myanmar, a place Rudyard Kipling referred to as “quite unlike any land you know about.”While decades of isolation have helped this century-old observation hold true, on arrival in July I was immediately struck by the vibrancy and a palpable sense of change in the air.The country’s immense potential is reflected in the Asian Development Bank’s most recent analysis, which shows that Myanmar has the potential to follow Asia’s fast-growing economies and expan

WASHINGTON ― As Israel and Iran entered this summer of confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear program, the Iranians were also conducting talks with the U.S. and other leading nations to seek a diplomatic alternative to war. Since then, the rumors of an impending Israeli military strike have grown almost daily, but whatever happened to the negotiations? The answer is that the “P5+1” talks have been in recess during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but contact is expected to resume soon between the

PARIS ― To find a glimmer of hope on the Israel-Palestine question has become difficult, if not impossible. Most Israelis now believe that a peaceful solution will not come in their generation. As for the Palestinians, the political stalemate, and ongoing Israeli occupation, has led to radicalization: if they cannot have “something,” they want it all.And many believe that whatever their weakness today, time is on the Palestinians’ side. Even the most moderate Palestinians now reject Israeli left

Renowned linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky once described sports as a contrived opiate for the people; a means of distracting us from important social matters. Well, I always took issue with Chomsky on that matter, considering his opinion a little too extreme and quite frankly, the assertion one who probably was picked last for every team in gym class. Then on Aug. 4, 2012 in a sweltering British pub in Thailand, sitting amongst 100 or so fervent and rather inebriated British football fans

I remember a June evening when three complete strangers separately insisted on showing me their new mobile phones. It was 2007, I was on the subway in New York, and Apple Inc.’s iPhone had just been released. The slick design of Apple’s new device ― and, in particular, its ease of use ― was so compelling, these people could not help but share. Now the multibillion-dollar question confronting a jury in San Jose, California, is whether Samsung Electronics Co. found those elements of the iPhone so

CAMBRIDGE, Massachussetts ― Throughout history, major political and economic shocks have often occurred in August, when leaders have gone on vacation believing that world affairs are quiet. Consider World War I’s outbreak in 1914, the Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939, the Sputnik launch in 1957, the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the failed coup in Moscow of 1991. Then there was the Nixon shock of 1971 (when the American president took the dollar off the gold standard and imposed wage, price, and trade contro

A recent survey by Hyundai Research Institute on Koreans’ perception of class membership is a must read for presidential candidates, as it suggests policies that will help them capture the hearts and minds of the largest segment of the electorate ― the middle class.The survey’s title sums up its findings ― “The confidence of the middle class is crumbling.” In many countries, middle class families are under siege due to the prolonged global economic slump. Yet the survey shows Korean middle class