Articles in English

Whether or not the throngs of protesters in Kiev succeed in ousting Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, they have proven one thing: Their civic sensibility is in many ways more mature than that of the political establishment.

Demonstrators occupying the city center have created what is possibly the largest self-organizing, self-sustaining revolutionary commune the world has seen since the 1968 riots in Paris. The Euromaidan -- as the protesters' camp in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, is known -- is increasingly looking like a nation within a nation.

The protests began on Nov. 21 after the Ukrainian government backpedaled from signing an association and free trade deal with the European Union.…  Seguir leyendo »

When a political crisis hits Pyongyang, the leadership's normal antidote is to hide the real drama in rumors and shadows while assuring the world that outside forces are no match for North Korea's spirit of "single-hearted unity." But North Korea's real-time media coverage of the vituperative public denunciation and execution of Jang Song Taek, the uncle by marriage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has exposed deep divisions within the Kim family leadership and has shocked North Koreans and outsiders alike with its suddenness and its brutality.

By making this bold move to consolidate his power, Kim has shown great confidence.…  Seguir leyendo »

First came “Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists,” a 2012 edition of the British literary magazine. Then Brazil was the guest of honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, held in October and attended by some 90 authors representing the country’s literary diversity. Next year we will perform a similar role at the Goteborg Book Fair in Sweden and at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy.

And yet, despite all this fanfare, when in Brazil, do not tell anyone you’re a writer. Not only will they deny you credit at the grocery store, but almost certainly they will laugh at you, asking right away: “No, seriously.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Kamba people of Kenya claim they were warned about the evils of colonialism long before the first colonialist arrived. The legend goes that the prophet Syokimau, back in the early 19th century, told her people of “a long narrow snake spitting fire” that would make its way up from the East African Coast, bringing with it “red people” who would take away their land. She was right; it was the railroads more than anything else that enabled European colonialists to exploit Kenya’s people and extract its wealth during the first half of the 20th century.

The 1,000-kilometer track stretching from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Uganda was Britain’s most ambitious project in Sub-Saharan Africa.…  Seguir leyendo »

For centuries, economic thinkers, from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, have tried to identify the elusive formula that makes some countries more prosperous and successful than others. My curiosity about this topic spurred me, as a young professor of economics in the late 1970s, to research new ways of measuring national competitiveness.

Discussions about economic performance, and levels of prosperity more broadly, have inevitably been accompanied by a desire to classify countries so as to better understand the forces that drive development and to improve economic policy.

Historically, a distinction was made between “developing” and “industrialized” economies. More recently, the term “emerging markets” came into vogue.…  Seguir leyendo »

As he does in many countries, Bob Dylan enjoys a great reputation in Croatia. In 2008 and 2010, he gave concerts here that received excellent reviews and publicity. But some of his Croatian fans are saddened, even outraged, that their musical idol expressed himself carelessly in describing their country’s historically fraught relationship with neighboring Serbia.

In an interview last year, Rolling Stone quoted Mr. Dylan as saying: “Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery — that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that. If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been compared to many strongmen of the past — Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, to name a few. But after nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparison now may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Eva (“Evita”).

In the early 1940s, Colonel Peron, as Minister of Labor and Secretary of War, was a “gray cardinal” to Argentina’s rulers. Before communism collapsed in 1989, Colonel Putin, also memorably gray, was a devoted KGB operative, entrusted with spreading disinformation and recruiting Soviet and foreign agents in East Germany.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Geneva Interim Accord on Iran’s nuclear programs may trigger Israeli military action.

As these talks continue and drag on, look for a startling development: Israel may attack Iran’s heavy-water reactor — now being completed near Arak — arguing that Iran does not need to manufacture weapons-grade plutonium if its nuclear programs are truly peaceful as claimed. Not being involved in the interim agreement, Israel would be free to act, points out 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in a recent interview.

Former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz wrote in a Dec. 2 opinion article in The Wall Street Journal that six U.N.…  Seguir leyendo »

Pyongyang announced on December 12 the trial and execution of Jang Sung-taek, former vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission and uncle to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Although Kim has already purged hundreds of officials during his two year reign, Jang's ouster is highly unusual, even by North Korean standards.

Jang is married to the sister of the late leader Kim Jong-il and it had been expected he would be safe from a purge until after her death. In the past, when members of the North Korean senior leadership strata were purged, they usually simply stopped appearing in North Korean media.…  Seguir leyendo »

After last week's suspension of non-lethal aid to the Free Syrian Army by the US and UK, western strategy towards the country lies in tatters. Washington and London were forced to act after Islamist rebels, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, took over the headquarters and warehouses of the western-backed FSA and reportedly seized anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, some of which are said to be American-supplied.

This humiliating defeat shows the rise of the Islamist rebels, most of whom oppose political dialogue with President Bashar al-Assad's regime and call for the establishment of a Qur'anic-based state. It also demonstrates the near-collapse of the FSA, which the west had hoped would unify the rebels, lead the campaign to topple Assad, and then take on al-Qaida.…  Seguir leyendo »

On Dec. 1, 1948 — 65 years ago this month — Jose Figueres, then president of Costa Rica, made a fiery and eloquent speech, after which he took a sledgehammer and bashed a hole in a huge stone wall at the nation's military headquarters, Cuartel Bellavista. Its imposing towers and massive gates had loomed over the capital city of San Jose since 1917, the country's premier symbol of military power and the home of the "Tico" military establishment.

Figueres was not just being a showman; he was announcing something truly extraordinary: Henceforth, Costa Rica would take the almost unheard-of step of renouncing its military.…  Seguir leyendo »

Bangladesh, most beautiful and tragic of countries, today risks tearing itself apart in renewed vicious and deeply personal squabbles over its violent creation.

It is as if the tormented ghosts of the country’s bloody past are rising to seek revenge. It is time for Bangladeshi and international leaders to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to exorcise the ghosts and try to heal the deep wounds before it is too late.

A twist in the tragedy is that it had begun to look as if — despite the terrible disasters of late in garment factories — Bangladesh was finally going to justify the golden dreams of its founding fathers and give the lie to Henry Kissinger who dismissed the country as an eternal basket case.…  Seguir leyendo »

Have you noticed how the Higgs boson has been hogging the limelight lately? For a measly little invisible item, whose significance cannot be explained without appealing to thorny concepts of quantum field theory, it has done pretty well for itself. The struggling starlets of Hollywood could learn a thing or two about the dark art of self-promotion from this boson.

First, its elusiveness “sparked the greatest hunt in science,” as the subtitle of one popular book put it. Then came all the hoopla over its actual discovery. Or should I say discoveries? Because those clever, well-meaning folks at the CERN laboratory outside Geneva proclaimed their finding of the particle not once but twice.…  Seguir leyendo »

While it is very late in the game, it is not too late to return Ukraine to the path of European integration.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, enraged by President Viktor Yanu­kovych’s recent rejection of painstakingly negotiated trade agreements with the European Union, continue to protest Yanukovych’s apparent turn toward Moscow and the corruption and cronyism of his government. There is a clear danger that the demonstrations will escalate, bloodshed will ensue and Ukraine’s fragile democracy will unravel.

The Obama administration is doing a good job of crisis management — stressing the need to respect the right of peaceful assembly and urging calm — but that is not enough.…  Seguir leyendo »

One of the most notable aspects of Uruguay’s history-making legalization of marijuana on Tuesday is how ill-prepared the government is to handle the pot business.

First, a plug: Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica is from that rare strain of leftist politician who deserves some respect. Not only is he taking on a new approach to the U.S. government's failed war on drugs, but he also has the political backbone to support a law that almost two-thirds of Uruguayans reject. His administration has passed several progressive laws such as legalizing gay marriage. Plus, Mujica is running manageable budget deficits and low enough debt levels to earn investment-grade credit scores from the three top rating agencies.…  Seguir leyendo »

As scientists from around the world gathered in San Francisco for the American Geophysical Union meeting, the success stories are pouring in. On Monday, the Mars Curiosity mission team released a new study showing that the former lake bed in which the Rover landed could once have supported microbial life. The Cassini mission to Saturn released a spectacular video of mysterious hexagonal clouds whirling over the planet's pole.

But the question on everyone's mind is: Will these missions be allowed to continue? The answer may well be: No.

Next year's NASA budget is poised to force premature cancellation of either Curiosity or Cassini -- the agency's flagship missions.…  Seguir leyendo »

Pakistani institutions are evolving rapidly. With executive authority increasingly in the hands of elected representatives, rather than dispersed among various competing institutions, the political establishment has been revitalized — and it has taken three important steps toward strengthening democracy and the rule of law.

Is Pakistan, a country long prone to military coups, finally developing a well-functioning political system?

On Nov. 27, Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain — acting on the prime minister’s advice, as the constitution dictates — announced that Gen. Raheel Sharif would succeed Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as chief of army staff, even though Sharif was not among the military establishment’s favored candidates.…  Seguir leyendo »

Earlier this year, I was on holiday in Corsica and wandered into the church of a tiny hamlet in the hills where I found a memorial to the dead from World War I. Out of a population that can have been no more than 150, eight young men, bearing among them only three last names, had died in that conflict. Such lists can be found all over Europe, in great cities and in small villages. Similar memorials are spread around the globe, for the Great War, as it was known before 1940, also drew soldiers from Asia, Africa and North America.…  Seguir leyendo »

En las mañanas heladas del invierno, las muchachas de servicio no andaban por las calles de Madrid. Las recuerdo siempre corriendo, los brazos cruzados sobre el pecho para intentar retener el calor de una chaqueta de lana. Recuerdo también a ciertos hombres oscuros que caminaban despacio, las solapas de la americana levantadas y una maleta de cartón en la mano. Yo los miraba, me preguntaba si no tendrían frío, me admiraba de su entereza y me guardaba mi curiosidad para mí.

En los años sesenta del siglo XX, la curiosidad era un vicio peligroso para los niños españoles. Crecimos entre fotografías — a veces enmarcadas sobre una cómoda, a veces enterradas en un cajón — de personas jóvenes y sonrientes a quienes no conocíamos.…  Seguir leyendo »

In broad terms, there are two strains of government in Latin America: the new populism, exemplified by Venezuela or Argentina, and the pro-market model long represented by Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Will Chile pull back from this paradigm if the Socialist former president, Michelle Bachelet, wins the presidential election as expected on Sunday?

Not necessarily. When Ms. Bachelet was president, from 2006 to 2010, she focused on health care and social welfare programs for the elderly and medical care for pensioners. But she was broadly popular and represented a center-left coalition that had held power for two decades and had not undermined free-market capitalism.…  Seguir leyendo »