One Man's Opinion

A while back, I wrote about what was going on at Kabul Bank; essentially, that Karzai, his family and his cronies were using it as their private piggy bank. Now we know that they were all dipping into it to the tune of $900 million. No wonder Karzai is such a snappy dresser, while Afghanistan is in the mess it's in! There's an interesting sideline to all of this. Contrary to some pundits' opinions - including Mario Vargas Llosa's considered one - Wikileaks is much more that a gossipy tabloid. In this instance, thanks to documents revealed by it, we know that the American government was aware of, at least, questionable dealings at the bank, but chose to ignore it, I suppose in pursuit of a "greater good" in Afghanistan. Here comes another bank bailout...

Like most of the rest of the world, the Chinese are facing the problem of a fast-aging population. As in other countries, many old people there are left to fend for themselves, due to the indifference of relatives. Suicide among the elderly is on the rise. But, the Chinese are not taking this lying down; instead, they are contemplating, among other things, mandating visitation of the elderly by their sons and daughters, on a regular basis. Although implementation of such a law would be kind of tricky, something along these lines has to be done to prevent that old people be abandoned, leaving them to be wards of the State at taxpayers' expense. We'll have to wait and see if the law is finally enacted and how it actually plays out, but the rest of the world might soon be forced to do something drastic to ensure that relatives take care of their own when they are unable to take care of themselves due to old age or infirmity.

I'm all in favor of ideas that save the environment, but there are things that seem to make sense on paper, but end up being problematic in practice. This is why I'm not surprised that car-pooling hasn't really caught on in permanent fashion. There are just too many things that can go wrong, for it to be a viable alternative to driving by yourself. People have their pet peeves and idiosyncratic behavior, and giving or getting a ride from someone who is obnoxious is hell. There are just too many wackos out there, to take a chance of meeting one of them. Also, people's cars are often as messy as their personal lives. Some look and smell like the city dump, and you wouldn't be caught dead in one of them. So, for my part, I'll continue to ride alone, sharing my mess with no one, listening to the music I like and cursing the traffic jam to my heart's content.

Better late than never. Chilean justice is reopening the inquest on Allende's death in 1973. Although it's been widely held that it was suicide, recent findings seem to suggest that it was not the case, given the "fact" that there were traces of wounds from two different weapons. Whatever the outcome of this inquiry, it was Pinochet that, ultimately, killed Allende. This particular investigation is part of a bigger one that the Chilean government has undertaken to clear up as much of that long and dark period of its recent history. They are to be commended for it, setting aside the ill-gotten amnesty for those that preach a false reconciliation based on impunity and forgetting the dead.

Granted that you wouldn't expect to find much of anything resembling ethics in a tabloid, but, still, hacking phone conversations is somewhat outrageous, even for an English "rag."  Driven by the sick need to get the scoop on the private lives of celebrities of all kinds, "yellow journalism" knows no bounds and will go to any length to find out whatever there is to be found out. As with any other liberty, freedom of the press is constantly abused to satisfy the morbid interest of the masses.  In this case, fortunately, the culprits have been exposed, albeit rather belatedly, and heads have rolled for it. Democracy, freedom and the rule of law are, admittedly, cumbersome and inconvenient, at times. The temptation to use illegitimate means to get results is ever present, but must be resisted, if we are to live in a civilized society with a modicum of dignity and peace of mind.

Are we supposed to believe that it's just a coincidence that a few hours before Obama's speech to Congress Gen. Petraeus gave an upbeat account of the war in Afghanistan? Moreover, are we supposed to believe that rosy picture? The American government must think that everybody is stupid enough not to notice that the General is just helping out his Commander-in-Chief at a critical time and that, as in Vietnam, "victory" is always one step away. If only the military had a few more soldiers, money and time, it would get the job done. Those of us that were young adults in the Vietnam years see the same pattern of deceit and obfuscation all over again. Petraeus is lying, and time will prove it. Obama is doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the 60s and early 70s. Both he and Petraeus don't want to appear as losers against all those backward people in the Middle East, so they stubbornly cling to the ridiculous notion that they can win in Afghanistan and Iraq. Poor fool

There's a report out that states that American students, from grade school through high school, do extremely poorly in science. It has been pointed out that, as a consequence, there will be less and less doctors, engineers and other scientists in the U.S. in the foreseeable future, if not for the immigrants from countries that Americans look down on and, generally, love to hate. The fact of the matter is that this is not a new development; it has been going on for some time now. American education has gotten increasingly mediocre, and that is reflected in a lower productivity of its workforce and of the quality of its goods and services; thus a part of the economic crisis the country faces. I think that Americans got complacent about being "the envy of the world" and underestimated everybody else. They thought that they didn't need to do their "homework." But, intelligence and talent is not exclusively American, and that  hubris has caught up with them.

The Lance Armstrong doping case refuses to go away. Aside from the fact that he may or may not have done it, what I find disturbing is the number of people who, if it happens to be true, justify it or claim that it's not important. What these people fail to realize is that, if cheating is okay in sports, why shouldn't it be right in any other human endeavor? Would they have the same cavalier attitude about someone who cheated them out of their homes or savings, just to get ahead or because "everybody does it"?  This is the kind of cynicism that partly explains why society is morally bankrupt.  I also sense that some people simply don't want to condemn Armstrong because that would disprove the legend of American superiority in sports. After all, this is a man who overcame testicular cancer and won the Tour de France seven times. If it now turns out that he didn't do it legally, all that propaganda about American supermen will go down the drain.

Believe me, as much as I would like to go on to something else, the headlines keep drawing me back to the Vatican. Now, its Secretary of State has said that they look upon the Berlusconi sex scandal "with concern." Only the Catholic Church, with its usual cynicism, would even think about making a comment like this at this point in time. Of course Berlusconi is a lecher, but, has the Church, with its track record on the subject, any moral standing to be talking about sex scandals or any other kind, for that matter?

The woman who is taking over at General Motors has said that she will "focus on quality ", a damning admission if there ever was one. One would have assumed that the company had been focused on quality all along, but it seems that assumption was incorrect. The truth is that, as usual, "the proof is in the pudding", and for the last 40 years, at least, GM cars have been largely rubbish. So, only lunatic-fringe super patriots heeded the call to "buy American", while most Americans joined the rest of the world in buying Asian and European cars. Ms. Barra has also said that she intends to reduce the time between design of a new vehicle and its rolling out of the plant. Boy, I thought that was part of the problem; the fact that shoddy workmanship was the result of trying to put a new product on the market too soon, without enough time to test it properly. The woman has been at GM for 30 of her 49 years, so, one way or another, she has been part of the company&

Afghanistan continues to look like a lost cause for the U.S.  Karzai, quite possibly the world's best-dressed dictator, keeps behaving like a rebellious son, defying his elders in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West.  His latest effrontery is the refusal to let the Parliament sit, alleging that it wasn't duly elected because of widespread fraud. Instead, he has appointed a commission to look into it.  Meanwhile, there is no legislative power to speak of. The U.S. and its acolytes, who hailed this "democratic" Afghanistan, are embarrassed, to say the least, by Karzai's unwillingness to play by the rules. The fact is that tribalism dies hard and that democracy demands an intellectual sophistication that is rarely present in some parts of the world.  Thousands of years of tradition cannot be changed by invasions and occupations.  Many people, Karzai included, go through the motions of the democratic process, but there is no underlying culture and, therefore, no real

I would have loved to hear that conversation between Obama and Hu Jintao in which the former chided the latter on "human rights."  The Americans must think that the rest of the world has no idea of what goes on in the U.S. and, therefore, will accept the preachy rhetoric that it's so fond of. The fact is that the U.S treatment of blacks, native Americans, Latinos and other so-called minorities is nothing to be proud of.  Let's not forget what has gone on in Guantánamo and other military camps in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it's not a pretty picture.

The more we find out about the way the Catholic Church has dealt with pedophile and abusive priests through the years, the greater our indignation. It has been revealed that, in 1997, the Vatican wrote to the Irish bishops expressing some doubts about the practice of referring abuse cases to the civil authorities, in other words, let's keep this to ourselves as much as we can.  The official reasoning was that, in doing so, the Church would avoid the possibility that their actions against the priests would be overturned by the "appellate" forum within the Church. Clearly, this is a lame excuse for not doing what everybody is legally and morally bound to do: report a crime. Instead, the Church chose to treat this as minor offenses that could be swept under the rug and dealt with internally, thus bypassing the criminal justice system in every country.  I suppose that the mindset that comes from believing that theirs is a "kingdom not of this world" led them to pu

Ricky Gervais' hosting of the Golden Globes has been the "jokes heard 'round the world." No doubt wanting to impress the audience with his iconoclastic brand of humor, at times he was, more than rude, out to hurt in a mean-spirited way. Outrageousness can be funny, but saying something just for the shock value is, frankly, sophomoric and not funny at all. There are limits that must be observed in the public discourse, and humor is not outside the boundaries of some semblance of decency. Imagine a newspaper headline saying "An Apple a Day Hasn't Kept the Doctor Away" in Steve Jobs' case. Sure, it's funny, but it would be tremendously insensitive to print something like that. There are things that are more important than getting a good laugh out of a cheap shot.

Haiti is truly a God-forsaken land. First, there was the earthquake that devastated it. Then came the cholera that has killed thousands and, in all likelihood, will continue to kill. Now comes the worst plague of all: the return of "Baby Doc" Duvalier. I can't imagine the scenario that would allow him to be even considered as a political option. Haitians can't be that desperate. Should they choose him or anybody remotely connected to him to be part of the government, the whole world should just turn its back and write them off as lunatics.

Tunisia was, for a long time, one of those North-African countries very few people talked about.  I suppose that most jazz fans like myself always had it in mind because of the classic piece by "Dizzy" Gillespie, A Night in Tunisia. But, now, all of a sudden, all hell has broken loose.  Tunisians had enough of two consecutive dictatorships for the last 40 years, and they have taken to the streets, toppling the government and going wild in the process.  Long-time repression and an artificial stability, sooner or later, will give way to excesses.  The death of a street vendor due to official insensitivity was the spark that caused this popular explosion.  Obviously, there was major discontent simmering under the surface, and now it has blown away the old shackles.

A week after the shooting in Tucson, they have held a gun show in the city, one of five that are held each year.  One of the attendees said - you guessed it -: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."  Do these people deserve sympathy? Not in my book.

Not that it means a whole lot one way or another, but the fast-track approach to John Paul II's sainthood is unseemly.  The Catholic Church has been usually very slow and deliberate in proclaiming someone as a saint, but this time is in an obvious hurry to do so. The Church seems rather desperate in trying to find the requisite number of "miracles" that can be attributed to the former Pope. My guess is that, given its never-ending and world-wide pedophilia scandal, and the recent money-laundering one, the Vatican is looking for some "good will" out of this new and contemporary saint.  It's a ploy to rally the troops and give them something to cheer about, but I don't think it's going to work. It would really be a miracle if it did.

The news that one million homes were repossessed last year in the U.S. and that more than that are expected to be foreclosed this year puts a significant damper on all that talk about economic recovery. Having that many people who are, in fact, "homeless" is a national disaster for any country.  For most people, their home is not only a place to live in, but their most prized possession, the single most important investment in their lives. Losing it is a major setback, one that is very difficult to recover from, especially in times of great economic difficulties. So, other economic statistics and prognostications aside, this fact by itself is a measure of how deep is the hole in which the U.S is in.  The poor keep getting poorer and the middle class is being increasingly left homeless.  Communism and socialism may be dead, but capitalism isn't all that healthy.

As a foreigner, I continue to be amazed at the egregious stupidity of the American people in their unwillingness to adopt strict gun controls across the board, in spite of these recurring massacres.  If, as it has often been pointed out, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the U.S. is completely insane. People who claim an absolute right to bear arms based on the Second Amendment of the Constitution neither understand the law nor its historical basis.  Even if that interpretation were legally correct, present-day circumstances would dictate a different approach.  It is the height of hypocrisy to cry over all these dead and wounded, while, at the same time, favor that people buy as many guns and ammunition as they want.  That is a recipe for the disaster that they experience and will continue to do so.  If the American people were truly sorry for tragedies such as the one in Tucson, they would've done something a long time ago.

Hoping against hope, for a while there, Obama seemed to be taking the U.S. in a new direction, both nationally and internationally.  But, he has been unable or unwilling to change course in certain areas. Take Afghanistan, for example.  After having said that the U.S. would be out of that country by 2014 , which is a long time in and of itself, "come hell or high water", Joe Biden has just backtracked and now says that they will stay beyond that date.  By   stating that the U.S. will stay as long as it takes for Afghanistan to reach a certain level of security and stability, the Obama administration is setting itself up to remain there for a very long time.  Hence, the recent deployment of 1,400 additional soldiers. The truth is that the military always gets its way in these matters.  Politicians are afraid to appear unpatriotic or weak, so they defer to the military's judgment on what needs to be done to achieve "victory."  Generals are always on the brink of

Time was when California meant gold, and for a long time, it was indeed the "Golden State", one of the biggest economies in the world by itself.  But, those times are long gone, and now the state is virtually bankrupt, having to continue to cut spending and providing fewer services for its people. None of the drastic measures taken by the former governor seem to have worked, so the new incumbent has to cut $12.5 billion in spending over the next six months, something that boggles the mind. This should be a humbling experience for the U.S. and the rest of the world.  Progress and success are not guaranteed to last indefinitely.  It's best to live modestly or, if possible, comfortably, but the "lifestyle of the rich and famous" will, ultimately, lead to the ruin of a person and a society.

Once again, the much-ballyhooed freedom of expression in the U.S. doesn't stand up too well under scrutiny. The History Channel has refused to air a miniseries on the Kennedys, allegedly, because it isn't factually accurate, but it seems that the real reason is that it paints an unflattering picture of them. There was even a campaign that involves people with close ties to the family that featured a signed petition to not show it. This is the kind of personality cult thing that went on in totalitarian regimes and was constantly condemned by the U.S. Do the American people need to be protected from information that may or may not be biased or partial? If this is acceptable, then, why not suppress books that might have the same content? There are people who want to preserve not the Kennedy legacy - whatever it might be - but the Kennedy legend, at all costs. This is foolish and, ultimately, impossible. The image has been tarnished for quite some time. Camelot was never real

Those who thought that only "leftist" Latin American governments were supporting a Palestinian state should think again.  Chile has just come out in favor also, and Piñera is no left-wing liberal. What he is is a smart politician, who has 300,000 Palestinians or descendants of ones living in Chile. Party politics aside, Piñera has taken a bold step, risking the displeasure of the U.S., which doesn't look kindly on other countries' initiatives, especially, if they are at odds with its own. The Americans must be reminiscing about the good old days of their pal Pinochet...

I keep asking: Who are all these Americans that go "hiking" near the borders of countries that are at odds with their own and wind up crossing into them "inadvertently"?  I think that it's too great a coincidence that, at this point in history, so many U.S. citizens become so fascinated with those countries' landscapes that they just can't help themselves and have to go there, in spite of the proven danger of the situation.  It makes no sense to, knowingly, put yourself at risk of being captured by a foreign government that is hostile to your own. Unless...you are really a spy or someone who has accepted to use your cover as an ordinary citizen, say, an innocent "nature lover", to gather information for your country.

Maybe it's all coincidence, but all these birds falling from the sky and dead fish washing ashore make for some interesting speculation of the apocalyptic kind.  It could be the prelude of the now famous Maya prophecy of world-wide disaster in 2012.  Or, as the evangelicals have been fond of saying for close to 2,000 years: "The end is at hand."  If you add the earthquakes, floods and tornadoes in the past few days, you could make a pretty good case that the Earth seems to be taking its revenge on man for his stupidity in dealing with the planet, or God is just fed up with the human race and the whole thing is unraveling fast.  Maybe there's more truth to the Bible than meets the unbeliever's eye. In any case, let me go to the fridge to get a cold one, in case it's my last one.

In what has to be one of the dumbest decisions in the history of publishing, a publishing house has decided to substitute the word "nigger" for "slave" and some other words for a less objectionable term in Huckleberry Finn, so that readers are not offended by them.  Two things.  Books and other artistic expressions are not subject to redaction. You take them as they are.  "Nigger" is a hateful term, but it's the one that Mark Twain used because that's the way people spoke at the time and in the context that he was writing in. Also, this is not a book that's just been published.  It's been around for a long time, and I don't think that there's been a hue and cry over it, even in the black community. Americans are obsessed with political correctness; so much so, that they are always talking about "the n word" or some such references to this and other words that they find objectionable.  It's simply ridiculous to avoid

The news that officers, as well as enlisted men, in the Colombian army are under investigation for the murder of civilians charged falsely with being members of FARC is hardly news at all.  This is standard operating procedure everywhere there is an internal conflict of some kind: the government will brand people as «enemies of the State» and it's open season on them. Once people buy into believing others are "subversives", killing them is looked upon as part of a just war and no questions are asked. But, history has shown that peaceful members of the opposition or just ordinary men and women are frequently done away with - either killed or "disappeared" - under the mantle of "national security."  It's important that military operations be scrutinized, to "separate the wheat from the chaff" and hold murderers accountable for crimes committed under the guise of patriotism.

The U.S, which has always boasted about being the most open and freest society on the planet, has turned out to be as secretive as the totalitarian regimes it used to disparage. It's not just its hunt of Assange for revealing all that embarrassing information, but also its unwillingness to cooperate with some of its allies.  A case in point is the recent American refusal to provide information to the Polish government in its investigation of whether a detainee was tortured at a secret CIA prison in Poland. Now, isn't this the same USA that kept condemning other countries for having these kinds of prisons and practices?  Is it just morally wrong when someone else does it, but not when they do it?  When Poland and other countries were under Soviet rule, the Americans kept hammering at them to open up and be accountable for their actions.  Now, that they have turned into democracies, these countries expect the U.S. to behave according to its creed. Welcome to another version o

What the hell's the matter with U.S. Armed Forces personnel? They seem to be out of control in different ways. It's been reported that the captain of a nuclear carrier, by the name of Honors , during 2006 and 2007, used lewd videos as some sort of "training tool" for his crew. The guy is obviously a frustrated comedian, so he took advantage of his captive and subordinate audience to present a "show and tell" that featured profanity, sexual slurs, mimic masturbation and simulated nudity to get whatever points across he deemed important. The incident, in and of itself inappropriate, points to a larger problem. This is the kind of attitude and mentality that ultimately produces the appalling behavior that the whole world has seen in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo by U.S. soldiers with prisoners and civilians. Soldiers go to war as if they were going on a picnic, looking to have a good time at the expense of "the enemy" and anybody else that migh

I love Spain; it's a wonderful country that has a lot to offer, including its food and drink.  But, the truth is that going to a bar or a restaurant, if you're a non-smoker and value your health is a chore, and the ambiance is ruined, in spite of all the other positive elements.  Last May, my wife and I were in Andalusia and, one time, after the meal I had to quickly exit the restaurant while she paid the check because I couldn't bear the cigarette smoke any longer. So, I'm looking forward to our next visit, when I hope that I'll be able to enjoy my food or drink without having to worry about my lungs.  I'm sure that Spaniards will soon realize that the recently-enacted law that bans smoking in closed spaces is for the best.  Food and poisonous smoke don't go well together.  The initial resistance of, frankly, addicts will give way to acceptance by the majority of sensible people who will feel better while enjoying their great food.