Viernes, 23 de junio de 2023

Jorge Juan: el sabio español olvidado

EspañaMemoria Histórica

En 1734, Felipe V recibió la solicitud de su sobrino Luis XV de Francia para que permitiese que una expedición de científicos franceses accediese al virreinato de Perú; desde allí deseaban realizar unas importantes medidas del meridiano cerca del ecuador terrestre. El rey español accedió, pero con una condición: en una Real Orden dispuso «elegir dos de sus más hábiles oficiales, que acompañasen y ayudasen a los académicos franceses en todas las operaciones de la medida», y esta elección recayó sobre los dos cadetes guardamarinas que más destacaban en la Academia de Cádiz. Sus nombres eran Antonio de Ulloa y Jorge Juan.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaAspectos Generales

A vosotros os dijeron que habría esperanza y seríais alguien. Venía bien acuñar el paraguas de la juventud sin futuro: sin casa, sin curro, sin pensión, sin miedo; tenía sentido, porque alguien os prometió que habría pensiones, trabajos y hogares. La decepción vino cuando esas expectativas, como todo lo sólido, se desvanecieron. El colapso sistémico de 2008 arrancó de cuajo miles de futuros: la clase media que avistaba su precarización ya no tendría recompensa para tanto máster y posgrado, adiós Erasmus, bienvenida la crueldad. Os dijeron que habíais vivido por encima de vuestras posibilidades; mi quinta, en cambio, la que en 2008 tenía siete u ocho años y hoy poco a poco alcanza los 23, ni siquiera había empezado a vivir y apenas llegó a generar recuerdos que no estuvieran marcados por la crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

Bob Dylan y la mayoría de edad

EspañaCultura y Ciencia

Sostenía el pensador Gilles Deleuze que los tiempos modernos no comenzaron a la vez en todas partes ni en todos los ámbitos. En la Física, la concepción moderna del tiempo nació en el siglo XVII, pero en la filosofía no se impuso hasta el siglo siguiente, y esa misma revolución no llegó al cine hasta el siglo XX. Entonces, a diferencia de las cintas de acción, en las cuales el héroe era siempre capaz restaurar el orden alterado, apareció un tipo de narración cinematográfica en la que, como en las películas de Orson Welles y en las del neorrealismo o la nouvelle vague, la adversidad es de tal magnitud que ningún héroe puede volver a poner el mundo sobre sus pies como hizo aún Hamlet, aunque fuese a costa de su vida.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaElecciones

Si en las próximas elecciones generales se repitieran en cada provincia exactamente los resultados de las elecciones municipales, podríamos vernos abocados a una nueva repetición electoral. La tercera en siete años y la segunda del presidente Sánchez. Ya que, si la CUP y los herederos de Convergència votaran en contra de una hipotética candidatura de Sánchez, como ya hicieron en enero del 2020, y como harán ante una candidatura de Feijóo, ningún candidato puede que consiga la mayoría simple en segunda vuelta.

Sin embargo, el escenario más probable sigue pasando por un Gobierno de coalición de un bloque, a partir del tradicional clivaje derecha-izquierda.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaSocial

Trabajo en publicidad, el esfuerzo que hacen las compañías que producen y venden bienes de consumo por explicarse. Es obvio que la publicidad depende de alcanzar al público. Desde antiguo ha habido empresas que se han dedicado a captar nuestra atención o, en palabras de Paolo Vasile, a fabricar audiencia. Después esa audiencia se vende a las marcas. Ya se sabe, cuando algo es gratis, el producto eres tú. Mi oficio era relativamente simple en la época en que las audiencias estaban convocadas en unos pocos medios de gran influencia: la radio, la prensa, las revistas, y sobre todo la televisión.…  Seguir leyendo »

El presidente del Gobierno, Pedro Sánchez

EspañaElecciones

El ejercicio de la política se parece a la vida personal, sobre todo, en que siempre acaba mal. Hasta los mejores, como Churchill, terminan derrotados. Hay pocas dudas de que la decisión de Sánchez al anunciar una inmediata convocatoria electoral tras un indiscutible varapalo es tratar de burlar un ocaso que a él se le antoja precipitado, inmerecido, casi irreal.

Como dice con frecuencia Guillermo Gortázar, la política consiste en no saber lo que va a pasar mañana, de manera que pecarían de soberbia los que den por muerto a quien ha decidido plantar batalla de modo tan imprevisto.

Para empezar, no faltan los antecedentes, puesto que una derrota socialista frente al PP de Rajoy, muy similar a la reciente, en las elecciones municipales y autonómicas de 2007, fue seguida no mucho después de una victoria bastante cómoda del PSOE de Rodríguez Zapatero en las parlamentarias de 2008.…  Seguir leyendo »

AXEL HEIMKEN/AFP via Getty Images)

InternacionalEconomía

En abril, el CEO de Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, predijo que la inteligencia artificial tendría un impacto “más profundo” que cualquier otra innovación humana, desde el fuego hasta la electricidad. Si bien es imposible saber con precisión cuál será el impacto, dos cambios parecen particularmente factibles: la demanda de mano de obra caerá y la productividad aumentará. En otras palabras, pareciera que estamos avanzando hacia un modelo económico sin mano de obra, en el que harán falta menos trabajadores humanos para sustentar el crecimiento.

Los empleos en apoyo administrativo, servicios legales y contabilidad parecen enfrentar el riesgo más inmediato como consecuencia de las nuevas tecnologías de IA generativa, entre ellas los grandes modelos de lenguaje como ChatGPT-4.…  Seguir leyendo »

A new Iran nuclear deal might be on the horizon

MundoOriente Próximo,

Is the Biden administration’s strategy on Iran’s nuclear ambitions drifting dangerously from prevention to containment?

Reports are cropping up that the administration and the Iranians are discussing new agreements that would, in theory, seek to limit the Tehran’s nuclear program. While denying any deals are imminent, a senior Biden administration official acknowledged that there have been indirect talks with the Iranian government in Oman.

The Iranians are being less coy. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, formerly the head of the Foreign Policy and National Security Committee in the Iranian parliament, claims that unwritten understandings have already been reached. The Biden administration “will close its eyes to some of Iran’s energy deals, and [allow] the release of some of Iran’s frozen funds in return for Iran refraining from expanding its nuclear program more than the current level”, he said.…  Seguir leyendo »

Children blowing bubbles at a makeshift migrant camp in Loon-Plage, northern France. Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images.

MundoAméricaMundoAsia,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington, one of only three state visits hosted by US President Joe Biden, casts a spotlight on a strategic partnership that has been more than two decades in the making, but has now taken on a new significance.

In the course of the last year, India has displaced the UK to become the fifth largest economy globally and replaced China as the most populous nation. In 2022, India was the fourth largest military spender in the world.

Combined with its position as the world’s largest democracy, a leader in technology and science, and a youthful nation, India makes for a compelling and attractive partner.…  Seguir leyendo »

Demonstrating after courts suspended Carlos Pineda’s presidential candidacy, Guatemala City, May 2023

MundoAmérica

From 1996 to 1999, Guatemala’s Commission for Historical Clarification faced the daunting task of counting the dead. The country was just emerging from a 36-year internal armed conflict ended by UN-sponsored peace talks between the government and the remnants of a few leftist guerrilla groups. The final death toll came to around 200,000, according to the commission. Nine in ten victims, the majority of them indigenous, had been killed by the state security forces or their paramilitary allies. Even in Latin America, where brutal Cold War–era counterinsurgencies were widespread, Guatemala’s state-led terror had no equal.

But the armed conflict had not yet claimed its final victim: Guatemala’s democracy.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Korea Model

MundoAsiaEuropa, , , , ,

In the middle of August 1952, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai traveled nearly 4,000 miles to Moscow to meet with the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Zhou was acting as an emissary for the leader of China, Mao Zedong. The two Communist powers were allies at the time, but it was not a partnership of equals: the Soviet Union was a superpower, and China depended on it for economic assistance and military equipment. Two years earlier, Mao and Stalin had embarked on a joint venture of sorts, giving their blessing to the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung when he invaded South Korea.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

Here is talk of President Joe Biden’s climate envoy visiting China in the coming weeks. If the trip goes ahead, John Kerry will be the second senior American official to hold talks in Beijing in under a month. The recent visit of Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, secured the resumption of some of the bilateral dialogues suspended by China after Nancy Pelosi, at the time the speaker of the House of Representatives, went to Taiwan last year.

In the wake of Mr Biden’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Bali last November, Mr Blinken had been expected to go to China earlier this year.…  Seguir leyendo »

Liberian children greet China's former president, Hu Jintao, on his arrival in the capital city of Monrovia on Feb. 1, 2007. Christopher Herwig/Reuters

MundoAsiaInternacionalEconomía,

When around 50 country leaders gather in Paris on Thursday and Friday for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, the main question on their agenda is a familiar one: how to tackle climate change and global poverty. Yet the summit is less conventional than it first appears: France and Barbados, the event’s co-organizers, seek to advance these goals through new rules for restructuring developing countries’ debt, a prerequisite for giving them more fiscal space to help their populations. This focus is unusual, and it shows that aid is becoming the next battleground in the competition for global influence between China and the West.…  Seguir leyendo »

Workers clean debris from a bus station destroyed by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian town of Kupiansk, located in the Kharkiv region, on March 7. Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images

Europa, , , ,

Though it may seem premature to discuss Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, with a Ukrainian counteroffensive launched two weeks ago making some small gains in the south of the country, in fact, the moment to do so is now. At the latest G-7 meeting in Japan, leaders reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that Ukraine has the economic support it needs for recovery and reconstruction, a project that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called “not a project of one nation, but a joint task of the entire democratic world”. And the U.S. Congress is currently structuring its fifth supplemental appropriations bill for Ukraine.

Central to a successful reconstruction effort will be curbing corruption.…  Seguir leyendo »

From left to right: Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pose for photos at the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 1. Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images

InternacionalOrden Mundial

In 2001, Goldman Sachs banker Jim O’Neill created the acronym “BRIC” to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, and China—countries he predicted would soon have a significant impact on the global economy. In 2006, Goldman Sachs opened a BRIC investment fund pegged to growth in these four nations. The moniker captured the global excitement about emerging powers at the time and transformed into a political grouping in 2009, when leaders of the four countries held their first summit. South Africa joined a year later.

BRICS as a political body has faced countless critics and doubters from the start. Analysts in the Western press largely described the outfit as nonsensical and predicted its imminent demise.…  Seguir leyendo »

Young protesters hold placards during a 'Fridays for climate' demonstration in Athens, in May 2019, ahead of EU elections. Fast forward to 2023 and Greek voters - some as young as 16 - will be heading to the polls in national elections this Sunday. Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Internacional,

When Greek citizens go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament, an entirely new voting segment will weigh in. This year is the first that those between the ages of 17 and 21 will get a chance to vote in national elections, putting an estimated 430,000 more people on the rolls and in the thick of Greek politics.

Some could even be as young as 16 – provided they are turning 17 this election year.

Their ballots could tip the scales, depending on the overall turnout. But whether they are decisive or not, Greece, the birthplace of democracy, is the latest country to offer the youngest of Generation Z a voice – thereby giving representative democracy a welcome boost in an age when cynicism and complacency is sapping even longstanding democratic cultures.…  Seguir leyendo »

A child rides a bike through floodwaters in Funafuti, Tuvalu, a Pacific nation struggling to cope with the impacts of the climate crisis. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

ReflexionesNaturaleza,

The science is clear. The climate crisis is the biggest single threat we face as a global community. In turn, meeting the goals of the Paris agreement and realising the opportunities of climate action is the task of the 21st century.

No single government can address this alone. Together, we can rise to the challenge.

When leaders gathered in Bretton Woods in 1944 as the second world war was winding to its close, they set themselves a formidable task.

Their job was to design an international financial system that would reduce global recessions and instability, and lead to a steadier international political environment than the one which bedevilled the first half of the 20th century.…  Seguir leyendo »

A supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party wears a mask of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Kashmir. Farooq Khan/EPA, via Shutterstock

MundoAsia

On Thursday the White House will roll out the red carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to “affirm the deep and close partnership between the United States and India” and “strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific”. A state dinner and Mr. Modi’s address to a joint session of Congress will crown months of fawning assessments of India by everyone from Bill Gates to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The message couldn’t be plainer: In Cold War II with China, the United States wants India on its side.

As an American of Indian origin, I welcome the economic transformations in India that in my lifetime have slashed the number of people living in extreme poverty, swelled the middle class and modernized infrastructure (though not enough to prevent a devastating train crash this month).…  Seguir leyendo »