Archivo etiqueta «Libertad»
By Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 13/06/11):
In the late 1980s, the fight against global communism entered a crucial phase. President Reagan publicly pressed Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa gave Polish workers the courage to rise up against their communist masters. The Velvet Revolution sprang up in Czechoslovakia.
That last event may be less famous, but it’s no less important. It began on Nov. 17, 1989, when Czech police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. Within days, the number of protestors … Seguir leyendo
Por Carmen Iglesias, presidenta de Unidad Editorial y miembro de la Real Academia Española y de la Academia de la Historia (EL MUNDO, 21/02/11):
Ninguna profesión por noble que sea -decía Diderot- se libra de lo que él denominaba idiotismos morales. Una especie de mezcla de tontería, discordancia entre los principios y la conducta de buena parte de los que la ejercen, una deriva prepotente -diríamos en lenguaje de hoy- de esos profesionales para hacerse valer más de lo que merecen y para afirmar su poder y de paso, en buen número de casos, sacar beneficio personal de todo … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society and author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles (THE TIMES, 12/02/10):
I got there early to get a decent place to watch The Moment. The world had not even seen a picture of him for 27 years. What did he look like now? Would he be the dignified, brave leader who had stood in the dock of the Supreme Court on trial for his life in April 1964 and declared himself ready to die for his principles? Or a crushed old man, willing to compromise with the apartheid Government to … Seguir leyendo
By Wang Dan, a student leader at Peking University who helped organize the Tiananmen protest, was returned to prison from 1995 to 1998 and now teaches history at National Chengchi University in Taiwan (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
Twenty years ago, I was in Qincheng, the most well-known of China’s political prisons, along with several hundred other students and intellectuals who had taken part in the student movement of the previous summer. On a particularly cold winter morning, I sat on my bed and picked up my copy of The People’s Daily, the government newspaper we were allowed to … Seguir leyendo
By Ko Bo Kyi,who spent nearly eight years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand and co-founding the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
News of Nelson Mandela’s release dominated the radio broadcasts by the BBC and Voice of America on Feb. 11, 1990. I felt I understood why he had resisted so long, because in Burma, as in South Africa at the time Mr. Mandela was in jail, the majority of people were struggling to make their voices heard. Within three months, the military junta would refuse to recognize the results of our … Seguir leyendo
By Fadjroel Rachman, a political economist who was jailed during the Suharto regime, is the chairman of the Research Institute of Democracy and Welfare State in Jakarta (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
Nelson Mandela has won the battle, I said to myself in my cold, tiny cell in the military prison in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Thank God, at last justice and freedom win.
The news of Mr. Mandela’s release had just come over the radio that stood on a shelf in the canteen for prison guards directly in front of my cell. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Justice … Seguir leyendo
By Wei Jingsheng, a democracy activist who was in jail in China from 1979 to 1993 and now lives in Washington (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
Nine months before Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa, the Chinese police cracked down on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, and in August 1989 I was sent to Hebei Prison for incitement to overthrow state power. My cellmates, like so many Chinese people at the time, were pessimistic about China’s future. “Why do you persist?” they would ask me. “Democracy and freedom are good, but there is not much hope for … Seguir leyendo
By Jack Mapanje, a visiting fellow at Newcastle University Center for Literary Arts in Britain and the author of a forthcoming memoir about his time in prison in Malawi (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
I was in Mikuyu Prison in Malawi when Nelson Mandela was released. Hearing the news, whispered to me by a daring prison guard, I instantly thought back to the day, a year earlier, when the same guard had told me the rumor that President F. W. de Klerk of South Africa was holding secret talks with Mr. Mandela. Rumors played a critical, if therapeutic, role … Seguir leyendo
By Nguyen Dan Que, a doctor in Vietnam who has been imprisoned three times (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
It was back in the 1970s, when I was doing diabetes research in Britain, that I first learned of the political drama surrounding Nelson Mandela. At the time I never would have predicted that one day I, too, would be imprisoned by a repressive regime for advocating human rights and democracy.
By the time of his release from prison many years later, I had already spent 10 years in many labor camps and prisons in Vietnam, and was under house … Seguir leyendo
By Souleymane Guengueng, who spent 27 months in a Chadian prison and now lives in New York City (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/02/10):
During the dictatorship of Hissène Habré in Chad, I was wrongfully accused of political activity and imprisoned. Our jail was infested with insects, and the heat was nearly unbearable. Packed in our cells, we had to take turns to sleep, often on top of the corpses of other prisoners who had died from torture, disease or malnutrition. We were forbidden to pray aloud. And every night, President Habré’s political police took away prisoners who never returned.… Seguir leyendo
By Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth (THE TIMES, 02/02/10):
There are times when human rights become human wrongs. This happens when rights become more than a defence of human dignity, which is their proper sphere, and become instead a political ideology, relentlessly trampling down everything in their path. This is happening increasingly in Britain, and it is why the Pope’s protest against the Equality Bill, whether we agree with it or not, should be taken seriously.
Let me make it clear that I believe homosexuals have rights that need defending. Like … Seguir leyendo
Por Olegario González de Cardedal (ABC, 16/05/09):
Cada siglo y cultura tienen sus palabras y cada palabra encuentra su despliegue dentro de una cultura o de un siglo. El siglo XVI y XVII tendrán la palabra experiencia, el siglo XVIII razón y naturaleza, hasta aplicar el adjetivo natural a toda una constelación de realidades: orden natural, ley natural, derecho natural… El siglo XIX gira en torno a las palabras historia y libertad en la perspectiva social y política frente a las monarquías soberanas, las actitudes dogmáticas o las oligarquías nacientes. El siglo XX ha radicalizado las búsquedas anteriores en torno … Seguir leyendo
By Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester. He resigned as Lib Dem home affairs spokesman after his affair with a male prostitute was exposed by the News of the World (THE GUARDIAN, 07/06/08):
You can probably guess why I took more than a passing interest in the news that Max Mosley faced down a vote of no confidence on Tuesday. What you think of his continued position in formula one probably depends on where you think the boundaries should be set for the private life of someone in the public eye. Unsurprisingly I welcome Tuesday’s decision – … Seguir leyendo
By Matthew Syed (THE TIMES, 20/05/08):
The security services can expect a full mailbag from S&M enthusiasts volunteering to be the victims of their next sting operation. This follows Sunday’s extraordinary revelations that an MI5 officer’s wife was one of the prostitutes involved in the infamous sado-masochistic orgy with Max Mosley, the beleaguered head of Formula One’s governing body – and subsequent speculation (quickly denied) that the News of the World exposé had the official backing of the security services.
Despite the growing scale of innuendo and conspiracy theory that has materialised in cyberspace, many of us will feel inclined … Seguir leyendo
Por Esther Tusquets, escritora (EL PAÍS, 15/05/07):
Comprendo que vivimos en sociedad, la mayoría de nosotros en grandes grupos, cada vez más hacinada la población en las ciudades. Y comprendo que, para que la convivencia sea posible, son precisas un montón de normas y de leyes, un montón de restricciones y de prohibiciones. Lamento, sin embargo, que, en lugar de aplicarlas con cierta flexibilidad, con un mínimo sentido común, ateniéndose a las circunstancias de cada caso, los agentes de la ley las apliquen con frecuencia a rajatabla, lo cual, qué duda cabe, hace más sencillo su trabajo. Y me … Seguir leyendo