Jueves, 6 de diciembre de 2018 (Continuación)

Saudi-led coalition forces on patrol in Yemen earlier this year. Credit Nariman El-Mofty/Associated Press

MundoOriente Próximo,

The people of Yemen have had enough. More than three years of war have killed thousands, displaced more than 500,000, created the worst cholera epidemic and brought about 14 million Yemenis to the brink of starvation.

Desperate to escape famine, to be reunited with their loved ones, to mourn the dead, to save the future of their children, Yemenis are picking through the scattered signs of hope that this conflict might end.

On Thursday, for the first time in two years, the government of Yemen will sit down with Ansar Allah, who are commonly referred to as the Houthis, in Sweden.…  Seguir leyendo »

La Constitución y la concordia

EspañaModelo de EstadoConstitución

Un atardecer de 1945, estando de tertulia en su casa de Madrid, Pío Baroja propuso: “Vamos a escribir todos, cada uno en un papel, la fecha que damos de duración al régimen y vamos a dejar en un sobre todos los papeles. A ver quién acierta”. El dictamen del doctor Val y Vera fue el más benevolente —diez años—, lo que provocó las risas del resto de tertulianos.

En las fachadas de las casas de aquella España negra y blanca, retratos de Francisco Franco sonriendo y de José Antonio posando como un galán de película; y consignas: “Hay que rehacer en los campamentos la España deshecha en los cafés”.…  Seguir leyendo »

Idania del Río, propietaria de Clandestina en La Habana. Los empresarios cubanos han prosperado desde que Raúl Castro legalizó la empresa privada en 2016. Credit Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MundoAmérica  

Punto de inflexión: Raúl Castro renuncia a la presidencia de Cuba.

“Era tuyo”, dijo mi madre mientras sostenía un uniforme escolar de niña de color azul.

Ya tiene 82 años y todavía me sorprende con objetos que trajo de Cuba, pero que han estado guardados desde la década de los sesenta.

Tenía una estrella cosida al frente y un dobladillo amplio, para poderlo ajustar conforme creciera.

“¿No te acuerdas?”. Negué con la cabeza.

“Lo usaste cuando tenías 4 años. Ibas a la misma escuela judía a la que yo fui en La Habana. Impartían las clases en español y en yidis.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Big Phish

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías  

Turning Point: Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, harvested private information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without the social network alerting users.

We have long ago come to terms with the trade-off that to participate in social media, we must first give up our privacy. We sacrifice vital parts of our personal data so that we may amplify our voice, stroke our ego and connect with a virtual tribe. Turning Points asked the writer Maggie Shen King to explore a data-driven dystopia, and she responded with a piece of flash fiction.

Sofie could not understand why the bidding stopped a week ago.…  Seguir leyendo »

Shrimp farms run by the World Wildlife Fund on the outskirts of Hong Kong. Credit Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,

Turning Point: A World Bank report concludes that more than 143 million people will become “climate migrants” escaping crop failure, water scarcity and sea-level rise.

When culture and recreation come together communities emerge.
When communities become societies a settlement is formed.
In those realities we inhabit our aspirations of togetherness.

Sustainable cities are like a forest: ever-growing and diverse. In a forest, each branch, each trunk, each tree is unique, blossoming in its own way. Yet everything is connected. Everything in the forest has its role in a cosmic symphony. The city is no different.

The city, too, is an organism, both stable and fluid, static and constantly transforming.…  Seguir leyendo »

An identification card was checked at a "red point" in Caracas to verify people voted during the last presidential election in May. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

MundoAméricaMundoAsia,

For fans of “Black Mirror”, Charlie Brooker’s dark dystopian fantasy on Netflix, the news out of China recently had been disconcerting. Through its Social Credit System, the Chinese Communist Party is apparently determined to build out a real-world version of the streaming nightmare: a pervasive, highly intrusive AI-enabled surveillance system that tracks you all day every day and that largely determines all of your life chances.

Social Credit is creepy enough in its own terms, but the real question is whether it will remain quarantined in China’s huge walled garden, or whether it will spread, becoming a model for repressive regimes worldwide.…  Seguir leyendo »

Juan David Cardenas scouts for birds with a pair of binoculars given to him by the Humboldt Institute. April 2018. (Lucy Sherriff)

MundoAmérica,

For Colombia, peace has come with caveats. In 2016, guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) finally laid down their weapons, ending over half a century of conflict. Thousands of fighters had spent decades occupying Colombia’s forests, and most got up and left their secret mountain hideouts. Families who had fled the fighting started to return. Old farms re-opened, and new ones sprang up. Gold and coal miners moved in.

The forests had protected the FARC fighters from attacks and surveillance. In turn, FARC’s presence in the Magdalena River Valley, nestled between the central and eastern Andes, kept the forests intact.…  Seguir leyendo »

A father gives water to his malnourished daughter at a feeding center in a hospital in Hodeida, Yemen, in September. (Hani Mohammed/AP)

MundoOriente Próximo,

Analysts have long argued that, if left unchecked, Yemen’s political, economic and fiscal crises were all but certain to cause a massive, debilitating famine. As Yemen barrels toward this worst-case scenario, what is most disturbing is that there is no indication the trend will be stopped, even when people start dying in unprecedented numbers.

Almost four years into the country’s civil war, 22 million people in Yemen now require some sort of assistance. About 10,000 people contract cholera every week; there have been more than 1.2 million cases of the disease and more than 2,500 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.…  Seguir leyendo »

Demonstrators clash with riot police at the Arc de Triomphe while protesting rising diesel prices in Paris on Saturday. (AFP/Getty Images)

EuropaUnión Europea,

Hundreds of thousands of French people have turned out in recent weeks to protest the energy policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Last weekend the movement spread to Paris, generating France’s worst urban riots in years. Protesters torched cars and stormed the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most recognizable Paris landmarks, smashing the lower floors before ascending to the roof. Over 100 people were injured, and more than 400 were arrested and tens of thousands of police officers, firefighters and even the armed forces were called in to restore order.

What’s behind this unrest? Here’s what you need to know:

1.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, , ,

Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for several years on land, but the two clashed at sea recently. How likely is this maritime conflict to escalate?

Maritime disputes feature prominently in global politics. China’s maritime conflicts with neighboring states over the Senkaku/Diaoyu, Spratly, Paracels and other small islands and reefs have generated over a dozen militarized clashes at sea since 1991. Confrontations in the Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine on Nov. 25 and the imposition of limited martial law in Ukraine create similar concerns about escalation of the situation to war.

There are several diplomatic issues at stake in the Russia-Ukraine relationship, and understanding these points of contention can help clarify the escalation risks.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

En trois semaines, les gilets jaunes sont devenus le conflit majeur. Ils ont éclipsé tous les autres mouvements sociaux. On a oublié qu’en septembre, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de personnes défilaient contre le réchauffement climatique, et que certains médias concluaient à un tournant et à une prise de conscience collective. En octobre, les fonctionnaires ont manifesté. Le 10 novembre, c’étaientles enseignants. Le 24 novembre, plusieurs cortèges #NousToutes ont pris la rue.

Si les gilets jaunes les ont supplantés, est-ce parce que le mouvement est d’une ampleur inédite ? Difficile de conclure, et ici réside le paradoxe.

Pour l’instant, on ne dispose que du décompte du ministère de l’Intérieur, et une des rares constantes dans la vie politique française consiste à contester ce comptage.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

On dit : le peuple contre les élites. Qu’est-ce qui distingue les deux ? C’est l’avenir. Pour le peuple, il s’appelle «demain». Pour les élites, il se situe dans le lointain d’une civilisation métamorphosée. Cela n’est pas nouveau, mais au XXe siècle, cela pouvait encore paraître converger. Il y avait des lendemains de l’immédiat demain, et on pouvait dire à peu près de quoi ils seraient faits.

A présent, on ne peut plus le dire. Chaque progrès apporte ses doutes. Le renouvellement de l’énergie est tout sauf évident. Tout comme le devenir d’une société de la numérisation.

Voilà ce qui ébranle en profondeur l’existence des peuples des pays développés, c’est-à-dire de ceux qui sont déjà engagés à mi-corps dans la métamorphose.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Voilà qui semble désormais clair pour beaucoup d’entre nous : il n’y aura pas d’autre issue à la révolte actuelle qu’un changement de système politique. Ce qui est en train de se passer montre bien que tout est intimement lié. Au départ, la hausse d’une taxe. Une taxe de plus sur le dos des plus précaires. Une taxe qui, sous un noble prétexte écologique, venait en réalité compenser du point de vue «budgétaire» une politique de facilitations et de cadeaux fiscaux à destination des plus riches. Ces plus riches sont, pour certains, proches du pouvoir, exerçant sur lui un lobby constant, influençant ses grandes orientations politiques, fuyant l’impôt de solidarité comme la peste, allant même pour certains d’entre eux jusqu’à se réfugier dans des paradis fiscaux.…  Seguir leyendo »