Viernes, 3 de agosto de 2007

MundoAmérica

Regresaba de Bolivia. El billete aéreo expresaba que el vuelo era el lunes a las 23.30 horas. Al llamar para reconfirmarlo (práctica necesaria en Sudamérica), la compañía me indica que ese día no hay ningún avión hacia Madrid, sino que el vuelo sale la víspera, a las 22.10. Personado tres horas antes en el aeropuerto, me informan de que se retrasa hasta el día siguiente, a las 13.00 horas. Tras pernoctar en un hotel, me dicen que se demora cinco horas más. Finalmente, una vez confirmado el vuelo, hay que sumar tres horas adicionales de retraso y espera en el aeropuerto.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Glad tidings from Baghdad at last. The Iraqi parliament has gone into summer recess without passing the oil law that Washington was pressing it to adopt. For the Bush administration this is irritating, since passage of the law was billed as a "benchmark" in its battle to get Congress not to set a timetable for US troop withdrawals. The political hoops through which the government of Nouri al-Maliki has been asked to jump were meant to be a companion piece to the US "surge". Just as General David Petraeus, the current US commander, is due to give his report on military progress next month, George Bush is supposed to tell Congress in mid-September how the Maliki government is moving forward on reform.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

The men’s 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Japan this month will be won by a black athlete. This is not so much a prediction as a statement of fact. Every winner of the 100m at the championships since the inaugural event in 1983 has been black, as has every finalist from the last eight championships. No white athlete has reached the final of the Olympic Games for more than a quarter of a century. Of the 53 athletes to have ducked under ten seconds, all are black.

There is a natural conclusion to be drawn from all this: blacks have an inbuilt superiority over whites when it comes to sprinting.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaJusticia

El señor juez de instrucción del Juzgado número 40 de los de Madrid es un personaje siniestro, se comporta como el niño bonito de la judicatura y sus actos menoscaban el prestigio de la democracia, pero no demuestra padecer vergüenza alguna por ello. Estoy seguro de que el magistrado no se sentirá ofendido por estas expresiones, proferidas no con ánimo de injuriarle ni de calumniarle, pues al fin y al cabo ni siquiera se refieren de forma específica a él, y desde luego mucho menos a su persona, sino a una peculiar manera de ver las cosas por parte del sector de la judicatura en el que se incluye.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Angka. Duch. Monosyllables that, 30 years on, Cambodians can barely be induced to utter, even within the family, so unbearable is the pain, the abiding fear, and also the eerily generalised guilt those words invoke.

Angka, “the collective”: the murderous Khmer Rouge forbade people to attach names or faces to the regime that was bent on crushing all traces of identity out of them.

Duch, the Year Zero sobriquet of Kaing Khek Ieu: now a born-again Christian, but between 1975 and 1979 the Angka’s methodical torture master. This week, a full decade after it was agreed that Khmer Rouge leaders should face trial, he became the first of Pol Pot’s henchmen to be indicted for crimes against humanity.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa,

Vladimir Putin's belligerent rhetoric and actions toward the United States and its allies have begun prompting pundits to debate whether a new Cold War is afoot. But how has the Russian president's message played to his home audience? A survey we commissioned by the Levada Analytic Center of 1,802 Russians ages 16 to 29 offers some insight. We focused on this "Putin generation" because it is Russia's political and economic future. In the days after the Soviet collapse, it seemed reasonable to hope, even expect, that this generation, as the collective beneficiaries of a putative post-Soviet transition to economic prosperity and political freedom, would embrace the United States as a friend of Russia.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

According to anti-smoking groups, the current Congressional attempt to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco is the most important piece of legislation since the surgeon general spoke out on the dangers of smoking 40 years ago. Surprisingly, it is not just the foes of Big Tobacco that support the proposed law, which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday.

Philip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company, is also firmly behind the bill. In fact, it played a pivotal role in writing the legislation, working with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. What these strange bedfellows came up with is bad for competition in the tobacco industry and bad for public health.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

Tantas cosas provienen del resentimiento que la generosidad intelectual ya se considera como parte de una patología. Las cosas bien hechas -la obra de arte, la acción, el destino- merecen tan solo el desprestigio y la displicencia. En sus lecciones en el Colegio de Francia sobre la intelectualidad europea, el sociólogo alemán Wolf Lepenies indica que el hombre es el ser que crea orden y lo destruye al mismo tiempo, una producción y destrucción de orden que no se circunscribe a su propia especie sino que se universaliza y abarca la Tierra entera. Por eso la utopía y la melancolía son dos polos de atracción, empeñados en el orden, decididos a rehuirle: por eso -dice Lepenies- el intelectual se queja del mundo, y así surge el pensamiento utópico o, al negarlo, la melancolía se presenta.…  Seguir leyendo »