Timothy Garton Ash (Continuación)

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate

On New Year's Day, the silent empire expanded again. Its new colonies celebrated their incorporation as a liberation - which, for most individual Romanians and Bulgarians, it will be. Twenty years ago, they were the impoverished subjects of dictatorships. (Remember Nicolae Ceausescu and his Securitate secret police?) Now they are citizens of the largest, most integrated community of liberal democracies in the world. For all the corruption, unemployment and other discontents of their current, very imperfect democracies, that is progress. Meanwhile, countries around the empire's edge queue up crying: "Take us in, please!" Of what other empire in history has that been true?…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

In world politics, 2007 may be the year of realism. If that means getting rid of dangerous illusions, it's a good thing. If it means abandoning idealism, it's a bad thing. In the way of things, it will probably mean some of both. Back in 2002, a senior adviser to President Bush told the journalist Ron Suskind that people in "the reality-based community" - journalists, for example - had got it seriously wrong. "That's not the way the world really works any more," the adviser said. "We're an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality." So, while ignoring the reality-based evidence for global warming, and relying on what wits described as "faith-based intelligence" for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Bushies set about transforming the world through a democratic revolution kickstarted by the use of force.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia, ,  

Last weekend I went and sang a lot of words that I don't believe. Do I think an angel appeared to a woman called Mary roughly 2007 years ago and told her she had become pregnant without sleeping with Joseph? I don't. Do I think Good King Wenceslas tramped out into the snow to bring "yonder peasant" food and wine? Not likely. Yet the words were beautiful and familiar, the medieval church was candlelit, my family was with me, and I was moved.

In the next few days, hundreds of millions of people will, like me, go to sing, often with gusto and delight, lines they do not believe or, at best, only half-believe.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia, ,  

El fin de semana pasado estuve cantando un montón de cosas en las que no creo. ¿Creo que, hace unos 2.007 años, un ángel se apareció a una mujer llamada María y le anunció que iba a quedarse embarazada sin haberse acostado con José? No. ¿Creo que el buen rey Wenceslao anduvo por la nieve para llevar "a aquellos campesinos" comida y vino? Probablemente, no. Pero eran palabras hermosas y familiares, la iglesia medieval estaba iluminada por velas, tenía a mi familia conmigo, y me conmoví.

En estos días, cientos de millones de personas, como yo, cantan -a veces con deleite y entusiasmo- unas frases en las que no creen o, en el mejor de los casos, creen sólo a medias.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia,

Sitting with my academic colleagues in the gilded discomfort of Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre earlier this week, discussing the future governance of England's oldest university, I thought of GK Chesterton's remark that tradition is the democracy of the dead. One professor of politics observed that Oxford has been a "workers' cooperative" for 800 years, and that round, imposing figure of 800 years kept recurring in the debate of congregation, the university's sovereign parliament. Those who opposed proposals to bring in external members of the university's structures of governance did so in the name of democratic self-government and academic liberty; supporters of the proposed reform cited modern norms for the external accountability and transparency of institutions receiving both public money and charitable donations.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Tony, jagshemash! Jagshemash, Elizabeth! President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, cordially received in London this week by Tony Blair and Her Majesty the Queen, has proved himself to be a really good sport by taking humorously the satirical portrayal of his country in Sacha Baron Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. "This film was created by a comedian, so let's laugh at it," said the genial president at a joint press conference with Tony Blair, earning praise from the Sun. Good old Nursultan, friend of Britain, Dick Cheney, BP, Chevron and Shell.

So, in this spirit of all-round bonhomie, let's have a few more Kazakh jokes.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

You may not realise it, but you are at this moment looking at a weapon more powerful than most in the possession of the US army. A cluster bomb can kill or maim thousands of people but this weapon can bring millions to allow their rulers to start new wars. This weapon is called a newspaper. These days, though, much of its impact comes from its dissemination through electronic screens. Beside it in the new arsenal are radio, television, blogs, webcasts and text messages.

The growth in media power is one of the central facts of our time. Traditionally, journalists have thought of themselves as a check on power, whether political, military or economic.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalOrden Mundial

Tuesday November 7 2006 marks the beginning of an end and the end of a beginning. A Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and a Senate too close to call, means the beginning of the end of the Bush administration and its unilateral, polarising style in foreign policy - exemplified by the now departing Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. More importantly, it marks the end of the beginning of a long struggle for which we do not yet have a generally accepted name. From now on, given the result of these mid-term elections, the mess that the United States faces in the Middle East, the scale of global challenges such as climate change and the rise of other great powers, American foreign policy will have to be more bipartisan at home and more multilateral abroad.…  Seguir leyendo »