One Man's Opinion

A few days ago, a headline caught the world's attention. U.S. Army labs had shipped live anthrax specimens to several labs in and outside that country. As usual, they played it down, claiming that no one had been hurt by the mishap. Assuming that to be true, it is still a major mistake in a very sensitive area. Furthermore, it is always worth noting when something like this happens in the U.S. because, invariably, when it occurs somewhere else, American smugness comes to the fore, quickly pointing out how their systems and procedures are the "best" or "safest" in the world and something like this could never happen there. Yeah, sure...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has been dodging the bullet of conviction for political corruption for the past few years, but justice, of sorts, has been made. His misdeeds have finally caught up with him, though not as they should have. Bribes by, at least, an American benefactor have landed him in jail for eight months...or will do so, if the sentence stands after the appeal. A previous case in which he was also convicted has also been appealed, so Olmert has not served any time in jail yet. By the looks of it, Israeli justice is just as flawed as the one of their American protectors.

The French have given the rest of the world a big lesson on solidarity with the poor, by banning supermarkets from throwing away surplus food. Either they give it away to charities or to farms to use as compost. Discarding perfectly good food while people go hungry is a sin and should be a crime everywhere. France has shown us the way to do something practical about it.

Violence in the U.S. continues to escalate. More and more people take to the streets to shoot it out in Old West fashion. Everyday lawlessness challenges the rule of law with increasing force. The biker incident in Texas shows how far this attitude has come. The American love of guns and its fantasy about a violent but heroic past dominates the present and, most likely, the future of that nation.

Who are these women who never knew they were pregnant, until they give birth at the unlikeliest places? Also, who are  their doctors, who fail to detect their pregnancies? The latest case happened aboard an Air Canada flight, with exactly that factual background. Once has to wonder, should a woman that dumb be a mother? Should a doctor that clueless be practicing medicine?

Chile, a land that suffers from frequent and deadly earthquakes, is undergoing a political one that has shaken it in an unprecedented fashion. Political corruption that reaches the very doorstep of the presidencial palace has forced President Bachelet to ask her entire 23-member cabinet to resign. More importantly, her own son has been implicated in a scandal of his own, and his mother has acted more as such than as the President of Chile. This is all very unfortunate because Bachelet was elected for the second time, with great expectations that she would restore some of Chile's standing as a democracy, as well as a model of economic progress. Now, with three years to go, she has lost much of her polítical capital definitively.

Can you imagine a business that loses $1.5 billion in just three months ? That is no business at all, wouldn't you say? Well, that is just the case with the U.S. Postal Service, which has been consistently losing tons of money for years, and the only reason it survives is because the U.S. Congress finds it hard to accept its failure as an American institution. See, that would be admitting that the U.S. does not have the best postal service in the world, and such a thing is a no-no for the American public image as the greatest country in the history of mankind, as John McCain boastfully proclaimed sometime ago. So, in a country that prides itself of its business acumen, this absurd situation drags on and on...

Will scandals never cease! The American military establishment has gotten another black eye; this time at the Pentagon itself, where, apparently, employees are so bored that they turn to gambling and "adult entertainment" financed by government credit cards. According to the Pentagon, this is not as bad as it looks, given that the amount in question is "just a million dollars." Also, these people were just too embarrased to have those charges appear on their personal cards, so they used their official ones  to cover it up, but they intended to pay for it anyway. Be that as it may, the problem is what this reveals about the culture of loose morals, lax supervision and employees running amok believing that they can get away with anything. This is the kind of mindset that also permeates the FBI, CIA and Secret Service, as the whole world now knows.

Child abuse, sexual and otherwise, is a major and growing problem around the world that must be addressed forcefully. But, in doing so, we should all be wary of the exaggeration and paranoia that comes with well-meaning efforts, as with the ever-present danger of false reporting by people who have ulterior motives for accusing someone of these crimes. The use of hotlines to report child abuse, although useful, has brought about anonymous information that has to be investigated and, often, puts in motion a process that ends up with unwarranted action being taken, for fear of being charged with negligence in the performance of a public duty. The pressure to "do something" can and does lead to act, even when it is unwise to do so. Here in Puerto Rico, we have had this problem of overreacting to child abuse. For the past few years, there have been over 30,000 yearly reports of child abuse, 85% of which have been found to be groundless. Evidently, people have a very poor idea of

Seriously, a guy that escapes from prison and remains a fugitive for 56 years , during which he stays clean, should be left alone. At 79, he has proved that his is not a life of crime, so, what  good will come of incarcerating him at this late stage of his life? If at all, he should be sentenced to "time [not] served"...

Disturbing, to say the least, is the news that a group of former Israelí soldiers who served in Gaza have revealed that, in essence, they were either encouraged or ordered to shoot at will on the least bit of suspicion at Palestinians, no matter their age, sex or circumstances. Not only that, but soldiers routinely destroyed houses and other property, for no reason at all, just as a show of force. This testimony gives credence to the Palestinian accounts of abuses by the Israelis, a situation which has been denounced repeatedly by human rights groups and international organizations alike.

As others before him, he just could not trust his talent. He had to cheat, in order to ensure tremendous success. Not only that, but he denied it to the very end, going so far as to suing to " clear his name." So, he has ended disgraced for all time. Alex Rodríguez  will end his career with outstanding numbers, but there will always be a big asterisk by them. What a fool! He could have been one of the all-time greats. Instead, he will be remembered as one of the all-time great frauds.

There is something rather unseemly about the practice adopted by some countries, of offering their citizenships "for sale", so to speak, to well-off foreigners who want to take advantage of those countries' tax laws as applied to them. Although one can understand that some small nations with very little resources may be tempted to resort to this kind of "fiscal policy", in order to attract wealthy people, it ultimately cheapens and demeans a country that does it. A country that sells its citizenship or allows its laws to be taken advantage of for illegitimate reasons invites shady characters and corruption to come in, and will end up in a worse situation than the one it tríes to improve.