One Man's Opinion

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..."