Martes, 15 de julio de 2008

Casi todos los que participan en el actual debate sobre el idioma español -tanto los que apoyan el Manifiesto como sus críticos-, no parecen darse cuenta del hecho de que el papel social de esta lengua es un asunto que concierne no sólo a España, sino también de manera urgente al resto del mundo. Recordemos que este 2008 ha sido declarado por la Unesco Año Internacional de las Lenguas. Y según un informe de esta organización, 10 lenguas mueren cada año, y de las 6.000 que se hablan en el planeta, la mitad está ahora amenazada.

En todo el mundo, la preocupación radica en la situación de las lenguas minoritarias.…  Seguir leyendo »

Las relaciones con Marruecos son las mejores que han existido en la historia de España", se jactaba, a principios de mes, el diputado socialista Salvador de la Encina, encargado de poner orden en el convulso PSOE de Ceuta. La frase es un leitmotiv de los socialistas españoles. Y, sin embargo, la viabilidad económica de la ciudad donde nació este diputado está amenazada a corto plazo por la paulatina apertura comercial de Marruecos, que acabará dando al traste con el contrabando.

Este desafío es uno de los múltiples asuntos pendientes entre vecinos, pero no figuró en la agenda de la conversación con Mohamed VI, el viernes, en Oujda.…  Seguir leyendo »

El talento humano no tiene límites. El teléfono móvil, por ejemplo, es ya un artilugio fabuloso que hace fotos, películas, conecta con Internet, la radio y la televisión, ofrece música, juegos y viajes, una oficina completa, mapas e información sobre cualquier cosa, calculadora científica, traductor de idiomas, además de una serie de aplicaciones que van desde componer música hasta detectar enfermedades... Todo cabe en un diminuto rectángulo (11,55 cm - 6,21 cm - 1,23 cm) de pantalla táctil, comandada a dedo, que pesa 110 gramos. Este "teléfono móvil del siglo XXI" I-phone llega ahora a España de la mano de seis "marcas" -¿cómo llamar a conglomerados como el que dirige Steve Jobs?-.…  Seguir leyendo »

Una estudiante de Periodismo me pregunta por los personajes nuevos de América Latina, y me habla de Hugo Chávez, del presidente ecuatoriano Correa, de Evo Morales y Cristina Kirchner. Y yo me pregunto si los personajes nombrados, y los fenómenos políticos que representan, son tan nuevos como parecen a primera vista. Veo a Chávez como un rebrote tardío, menos completo, más primario, con niveles mucho menores de dominio total de la sociedad, del viejo castrismo. Y no creo que los controles de precios para combatir la inflación, los intentos de amordazar a la prensa, las intervenciones de diverso orden de los aparatos estatales, que pueden llegar al extremo de las medidas confiscatorias, tengan nada de nuevo.…  Seguir leyendo »

Hace ahora un año que una conmoción en el mercado financiero mostró que el bramido del oso bajista liquidaba el impulso del toro alcista en la economía mundial, de la que no podía escapar España. Estos días, además, se cierra el primer semestre de 2008. Hora es, pues, de hacer balance. Pues bien, la situación de la economía española mostraba, al cierre del primer semestre de 2008, una clara contestación a ese titular irónico de The Economist de 5 de julio de 2008, «Crisis? What crisis?». ¿Qué crisis?: pues sencillamente un auténtico desplome de nuestra economía.

En otra parte de ese mismo ejemplar de The Economist vemos los siguientes datos muy preocupantes que evidencian tal realidad.…  Seguir leyendo »

There is war in the air between Georgia and Russia. Such a war could destabilize a region critical for Western energy supplies and ruin relations between Russia and the West. A conflict over Georgia could become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. How they respond could become a test of the potential commander-in-chief qualities of Barack Obama and John McCain.

The issue appears to be the future of Abkhazia, a breakaway province of Georgia and the focus of a so-called frozen conflict. The real issue, however, is Moscow's desire to subjugate Tbilisi and thwart its aspirations to go west. For several years, Russian policy toward countries on its borders has been hardening.…  Seguir leyendo »

The chief stewards of U.S. financial market policies seem to be living out an old-time movie serial. Over the past year, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have moved from crisis to crisis, improvising as they go. The distressed damsels they saved over the weekend were the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Part of creative policymaking, as in moviemaking, is obscuring the moving parts. But it's clear even now that over the weekend the government safety net was significantly expanded, the lines between the public and private sector were further blurred, and the odds were raised that such government rescues will be needed in the future.…  Seguir leyendo »

China's announcement on Saturday that negotiators have agreed on a blueprint for verifying North Korea’s nuclear disarmament is being seen as the latest in a string of hopeful signs. For a while, the drumbeat in Washington has been that the so-called six-party talks are going well and the North Korean nuclear program is well on its way to being contained. If only that were true.

In fact, the Kim Jong-il regime is getting exactly what it wants and using American hunger for diplomatic success to split us from our most important regional allies in the process. If this were high-stakes poker, the North Koreans would be biting their lips to hide their smiles at the cards in their hands.…  Seguir leyendo »

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has made the tough decision to seek an arrest warrant for a leader of a country at war — Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. He is to be charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the last five years of war in Darfur.

One has to go back to the cases against Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia in 1999 and Charles Taylor of Liberia in 2003 to find the last time that international prosecutors charged a sitting head of state. Then, as now, they were criticized for failing to take “politics” into account.…  Seguir leyendo »

The emerging law of privacy has perhaps already taken over from defamation as the weapon of choice when well-known individuals or business personalities battle it out at the high court to prevent (or punish) the publication of objectionable media stories. When the Max Mosley case concludes, a new chapter could have opened in that saga: a big award of damages could pave the way for celebrities to fight even more effectively in defence of their reputations and private lives against the might of press freedom and the financial clout of the red-top media.

Clearly, the stakes are high for both sides.…  Seguir leyendo »

Serbia seems suddenly to have become what Americans call a "normal country". After more than 15 years spent fighting itself, its neighbours and much of Europe, a democratically-elected, pro-western government came to power in Belgrade last week, pledged to the non-violent resolution of disputes.

This development deserves more attention than it has so far received. The death throes of Yugoslavia, the rise of Slobodan Milosevic, the Bosnian conflict, horrendous war crimes, and the battle for Kosovo profoundly changed Europe's view of itself. These dread events accelerated EU enlargement and foreshadowed a bigger, impending collision of Christian and Muslim worlds.

Serbian governments have come and gone with confusing rapidity since Milosevic fell, often against a backdrop of gangsterism and assassination.…  Seguir leyendo »

The obvious response to Soumaya Ghannoushi's piece, Saying Islamic threat over and over doesn't make it real is: "No Soumaya, what makes it real is the thousands of people who lie dead and mutilated as the result of militants acting in the name of Allah." The Islamic threat was clearly very real for them and their grieving relatives. As such, the article hardly merits a response.

But there is much in the piece that I agree with. It is absurdly hyperbolic to say that "the much hyped Islamic threat is one of the greatest lies of our time". But as a military threat, or a threat to the existence of western civilisation it has been vastly overstated.…  Seguir leyendo »