Domingo, 20 de octubre de 2013

Cuarenta y ocho horas después de que José María Aznar clamara en su hondo y certero discurso de San Sebastián contra la «normalización de la confusión moral», tres jueces de la Audiencia Nacional se empeñaban en demostrar hasta qué punto están justificadas sus alarmas, perpetrando una sentencia en la que se dan cita la instrumentación política de la Justicia, el atolondramiento intelectual y el desfondamiento ético.

Eran precisos estos tres ingredientes para que una relación de hechos probados en la que se describe de forma minuciosa y aplastante lo que la propia sentencia admite como «una acción culpable y típica» de colaboración con banda armada haya desembocado en la absolución de los policías Pamies y Ballesteros por ese delito.…  Seguir leyendo »

Si el Frente Nacional y su dirigente pretenden que los periodistas renuncien a su desagradable costumbre de tildarlos de “extrema derecha” (como lo leen), no vendría mal:

—que cuando, en plena campaña presidencial, esta decide ir a Viena para distraerse bailando el vals, no eligiese un baile celebrado por la más extremista, la más radical y la más nostálgica del hitlerismo de las “corporaciones pangermánicas” (Le Point, 2-2-2012);

—que cuando aprovecha la ocasión para proceder a un “intercambio de opiniones” con un responsable político local, no fuera a dar, precisamente, con un hombre como Martin Graf, orgulloso miembro de una Burschenschaft neonazi, antisemita y negacionista (Rue, 31-1-2012);

—que cuando su partido intenta hacer nuevos amigos y, luego, expresa su afinidad con sus nuevos amigos mediante la formación de un grupo parlamentario en Bruselas, no escogiese, casualmente, al Partido de la Gran Rumanía, al FPO austriaco, al Ataka búlgaro, al Partido por la Independencia de Reino Unido, a los italianos de la Alternativa Social, al Vlaams Belang belga...,…  Seguir leyendo »

La obra maestra de Sterne, Tristram Shandy, comienza con la evocación por su protagonista de la noche en la que fue concebido. El relato intrauterino no dura mucho pues, con su habilidoso recurso a las digresiones humorísticas que interrumpen la acción, el autor se olvida de él y juega con las expectativas frustradas del común y corriente lector. Si se me permite el anacronismo, Sterne aplica al pie de la letra el consejo de Gide a los novelistas: no aprovecharse nunca del impulso adquirido en la redacción de sus libros. En Tristram Shandy hay que volver siempre atrás.

El “¿Has olvidado dar cuerda al reloj?”,…  Seguir leyendo »

Aunque no soy un usuario entusiasta de Internet, reconozco que su aparición ha hecho crecer de una manera notable la libertad de expresión en el mundo e infligido un golpe casi mortal a los sistemas de censura que los gobiernos autoritarios establecen para controlar la información e impedir las críticas. Me ha convencido de ello Emily Parker, antigua periodista de The Wall Street Journal y The New York Times, que en un libro de próxima publicación en los Estados Unidos pasa revista a la revolución que han significado la web y las redes sociales en China, Cuba y Rusia en el campo de la información.…  Seguir leyendo »

Después de que en Egipto se entrara en un camino de violencia y un golpe de estado militar pusiera punto y final al reinado del presidente Mohamed Morsi, que se había comportado como un dictador acaparando casi todos los poderes, Túnez y Marruecos acaban de retirar o al menos limitar el poder de los islamistas. Su incompetencia para gobernar y para hallar soluciones concretas a los problemas de la gente que creía que el islam era la solución a todos los males ha bastado para que abandonen en parte, de modo pacífico, las riendas del poder político.

En Túnez, 21 partidos, entre ellos Enahda, han firmado un acuerdo para que los islamistas se retiren y se forme un gobierno de independientes lo más rápidamente posible ya que la situación económica se encuentra en un estado dramático.…  Seguir leyendo »

El mar y las batallas fueron su escenario natural, donde forjó sus legendarias gestas. La inteligencia y la astucia, la sencillez y la humildad, el arrojo y la valentía, el sacrificio y la tenacidad, sus grandes virtudes. Su obsesión era cumplir con su deber. Servir a su Nación. Y gracias a él, a Blas de Lezo (1689-1741), en la América hispana se sigue hablando hoy español.

Blas de Lezo es uno de los más extraordinarios navegantes de nuestra Historia. Un marino vasco, español y universal, a quien debemos esa aportación fundamental a los países de habla hispana durante el siglo XVIII.…  Seguir leyendo »

The stabbing death on Oct. 10 of an ethnic Russian, Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, apparently by a Muslim from Azerbaijan, led to anti-migrant disturbances in Moscow, vandalism and assaults, and the arrest of 1,200, and brought a major tension in Russian life to the fore.

Not only do ethnic Muslims account for 21 million to 23 million of Russia’s total population of 144 million, or 15 percent, but their proportion is fast-growing. Alcoholism-plagued ethnic Russians are said to have European birthrates and African death rates. Their women have on average 1.4 children, and their men have a life expectancy of 60 years.…  Seguir leyendo »

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries embargo against the United States and states that supported Israel after Egypt and Syria initiated simultaneous offensives against it on Yom Kippur in 1973. While it’s not an anniversary that many will celebrate, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on how much more secure our energy situation is, despite our continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

Most commentators have focused, with good reason, on the West’s greatly enhanced ability to withstand similar shocks were they to occur today. Equally important, although generally overlooked, is the reality that OPEC has no incentive or real ability to inflict them on the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

When the 30-year-old Queen Elizabeth opened the world’s first nuclear power station, Calder Hall, on October 17 1956, she could scarcely have imagined that in her lifetime she would see her nation’s unassailable lead in this white-heat technology thrown into the dustbin.

During her reign, our atomic expertise, which promised a future of clean, green and affordable electricity, has been handed to foreign competitors on a plate, and Britain’s grid is now under such strain that 57 years later, we find ourselves relying on China and France to keep the lights on.

Decades of dithering by successive governments – Labour, Tory and Coalition – and cowardice in the face of illogical protests along with a supine acceptance of dubious arguments made by an aggressive and well-organised Green lobby, has left Britain’s once proud nuclear industry an embarrassing shadow of its former self.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last month, a Spanish forensics team called in to examine the remains of six adults and two children found in a mass grave in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara raised anew charges that in seizing the area in the 1970s, the Moroccans had captured or arrested and killed hundreds of Western Saharan civilians.

The remains were identified by forensic experts from the University of the Basque Country and the Aranzadi Society of Science. They turned out to be those of a family detained by the Moroccan military in 1976 and never heard from again. Their buried bodies were discovered by a shepherd near the place where they were taken into custody.…  Seguir leyendo »

A poll on the front page of last Tuesday’s Le Monde, that bible of the French Left-leaning Establishment (think a simultaneously boring and hectoring Guardian), translated into stark figures the winter of François Hollande’s discontent.

More than 70 per cent of the French feel taxes are “excessive”, and 80 per cent believe the president’s economic policy is “misguided” and “inefficient”. This goes far beyond the tax exiles such as Gérard Depardieu, members of the Peugeot family or Chanel’s owners. Worse, after decades of living in one of the most redistributive systems in western Europe, 54 per cent of the French believe that taxes – of which there have been 84 new ones in the past two years, rising from 42 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 46.3 per cent this year – now widen social inequalities instead of reducing them.…  Seguir leyendo »

This summer, disgruntled Saudis took their grievances online in droves, complaining of ever-growing inequality, rising poverty, corruption and unemployment. Their Twitter campaign became one of the world’s highest trending topics. It caused great alarm within elite circles in Saudi Arabia and sent ripples throughout the region. The rallying cry that “salaries are not enough” helped to prove that the monarchy’s social contract with its people is now publicly coming unstuck, and on a significant scale.

Many experts believe that the Gulf states have survived the Arab Spring because they are different. After all, they’ve weathered numerous past storms — from the Arab nationalist revolutions of the 1950s and ’60s to Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait to an Al Qaeda terror campaign in 2003.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Russian-American plan to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons — now embodied in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 — may open a more constructive approach to ending the country’s civil war, because the Security Council is also demanding that the long-planned Geneva II conference on Syria convene as soon as possible.

Rightly so. Elimination of Syria’s chemical-weapons stockpiles and a political process to end the war must occur simultaneously.

As a practical matter, efforts to verify, secure and eventually destroy Syria’s huge supply of chemical weapons cannot be implemented without a lasting ceasefire. But synchronizing the two processes is necessary for other reasons, too.…  Seguir leyendo »

Six years ago I was struck down with a mystery illness. My weight dropped by 30 pounds in three months. I experienced searing stomach pain, felt utterly exhausted and no matter how much I ate, I couldn’t gain an ounce.

I went from slim to thin to emaciated. The pain got worse, a white heat in my belly that made me double up unexpectedly in public and in private. Delivering on my academic and professional commitments became increasingly challenging.

It was terrifying. I did not know whether I had an illness that would kill me or stay with me for the rest of my life or whether what was wrong with me was something that could be cured if I could just find out what on earth it was.…  Seguir leyendo »

In India today, the rapes of women, from children to grandmothers, are daily news. Frothy television programs on sentimentalized family values are interrupted by advertisements for a new smartphone app: VithU, which allows women in danger, at a double press of a power button, to send an S O S alert with their location to predesignated friends and family members.

Universities are debating requiring students to abandon jeans and adopt formal dress codes, as though the trappings of civilization are needed to hold at bay the anarchy of sexual violence. Twelve-year-old schoolgirls are attending rape awareness seminars, in a death of innocence.…  Seguir leyendo »