South Korea on The Huffington Post

Cambodia Deports 20 Uighurs To China, Gets $1.2 Billion

2009-12-22T00:23:07Z

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping thanked Cambodia on Monday for deporting 20 Muslim asylum-seekers while handing the country $1.2 billion in aid , the government spokesman said.

The 20 ethnic Uighurs deported Saturday were sought by China in connection with violent anti-government protests. Human rights activists are concerned that they will face persecution in China.

North Korea Declares Disputed Waters 'Firing Zone'

2009-12-21T08:08:56Z

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened South Korean ships with possible attack by designating a firing zone along their disputed sea border Monday, raising tensions in an area where a brief but deadly clash erupted last month.

The western maritime boundary has long been considered a flash point between the two Koreas because the North does not recognize a line the United Nations unilaterally drew at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang claims the actual border is further south.

S Korea hands N Korea H1N1 aid

2009-12-18T02:00:54Z

Convoy of trucks with medication travels across border on humanitarian mission.

Gary Shapiro: A Holiday Wish List That No One Should Fulfill

2009-12-17T11:46:03Z

'Tis the season for end-of-year lists, so as we bring 2009 to a close, I offer my own, slightly tongue-in-cheek, list of all the things government could do in 2010 to bring our economy to its knees. You heard me right: this is a list of things government could adopt to prevent, not promote economic recovery. My one true wish for the holidays is that Congress not do - or in some cases, not repeat - any of these things.

So on the eve of 2010, here is my list of the "top ten" things our government could do in 2010 to reverse our nascent economic recovery. Of course, government shouldn't do any of these things - but its track record from 2009 causes me grave concern. [Note to Santa: if our government actually does any of the things on this list, please withhold presents from them in 2010.]

First, spend taxpayer money on feel-good programs, stimulus programs, rebates, cash for clunkers and anything else which has a short-term good feeling and a long-term hangover the next generation will pay for. This is a long-term investment in giving our kids a debt they cannot possibly repay. It will destroy their future and our nation - but hey - we feel good today.

Second, bail out the states so they don't have to make tough decisions about bloated governments. Give about one-third of stimulus money to states so they don't have to confront out-of-control spending and the high cost of defined benefit programs for their government employees. When this payment runs out in 2011, states will be worse off and still unable to meet the commitments they promised to their large workforces. Many states will be back in 2011 asking for an even bigger handout. And we can count these government jobs as "saved" by government scorekeepers! States will be more reliant on Uncle Sam (and this won't stop Congress from imposing new costs on states!).

Third, reward poorly run and inefficient American companies. Bailing out money-losing companies like GM, Chrysler and AIG is a great way to waste American taxpayer money and hurt better-run and more-efficient competitors. This rewards our friends the unions that brought down GM and Chrysler. The new union and government owners cannot make competitive decisions (a fact proven repeatedly in the last year by GM) but instead will be guided by political decisions. Their competitive future is dismal and we are guaranteed further American weakness as they return and insist on further bailouts and special treatment. This virtuous circle will allow politicians to claim they are protecting American jobs. Americans may still choose to buy cars from companies like Ford, VW, Toyota and BMW, which are not getting bailouts, but are making cars in the United States.

Fourth, bring down American crown-jewel companies that are the big job creators, innovators and the future of America. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Intel and Qualcomm are the envy of the world, and as the world comes after them you would expect the United States to stand up and protect them. Instead, as foreign governments challenge them with vague "monopolization" claims, the U.S. government appears to be mute. Instead, the U.S. government appears to be piling on - witness the Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Intel.

Using some vague "unfair competition" complaint, the FTC is using new theories and an unprecedented "sue first and discover later" approach to challenge one of America's best companies. Worse, the government is insisting that Intel can only create products that are open to its competitors. It also seeks to ban volume discounts - a simple fact of a competitive world. Intel is a crown jewel of America, invests heavily in R&D on US soil, employs tens of thousands of Americans in good jobs and by any account has not hurt competition. This American attack on Intel is unprecedented and harmful to the future of innovation.

Fifth, raise taxes on job creators and make secret unionization possible. We must do everything possible to discourage successful U.S. companies from feeling comfortable investing in new jobs. That means we cannot allow a stable tax environment, a cautious approach to unionization efforts, and a resistance to further burdens on employers. Card check, health-care reform and several proposals on the table to raise taxes will push new burdens and costs on U.S. employers heavily, so that it is difficult to see why a company would choose to create new jobs in the United States.

Sixth, attack one of the most successful areas of American leadership - health care - by creating a lowest common denominator system. Health care is 16 percent of GDP, so it is a juicy target for mischief. And when doing so, make sure to protect America's one million lawyers so they can continue to be employed. They will also make sure doctors waste plenty of money testing patients unnecessarily so they don't get sued.

Seventh, make sure Americans spend heavily on a complex cap-and-trade system and do not invest in nuclear energy or use their own fuel in Alaska. Keep fuel prices low with low taxes so people feel no need to buy smaller, energy-efficient cars.

Eighth, continue to commit our armed forces to unending conflicts that drain our budget and resources without making America demonstrably safer.

Ninth, keep and put up barriers to trade. Pass more "Buy American" provisions so other countries can retaliate and put up barriers to American exports. Congress should also simply sit on the three free trade agreements that would remove high tariffs on American exports. Do the union bidding and hold up pending trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia as American companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in tariffs, hurting our exports and ability to compete. Meanwhile, these countries have focused away from the United States and are cutting deals with a gleeful Europe and Canada. The world is amazed at the unique American botoxic arrogance to bite off the nose of trade to appease the incessant priggishness of the myopic labor leaders who fund them.

Tenth, and finally, make it as difficult as possible for business to occur in the United States. Block foreign investors and businessmen from getting visas to come to the United States to view products or attend trade shows. Make sure that we have ethics rules and policies that block anyone in government from helping host international visitors who flock to trade shows like the International CES, our event in Las Vegas. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel hosts dinners for international guests at our competitive event in Germany. Our White House could, but doesn't, help our economy by welcoming the 25,000 business leaders from abroad that the International CES brings to our country each January.

Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 - and to policymakers who know how to get us there.

Gary Shapiro is the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.

New Jersey-based Covance expanding clinical trial operations

2009-12-15T11:01:32Z

The Princeton-based company has provided clinical trial support to the pharmaceutical industry in Asia-Pacific for more than two decades, with offices in Australia and Singapore. The new office in Seoul will help the company provide greater patient access in the region. The new office in Mumbai will

DMZ Spring Water From Korean Demilitarized Zone

2009-12-09T11:23:35Z

Bottled water from icebergs, harvested from Tasmanian rainclouds before it hits the ground, or blessed by the spiritually enlightened, is just so noughties: in the next decade, the only water to be seen with will come from water harvested from a strip of land 245km long and just 4km wide, whose purity is probably the most jealously guarded on earth.

NATO Allies Commit 7,000 More Troops To Afghanistan

2009-12-04T00:59:31Z

BRUSSELS — NATO allies will bolster the American troop surge in Afghanistan by sending at least 7,000 soldiers of their own, officials said Friday in pledges that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described as crucial to turning the tide in the stalemated war.

The promised increase came as U.S. Marines and Afghan troops launched the first offensive since President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop American increase. The Marines and Afghan forces struck Taliban communications and supply lines Friday in an insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

Young North Korean defectors strive to assimilate in South

2009-12-01T18:00:04Z

Worldfocus is partnering with Pearl World Youth News, an initiative of Daniel Pearl Foundation and iEARN, to bring the voices of young reporters to our viewers.

Ji Eun Lee writes about the challenges of integrating young North Korean defectors into South Korean society.

On a quiet Friday night, several North Korean defectors gathered at the camping site near Seoul World Cup Stadium. Defectors are North Koreans who have fled their country for ideological, political, or economic reasons. Risking punishment and even death in case of capture, they cross the country's armed borders and come to South Korea.

Dressed in the latest fashions and checking text messages on their cell phones, they looked like typical young Koreans. But there was some hesitation in their eyes when they were asked about their lives in South Korea.

"It's not that we don't want to talk about our experience here. Most of us are hesitant because talking about the ways in which we don't fit in only seems to accentuate the fact that we're...different," said 26-year-old Young-Woo, and several heads nodded in agreement. "And we really aren't that different from South Koreans, besides the fact that we've escaped North Korea to come here."

An increasing number of North Koreans are crossing over to South Korea. According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, more than 15,000 defectors live in the country, and in 2008 alone, 2,809 crossed the border.

Many South Koreans regard them as refugees and support programs aimed at helping the defectors. Ironically, it is this very help that places the defectors in an awkward position because they want to avoid standing out.

"We appreciate the help for its sake. As nice as it is to see that South Koreans are paying attention to the plight of North Koreans, the attitude behind such help is often very patronizing," said Chul-Min, a 23-year-old college student. "Most South Koreans don't seem to think of us as Koreans. They treat us as if we are exotic foreigners. Though we are aware of the intentions of the South Koreans who want to help us, they seem to have established a distinct mental dichotomy between the two Koreas."

When asked about the difficulties they face in South Korea, the defectors murmured that life here isn't as perfect as they'd imagined. Though originally one people sharing centuries of rich culture, decades of separation have widened the gap between the two Koreas.

"Even in terms of language, there is quite a lot of difference in regional dialects. We don't have trouble communicating. But our distinct accent, or the different words we use, immediately betrays where we come from, attracting curious, uneasy looks," added Chul-Min. "And speaking of language, proficiency in English seems to be extremely important here. Many defectors face difficulties with English as the level of English education offered in North Korea is very basic. It's frustrating because it directly affects our opportunities for job or education."

Many jobs applications in South Korea ask for scores from standardized English tests like TOEFL or TEPS. An estimated 100,000 institutions offer advanced English classes with one hour of lesson costing well over US $30. Expensive private education is often unaffordable for North Korean defectors. Many of them subsist on economic aid from the government. And public education does not give them an edge to compete with South Koreans in school or at the workplace.

English is only one of many difficulties faced by North Koreans in education. Most defectors pursue higher degrees after coming to South Korea, but they often have trouble adjusting to the curriculum.

"The curriculum is just so different from what we had in the North," said Hye-Young, the youngest of the group at 19. "For instance, Korean history in North Korea is very different from what's taught here as it's manipulated by the government to serve as ideological propaganda." Many defectors are forced to take classes with much younger students.

Difficulties come in many forms, but the group agreed on one thing: behind every difficulty they face is the South Koreans' thinking that defectors are fundamentally different. "Advocating for the rights of North Koreans is evidently a strong movement here. Grants, lectures, fundraisers, there seem to be so many programs designed to 'help us out'. Why not start by accepting us as Koreans?" said Hye-Young.

- Ji Eun Lee

(All names have been changed to avoid repercussions for family members still residing in North Korea.)

Worldfocus is partnering with Pearl World Youth News, an initiative of Daniel Pearl Foundation and iEARN, to bring the voices of young reporters to our viewers. Ji Eun Lee writes about the challenge of integrating young North Korean defectors into South Korean society.
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/12/th_southkorea_defector.jpg

Read more: North Korea, South Korea, Home News

Alan Singer: Obama, Korea and American Schools

2009-11-24T16:52:09Z

President Barack Obama just got back from visiting the Pacific Rim. While he did not solve the trade imbalance with China or Japan or win any allies for continuing the war in Iraq or expanding the war in Afghanistan, the good news is that at least he discovered a model for reforming education in the United States. After observation and careful consideration, President Obama decided that American schools must look more like schools in South Korea. He wants longer school days and a longer school year to ensure extra time to prepare children for standardized tests. Of course, that may not be such good news.

President Obama told a meeting of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:

Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year. That's no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today it puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

Expect Education Secretary Arne Duncan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and New York School Chancellor Joel Klein and a long line of politicos and supposed edu-experts to make the pilgrimage to South Korea any day now, so they can view this educational miracle first hand.

Everybody is not as enamored with the Korean educational system as President Obama is. According to one Korean news source, "Obama's remarks came as a surprise to many South Koreans as the country's education system has been under constant public criticism due to its lack of creativity and heavy dependence on private tutoring." But their kids do get high scores on standardized tests and apparently that is all that counts.

One critic of the Korean educational system, Dr. Samuel Kim, a senior research scholar at the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, reported that 44% of Korean students who enter "top" American universities drop out before graduating. This is much higher than the dropout rate for students from China (25%), India (21%) and even the 34% dropout rate for American students at the same universities. Essentially, years of extra tutoring prepares Korean students for college entrance exams but not for acquiring a college education.

Clay Burell, an American high school humanities teacher, who currently lives with his family in South Korea, reports on his blog that Korean students are forced to study in "hagwons" -- private night, weekend, and summer classes where the overwhelming emphasis is on learning English. The Korean Education Ministry estimates that as a percentage of GDP, South Korean parents spend four times more on average on private education than their counterparts in any other major economy. Most of what they study is "worksheet-based, scripted, and devoted to passing college examination tests, the SAT, TOEFL, and all the other tests these classes teach to." What Burell finds ironic is that despite all of this investment and high test scores, Korean students are notoriously poor at reading, writing, and speaking English. In other words, they can't use what they are supposed to have learned and what they test well at.

President Obama's children do not really have to worry about American public schools going Korean. The Obama girls attend Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., a private school that charges $29,000 a year in tuition for each of them. According to its website, at Sidwell, Sasha and Malia get to participate in community service programs such as helping seniors, recycling efforts, and food drives, casting, and sculpture workshops, international exchanges with schools in York, England and in Moscow, extended camping trips, outdoor education activities, and a range of teams. And in case they have any adjustment or academic problems there is a nurse and counselor on duty on campus at all times. There is also a learning specialist available to assist students who are having academic difficulty. Parents are encouraged to express concerns in any of these areas to the adviser or homeroom teacher or to the Student Concerns Committee, which consists of the counselor, learning specialist, and assistant principal.

One argument business and political leaders always seem to make in defense of their proposed "school reforms" is that the United States has to prepare the next generation for 21st Century jobs. Supposedly that is what Korea is doing. My question of course is "What jobs?" Our children can become the world's greatest experts on test taking, but that will not stop profit hungry businesses from shipping the next generation of jobs overseas to Mumbai, India, Beijing, China, Manila, Philippines, and Seoul, South Korea, where standards of living are much lower than in the United States and people are prepared to work for much less. Has President Obama tried calling tech support lately? Probably not.

If American students knew that there was work at the end of the tunnel and a better life, I suspect they would work harder and achieve more in school. Let President Obama and the corporate capitalists get the economy straightened out and ensure a measure of equal opportunity to all of America's children and then our schools will work just fine.

Alex Remington: The Host: A Decent Monster Flick, But Nothing More

2009-11-23T00:34:01Z

Bong Joon-ho's recent monster movie The Host was greeted with plaudits normally reserved for a master of the French New Wave, with an average Metacritic score of 85. It had a budget of $11,000,000, quite high for a non-American film, and special effects from Weta Digital, the New Zealand company co-founded by Peter Jackson which did SFX for all the Lord of the Rings films. But the ballyhoo was a bit overblown. It's a well-constructed homage to classic monster movies that hits all the right notes, but never truly feels transcendent.

At least the movie gets the big things right. The plot concerns a family, grandfather Park Hie-bong, his adult children Nam-il, Nam-joo, and Gang-du, all trying to liberate Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo, whom the mutant tadpole kidnapped on his opening rampage. In the meantime, Hyun-seo plans her escape from the belly of the beast, giving the film's most compelling performance. Each adult is dysfunctional in his or her way, and each has a chance for massive screwup and then an earned redemption. The social satire is largely directed at America: the film opens with a boorish Army officer ordering a Korean to pour bottles of formaldehyde into the Han river near Seoul, and then U.S. Army officers later orchestrate a coverup of the monster's true nature while brewing hideous chemicals to destroy it. Naturally, the American killer chemicals don't exactly work as planned.

It may be a requirement of the genre that at least one of the main characters is stultifyingly stupid, but Gang-du, the protagonist, is especially so. He's a clumsy, narcoleptic simpleton with an awful blond dye job who feeds his daughter beer, attacks the movie's monster with a concrete metal sign, then mistakenly takes another girl's hand when he's trying to grab his daughter to run away from the beast, only to watch in slackjawed horror as the monster kidnaps his daughter. He is so breath-takingly incompetent that it's hard for the audience to root for him, and even a touching monologue by his father late in the film does little to bring the audience to his side. Similarly, the special effects are slightly disappointing: the monster is of appropriate size and ferocity, but it feels peculiarly weightless: it's frightening, but never feels truly menacing. It's more on par with the monster in The Relic (rating: 63) than Alien (rating: 88). And at two hours, the movie's just a bit long. Lopping off about 20 minutes of runtime -- giving less time to Gang-du and his siblings while keeping the focus on Hyun-seo -- would have covered up a lot of sins.

That said, it's enjoyable. It works as a cheesy late night action-horror movie, fitting effortlessly into a quintessentially American genre while poking fun at America. The fact is, there's a relative dearth of satisfying B-movies in theaters these days, with money limited by the recession and scripts limited by fallout from the writers' strike, and theaters have been rather fallow in general of late. (My favorite recent B-movie would probably be last year's Doomsday, a complete ripoff/pastiche of Escape from New York and Mad Max, offering no redeeming social value and nary a dull moment, rating: 80.) Bong is clearly a capable genre craftsman, but The Host feels more workmanlike than a labor of love.

Rating: 66

Cross-posted on Remingtonstein.

Unborn children for sale in S Korea

2009-11-21T23:00:54Z

Al Jazeera uncovers underground trade of newborn babies in South Korea.

In Seoul, Obama takes on North Korea's nuclear challenge

2009-11-19T18:00:03Z

The Obama administration is trying tackle the thorny issue of North Korea and its nuclear program. To take a closer look at this issue, Leon Sigal of the Social Science Research Council in New York speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal.

Sigal discusses the significance of Obama’s announcement to send an envoy to North Korea next month. He also talks about his recent meeting with a North Korean delegation in New York and how willing they are to negotiate.

(View full post to see video)
The Obama administration is dealing with the thorny issue of North Korea’s nuclear program. To take a closer look, Leon Sigal of the Social Science Research Council in New York speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal. They discuss Sigal’s recent meeting with a North Korean delegation in New York — and how willing the North Koreans are to negotiate.
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http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_intv_seagul.jpg

Today: Obama in Korea and a World Cup controversy

2009-11-19T11:30:03Z

Stories compiled by Gizem Yarbil, Connie Kargbo, Channtal Fleischfresser, Christine Kiernan, Ivette Feliciano, and Mohammad al-Kassim, and edited by Rebecca Haggerty.

SOUTH KOREA: President Barack Obama delivered a stern message on Thursday to North Korea and Iran telling them to halt their nuclear ambitions to avoid facing further sanctions and isolation.

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld death sentences on the five ex-army officers convicted of killing the country’s first president in a coup 34 years ago.

SOUTH AFRICA: South African leader Jacob Zuma vowed to make the fight against corruption a top priority for his government.

Runner Castor Semenaya, whose gender was questioned, will keep her World Championship medal.

GUINEA: An African Union human rights representative says he was denied entry into Guinea, where he planned to investigate alleged mass killings and rapes by the country’s military.

EU leaders are meeting today in Brussels to decide who will be the new EU President. France and Germany are likely to support the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its 2010 growth forecast for developed economies, which is largely due to accelerated growth in Asian economies.

France beat Ireland in a contentious win in its World Cup Soccer qualifying match Wednesday night, on a play that many believe included an illegal “handball” from French player Thierry Henry.

RUSSIA and CIS:

Russia’s Constitutional Court has extended a moratorium on the death penalty, which was imposed after it joined the Council of Europe in 1996. The Court chairman said the ban has set in place an “irreversible process to abolish capital punishment” in Russia.

Speaking at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, President Medvedev spoke out against the 3,500 deaths caused daily by accidents on the road. Russia is one of six countries that will receive part of a $125 million donation from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to promote road safety.

Kyrgyzstan has deported a human rights activist who was investigating abuses against Muslims. The activist, Bakhrom Khamroyev, who worked for the human rights group Memorial, was detained and deported to Russia. Actisits say political freedoms in Kyrgyzstan have been declining since Kurmanbek Bakiev came to power in 2005.

Opposition activists in Moscow have obtained a copy of of a high-level police memo ordering officers to disrupt a series of lawful protests.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is expressing concern about the declining status of the Russian language in former Soviet Republics, particularly in the Baltics and in Ukraine, where Russian has no official status and where there reportedly is pressure on Russian-language education. In Kyrgyzstan, the country’s main political party has adopted draft legislation making Kyrgyz the official language for diplomats and diplomatic record-keeping.

MEXICO: Mexico’s abortion debate is headed to the federal level after a 17th state in the country passed a law declaring life begins at conception.

CUBA: Experts in Cuba say 70 percent of the soil on the island is threatened by erosion.

YEMEN: The Yemeni army said that it has succeeded in pushing back an attack by Houthi rebels on the northern Yemeni city of Saada.

AFGHANISTAN: In a ceremony in the capital Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term.

PAKISTAN:At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan.

PALESTINE: Israeli jets bombed a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip today. The airstrikes came in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with Egyptian television denied that Israel, or the US has asked him to remain in office.

IRAN: US President Barack Obama warned of "consequences" if Iran does not accept the IAEA-backed proposal on a nuclear fuel deal.

ISRAEL: China criticized the Israeli government’s decision to build 900 more units in the part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians, saying it poses new obstacles to the Middle East peace process.

A group was formed to restore Jewish presence to the Joseph’s tomb compound in Nablus nine years after the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the area.

Today’s top stores as brought to you by the Worldfocus newsroom. President Obama has tough words for Iran and North Korea; Russia has over 3,500 people die in road accidents daily; and Irish sports officials protest the winning goal scored by France in the World Cup playoffs.
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Obama Says US, Allies Discussing Iran Sanctions

2009-11-19T08:27:32Z

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. On Saturday, two days after his return to Washington, the Senate plans a make-or-break vote on his hard-fought plan to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama also confronts a difficult choice on strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, which will be criticized no matter what he decides.

His bid to re-regulate the financial industry faces stiff opposition in Congress. The decision to try high-profile terror suspects in federal courts has drawn withering Republican attacks. And he faces a problematic push by House Democrats for a new and costly jobs bill.

Jesse Jenkins: Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant -- New Report on Competitiveness in Clean Tech

2009-11-18T16:46:26Z

"Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate Clean Energy Race by Out-Investing the United States," a major new report released today by the Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, is the first to comprehensively benchmark the competitiveness positions of the United States and key Asian challengers - China, Japan and South Korea - in the global clean energy race.

The new report examines the competitive position of each nation in core clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, advanced vehicles and batteries, and high-speed rail, as well as the government strategies each nation hopes will strengthen their position in the competitive global clean technology sector.

To view the full report, click here (pdf).
An abridged, summary version can be found here (pdf).

Core findings of "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant" include:

Asia's rising "clean technology tigers" - China, Japan, and South Korea - have already passed the United States in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies, and over the next five years, the government's of these nations will out-invest the United States three-to-one in these sectors. This public investment gap will allow these Asian nations to attract a significant share of private sector investments in clean energy technology, estimated to total in the trillions of dollars over the next decade. While some U.S. firms will benefit from the establishment of joint ventures overseas, the jobs, tax revenues, and other benefits of clean tech growth will overwhelmingly accrue to Asia's clean tech tigers.

Large, direct and sustained public investments will solidify the competitive advantage of China, Japan, and South Korea. Government investments in research and development, clean energy manufacturing capacity, the deployment of clean energy technologies, and the establishment of enabling infrastructure, will allow these Asian nations to capture economies of scale, learning-by-doing, and innovation advantages before the United States, where public investments are smaller, less direct, and less targeted.

Should the investment gap persist, the United States will import the overwhelming majority of clean energy technologies it deploys. Current U.S. energy and climate policies focus on stimulating domestic demand primarily through indirect demand-side incentives and regulations. Should these policies succeed in creating demand without providing robust support for U.S. clean energy technology manufacturing and innovation, the United States will rely on foreign-manufactured clean technology products. This could jeopardize America's economic recovery and its long-term competitiveness while making it even more difficult to reduce the U.S. trade deficit.

Proposed U.S. climate and energy legislation, as currently formulated, is not yet sufficient to close the clean tech investment gap. In contrast to more direct investments by Asia's clean tech tigers, current U.S. policies rely overwhelmingly on modest market incentives that are viewed by the private sector as more indirect, create more risks for private market investors, and do less to overcome the many barriers to clean energy adoption. The American Clean Energy and Security Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representative in June 2009, includes too few proactive policy initiatives and allocates relatively little funding to support research and development, commercialization and production of clean energy technologies within the United States. Including investments in clean energy R&D, demonstration, manufacturing and deployment in both U.S. economic recovery packages and the House-passed climate and energy bill, the United States is poised to invest $172 billion over the next five years, which compares to investments of $397 billion in China alone, a more than four-to-one ratio on a per-GDP basis.

If the United States hopes to compete for new clean energy industries it must close the widening gap between government investments in the United States and Asia's clean tech tigers and provide more robust support for U.S. clean tech research and innovation, manufacturing, and domestic market demand. Small, indirect and uncoordinated incentives are not sufficient to outcompete China, Japan, and South Korea. To regain economic leadership in the global clean energy industry, U.S. energy policy must include large, direct and coordinated investments in clean technology R&D, manufacturing, deployment, and infrastructure.

See also: "Asia Beats U.S. 3-1: Major New Report on US vs. Asian Competitiveness in Clean Energy Technology"

Media coverage of "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant"

Financial Times: "Asia set to overtake US in green technology"

Wall Street Journal, Environmental Capital: "Flying Tigers: More Reasons to Worry About Asia's Clean-Tech Push"

Stanford Review: "Winning the Clean Energy Race: A New Strategy for American Leadership"

SolveClimate.com: "Made in America by China: New Turbine Factory Offers Glimpse into the Future"

David A. Love: Will Obama Help Change Asia's Racism?

2009-11-18T14:39:22Z

For the
nations that were a part of President Obama’s recent Asian tour, surely this
was a new experience for them. For the first time, they greeted and hosted the
most powerful person in the world, one of the most brilliant people they’ve
ever met. And for the first time, that
person is a man of African descent. It
has been a long journey since the 1955 Bandung Conference, that historic
meeting of African and Asian states striving for self-determination and against
colonialism. Meanwhile, black people today are often stereotyped in Asian
countries as dirty, violent, mentally deficient and otherwise inferior—not
unlike the ways in which the West has portrayed people of color for years.

Although
symbolism has its limits, surely, it means a lot for international relations to
have a fresh face on the scene in the form of Obama, a leader of the world who
has lived in the world. Obama was born
in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia. His
half sister is Asian American, and one of his half brothers is an African American
living in China. No other president has had such an international background,
or such potential to make a difference on the world stage.

But for
Asian nations, white skin was the traditional standard of beauty and
prosperity. In the old days, the poorer folks were darker because they had to
work in the fields, where they were exposed to the sun.

As China
welcomes Obama, the nation is forced to deal with its long-standing
prejudices toward black people. But the discrimination is
internal as well. The Chinese government
has been heavy-handed in its treatment of the country’s aggrieved Uighur Muslim
minority, and has waged cultural genocide against the people of Tibet.

In India,
the caste system, although officially banned, still lives on. Brown and black faces predominate in this
nation of over 1 billion people.
However, white skin is desirable, and skin
whitening creams are popular.

And Japan
has had a longstanding problem with racism and xenophobia. Even today, one can find signs that say “No
Foreigners Allowed” and “Japanese Only”, or a recent TV commercial depicting
President Obama as a monkey. In 2005, Doudou
Diene, special rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights, found that
discrimination in Japan is “deep and
profound.” He added
that “This xenophobic drive is expressed by associating minorities, certain
minorities, to crime, to violence, to dirt.”

These
Japanese sentiments do not apply solely to foreigners and foreign workers. Despite its self-portrayal as a homogeneous
society, Japan has its own minority groups that historically have been regarded
as inferior. For example, the Ainu, an
indigenous ethnic group, has suffered from displacement and cultural
assimilation, higher levels of poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of
health and education. Over 1 million Japanese
of Korean descent— products of Japanese wartime colonization and forced
labor—are treated as foreigners in the country of their birth. They face a “hidden apartheid”, in which they
face discrimination in housing and employment, and feel pressure to change
their Korean names and blend in society.
Further, the Burakumin are an
outcaste group similar to the untouchable caste in India. They face discrimination because their feudal
ancestors held occupations such as butchers, tanners and gravediggers—
death-related jobs that were considered tainted and unclean under Buddhist and
Shinto practices.

The topic
of racial attitudes in Asia has fascinated me for a long time. In
high school, I traveled to Japan as an exchange student and lived with a family
in Tokyo. I majored in East Asian
Studies in college, and wrote my thesis on Japanese perceptions of foreigners. After
college, I worked as one of a handful of gaijin
(foreigners) in a Japanese bank, and later for the Tokyo office of a major U.S.
advertising agency. Living in Japan was
a life-altering experience for me, and in a good way. Being a true foreigner in another culture
provided me with a broader world perspective, and helped me deal with
adversity.

Overall,
my Japan experience was positive. It took some time to get used to the stares,
or the occasional child who wanted to touch my skin or hair. Then there were
the people who assumed I was a hip-hop entertainer, or a baseball player, or
some other racial stereotype of a black man in Japan. Clearly, there was an
embrace of black culture in Japan. The music and swagger of black people
permeate international popular culture.
And as I went to work in my business suit on the Tokyo subway, I
couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I passed by Japanese teenagers sporting
their dreads, hip-hop gear and Afrocentric t-shirts. But at the same time, I
had to endure my fellow employees at the company dormitory. Some employees at the bank had the idea to
throw a party, in which everyone would come dressed in blackface. After I protested, they cancelled their
plans, but only after lecturing me about the need for foreigners to understand
Japanese culture.

I believe
that as time passes and the world shrinks, it becomes more difficult for
discrimination to find a safe harbor.
Modern technology serves to eliminate borders and expose our activities
before the light of day. The nations of
Asia, like the U.S., have a long way to go before they eradicate racism. And yet, despite its legacy of slavery and
institutionalized racism, America elected a man by the name of Barack Obama as
president. The leaders of Asia now must
deal with a man of African descent as the leader of the American empire. And he isn’t a racial stereotype, for
whatever that is worth. Certainly, that
alone must give them pause.

David A. Love is an Editorial Board member of BlackCommentator.com, and a contributor to the Progressive Media Project and theGrio. He is a writer and human rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His blog is davidalove.com.

Video: Obama Visits South Korea

2009-11-18T13:00:06Z

President Obama arrived today in Seoul, South Korea, the last scheduled stop on his Asian tour. A big part of his agenda is North Korea, reports CNBC's John Harwood. (CNBC)

North Korea - South Korea - John Harwood - CNBC - Asia

Video: President Obama Arrives in South Korea

2009-11-18T11:30:06Z

President Obama has arrived in Seoul for talks focusing on the economy. CNBC's John Harwood has the details. (CNBC)

Seoul - John Harwood - South Korea - CNBC - Asia

Today: Somalia's corruption and a lost Nabakov novel

2009-11-17T11:45:04Z

Stories compiled by Gizem Yarbil, Connie Kargbo, Channtal Fleischfresser, Christine Kiernan, Ivette Feliciano, and Mohammad al-Kassim, and edited by Rebecca Haggerty and Ben Piven.

CHINA: U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged cooperation between the two countries on a range of issues including the climate change and nuclear safety in the Korean peninsula and in Iran. However, both leaders have not refrained from pointing out remaining differences between the two nations.

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below expected levels in 2020. The announcement is expected to put pressure on other developed nations to fight global warming more aggressively.

GUINEA: Recruits for Guinea’s military junta are being trained by South African and Israeli military officials according to the news agency AFP. Witnesses claim to have seen the training exercises in a town south of the capital Conkary.

Man using a vuvuzela at a soccer game

SOMALIA: Somalia is once again the world’s most corrupt country. In Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, Somalia took the lowest spot with a score of 1.1 out of 10.

SOUTH AFRICA: The noisy South African vuvuzela trumpet is under attack again, this time by Japan. The Japanese Football Association President has requested the trumpet be banned from next years World Cup saying its loud noise limits communication with players, coaches, broadcasters, etc. The vuvuzela is a common instrument used by South African soccer fans.

GERMANY: A 90-year-old former Nazi SS member was charged Tuesday with 58 counts of murder in the deaths of forced Jewish laborers in Austria.

SPAIN: Pirates have released a Spanish vessel with 36 crew members which they had held for 6 weeks, according to Spain’s prime minister.

FRANCE: A Frenchwoman who was kept in Iranian prison after allegedly “provoking rioters” during Iran’s post-election protests appeared in Iranian court on Tuesday, and then returned to the French Embassy, where she has been permitted to remain since August.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czechs mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution today, which lend to the end of Communist rule in the former Czechoskovakia. Thousands of people in the capital Prague are celebrating with with reenactment of a student protest.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

A British security software firm says Russian criminals are making millions off the H1N1 flu epidemic by selling fake flu drugs over the Internet. The firm, Sophos, intercepted web sites and hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical span adverts, many of which are based in Russia.

A Russian human rights campaigner has been killed with a bullet shot to his head, as he entered his apartment building. The 26-year-old, Ivan Khutorsky, reportedly campaigned actively against neo-Nazi groups.

Vladimir Nabokov’s last unfinished novel “The Original of Laura” goes on sale today in London and New York. Nabokov had made his wife promise to burn the manuscript after his death, but she refrained from doing so, leaving it to their son Dmitri to decide its fate.

The Russian Orthodox Church is considering severing ties with the Evangelic Church in Germany, after the latter elected its first female leader last month. The Orthodox Archbishop reportedly said the church could not maintain a dialogue with a church headed by a woman.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the death in a Russian prison of a lawyer for the investment fund Hermitage Capital. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was jailed a year ago on tax evasion charges. At a court hearing this past September, he complained of inhumane conditions at the prison and of being denied medical treatment.

EL SALVADOR: The Yaqui indigenous group in Mexico has finally won the battle to get back the remains of some of their lost heroes, held in the storage of New York’s American Museum of Natural History for more than a century.

ARGENTINA: Argentina has granted its first marriage license to a gay couple, both men HIV positive.

GUATEMALA: Forty percent of Guatemala’s elderly are living in a state of poverty.

PALESTINE: The European Union said that it is “premature” for the Palestinians to try to have the UN recognize an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

ISRAEL/SYRIA: French president Nicolas Sarkozy says his country is ready to mediate between Syria and Israel and warns that extremists could benefit from a continued deadlock in the Mideast peace process.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s government has said that all military activities have ceased on its southern borders with Yemen.

EGYPT: Amnesty International warned in a report out today that Egypt must take immediate steps to ensure there is no repeat of a 2008 rockslide that killed more than 100 residents of a Cairo shantytown.

IRAN: Iran’s nuclear envoy denied that the IAEA tour of its recently revealed uranium enrichment site has turned up any evidence that the Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

ISRAEL: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned today that Iran’s nuclear program posed a threat not just to Israel, but to the entire world.

Stories from around the world compiled by the Worldfocus newsroom. Today: Somalia called the world’s most corrupt country; Japan wants to silence noisy South African soccer fans; and the last unfinished novel of Vladimir Nabokov goes on sale in the West.
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_africa_vuzuela.jpg

Eric C. Anderson: Succumbing to "Worst-Case" Analysis of North Korea

2009-11-13T11:57:51Z

Analysis of a potential adversary's intentions is hard -- particularly when that adversary chooses to behave like a belligerent hermit. Such is the case with North Korea. Having decided to eschew modernity by cleaving to a feudal version of socialism, Pyongyang has rendered assessment of North Korea's political intentions an art best likened to divining the truth through an examination of scattered chicken bones. Or so a reading of press reports concerning the 10 November 2009 North-South naval clash would have us believe. According to the Washington Post, New York Times, and National Public Radio, the naval skirmish was likely a North Korean attempt to set the agenda for President Obama's trip to Seoul. Worst-case analysis at its best.

I, for one, am not buying this line of reasoning. Having spent a good deal of my career focused on Northeast Asia, I can unequivocally state there is significantly more to this story...and much less justification for heaping aspersions on Pyongyang. How do I come to this conclusion? A cold evaluation of the facts as we know them.

Let's open with the location of this incident--and the participants in the gun battle. Located on a peninsula, North and South Korea share nautical borders on their east and west coasts. The armistice that suspended the Korean War in 1953 provided for a clear demarcation of territorial waters on the peninsula's east coast. The west coast was an entirely different problem. North Korea was unwilling to accept the proposed division of territorial waters on the west coast--so Washington drew up a boundary that would, in theory, serve to keep the two sides apart and minimize the potential for a resumption of hostilities. Remarkably, this "Northern Limit Line" actually accomplished its intended purpose. With very few exceptions Pyongyang's naval platforms stayed north of the line, and Seoul's fleet stayed south of the line.

That uneasy standoff started to fray in the 1990s. Waters surrounding the Northern Limit Line have proven a lucrative fishing ground--particularly during Blue Crab season. Knowing that fishermen are not exactly the most rule-compliant crowd, Seoul had attempted to avoid problems with the North by enforcing a buffer zone that kept the crabbers a good bit south of the disputed border. This buffer zone, plus a heavy presence of South Korean patrol craft, served to prevent most problems...but the fishermen were always seeking to push the limits. In June 1999, this drive for profit brought the two sides to blows. After several rounds of high-seas bump-and-run, the two navies engaged in an exchange of gun fire that turned out badly for the North.

This should not have come as a surprise to the North Korean fleet. Operating boats largely built in the 1960s and 70s, the North's crews lack computer-stabilized weapon systems and modern damage-control options. The South's crews have no such limitation. South Korean naval commanders who have to engage a target in rolling swells are going to score a bull's eye. A North Korean naval commander operating in similar conditions will be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn.

Fast-forward to June 2002. Following the unpleasant developments in 1999, the two sides had managed to avoid further bloodshed...and the South's fishermen were back to their old tactics. All this came to a head on 29 June 2002, when a South Korean patrol craft was sunk by a North Korean naval platform. There is significant debate over how this came to pass. Some argue the South Korean commander violated the rules of engagement and drew too close to the North Korean boat. Others contend the North Koreans managed to lure the South Korean patrol craft into a trap and then sank the boat with a lucky shot. In any case, cooler heads again prevailed, and the two sides resumed an uneasy truce in the disputed waters.

That lasted until last Tuesday. On 10 November patrol craft from North and South Korea engaged in an exchange of gunfire that reportedly left one North Korean sailor dead and three others wounded. The South Korean losses? Fifteen holes or dents in a still very functional naval combatant. As the battle supposedly took place between platforms separated by two miles of open water it appears the North continues to struggle with aiming problems...not so in the South. Given this situation, why would a rational North Korean commander fire on a South Korean boat? Patriotism, ego, and brash male assertiveness. Patrol craft from both North and South Korea are almost exclusively crewed by young men anxious to prove their mettle. This surplus of testosterone--not orders from higher headquarters, where the leadership is painfully aware of Pyongyang's naval shortcomings--helps explain why a North Korean commander would chose to fire on a vastly superior adversary.

What it does not explain is why the North's patrol craft were operating so close to demarcation line. That answer was provided in a story published by one of South Korea's more obscure news papers, The Hankyoreh. While the paper has a self-admitted progressive bias, it has proven a source of reliable information since first going to press in 1988. According to The Hankyoreh, the North Korean combatant had probably been dispatched in reaction to Chinese fishing boats that are known to illegally poach along the peninsula's entire western coastline. So what we have here is a case of overly aggressive law enforcement--not an effort to shape international relations. Which should cause one to wonder why the U.S. media seem to have opted for a more ominous interpretation of the events.

To answer that question we need to look at the "analysts" credited with determining the 10 November clash was Pyongyang's effort to engage in strategic agenda setting. As it turns out, the "spin" on this event primarily came from the South Korean presidential offices and an academic in Seoul who is famous for being an adamant critic of all things North Korea. The current South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, has consistently vowed to take a tougher line on dealing with Pyongyang. Lee believes his predecessors were too soft on the North, and he is determined to push in the opposite direction. No surprise then, that his staff told reporters the 10 November incident was "an intentional, low-intensity provocation by North Korea."

Nor is it surprising to discover that Professor Nam Joo-hong was busy telling media representatives the incident was "a deliberately planned maneuver designed to look like an accident.' Nam is well known as a hardliner--some progressive groups in South Korea refer to him as a "neocon warmonger." And yet, his "analysis" and the South Korean administration's spin seem to have carried the day. What a shame.

Fortunately, the U.S. State Department did not fall victim to this worst case analysis. On 11 November Secretary of State Clinton told reporters in Singapore the clash "does not affect our decision" to send special envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea. Nor, it appears, did the clash appear to alter President Obama's agenda during his trip to Asia. So who was the victim here? Primarily the average North Korean, who can look forward to further hunger and deprivation as a result of Seoul's efforts to brow beat the elite in Pyongyang. This hard line approach certainly will not impact the North Korean leadership--who simply responded to the silliness by declaring the entire incident was a "brazen violation of our sacred territorial waters."

The bottom line, beware worst case analysis -- particularly when discussing events on the Korean peninsula. What initially appears a cautionary reading of events often proves a cursory evaluation intended to serve a political agenda. Pyongyang harbors little good will for any American administration, but is not so foolish as to hope a minor naval skirmish would serve to refocus this White House. Clearly our State Department was able to come to this conclusion...too bad the Washington Post, New York Times and National Public Radio could not have taken the time to do likewise.

North Korea Threatens South After Naval Clash

2009-11-12T14:25:38Z

SEOUL, South Korea (Associated Press) -- North Korea threatened to punish South Korea following their brief-but-bloody naval firefight, though analysts said Thursday that chances of retaliation appeared slim ahead of planned talks between the U.S. and Pyongyang.

Tuesday's battle near the disputed western sea border left one North Korean officer dead and three others wounded, according to a senior South Korean military officer. Both sides have accused the other of provoking the two-minute battle and Pyongyang has threatened consequences.

"Warmongers will be forced to pay a costly price," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Thursday in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "We never utter empty words."

A North Korean navy patrol vessel is believed to have been towed by another North Korean ship to a nearby base after South Korean ships fired some 4,950 rounds, said an official with Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. He asked not to be identified because of the issue's sensitivity.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, downplayed the significance of the North's threats, saying they were carried in newspaper commentaries rather than in government or military statements - which carry more weight.

The North's military issued a statement Tuesday blaming the South for the clash but has not made any threat or mention of retaliation itself.

Analysts believe a planned trip to Pyongyang by a U.S. official would make it difficult for Pyongyang to take retaliatory steps against the South anytime soon.
Story continues below

President Barack Obama, due to arrive in Seoul on Nov. 18 amid a regional tour, plans to send special envoy Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang by year's end for the first direct talks with the North during his administration.

Bosworth's trip is aimed at persuading communist North Korea to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, which Pyongyang walked away from earlier this year.

The North has long demanded one-on-one talks with the United States before committing to the stalled talks on ending its nuclear programs. The talks also include South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, and were last held in Beijing in December.

Jeung Young-tae, a North Korea expert at the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, said that while some kind of retaliation is possible, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would have little to gain from doing so.

"Any escalation of the situation would not be in the interest of the Kim Jong Il regime at a time when the North is focusing on dialogue with the U.S.," he said.

Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul, said it is hard to believe that Pyongyang would retaliate when it is seeking to improve its relations with both South Korea and the U.S.

Officials in Seoul shrugged off the North's threats, saying they can deter any aggression and will defend the disputed sea border - known as the Northern Limit Line - where the clash took place.

The line is a de facto western sea border drawn up by the U.N. command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North has long insisted it be redrawn farther south.

The Defense Ministry said Thursday that it plans to hold a meeting of top military commanders next month to review South Korea's defenses.

The battle, which South Korea's military has hailed as a victory, highlighted the wide gap in hardware between the two sides. The North Korean ship was built by China in the 1960s, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

Following the skirmish, the South's 680,000-member military went on high alert to cope with possible retaliation. South Korean media reported the country has deployed up to four destroyers and warships near the sea border - the scene of two bloody fights in 1999 and 2002.

South Korea's military said there has been no sign of suspicious military activity from North Korean troops, but news reports said the North has also placed its 1.2 million-strong army on high alert.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S., which has never had diplomatic relations with North Korea, stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter potential North Korean aggression.

___

Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.

Matthew DeBord: Michelle Wie v. Golf

2009-11-11T13:31:56Z

Consider Michelle Wie. Now 20-years-old, the phenom from Hawaii burst onto the professional golf scene in the period between 2003-2005. By her sixteenth birthday, she had already played an event on the men's PGA Tour twice. She then turned pro, signed with Nike, and promptly almost won a women's professional major, the LPGA Championship. The following year, she almost won the other four. By 2007, she was earning $19 million per year. Her beautiful, flowing swing has been called the best in golf, for a man or a woman, by Johnny Miller. She is an appealing, attractive, marketable young woman who will soon graduate from Stanford.

And from the moment she arrived, the golf establishment and the media have harassed, hounded, and undermined her success.

Why would golf do this to its most bankable star since Tiger Woods? Simple: She's a woman in a sport full of men who never stop being threatened. The golf establishment, especially in the United States, is full of venal, haunted little men -- players, executives, sportswriters, broadcasters -- who pledge allegiance to the spirit and dignity of an ancient Scottish game, but who in truth want to dismiss anything that disrupts their once-comfortable lock on the sport.

It's been forgotten now, but Tiger was assailed when he first arrived. Some called his epic 1997 Masters win a fluke. Others suggested that he had been given unfair advantages by being allowed to skip the PGA Tour's qualifying school. But over the ensuing years, through sheer brilliance, Woods wore down his critics. By the time he won the 2008 U.S. Open, limping through a Monday playoff on what was effectively a broken leg, all naysaying had been vanquished.

Wie, by contrast, has been worn down, by the media, the sport's overlords, and her peers. Only recently has she begun to show signs of her teen dazzle. But it could be too late, as the LPGA Tour has experienced an armageddon of sorts since the financial crisis hit in late 2008.

The LPGA was already in bad shape. It had a great crop of new, young players, including Wie, but it was failing to convert them into tournament draws. As Wie fell in the rankings and suffered through controversy after controversy, players such as Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Morgan Pressel, and Paula Creamer stepped up, but the world was indifferent. Meanwhile, a bevy of South Korean players was arriving. They were all talented, but it was an impossible TV sell. If the LPGA couldn't get viewers to watch Ochoa and Creamer, it was going to find the South Koreans challenging. Some commenters even went so far as to argue that the game's future lay not in the U.S. and Europe, but in Asia, and South Korea in particular. Given how good the South Korean women are, they're probably right.

This was the exact moment the LPGA, and golf in general, needed Wie, to act as a marquee draw, to establish a showcase for her peers and to allow the South Korean generation to gain exposure. Instead, golf has made sure that Wie wasn't a factor. But golf had committed a grave sin against Karma. As the financial meltdown laid low sponsor after sponsor, the LPGA was forced to scrounge. But what did it have to sell? Ochoa, a wonderful Mexican player and a player in the mold of the great international sportswomen of history, but beyond her, a coterie of inconsistent youngsters.

Wie is currently ranked 15th in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings. She earned her playing privileges the hard way, by going through LPGA Q-school. She seems committed to women's golf, and to winning a professional event, and has put her foray into the men's game behind her. And yet...golf still hasn't given the love to this extraordinary, potential champion, and its best hope to ensure the survival of women's pro golf during what has to be seen as the most serious crisis in its history. The LPGA Tour has lost tournaments and seen prize money reduced in 2009. The only good news is that, in partnership with The Golf Channel, the LPGA no longer has to pay to get its events on TV, as it did for a number of years.

Golf likes to pretend that the game is bigger than any individual player, but over its history, that pretense has been upended time and time again -- to the sport's benefit. Bobby Jones, although a great sportsman, was briefly bigger than the game. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were bigger than the game. The great female champion Babe Didrikson Zaharias was bigger than the game. Tiger Woods...well, Tiger is bigger than anyone who has ever been bigger than the game.

Michelle Wie had the potential to be bigger than the game and to provide women's golf with the worldwide explosion in popularity that it needs. But the best possible time for that to happen was two or three years ago, before she was buried under an avalanche of negativity and slumped. She's back now, and she seems like a more mature person and more complete player. But opportunity lost is still opportunity lost. And if women's golf continues to falter, golf will only have itself and its ridiculous, petty culture to blame. Wie was, and to a degree, still is the future. Her ascent was Tiger Woods crossed with the Williams sisters. Her decline was troubling. Her comeback is critical.

South Korea Troops On High Alert After Navy Skirmish

2009-11-11T07:54:18Z

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened South Korea on Thursday with possible punishment over a skirmish that left one of its warships badly damaged and a crew member dead.

The rival Koreas clashed at sea Tuesday for the first time in seven years, with each side accusing the other of violating the disputed western sea border and firing first.

Today: Korean clash, Saudi strikes and endangered koalas

2009-11-10T12:00:04Z

Stories compiled by Gizem Yarbil, Connie Kargbo, Channtal Fleischfresser, Christine Kiernan, Ivette Feliciano, and Mohammad al-Kassim, and edited by Rebecca Haggerty.

A North Korean sailor on the U.S.S. Pueblo, captured in 1968. Photo: Ben Piven.

KOREAS: A North Korean patrol ship exchanged fire with a South Korea naval vessel along their disputed western naval coast. The North Korean ship was badly damaged and retreated in flames. Both sides blamed each other for the incident.

JAPAN: Japan’s government has pledged five billion dollars in aid to Afghanistan over the next five years. The money will mostly go to civilian aid, infrastructure, job training and rehabilitation efforts for former Taliban soldiers.

AUSTRALIA: An environmental group wants the Australian government to categorize koalas as endangered. The Australia Koala Foundation says the population of koalas has declined by 90% in the past two decades due to drought, over-development and disease.

LIBYA: Libya’s interior minister on Monday said that the country has reduced the number of African migrants attempting to reach Europe illegally by sea by 90% through greater cooperation with Italy.

RWANDA: A Belgian court has ruled that the case against Ephrem Nkezabera, also know as the “Banker to the Genocide,” will go ahead despite his absence due to illness. Nkezabera is charged with helping to fund the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

SOMALIA: The United Nations is warning of significant displacement of Somalis due to heavy rains. The rains also make aid distribution even more difficult.

UK: Lloyds Bank has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2010.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech officials said they would discipline soldiers for wearing Nazi symbols while in Afghanistan.

TURKEY: The Turkish government announced a plan to make peace with its Kurdish insurgents who have been waging a separatist battle for decades.

RUSSIA AND CIS: Swine flu cases in Russia have surpassed 4,500, and 19 people have died from the pandemic. In the far eastern Khabarovsk region, people working in shops, food services and the transportation sector are required to wear masks; those who refuse to comply will be fined.

Some 72 percent of Russians consider themselves happy, up from an all-time low of 42 percent in 1992, according to a poll conducted by the All Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The “happiest” respondents were young people living in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Russians today celebrate the birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, founder of the AK-47, who turns 90, and note the death of Nobel-prize winning physicist Vitaly Ginzburg, who helped develop the Soviet hydrogen bomb.

Russia’s security service caught fourteen members of an international prostitute ring. The ring, including citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, recruited girls from the Russian provinces and sent them to Europe, where they were forced into prostitution.

Russia’s Constitutional Court held hearings yesterday on whether or not to reimpose the death penalty in the country. There is currently a moratorium on the death penalty, which expires on January 1.

Videos posted by a policeman from Novorossiisk have become a media sensation in Russia. Policeman Alexei Dymovsky posted the videos last week, in which he addresses corruption in the police and appeals to Prime Minister Putin to improve conditions for the demoralized force. In response, Dymovsky was fired from his post. He now faces three investigations, including one for slander.

BRAZIL: Israeli President Shimon Peres is set to arrive in Brazil for a visit on Tuesday, with Iranian President Ahmadinejad due to arrive on November 23. Both visits symbolize Brazil’s aspirations as an international mediator.

A report in Brazil’s leading daily newspaper Monday said that police in Rio de Janeiro had killed more than 10,000 people over 11 years, with most of the deaths reportedly coming when people “resisted arrest.”

CUBA: The U.S. State Department is criticizing the Cuban government for allegedly attacking three bloggers over the weekend.

MEXICO: The Mexican government has declared two areas in the Gulf Coast as disaster zones due to flooding from Hurricane Ida.

PAKISTAN: At least 30 people were killed and 50 injured in a bomb blast ripped through a busy traffic intersection in northwest Pakistan.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Defense Minister said that his country’s military will continue its air assault against Yemeni rebels until they retreat from the two countries’ border. Also, a Saudi Arabian government adviser says the kingdom has imposed a naval blockade on northern Yemen’s Red Sea coast to try to prevent weapons and fighters flowing to Shiite rebels in the area.

ISRAEL: Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that the Lebanese group Hezbollah currently possesses tens of thousands of rockets, some capable of reaching up to 185 miles within Israel.

LEBANON: Months after parliamentary elections, Lebanon’s prime minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new Cabinet, which includes members of Hezbollah and its allies.

PALESTINE: Aides close to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that he intends to resign and that other Palestinian officials would follow suit.

Stories brought to you from the Worldfocus newsroom. Today: continuing clashes on the Saudi-Yemen border; an environmental group says the Australian koala population is dropping precipitously; and Japan increases humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_australia_koala.jpg

Read more: Japan, South Korea, Home News

North Korea And South Korea Navy Boats Exchange Fire

2009-11-10T00:59:48Z

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's troops went on high alert Wednesday for possible retaliation by North Korea after one of its navy ships was nearly destroyed and an officer reportedly killed in a skirmish with the South, ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama.

The clash Tuesday along the disputed western sea border was the first such engagement in seven years, sending tensions soaring about a week before Obama travels to Seoul as part of his Asian tour.