Diciembre de 2007 (Continuación)

El asesinato de Benazir Bhutto ha desestabilizado Pakistán hasta el confín del caos, hasta el punto de que la tensión desborda el escenario de la nación surgida de la partición india, trasmite precariedad a todo su marco geopolítico y arriesga el improbable orden mundial que venía realquilando el vacío posterior a la guerra fría. Un sistema mundial más o menos estable habitualmente no deja de convivir con la existencia de focos de caos y anarquía pero la magnitud de la circunstancia pakistaní tras el atentado contra Benazir Bhutto es algo más, de un potencial capaz de alterar factores y resultados de orden global.…  Seguir leyendo »

Tal día como ayer, y desde hacía muchos años, celebrábamos el día de los Inocentes. Lo hacíamos de un modo que hoy, aunque suene a pedante, no queda más remedio que denominar paradojal.Porque es posible incluso que fuera la primera paradoja con la que nos enfrentábamos en la vida. Resultaba que los inocentes no eran aquellos recién nacidos que, según contaba la leyenda evangélica, el implacable Herodes había decidido exterminar. Por esos azares de la tradición, el día de los Inocentes había sufrido una transformación tal que según la costumbre, esa estúpida señora que no atiende a razones, durante la jornada del 28 de diciembre eran posibles todas las crueldades imaginables hacia los denominados inocentes.…  Seguir leyendo »

El acto convocado por el cardenal Rouco 'Por la familia cristiana' para mañana domingo es una buena ocasión para reflexionar en voz alta sobre la familia en nuestra sociedad, la identidad de la perspectiva cristiana sobre la familia y el modo de proponerla.

La familia está sujeta a un profundo proceso de cambio en los países occidentales. Estamos en un periodo de transición hacia un nuevo modelo de convivencia que busca una mejor adaptación a las exigencias tanto de autonomía personal de los individuos en el seno de la familia como de democratización de las relaciones sociales en la vida privada (Picó).…  Seguir leyendo »

'Es lo de menos'. Unas palabras muy repetidas en Euskadi, especialmente cuando se trata de asuntos relacionados con la política y que provocan sentimientos encontrados. La sociedad vasca parece la sociedad del descuento permanente. Todo importa menos de lo que parece. La sangre nunca va a llegar al río -aunque lleve llegando al río que son nuestras calles desde hace muchos años-. Nada es lo que parece ser. No hay que dar tanta importancia a los retos, a las promesas, a los proyectos. Parece que la superviviencia de la sociedad pasa por restar importancia a lo que va a pasar: ¿No va a ser para tanto, qué importan las palabras, no nos enzarcemos en discusiones bizantinas sobre nombres!…  Seguir leyendo »

La desaparición del terror al holocausto nuclear de la guerra fría ha cedido el paso a una enorme colección de miedos ante los posibles apocalipsis de la globalización. Tsunamis, desastres tecnológicos mundiales, terrorismo a gran escala, desplomes bursátiles, desórdenes sociales. Es lo que Zygmunt Bauman denomina "miedo líquido". Las enfermedades ocupan un lugar destacado entre los horrores sin fronteras: zoonosis o epidemias traídas por especies animales ajenas a nuestro ecosistema o por los más de 2.000 millones de viajeros que se mueven diariamente por todo el mundo; o alguna de las cuarenta nuevas afecciones que se han descubierto en los últimos quince años, sin posible tratamiento o vacuna.…  Seguir leyendo »

As the year draws to a close, it's important to note that the U.S. debate on Iran is stalled, trapped between "regime changers" vs. "arms controllers," "hawks" vs. "doves," and "idealists" vs. "realists." The National Intelligence Estimate released this month offers an opportunity to escape this straitjacketed debate by embracing a new strategy that would pursue both the short-term goal of arms control and the long-term goal of democracy in Iran.

The NIE's "key judgment" that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program has thrust the arms controllers onto center stage. Because the nuclear threat is no longer immediate, the arms controllers insist that the time is ripe for the United States to engage in direct diplomacy with Tehran as a way to change the regime's behavior, but not the regime itself -- specifically, to persuade the mullahs to suspend their nuclear enrichment program.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rarely in situations of such volatility as Pakistan faces today is the objective so clear. Pakistan needs stability. The greatest threat to the country derives from internal terrorism, lawlessness and fractured regional politics.

Can national stability best be secured through a strongman government of the kind offered by President Pervez Musharraf? Or is stability best guaranteed through a democratic election that restores civilian rule committed to cracking down on extremist violence, building the rule of law and delivering services to the people? Benazir Bhutto promoted the second option. Tragically, she died doing so.

The former prime minister's assassination is being called a victory for the forces of extremism and a heavy setback for the cause of democracy.…  Seguir leyendo »

Like a large rock dropped from a great height into a murky pond, Benazir Bhutto's murder has sent shockwaves rippling outwards from Pakistan across the region and the wider international community.

The full impact of this political tsunami may take months to assess. But decisions made in the next few days will be crucial in preventing an immediate, nationwide descent into chaos. As so often in the past, all eyes are on Pervez Musharraf.

The assassination is widely seen as having further weakened Pakistan's embattled president. Some of Bhutto's aides accuse him of complicity in her death or, at the very least, failing to ensure adequate security.…  Seguir leyendo »

Villavicencio, una ciudad de más de 300.000 habitantes, que ocupa los terrenos de lo que fue una floreciente misión de los jesuitas en el siglo XVIII --la hacienda Apiay--, capital del departamento del Meta, ha sido hoy protagonista geográfico de la operación Transparencia, denominada así por los servicios de inteligencia cubanos y el Gobierno venezolano.

No es la primera vez, no obstante, que adquiere protagonismo. El departamento, segundo en extensión de Colombia --86.000 kilómetros cuadrados-- está formado en un 80% por terrenos llanos y ondulados, surcados por ríos tributarios del Orinoco. Es la llamada Orinoquia colombiana. Pero el resto de su territorio está cubierto por las últimas estribaciones de la cordillera Oriental, uno de los tres espinazos andinos que conforman buena parte de Colombia, rasgándola de norte a sur, y por una sierra desgajada de ella, La Macarena, un bellísimo parque nacional rico en fauna, flora y geología.…  Seguir leyendo »

Who killed Benazir Bhutto? Despite formal admission of responsibility by al-Qaeda, we may never know for sure. In one recent conversation she told me that she had “solemn warnings” from a dozen groups who saw her as the main obstacle to their dream of transforming Pakistan into an “Islamic state”, whatever that means.

I first met Benazir in 1971 when I was a house guest of her father, the Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in their home town of Larkana, Sind. From the deference Bhutto showed his daughter, it was clear that Benazir, then barely 16, was meant to carry the mantle of the political dynasty that he hoped to start.…  Seguir leyendo »

"Look!” says the angel, “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. So shall it be!”

The Book of Revelation is the ultimate I-told-you-so. There is no mistaking the scale of the horrors to come, or the foreboding with which they are prophesied. But no mistaking, either, the relish. Wow! Here comes the mother of all disaster movies.

The reason for the relish is partly obvious: humans find accidents fascinating: the bigger the spill, the bigger the thrill. Something else, however, lends to the Apocalypse a spice absent from even the most cosmic of motorway pile-ups: a sense of justice.…  Seguir leyendo »

Benazir Bhutto's assassination leaves slim possibilities for a democratic transition that now matters more than ever to the United States. Bhutto and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) illustrate what's best and worst about Pakistani politics. The party and the drive for democratic politics are remarkably resilient. The PPP boasts a nationwide following, with a dedicated core in Sindh and southern Punjab. But the tragedy of Pakistan is that the PPP and other major parties are family fiefdoms, built on personal loyalty, with no record of developing new leaders or permitting opposition within the ranks. This structure strengthens the tendency to view political office as a possession.…  Seguir leyendo »

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has left a huge political vacuum at the heart of this nuclear-armed state, which appears to be slipping into an abyss of violence and Islamic extremism. The question of what happens next is almost impossible to answer, especially at a moment when Bhutto herself seemed to be the only answer.

Pakistanis are in shock. Many are numb, and others are filled with unimaginable grief. Thousands have taken to the streets, burning vehicles and attacking police stations in an explosion of violence against the government. Bhutto's death yesterday will almost certainly lead to the cancellation of the Jan.…  Seguir leyendo »

Try to imagine a young Pakistani woman bounding into the newsroom of the Harvard Crimson in the early 1970s and banging out stories about college sports teams with the passion of a cub reporter. That was the first glimpse some of us had of Benazir Bhutto. We had no idea she was Pakistani political royalty. She was too busy jumping into her future to make a show of her past.

I saw this effervescent woman many times over subsequent years, and I never lost the sense of her as an impetuous person embracing what was new -- for herself and for her nation.…  Seguir leyendo »

This month may have been the most important yet in the two-decade history of the fight against global warming. Al Gore got his Nobel in Stockholm; international negotiators made real progress on a treaty in Bali; and in Washington, Congress actually worked up the nerve to raise gas mileage standards for cars.

But what may turn out to be the most crucial development went largely unnoticed. It happened at an academic conclave in San Francisco. A NASA scientist named James Hansen offered a simple, straightforward and mind-blowing bottom line for the planet: 350, as in parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.…  Seguir leyendo »

Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto's behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country's supreme court for attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law?…  Seguir leyendo »

The centre cannot hold, and that's the good news in the United States these days. Quietly, doggedly, cities, regions, counties and states have refused to march to the Bush administration's drum when it comes to climate change, the environment and the war. Some of the recent changes are so sweeping that they will probably drag the nation along with them - notably efforts by Vermont, Massachusetts and California to set higher vehicle emissions standards and generally treat climate change as an environmental problem that can be addressed by regulation. The Bush administration has notoriously dragged its feet on doing anything about climate change, and it will now be dragged along by the states, themselves prodded forward by citizens.…  Seguir leyendo »

The efforts made by the global community to help the continent of Africa to manage its way out of its difficulties have doubled and redoubled over the past 20 years.

The world has certainly not forgotten Africa. In the field of health alone, numerous bodies from the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to the various United Nations agencies have committed many billions to Africa — so much so that the continent sometimes seems awash with well-heeled concern. Perhaps all this money and compassion have emerged so dramatically because of the unexpected horror of HIV-Aids, on top of all the traditional diseases.…  Seguir leyendo »

Assassination may be the most extreme form of censorship, but it is not necessaily the most effective. Political murder changes history, but it seldom changes minds.

America would not be the same place today if John F. Kennedy had lived. The murders of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin are central to any understanding of the course of modern Middle Eastern history. The world would be quite different if Reagan had been shot and killed, or Lincoln had not.

Yet it is undoubtedly true that political assassination rarely achieves the goal the assassin hopes for, and sometimes produces effects that are the reverse of those intended.…  Seguir leyendo »

Tema: El informe anual que publicó el pasado mes de noviembre la Agencia Internacional de la Energía y, sobre todo, algunos de los argumentos que ciertos países desarrollados emplearon durante la reciente Cumbre de Bali sobre el cambio climático han pretendido censurar, de manera más o menos explícita, a los dos grandes países emergentes asiáticos.

Resumen: Tanto en el informe de la AIE como en algunos argumentos esgrimidos durante la Cumbre de Bali, las dos grandes economías emergentes asiáticas (China e India) han sido prácticamente acusadas de ser co-responsables de los graves problemas energéticos y medioambientales del planeta. Esas acusaciones carecen de fundamento.…  Seguir leyendo »