Lunes, 25 de diciembre de 2006

A decisive moment in world history is at hand. If the United States, Britain and their allies fail in Iraq the result will almost certainly be a regional maelstrom. If the coalition succeeds, then the West will regain the initiative against radical Islam in Iran and throughout the Muslim world.

The current trajectory in Iraq is poor: rising sectarian violence threatens to rend Iraqi society and destroy America’s will to continue the struggle.

The choices are bleak: nobody has yet developed a convincing plan to resolve this conflict through diplomacy, politics or any other form of soft power. Hopes for success now rest on the coalition’s willingness to adopt a strategy of bringing security to the Iraqi population and confronting the sectarian violence directly as the prerequisite for subsequent political, economic and social development.…  Seguir leyendo »

This year began with a European energy crisis caused by Russia's cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine, where a democratic government not to the liking of Vladimir Putin had taken power. Because Russian gas passes through Ukraine on its way to Western Europe, the pressure also dropped in Paris and Vienna and Rome -- and Europeans suddenly realized they were dependent for electricity and warmth on an autocracy that was prepared to use energy as a tool of imperialism.

It looks like the year will end the same way. Georgia and Azerbaijan, two other Russian neighbors that have chosen not to kowtow to Putin, are scrambling to find gas supplies by Jan.…  Seguir leyendo »

"African Americans read their own collective experience into the agony and exaltation of Jesus. The story of the Christ child, blessed by God yet born in the shadow of poverty and violence, was their story. Jesus' humble birth in antiquity signified the humble origins of African peoples in modernity. In his impoverished entry into the world, Jesus turned the tables on earthly valuations. Fulfilling the promise of the oracle that celebrates his advent in a stable, the hills of the privileged and the valleys of the humble are inverted, marking the beginning of a new era.''

-- Allen Dwight Callahan, The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible"

Great traditions are subversive.…  Seguir leyendo »

Christmas is the season when you are most likely to find yourself on a street of beautiful homes with twinkling lights, warm fireplaces and happy families outfitted in festive holiday sweaters, only to be filled with a yearning to possess not just the house but the lifestyle inside.

For my whole Indian American childhood in the early 1980s, I wanted a Christmas tree that way. And it wasn't for the presents. It was for the lifestyle.

I wanted the Santa Claus, I wanted the holly wreath and I wanted the jolly elves who toiled in a workshop all year long. I wanted the sleigh bell-wearing reindeer on my roof.…  Seguir leyendo »

Amid all the useless bloodshed of the Crusades, there is one story that suggests an extended clash of civilizations between Islam and the West was not preordained. It concerns the early 13th-century friar Francis of Assisi, who joined the Fifth Crusade not as a warrior but as a peacemaker.

Francis was no good at organization or strategy and he knew it. He accepted the men and women who presented themselves as followers, befriended them and shared the Gospel with them. But he gave them little else. He expected them to live like him: rejecting distinctions of class, forgoing honors of church or king or commune, taking the words of Jesus literally, owning nothing, suffering for God’s sake, befriending every outcast — leper, heretic, highwayman — thrust in their path.…  Seguir leyendo »

Vista a distancia, la impresionante ascensión política de Ségolène Royal, candidata oficial del Partido Socialista a las futuras elecciones presidenciales, constituye un fenómeno sorprendente. ¿Qué significa el éxito de quien hace un año ni siquiera alcanzaba la categoría de outsider?¿Qué puede enseñarnos sobre la salud política de los franceses y sobre el estado de su sociedad? ¿Qué lección pueden extraer quienes se interrogan, de un modo más general, sobre la evolución de los sistemas políticos en el mundo y, hablando con mayor precisión, sobre la capacidad de las fuerzas de izquierda de transformarse para adaptarse a los cambios contemporáneos?

La primera baza de Ségolène Royal fue su victoria en las elecciones regionales del 2004 cuando ganó en Poitou-Charentes contribuyendo así, junto con los demás vencedores socialistas (el partido socialista ganó entonces en 20 de 21 regiones), a olvidar el desastre de la izquierda en el 2002.…  Seguir leyendo »

Es imposible no ver el urbanicidio español. Son miles y miles de edificios, muchos de ellos enormes, muchos de ellos desproporcionados en sus formas y dimensiones con respecto al entorno, levantados ante de los ojos de todo el mundo y a la luz del día entre grúas indisimulables, vallas manifiestas y carteles anunciadores completamente explícitos. Ocupan espacios que hace 10, 15 o 20 años eran o no edificables o edificables con muchísimas limitaciones. Es imposible no verlos porque están en todas partes y, frecuentemente, en las mejores ubicaciones. Muchos, en las ciudades; todavía más en sus entornos, y, como caídos en aluvión o traídos por un tsunami, en el litoral potencialmente turístico y en rincones de montaña en los que siempre había prevalecido la pretensión de un crecimiento equilibrado.…  Seguir leyendo »