Julio de 2012 (Continuación)

sábado, 14

EspañaTerrorismo

En aquellas circunstancias, en las que nos topamos con los aspectos más sombríos de la condición humana, la agudeza de Oscar Wilde nos proporciona casi siempre el brillante aforismo, la sentencia breve en la que se resuelve nuestra perplejidad. «Los cínicos son aquellos que conocen el precio de todo e ignoran el valor de cualquier cosa; los sentimentales son quienes saben el valor, pero desconocen el precio». Cuando se trata de objetos, el valor es algo que nosotros podemos establecer. Cuando se trata de vidas humanas, esta operación carece de sentido. La vida es una finalidad en sí misma, que no depende de nuestro arbitrio, de nuestra libertad de decisión.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , , ,

Last week, a U.S. drone attack killed 19 suspected Taliban militants at a compound in North Waziristan on the Afghan border, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Dawn, a leading English-language Pakistani newspaper, later reported that the drone actually launched two separate strikes, the second of which occurred "when tribesmen were still carrying out rescue work," and killed an additional three people.

It was unclear whether the three were civilians or militants. If they were civilians, the incident would run counter to a marked decline in reports of civilian deaths in Pakistan caused by CIA drone strikes.

The New America Foundation has been collecting data about the drone attacks systematically for the past three years from reputable news sources such as the New York Times and Reuters, as well as Pakistani media outlets such as the Express Tribune and Dawn.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Since 2009, 43 Tibetans have set themselves on fire while shouting slogans for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and crying for freedom for Tibetans. These people include monks, nuns, nomads and students. Two were mothers. All but 11 have died. Yet their actions and the issue of Tibet have not generated the commensurate attention or support. Instead, the Chinese government casts blame on these Tibetans and refuses to examine the root causes of their actions.

Despite repeated appeals by the central Tibetan administration, which is based in India, to refrain from such drastic actions, Tibetans persist in self-immolations.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesIslam y Mundo Árabe

It’s been over two months since I decided to become a hijabi — one who wears a head scarf and adheres to modest clothing — and before you race to label me the poster girl for oppressed womanhood everywhere, let me tell you as a woman (with a master’s degree in human rights, and a graduate degree in psychology) why I see this as the most liberating experience ever.

Prior to becoming a hijabi, I did not expect myself to go down this road. Although I knew modesty was encouraged in my culture and by my faith, I never saw the need nor had the opportunity to explore the reasons behind it.…  Seguir leyendo »

viernes, 13

EspañaEconomía

Desde hace demasiado tiempo tengo la impresión, cada vez más fuerte, de estar escribiendo siempre el mismo artículo de opinión sobre la economía española. Desde al menos la primera mitad de 2007 -cuando estaba prohibido hasta pronunciar públicamente palabras como «crisis» o «recesión»- estamos repitiendo siempre las mismas letanías: las cajas están en quiebra, el mercado de trabajo es dual y paralizado, la financiación autonómica y el gasto de las autonomías son una amenaza para las financias públicas, los salarios y la organización productiva de los empleados públicos deben reducirse, los primeros, y debe ser reformada, la segunda; los servicios se deben liberalizar; es urgente una reforma fiscal (más IVA, menos cotizaciones e IRPF sobre la renta laboral, menos impuestos sobre la renta empresarial, impuesto patrimonial y no sobre transacciones económicas); la universidad no genera capital humano de la calidad necesaria y necesita cambios radicales, etcétera, etcétera, etcétera.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

We are so used to runaway economic numbers from China that this week's data dump seems to betoken hard times for the world's second biggest economy. The bears prophesying doom from their caves scent their hour of vindication., However, though one has to be cautious in assessing such a unique animal as the last major state headed by a Communist party, they are almost certainly wrong. Setting aside the short-term negative market reaction, the data is in fact positive rather than negative – so long as the people in charge keep their nerve.

Of course, the 7.6% growth figure for the second quarter is down from 8.1% in the first three months of the year – and contrasts sharply with the double-digit performance reached as a result of the country's massive fiscal and monetary stimulus package launched at the end of 2008.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropaUnión Europea, ,

France will celebrate Bastille Day on Saturday. Like its sister republic on this side of the Atlantic, the French Republic will mark its liberation from the yoke of monarchical rule. But despite the shower of fireworks, parades and speeches in praise of liberty, don't be deceived. Just as America's red, white and blue is the mirror image of France's blue, white and red, liberté isn't quite the same as liberty, especially in the 21st century.

We have long known that France is, well, a foreign country. Take the bidet — which most Americans do, as a cooler for Coke, not a spritz for their private parts.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Last spring, a flowering of democracy in Myanmar mesmerized the world. But now, three months after the democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat, and a month after she traveled to Oslo to belatedly receive the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, an alarm bell is ringing in Myanmar. In the villages of Arakan State, near the Bangladeshi border, a pogrom against a population of Muslims called the Rohingyas began in June. It is the ugly side of Myanmar’s democratic transition — a rotting of the flower, even as it seems to bloom.

Cruelty toward the Rohingyas is not new.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

Si hipotecamos una sociedad, luego no pretendamos un lugar bajo la rama dorada. Lo que quedaba del zapaterismo acaba de evaporarse con celeridad notable y asistencia metódica de la nueva dirección socialista, como en un juego ilusionista. Solo quedan unas gruesas gotas como de humedad condensada a la salida de un sistema de refrigeración de aire. El zapaterismo se ha ido pero no sabemos exactamente por dónde ni por qué vino. La misma sociedad que casi instintivamente hace tabla rasa de los años del zapaterismo es la que tampoco puede demostrar fiarse realmente de sus propias capacidades cívicas. Al solaparse ese adiós fulminante al zapaterismo con los efectos de la crisis económica habrá que pensar que aquellos años fueron ideales para entrar a ciegas en el túnel, con prioridad sobre los esquemas, intenciones, candores o perversiones que se fueron atribuyendo a la acción de gobierno de Zapatero.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaEconomía

Según la leyenda carolingia este bálsamo milagroso, que cura todos los males, lo encuentra Fierabrás durante un saqueo de Roma, en unos barriles que contenían el bálsamo con que se ungió a Jesucristo al descenso de la cruz.

La situación de España, con el déficit público disparado, la economía bajo mínimos, el desempleo en máximos históricos, la prima de riesgo en zona de intervención y el sector bancario en vía de rescate parece pedir una solución milagrosa. Quizá por ello algunos sindicatos, partidos políticos y medios de comunicación proponen su propio bálsamo de Fierabrás: aumentar la inversión y el gasto público para fomentar el crecimiento.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

Seguro que les ha pasado, en alguna reunión reciente alguien reelabora la pregunta de Vargas Llosa sobre Perú en su “Conversación en La Catedral”: “¿cuándo se gripó España?”. Propongo dos días: el 1 de julio y el 2 de agosto de 1985, fechas de las Leyes Orgánicas de reforma del sistema de elección del CGPJ pasando a elegirse sólo por las cámaras; y de reforma de las Cajas de Ahorro, entregando el 89% de sus asambleas a partidos y sindicatos (mediante la representación de ayuntamientos y comunidades; impositores y empleados), lo que suponía darles sus consejos de administración. Entonces se desbordó la política.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

Casi por definición, la peor respuesta a una situación de crisis es dedicarse a la búsqueda de los presuntos culpables que impide o dificulta el concentrar los esfuerzos en la resolución de dicha crisis.

Los responsables de ello somos nosotros, que durante años hemos vivido «de prestado», es decir, por encima de nuestras posibilidades, incrementando año tras año nuestra deuda externa (pública y privada) hasta que los prestamistas (los vilipendiados mercados) han comenzado a inquietarse con la duda de si seremos capaces de devolver la ingente suma que debemos; por ello no prestan si no es a un interés cada vez más elevado (prima de riesgo), lo que —círculo vicioso— hace cada vez más difícil esa devolución.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Whatever Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is carrying in her attache case as she visits Egypt this weekend, it won't be nearly enough to begin to fix what ails the U.S.-Egyptian relationship.

Beneath the "isn't democracy wonderful (and messy)" platitudes emanating from the State Department, and the diplomatic smiles and niceties surrounding Clinton's visit, three fundamental contradictions are likely to keep America's ties with Egypt in the doldrums for some time to come. We should face up to them sooner rather than later.

First, the democracy problem. The last 18 months witnessed not so much a revolution in Egypt as a regime reconstitution married to a historic opening up of the political system.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

This week's congressional battle over the GOP move to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act, as well as the NAACP's boos in response to Mitt Romney's proposed elimination of what he called the "nonessential " Obamacare program, provides yet another reminder of how divided America has become over this issue.

Other nations have avoided these rifts and built a consensus for universal health care coverage. Consider the case of Brazil.

Since the early-20th century, the government and civil society have been proactive in establishing health care as a common good, while sharing the burden of paying for these services through a myriad of taxes.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública,

Some drugs that the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved for distribution to the world’s poor are of inferior quality — shoddy products that hurt people who urgently need medicine — and some of the manufacturers, predominantly Chinese and Indian firms, may be knowingly producing them. This is the conclusion of my research teams’ studies, published this week in the journal Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine.

We purchased, off the shelf from local pharmacies, about 2,600 drugs to treat malaria, tuberculosis and bacterial infections in low- and middle-income countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Turkey, India and China. We then tested these drugs to see how much active pharmaceutical ingredient — the chemical that performs the drug’s lifesaving function — they contained.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate

As news of Europe's wrenching economic crisis dominates the headlines and skeptics call into question the future of the European Union, we tend to forget that the creation of a united, albeit imperfect, Europe is one of the great triumphs of the post-World War II era. Indeed, it is one of the signal achievements of the past millennium and a half.

Europeans had been at war, with the exception of a few sporadic periods of peace, since the collapse of the Roman Empire. Wars of territorial expansion, dynastic succession and religion, and colonial wars (even a war over Jenkins' ear) punctuated their history.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

To be a very powerful state in world politics does not make for an easy life. China increasingly realizes the predicaments it faces while its power has been growing rapidly. Indeed, the disturbance of China’s regional diplomacy in recent years suggests that it is encountering daunting challenges on exercising and securing power.

The re-emergence of China as a global power does raise a number of questions on what grand strategy China may chose, how China’s power is managed, and what the consequences may be. Against a backdrop of intense, often quarrelsome debate about these issues, five power predicaments facing China must be acknowledged.…  Seguir leyendo »

jueves, 12

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

El fútbol y los bancos han concentrado la opinión pública europea en las últimas semanas. Días antes de que se iniciara la Eurocopa, el diario Financial Times, tan comentado por los que casi nunca lo leen y cuyo divertimento es agitar los más dramáticos miedos y aterrorizar con la quiebra del euro -tarea en la que se divierte desde el día antes de su nacimiento hace ya 11 años-, se apresuró a explicar que en las dos últimas ediciones ganaron, a pesar de sus economías, Grecia (2004) y España (2008). Añadía que España tenía muchas posibilidades de volver a ganar, pronóstico que fundamentaba en un argumento que no es ni lejanamente deportivo.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

The “plum rain” that envelops Shanghai every summer — a confusing mix of drizzle, fog and smog — is a handy metaphor for the murkiness that currently enshrouds China’s economy.

A drumbeat of negative views about China’s economic prospects dominates the country’s image. The financial weekly Barron’s recently proclaimed in a cover story that “it looks like the Great China Growth Story may be falling apart.” On Friday, China is expected to announce new, subpar growth figures.

But consider a less prominent fact: a Bloomberg survey of economic forecasters yielded an average projected growth rate for China of 8.2 percent for 2012.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

Imagine if your ethnicity determined which products you were able to buy. Or if sales clerks required you to divulge your ancestry before swiping your credit card.

Some of us don’t have to imagine.

Last month, Sahar Sabet, a 19-year-old Iranian-American woman, was improperly prevented from buying an iPad at an Apple store in Alpharetta, Ga. After she had gone over the various options with two Apple sales clerks, a third clerk, who had overheard Ms. Sabet speaking Persian to her uncle, intervened. He asked what language they were speaking and, when he found out it was the language of Iran, he said she could not buy anything because “our countries do not have good relations” — never mind that she intended to give it to her sister in North Carolina.…  Seguir leyendo »