Miércoles, 7 de septiembre de 2022 (Continuación)

MundoAmérica

I confess that I am in mourning. On Sunday, a resounding 62% of the voters in Chile, my country, rejected the adoption of a new and progressive Magna Carta; leaving in place, for now, the fraudulent constitution imposed by dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1980 that has acted as a straitjacket to indispensable reforms.

Like many of my compatriots I believed that the new constitution, born in response to a popular revolt three years ago, would be ratified. It was the most ecologically advanced such founding document in world history, granting personhood to nature, protecting rivers and air and forests. It extended democracy, established gender parity and popular participation, granted Indigenous peoples the recognition they had been denied for centuries, lovingly answered the need for universal health care, decent education and pension funds, access to water, sovereignty over mineral resources, the care for animals and children – things that generations of Chileans have been fighting for.…  Seguir leyendo »

Why Gorbachev Mattered

ReflexionesTestimonios,

No world leader has a bigger place in the history of the late 20th century than Mikhail Gorbachev, for the pivotal role he played in the peaceful end of the Cold War. The free world will be forever grateful to him, even if many of his fellow citizens are not.

In the 1950s and ’60s the Soviet Union rolled in the tanks to keep its empire together amid several similar anti-Soviet uprisings: In East Germany in 1953, in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

But on Oct. 6, 1989, Gorbachev charted a new path. In a speech at the People’s Assembly building in East Berlin he concluded that every country in Eastern Europe should find its own path to socialism.…  Seguir leyendo »

Liz Truss, Britain’s incoming prime minister. Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Europa

“Do we confront this moment with honesty”, asked Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates running to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister of Britain, “or do we tell ourselves comforting fairy tales?”

The answer, from the Conservative Party membership, at least, is fairy tales. On Monday, the members elected Liz Truss as their new leader and the next prime minister. In a campaign built around a belief in the miraculous power of tax cuts, Ms. Truss presented herself as the economic savior of a country heading into a winter of crisis. In the face of sky-high inflation and widespread economic misery, it’s a fantastical proposition.…  Seguir leyendo »

Una zona residencial inundada en el distrito de Dadu, en la provincia de Sindh. Husnain Ali/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo,  

Escuchamos esta historia todo el tiempo, a modo de advertencia: cuando el hombre puso el pie por primera vez en la Tierra, todos los animales alados volaron hacia el cielo y los peces se sumergieron en el mar, dispersándose con miedo, porque sabían que había llegado el destructor del mundo.

¿Qué es el folclor sino una profecía?

En los últimos días, una tercera parte de mi país, Pakistán, quedó bajo el agua. Luego de unas lluvias monzónicas inusualmente intensas durante varias semanas, las aguas de las crecidas repentinas se abrieron paso hasta el río Indo y ocasionaron que se desbordara. Según los expertos en climatología, el rápido deshielo de los glaciares provocado por el aumento de las temperaturas contribuyó a esta inundación de proporciones épicas.…  Seguir leyendo »