The Guardian (Continuación)

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías, ,

The story of WikiLeaks.org is the story of both the modern whistleblower and the structure of the modern media system. The site is now famous for embracing technology in order to protect sources behind material that might be damaging to institutions as varied as the Church of Scientology, Swiss banks and the US military. Yet despite shocking revelations and damaging material emerging from the site, very little has actually changed because of them. This ought to be troubling, but there is a way to explain it.

Julian Assange, the notoriously elusive Australian mastermind of WikiLeaks, has built the site like any good hacker would.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaMundoAsia, ,

The sound of the vuvuzela, which has been unfavourably compared by some critics with a swarm of angry bees, has become a defining feature of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Yet the distinctive drone also has its fans, evident from the fact that it has become the most downloaded free iPhone app in South Africa and Europe.

But the really big story to emerge in the past few days concerns the fact that 90% of the vuvuzelas sold in South Africa are being produced in China. According to latest reports, demand is greatly outstripping supply. One Chinese company, the Guangda Toy Factory, in the Zhejiang province, claims it has already despatched 1m instruments in the first four months of this year to South Africa.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

In the film Guantanamera, the last by renowned Cuban director Tomás Gutierrez Alea, the Yoruba creation myth is presented as a metaphor for the difficulties of bringing about change. In this myth, humans were at first immortal, but the result was that the old suffocated the young, and so death had to be created.

Here in Washington, it is often only death and retirement that allows for the possibility of change – and yet the institutions remain immortal and often immutable. Nowhere is this more true than in the foreign policy establishment here.

In the last few weeks I have visited five countries and participated in numerous events surrounding a recently released documentary – like Guantanamera, South of the Border is also a road movie – which Oliver Stone directed and I wrote with Tariq Ali.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Last week, more than 600 delegates from across the globe headed to London for a conference on investment opportunities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

As the rest of Iraq continues to be beset by political wrangling, terrorist attacks and violent protests bemoaning the lack of electricity, Kurdistan continues to look more and more like an independent state. This was the underlying message to be taken from the conference – that the business opportunities in Kurdistan are also opportunities to play a role in the building of a nation.

And where better to start than with oil, the foundation of any future independent Kurdish state.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

It is often argued that the Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in the world. This claim is usually based on the sociological surveys and census data which show that only a small proportion of Czechs goes regularly to church and that most of the Czech Republic's population does not report even a formal affiliation to any church

However, the idea that Czechs are almost completely indifferent to any religion is not accurate. The apparent lack of interest in traditional forms of Christianity is accompanied by the massive popularity of what sociologists call "invisible" or "alternative" religion and what could be best described as a belief in magic.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOceanía

"Kevin07, Gone by 11", was the taunt in Canberra when I was there last month – and so it proved. Kevin Rudd, who returned Labor to power in Australia after 12 years in opposition, and who achieved some of this highest approval ratings in Australian history, was unceremoniously dumped by his party today. What does this mean for the direction of the Australian government?

In broad political terms, probably not much. Though Julia Gillard is, in Labor factional terms, from the left, she was put there by the right. They made the same calculation as James Purnell did over Gordon Brown last year – that the party would go down to electoral defeat with its current leader.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

Pretend it didn't happen. That's apparently the strategy of the Chinese government, the World Health Organisation, and the International Olympic Committee toward China's melamine milk contamination scandal during the Beijing Olympics.

An official ban on reporting of "all food safety issues" during the games stifled domestic media coverage of revelations that at least 20 dairy firms were spiking milk products with the chemical melamine. That cover-up contributed to the deaths of six children and illness among 300,000 others.

But there's not a whisper of melamine – or of the reporting ban – in a May 2010 book jointly issued by the Chinese government, the WHO and IOC, The Health Legacy of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: Successes and Recommendations.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

An apology by a Singaporean church for one of its preacher's disdainful comments about Taoism is a sign that the nation's interfaith relations are in danger of turning sour.

The New Creation church, which has a following of some 20,000 people in a nation of about five million, issued its conciliatory statement after a 2008 sermon by its pastor Mark Ng appeared on YouTube last week (it has since been removed), to public scorn from the nation's Taoists as well as scrutiny from the internal security agency.

In the clip, Ng likened the ritual of praying to a Taoist deity to a criminal practice.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

It is over a week since armed mobs began to murder, rape and burn their way through the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad in Kyrgyzstan, where ethnic Uzbeks have been purged by gangs of Kyrgyz men. Latest estimates place the number of people displaced by the violence at over 400,000. While the official death toll is still less than two hundred, Acting president Roza Otunbayeva admitted to the Russian press on Friday that it could be as high as 2,000.

Why didn't the international community act to contain the violence?

Some $36m of aid has now begun to arrive in southern Kyrgyzstan, but as late as Monday, the only named government on the WHO's bulletin of donors was Italy.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

So, the male menopause: does it exist, or does it not? The latest research is inconclusive – which is itself, somewhat strangely, considered newsworthy. It doesn't exist, says one report. It does, but affects only 2% of men, says another. Were I a woman, though, I might be tempted to ask: is there nothing feminine that men, these days, do not wish to appropriate?

Let's have a look at the symptoms. (Another term for the syndrome is the rather wonderful "late-onset hypogonadism", which gives us a clue: literally, "getting on a bit and underballed". As in "underwhelmed", but with your balls.)…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea

Together with Bastille Day and the anniversaries of the end of the two world wars, today is a seminal date for France, reflected in the visit of President Nicolas Sarkozy to London for anniversary ceremonies and a plethora of celebrations on both sides of the Channel. It also raises intriguing questions about the Franco-British relationship, Europe, transatlantic links – and the legacy of the greatest French leader of the 20th century.

Charles de Gaulle's call on the BBC from London on this day in 1940 to his country not to give up the fight against Germany marked a historic moment, which salvaged French pride in subsequent years despite the way France had crumbled in the face of the Nazi assault.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoEuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Exterior,

Yesterday, European Union leaders gathered in Brussels and approved a new round of sanctions targeting Iran's financial and energy sectors, with a special focus on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary organisation that dominates most of Iran's business and brutally suppresses the country's democratic opposition. The IRGC is said by experts to control as much as 80% of foreign trade.

While the new sanctions build on last week's UN resolution compelling Iran to pull the plug on its illicit nuclear programme, they also give cause for hope that the EU will no longer subjugate human rights to commercial interests.

The EU now has a month to hammer out the details of its leaders' decision.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

I was in the House of Commons on 1 February 1972 when defence minister Lord Balniel said of the Bloody Sunday massacre: "In each case, soldiers fired aimed shots at men identified as gunmen or bombers ... in self-defence or in defence of their comrades who were threatened. I reject entirely the suggestion that they fired indiscriminately or that they fired into a peaceful and innocent crowd."

Thirty-eight years and £191m later, Lord Saville has stated:

"The firing by soldiers of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

For two weeks, the Jamaican army and police have fought gun battles in Kingston. The many allegations of human rights abuses committed by the security forces – including extrajudicial killings and the disposal of bodies – have received almost no international attention. Nor have the linkages between the Jamaican crisis, the security establishments in the US, Britain and Canada, and the mutations of the "war on terror".

But strategy and tactics deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being applied in Jamaica. Drones fly over Kingston, and were used in the 24 May assault to select targets. On 7 June, Tivoli residents discovered that to enter or leave the area they had to produce "passes" issued by the police (revised, after protests, to restrictions on movement after dark).…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,

It is no accident that the government has seemed paralysed in responding to the Deepwater Horizon crisis, not knowing whether or not to defend BP in the face of politicians' and public opprobrium. The reason is that it is unable to understand that the root causes of the crisis are ideological.

To blame or not blame BP is really not the point. BP must take its share of responsibility along with other US private companies involved. But the deeper lessons of the oil spill concern the future of our energy supplies, of regulation, and the shape of our society and economy.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

The world at the beginning of the 21st century bears an eerie – and disquieting – resemblance to Europe at the beginning of the last century.

That was also an era of globalisation. New technologies for transportation and communication were transforming the world. Europeans had lived so long in peace that war seemed irrational. And they were right, up to a point.

The first world war was the product of a mode of rational thinking that went badly off course. The peace of Europe was based on security assurances. Germany was the protector of Austria-Hungary, and Russia was the protector of Serbia.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

Giving birth in the UK is complicated. Antenatal checks, ultrasounds, blood tests, BMI indices, dating scans and more – and that's before delivery. Giving birth in sub-Saharan Africa is simple by comparison. You can walk five hours for a basic check-up, if able. Then again, you are far less likely to survive.

Across the developing world there are none of the integrated healthcare services for expectant mothers that are universally available in the west. That means mothers-to-be have to visit up to five different healthcare providers for services that could be provided by one clinic.

And that is after conception. The burning issue on maternal health in the world's poorest countries is for women to take control of their own bodies and for their choices to be respected: when to have children, how often to have children, if to have children at all.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

After the Holocaust, it took decades of concerted efforts – from Adenauer and Heinemann through Brandt and Helmut Schmidt to Weizsäcker and Kohl – to bring the Federal Republic of Germany back into the fold of civilised nations. A tactically astute Genscherism and an opportunistic orientation to the west were not enough. What was needed was an infinitely arduous change in mentality throughout the whole population.

What ultimately won over our European neighbours were, first and foremost, the changed normative convictions and the liberal-minded attitudes of the younger generations. And, of course, the fact that the convictions of the politicians active at that time could be relied upon to play a decisive role in diplomatic relations.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalONU

A few days ago, I was sent an article that accused the United Nations of not "walking the walk" on women's empowerment. My gut reaction was to agree. Working for UNA-UK – an NGO offering independent analysis on the UN – I am only too aware of the areas in which the UN could improve its performance. And gender equality is one of them.

There has never been a woman at the helm of the UN. Female representation in senior professional positions falls short of the 30% target the UN recommends to states for their national parliaments. And a number of high-profile sexual harassment complaints have blighted its record, not least because its response has been slow and often defensive.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaMundoOriente Próximo

I can't say I was surprised when I read Joshua Teitelbaum's piece "Turkey is calling for a jihad against Israel". For some time now, rather similar pieces regarding Turkey have been published in the American and European press. It's clear that, following the bloody act of piracy in international waters against the Mavi Marmara carrying humanitarian aid volunteers from Turkey and 32 other nations, there has been a mobilisation of anti-Turkey information warfare.

Just as Teitelbaum's perspective on the event is problematic, the information he cites is almost entirely out of touch with reality. Above all, just as the venture was not one of pro-Hamas militants, nor was it solely a Turkish enterprise, either.…  Seguir leyendo »