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Showing posts from October, 2013

No Boy Scout

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!

Forget The Alamo!

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 Biggest Brother

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 Wandering American Tourist

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

Amazing Amazon

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.

♪When Irish Eyes Are [Crying]♪

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.

♪Angie Baby...♪

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..."

Denmark is the Benchmark

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.

Barack «Bush»

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.

«Merde!»

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!

Pinochet's Press

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

The New Owners

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.

Says WHO

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.

The Potholes on Wall Street

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.

The Worst is Yet to Come

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.

Knowing and Doing

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.

«Salud, Juan Valdez!»

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.

Kerry Kicks Karzai's Butt

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 Right Decision

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.

The Bishop and the Boss

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.

Making Money in Moscow

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!

America the Dumb

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.

Cristina's Crisis

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.

Great General Giap

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.

Not A Bad Idea

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.

Undiplomatic Kerry

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.

The Lost War

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.

Libyan Loose Cannons

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.