One Man's Opinion

The Guatemala electoral tribunal has ruled, quite correctly, that the former First Lady cannot be a presidential candidate, given the fact that her divorce is clearly a fraud to circumvent the prohibition of close relatives of the President from running for the office. Having married the President just a few years ago, the woman, whose political aspirations were known, suddenly divorced him, for no apparent reason. Although, normally, a divorce is a very private matter that shouldn't be delved into, in this case, there were sufficient grounds to suspect that it was a sham, to allow her to run for office. Fortunately, the electoral court saw through it and rendered the proper judgment.

The Pope, who needs all the good press he can get, now has a Twitter account. In its latest move to appear simpático , the Vatican has added this technology to all the others with which it wants to be "with-it." And so it is that the man with the dubious Nazi past and the God-awful present, full of child-abuse skeletons in his closet, is doing this PR thing, to no avail, I'm afraid. Ratzinger appears to be insincere, and the more exposure he gets, the more insincere he appears to be. How's that for a tweet?

A banker that's been involved in the failure of Afghanistan's principal bank has gone missing...well, actually, he's fled to the U.S, claiming that he had nothing to do with it, that, in fact, he was the one who blew the whistle on the whole thing. This is an old story, that involves Karzai's brother, among others, and is part of the widespread corruption in that country. So, the banker, who is a permanent U.S. resident, has gone back where he came from, where he probably learned a thing or two about swindling and breaking the bank.

The riots related to the River Plate soccer team's demotion in Argentina are an example of how sport fanaticism devolves into fanaticism, pure and simple. Sports are supposed to make us better human beings; after all, that's what mens sana in corpore sano is all about. But, the truth is that people take sports too seriously, and end up doing all sorts of crazy things when their team loses or even when it wins. We all have to realize that these are just games, something to have fun with, that have nothing to do with real life. In this case, the team's fans couldn't take the fact that, for the first time in 110 years, the team had failed to qualify for the first division or whatever it was. Rather than accepting the fact that it had to happen sometime, they chose to trash the stadium and the neighborhood, battling policemen in the process. Shame on them!

Underdeveloped countries are easy prey for big business from the world's leading economies. Desperate for survival, poor countries are often willing to part with valuable resources in one-sided deals and under disadvantageous conditions. The environment is usually a casualty of the exploitation the so-called Third World is invariably subject to. Still, ecological awareness has begun to turn the tide somewhat. The recent case of El Salvador's gold mining project is a case in point. After being on the verge of granting permits for it to a Canadian company, the government stepped back, given the uproar at the damage the mining would have caused. Now, the company is suing the Salvadoran government for damages, one of several cases in which foreign companies have successfully claimed that they were led on to invest substantial amounts of money in projects that the governments backed away from at the last minute. The lesson to be learned here is that the government should study its

Conventional "wisdom" holds that building or construction is the centerpiece of economic recovery or stimulus. So, whenever the economy turns sour, governments embark on large-scale construction of all sorts of infrastructure projects, which, in the short run, do have an impact in job creation and other positive effects. But, ultimately, what is built must have a legitimate purpose and serve a real need; otherwise, it will just lie there unused and abandoned. This is what seems to have happened in Spain in recent years, a construction boom that produced airports, buildings and roads that, in some cases, there is no use for. Once again, the "quick-fix" was no fix at all. In Puerto Rico, we have gone through a similar experience. Coincidentally, one of the major companies that are poised to participate in the private and public partnerships responsible for this building program comes from Spain and knows fully well what the consequences are. Still, there's mon

According to the Disney version of American history and current events, the U.S. practices what it preaches: competition, decency and fair play in all things, including business. It's always the other countries that cheat and use underhanded tactics to get ahead. Well, the truth is very different from that. Take the case of Tyson , the poultry giant that, since 2004, was involved in a bribery scheme in Mexico to get a couple of veterinarians to certify that its product met the health criteria. When it was first found out, the company, far from making amends, went on with the bribes in a different way. Finally, they had to stop and were forced to pay a fine. But, none of the executives involved in this corporate crime were ever indicted. They were allowed to resign, retire or simply moved to another position within the company. Yep, the American way.

The announced withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is predictably slow and somewhat uncertain. Obama made a campaign issue of his disengagement in both Afghanistan and Iraq and, so far, he hasn't really delivered on his promise to do so. Ten percent of the total troops in Afghanistan is sort of too little, too late. Another twenty percent in two years is still a long way from the pullout that he led everyone to believe that he was committed to. In this and other issues, he has been a disappointment to those who believed that he woud bring fundamental change to the course of his country. The military-industrial complex denounced by Eisenhower over 50 years ago has neutralized another President.

Spain is still grappling with Franco's dictatorship, not having really come to terms with its 40-year legacy. There are still visible signs of it, most notably the Valley of the Fallen monument, a pantheon to Franco and his supporters during the civil war. Many regard it as an insult to the memory of those who lost the war and what came after. Some still gloss over the brutality of the regime, as being "authoritarian but not totalitarian", as a historian recently called it. Now, some are calling for the dismantling of this shrine and the putting up of another monument that would include those who died in the losing side and the removal of Franco's remains to a less exalted place. The fact that this is being proposed in a rather timid way is a sign of how much Franco weighs still on the national conscience. This pussyfooting around the issue shows that Spain hasn't really put franquismo behind totally.

I have to admit that I had no idea that the U.S. State Department has a lottery whose winners get preferential treatment in the awarding of green cards for permanent residency. When I first heard of it, quite recently, I thought it was a joke, a hoax or one of those "sting" operations that the Federal government is so fond of conducting. The idea seemed so far-fetched or preposterous, that I just couldn't believe that such a delicate matter would be left to chance. Well, I was wrong; the drawing is for real. But, as luck would have it, a recent drawing went awry, and now the government has decided to invalidate 50,000 "prizes", due to a computer malfunction that unfairly limited the number of participants. So, in typical American fashion, a lawyer is taking the Department to court, to prevent it from taking away the prizes awarded. This was a bad idea from the start. Immigration is a serious matter that should not be left to such a thing as a lottery. Cases

When a few days ago Mexican President Calderón stated that the U.S. was responsible for much of his country's violence, given the fact that Americans were supplying his people with guns on a grand scale, he may or may not have known how true his words were. Now, it's been revealed that the very U.S. agency in charge of fighting illegal guns, the ATF,  had an operation called "Fast and Furious" by which they allowed guns to enter Mexico so that they would find their way to the drug cartels, at which point they, along with the  federales , would round them up, in typically Hollywood fashion. Except it doesn't always happen that way. Life doesn't follow the script. Sometimes, those guns are used to kill the very same people that are supposed to prevent that, like a U.S. Border Patrol officer. It's embarrassing, to say the least, that law enforcement engages in these fun and games when people's lives are on the line. The U.S. Government, always so quick

John McCain, the man who has milked dry his status as Vietnam prisoner of war, now claims that the Arizona wildfires have been caused by illegal immigrants. Of course, this is the same guy who picked Sarah Palin as his running mate for the 2008 presidential campaign, so there's never been much there anyway. Still, he has had the gall to make an unsubstantiated statement like that, to further inflame public opinion against illegal aliens and, let's face it, all aliens, especially Latinos. This is prejudice, pure and simple. When something goes wrong, foreigners get blamed. Who cares if it's true or not? Those people don't belong in the country anyway, right?

So far, a very small group of mayors attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors has signed a resolution that calls on the Congress to stop funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and devote those funds to the domestic needs of the country. A full vote on it is scheduled for Monday. It's only natural for those elected officials who are closest to the people in every community to be acutely sensitive to their needs. Mayors are keenly aware of things like unemployment, lack of health care and housing, poor education, and all the other problems that could and should be solved by the proper allocation of public funds. That and the fact that the needless deaths of soldiers impact their communities more directly than at the national level prompts them to take this bold step, the first one since the Vietnam War. Let's hope that this is followed by a decisive vote against the war.

Though it may seem as just a stereotype, the South in the U.S. is far from being enlightened, both intellectually and spiritually. Take Tennessee, for example. In 1925, the Scopes trial -- better known as "the monkey trial" -- shed light on religious fanaticism and ignorance made law, by forbidding the teaching of evolution. Most surprising, that law stayed in the books for 42 years , in spite of its evident stupidity. Now, 86 years later, Tennessee has done it again, passing a law that forbids teachers K-8 from even mentioning the word "gay" in their classrooms, thus ignoring the reality of homosexuality and making it seem wrong or sinful. I suppose it's going to take another teacher like Scopes and another lawyer like Darrow to try to drag the state from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner has finally come to his senses, proving that he had very little sense to start with. It has taken him all this time to realize that his position was untenable. As is so often the case, he now says that he made some "mistakes." Well, not really. A mistake is an error that results from a false belief, a misconception, a misunderstanding, or a lack of proper knowledge, none of which applies to someone who takes semi-nude pictures of himself and sends them to women over the phone or Internet. Saying that things such as these are "mistakes" is a clear sign that he isn't really owning up to the moral impropriety of the acts. He isn't really sorry, because "mistakes" are just errors for which the person should be blameless, given the fact that they were made without bad faith. Yeah, sure.

Why am I not surprised? An investigation has revealed that at a Newark, New Jersey airport the security personnel engaged in ethnic and racial profiling, especially against Dominicans and Mexicans. These were not just some rogue inspectors doing it on their own, but following orders. They consistently targeted people from both countries to interrogate them, review their documents more thoroughly and check their bags. Needless to say, you can bet that most, if not all, those picked out were dark-skinned. This is another example of the discrimination that happens everyday in a country that boasts to the world about freedom, respect for human rights, fair play, due process of law, equal protection under law, etc.

In what amounted to little more than a pit stop and a quick fund raiser, Obama came and went today in Puerto Rico. After 50 years without a visit from the President of the United States of America, the man landed, gave a speech that lasted less than 15 minutes, spent half an hour at the Governor's Mansion and an hour at the fund raiser at a plush hotel. That, right there, speaks volumes about what Puerto Rico means to the U.S., all posturing aside. Then he left, just five hours  after he had arrived. One hundred thirteen years after the Americans took over Puerto Rico from Spain, this is all it comes down to. We're still a territory -- a euphemism for colony -- not worth spending too much time on it or thinking about it.

By now, everybody knows that the "lesbian Syrian blogger" was a hoax perpetrated by a 40-year old married man, a graduate student in Scotland. The West, eager for anything that reflects badly on the Arab world, ate it up for these past five months. His excuse is that he wanted to call attention to the situation in Syria and other Arab countries. Well, he went about it the wrong way. It's one thing to write fiction based on real-life situations, and quite another to create a character that is supposed to be a real human being that tells stories about suffering persecution, thus increasing the ill feeling against a government or regime, no matter how bad it might be. Fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights must be done with the truth and nothing but the truth. Anything less than that is to use the same tactics of those who represent tyranny and the dark side of the human condition.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón has rightfully pointed his finger at the American gun industry as a major culprit in his country's drug-fueled violence. Statistics show that anywhere from 70% to 85% of the illegal guns seized in Mexico come from the U.S. So, in addition to the enormous appetite for drugs by the Americans, they supply most of the firepower for the Mexican drug cartels. Although none of this excuses Mexico's responsibility for the drugs and violence in the country, it's certainly worth noting that Americans have a big part of the blame for what is going on south of their border, and seem unable or unwilling to do much about it, except complain about Mexico's problems and how they affect them.

The Iraqi Prime Minister must have a death wish or he's extremely naive. He has just refused to allow some U.S. Congress members to visit a camp where Iranian dissidents are held and there were 34 deaths in a confusing incident recently. The Americans, used to always getting their way, acted as if they own the place, which of course they do. But, the Prime Minister shocked everyone, insisting that this was a matter of Iraqi "sovereignty". Really? Maybe he has forgotten who put him there and allows him to stay there. The countdown for his ousting has begun...

I'm shocked! U.S. Border Patrol agents bribed with money and sex by Mexican drug and illegal immigration cartels, how can this be? If it were the other way around, I would understand it, but American law enforcement personnel doing this? What is the world coming to? I thought that all the corruption was "south of the border, down Mexico way." Well, it just goes to show you how wrong one can be...

Prejudice dies hard. In a small California cemetery there are several graves whose headstones read: "Moved from Nigger Hill." The buried were put there in 1954 , the year that the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools. It's believed that those people died circa 1862 and were initially buried in Negro Hill.  People have known about these headstones, at least, since 1998 , but nothing was done about it, until a Boy Scout made it his business to correct this glaring offense to black people. The whole thing will cost about $18,000, but the county claims that it has no money to do it, so they are starting a collection of private donations. I suppose that the county asks itself: why spend good money on a bunch of dead niggers?

China, the U.S.' biggest creditor, has told the American government to not even think about defaulting on its payments of interest on its debt, a real possibility, given the current impasse on the deficit in Washington. In the economic game, confidence is everything, and if a player cannot meet its obligations or even appears to be unable to, that essential trust is gone. So, right now, the world looks at the U.S. with some skepticism as to its capability to make good on its promises. Domestically, the American people too seem to have lost confidence in Obama's economic program as the solution to a recession that just won't go away. Time is running out at home and abroad, and patience everywhere wears thin.

The worldwide economic crisis is being taken advantage of by capital to dismantle the labor-law protections that have been so hard earned by workers. Governments everywhere are buying the thesis that workers have too many unfair advantages that make the private sector less competitive. So, the ready-made solution is to go back to the days when workers were at the mercy of their boss, with very few rights, if any. Now, this isn't happening in just so-called third-world countries, but in the U.S., the model for the rest of humanity in everything. The latest assault has been launched against labor laws that protect minors. The thrust of this capitalist offensive is that they should be allowed to work more hours, later in the day and for less than the prevailing minimum wage. After all, earning something is better than earning nothing, isn't it? These things are contagious. Pretty soon, we'll see these changes all over the place. After all, if the Americans are doing it, it

In many ways, Brazil is a country to be admired. To its considerable beauty, its fascinating music and culture, and its economic prowess, we have to add the remarkable success in preventing and treating AIDS. Contrary to what is usually the case, this time it hasn't been one of the big economies of the North on this or the other side of the Atlantic which is leading the way in this matter but a South-American country. The "secret" of its success is simple enough: it has put enough money where its heart is, included the people most affected by the epidemic in the decision-making process and pressured pharmaceutical companies to "do the right thing" by providing affordable medication. That's the prescription. It's only a matter of the rest of the world having the heart and the resolve to put in in practice.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but, how can any more- or- less sane person even consider voting for Sarah Palin? Not that the world needed additional proof of her stupidity, but, after her recent performance on the bus tour, saying that Paul Revere warned the British on his famous ride, no one should even listen to anything that this woman has to say, let alone think of her as a candidate for anything. Except laughingstock of the Village of Idiots, USA.

A big part of the tragedy of U.S. soldiers who are deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq is what happens to them when they come back sick in body and mind. Many of them are over-prescribed with all sorts of medications that, ultimately, either kill or render them permanently damaged. There are cases in which patients receive more that two dozen pills at the same time. So, these soldiers are doubly victimized, first by being sent repeatedly to the front in a savage war, and then by being "treated" medically in a totally irresponsible way. While the U.S. government pays them lip service by calling them heroes, the truth is that many of those who get sick overseas or develop their symptoms back home are not taken care of properly. Their patriotism -- as misguided as it may be -- means very little to the powers that be, who will always find more idealistic or ignorant young men to take advantage of and discard, when they are no longer of any use.

Who would've thought, just a few years ago, that the credit rating of the U.S. Government would be rated poor by Standard & Poor and Moody's?  These two, who go around the world telling governments what to do, if they want a favorable rating for their capacity to repay loans and make good on their bonds, have now told the American government that, given its $14 trillion deficit, it's not a good credit risk. They have served notice that, unless spending is drastically cut and the deficit dramatically reduced, they won't continue to vouch for the U.S financially. So there you have it. The U.S standard is poor and the mood is somber.

Yeah, we know the feeling. South Korea is up in arms over the claim by former U.S. military personnel that, in 1978, they buried in South Korean soil Agent Orange, the highly toxic defoliant used in Vietnam. The government, a lackey of the U.S., has done nothing, while the Americans, as usual, are going to "investigate" these allegations. We in Puerto Rico know about these practices of the U.S. Armed Forces. Specifically, in the case of Agent Orange, unbeknownst to us, our tropical rainforest was used as a testing site for it. And, of course, the U.S. Navy used both of our sister islands, Culebra and Vieques, for target practice for decades, before leaving them contaminated and polluted for the foreseeable future. So, we know how Uncle Sam treats his allies and partners around the world, especially if they're non-white and thus deemed inferior.