One Man's Opinion

What the hell's wrong with cruises? People keep falling off them or jumping overboard. These last few years, there have been quite a few cases of passengers mysteriously disappearing aboard these luxurious ships at sea, and they remain unsolved. Having been on some cruises myself, I can understand why someone would jump off them. After a few days on board, I've been tempted to throw myself off them. All kidding aside, these incidents have all the makings of a classic whodunit by Agatha Christie. Is there a detective on board?

Al-Qaida may be one of the world's most feared organizations, but they could give legitimate governments some lessons in sound accounting and management practices. Documents of all sorts that have been seized by the "good guys" show that these "bad guys" keep extensive and very scrupulous records of their expenses, no matter how small. Contrary to popular belief, al-Qaida is no rag-tag terrorist group, but very well-organized and sophisticated in its functioning. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it toppled a few governments around the world and set up its own.

My father used to say that there were people who would get addicted to anything, even orange juice. This comes to mind as I read about the latest fad of smoking electronic cigarettes. Though it appears that they are not as harmful as the real thing, they still deliver nicotine, a drug that is highly addictive. The question remains: What drives people to seek the effects of such a drug? I suppose that, at bottom, there are those who, subconsciously, are looking to harm themselves in some way, and will always look for something to do it with. It's a tragic part of human nature.

One has to wonder about the sincerity of gestures to correct past wrongs when they take place decades after the fact. The Vienna Philharmonic has just revoked honors it bestowed to some Nazis some 70 years ago. Evidently, it has taken it all these years to recognize its error. One would think that, if it really felt that those honors had been bestowed inappropriately, it would have acted many years ago. As it happened, the orchestra did nothing, one supposes because it really did not feel that it had done something wrong all those years ago. What it has done now is put itself in evidence of its true feelings for most of its history. Anyway, we should not forget that Adolf Hitler was really Austrian...

Political appointments in public service are part and parcel of the political process. In some cases, such as diplomatic posts, appointing someone on the basis of political considerations and not professional qualifications can be problematic. Some of Obama's picks in this regard have come under heavy criticism, and experience has shown that the individuals were ill-suited for the job. The spectacular rise of a fund-raiser and media executive to the level of assistant secretary of state in just four years is a case in point of someone who seems to have "bought" his success in the diplomatic world without having to come up through the ranks. In Europe, people buy titles of nobility. In the U.S., they buy political office and government posts.

On this Christmas Day, peace on Earth continues to be an elusive goal. The reason is simple, but very difficult to realize. The key concept in this regard is "to men of good will. " As long as there is no good will between human beings, there will be no peace. Of course, there has to be peace of mind and soul within every one of us; without it, there can be no peace in our relations with others, either individually or collectively as nations. Only spiritual enlightenment can give us the inner peace with which we'll be able to achieve peace with others.

Although it may be true that it's better late than never, some things happen so late that it's almost like never. The fact that the Queen of England has pardoned Alan Turing 60 years  after his conviction for homosexual acts that were then criminal is, in and of itself, shameful. Turing was a mathematical genius who, through his development of a machine that deciphered the Nazi encrypted messages, made an enormous contribution to the war effort. Worse than his conviction is the fact that he was "chemically castrated", something that led to his suicide two years later. It is just incomprehensible that it has taken Britain so long to recognize this grave injustice and something that, had it happened anywhere else, would have been considered "barbaric." When a person, an institution or a country takes so long in admitting an error, you have to wonder about how sincere the mea culpa really is.

I seem to recall that when last year the Nicaraguan government arrested some Mexican journalists, the immediate reaction was that this was one of those examples of aggression against the press and freedom of speech in a socialist country modeled after Cuba, Venezuela, etc. The U.S. media and its acolytes around the world all jumped to this conclusion. Well, as it turns out, those 18 journalists were fake. Not only that, but they were using their false identities to smuggle $9 million worth of drugs in their vehicles. Now, they have been sentenced to 18 years in prison and sent back to Mexico to serve time. The rush to judgment against the likes of Daniel Ortega led by the U.S. makes for all sorts of wild accusations. This was one of those.

Once again, the Pope has put things in the proper perspective, by stressing " mercy over moralism. " That is exactly what faith and religion should be all about. Notice that he did not say "morals or morality" because it's an entirely different concept. Moralism is being judgmental for the sake of adhering to the letter of the law in a technical sense. It's about interpreting the word of God or human ethics in a very narrow and mean-spirited way, without compassion and solidarity with your fellow human beings. This is why being merciful is much more important in spiritual matters, as well as in those of the material world.

Traditionally, the American people have been very slow at realizing they have been duped by their government. Time and time again, they are sent off to war on the flimsiest of excuses, only to find out years and many casualties later that they were lied to about the reasons behind it. Not daring to question what the political leaders tell them, they suffer through the wars, until it becomes evident that they have been taken advantage of. Afghanistan is a case in point. It has taken Americans more than ten years to finally become convinced, by a two-thirds margin, that the war there wasn't worth fighting. The percentage of Americans who believe so has been increasing since 2010. Mindless patriotism has finally been replaced with a realistic assessment of the situation. Had they thought things through, with a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the U.S. position, they wouldn't have gone through this tragic experience once again.

I suppose that those who will excuse anything and everything one of their own does will say that it's because of the stress of dealing with nuclear weapons, but what the U.S. Air Force general did went way beyond "misbehavior." You see, that is a term one uses when talking about schoolchildren who behave like... schoolchildren. But, when a military officer of his rank gets drunk repeatedly, gets involved with, most likely, prostitutes, is late for meetings and acts in a boorish manner all around in a foreign country while on official business, it's much more than some childish or innocent pranks. This man is obviously unfit to serve in any capacity; transferring him to another post is not the solution to his problems. This case comes on the heels of another one in which a U.S. Navy admiral in charge of nuclear weapons also was sanctioned for illegal betting. When you add to these situations the sexual harassment and outright rape that goes on in the U.S. military

Even if all the allegations against her turn out to be true, the arrest and processing of the Indian diplomat in the U.S. seems a bit extreme. People are allowed to turn themselves in all the time. Putting her in jail after being strip-searched looks like a deliberate decision to humiliate a woman from a culture that is extremely sensitive to something like this. Although the charges against her are indeed serious, they are not violence-related, and, anyway, she is presumed innocent. As it stands, law enforcement in this case seems to have put on an ill-advised show-of-force that has produced an enormous backlash in India. One is tempted to say that Americans have treated this Indian as they treat their own Indians.

Well, it wasn't just us. It's been reported that last month was the warmest since 1880, when records began to be kept. We in Puerto Rico, where it's always warm, warmer or warmest, had an unusually hot November, but now we know that it was that way all around the globe. December has been mostly rainy and damp, so it has cooled off somewhat. But, when the sun does come out, you would  never guess that it's "winter." That's the Caribbean for you...and global warming, to be sure.

Make no mistake about it. The U.S. will not rest until it shuts Edward Snowden up. He must be made an example of what happens to people who tell the truth about what the U.S. Government does at home and abroad. With each new revelation, Snowden exposes American lawlessness and hypocrisy at such levels, that he has to be punished severely and permanently. Americans have worked long and hard at building up their domestic and international reputations of being the "good guys", for this guy to tear them down with the truth, embarrassing them royally. Like Osama bin Laden, Edward Snowden is a doomed man. It's only a matter of time. Sooner or later, he will turn up dead in a Hollywood-style scenario that will remain a "mystery" forever. But, everyone will know what happened.

Argentina, Brazil and Chile, all led by women. Southern South America seems to know something that other parts of the world don't know, most notably, the U.S. These three countries are not just little and insignificant, but big and powerful in their own way. So, the fact that they have chosen women as their leaders means that they have come to realize and recognize their value on a par with men and even as superior political figures. This way, they have gone way beyond paying lip-service to equality of the sexes, putting their votes where their mouths are. Bravo!

As was to be expected, the anti-protest bill in Spain has been met with...a massive protest in Madrid, the first of many, I'm sure. The proposed law is something out of Franco's book of fascism. It's really very close to a totalitarian attempt to crush dissent by imposing heavy fines on activities that are not illegal per se . So, the government will either put people in jail or fine the hell out of them for protesting or even being rude to public officials. Who said Franco is dead?

Just three days ago, I predicted that school shootings in the U.S. will go on like clockwork. The latest wasn't worse because the shooter was a bad shot, I suppose. Now, the sheriff wants to know why it happened, as if he didn't have a clue. It's very simple. People with guns will vent their anger and frustration through them. This is what happens in a country that refuses to recognize what is obvious to the rest of the world. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution maybe made some sense in 1791, but it's been dangerously anachronistic for a very long time. What kind of a country considers having weapons a "fundamental right" worthy of being in its Constitution? One that produces massacres and multiple shootings on a regular basis.

I've been saying it all along. These Americans who keep getting arrested for spying overseas are really spies  after all! Seven years ago, Bob Levinson, supposedly on "private business" in Iran, disappeared there. All this time, the U.S. government has denied any involvement of his in spying. In truth, he was working for the CIA over there. The Associated Press and the Washington Post knew about this since 2010, but kept quiet about it, at the request of the U.S. government. No more. They have printed the story. The man had worked for the FBI, and then for the CIA. Which goes to show that all of these "innocent" tourists and hikers who "get lost" and wander into "enemy" territory are, in fact, working for the U.S. government. Can anyone now believe that the "cable guy" in Cuba is not an American agent? People in the spying business know what they're getting into, including the official denial by their own government, which l

Thank God that the Colorado school which called the kissing of a fellow student by a six-year old boy "sexual harassment" has finally come to its senses. Of course, it took them several days and a lot of backlash, but common sense has prevailed. It's absurd to interpret the "unwanted touching" part of sexual harassment this way. Obviously, that kind of touching is of a very different nature. Although the little boy needs to learn that he should not go around kissing girls on the cheek or hand, this was a case of a gross injustice based on an exaggerated reaction to something that occurs very frequently among boys and girls who mean no harm.

Reality check. In the year since the Newtown massacre, 109 gun laws have been passed in the U.S. Of those, 70 loosen restrictions and 39 tighten them. The score clearly reflects that Americans are not serious about doing everything in their power to curb gun violence. This is a conscious choice on their part, in spite of the tragic experience that keeps repeating itself. So, there will be many other "Newtowns" in years to come. Which makes it kind of hard to feel sorry for people who are perfectly willing to die, before admitting that they are wrong on this issue.

It's a fact of life that people smile, even laugh, at wakes and funerals, but these were no ordinary people and this was no ordinary wake. The photo of Obama and the Prime Ministers of England and Denmark taking a picture of themselves all smiles is incredibly inappropriate. It smacks of juvenile behavior and insensitivity at  a solemn occasion. Mrs. Obama appears disapproving of the whole thing, as well she should. (One can't but think that she was not too thrilled with the "friendliness" between her husband and the blonde, either, as is shown by another photo.) I'm sure that she must have told her husband that this was going to make the papers and the rest of the media. She was right.

If the mayoral elections in Venezuela were to be taken as a "referendum" on Maduro's government, then he's not doing bad at all. In fact, he has improved somewhat, by yesterday's results. In spite of the opposition waging an economic war on the country, by hoarding basic commodities, creating a false scarcity and charging high prices, Maduro has managed to show the people of Venezuela that, like Chávez, he's on their side, putting aside that laissez faire bullshit that allows the big commercial interests to have their way in the name of "free enterprise." The people have spoken, and they want to continue on the path laid down by Hugo Chávez.

What a tribute! Scientists in Argentina have named a new kind of "rat" after former President Kirchner who died three years ago. The "excuse" for such an inappropriate move is that Kirchner and his wife and current President were big supporters of scientific research and studies in Argentina. O.K. But, what happened to naming a building or some other thing that will not be such an easy butt of jokes and political humor? The people who did this cannot be so naive as to ignore that it's an open invitation for the worst kind of satire about a dead man, at that. They have called into question their own common sense, in even having thought about such an outrageous thing, let alone going through with it.

As the world mourns Mandela, the media cannot refrain from bringing up how his successors didn't live up to his legacy and such. There will be plenty of time for that from now on. This is not the time to discuss these things. Mandela wasn't perfect; no one is. Nobody should expect those who came after him to be so. We should at least wait until he has been buried to begin assessing the situation in South Africa. Doing so right now takes away the focus on Mandela and his extraordinary accomplishments. Let us reflect on this great man, and leave lesser men for another day.

As Obama reflects on Mandela's life and what it has meant to him and the rest of the world, he should ask himself: What would Mandela have done with the petition for executive clemency by Oscar López Rivera, the Puerto Rican political prisoner who has now been 32 years in jail for the same "crime" that Mandela was convicted of  ? Obama's words on Mandela ring hollow, as he continues to refuse to do Oscar justice.

It's enough to drive you crazy! There's a report out that says that, by 2050, there will be three times as many cases of dementia as there are now in the world. A scary thought, especially for those of us over 60, since that is a fate worse than death. By that date, I would be 100, so it's rather unlikely that I would be alive by then. But, I could be one of those that, along the way, will make up that number. Of course, I probably won't be aware of my condition, so it doesn't much matter. Still, I wouldn't like my loved ones to be saddled with such a heavy burden. I can only hope and pray that I'm spared from this terrible fate.

The killing of an Alzheimer patient taken for an intruder once again calls into question the "stand-your-ground" laws in the U.S., which are being used as open season on strangers who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in vulnerable situations. What is significant in all these cases is the fact that these people get shot repeatedly. In this latest case, the 72-year-old man was shot four times by a 34 year-old man who went out on the porch to investigate what was going on. Which means that he wasn't that afraid, or else he would have stayed inside and called the police. Instead, he chose to fire repeatedly on a confused old man, feeling himself backed up by a stupid law.

Although I can sympathize with people that are offended by an insensitive public remark made by a famous person that gets a lot of attention, it seems to me that to prosecute that person for it is absurd. The distinction can and should be made between statements which incite others to violence and those that express an opinion that might be exaggerated or uninformed about historical events. To "investigate" Bob Dylan in France for a comment he made in an interview about Croats and Serbs is ludicrous. Ignorance, insensitivity or stupidity in public discourse must be dealt with in the realm of ideas, by exposing them. Prosecuting people for them is a perversion of the legal process that should not be tolerated.

There are countries or societies -- if they can be called that -- that are so far gone in disintegration and violence, that they are best left alone by the international community, especially aid workers. Although the urge to do good may be great and commendable, the truth is that the personal heroism of a few who give their lives trying to help is, ultimately, useless. When these people are attacked and killed, it's a sign that the forces of evil are so powerful and widespread, that sacrificing such useful lives is not worth it. There are tragedies that man alone cannot remedy. Aid workers should go where they are needed and appreciated. Getting killed does no one any good.

It seems that it was too "fast and furious." Actor Paul Walker's tragic death is being linked to high speed by the guy who was driving the car in which he rode. Maybe all those movies about high-speed car chases -- he was filming the seventh one --  made them insensitive to the very real danger of driving too fast. The macho mentality that equates speed and daredevil antics on the road with manliness has produced two more victims. The title of the 1958 film Live Fast, Die Young  rings true once again.

The U.S. keeps killing innocent civilians with drone airstrikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan and "apologizing" for it, somewhat, given that it usually says that it will "investigate" the incident. But, nothing comes of it because the Americans are not going to stop using the drone airplanes, no matter what. The Afghans and the Pakistanis are wasting their time waiting for the U.S. to do it. Much like what the NSA Director said recently, that the Americans will continue to spy whomever, wherever and whenever they feel like it, they will continue to use the drones, and, at best, "apologize" for killing children, as the most recent case shows.

The Dominican Republic keeps making headlines...bad ones, that is. As if the deportation of Dominicans of Haitian ancestry and Haitians in general wasn't enough of a black eye, the homophobic reaction to the U.S. Ambassador's arrival with his spouse is another example of bad press. Casting its intolerance as "cultural differences" and denouncing Obama's decision as an affront to the country, the DR is showing a very ugly face of holier-than-thou religious fanaticism and Dark-Ages mentality. Calling for demonstrations and the wearing of black ribbons on cars is, frankly, exaggerated and childish, as a means to protest against the Ambassador and the country he represents. Just as ludicrous is accusing the Obama administration of trying to "impose" gay marriage and adoption on the DR by this appointment. There's definitely something very disturbing going on in a country whose tourist marketing slogan is "The Dominican Republic has it all."

The Pope really means business. He is well on his way to changing the Catholic Church in big and small ways. You get the feeling that he truly embodies the Christian principles of compassion for the poor, the sick and the weak, not just as abstractions, but as immediate and personal concerns. Turning the traditional office of the Vatican Almoner into a more active and out-reaching one is a sign of how caring the man is. By appointing a younger man and ordering him to go out to not only give money to the needy, but spend time with them and share their misfortunes and problems, the Pope "talks the talk and walks the walk." We should all thank him for that.

Life can be very cruel, especially with children who get sick enough to die. Worse than the incredible sadness that goes along with such a tragedy is the fact that, sometimes, the disease has very painful symptoms, and death is a long time coming. Parents and immediate family are, then, in an indefinite deathwatch that breaks their hearts. All this comes to mind because Belgium is debating whether or not to allow euthanasia for children, just as it's legal for adults. Parents there who have gone through the ordeal of seeing their children die very painfully and slowly are urging lawmakers to include minors in the law that authorizes mercy killing of those who are beyond medical help and suffer from excruciating pain that cannot be alleviated. Let's hope that those lawmakers, and others around the world, are themselves merciful.

As China comes up in the world, the media in the U.S. has begun to concentrate on reporting anything and everything negative about that country. One senses that this is done with the clear intention of badmouthing the Chinese. The not-so-subtle message is: the Chinese are not as great as they now appear to be. Things don't work properly there. Accidents and disasters abound. Their products have poor quality. They will never be as good as those made in the USA. Etc., etc., etc. It's as if China or any other country did not have the right to excel economically or in any other human endeavor. Americans act like other people's success bothers them, because it takes away their preeminence in the world, something that "rightfully" belongs to them by some sort of divine decree. Envy is a terrible thing.

Once again, Puerto Ricans from all walks of life, at home and abroad, have marched in support of Oscar López Rivera, a 70 year-old man who has spent 32 years behind bars for being an advocate of our independence form the U.S. Long after Mandela was freed, Oscar remains convicted of a similar "crime" called seditious conspiracy, used to persecute those who dare oppose a regime. His is one of the longest -- if not the longest -- incarcerations for a non-violent crime anywhere in the world. For the last three years, the Obama administration has been petitioned formally and legally for his release. Evidently, Obama has been too busy playing the role of humanitarian and peacekeeper around the world, to do justice to this man. Meanwhile, Oscar sits in his cell waiting for a freedom that may never come, except in death. May God have mercy on Obama's soul.

Amidst all the brouhaha over the Dominican Republic's "legal" deportation of Dominicans of Haitian descent, now comes an express and illegal deportation done in the name of some sort of border justice. Dominican police and army have taken it upon themselves to retaliate against Haitians -- or those they deem Haitian -- for the murder of an elderly couple by, supposedly, Haitians. Acting like judge and jury, they have rounded up more than 200 of the "usual suspects" and proceeded to expel them from the DR. In the process, families have been broken up, leaving children alone and unattended in the DR, while their parents have been carted off to Haiti. The shameful court ruling, supported by the Congress, has now a sequel of lawlessness by the Executive Branch through the Police and the Armed Forces. Trujillo lives!

I don't get it. Why do Americans insist on going to places where they know they are not welcome? Countries that the U.S. government has badmouthed consistently for decades.  Places where there are no guarantees of due process under the law. For instance, North Korea. So, this 85-year-old Korean War veteran with a bad heart suddenly gets the urge to go there. Now, his family is whining about him being detained by the North Koreans. He assumed the risk of traveling to a dictatorship. He should have stayed home or gone to a safer place. He brought this on himself. If he wanted to experience Korea, he could have gone to South Korea. As 60-odd years ago, once again, he put himself in harm's way.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has stated that it's entirely possible that hunger in Africa can be eradicated by 2025, if the heads of state there put their minds to it. More than that, world hunger could be done away with also in our lifetime, if there is the political will to do so. Improving agricultural practices and reducing the waste of food along the chain from farm to table are key elements to achieve this most worthy of human goals. Both things are doable, and there are countries who have done just that, thereby reducing extreme poverty by 50% in their population. Food is not scarce. There's just too much in its way to people's mouths.

Be it for ideological or economic reasons, there are countries that "go along, to get along" with the U.S.  in anything and everything it chooses to do, including the violation of international law. This is what is beginning to come out in the NSA spying scandal, as regards the U.K.'s role in it. True to its lap-dog behavior towards the U.S., Great Britain allowed the NSA to collect digital records of British citizens not suspected of wrongdoing . Now we know why, unlike other world leaders, David Cameron supported this American way of spying.

Since Obama saw fit to start the 50th anniversary observation of JFK's assassination two days early, I'll follow suit. Kennedy's killing in 1963 has been portrayed as something that shocked the world. But, really, given the American track record of violence against the President and other public officials up to that time, was it so surprising? What was surprising was that it hadn't happened in a rather long time, not that it was an unheard- of event. The U.S. has a long history of violence, political and otherwise, and there haven't been more dead presidents because the would-be assassins have been very poor marksmen and women.

While a country such as the U.S., which prides itself on being so democratic and egalitarian, is still pondering if it should have a female candidate for the presidency, Chile has not only one but two, one of which was president from 2006 to 2010. Bachelet is sure to repeat, come December 15, in a runoff election. Which goes to show that the world is far ahead of the so-called "leader of the free world" and the "world's leading democracy", in recognizing women's talents for governance and political leadership.

Life has a funny way of settling disputes or showing who's right on a host of issues. The jury that acquitted George Zimmerman did so because it had a "reasonable doubt" about his guilt. It was his version of what happened between him and Trayvor Martin that finally prevailed. But, ever since he was acquitted, Zimmerman has been, one way or another, in trouble with the law. Minor things, to be sure, but incidents that point out that he is no model citizen whose word people should rely on. Clearly, there's something wrong with him. Sooner rather than later, he's going to go too far, and, once again, do something really bad. Then, the jury will finally realize how wrong they were in believing him.

There's talk about the Mafia wanting to kill the Pope. Not very likely, given its repercussions. It seems that Francis is serious about putting the Church's finances in order, something that could spell trouble for organized crime and its relations with the Vatican. The Holy See has not been too holy in its dealings with the Italian underworld for a long time. On the other hand, I wouldn't put it past the Roman Curia to do away with a Pope that is rocking St. Peters's boat too hard, and blame it on the Mafia as a perfect cover. Let's hope that God the Father protects him from the Godfather.

I must be missing something. Bill Gates went to Oslo to tell Norwegians to be more generous with their fellow men around the world. Now, this is a rather striking petition, given the fact that Norway is extremely generous with its own people and those of the rest of the world. In fact, in 2012, it allocated 27.8 billion kroner, roughly $4.5 billion for foreign development. Norway allocates more of its gross domestic product to foreign aid than any other country in the world. Sure, one could always do more, but I think the Norwegians are doing more than their fair share in helping other countries.

First, it was the NSA listening to your phone calls and reading your e-mails; now, it's the CIA snooping on your money transfers. The excuse is that all's fair in the war against terrorism. Of course, the U.S. Government insists, as in the case of the NSA spying, that this is done only in very few cases, in which they deem the transfers to be suspicious. But, we've heard all this before. Pretty soon, we'll all be reading that it has been done in millions of cases, both in the U.S. and abroad. The truth is that, once they start doing it, they don't know where to stop. This is why the NSA has tapped millions of communications all over the world, when, evidently, there cannot be millions of terrorists in France, Italy and Spain, for example. Time will tell that this is bigger than what the Americans have admitted so far.

There must be some reason that the rest of the world is not aware of for the fact that the mayor of Toronto is not out of office by now. After playing fast and loose with the truth, for far too long, the man has finally admitted that he has bought and used illegal drugs. Instead of being contrite about it, he has chosen to be defiant, dragging out this whole incident needlessly, embarrassing himself, his city and his country. Surely, he cannot seriously think that he will ultimately prevail in this irrational and self-destructive behavior. The City of Toronto has been extremely tolerant of one of the most outrageous situations in public life in a long time.

It's rather ironic that the British government and media seem to have taken such a cavalier attitude towards American spying on its allies. George Orwell, the man who did more than anyone else to warn the world against "Big Brother", was British. One has to ask: What would he have thought about his government's complacent attitude about the NSA activities?

Much is being made of the recent economic woes in Venezuela, which the media blames squarely on the Maduro government, as it, more or less, continues Chavez's policies. Nothing is said about what the private sector might be doing to make things worse, except quote -- with evident skepticism -- what government officials say about it. One would have to be extremely naive and historically ignorant to believe that businessmen in Venezuela are not in cahoots with the opposition to bring the government down by discrediting it in any way possible. Creating or worsening bad economic conditions by acting in a concerted fashion, in hoarding and price gouging, is the way to demonstrate how "inefficient" the government is. Private enterprise is betting on public desperation to achieve what its candidate has not been able to do at the polls. Driving the government to take extreme measures against them, they present themselves as victims and cry foul to high heaven. This is what they

I wouldn't be too sure that Neruda wasn't poisoned or a victim of another form of foul play. There are too many other suspicious elements surrounding his death, to close the case on it. Where the CIA is involved, one has to take into account its many resources to get things done in a secret way. There are substances that are extremely difficult to trace, so further testing is in order. There's no question that Neruda was dying from cancer. Therefore, he was the perfect candidate to be killed without arousing any suspicion.

The rush to judgment, the willingness to always believe that others are in the wrong, that they are hiding something or outright lying are powerful driving forces behind news organizations, and sometimes, make them make mistakes, like the one just admitted to by CBS in their reporting of the Benghazi attack. The 60 minutes people were so intent on finding fault with the U.S. government handling of the attack, that, even after being aware that there was some question as to their informant's veracity , they went ahead with the story and stood by it. Now, they've had to apologize and admit that they were wrong and made a mistake in relying on the man's account of what happened, given the fact that he wasn't there when it happened. The scoop turned into poop.

The U.S. tantrum at UNESCO's decision to admit the Palestinian government two years ago has resulted in its losing its right to vote in the organization's general assembly. The Americans, mad at UNESCO for not caving in to them and the Israelis, have tried to strangle it financially, withholding its dues, which amount to almost 25% of the total budget. To its credit, UNESCO has stood firm on its decision, in spite of the financial trouble it has been put in by the American extortion. The U.S. continues to discredit itself by behaving like a bully and a spoiled child who doesn't get to do what he wants all the time.

To all those who wish to let bygones be bygones, the news of "blacklists" of Argentine artists and intellectuals by the 1976-1983 dictatorship is an inconvenient truth. Of course, those who hate the Left or anything that resembles liberalism, having people like Aleandro, Cortázar and Sosa blacklisted is no big deal. But, to the rest of the world, it shows how mean-spirited and petty Fascism is. How, in the name of fighting "communism" or "socialism", those who would save the Fatherland end up impoverishing it in all kind of ways, including culturally, by persecuting its great artists and thinkers. They don't realize that "witch hunts" always come back to haunt them.

What were they thinking? In Paraguay, at one of those retreats in which public-school teachers are supposed to be improving their teaching skills, they were instead dancing the night away with male strippers. The news story only mentions this; no reference is made to female strippers, so, either there are very few male teachers in the country, or the stripper gig was "unisex." Significantly, there was about one supervisor for every ten teachers, so you have to wonder about the kind of administrative control and discipline in the Paraguayan school system. I've heard of "letting your hair down", but it seems that these Paraguayan teachers were on their way to letting much more than that down.

The Syrian government can't be all bad. They are looking for young musicians for their police band. Evidently, Assad recognizes that "music has charms to soothe the savage breast."

Evidently, Edward Snowden is a very naive young man. Knowing all that he knows about the dark side of U.S. politics at home and abroad, he still thinks that the American government could forgive him for all this public embarrassment and humiliation. The U.S. won't be satisfied with anything less than his head, literally or figuratively, in the form of life imprisonment. The sooner he comes to terms with the fact that he will never return to the U.S. alive or as a free man, the better. So, he better learn Russian fast.

Really, should Kenyans be allowed to compete in all those Whatever-City Marathons? It's a foregone conclusion that a male and female Kenyan runner is going to win the race, so why bother? It's "unfair"; they are so superior to the rest of the field, that, when there is more than one Kenyan competitor, the only questions are which one is going to win and how fast will he and she run. Once in a while, a runner from another African country manages to win, but that's about it,as far as real competition goes. It's an amazing display of long-term dominance in a sport on venues all over the world.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has rightfully rejected the U.S. "explanation" for not complying with submitting a plan to close the Guantánamo prison. The Americans, ridiculously, justified their non-compliance on the Federal Government's recent lockout. The Commission found this unacceptable, pointing out that it's been nine years, since the U.S was supposed to close the facility, given its history of human-right abuses. This is just another example of American disregard for international law and institutions whenever it suits their purposes. Had it been some other country in this position, the U.S. would have immediately condemned it for not abiding by the decisions of the Commission.

The NSA spying scandal keeps getting bigger and more weird. The latest revelation is that it spied on 46 million phone calls in Italy, including quite a few in the Vatican . Now, what could there be of interest in the Pope's conversations? Not to belittle this one or any of his predecessors, but the Pontiff isn't really a major player in the world scene. That and spying on the Queen of England would be about the same. The Americans have really gone overboard in the spying business. What's next?

Am I missing something here? The Boy Scouts of America, which has been in deep trouble lately, due to the sex-with-boys scandal and its homophobic policy, has named Robert Gates as its President. Gates is a former CIA Director and Defense Secretary, hardly "merit badges" on anyone's résumé these days. Now that the so-called intelligence community in the U.S. is at its lowest point, discredited by its own actions, it seems odd that they would choose someone who is no "boy scout", even if he has been associated with the organization for a long time. Boy, they must really be desperate!

This must be some sort of "Trivial Pursuit." They have declared the house in California where Steve Jobs lived for six years and built his first computers a "historic site." So, pretty soon there will be guided tours and all the other touristy paraphernalia that comes with something like this. Silly, isn't it?

The NSA spying scandal is not going away anytime soon. It keeps getting bigger. Now, it's Spain's turn to feel betrayed by the Americans. I mean, 60 million phone calls monitored by the U.S. can't be justified by, what, ETA? It is obvious that such a large-scale phone-tapping operation was conducted much more broadly than one targeting terrorism. The U.S. has been keeping tabs on many other aspects of life in other countries. One has to conclude that the Americans have been spying on commercial, industrial and economic matters in general, as well as on political and military ones. It's the American Dream turned into the Orwellian Nightmare.

The release of the American former soldier -- and, surely, current spy -- by the FARC in Colombia is another episode in what has to be a very badly-written script by the U.S. government. I suppose that, given the economic troubles north of the border, the Americans use the same script over and over. According to it, an American tourist "gets lost" in some part of a country that just happens to be on or near the border with a country at odds with the U.S. or, as in this case, territory occupied by forces that fight against a government supported by the U.S. We are expected to believe that these are just innocent civilians that have no sense of direction. The question is: Why would anybody choose to go to these out-of-the-way places and always end up on the wrong side? In this particular case, he was warned by Colombian officials not to go into rebel-held territory. Evidently, he knew what he was doing. There was nothing innocent about his being there. Tune in to the next epi

With so many bad news around the world -- especially of how our planet is deteriorating --  the one about more than 400 new species recently discovered in the Amazon is, certainly, a hopeful sign that not all is lost. It seems that Nature is more resilient than we give it credit for. Nonetheless, it also points to the fact that the Amazon is a vital part of the world's ecosystem, and that we all have a stake in its well-being.

Prejudice makes you do stupid things. The removal of the two kids from Gypsy families in Ireland is, clearly, the result of the stereotype about how the Roma people look and the distrust of them. The Irish authorities simply could not believe that those blond and blue-eyed children were Gypsies, so they, naturally, assumed that they were kidnapped or stolen from some "decent" folks. Unfortunately for them, DNA tests proved them wrong, and they have ended up with egg on their faces before the rest of the world.

Let's get real here. By now everybody has to assume that the U.S. is spying on them. The mistake Frau Merkel is making is thinking that she should be exempt from it, on account of Germany being "friends" with the U.S. Let me disabuse her of that notion. The U.S. has no friends. It is in a class by itself. It only has subordinates; countries that go along with it or face the consequences. And enemies, of course. But, even if it had friends, it is extremely naive, given its history, to think that the U.S. would refrain from doing whatever it chooses to do, simply because it can. "With friends like these..."

Setting aside the scientific validity of the World Happiness Report, declaring a country like Denmark the "happiest in the world" is food for thought for the rest of us. The important thing about this are the reasons for this finding. Denmark offers its people a strong social-support system in the basic areas of education, health care, child care, gender equality and the environment. That and a decent standard of living go a long way towards making the Danes a happy people. The rest of us should take note, and try to improve on all those elements in our countries, so that we can also enjoy a high level of quality of life and personal satisfaction.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called Obama out on the use of drones, as a practice that borders on being a war crime, if not actually being one. Based on a study of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, they have challenged the Obama government's position that these are highly-effective, with very little collateral damage to civilian and innocent lives. The U.S. has assumed a rather cavalier attitude towards the loss of civilian life wherever they choose to use these unmanned planes to carry out their deadly missions. Both groups fault the Americans for the secrecy with which they cover up the strikes and their aftermath, as well as their continued refusal to acknowledge their true impact on innocent people. Shame on Obama, for continuing this Bush policy. The world expected better of him, and he has let everybody down.

By the looks of it, the Americans must think that France is full of terrorists. Intercepting more than 70 million phone calls in a month  has to mean that the U.S. is convinced that the French spend most of their time plotting against the rest of the world. When you add to that the spying in Brazil, Mexico and God knows where else, you have to conclude that Washington has become paranoid, seeing enemies everywhere. I always believed that I must be under surveillance, on account of this and my other blogs in which I'm critical of the U.S. I now know that I am, given the fact that my daughter lives in Paris, and we talk on the phone every week. Merde!

Sooner or later, the truth comes out. It's been reported that several news organizations in Chile were bribed to refrain from reporting official crimes by the Pinochet regime. So much for a free press and unbiased reporting. This is why one has to be skeptical of the media, when it cries foul over when governments such as those of Correa, Fernández, Maduro or Morales take certain steps "against" it, as if they were innocent bystanders who just report the news. Media outlets are owned by the rich who feel threatened by progressive policies that affect their privileges. They are part of the ruling class, and therefore, are by no means impartial. Their agenda is to protect the status quo , but they pretend to be on the side of democracy and freedom, all the while they are broadcasting and publishing propaganda. Chile under Pinochet was an example of this strategy that still goes on 40 years later in other parts of Latin America. Beware of the so-called free press in Ecuado

We already knew that China "owns" the U.S. because the U.S. owes China big time. Now, not only are the Chinese the Americans' biggest creditors, but also, they have begun to buy up properties in the U.S., some prime real estate in New York City, for example. That move is much more than just a business deal; it's a statement about Chinese economic power and status in the world, and the decline of the U.S. as number one on the board of major players in the international capitalist game. The Chinese have come to stake their claim on the U.S.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made it official: air pollution causes cancer. We kinda knew it all along. You don't have to be too bright to realize that breathing all that filthy air is very bad for you. It figures that, if smoking is hazardous to your health, so is taking breaths of chemicals and particles of all kinds of materials that shouldn't be inside your body. According to WHO, there are no ifs and buts about this. Also, there's not much time to do something meaningful about it. Lung cancer causes close to 250,000 deaths around the globe each year. Air pollution control is a matter of life and death.

JP Morgan has been fined another $100 million , as part of the financial and investment scandal it has been involved in. This is just "peanuts" compared to the $920 million it was fined last month, for what banking and trading regulators have called " unsafe and unsound practices." Before this is all over, fines will amount to billions more.

Those in the know are saying that the worst is yet to come in the  NSA scandal. The world waits for new and more shocking revelations about what the Americans have been up to all these years in the prying and spying field. We can handle the truth! As always, the truth will set us free. Free from believing in fairy-tale propaganda about "good guys" and "boys next door" who are above reproach in the national and international arenas. People in the U.S. have to come to terms with how their government really operates against them and the rest of the world. Maybe then, and only then, will things really change.

What's wrong with this headline? "Nobel Prize for economics awarded to 3 Americans." So much brainpower, and the country's economy is going down the tubes. Come to think of it, the same case could be made in the case of the prize for medicine. Two of the three winners are Americans, and the U.S. health and health care are nothing to be proud of. Facetiousness aside, this goes to show that knowledge, in and of itself, is not enough to ensure that the right things are done. You have to know what should be done, but, more than that, you have to be able to do it.

Who knew? It seems that Colombians are not the great coffee drinkers the world has supposed them to be. This has come to light, now that Starbucks plans to invade Juan Valdez country. I would have thought that the American franchise -- frankly, overrated -- would have no chance in a nation of knowledgeable coffee people, but, apparently, though Colombia has great coffee, that doesn't necessarily translates into coffee connoisseurs.  The local Juan Valdez franchise doesn't do as well as it should, so Starbucks could give it a run for its money. Let's hope not. What we need in Latin America is successful entrepreneurship to withstand the foreign one that, ultimately, takes its profits elsewhere.

In typical imperialistic fashion, the U.S. "negotiates" with Afghanistan over American troops that will stay there after 2014. Everything has been agreed to, except the demand that U.S. military personnel not be under the jurisdiction of Afghan law. In other words, when -- no if about it -- an American soldier goes on one of those killing sprees against civilians they are so fond of, only the U.S. will have the right to prosecute him. Which really means that the guy will be found not guilty, get off with a "slap-of-the-wrist" type of sentence or be paroled after a short time. Being an occupied country with no real bargaining power, Afghanistan will have to swallow its pride and agree to this outrageous condition. Once again, might makes right.

The Nobel Prize Committee finally got it right this time on the Peace Prize, after the Obama slip up. Awarding the prize to the organization that has been fighting to eliminate chemical weapons for the past 13 years was the right thing to do, especially this year. Malala deserves all the recognition given to her, but, quite frankly, the Nobel Peace Prize would have been too much of a reach, given other people or organizations that really work for peace on a grander scheme of things on the world stage. Being likable or evoking sympathy for oneself or a cause, though positive in many ways, is not enough to make someone worthy of a prize that should be awarded for work of a loftier nature and greater impact on the world community.

Evidently, there are people who don't know how to read "the writing on the wall." One would think that a man of the cloth would be able to do so, more easily than the average Joe. But, in the case of the German bishop of Limburg, the man seems to be blind, deaf and dumb. Not only has he been engaged in building a multi-million-euro house, but also has gotten in trouble for lying under oath about a trip to visit poor children in India, which he claimed was on business class, to cover the fact that he flew first class. The man is totally oblivious to "the signs of the times", especially under his new boss, Pope Francis. More importantly, he is clueless about what the Boss upstairs demands of the people who claim to speak for Him.

For the better part of seven decades, the Americans kept hammering at the Russians that the "hammer and sickle" was a failure, not just for its lack of freedom, but also for its economic inefficiency. So, a quarter of a century ago, the Russians decided to ditch communism and take up capitalism, to make some serious money. Having lost the Space Race and the Cold War, the Russians came back with a vengeance, excelling at playing Monopoly, the rich man's game. So much so, that, after just 25 years, 110 people own 35% of Russia's total wealth , a figure unparalleled in the world. One that, surely, will make Americans proud -- and envious -- of their pupils. That's freedom for you!

For a long time, it was common knowledge that U.S. students did poorly in tests aimed at measuring basic skills, compared with the rest of the developed world. Now, according to a just-released international study, so do American adults. This, quite frankly, should come as no surprise. Anyone familiar with life in the U.S. is aware of the general public's ignorance of basic facts and figures, even those having to do with their own country. Decades of educational neglect have come to this. Also, a celebration of a sort of anti-intellectualism and low-brow culture have devalued learning and the life of the mind. Time was when Americans felt that it was enough to have money. Now they have begun to realize that their economic decline is, in a very big way, a result of their intellectual decline.

They say that "all's fair in love and war"...and politics, which is war by another name. This explains why political adversaries will jump at the chance of taking advantage of illness, death or any other personal tragedy to score points against the victim of those unfortunate circumstances. It happened with Hugo Chávez, and now with Cristina Fernández. The opposition has begun to question the fact that the head injury that has produced the brain blood clot was kept from the public. The fact is that this is standard operating procedure -- no pun intended -- in affairs of state. Even the U.S., which brags about being an "open society", has kept quiet about its Presidents' illnesses or has not divulged their true extent in the case of Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Reagan, to name a few. So, why should the Argentine government be any different? Let's all -- friend and foe alike -- wish her well, instead of engaging in small-minded politics.

The death of Vo Nguyen Giap, the great Vietnamese general, brings to mind what commitment to a cause is capable of doing. This is the man who, against all odds, was able to defeat both the French and the Americans in long and bloody wars. He managed to achieve victory in improbable circumstances, given the vast difference between his poor country's resources and those of two wealthy ones. But, the man was fighting against imperialism, to end foreign domination in his homeland . And that made all the difference in the world. That made him invincible. For that, the general must be saluted.

Now, there's an idea! The Irish are voting on whether to keep their Senate. The results will be known tomorrow, but it's expected that voters will decide to get rid of it, given its undemocratic nature and its cost. Though the Irish Senate is a version of the British House of Lords, it is similar to the U.S. Senate in that it's a private club of privileged people. In fact, a Washington publication has just released figures that show how rich U.S. Senators are. No wonder they and their colleagues in the House of Representatives are so out of touch with the average American. Thus, the gridlock on the budget and the shutdown of the Federal Government. The Irish may be onto something.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been quoted  as saying that his dealings with Iran won't be based on "trust." That's a strange way of doing diplomacy. One can understand that there can be no blind trust in diplomacy or whatever else, but trust there must be. Also, it's rather stupid to say these things publicly, because they undercut any effort to deal with the other party successfully. Evidently, Kerry is responding to Netanyahu's comments about Iran. The U.S., held hostage by Israel in these matters, has to appease him, by appearing to pay attention to his warnings about Iran's new leader. Even by speaking out as stupidly as Netanyahu.

It's been said by different sources for quite some time now: the war on drugs is being lost; in fact, it's not winnable. Now comes additional proof, in the form of a report that establishes that, although illegal drug seizures have increased significantly, so has the availability of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Not only is there more of it worldwide, but it's cheaper and more potent. The inescapable conclusion is that drug use has to be handled as a public health problem, which is what it has been all along. The ultimate goal has to be that people be mentally healthy enough so that they do not feel the need or urge to use drugs. If and when demand for drugs goes down, so will its supply. It will no longer be the extremely profitable and deadly business it has been for so long now. The gangbusters method just doesn't work.

When Gadhafi was brought down in Libya, I recall saying that the people who were poised to take his place were just as bad, if not worse than him. Well, two years after the fact, the UN has pretty much concurred with my assessment. After reviewing the situation in Libyan jails, especially in those run by the militias, it has concluded that torture is rampant, and that there are thousands of individuals detained without any due process of law, with no access to attorneys or relatives. Evidently, the government has not been able to exert control over the whole country. One can only infer that other aspects of Libyan life are not up to any democratic or civil liberties standards. As has been often the case, U.S intervention hasn't really improved things in the country. In fact, in some respects, it could be argued that it has made matters worse.

Once again, the threat of a Federal Government shutdown in the U.S. comes up. This is becoming a regular feature in American politics. Both ruling parties cannot agree on the budget, and so, they shut down the government or come very close to doing so. It's an embarrassing spectacle, to say the least; one that, if it happened in some other country, would be met by derision by the Americans. Once again, those who lecture the rest of the world on democracy and good government engage in extremely-partisan politics, making  fools of themselves before their people and a bemused rest of the world.

The U.S. National Security Agency spying scandal is not going away anytime soon. With each passing day, it gets bigger and much more embarrassing for the Americans. First, it was the domestic spying. Then, it was the spying on foreign leaders. More recently, we have learned about NSA personnel using official resources to snoop on their lovers or spouses. Now, it seems that we'll soon find out about an assassination program run by the agency. It's a given that investigative reporters Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill have moved up on that hit list.  

A former Minnesota policeman has an idea that might help to prevent or reduce the deadly effects of incidents like the one at the Kenya shopping mall: lock-down drills. Based on his experience with one of the biggest malls in the U.S., he proposes that malls adopt a practice of allowing customers into a back room, lowering the gate and turning down the lights whenever a shooting or similar incident starts to take place. This way, the criminal has no access to any additional victims, and is unable to barricade himself inside a store. The idea is to contain the danger until the police arrives. The reason this isn't standard operating procedure is that store owners are more concerned about their merchandise being stolen by customers than saving lives. You know, anything to stop shoplifting.

Scientific evidence is great, but, in this case, anecdotal evidence was more than enough. Global warming is a fact of life. Here in Puerto Rico, we are going through a heat wave in "fall." As late in the year as today, we are enduring -- suffering is a better word -- 90-degrees-plus temperatures. This has gone on for a couple of weeks now. UN experts have said that they are 95% sure that climate change is, at least, 50% man-made. I'm 100% sure that it must be. It's going to be a long, hot year. In fact, according to scientists, even if the whole world did the right things from now on, the changes that are taking place will continue for centuries. Let's hope they're wrong.

I love Spain. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. I love everything about it. And that includes its laid-back lifestyle, at least, as I can perceive it as a foreigner and somewhat frequent visitor. So, from my admittedly-egotistical point of view, I dislike the idea of Spain changing its time to coincide with England and Portugal. Though it may make sense from a geographical standpoint, the change would take away much of the charm of the Spanish culture as the world has come to know it for more than 70 years. As someone who appreciates the siesta and enjoys the nightlife, Spanish style, I think that mimicking the supposedly superior British work and other habits would be a mistake. To each its own. We don't want another London, as great as it is. Madrid would not be the same moving at another pace.

Cristina Fernández has told the UN the truth to its face. The Argentinean President has, rightfully, denounced the "double standard" that has been applied by the organization throughout its history, depending on the countries at issue. Big, powerful and rich nations get VIP diplomatic treatment, while small, weak and poor ones carry much less weight in that world forum. The veto power in the Security Council by the major powers is the single most undemocratic feature of an organization that, purportedly, aspires to set an example of democracy and freedom for the whole world, but, in some aspects, functions as a private club of a privileged few. Latin American leaders such as Correa, Fernández and Morales continue to speak boldly against the inequality that much of the world endures under international institutions that, supposedly, stand for peace and social justice.

Anytime the U.S. reduces its military forces, it's good news, not only for the American taxpayers, but, more importantly, for the rest of the world. The announcement that there could be 60,000 less soldiers and 50,000 less civilian employees in the Defense Department is cause for celebration. Anything that limits the U.S. war machine is a welcome development for other countries which are always under the threat of bombings, invasions and occupations from the Americans.

Sometimes justice is done in a roundabout and unusual way. This could be the case of the Argentinean justice system extending its grasp all the way to Spain to indict police officers of the Franco regime for crimes committed against its citizens. This is the other side of the coin that Spanish judge Garzón used when he boldly indicted Pinochet for crimes against Spaniards in Chile. Spain has been remiss in its duty to do justice to the countless victims of Franco and his henchmen over 40 years. His spiritual sons have barricaded themselves behind an amnesty law that has guaranteed their impunity. It is high time that someone, even from very far away, starts doing justice to those victims.

To the rest of the world, it's utterly incomprehensible that, in the face of repeated mass killings, the U.S. will not change its policy about gun control in a fundamental way. It is a nation held hostage by its weapon industry. A President that is powerless to stop the irrational and insane way in which his country behaves on this matter. A people condemned to, time and time again, bury its dead from senseless and preventable violence. A land born and bred in violence, that glorifies it and does not have the collective will to stop its citizens from having the means to so easily kill each other.

The fact that it's only now that sororities at the University of Alabama are being racially integrated shows how entrenched racism really is in the Deep South of the U.S. It has taken almost 60 years since the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education for this to happen. Obviously, all these years there has been a resistance to accept black -- women, in this case -- people as part of these student organizations.   Not only that, but the University did nothing about it, not even when the granddaughter of one of its trustees was rejected by the sororities. Racial progress is really s-l-o-w in the American South.

Putting aside the conflicting versions about the denial of U.S. permission to the Venezuelan presidential plane to fly over Puerto Rico on its way to China, the issue is a clear example of our colonial situation. The undisputed fact of the matter is that the Puerto Rican government has absolutely nothing to say about the whole thing. We have no jurisdiction over our airspace; in fact, Puerto Ricans have very little jurisdiction over any aspect of Puerto Rican life. The U.S. Government, ultimately, controls everything in our country, either directly or indirectly, through laws, rules and regulations. So, this is just one more episode in a very long chain of events that embarrasses and humiliates us before the international community and ourselves.

The Pope has his heart in the right place in some key issues. It's certainly refreshing to read his statements, both off-the-cuff and in his first lengthy interview. I can't think of  another pontiff that expressed such liberal views as the present one. Contrary to others, he has unequivocally accepted the Church's failings, and seems to be acting diligently to correct them. He has also expressed the true values of Christ's message, not putting too fine a point on dogma and particular beliefs that should be secondary to compassion, love and mercy for one's fellow human beings. Let's hope that nothing happens to him, so that he will have enough time to reform the Church and lead others by his example of good will.

The French Senate has taken a step in the right direction, by banning beauty contests for girls younger than 16 years old. Let's hope that the National Assembly does the same. One would hope that other countries will follow suit. There is absolutely no good reason for parading very young girls in these pageants, full of the wrong values. There is something obscene and twisted in using children this way. As the woman who has led the campaign for the ban stated: "We are fighting to say: What counts is what they have in their brains." And in their hearts, I would add.

The latest U.S. official statistics reveal that, although the economic situation has not gotten worse, it has not improved either. About 46.5 million  people live in poverty, 15% have no health insurance, those with less income earn less and those with more income earn more. Not a pretty picture for a country that brags continuously about its success, indulging in all kinds of self-aggrandizing rhetoric. In the "land of plenty", there are plenty of people who have nothing.

You've got to hand it to the Americans. They are the businessmen par excellence . Nothing -- not ideals, ideology or principles -- comes between them and a good deal. Here's proof positive of it. We all know that the U.S. Postal Service is on its last legs, losing business and money faster than it delivers its express mail. But, now, all of a sudden, the U.S. Government is interested in reestablishing direct postal service with Cuba, 50 years after it suspended it. Coincidence? I think not. I would bet my bottom dollar that they have realized that this is a good business opportunity, and given the desperate situation the Postal Service is in, they are willing to pact with the Devil himself, otherwise known as Fidel Castro. As U.S. President Calvin Coolidge said: "The chief business of the American people is business."

As I've said before, I'm a life-long supporter of Puerto Rican independence. So, naturally, I'm sympathetic to independence movements all across the world, be it in Scotland or in Catalonia. I'm also a fervent believer in the democratic process. Free and fair elections are always the preferred means of achieving political goals. Though a country invariably tries to hold itself together, there are times when a part of it -- especially if it had been annexed by force -- wants to gain or regain its independence. Rather than fighting for or against it,  the question should be put to a vote. It's the civilized and democratic way. This is why it's unacceptable that Spain's national government won't grant Catalonia the opportunity to vote on its independence, especially, given the fact that more or less half of its people have expressed their desire to be independent. One cannot call oneself a democrat, if one is unwilling to play by the rules of the democrat

The level of stupidity regarding guns in the U.S. is...well, stupefying. If someone had said that  blind or legally-blind people  would be permitted to own and carry guns, it would have been a joke; a sick joke, at that. Well, Iowa is certainly serious about it. Taking the Second Amendment to the U.S.Constitution and the American with Disabilities Act to their extremely illogical conclusions, Iowa lawmakers have given the blind "the right to bear arms" because they have a constitutional right to do so, and also because disabled people cannot be discriminated against in any way, shape or form. Which, in effect, makes Iowa legislators " legally blind."

Sometimes you have to get to justice in a roundabout way. If criminals can't or won't be prosecuted, then they can be sued, and a finding of responsibility is achieved; also, the defendant is made to, literally, "pay" for his crime. This is what folk singer Victor Jara's family is doing in a Florida court against the man who ordered and carried out his torture and murder 40 years ago in Chile. The former military officer has been living in the U.S. since 1989, but a couple of American laws have made it possible for Jara's relatives to sue him for the crime he committed in Chile all those years ago. One previous case against a Chilean army officer living in the U.S. is a precedent. Let's hope that it is followed in this case. Note: I''ll be back on September 17, God willing.

Call me paranoid, but that tremendous power outage in Venezuela has all the markings of sabotage with some sort of intervention by the U.S. History teaches us that the Americans are relentless in their efforts to destabilize "unfriendly" governments by any and all means possible. The U.S. game plan, which includes all sorts of "dirty tricks" and covert operations, is to discredit the foreign government, by creating, fostering or making worse any difficulty or trouble the country may be experiencing. This way, the government gets blamed, and either it is toppled by an American-backed coup or it loses the next election. We'll see...

Although "it's better late than never", sometimes, it's so late that it almost amounts to never. There seems to be a new sense of urgency in prosecuting Nazi war criminals in Germany and elsewhere. Fine. But, one has to wonder if it really was all that difficult to locate them and gather the evidence of their crimes, so much so, that it has taken 68 years  from the end of the war. It would seem to me that the passage of time would only make it more difficult to do that. These people should have been brought to justice decades ago, when it meant something for the victims and their families. Very few of those who survived are still alive; even their relatives must be dead by now or suffering from dementia, so it doesn't matter to them. Condemning people in their nineties to life in prison or any prison term is a joke, and reeks of insincerity. It's one more cruel act against the victims.

Can you imagine the next meeting between Obama and Peña Nieto or Rousseff? If there is one. This is a man that has been spying on both the Mexican and the Brazilian presidents. Reading their e-mails and chats. How can he look them in the eye and carry on a normal conversation? This is the man who promised "change" in the way things are done. Who appealed to people to have "hope" in a different and better future. What a fraud! He may be smarter and more articulate than Bush -- who isn't?-- but he has continued the very same policies of the former President, and has come up short on delivering on his promises on major issues. Who can trust him and have any kind of faith in him, when he disrespects other world leaders in such a way?

As I've said before, I sympathize with labor and the downtrodden, but, sometimes, people with legitimate grievances go too far in their demands or the way in which they air their grievances. Take the Paraguayan bus drivers who, in the midst of a labor dispute with their employers, have chosen to "crucify" themselves, as well as go on a hunger strike. This is clearly extreme, and tends to portray them as people who are fanatical or even somewhat mentally sick and emotionally unstable, thus putting their claims in doubt. It reminds me of those Buddhist monks who set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet, for example. I hope that no bus driver dies from this form of protest. It would be a waste of a life that could have carried on in a more rational way for itself and its loved ones.

The business of America has been, is and always will be business. Only the very naive or the utterly uninformed are unaware that war is great for business. In Afghanistan, for example, the Americans have done business in every conceivable way, including legal services by high-powered lawyers who represent Afghans who are or will soon be in trouble with the U.S. government for all kinds of corrupt practices or just plain controversies over contracts or services rendered paid for with U.S funds. As I've said before, it's a familiar scenario: the U.S. destroys a country, uses public funds to rebuild it, and the American private sector gets rich from it. In this case, Afghans have profited by doing some of the work for the U.S. contractors. Thus the legal problems that arise from these business dealings, which end up benefiting American lawyers. It's a win-win situation for the Americans, always looking to make money out of any situation, especially one of their own making.

It's only natural that, after Tony Blair's blunder in Iraq, the British are extremely wary of any more involvements in other countries based on dubious evidence. So, Parliament has voted against the U.K. taking part in another American adventure in Syria. Although it may very well be the case that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people, the American track record on these things is rather dismal. Time and time again, they have lied and made up all sorts of scenarios, in order to justify bombing and invading other countries. So, the British have done the sensible thing, by not committing themselves to military action that, ultimately, may prove to be unwarranted. One more thing, both England and the United States have fought bloody and costly civil wars in their history. I'm sure they would not have taken kindly to other countries intervening to support one side or the other.

As if being bankrupt wasn't enough, Detroit faces a very serious public-safety problem that, ultimately, is a by-product of the economic crisis. Thousands of abandoned dogs roam the streets, hungry and lonely, attacking people. As their owners lose their jobs and struggle mightily to put food on their tables, dogs become expendable. The situation is more complicated, given the fact that most of the dogs are pit bulls or similar breeds, that were used as guard dogs. So, their natural ferocity is made worse by hunger. This whole situation does not bode well for Detroit's future. Who is going to feel comfortable in a city in which a stray and ferocious dog will attack you at any time?

It was a foregone conclusion that the U.S. would attack Syria. As in many other cases throughout its history, it was waiting for something awful to happen, that it would justify it. But, if history teaches us anything, it is that one has to see these justifications with a great deal of skepticism. The Americans have a long and well-documented history of "making things happen" to suit their purposes. From blowing up the Maine at the Havana harbor in 1898 to declare war on Spain, to the weapons of mass destruction that never were, the U.S. will go to any lengths in order to convince the world that what they want to do all along must be done. So, I would reserve judgment on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Time and whistleblowers will tell.

I'm all for freedom of speech and all the rest of it, but there are outrageous uses of civil liberties that can't be tolerated. Political humor and satire are one thing, but portraying Putin in panties and Medvedev in women's underwear is quite another. There is a basic sense of decency that dictates how far you can go in public discourse. Public figures are still human beings who, as such, deserve respect, even if we don't like them personally or their politics. There are many things that can be made fun of about politicians or government officials. But, all should not be fair in public affairs. Civility is a human value that needs to be acknowledged and honored, lest we all descend into savagery.

There are some people who still don't get it. They think that Hitler and Nazi Germany are just cultural icons, to be used or referred to lightly, even humorously. Selling wine with Nazi images on bottle labels is an example of this egregious insensitivity. What's worse is that it sells well, especially those with Hitler on the label. According to the Italian winemaker who has been selling it for 20 years, people buy it as a "joke." Which goes to show how sick both the makers and the buyers really are, and why the world needs to be eternally vigilant of the mindset that produces and consumes something that is in anyway associated with one of the greatest horrors in human history.

Like other countries, the U.S. has a shameful history of how it has treated its indigenous population. Except that the Americans have always claimed to be "exceptional" in every way, contrary to the laws of history in all regards. And yet, the white man killed off the red man, took his land and put the remaining people in a sort of captivity, subject to benign and not-so-benign neglect. The exploitation has gone on. American Indians have fought back claiming recognition as members of tribes and reclaiming their land. The government has reluctantly admitted some of these claims, but the white man worries that they might be inconvenient for the rest of the population. So, communities with vested interests oppose the recognition of more tribes, for fear that they might give rise to more claims. In other words, that the Indians might be right and have the right to those lands that were taken away from their ancestors, either by force or by fraud. The white man is still at war

The death at 77 of a descendant of Fletcher Christian, of mutiny on the Bounty fame , brings back memories of a very distant past that seems unreal. Living on Pitcairn Island, where Christian settled in 1790 to avoid capture and certain death,   this man led a hard and isolated life, in just two square miles with, at the time of his death, other 51 people. In its own way, his story is as fascinating as his great-great-great-grandfather's.

It was bound to happen. In a country in which guns are of paramount importance -- let's not forget the Second Amendment to its Constitution -- every generation is raised to become gun-toting individuals. Right from the start, like kindergarten . Think I'm exaggerating? A boy in a Tennessee kinder went to school with a gun in his backpack, and the gun went off. Luckily, no one was hurt. We have to ask ourselves, where did this four or five-year-old boy get the gun? Why did he choose to put it in his backpack and take it to school? How is it that no one at home was aware of this? Or were they? It's going to take a very long time for the U.S. to solve the gun problem. If ever.

Black people driving in the U.S. -- men, mostly -- have characterized their being routinely stopped by police as "driving while being black", as a way of pointing out that the real reason for it is the prejudice based on their color. Now, there's a  new twist to this practice; one could call it "in driveway while being black." About a month ago in Florida, an unarmed black man was shot at by two policemen  15 times  in his own driveway, just because a neighbor thought that he was a car thief. Even if one were to accept that the man made some "suspicious" movement, shooting at him 15 times is clearly excessive, and tends to indicate that the policemen were predisposed against him for being black. Incidents such as this one happen time and time again to blacks in the U.S. If the man had been white, the policemen would have proceeded in a different manner. Surely, they would not have opened fire as they did in this case.