Sábado, 2 de diciembre de 2006

Vivimos un momento singular en el campo intelectual: hay toda una generación que se sintió parte de esa época en que pasamos de un régimen totalitario a una democracia, que ayudó a construir el discurso central, nacional, de esa época, una generación de intelectuales que se imaginaban a sí mismos en la izquierda y que, agotada esa etapa y ante un cambio político del calado del que protagoniza Rodríguez Zapatero, sin capacidad para comprenderlo debido a su bagaje ideológico, a los intereses adquiridos o incluso a razones de historia personal, reacciona de un modo radical confundiendo sus posiciones con las de la derecha española.…  Seguir leyendo »

La situación en esa inmensa zona que se extiende entre el valle del Indo y el Mediterráneo oriental es muy preocupante. La intención de Estados Unidos cuando intervino en Irak en 1991 era efectuar cambios fundamentales en esa región. Es evidente que esa política de intervención ha sido un fracaso. Incluso el éxito relativo de las elecciones en Irak amenaza con dividir aún más al país, en lugar de unirlo.

Oriente Medio ha sufrido desde la intervención en Irak cambios radicales, pero no en el sentido de una democratización paulatina. Lejos de ello, lo que tenemos es la amenaza de un efecto dominó de caída en el caos.…  Seguir leyendo »

En una pedanía costera del sur de España, que durante años ha resistido milagrosamente la presión urbanística que satura el litoral a su alrededor, me encuentro un edificio en construcción a pie de playa. Han tirado una vieja casa de pueblo y en su lugar se adivinan los primeros cimientos de un edificio de apartamentos. El solar está abanderado por una valla publicitaria que reproduce, con orgullo, el lema de la promotora inmobiliaria que pronto comercializará esos metros cuadrados con vistas al mar: "Lo imposible es posible".

En efecto, tal podría ser el lema, por extensión, de todo el sector constructor e inmobiliario en España: lo imposible es posible.…  Seguir leyendo »

La visita del Papa a Turquía ha sido un viaje en tres dimensiones. No me refiero a los más de 6.000 periodistas acreditados, que han diseccionado el acontecimiento desde todos los ángulos. Me refiero, más bien, al triple destinatario del viaje: la minúscula comunidad católica perdida en un mar islámico, la influyente minoría ortodoxa y la omnipresente mayoría musulmana. Para los católicos, si estamos de acuerdo con la Conferencia Episcopal turca, ha sido un «soplo de aire fresco» que ha supuesto una inyección de optimismo. Los 32.000 católicos -descendientes directos de la antigua comunidad de Asia Menor que recibió el Evangelio de manos del propio Pablo de Tarso- han dejado por unos días de ser una entidad fantasma para adquirir un protagonismo inédito.…  Seguir leyendo »

La lectura de la reciente Instrucción Pastoral de la Conferencia Episcopal Española nos reafirma en la convicción de que las componendas en el campo doctrinal son muy peligrosas. Cuando en un documento se acepta la licitud de posturas de suyo irreconciliables, los intérpretes del texto pueden llegar a conclusiones contrapuestas: unos aseguran que sus opiniones han sido bien acogidas, mientras que otros creen que son sus ideas las que han recibido la bendición.

Es cierto que conseguir una amplia mayoría en una gran asamblea, como es la Conferencia Episcopal, obliga a flexibilizar las posiciones. Pero lo que es fácilmente explicable, en este caso, no evita los riesgos de la contemporización.…  Seguir leyendo »

Siempre que oigo a uno de los nuestros referirse a lo distantes que están los políticos de la realidad, me entra una risa insufrible y nada contagiosa que me evita responderles con el exabrupto que se merecen. Escuchar a un periodista español explayarse sobre la distancia entre la pelea política y los problemas reales se ha convertido en uno de los tópicos más recurrentes y cínicos de nuestra vida intelectual, digámoslo así. Por principio de dignidad profesional me niego a participar en esos comederos para gente holgada, locuaz y sin sentido del ridículo, que se denominan tertulias,en sus variantes más comunes: radiofónicas, televisivas y páginas web.Desde…  Seguir leyendo »

El otro día escuché un debate radiofónico entre María San Gil, Josu Jon Imaz y Patxi López, no exento de cierta virulencia y en el que se dijeron -como no podía ser menos- algunas cosas interesantes. Sin embargo, me extrañó que ninguno de los tres (si no me equivoco) mencionase en ningún momento la Constitución. Y ello es tanto más extraño cuanto que San Gil abogó con elocuencia por la necesidad de derrotar a ETA y López, con vehemencia, sostuvo su derecho a buscar un acuerdo de convivencia pluralista para los vascos, en ausencia de violencia, eso sí. Pero da la casualidad de que precisamente la Constitución es la fórmula que responde a ambos planteamientos.…  Seguir leyendo »

En los albores del Estado constitucional, uno de los autores de 'El Federalista' escribía atinados juicios sobre el poder judicial. Hamilton consideraba que los jueces, a pesar de que eran los más débiles de los tres poderes, debían mantener al cuerpo legislativo en los límites asignados a su autoridad. La independencia judicial sería la técnica indispensable para proteger la Constitución y los derechos individuales.

Esta alta estima que el jurista estadounidense expresaba hacia el poder judicial no ha conseguido convertirse en un virus que contagie a nuestros responsables políticos. Antes bien, se ha desencadenado una tensión institucional entre el Gobierno vasco y el poder judicial que ha alcanzado una intensidad insoportable.…  Seguir leyendo »

I have a question for Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and Police Chief Melvin C. High.

It concerns my youngest son, who is 21. He was walking to his car at Bowie Town Center after working a shift at one of the stores there Sunday night when a police officer met him at his car and asked if he had seen anything "suspicious." Bryan said no. The officer asked where he was coming from. Bryan told him. The officer asked for his license and registration. Bryan gave them to him.

After 20 minutes my son was allowed to drive away.…  Seguir leyendo »

"Give the elections back to the people, bastards!" These words were emblazoned on a bright yellow banner more than 30 feet long that hung over the Moscow River facing the Kremlin. A couple of young activists positioned themselves in the ropework holding up the banner for about 30 minutes, until they were taken off and delivered to a police station.

Such extravagant political performances may be typical at, say, a Greenpeace protest but not over something that has in fact become increasingly common: a government encroachment on voting rights.

Russia is undergoing yet another round of election-rule tightening -- as usual, a product of the country's rubber-stamp legislature.…  Seguir leyendo »

The media are building up the forthcoming report of the Iraq Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Democratic Congressman, Lee Hamilton, as the solution to America's problems in Iraq. Sadly, the report is unlikely to offer anything other than the same discredited policies that for 60 years created a dangerous illusion of stability in the Middle East, a "stability" bought with the blood of Middle Easterners and that produced such horrors as the massive 1991 bloodletting of Iraqis who sought to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

The Iraq Study Group looks balanced, just as for many years the Middle East looked "stable."…  Seguir leyendo »

Scottish independence is now an even more popular cause in England than it is in Scotland, according to the opinion polls. It seems that many Sassenachs do not see why there should be so many Scots running England when they have an expensive Parliament of their own.

This is bad news for Gordon Brown. Certainly, he must hope not to fall victim to the same xenophobic ridicule dished out to Britain’s first Scottish Prime Minister, James Stuart, Earl of Bute.

As Samuel Johnson so frequently deplored, mid-18th-century London was full of Scots on the make, grasping the opportunities proffered them by the 1707 Act of Union.…  Seguir leyendo »

Although I had been keeping my intentions secret from all but my closest inner circle, a small item in The Times on Thursday has forced my hand and I feel compelled to make a declaration. At this stage, however, I am prepared only to announce that I am no longer ruling myself out of the race for the dictatorship of North Korea.

You may be surprised, to hear that the Kim Jong Il is standing down. But you will just have to trust my journalistic intuition. All I know is that Kim has not set a date for when he will go, and that he won’t be fighting the next election.…  Seguir leyendo »

There is, in a world of uncertainties, at least one comforting and incontrovertible truth. There’s one law for all. isn’t there? Well, no there isn’t. In this country some minority and religious groups have their own courts dispensing justice in commercial cases, neighbour disputes and divorce.

This week there has been a furious debate about whether these courts complement the national law or threaten it. The debate has been stoked by the revelation that in southeast London there is an unofficial Somali court that deals with criminal matters.

Previously, tribunals such as the Jewish Beth Din have worked as courts of arbitration in civil matters.…  Seguir leyendo »

The first thing to say about the replacement for our existing Trident defence system is that Tony Blair’s claim that it has to be decided this winter, before he goes, is ludicrous. You know that. The defence White Paper, which he will unveil on Monday, is all about cutting a dash as he departs and sucking up to an arms industry at present in a state of hyperventilation.

The second thing to say is that the price tag he will quote at the dispatch box will be purely notional: plucked from the air and doomed to prove a grotesque underestimate. You know that, too.…  Seguir leyendo »

In October, Iran began operating a second group of 164 uranium enrichment centrifuges, violating a legally binding demand by the United Nations Security Council that Iran suspend such activities until the international community is confident that the country’s nuclear program “is for exclusively peaceful purposes.” Iran’s response was that a suspension would abrogate its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — even though under international law, it has temporarily surrendered these rights by violating the obligations that condition them.

Beneath the legalese, Iran is moving as fast as it can to master uranium enrichment, while threatening its neighbors and refusing to provide transparency that the International Atomic Energy Agency requires.…  Seguir leyendo »

Today, as in the past, Turkey embodies transcendent political questions. Can west and east live in harmony? How can secular and religious values best coexist? Are minorities and human rights properly respected? This week Pope Benedict trod a more exemplary path through these difficult issues than some had expected. Now the European Union must do the same if it is to avoid becoming a protectionist irrelevance and, perhaps, if it is to survive at all.

In spite of all its problems, the mutual embrace between the west and Turkey is a great project of civilisation and law. Yet events are pushing both sides towards an epochal confrontation at this month's EU summit.…  Seguir leyendo »

After a century in which cities were treated as problems - dirty, crowded, dangerous - the 1997 general election marked a turning point with a new government that saw cities as the only sustainable solution to the growing demand for housing.There has been a measurable cultural shift - to an understanding that we need to use land better, and plan better, to sustain our cities. If you visit Manchester today, you can see tangible evidence of that change in the centre. Over 15 years the population has soared from 90 to 25,000, bringing life and pride back to one of our great urban centres.…  Seguir leyendo »

News that Canada is to stage a reality TV show in which former Canadian prime ministers grill contestants on their leadership qualities before choosing a winner is, strictly speaking, not news at all. The Next Great Prime Minister is actually on its second outing, and the fact that the international news media have only just noticed it suggests that the wider world is even less engaged with the country's politics than are Canadians in the hallowed 18-35 age range, to whom the format is presumably designed to appeal.

Allowing former PMs Brian Mulroney, John Turner, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell to pick a notional future prime minister is probably no worse an idea than allowing Margaret Thatcher, Iain Duncan Smith and selected members of the old gang to pick a notional Tory leader.…  Seguir leyendo »