Martes, 7 de agosto de 2007

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

Juegos de vídeo en los que uno experimenta con extrema sensación de realidad lo que es estar al volante de un coche de carreras, o llevar a cabo una persecución policial, o un ataque militar; reuniones de negocios a través de conexiones vía satélite; conversaciones con vídeo directo por internet o simplemente mediante el móvil... La sensación es tan perfecta, tan completa, que es prácticamente -virtually es el término preferido en inglés- como la vida real.

La realidad virtual -que es como decir lo virtualmente real, lo casi real- es, de hecho, una realidad vicaria. Se experimentan a través de la voz o la imagen las mismas sensaciones que si uno estuviera en un acontecimiento concreto, sin estarlo ni real ni físicamente.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

It is appalling, if unsurprising, to read the neoconservative cheerleader Oliver Kamm arguing in these pages that the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki 62 years ago saved lives and ended suffering. The subtext is plain. The same camp whose vocal endorsement led to the present catastrophe in Iraq are now hawkishly gazing at Iran. The same absurd and dangerous logic that defends the nuclear atrocities of 1945 can now be used to support the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons against Iran - the threat of which in turn makes the idea of a conventional attack appear more palatable. Now, more than ever, we should be unequivocal in our moral position: as Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said, the mere possession of nuclear weapons today should be viewed with the same condemnation and horror as we have regarded slavery and genocide in our modern civilized world.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

David Clark makes some very harsh and biased judgments on Sudan (Khartoum is no friend of this fresh resolve on Darfur, August 2). He describes the Sudanese government as "a recalcitrant, criminal enterprise that will only yield when it is given no other choice". He does not like the new UN resolution, which Sudan has accepted without reservations, because it contains the words "determination to work with the government of Sudan, in full respect of its sovereignty". He also calls for the imposition of a no-fly zone.

Far from being recalcitrant, the Sudanese government signed the comprehensive peace agreement with the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Authority in 2005, demonstrating real maturity in readiness to share power and wealth.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaConvención y Tratados

The working text for the EU treaty was published in English for the first time at the end of July. We can now see more clearly than ever that this new treaty is essentially the old EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters just two years ago, but brought back under another name.

Or rather it is clear only when the deep legal obscurity of the text has been penetrated. That obscurity is deliberate. As Giuliano Amato, the former Italian Prime Minister and vice-president of the body that drafted the original constitution said, the treaty’s draughtsmen “decided that the document should be unreadable.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

In late February 2006, al-Qaeda destroyed the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra. During the previous two months that my cavalry squadron had been operating in Iraq, my main focus was the technical training of the Iraqi national police and combined operations with them against Sunni insurgents in west Baghdad. Before Samarra, it did not seem important which areas of Baghdad were Shiite or Sunni or that the police battalions I operated alongside were almost completely Shiite. Before Samarra, I assumed that Iraqi citizens saw the national police as the security arm of the elected, and thus legitimate, government and that the officers had the people's support against insurgents.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

Several times a month, a woman calls my office in the middle of the night and leaves long voice-mail messages about how she's the target of a vast, sinister conspiracy. I won't give her name -- obviously, she suffers from a mental illness. The conspiracy she perceives involves the U.S. military, the CIA, interference with her brain waves and constant monitoring by the evil people who, for whatever reason, have decided that her thoughts somehow threaten their nefarious plans. Sometimes she disguises her voice and pretends to be a lieutenant in the heroic resistance against mind control.

She always seems upbeat and energized, and I think I understand why: This must be a great time to be a paranoid.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Iraq's politics, as opposed to Iraq's grim daily ground-floor reality, increasingly resembles a game of illusions which those involved conspire to maintain or prolong. It is an Alice in Wonderland world - except there are no white rabbits disappearing down holes, let alone being pulled from hats.

In Washington, or at least in the White House, the official illusion, stoutly maintained, is that things are moving (if not surging) forward, that a process of achieving stability and benchmarks is in place, and that a military progress report - nothing more dramatic or cathartic - will be delivered to Congress next month.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaCultura y Ciencia, ,

La construcción de la Unión Europea, el objetivo que formularan hace 50 años algunos políticos de amplia visión y capacidad de liderazgo, no siempre se materializa en iniciativas eficaces. Desde la Declaración de Bolonia de 1999, se plantea un proceso de adaptación del sistema universitario de todos los estados miembros de la UE, con el objetivo de crear un Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). Entre las muchas cuestiones que cabe abordar sobre el tema está cuál debe ser el alcance de esa armonización de los estudios universitarios, que se plantea en los países que integramos la Unión. Igualmente importa valorar la forma en se implanta el EEES en España.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaCultura y Ciencia,

El presidente del Gobierno, en el Congreso de las Juventudes Socialistas, ha contestado con contundencia a la posición de los obispos y de la jerarquía católica española contra la asignatura Educación para la Ciudadanía. Ha dicho que no se puede contraponer la fe a la ley en una sociedad democrática como la nuestra. Menos se pueden oponer las ideologías temporales sustentadas por esas jerarquías que asumen una cultura tradicional antimoderna y clerical que se opone a muchas conclusiones legales del Estado democrático, y que pretenden vender como la verdad que nos hace libres.

Ahora toca Educación para la Ciudadanía, antes fue el divorcio, el aborto, la enseñanza de la religión, el matrimonio entre homosexuales, la Ley de Educación e incluso dimensiones de la financiación que les parecen insuficientes.…  Seguir leyendo »