Noviembre de 2021 (Continuación)

lunes, 1
People protest in Khartoum, Sudan, on Oct. 30. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

MundoÁfrica

As an unpopular military coup engulfed Sudan in recent days, I was reminded of a different vision for that country: the democratic one where a multitude of voices can express themselves freely without fear of repercussion.

From afar, that seemed to be the path the country was on after a popular uprising brought down the dictatorship of former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019. We in the free world should be doing everything in our power to help the Sudanese people get back on that path.

“In a new Sudan, never again we will jail journalists,” Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in his closing remarks at the United Nations in September 2019.…  Seguir leyendo »

French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer leaves Elysee Palace after attending the weekly cabinet meeting in Paris on Oct. 20. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)

EuropaUnión Europea,

Months after having identified “Islamo-leftism” — a so-called trend that nobody was able to precisely define — as wreaking havoc in universities, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer has found a new opponent: “wokeism” and “cancel culture.”

Despite the fact that schools have not recovered from the major challenges caused by the covid-19 pandemic, Blanquer decided to focus his attention on the creation of a think tank, the Republic Laboratory, meant to reflect on the values of the French republic “at odds with wokeism”. According to him, young people should be prevented from “approaching their social life entering a resentment contest” and be protected from a “doctrine” that “fragments and divides,” “has conquered certain political, media and academic circles” and had brought Donald Trump to power in the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »

Bernardo Caal Xol in 2018. (Courtesy of the Caal Xol family)

MundoAmérica, ,  

Locked up in filthy, overcrowded conditions in a prison system notorious for deadly riots and beheadings, Bernardo Caal Xol is paying the price for standing up to corporate interests and authorities who routinely misuse Guatemala’s justice system to silence human rights defenders.

Caal, 49, is a teacher and community leader from Santa María Cahabón, a Q’eqchi’ Mayan territory in the lush northern region of Alta Verapaz. Since 2015, he has filed several legal challenges against the OXEC hydroelectric project for allegedly destroying 15 hectares of forest and three sacred hills and restricting access to two sacred rivers where Q’eqchi’ people have fished and bathed for generations — in violation of an international law enshrining Indigenous peoples’ rights to free, prior and informed consent over projects that affect their territories.…  Seguir leyendo »

Una solución a nuestra soledad: la covivienda

ReflexionesSocial

Eastern Village, un complejo de apartamentos de 55 unidades situado en una zona comercial de Silver Spring, Maryland, es un lugar bastante encantador, teniendo en cuenta que en su día albergó las monótonas oficinas de una asociación de trabajadores sociales y luego estuvo abandonado durante casi una década, con el agua goteando por los techos. Cuando lo visité este verano, la hiedra caía en cascada sobre la fachada con tal exuberancia que no vi la entrada cuando pasé caminando. El patio con jardines, arrancado de un estacionamiento, destilaba un encanto europeo. Al levantar la vista, vi pasillos abiertos bordeados de balcones, flores y hierbas.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,  

The jawboning has been going on for nearly a third of a century.

It started back in 1992. Delegates from around the world — including a hesitant American president, George H.W. Bush — met in Rio de Janeiro for an “Earth Summit,” earnestly promising to stop wrecking the planet. A new global treaty was hastily drawn up and plastered with a grand title: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It was bold, promising to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous global warming. And it was vague, requiring countries to do close to nothing, except to keep meeting and jawboning.…  Seguir leyendo »