Archivo «noviembre de 2009»
Par Isabelle Stengers, philosophe et professeure à l’université libre de Bruxelles (LIBERATION, 30/11/09):
La conférence de Copenhague est proche, et nul ne sait si nos responsables annonceront à son terme de solennels engagements verbaux ou quelques accords contraignants. Il serait absurde d’affirmer que l’indifférence s’impose à cet égard, mais à propos d’un éventuel accord contraignant, la question se pose : contraignant comment, et pour qui ? Ceux qui le signeraient ne se sont-ils pas, avec les accords du Gatt puis la création de l’OMC, privés du pouvoir de contraindre «le marché», à qui a été déléguée la charge d’assurer l’avenir du … Seguir leyendo
By Mary Elise Sarotte, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin and the author of 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/11/09):
Twenty years ago, dictatorships across Central and Eastern Europe toppled. During this season of remembering, the focus has rightly been on celebration of the new freedoms gained by the inhabitants of those countries: to speak freely, to travel, to vote and to choose their own national futures and alliances. Yet the legacy of 1989 has difficult aspects as well, … Seguir leyendo
By Jo Tatchell, the author of A Diamond in the Desert (THE TIMES, 30/11/09):
Make no mistake,” a friend told me over lunch in Abu Dhabi a few months ago. “Everyone here knows Dubai’s in trouble, but this isn’t the new Lehman. Abu Dhabi will help them out but there will be a heavy price to pay. Dubai will soon be a suburb of Abu Dhabi.”
While global financial markets nervously await clarification of Dubai’s debt restructuring, the Emirates are alive with talk of political change. Abu Dhabi’s refusal to sign a blank cheque to underwrite Dubai Inc has … Seguir leyendo
Por Mario Vargas Llosa. © Derechos mundiales de prensa en todas las lenguas reservados a Ediciones EL PAÍS, SL, 2009 (EL PAÍS, 29/11/09):
El Grupo Socialista ha presentado en el Congreso de los Diputados una proposición no de ley destinada a desagraviar a los descendientes actuales de los moriscos expulsados de España hace 400 años, en 1609. Los ponentes precisan que no se trata de ofrecer reparaciones económicas a los herederos de aquellas víctimas por los perjuicios de toda índole que padecieron sus antepasados, sino de un gesto simbólico y moral, algo así como una autocrítica pública del Estado … Seguir leyendo
Por Adela Cortina, catedrática de Ética y Filosofía Política de la Universidad de Valencia y miembro de la Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas (EL PAÍS, 29/11/09):
En un reciente artículo, publicado en las páginas de este mismo diario, el presidente del Congreso de los Diputados hizo una propuesta que, a mi juicio, no puede merecer sino apoyo. Sugiere José Bono abrir un sereno diálogo en el seno de la sociedad civil sobre un tema tan sensible como el del aborto, con una peculiaridad: que los interlocutores no se descalifiquen mutuamente desde el comienzo con etiquetas insultantes, … Seguir leyendo
Por Xavier Pericay (ABC, 29/11/09):
Todo ciudadano tiene el deber de conocer la ley. Sí, la ley obliga. Nadie puede alegar, como eximente, su ignorancia. Ni el conductor que circula por la izquierda en una carretera cualquiera del continente ni el que lo hace por la derecha en el Reino Unido, y ello sea cual sea su nacionalidad. Tampoco sirve, ante el apremio de la Hacienda Pública, aducir que tal o tal retribución no ha sido declarada en el impuesto sobre la renta porque a la empresa responsable del pago se le olvidó recordárselo al perceptor. La responsabilidad, guste o … Seguir leyendo
Por José Luis Álvarez Arce, profesor de la facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la Universidad de Navarra (LA VANGUARDIA, 29/11/09):
La crisis en que está sumida la economía española ha trastocado los planes de la inmensa mayoría de los hogares, modificando el comportamiento de variables macroeconómicas directamente ligadas con las decisiones domésticas. El consumo y la inversión en vivienda constituyen los ejemplos evidentes. Estos que fueron motores del crecimiento durante la larga etapa expansiva, ahora están registrando unas caídas notables, lo que está desencadenando un pernicioso efecto de retroalimentación entre disminución del gasto, desplome de la actividad … Seguir leyendo
Por Javier Pérez Royo, catedrático de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad de Sevilla (EL PERIÓDICO, 29/11/09):
El constituyente de 1978 no definió de manera acabada la estructura del Estado, pero sí de manera inequívoca dos elementos esenciales de dicha estructura:
1. La decisión política constitucionalmente conformadora de dicha estructura, articulada como un compromiso entre el principio de unidad política del Estado y el reconocimiento del derecho a la autonomía de las nacionalidades y regiones que integran España.
2. El contenido del derecho a la autonomía del artículo 151 de la Constitución, reservado en todo caso para el País Vasco, … Seguir leyendo
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09:
President Obama and other world leaders will gather in Copenhagen next week to discuss climate change. Though this is a global issue, it’s also a profoundly local one. For this reason, the Op-Ed editors asked writers from four different continents to report on the climate changes they’ve experienced close to home. Here are their dispatches.
1.- Denmark in the Wind. By Hanne-Vibeke Holst, a novelist.
In Copenhagen, the once moderate-to-fresh winds are now more often storms.
2.- South Africa’s Fire Kingdom. By Zakes Mda, a playwright.
In Cape Town, a rise … Seguir leyendo
By Hanne-Vibeke Holst, a novelist. This essay was translated by Martin Aitken from the Danish (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
My husband wants a wind turbine for Christmas. Just a small one, to be erected alongside our summer cabin at the coast. “We could have it out back!” he said. Good idea, I admit. In Denmark, we get our share of moderate-to-fresh winds, as the weather guys say. More often, it seems, we have storms. In the city we don’t notice them that much, but at the cabin we listen uneasily to the howling of the wind in the … Seguir leyendo
By Zakes Mda, a playwright and the author of the novels Cion and Black Diamond (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
Not long ago, in Cape Town, I watched smoke billow from the hills facing the city. The flames were so ferocious that within a half-hour the smoke could be mistaken for rain clouds. Sirens wailed and in no time helicopters were hovering in the sky, dousing the flames with some pink substance.
At Greenmarket Square in the center of the city, an old man exclaimed: “They are very quick to put out the fire when the mountain is burning, … Seguir leyendo
By Edgard Telles Ribeiro, the author of I Would Have Loved Him if I Had Not Killed Him (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
I had set my umbrella and chair near the water in the early hours of what would soon become a perfect summer day. Like most people, I prefer the beach when it is deserted, and I had the place all to myself, no vendors to be seen, parading their sunglasses and suntan oils; no drinks, sandwiches or sweets offered in singing voices. Above all, no kids kicking balls or sand in my face. I held a … Seguir leyendo
By Yoko Tawada, the author of The Naked Eye and Facing the Bridge. This essay was translated by Margaret Mitsutani from the Japanese (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
It’s autumn, and the people on the Chuo Line are all bundled up, just as they are in the spring. When I was a student, a friend from Hokkaido, in the north, told me she couldn’t stand the winter cold in Tokyo. Although the temperature is lower in northern Japan, in Tokyo there is no moisture in the winter air; the dry winds bounce off the buildings, picking up speed … Seguir leyendo
By Pankaj Mishra, the author of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, I hurried through a dark apple orchard to the nearest television in this Himalayan village. My landlord opened his door reluctantly, and then appeared unmoved by the news I had just received by phone. I struggled to explain the enormity of what was happening, the significance of New York, the iconic status of the World Trade Center — to no avail. It was time for his evening … Seguir leyendo
By Kenneth J. Wolfe, who writes frequently for traditionalist Roman Catholic publications (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/11/09):
Walking into church 40 years ago on this first Sunday of Advent, many Roman Catholics might have wondered where they were. The priest not only spoke English rather than Latin, but he faced the congregation instead of the tabernacle; laymen took on duties previously reserved for priests; folk music filled the air. The great changes of Vatican II had hit home.
All this was a radical break from the traditional Latin Mass, codified in the 16th century at the Council of Trent. … Seguir leyendo