Miércoles, 8 de febrero de 2023

EspañaJusticia

A nadie se le escapa que la reforma legal llevada a cabo por la LO 10/2022, de 6 de septiembre, de garantía integral de la libertad sexual -la mal llamada ley solo sí es sí- ha resultado un fracaso absoluto.

Y era evidente que iba a ser así. La reforma impulsada por el Ministerio de Igualdad abandonó los más básicos criterios de técnica jurídica, y los sustituyó, no solo por criterios ideológicos -algo que, en su justa medida, y si se conjuga con una buena técnica legislativa, podría ser legítimo-, sino por una serie de eslóganes publicitarios que además no reflejaban la realidad.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Nunca estuvo Cristina Kirchner más alejada del sentir nacional. Le son ajenos tanto el drama (la inflación anual del 94%, la pobreza), como el éxtasis y la euforia. Al punto que parece ser la única argentina a la que el Mundial le jugó en contra. Cristina, que supo hacer de la escena política argentina una ópera centrada en sus gestos y silencios, se encuentra desde hace tiempo perdida en un laberinto personal, al que intenta disfrazar sin éxito de épica nacional.

A principios de diciembre, en el marco de la causa Vialidad, Cristina fue condenada a seis años de prisión por malversación de fondos públicos; de permanecer firme, la sentencia la inhabilitaría a ejercer cargos políticos.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSanidad y Salud Pública

Por primera vez coincido con Isabel Díaz Ayuso: la huelga de médicos Sí es política. Porque política es decidir cómo se gestionan los dineros públicos y qué partidas se destinan a servicios sociales, sanidad y educación. Otra cosa es que sea partidista. No, señora Ayuso: el único interés que nos anima a los médicos en huelga es la defensa de una sanidad pública de calidad, universal y gratuita.

Los usos y costumbres definen la realidad de la atención primaria con frases carentes de toda la significación que deberían tener. Es el primer nivel de atención sanitaria, cuando aplicando la propiedad conmutativa debiera decirse que Es una atención de primer nivel, como demuestran multitud de estudios, el último de ellos publicado este año en el British Journal of General Practice en el que se evidencia el beneficio que la longitudinalidad de la atención, característica de la atención primaria, otorga a la población que se atiende: tener al mismo médico de familia durante 15 años o más reduce la mortalidad en un 25%.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial

Salgo a la calle y me encuentro sangre en el pavimento. Una gran gota de sangre, y luego otra, un chorrito, un poco más de sangre. A alguien le han roto la boca, o le han pinchado con una navaja: vaya usted a saber. No tengo tiempo para pensar. Hace frío. Mucho. El viento me da en la cara y tengo que apurarme para otra entrevista de trabajo. Otra más.

Llegué a Madrid hace un tiempo. Conseguí alquilarme en una habitación pequeña, en un apartamento alejado, que comparto con dos jóvenes actores que tienen veinte años. Han hecho un par de series de televisión, pero aun así a cada rato tienen que volver a trabajar en servicio: poner copas, fregar platos.…  Seguir leyendo »

Amigo Juan, maestro Velarde

ReflexionesTestimonios

«Yo, como economista…». La voz potente del profesor y académico transmitía siempre sabiduría y rigor intelectual al servicio de sus profundas convicciones. Juan Velarde Fuertes (Salas, Asturias, 1927-Madrid, 2023) falleció el pasado 3 de febrero a sus jóvenes noventa y tantos años, cuando muchos llegamos a pensar que ese luctuoso día no llegaría nunca. Desprendía esa bondad de corte socrático que permite asegurar –por fortuna– que los buenos somos más felices. Su mal genio característico dejaba paso a una reconciliación inmediata para olvidar rápidamente cualquier discrepancia. Fue siempre, eso sí, un pésimo conspirador. Ni una sola batalla ganó en su vida en el terreno donde triunfan los mediocres, de manera que el éxito y reconocimiento general le llegaron por aplastamiento.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

La cumbre entre los Gobiernos de España y Marruecos y las ausencias con las que ha contado han dejado en un segundo plano una noticia importante: el acuerdo entre el PSC y ERC para la aprobación de los presupuestos de la Generalidad de Cataluña. La docena de acuerdos alcanzados en Rabat no son para España menos significativos que el firmado en la plaza de San Jaime de Barcelona.

No tiene sentido lamentarse por los desaires de nuestros vecinos, los ganamos a pulso. Una nación que no es capaz de sostener su fortaleza interior es imposible que pretenda ser respetada en el exterior.…  Seguir leyendo »

La amenaza de la desindustrialización alemana sigue vigente

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

Hace unos meses Alemania se preparaba para un duro invierno. Cuando Rusia cortó la provisión de gas natural a Europa y los precios más que se duplicaron, los funcionarios alemanes advirtieron que podía haber cortes eléctricos y suspensiones escalonadas del servicio. Se dice que algunas ciudades planeaban convertir instalaciones deportivas en «salones calefaccionados» para pobres y ancianos, y los medios especulaban sobre el racionamiento energético... pero esas predicciones no se materializaron. Frente a un desafío histórico, Alemania demostró tener una capacidad de recuperación superior a la que muchos le atribuían.

De todas formas, el país sigue en pánico. En vez de preocuparse por conseguir calentadores de gas, sin embargo, los alemanes siguen atribulados por el fantasma de la desindustrialización.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

Golpeada por la pandemia del COVID-19 y la guerra en Ucrania, la Unión Europea necesita dinero. Y dado que Paolo Gentiloni, el comisionado de Asuntos Económicos del bloque, no puede conseguirlo directamente de los estados miembro de la UE, tiene que pedirlo prestado. El propósito parece no importar. Lo que importa es que la Comisión reciba dinero -en grandes cantidades-, aunque eso signifique acumular una montaña de deuda.

En 2020, Gentiloni desempeñó un papel crucial en la creación de NextGenerationEU (NGEU), el programa de emergencia que le permitió a la UE tomar prestados más de 800.000 millones de euros (858.000 millones de dólares) para hacer frente a los efectos de la pandemia del COVID-19.…  Seguir leyendo »

Pervez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan, in March 2013. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoOriente Próximo

Pakistan’s fourth military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who died in Dubai on Sunday, reflected the contradictions and paradoxes that continue to trouble his country more than a decade after his removal from office.

A military man with a learned contempt for civilians, he assumed absolute power in a military coup in 1999 promising to restore democracy, rebuild the economy, and bring an end to terrorism. He failed on all counts. He was driven from power in 2008 by civilians intent on making an example of him, targeting him with prosecution that preceding military rulers had evaded. He went into exile and assumed a much lower profile.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Yanomami woman and a baby in a rural area in the Amazonian state of Roraima, Brazil, on Feb. 1. (Raphael Alves/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

MundoAmérica, ,

In late January, harrowing pictures from the Yanomami Indigenous reserve began popping up on Brazilian social media. Emaciated children with famine-bloated bellies stared at nothing. Adults reduced to wraiths languished in hammocks. Rescue choppers airlifted dire cases to critical care. The stricken were not victims of a natural disaster or deadly pathogen, but of an all-too-familiar Brazilian affliction: human plunder, waved on by the highest authorities.

It is encouraging that the new government has declared a health emergency and dispatched first responders to northern Roraima state, where Brazil meets Venezuela — the epicenter of the Amazon gold rush. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited a crowded Indigenous infirmary in Boa Vista, the state capital.…  Seguir leyendo »

Emergency team members search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, on Feb. 7. (Francisco Seco/AP)

Europa,

Large earthquakes are always a surprise — and always inevitable. Monday’s deadly events in Turkey and Syria are no different. The fault system that caused them and the region’s seismicity are well documented from painstaking field studies, historical records and geophysical observations over many decades. Yet no seismologist could have predicted the exact location, time and magnitude of this week’s quakes.

That said, the past is a good guide to what to do now. Lessons learned from previous earthquakes can now be applied in the region. And this disaster can serve as a warning to be ready for earthquakes to come.…  Seguir leyendo »

In front of a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 2023. Corinna Kern / File Photo / Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo

After winning an unexpectedly large electoral victory in November 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu went on to form the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Its ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox members don’t agree on everything, but they are united on one objective: weakening Israel’s judiciary and strengthening government control over both the courts and the civil service.

Last month, Netanyahu’s government unveiled plans to do just that. Although they are couched in moderate terms, these planned changes would erode almost all institutional checks and balances, concentrating immense power in the hands of the executive. This would, in turn, enable further steps already agreed upon by the coalition to push the nation in the direction of authoritarianism—both in Israel and in the territories it occupies.…  Seguir leyendo »

What Russia Got Wrong

Europa, , ,

Three months before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan met in Moscow with Nikolai Patrushev, an ultra-hawkish adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Burns and Sullivan informed Patrushev that they knew of Russia’s invasion plans and that the West would respond with severe consequences if Russia proceeded. According to Burns, Patrushev said nothing about the invasion. Instead, he looked them in the eye, conveying what Burns took as a message: the Russian military could achieve what it wanted.

Once home, the two Americans informed U.S. President Joe Biden that Moscow had made up its mind.…  Seguir leyendo »

Survivors rescued from migrant vessels aboard the Geo Barents, a Médecins Sans Frontières ship in the Central Mediterranean, September 7, 2022. Jérôme Tubiana

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

Since the election of a far-right government in Italy in September, Europe’s debate over migration has flared up again. Although it has no legal basis for doing so, the new administration in Rome has been trying to impose a naval blockade against NGO vessels rescuing migrants, who continue to board overcrowded boats for the sake of crossing the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy.

Summer, when the sea is calm, is the season of most of the crossings. Last August the two of us boarded the Geo Barents, a rescue vessel run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, for a “rotation” of an unpredictable duration (most last two to four weeks).…  Seguir leyendo »

A schoolboy in Bangui learns how to say ‘goodbye’ in Russian © Barbara Debout/FT

MundoÁfricaEuropaInternacionalOrden Mundial

At Saint André’s Orthodox cathedral in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, Regis Saint Clair Voyemawa, the monsignor, has switched allegiance from the patriarchate of Constantinople to that of Moscow.

Russia funded the restoration of frescoes and a new façade for his dilapidated cathedral and paid for Voyemawa to spend three months in Moscow last year. It donated $6,000 to build a school classroom where 60 children, all orphans from the country’s civil war, receive basic Russian language classes. Several small children recently sat before a blackboard repeating “do svidaniya, papa; do svidaniya, maman”, while others wrote “spassiva” on personal chalkboards.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia,

On May 1, 1960, an American pilot, Francis Gary Powers, took off from a military airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan, in a top-secret U-2 spy plane to fly 3,000 miles across the Soviet Union, and take high resolution photos of military facilities.

His specially-designed plane, flying higher than any other, out of the range of Soviet interceptors, was thought to be impervious to identification or attack. Wrong.

The Soviets knew it was coming, and fighter jets shadowed it from below as soon as it entered their airspace. Eventually, as it passed over an advanced air defense location, a Soviet S-75 surface-to-air missile shot it out of the skies.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

In a recent piece for By Invitation, Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist, argued against efforts to maximise carbon reductions by 2030, on the basis that “hoping to deploy today’s innovations globally is unrealistic”. At the heart of his argument lies the claim that wind and solar “can only be a minority share of our electric-power generation…because they are not reliable enough to comprise so-called ‘baseload power’”.

Back in the 20th century, in order to reconcile the need for affordability and reliability, electricity operators ran big, inflexible plants flat out to cover the minimum demand level, or “baseload”. This they supplemented with smaller, flexible “peaking” plants to match demand at all times.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Palestinian home being demolished in Ras al-Amud, East Jerusalem, 21 January 2023. Photograph: Sinan Abu Mayzer/Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo

Almost every day, the bulldozers are on the move. In the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, my city, Israeli forces are demolishing homes on an almost daily basis. Dispossession and discrimination have been a longstanding reality here in the eastern part of the city, under Israeli military occupation for 56 years, but under the new far-right Israeli government, Jerusalem has seen a spike in demolitions – more than 30 structures were destroyed in January alone.

The news from our region in western capitals and media outlets tends to be dominated by bloodshed – and the Palestinian people are going through some of the most violent, destructive and lethal days in recent memory.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., shaking hands with President Richard Nixon in 1969 in Manila. Bettmann/Getty Images

MundoAméricaMundoOceanía,

For Filipinos like me who grew up under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the news that the U.S. military would expand its presence in the Philippines has been dizzying and wounding.

The image of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin shaking hands in Manila last week with the country’s fatuously smiling president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former despot, was like some tragic Groundhog Day. Mr. Marcos was elected in May. So Filipinos not only find themselves with another President Marcos, but also with another creeping occupation by the U.S. military under the guise of East Asian security.

The Philippine Senate put an end to the permanent basing of American forces three decades ago.…  Seguir leyendo »

An American M1 Abrams battle tank during a NATO military exercise in Latvia last year. Ints Kalnins/Reuters

MundoAméricaEuropa, , , ,

The United States’ recent promise to ship advanced M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine was a swift response to a serious problem. The problem is that Ukraine is losing the war. Not, as far as we can tell, because its soldiers are fighting poorly or its people have lost heart, but because the war has settled into a World War I-style battle of attrition, complete with carefully dug trenches and relatively stable fronts.

Such wars tend to be won — as indeed World War I was — by the side with the demographic and industrial resources to hold out longest. Russia has more than three times Ukraine’s population, an intact economy and superior military technology.…  Seguir leyendo »