Junio de 2012 (Continuación)

Antes de acometer esta Tercera, le he dado varias vueltas a La civilización del espectáculo, el valiente panfleto de Vargas Llosa. Escribo «panfleto», sin ánimo censorio alguno. Los panfletos no son tratados de filosofía: no quieren insertarse en el discurso académico, sino influir en los acontecimientos del día. Las Reflexiones sóbre la Revolución francesa, de Burke, o Ensayo sobre los privilegios, de Sieyés, son panfletos. Y casi toda la obra de Ortega es panfletaria. El libro de Mario Vargas, todo hay que decirlo, está resuelto un poco aprisa, y en él se juntan demasiadas cosas: el arte, la literatura, la política, la religión, el erotismo, las nuevas tecnologías.…  Seguir leyendo »

Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. During the standoff, President John F. Kennedy thought the chance of escalation to war was “between 1 in 3 and even,” and what we have learned in later decades has done nothing to lengthen those odds. Such a conflict might have led to the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Russians.

The main story line of the crisis is familiar. In October 1962, a U.S. spy plane caught the Soviet Union attempting to sneak nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba, 90 miles off the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

The next time an Israeli official petitions the U.S. government to release American traitor Jonathan Pollard from prison, we should tell our friend and longtime ally in an unequivocal tone: He will die in an American prison, so stop asking!

Now, I know that's not how our State Department practices diplomacy, but there is no reason for the United States to be diplomatic with Israel when it comes to Pollard, a former Navy intelligence officer who stole secrets from this country and passed them on to Israel.

Since he was convicted of espionage in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison, thousands of Israelis have made it their mission to get him released and sent to Israel.…  Seguir leyendo »

Every four years, the silly season comes to Europe. As 16 countries vie for the European soccer championship, fans revel in the kind of nationalistic fervor that the European project set out to tame. “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death,” said the Scottish player Bill Shankly, who died in 1981. “I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

National tensions born on the soccer field have even weighed on my own family, since I am a German married to an Italian. And yet, in that weird way that sports parallels life, in recent years my wife has been won over to Germany’s allure; it hosted the World Cup in 2006 and its team came in third that year and again at the 2010 cup with a youthful and brash style that made Germany new friends in Europe and around the world, my wife included.…  Seguir leyendo »

As world leaders gather next week in Brazil for the Rio+20 summit meeting on sustainable development, poverty fighting will be high on the agenda. Gender inequity should be, as well. In a world where women hold less than 20 percent of all legislative seats, 70 percent of the poorest people — those who live on less than $1.25 a day — are women, and 4 million more women die each year than men, a result of poor families’ preferences for male infants and underinvestment in women’s and girls’ health.

These numbers are unconscionable. And while we know that investments in women’s education, health and economic participation are necessary to bridging the gender gap, it can take a long time for those changes to happen.…  Seguir leyendo »

Uluru, the large red rock in the Australian outback, is a sacred site for aboriginal people. Photographs do not convey how dramatically it looms: an enormous crimson heart in the middle of thousands of miles of flat, muted desert.

It was here, on Aug. 17, 1980, that a dingo — an Australian wild dog — dragged a baby called Azaria Chamberlain from a tent as her parents sat by the campfire. Her body was never found.

Azaria’s desperate mother, Lindy, was accused of lying, convicted of murder and sent to prison. The film about her, “A Cry in the Dark,” starring Meryl Streep, spawned a thousand jokes: “A dingo’s got my baby!”…  Seguir leyendo »

As the ebbs and flows of diplomacy with Iran once more fixate official Washington, a subtle shift is emerging in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear calculus. Officials in Tehran increasingly sense that it may be easier to get the bomb through an agreement than by pursuing it outside the parameters of a deal. But for this strategy to succeed, Iran has to get the right kind of an accord, one in which it trades size for transparency. Namely, the deal must allow Iran to construct an elaborate nuclear infrastructure in exchange for conceding to intrusive inspections. With the next round of talks looming, the challenge at hand is not just to negotiate an agreement with a disciplined adversary but to avoid the pitfalls of a flawed deal.…  Seguir leyendo »

La voluntad es la clave para conseguir lo que uno se ha propuesto. Es la joya de la corona de la conducta. El que tiene educada la voluntad verá que sus sueños se irán convirtiendo en realidad.

La voluntad y la inteligencia forman un dúo decisivo en la geografía de la persona. A ellas se une otra pieza decisiva de nuestra psicología: la afectividad. Afectividad, inteligencia y voluntad constituyen un tríptico esencial que nos dirige hacia lo mejor.

¿Qué es la voluntad, en qué consiste, cuáles son los principales ingredientes que se hospedan en su interior? La voluntad es la capacidad para ponerse uno objetivos concretos y luchar hasta irlos alcanzando.…  Seguir leyendo »

La investigación, ¿un lujo en tiempos de crisis?

Hace un par de décadas, un parlamentario del norte de Europa se permitió cuestionar con sarcasmo para qué quería nuestro país más ayudas a la industrialización si, de cualquier modo, “en el futuro, en España sólo habría camareros y toreros”. Aquello fue una salida de tono pero reflejaba la visión que Europa tenía de nosotros. Sin embargo, durante los noventa y los primeros años de este siglo nuestros gobiernos reaccionaron y la inversión pública española en ciencia escaló posiciones y pareció conjurar el espectro del toro y el hotel. Más aún, en la Cumbre Europea de 2002 España impulsó una resolución para que las inversiones en este campo aumentaran progresivamente hasta alcanzar en 2010 el 3% del PIB.…  Seguir leyendo »

Thousands of politicians, bureaucrats and environmental activists have gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which runs through Friday. This time, 20 years after the original 1992 Rio Earth Summit, delegates are minimizing references to "dangerous man-made climate change" to avoid repeating the acrimony and failures that came from the United Nations' recent climate conferences in Copenhagen; Cancun, Mexico; and Durban, South Africa.

Instead, Rio+20 seeks to shift international focus to "biodiversity" and supposed threats to plant and animal species as the new "greatest threat" facing planet Earth. This rebranding is "by design," according to conference organizers, who have been uncharacteristically candid in describing sustainable development and biodiversity as an "easier sell" than climate change.…  Seguir leyendo »

Una figura muy utilizada en situaciones de emergencia como las que está viviendo España es la de “estamos al borde del abismo”, pero las cosas discurren a tal velocidad que ya hemos pasado ese umbral y en realidad nos encontramos en el desbarrancadero, palabra popularizada por el escritor colombiano Fernando Vallejo, que tituló así una de sus mejores novelas. O sea, rodando a toda velocidad barranco abajo hacia una sima que aún ni vemos ni sabemos cómo es. Algunos la imaginan como la España de los años cincuenta. Otros, más optimistas, creen que no será tanto, que si acaso volveremos a la pobreza grisácea de finales de los sesenta…

Pero cuando se lee en solo unos días que España pide 100.000 millones de Euros a la Troika, pero que no quiere que se le llame rescate; que la desconfianza bancaria eleva a niveles récord la fuga de capitales, que la Unión Europea a través de la comisión ejecutiva critica con dureza prácticamente todas las medidas de Rajoy contra la crisis desde la reforma laboral, la amnistía fiscal (por escasamente recaudadora), el aumento del IRPF hasta la fusión de las reguladoras o los pagos a proveedores y dos páginas más adelante, o más atrás, se habla del nuevo récord de la prima de riesgo y el enésimo hundimiento de la bolsa, ambos parámetros a niveles nunca conocidos, la gente se pregunta: ¿cómo es que un gobierno causante y génesis de los citados titulares, no cae, no dimite, no se va?…  Seguir leyendo »

Since its invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Turkey has claimed that it was acting as a protector and guarantor of the island’s security. But a closer examination of its actions on Cyprus indicates motivations of a very different character. Turkey’s invasion resulted in hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriot refugees, who have been unable to return to their homes for almost 40 years. The international community has repeatedly condemned the illegal military occupation of Cyprus by Turkish troops. The United Nations Security Council has passed 75 resolutions calling for Turkey to allow Greek Cypriots to return to their homes and to withdraw its troops from Cyprus.…  Seguir leyendo »

A la vertiente romántica del alma alemana siempre le ha encantado el Volksgeist [espíritu del pueblo] italiano. Como Goethe, los norteños siempre han intentando escapar, aunque solo sea en vacaciones temporales, de una prudencia y una disciplina implacables, en busca de la encantadora ineficiencia y la sensualidad de los climas y la cultura mediterráneos.

La moneda única europea y las cargas del Estado del bienestar inventado por Bismarck, que se enfrenta a su desaparición por razones demográficas y a la competencia de los países emergentes del mundo, han puesto fin a esta agradable complementariedad.

Ahora todos estamos ligados a un solo destino continental, obligados a responder al mismo vínculo mercantil global, armonizando los diversos temperamentos y ritmos a la melodía protestante de la productividad, la competitividad y la responsabilidad fiscal.…  Seguir leyendo »

Se aproxima la hora de la verdad para la eurozona. Tras más de dos años de incertidumbre, inestabilidad y crecimiento lento, las decisiones que se tomen a lo largo de los próximos meses podrían determinar el futuro económico de todo el continente europeo para la próxima década, y aún más allá.

Ya hace un año que vengo afirmando que la eurozona tiene que seguir la “implacable lógica” de una unión monetaria hacia una integración fiscal más profunda. En países como el Reino Unido y Estados Unidos estamos familiarizados con las características de una zona estable de moneda única. La solución en la eurozona no tiene que pasar por convertirse totalmente en unos Estados Unidos de la eurozona, pero para que dicha solución tenga éxito es probable que tenga que incluir, de alguna manera, alguno de los mecanismos que permite que otras monedas funcionen bien: más apoyo por parte de las economías más fuertes para ayudar a que las más débiles puedan ajustarse; una mayor agrupación de recursos, ya sea a través de unos eurobonos comunes u otro tipo de mecanismo; un soporte compartido para el sistema bancario a través de una unión bancaria; y, en consecuencia, una supervisión colectiva mucho más estricta de las políticas fiscales y financieras.…  Seguir leyendo »

La concesión del Premio Mariano de Cavia a Fernando Savater por su artículo «Compromiso con la verdad», publicado el pasado verano en el diario «El País», no sólo constituye una excelente noticia, sino también la oportunidad de volver sobre un asunto capital de nuestro tiempo, cual es el de la función del intelectual. Hace un par o tres de semanas, sin ir más lejos, el escritor Jorge Martínez Reverte recibía en el mismo diario una andanada del historiador Borja de Riquer por haberse atrevido a meter las narices donde no le llamaban o, lo que es lo mismo, por haber denunciado en sus libros y en sus artículos, pruebas en mano, la violencia ejercida —y en gran medida programada— en la retaguardia republicana durante la guerra civil.…  Seguir leyendo »

President Obama presented the Medal of Freedom to Israeli President Shimon Peres at a dinner at the White House on Wednesday. The last surviving founder of the state of Israel, Peres went on to serve as prime minister and leader of the Labor Party, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in the Oslo Accords, the first Israeli agreement with the Palestinians. The morning after the White House dinner, Peres sat down with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth at Blair House to discuss Syria, Iran and U.S. presidents from Kennedy to Obama. Excerpts:

What is your view on Syria right now?…  Seguir leyendo »

More than 50,000 U.N. officials, scientists, environmental advocates and a few heads of state will gather this coming week in Rio de Janeiro for a conference on sustainable development. They’re assembling 20 years after the first Earth Summit was held in the same city, and the goal now, as it was then, is to figure out how to cut dangerous greenhouse gases and help the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty. Or, to put it more starkly, how we can live ethically without threatening the ability of future generations to live at all.

That’s what’s on the agenda.

But what we want to know is: What’s on the menu?…  Seguir leyendo »

My country is hurtling toward an election that will decide its fate — whether Greeks will fight on to remain part of Europe’s core or succumb to their own weaknesses and turn inward, choosing isolation, anger and uncertainty greater than that from which they wish to flee.

The vote on Sunday will change our lives — determining not only whether we remain in the euro zone but also the nature of our society and the fate of the democracy that was re-established just 38 years ago after a dictatorship. We are bitterly divided between those who want to carry on with the reform process and those who want to turn back the clock.…  Seguir leyendo »

Afghanistan’s future matters much more to Pakistan than to the United States. This elemental truth is forgotten in U.S. deliberations about how best to leverage Pakistan to achieve a political settlement in Afghanistan. Pakistani military and intelligence services have demonstrated that they are willing to risk ties with Washington to achieve a friendly government on their western border — a government that most Afghans and Washington would oppose. This is the central roadblock to U.S.-Pakistani relations and to a stable Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s leaders will continue to seek U.S. assistance even as they tirelessly pursue a government in Kabul that, after most U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

When assuming office, every government official must take an oath to abide by and uphold our Constitution. Since 2010, I have made that my mission in Congress. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is not upholding nor abiding by the Constitution -- in fact, this administration is going to great lengths to continually violate it.

Its most recent transgression involves the use of domestic drones.

These small drones are to be used as a crime fighting tool for law enforcement officials. But is unwarranted and constant surveillance by an aerial eye of Big Government the answer?

In a memorandum issued by President Barack Obama's secretary of the Air Force, the stated purpose of these drones is "balancing ...…  Seguir leyendo »