Abril de 2006 (Continuación)

Anthony Giddens es sociólogo británico, autor, entre otros libros, de La tercera vía: la renovación de la socialdemocracia. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 01/04/06):

Dos dinastías se aproximan a su fin. En Estados Unidos, el Gobierno de George W. Bush, todavía con dos años por delante, se encuentra ya en una fase de decadencia irreversible. ¿Ha sido el Gobierno más desastroso de la historia de su país? Si no, debe de estar cerca. Es difícil pensar algo en lo que Bush haya beneficiado de forma duradera a su propio país o al resto del mundo.

Lo que quedará detrás será una estela de desastres.…  Seguir leyendo »

Par Thérèse Delpech, philosophe, directeur de la prospective au Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (LE FIGARO, 01/04/06):

Après trois semaines de discussions improductives sur un projet de déclaration présidentielle, le Conseil de sécurité a finalement adopté un texte mercredi 29 mars. Au même moment environ, on apprenait que Téhéran avançait plus vite que prévu pour l'assemblage des centrifugeuses sur le site de Natanz : une première cascade de 164 machines serait déjà prête, alors que les prévisions se contentaient jusqu'à présent d'évoquer le lancement de travaux préalables sur des ensembles de 20 à 30 centrifugeuses. Cette cascade, qui représente un module du futur pilote d'enrichissement – et donc une avancée technique significative de l'Iran –, n'était pas attendue si tôt et il suffit désormais d'en reproduire plusieurs exemplaires.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Geoffrey C. lambert, a retired major general, commanded the Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) from 2001 to 2003 (THE WASHINGTON POST, 01/04/06):

The Associated Press reported recently that a trailside memorial to an American soldier killed in Afghanistan had been vandalized. The memorial to Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, adjacent to the Ashuwillticook Trail in Cheshire, Mass., was defaced with the words "Oil," "Bush," "Christian Crusade" and other phrases.

Dan Petithory was one of my soldiers. He was an Army Green Beret and was killed on Dec. 5, 2001, north of Kandahar as he and his A-Team were closing in on the home of al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Anna Plitkovskaya, a special correspondent for the Moscow-based paper Novaya Gazeta and the recipient of the 2005 Civil Courage Prize (THE WASHINGTON POST, 01/04/06):

We are using Stalin's methods again, this time to fight terrorism. I am writing for this American newspaper on a subject that one can no longer write about in Russia -- islamskiy terrorizm, or Islamic terrorism cases. There are hundreds of such cases going through the courts in our country. Most of them have been fabricated by the government so that the special services can demonstrate how "effective" Russia is in fighting terrorism and so that President Vladimir Putin has something with which to impress the West.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, the authors of the forthcoming The End of Environmentalism and the Birth of a New American Politics (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/04/06):

Environmentalists and their opponents have spent far too much time debating whether global warming is caused by humans, and whether the transition to cleaner energy sources will be good or bad for the economy. Whatever the causes, warming is a genuine risk.

If the earth's temperatures continue to rise, we can expect to face melting glaciers and rising sea levels, warmer ocean temperatures and more intense hurricanes, more frequent droughts and other extreme weather.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Iain Hollingshead (THE GUARDIAN, 01/04/06):

Pope John Paul II's death on April 2 2005 - a year ago tomorrow - triggered an unprecedented clamour for his canonisation as huge crowds converged on Rome to pay tribute. Santo Subito, went the cry in St Peter's Square: "Make him a saint now."Even before the new pope was elected, cardinals signed a petition to put John Paul II on the fast track for sainthood, bypassing the usual five-year interval intended to allow emotions to subside. Just as John Paul II had sped up the process to beatify Mother Teresa in 2003, his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, announced plans to waive the traditional waiting period within a month of his installation.…  Seguir leyendo »

By James Harkin (THE GUARDIAN, 01/04/06):

If you feel too confused about current political events in Ukraine or Belarus even to offer a dinner-party opinion, don't fret. According to Andrew Wilson, an academic at London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, we are perfectly right to be a little perplexed, because nothing is as it seems. In his book Virtual Politics, Wilson argues that much of what passes for democratic participation in most of the countries of the former Soviet Union is entirely fake, a carefully choreographed performance designed to maintain the political status quo.

A decade ago, most political scientists liked to talk animatedly about "post-Soviet transitions to democracy" as though this were a natural process in which they might lend a hand.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Martin Kettle (THE GUARDIAN, 01/04/06):

It would not be hard to capture the worldview of the British political class in one of those celebrated Saul Steinberg New Yorker magazine covers that depict the world as seen from 9th Avenue in Manhattan. That's because so many of the people who practise politics and government in this country - and certainly those who write about it - have such a limited and solipsistic view of the rest of the planet.

Occupying most of the foreground would be Westminster and Whitehall, with Islington or Notting Hill, according to taste, in their shadow. In the middle distance maybe Brighton, Bournemouth and Blackpool.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Graham Stewart (THE TIMES, 01/04/06):

CHEERS RANG OUT in the House of Commons when on February 21, 1952 Harry Crookshank, the Minister for Health, announced that national identity cards were to be scrapped. It was difficult to detect the same level of euphoric abandon last Thursday after Charles Clarke, the burly Home Secretary, revealed that ID cards were coming back and, if Labour wins the next election, will become compulsory.

In his previous guise as Education Secretary, Mr Clarke famously questioned the value of teaching medieval history, but he might at least find instructive a lesson in his own party’s more recent past.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Janice Turner (THE TIMES, 01/04/06):

VISITING AN OLD people’s home is a horrible experience. Even a well-run, expensive one, where corridors only smell faintly of wee, the attendants are solicitous and residents are encouraged to finish dinner before it’s swept into the bin. Even the homes where the elderly are not rough-housed, drugged into docility or just left to stare at the telly ten hours a day are scary and depressing. Even the fancy ones seem to stick the frail 90-year-old Times-crossword solver among the gurgling, rocking dementia patients. Because they’re all the same, old people. They’re all, well .…  Seguir leyendo »

By Matthew Parris (THE TIMES, 01/04/06):

THANGE AND DECAY in all around we see. The End of the World is Nigh. “I didna’ ken,” protests the Scotsman to a thunder-faced St Peter. “Well, y’ken noo,” replies Heaven’s gatekeeper. How we relish those gleeful lines in John Newton’s hymn: “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure/ All his boasted pomp and show.” Says the Book of Revelation: “Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the Earth will mourn because of Him.”

Running like a silver thread through the history of the world’s religions you will find the same refrain.…  Seguir leyendo »