Sábado, 23 de abril de 2011

It should come as little surprise, but U.S. headlines are again dominated by dour news out of Pakistan. The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is today under severe strain, rattled by heated disputes over CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas; clandestine U.S. intelligence operations inside Pakistan; and Islamabad's persistent refusal to crack down on the Taliban and their radical allies. Intelligence cooperation is at an all-time low.

This latest series of rifts may indeed prove more damaging and permanent than previous disruptions, but they fit all too neatly in the general narrative of U.S.-Pakistan relations. One day Islamabad is touted as an indispensable ally; the next it is a back-stabbing fountain of Islamist militancy.…  Seguir leyendo »

While President Obama battles Republicans in Congress over federal budgets, spiraling debt and out-of-control spending, another out-of-control phenomena - namely piracy, continues to wreak havoc on the world economy with an estimated cost of $15 billion by 2015.

Attacks on shipping have skyrocketed to 142 incidents worldwide just within the first three months of 2011 - 18 vessels were hijacked and 344 crew taken hostage. The United Arab Emirates is holding emergency talks this week with representatives from more than 50 countries to address the continuing menace.

Virtually invisible in the shadow of U.S. "kinetic military action" in Libya and other chaos brought about by the Arab Spring, 13 Somalis and a Yemeni were quietly brought to Norfolk, Va.,…  Seguir leyendo »

Washington’s military strategy in Afghanistan now aims to avoid the appearance of defeat for America, but for Afghanistan it is a recipe for unending civil war.

In essence, it is a version of the strategy pursued by the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1980s: to build up the Afghan army to the point where it can contain the insurgents without the help of outside ground forces, while seeking to win over individual insurgent commanders and their supporters.

This strategy may create forces that can defend key cities against the Taliban. But it is unlikely that Afghan security forces will be able to do this on their own.…  Seguir leyendo »

Peter Klashorst says it was just another regular day of heat, hawkers and honking in Cambodia’s capital when his walking paintings caused a stir on the street.

Portraits more than six and a half feet high and nearly four feet wide floated by — the large canvases cloaking the men carrying them — leaving pedestrians befuddled and even distressed.

The Dutch artist thinks some people recognized the iconic faces he had rendered: Those of prisoners tortured in the Khmer Rouge’s infamous S-21 prison. Memories of this death machine and its victims remain among the most indelible images of Cambodia’s nightmare revolution in the late 1970s, in which an estimated 1.7 million people perished.…  Seguir leyendo »

Nos gusta pensar que somos dueños de nuestro destino. Al fin y al cabo, la habilidad de tomar decisiones conscientemente y de darnos cuenta de las implicaciones que tendrá cada elección nuestra es un componente vital de lo que nos separa del resto de seres vivos de este planeta: el don (y la maldición) de ser racionales. Por eso en su momento nos inventamos el alma. Porque asignar las cualidades únicas que definen nuestra especie a un concepto intangible legitima nuestra posición en el vértice de la pirámide evolutiva. Justo un escalón por encima de las otras criaturas, que ni siquiera se dan cuenta de que son esclavas del mundo físico.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Christopher Walker, the director of studies at Freedom House and Robert W. Orttung, an assistant director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 23/04/11):

Facebook, Twitter and other social media have revolutionized the global press landscape, helping to dislodge dictators in Tunisia and Egypt and foment protests in Bahrain and Syria.

But another revolution is taking shape simultaneously in old media institutions — one that could break the stranglehold that the state news media hold over unfree societies.

Dictators make controlling the news media a priority for a reason.…  Seguir leyendo »