Domingo, 5 de junio de 2022

Si esto es un "apartheid"...

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial, ,

La periodista Olga Sanmartín publicó en 2017 en EL MUNDO un reportaje esclarecedor. Contaba el acoso al que habían sido sometidos dos años antes una madre de Balaguer (Lérida) y sus dos hijos de seis y ocho años por ejercer su derecho a solicitar una asignatura más de castellano en la escuela pública Gaspar de Portolà. Ella tenía un parque infantil, el único de la localidad: el Petit Món. Los demás padres lo boicotearon. Les hicieron la vida imposible. En los chats del colegio, se llamaba a humillar a los niños: "Que pasen vergüenza". Se convocó una concentración y la encabezó el propio alcalde, de Esquerra.…  Seguir leyendo »

El efecto Sartre

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

¿Usted creía que los anarquistas habían desaparecido? Nada de eso, gozan de muy buena salud según el venezolano Rafael Uzcátegui. Acaba de publicar un libro, muy crítico del gobierno de Nicolás Maduro, al que acusa de maltratar y torturar a los presos políticos y de los asesinatos cometidos contra los críticos como él. Es miembro de múltiples asociaciones, ha renunciado a tirar bombas y pegar tiros, y trabaja por la más noble de las causas: defender a los presos políticos y buscar protección y países que quieran recibir a los refugiados de cualquier índole. Sus ensayos son insólitos, porque la izquierda en América Latina no suele sostener tesis tan democráticas como las suyas.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza,

El tren bala japonés emitía un ruido ensordecedor cada vez que salía de un túnel. Un ruido que podía escucharse a 400 metros de distancia y que traía de cabeza a los vecinos que vivían cerca de las vías. Por suerte para ellos, uno de los ingenieros de la compañía ferroviaria japonesa, Eiji Nakatsu, era un ávido pajarero. En una de sus salidas al campo, se fijó en un martín pescador, esa vistosa ave azul eléctrico que custodia nuestros ríos. Es conocida su habilidad para zambullirse y pescar, un proceso en el que llega a alcanzar velocidades de 40 kilómetros hora, midiendo apenas un palmo.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

La Segunda Movida Madrileña se declara instalada, oficialmente en marcha y en movimiento. El «Madrid en mayo …» de Ernest Hemingway florece en junio con la oferta cultural definitiva, la del movimiento continuo. En una misma tarde/noche, en el estadio Metropolitano y la monumental de Las Ventas, los Rolling Stones y la corrida de la Beneficencia certifican algo que resulta ya inopinable: Madrid es la capital cultural del mundo en este y en todos los idiomas. El tercio de los sueños de Morante en Las Ventas y los Rolling Stones «que cada día cantan mejor» en el estadio. Algo se mueve y no es el piso.…  Seguir leyendo »

Con los Rolling, la OTAN, la Sociedad del Anillo y Juanma Moreno

EspañaElecciones

Decíamos ayer… ¿Decíamos ayer? No, decíamos hace 40 años: "Jagger es el ángel caído que siempre se levanta. Por eso, porque su energía parece interminable, el ‘mensaje Rolling’ no es, a pesar de la apariencia, un mensaje nihilista. Y es que nada merece la pena, excepto la posibilidad de gritarlo a todo gas".

"Es el vértigo del piloto de carreras, la atracción irresistible de las rugientes cataratas sobre el Niágara. Es la sublimación del acto por el acto. Mientras conservemos el vigor subsistirá la esperanza, por mucho que más allá de los decibelios furiosos de la batería de Charlie Watts todo sean estepas de silencio".…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial

El pasado 28 de mayo, miles de mujeres nos manifestamos en Madrid para exigir al Gobierno la aprobación de una legislación abolicionista de la prostitución. El movimiento feminista lleva décadas reclamándolo. Como décadas lleva autodenominándose el PSOE abolicionista sin promulgar una ley en este sentido.

La nueva ley orgánica de garantía integral de libertad sexual, conocida como la ley del sólo sí es sí, también se ha olvidado de las mujeres prostituidas. Una ley que se supone forma parte de las políticas que deben servir a la erradicación de la violencia sexual, pero que, sin embargo, ignora una de las más atroces formas de violencia sexual que pueden padecer mujeres y niñas.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

Uno de los inconvenientes más destacables del sistema democrático consiste en que los ciudadanos sean los que eligen a sus dirigentes políticos, porque los electores, con su voto libremente expresado, son los responsables de que sus dirigentes sean los que son. Puede ocurrir que unos candidatos se comporten como unos charlatanes de feria y engañen al electorado con grandes palabras, para luego comportarse al revés de lo que muchos de sus votantes esperaban, porque al emitir su voto pensaban en el futuro como si fuesen adivinos o augures, en vez de examinar el pasado de los aspirantes a gobernar y actuar en consecuencia.…  Seguir leyendo »

Mourners, soldiers, and military police carry the coffin of Egyptian conscript Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Ali, one of 11 soldiers killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, in Khanka, Egypt on May 8. -/AFP via Getty Images

MundoÁfricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

In early May, the Islamic State-Sinai Province killed 11 Egyptian soldiers and damaged a natural gas pipeline. Far from demonstrating the Islamic State’s power in the strategic peninsula, the attack was the first major incident in almost a year, a far cry from the full-blown jihadi insurgency that had gripped Sinai only a few years ago. The Egyptian military finally appears to be making progress in rolling back the group. Not only have there been fewer attacks, but Cairo’s funneling of economic development funds to the peninsula has also generated some goodwill among the long-restive population. In March 2021, a coalition of Bedouin tribesmen, armed civilians, and Egyptian military killed the region’s Islamic State leader.…  Seguir leyendo »

The empty streets near the Pyongyang Railway Station are seen as people stay away due to a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Pyongyang, North Korea, on May 27. Kim Won Jin/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAsia, , ,

As a COVID-19 wave engulfs North Korea, the question of reunification is moving to the fore. Tragically divided in the aftermath of World War II, the peninsula essentially suffered through a low-grade civil war in the decades since the Korean War ended.

Stitching together the two very different Koreas long looked improbable. However, North Korea is ill-prepared for a viral tsunami. Although it is premature to predict the Kim Jong Un dynasty’s doom, it would be foolish not to prepare for the possibility.

North Korea is one of only two countries that made no effort to vaccinate its people. (Eritrea, oft called the North Korea of Africa, is the other.)…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

Each year Crisis Group publishes two Updates to complement its EU Watch List. The Updates identify crises and conflicts where the European Union and its member states can help enhance prospects for peace. This Update includes entries on Libya, Mali, Nagorno-Karabakh, Pakistan and Ukraine.

Europeans have entered a new world since January, when Crisis Group published its 2022 EU Watch List. Back then, Russian troops were massing near Ukraine’s border. Western intelligence reports warned that an invasion could be on the cards, causing considerable disquiet in European capitals, but Moscow still insisted that its soldiers were merely conducting exercises. Then, on 24 February, Russia launched a full-scale invasion, turning what had been a grinding standoff in Ukraine’s east into a quest to conquer the whole country.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

The progress Libya made toward stability in 2021 has all but vanished. Then, an interim leader unified two competing cabinets, and rival factions agreed to schedule parliamentary and presidential elections that would eventually lead to the formation of a new elected government. But the elections were cancelled at the last minute and now the country is once again stuck in a standoff between two rival executives, one based in the western city of Tripoli and the other currently operating from the coastal city of Sirt in central Libya, with no consensus on the way forward.

The feud has not relapsed into an outright conflict, as thus far both camps and their respective foreign sponsors (some of whom have recently achieved their own rapprochements) appear reluctant to resume fighting.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

The Malian government’s conflict with jihadist insurgents has entered its tenth year with no resolution in sight. The government that came to power in 2021 has adopted a populist, anti-Western stance, blaming France, its long-time ally in fighting the militants, for the deadlock, while doubling down on offensive military action that has resulted in a surge in civilian casualties. Alienated by Bamako’s rhetoric and its decision to bring in the Russian private security company Wagner, France and other EU member states are withdrawing their troops from Mali, except for those deployed in the UN’s mission there. Although the Malian army has recently won limited victories in the country’s centre, the departure of its best equipped allies could shift the conflict’s momentum, energise militants and worsen the protracted humanitarian crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoCáucaso, ,

In the shadow of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a series of clashes and a subsequent period of quiet have raised both fears about renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and hopes that diplomacy might still bring the parties closer to peace. In March, Azerbaijani forces seized territory around Farukh, an ethnic Armenian-populated village that has been patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since a ceasefire ended the 2020 war that upended an almost three-decade status quo in the region. The Armenian government, along with Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto authorities, worried that the move might herald a broader Azerbaijani offensive, taking advantage of Moscow’s focus on Ukraine.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Though Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted through a democratic, constitutional process, he has denied the new government’s legitimacy, a tack that could lead to violence. The strategy Khan has relied on since parliament passed a no-confidence vote against him on 10 April has two goals: to undermine the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif and to galvanise popular support for new polls. Khan accuses his political opponents, now heading a new government, of conspiring with the U.S. to remove him, and is calling on his supporters to reject “foreign-imposed regime change”. He also bears grudges against the Supreme Court for upholding the constitutionality of the no-trust vote and against the country’s powerful military for refusing to back him in the standoff.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, , ,

Russia’s military assault on Ukraine, now in its fourteenth week, has deeply unsettled European security and is likely to have profound implications for the EU itself. On 24 February, Russian forces attacked Ukraine from the north, south and east, transforming a simmering eight-year conflict in the country’s eastern Donbas region into a war that arguably poses the gravest risk to international peace and security in decades. Russian forces encountered stiff Ukrainian resistance, soon reinforced by Western-supplied weapons and body armour, forcing Moscow at least to postpone its goals of overthrowing the government in Kyiv and bringing Ukraine back into Moscow’s sphere of influence.…  Seguir leyendo »