Sábado, 7 de abril de 2012

ReflexionesTestimonios

De haber conocido Antonio Tabucchi la historia de Domingo Malagón estoy convencido de que le habría inspirado un libro hermoso y cruel sobre el destino del hombre y sobre la responsabilidad. Algo parecido a Sostiene Pereira pero metido en los hondones de la clandestinidad antifranquista, la guerra fría, el estalinismo y la supervivencia, a partir de un estudiante de la Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, al que la vida convirtió en el falsificador más eficaz y modesto que conocieron los tiempos.

Este pretende ser un homenaje a los hombres legales que sufrieron la ilegalidad no como si fuera una mancha sino como un acicate frente a una sociedad gris y represiva; los tiempos del cólera.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Siete meses después que el presidente de la Autoridad Nacional Palestina (ANP) presentara sus argumentos para obtener el reconocimiento del Estado palestino, la situación en los Territorios Ocupados oscila entre la incertidumbre y el pesimismo. Estados Unidos ha bloqueado el reconocimiento, y el presidente Mahmud Abas no parece tener una estrategia. A la vez, la denominada solución de los dos estados está muerta o en fase terminal.

La Autoridad Palestina tiene un grave problema de endeudamiento, ha adoptado medidas de ajuste que le restan popularidad en Cisjordania. El FMI acaba de avisar que si la comunidad de donantes no cumple con sus promesas el Gobierno de Salam Fayyad podría suspender pagos a sus funcionarios y crecerá la deuda.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never been a gambling man. Since becoming “supreme leader” of Iran in 1989, he’s sought to preserve the status quo by eschewing transformative decisions. But as unprecedented political and economic pressures — including sanctions against Iran’s central bank and the European Union oil embargo — increasingly push his back against the wall, Khamenei seemingly has two paths to deliverance: a nuclear compromise or a nuclear weapon. Each could be perilous for him; both would be transformative for Iran.

Khamenei’s aversion to compromise is well-established. He has long said that Washington’s underlying goal in Tehran is not behavior change but regime change.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

I’m driving.

Jack, my co-pilot, sleeps in the passenger seat. His chin rests on my upper leg. The car in front of us wears two Support Our Troops ribbons. One is yellow; the other red, white and blue. Both are made in China. On the rear bumper is a faded black MIA sticker. That driver probably means well, but by now I’ve seen too many ribbons. While the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq kill and maim, I think of how they are also shaping the future of returning veterans. Many of these men and women will come home and go missing, and you won’t even know it.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia,

What does freedom have to do with rising from the dead? When America was in its infancy and struggling to find a culture and frustrated with governance from Great Britain, the word most frequently uttered in speeches and pamphlets and letters was not safety, taxes or peace; it was freedom.

Two acts of Parliament broke the bonds with the mother country irreparably. The first was the Stamp Act, which was enforced by British soldiers writing their own search warrants and rummaging through the personal possessions of colonists looking to see whether they had purchased the government’s stamps. The second was the imposition of a tax to pay for the Church of England, which the colonists were forced to pay, no matter their religious beliefs.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

Los profanos son mis críticos favoritos. Marc Chagall

No hubiera decidido enfrentarme al reto que me he impuesto en este artículo de no haber sido por la cita que lo encabeza, leída en el magnífico libro que Marc Chagall escribió sobre sus primeros 30 años de hombre y pintor, y que la encomiable editorial El Acantilado ha puesto a nuestra disposición. Así que es como profano, como espectador amateur de pintura, y no como experto o especialista, como voy a presentarles el dilema Picasso-Chagall, convencido de que tal dilema encierra algunas de las claves para entender lo que ha sido el devenir de nuestra cultura después de la primera guerra mundial.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia, ,

Culture lies on the front line of conflicts across the world. Timbuktu has fallen into the hands of Tuareg rebel forces and shots have been fired around the city’s grand mosque, a Unesco World Heritage Site. This follows on the heels of the shelling of the city of Apamea in Syria. The citadel of Madiq and the ancient villages in the north of Syria, all of which are Unesco World Heritage Sites, could become collateral damage. They need our protection.

It may seem incongruous to denounce crimes against culture and call for their protection at a time of political instability and humanitarian crisis, but it isn’t.…  Seguir leyendo »