Around the world

tarde, mejor que nunca

2012-02-13T22:36:00.000+01:00

os deseo un feliz anho nuevo sin deferencia (segun la RAE(.es): Adhesión al dictamen o proceder ajeno, por respeto o por excesiva moderación.)

SHOCK DOCTRINE // LA DOCTRINA DEL SHOCK

2011-12-18T11:04:00.001+01:00

To understand the current crisis, as a continuous manipulation, until we stand up and together we say: enough is enough

Para entender la actual crisis, el continuum de la manipulacion, hasta que unamos y juntxs digamos: ya basta

Two lesbians raised a baby and this is what they got

2011-12-03T10:59:00.000+01:00

Moral panic? No. We are resisting the pornification of women

2011-12-02T12:46:00.000+01:00

"Sexualisation" has become a much-debated issue in recent years, and a noticeable feature is the assumption that feminists who oppose sexual objectification are generating a "moral panic". Ever since sociologist Stanley Cohen introduced the term in 1972 it has been used as a shorthand way of critiquing conservatives for inventing another "problem" in order to demonise a group that challenges traditional moral standards.

So apparently feminists are now the conservatives fomenting unnecessary panic about the proliferation of "sexualised" images while the corporate-controlled media industry that mass produces these images is the progressive force for change being unfairly demonised. What a strange turn of events.

To suggest feminists who oppose the pornification of society are stirring up a moral panic is to confuse a politically progressive movement with rightwing attempts to police sexual behaviour. We can, of course, identify just such a conservative strand in current debates in Britain: interventions of the coalition government include calls for girls to be given lessons in how to practise abstinence and attacks on abortion rights. But feminists who organise against pornification are not arguing that sexualised images of women cause moral decay; rather that they perpetuate myths of women's unconditional sexual availability and object status, and thus undermine women's rights to sexual autonomy, physical safety and economic and social equality. The harm done to women is not a moral harm but a political one, and any analysis must be grounded in a critique of the corporate control of our visual landscape.

The left has a long history of fighting capitalist ownership of the media. From Karl Marx to Antonio Gramsci to Noam Chomsky, leftist thinkers have understood the corporate media to be the propaganda machine for capitalist ideas and values. By mainstreaming the ideologies of the elite, corporate-controlled media shapes our identities as workers and consumers, selling an image of success and happiness tied to the consumption of products that generate enormous wealth for the elite class. Alternative views are at best marginalised and at worst ridiculed.

No one in progressive circles would suggest for a moment that criticism of the corporate media is a moral panic. Chomsky has never, as far as we know, been called a "moral entrepreneur", yet those of us who organise against the corporations that churn out sexist imagery are regularly dismissed as stirring moral panic.

The industry-engineered image of femininity has now become the dominant one in western society, crowding out alternative ways of being female. The clothes, cosmetics, diets, gym membership, trips to the hair salon, the waxing salon and the nail salon add up to a lot of money. Even in these dark economic times, when women are experiencing the most severe financial hardship, the UK beauty business is booming.

Women's self-loathing is big business, and supports a global capitalist system that, ironically, depends heavily on the exploitation of women's labour in developing countries. Adding insult to injury, many of these underpaid women are spending a significant proportion of their wages on skin-whitening products that promise social mobility out of the sweatshops.

In the west, cosmetic surgery is increasingly normalised. Last year in the UK, almost 9,500 women underwent breast augmentation surgery, and the number of labiaplasties has almost tripled in five years. One plastic surgeon helpfully explains on his website that labiaplasty "can sculpture the elongated or unequal labial [sic] minora (small inner lips) according to one's specification … With laser reduction labiaplasty, we can accomplish the desires of the woman". If this is not evidence of living in a sexualised culture, what is?

The emotional cost of conforming to hypersexualisation is enormous for girls and young women who are in the process of forming their gender and sexual identities. We construct our identities through complex processes of interaction with the culture around us, but today images of hypersexualisation dominate. Where is a girl to go if she decides Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Rihanna or Britney Spears aren't for her?

An American Psychological Association study on girls' sexualisation found that it "has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality, and attitudes and beliefs". Some of these effects include risky sexual behaviour, higher rates of eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem, and reduced academic performance. Of course, there are girls who resist, but there are real social penalties to be paid by those who do not conform to acceptable feminine appearance.

This weekend feminist campaigners are hosting a conference on the pornification of culture. In the buildup, mass protests were held outside the London Playboy Club and Miss World beauty contest to highlight the relationship between corporate interests and the objectification of women. The fight against the increasingly narrow and limiting image of femininity is inextricably connected to the progressive fight for democratic ownership and control of the media. This is a political struggle. Feminists are rightly concerned, but we're not panicking. We're organising.

Gail Dines and Julia Long

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 December 2011 19.29 GMT

curso basico de machismo y racismo *

2011-12-01T07:29:00.000+01:00

Por algo fueron mujeres las víctimas de las cacerías de brujas, y no sólo en los tiempos de la Inquisición. Endemoniadas: espasmos y aullidos, quizá orgasmos, y para colmo de escándalo, orgasmos múltiples. Sólo la posesión de Satán podía explicar tanto fuego prohibido, que por el fuego era castigado. Mandaba Dios que fueran quemadas vivas las pecadoras que ardían. La envidia y el pánico ante el placer femenino no tenían nada de nuevo. Uno de los mitos más antiguos y universales, común a muchas culturas de muchos tiempos y de diversos lugares, es el mito de la vulva dentada, el sexo de la hembra como boca llena de dientes, insaciable boca de piraña que se alimenta de carne de machos. Y en este mundo de hoy, en este fin de siglo, hay ciento veinte millones de mujeres mutiladas del clítoris.

No hay mujer que no resulte sospechosa de mala conducta. Según los boleros, son todas ingratas; según los tangos, son todas putas (menos mamá). En los países del sur del mundo, una de cada tres mujeres casadas recibe palizas, como parte de la rutina conyugal, en castigo por lo que ha hecho o por lo que podría hacer:

—Estamos dormidas— dice una obrera del barrio Casavalle de Montevideo. —Algún príncipe te besa y te duerme. Cuando te despertás, el príncipe te aporrea.

Y otra:

—Yo tengo el miedo de mi madre, y mi madre tuvo el miedo de mi abuela.

Confirmaciones del derecho de propiedad: el macho propietario comprueba a golpes su derecho de propiedad sobre la hembra, como el macho y la hembra comprueban a golpes su derecho de propiedad sobre los hijos.

Y las violaciones, ¿no son, acaso, ritos que por la violencia celebran ese derecho? El violador no busca, ni encuentra, placer: necesita someter. La violación graba a fuego una marca de propiedad en el anca de la víctima, y es la expresión más brutal del carácter fálico del poder, desde siempre expresado por la flecha, la espada, el fusil, el cañón, el misil y otras erecciones.

*Fragmento

Patas arriba: la escuela del mundo al revés, Eduardo Galeano

con dePPresion

2011-11-20T21:58:00.000+01:00

a very powerful poem

2011-11-14T18:35:00.000+01:00

I am OVER it!

2011-11-12T12:14:00.000+01:00

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!) getting raped by their so-called "comrades."

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.

I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of the United States.

And I'm over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.

Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.

I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime -- the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters -- film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes -- while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you?

You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape.

And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old.

And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape.

And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too understanding.

We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine -- once and for all -- what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape.

There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.

ONE BILLION WOMEN.

The time is now. Prepare for the escalation.

Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape.

Because we are over it.

Eve Ensler

Act like it!

2011-11-05T10:31:00.002+01:00

So you plan to change the world huh? Well….what if you don’t?

2011-11-05T10:18:00.000+01:00

I’m incredibly blessed to be part of a community of some of the most inspired, inspiring…..and downright fun people I have ever met. These are a group of people with clear missions, passionate visions, who really want to make a dent in the universe through whatever industry they have chosen to devote themselves to.

I’ve been part of many groups and communities but never quite like this one. They are simply awe-inspiring. I could marry them all. If that was legal. And if I didn’t have to live with them all…or do stuff married people do….well you get it: the point is I just love them to bits.

BUT…..just between you and I, there is one little thing that worries me sometimes. I listen to these huge inspiring plans to change the world – some bigger than my peripheral vision will stretch – and I have no doubt many will do just as they plan to do. And more. But here is what I can’t help thinking…………

…..what if you die tomorrow?

Now before you think I’m being dramatic or morbid just remember that every day I talk to and work with people who have lost someone they love. And very often this is an unexpected death, a death ‘too early’, a death ‘before their time’. A death of someone who didn’t get to do all they planned. So I tend to look at things a little differently and have a heightened awareness of the fact that it could end any day. For any one of us.

So if you have amazing plans to change the world, if every day you look in the mirror and tell yourself the difference you are making and going to make…..what happens if it all ends tomorrow and you don’t get to do it? Would that mean you haven’t changed the world? Would that mean you didn’t do what you were here to do? Seriously, would you feel as proud of the achievements you’ve already made as you will be of the ones you plan to make?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting for a second that you don’t make those big plans. By all means, make them even bigger! That isn’t my point. My point is that I worry that people say they are ‘going to’ change the world…..and that they don’t think they have already. And that breaks my heart.

How many people do you have to have helped before you’ve officially changed the world? Have many books or articles have to have been written about you? How many people have to know your name before you are considered a world-changer, a thought-leader, a star?

Want my answer? One. You only have to have changed one person’s life to have changed the world. Don’t imagine that once you do a, b and c you will then have made an impact on this planet. You have already done it. You do it every single day of your existence.

There are people out there who, if asked who has made a difference in their life, who has touched them, helped them, taught them, loved them, would name you. There are people who would not be where they are without you. There may even be people who would not exist had it not been for you (hands up all parents).

Every day of your life, like it or not, try or not, you have impacted the lives of others. And the impact you have had on their lives will affect the impact they have on the lives of others…and so on. I’ve learnt in the past year that some of the people who made the biggest impact in my life had no idea that they had. And I bet you don’t either. I bet you underestimate just exactly how much you’ve changed the world already. Well….stop it.

If your life flashed before your eyes or you were on your proverbial death-bed and reflecting on your life…who would you be thinking about? Richard Branson? Oprah? Steve Jobs? Or would it be your mum, your best friend, a teacher that taught you to believe in yourself, the first guy or gal who you fell in love with, the person who stuck up for you, the person who helped you up the last time you fell down?

One of the lives that you’ve changed may well have been mine. And to me that means that despite the fact that Oprah is my hero…she hasn’t had anywhere near the impact you have. Not on my world.

So make your plans to change the world in huge ways….and go out and do that…I’m 100% behind you. But always remember the difference you have made already, the difference you make every single freakin’ day. So that no matter what happens in your life you know, with absolute certainty, that you have touched this planet. In a massive way. Because you truly have.

And hey, surely it’s easier to go out and change the world when you realise that actually…….you’ve been doing it all along.

Kristie

son estos tiempos

2011-10-22T17:26:00.000+02:00

Tiempos de acción para que nadie fusile en ningún rincón del planeta el derecho a una vida libre de violencia. Tiempos para entender que ningún horror nos es ajeno. Tiempos para tratar con la misma sensibilidad y contundencia en España y en el resto del mundo sobre los derechos de toda víctima de actos inhumanos.

10 years ago and today....

2011-10-09T13:19:00.002+02:00

punctuation is powerful

2011-10-09T13:12:00.000+02:00

I am powerful

2011-10-09T13:10:00.000+02:00

Jerusalem

2011-09-29T11:22:00.001+02:00

un homenaje a los libros

2011-09-28T14:20:00.000+02:00

the spirit for a new era?

2011-09-28T06:48:00.002+02:00

in their own words

2011-09-27T14:02:00.002+02:00

a curiosity (on how much time people have in their hands)

2011-09-20T22:03:00.002+02:00

un homenaje paterno

2011-09-18T14:01:00.000+02:00

wow.....

2011-09-18T14:00:00.000+02:00

Protestas en los muros del facebook

2011-09-16T10:19:00.000+02:00

"La píldora del día después ya es un aborto. Entonces me surgen algunas dudas desde el ámbito Jurídico: - La paja: Es homicidio premeditado? - El sexo oral: Es canibalismo? ... - Podemos considerar el coito interruptus como abandono de menor?... - Y que decir del preservativo? será homicidio por asfixia mecánica? - Y el sexo anal? Es mandar los hijos a la mierda? Copia esto en tu muro para que los católicos se preocupen mas por los curas pederastas y menos por el sexo!!! "

"Por que meter las imágenes horripilantes en paquetes de cigarrillos ? ¿Por qué no fotos de niños hambrientos en envases de McDonald ? ¿Por qué no animales torturados en productos cosméticos ? ¿Por qué no poner fotos de las víctimas de conductores ebrios, en botellas de cerveza y vino ? ¿Por qué no fotos de políticos deshonestos, ladrones disfrutando de nuestro dinero, en declaraciones de impuestos ? Aunque el 100% de ustedes estarán de acuerdo ! Apuesto a que el 99% no lo copia...."

Positive Advertising for Women

2011-09-15T14:43:00.000+02:00

An example of taking responsibility and doing sthg about it

2011-09-14T21:08:00.003+02:00

I’ve written so many articles over the years laying bare and polemicising against the errors and idiocies of other people. This time, I am writing an article laying bare and polemicising against the errors and idiocies of myself. If you give it out, you have to take it. If you demand high standards of others, you have to be just as damning when you fail to uphold them yourself.

I did two wrong and stupid things. The first concerns some people I interviewed over the years. When I recorded and typed up any conversation, I found something odd: points that sounded perfectly clear when you heard them being spoken often don’t translate to the page. They can be quite confusing and unclear. When this happened, if the interviewee had made a similar point in their writing (or, much more rarely, when they were speaking to somebody else), I would use those words instead. At the time, I justified this to myself by saying I was giving the clearest possible representation of what the interviewee thought, in their most considered and clear words.

But I was wrong. An interview isn’t an X-ray of a person’s finest thoughts. It’s a report of an encounter. If you want to add material from elsewhere, there are conventions that let you do that. You write “she has said,” instead of “she says”. You write “as she told the New York Times” or “as she says in her book”, instead of just replacing the garbled chunk she said with the clear chunk she wrote or said elsewhere. If I had asked the many experienced colleagues I have here at The Independent – who have always been very generous with their time – they would have told me that, and they would have explained just how wrong I was. It was arrogant and stupid of me not to ask.

The other thing I did wrong was that several years ago I started to notice some things I didn’t like in the Wikipedia entry about me, so I took them out. To do that, I created a user-name that wasn’t my own. Using that user-name, I continued to edit my own Wikipedia entry and some other people’s too. I took out nasty passages about people I admire – like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot, Deborah Orr and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I factually corrected some other entries about other people. But in a few instances, I edited the entries of people I had clashed with in ways that were juvenile or malicious: I called one of them anti-Semitic and homophobic, and the other a drunk. I am mortified to have done this, because it breaches the most basic ethical rule: don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. I apologise to the latter group unreservedly and totally.

If it was the other way round – if a journalist I disapprove of had done something analogous – I’d be withering. I’d say, it’s not hard: get your quotes right, and don’t be mean about other people in a way you find painful when it’s directed at you. Spare me the self-pitying excuses. Plenty of people have your problems and pressures and none of your privileges, and they don’t do anything half as awful.

Good old Christian Love

2011-09-12T20:45:00.000+02:00

re-learning History, understanding "the Other"

2011-09-08T22:14:00.000+02:00

Get your rosaries off my ovaries

2011-09-05T13:46:00.001+02:00

For all the liberal language, independent counselling is just an underhanded anti-abortion tactic
Suzanne Moore, Guardian.co.uk

[..] I know what having an abortion is like myself so I could make a terrible joke about it running in the family. Actually, my point is that abortion is a very common experience. Nor am I trying to suggest that the proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill concerning counselling mean a return to these dark old days. The reason I am telling you all this is because I admired my mother's refusal to be ashamed of her own experience. Now this new breed of anti-abortionists snip round the edges of the process with their strategies of delay ... er, sorry, "independent counselling". But beware their language of care. This is not about care but about control. This control absolutely depends on shame: sexual shame. This shame keeps us quiet. Shame keeps us locked into individual guilt. Shame even makes us stupidly grateful that we are allowed to have any choice at all.

This whole debate around counselling pivots on the idea of deep and private shame, positing the idea of counselling being used to sell an evil procedure. Women are always "vulnerable" dupes, never simply adults who have made decisions. Some weird pension analogy has been brought in, though health care is nothing like it as advice and services do often come from the same people ie: doctors. [...]

There is little point trying to persuade those who are religiously opposed to abortion (though I am intrigued at the Catholic attitude to the foetus – miscarried babies are not buried as they are not baptised) but we can simply remind ourselves we are living in a largely secular democracy.

Loving the unborn more than the born is politically convenient, as the unborn do not have to be housed or educated or parented. [..]

We are repeatedly told this is an "emotive" issue. The new vocabulary of the anti-abortion lobby is full of vaguely feminist platitudes – not feminist enough to counsel the men who walk away from pregnancies but still. Underneath, we are fallen women, damaged goods and so terribly stupid that we can be persuaded to have a quick abortion by wicked charities. When we could be what? Wombs to provide babies for "proper couples" or go it alone as the root of all evil: single mothers?

This is nauseating. A vote of conscience? If MPs had one they would say it is not the business of the legislature to control women's reproduction. They would stop telling us what is "emotive" and ask what actually is. I didn't want counselling in order to have an abortion. I certainly did after a miscarriage – again an awfully common experience – but none was offered. No, instead let's bring on an army of "independent" zealots who can tell us that abortion leads to cancer, mental health issues and infertility, and sod the evidence that having a baby is more risky than having an abortion. Anyone who talks about how easy it is and how the reality is glossed over is ignorant. You have a scan. You know and see what you are doing. It's not a walk in the park but it is a huge relief. The emotive part is the enforced waiting.

Now the tactics are to further that wait. This is nothing short of cruelty dressed up in the language of concern. [..]

The relationship between money and happiness is surprisingly weak

2011-09-04T11:52:00.001+02:00

Buy experiences instead of things;

buy many small pleasures instead of a few big ones;

pay now for things you can look forward to and enjoy later.

by the prominent scholars Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daniel T. Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson

The evasive motive

2011-09-03T13:42:00.000+02:00

Robert Fisk: For 10 years, we've lied to ourselves to avoid asking the one real question

[...] almost all (literature on 9/11) avoiding the one thing which any cop looks for after a street crime: the motive.

Why so, I ask myself, after 10 years of war, hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, lies and hypocrisy and betrayal and sadistic torture by the Americans – our MI5 chaps just heard, understood, maybe looked, of course no touchy-touchy nonsense – and the Taliban? Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? Are we still not able to say those three sentences: The 19 murderers of 9/11 claimed they were Muslims. They came from a place called the Middle East. Is there a problem out there? [...]

Publication of the official 9/11 report – in 2004, but read the new edition of 2011 – is indeed worth study, if only for the realities it does present, although its opening sentences read more like those of a novel than of a government inquiry. "Tuesday ... dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States... For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and pleasant journey. Among the travellers were Mohamed Atta..." Were these guys, I ask myself, interns at Time magazine?

But I'm drawn to Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan whose The Eleventh Day confronts what the West refused to face in the years that followed 9/11. "All the evidence ... indicates that Palestine was the factor that united the conspirators – at every level," they write. One of the organisers of the attack believed it would make Americans concentrate on "the atrocities that America is committing by supporting Israel". Palestine, the authors state, "was certainly the principal political grievance ... driving the young Arabs (who had lived) in Hamburg".

The motivation for the attacks was "ducked" even by the official 9/11 report, say the authors. The commissioners had disagreed on this "issue" – cliché code word for "problem" – and its two most senior officials, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, were later to explain: "This was sensitive ground ...Commissioners who argued that al-Qa'ida was motivated by a religious ideology – and not by opposition to American policies – rejected mentioning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... In their view, listing US support for Israel as a root cause of al-Qa'ida's opposition to the United States indicated that the United States should reassess that policy." And there you have it.

So what happened? The commissioners, Summers and Swan state, "settled on vague language that circumvented the issue of motive". There's a hint in the official report – but only in a footnote which, of course, few read. In other words, we still haven't told the truth about the crime which – we are supposed to believe – "changed the world for ever". Mind you, after watching Obama on his knees before Netanyahu last May, I'm really not surprised.

When the Israeli Prime Minister gets even the US Congress to grovel to him, the American people are not going to be told the answer to the most important and "sensitive" question of 9/11: why?

Noam Chomsky sees hegemonic powers showing extreme contempt for democracy – and acting in ways they know will increase terrorism

2011-09-03T12:24:00.000+02:00

Food for thought en forma de rap

2011-09-03T11:35:00.004+02:00

Razones económicas para rechazar el acuerdo neoliberal entre el PSOE y el PP

2011-09-02T08:47:00.001+02:00

El acuerdo entre el PSOE y el PP para incorporar a la Constitución española un precepto que impida que los gobiernos incurran en déficit no es fruto de la casualidad.

Responde a la ideología neoliberal dominante en los últimos años que ha tratado de justificar el principio de estabilidad presupuestaria para poder tapar las vergüenzas de unas políticas neoliberales que son incapaces de generar suficiente actividad económica y empleo y la necesaria estabilidad de las economía a medio y largo plazo. [...]

Pactos de estabilidad, pactos contra la democracia y el bienestar social

Además de las consecuencias puramente económicas que acabo de señalar, el principio de estabilidad presupuestaria (y más concretamente su imposición a través de mandatos constitucionales) significa en la práctica impedir que la ciudadanía pueda elegir libremente a la hora de enfrentarse a los problemas económicos de nuestra época.

Al imponerlo en cualquier momento y condición, como ahora han acordado en España el PSOE y el PP, se impide que los gobiernos puedan suscribir pactos con sus electores si no es en los términos prescritos por la ortodoxia económica dominante. Se obliga de esta forma a que las única política posibles sean las neoliberales.

Es decir, la imposición del principio de estabilidad implica que no puedan darse soluciones negociadas y, por lo tanto democráticas, al conflicto social inevitable que es consustancial con la generación y distribución de la renta y la riqueza. [...]

La democracia y las políticas de bienestar se basan en la posibilidad de negociación frente al conflicto social y en una idea claramente expuesta por Stiglitz (2002:16): "no existe una única política Pareto-dominante (óptima) en la que puedan estar de acuerdo todas las personas ´razonables´".

Llevar a la constitución el principio de estabilidad presupuestaria es imponer de facto una dictadura económica porque para evitar el déficit público se impone un gigantesco déficit democrático que impide que todos las personas se encuentren en igualdad de condiciones a la hora de decidir sobre los problemas económicos. Por eso podemos decir que la imposición de un principio de estabilidad presupuestaria en las condiciones en que se impone es algo radicalmente contrario al sentido más elemental de la democracia.

¿Se puede actuar de otra forma?

La historia económica demuestra que cuando los gobiernos han actuado poniendo en marcha políticas fiscales y monetarias discrecionales y combinadas han logrado mejores resultados que en los últimos años de rechazo neoliberal a la fiscalidad discrecional y progresiva.

Y el sentido común indica que afirmar que la estabilidad presupuestaria es buena por principio, en cualquier caso, es una soberana tontería. Como lo sería afirmar que una economía puede endeudarse ilimitadamente sin problema ninguno.

¿Qué adelantaría un país con tener estabilidad presupuestaria si al mismo tiempo carece del capital social y de las estructuras –físicas, educativas, sanitarias, sociales, culturales, relacionales o empresariales…- que son imprescindibles para que sus empresarios puedan crear riqueza y sus ciudadanos adquirir el imprescindible capital humano y el bienestar adecuado?

Lo importante no es garantizar en todo caso que no haya déficit.

Lo razonable y lo que proporciona progreso a una nación es disponer de la dotación de capital social necesario para satisfacer las necesidades sociales. Esta debe ser la variable de partida y no el saldo cero del presupuesto público.

Y lo que sabemos, porque la historia es indiscutible en este aspecto, es que eso no se puede conseguir sin una suficiente dotación de gasto público. Por tanto, lo primero es asegurar este y luego encontrar las vías adecuadas de financiación.

El problema que tienen las políticas neoliberales y quienes las defienden es que son incapaces de generar esa financiación por tres razones. Primero, porque quieren evitar que las clases de mayor renta paguen impuestos. Segundo, porque provocan una gran desigualdad y eso deprime a las economías y hace que puedan generar muchos menos ingresos para las arcas del estado. Y tercero porque incentivan que el ahorro vaya a los mercados financieros en lugar de a financiar la actividad productiva. Y como son incapaces de generar ingresos no tienen más alternativa que imponer la reducción del gasto con las consecuencias que he señalado.

De hecho, el problema que está padeciendo una economía como la española en relación con la deuda (dejando al margen el inadecuado modelo de crecimiento de los últimos años) no es su cuantía sino que su financiación está a expensas de los especuladores.

La alternativa, [...], es poner en marcha otro tipo de políticas que frenen la desigualdad, que promocionen un nuevo tipo de actividad económica y se basen en una mayor justicia fiscal y social y que así procuren nuevos y mayores ingresos para no tener que reducir la dotación de los bienes y servicios de bienestar que necesita la inmensa mayoría de la población. Es muy posible que eso requiera cierto nivel de endeudamiento, que ni siquiera tiene por qué ser muy elevado, aunque desde luego mayor al déficit cero que se impone. Pero si se aplican políticas generadoras de ingresos productivos, si se fomenta el uso razonable del ahorro y si se acaba con la especulación financiera no tiene por qué ser un escollo para alcanzar los mayores niveles de rendimiento empresarial, de bienestar social y de progreso que España necesita.

Por el magnifico Juan Torres Lopez, el articulo completo en su blog Ganas de Escribir

Back to the start, food for thought

2011-09-01T08:46:00.000+02:00

El deseo.....

2011-08-29T14:51:00.018+02:00

[....] Vivimos en la cultura del tener, en la que corremos tras los logros, el poder, las posesiones, las personas, los objetos y las modas. Llega un momento en el que no sabemos hacia dónde corremos ni cuál es el sentido, ya que seguimos en una insatisfacción permanente.

Nuestros espacios son cada vez más pequeños y abarrotados de cosas. Espacios pequeños no solo a nivel físico, sino también a nivel interno: no nos queda espacio para pensar ni sentir desde el ser. Mientras la mente está abarrotada de pensamientos y de deseos, no hay espacio para la inspiración ni para la creatividad. Nos falta el espacio interior que permita un fluir de energía creativa. Solo cuando creamos y vivimos de dentro a fuera llenamos nuestra vida de sentido.

[..] El hombre no vive. Lo viven. [..]

[...] Los deseos son uno de nuestros motores. La pregunta clave es: ¿cuál es el deseo por el que vale la pena luchar y satisfacer?

El deseo esencial está conectado con tres ejes. El primero es el deseo de conocer y ampliar nuestros horizontes. Desde pequeños nos mueve la curiosidad por saber y por comprender el mundo que nos rodea.

El segundo eje es el impulso de hacernos completos. "Tu conciencia proviene de la unidad", dice Deepak Chopra. Por eso deseamos la unión, sentirnos el uno con el otro. Es un deseo que nos conduce fuera de nosotros. Amamos y buscamos ser correspondidos. Nos damos al otro desde nuestros dones, sintiendo así alegría.

El tercero es el impulso a actuar para expresar la creatividad. Así nos damos al mundo desde nuestro talento y nuestros dones. Una acción con la que aportamos y construimos un mundo mejor nos llena de sentido.

Cuando nos desviamos de estos tres ejes esenciales nos invade la sensación de carencia. Tenemos carencias afectivas, estamos faltos de conocimiento o nuestras acciones están vacías de sentido. El resultado es que sentimos un estado de necesidad.

La necesidad crea un vacío que nos impulsa a relacionarnos para cubrirlo con amor y con poder. Nos atrae el amor. Nos atrae el poder. Sin darnos cuenta, caemos en la trampa de un amor que no es amor, sino deseo, y de un poder que no es poder, sino codicia.

Cuando el deseo invade el alma y esta no lo puede contener, este se convierte en algo destructivo y devastador como el cáncer que devora todo lo que encuentra a su paso. Se convierte en una dependencia que pasa a ser una adicción. Adicción al sexo, a la bebida, a los malos tratos, a la sumisión, a someter, al dinero... Entonces el deseo nos esclaviza. Perdemos la soberanía interior. Somos marionetas del deseo. No es de extrañar que vivamos insatisfechos y frustrados. Para huir de estas sensaciones, nos distraemos. Y así seguimos en la rueda del deseo insaciable.

Deje de ser marioneta del deseo. El primer paso para lograr dominio sobre uno mismo es, precisamente, desearlo. El poder mental es capaz de canalizar los pensamientos de manera positiva. Solo cuando uno se da cuenta de lo que subyace a sus deseos puede transformarlos. ¿Qué encubre el deseo que nos vence? ¿Qué es lo que realmente desea? Buscamos amor, paz, respeto, atención, o bien queremos huir de una situación que nos sobrepasa. Aunque la mente suele pedir cosas visibles y materiales, sus necesidades son más profundas y ninguna cosa superficial y efímera puede satisfacerlas.

La meditación nos conduce hacia lo auténtico y eterno. También ayudan las afirmaciones y la visualización. Visualizar consiste en crear imágenes positivas en su mente y, de esta forma, reforzar el pensamiento y fortalecer su voluntad para alcanzar aquello que afirma.

Las afirmaciones son pensamientos determinados. Son promesas que nos hacemos a nosotros mismos. Sirven para romper los hábitos negativos o pensamientos débiles. Por ejemplo: "Hoy haré que el pasado sea pasado y miraré al futuro con una nueva visión". El pasado tiene buenas y malas experiencias. Sin embargo, tendemos a evocar lo negativo. El efecto de esto es que nuestra actitud hacia el futuro se contamina. Un método efectivo para soltar el pasado es ver el beneficio que hubo. Cuando se reconoce un beneficio en lo que sucedió, es más fácil terminar con el resentimiento o la aflicción.

LA DIGNIDAD DE LO ESENCIAL

"Tú eres lo que estás buscando" (Deepak Chopra)

Primero averigüe su deseo esencial y lo que es bueno para usted. Alinee sus deseos con lo que realmente quiere. Así no se dejará llevar por otros deseos que supongan una huida ni una distracción. Finalmente céntrese en este compromiso. Con ello se fortalece, se siente seguro, y su caminar por el mundo es más digno.

Marionetas del deseo, El Pais

Ahead Stop

2011-08-28T14:49:00.000+02:00

Show: el mc murciano

2011-08-28T14:23:00.002+02:00

no tiene edad de votar todavia, y ya es asi de listo
brindo por la juventud y l@s poetas modernos
todos sus temas aqui

An absolute must read, a brilliant analysis and fucking scary possibilities

2011-08-24T21:47:00.002+02:00

Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching

By George Friedman
In September, the U.N. General Assembly will vote on whether to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state with full rights in the United Nations. In many ways, this would appear to be a reasonable and logical step. Whatever the Palestinians once were, they are clearly a nation in the simplest and most important sense — namely, they think of themselves as a nation. Nations are created by historical circumstances, and those circumstances have given rise to a Palestinian nation. Under the principle of the United Nations and the theory of the right to national self-determination, which is the moral foundation of the modern theory of nationalism, a nation has a right to a state, and that state has a place in the family of nations. In this sense, the U.N. vote will be unexceptional.
However, when the United Nations votes on Palestinian statehood, it will intersect with other realities and other historical processes. First, it is one thing to declare a Palestinian state; it is quite another thing to create one. The Palestinians are deeply divided between two views of what the Palestinian nation ought to be, a division not easily overcome. Second, this vote will come at a time when two of Israel’s neighbors are coping with their own internal issues. Syria is in chaos, with an extended and significant resistance against the regime having emerged. Meanwhile, Egypt is struggling with internal tension over the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the future of the military junta that replaced him. Add to this the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the potential rise of Iranian power, and the potential recognition of a Palestinian state — while perfectly logical in an abstract sense — becomes an event that can force a regional crisis in the midst of ongoing regional crises. It thus is a vote that could have significant consequences.

Read more: Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching | STRATFOR

Verdades como puños

2011-08-24T10:11:00.000+02:00

A poem

2011-08-23T09:48:00.000+02:00

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge if free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—

Into that heaven of freedom, may Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore poem 35, from Gitanjali

Initial reactions to the attacks in Norway showed a "clash of civilisations" exists, but not in the way many understood.

2011-07-27T09:38:00.000+02:00

[..] This tragedy underlines the urgency with which normal people around the world must combat fundamentalist nationalists and chauvinists wherever they may be. But it also demonstrates the extent to which reactionary bigotry has infected mainstream thought.

Many reacted to the news from Oslo with wide eyes and a pointed finger. The most animated reactionaries took to the pages of the New York Times comment section to issue sweeping proclamations about the Clash of Civilisations and something called "the cult of death". In many ways, readers were merely reinforcing the paper's woefully editorialised reportage. As Glenn Greenwald helpfully pointed out, the editors of the NYT - America's allegedly liberal newspaper - reserve the word "terrorist" solely for use in conjunction with the word "Muslim".

When news emerged that the perpetrator of the murders - the terrorist - was a man whose religion and skin pigmentation closely resembled those of the editors of the NYT, the story changed. The terrorist became a deranged "Christian extremist" whose tactics clearly mirrored "Al Qaeda's brutality and multiple attacks". In that way, the paper linked the terrorist with Muslims, despite his strong antipathy for them. [..]

But the combatants are not Islam and the West. Instead, the war is between the normal, sane people of the world and the right-wing zealots who see doom, destruction, hellfire and God's Will at every turn. [..]

These men are insecure, violently inclined, and illiberal. The outside world scares them. They hate homosexuals and strong women. For them, difference is a source of insecurity. Their values are militarism, conformism, chauvinism and jingoism. Worst of all they seek to pressure us into compliance while they work frantically to destroy themselves - and the rest of us with them. [..]

It is a credit to the Norwegian people that their prime minister did not respond to the terror attack with scorched-earth rhetoric or a carpet-bombing campaign. A real liberal with strong principles, he did not succumb to fear or vicious speculation.

Instead, he pledged to strengthen Norwegian democracy. This is what he said shortly after the terrorist attacks: "Our answer is more democracy, more openness to show that we will not be stopped by this kind of violence." His words illustrate the difference between a society that takes liberal principles as a foundation and one that treats them as an inconvenient luxury.

Norway's attacks reveal world of hatred : Initial reactions to the attacks in Norway showed a "clash of civilisations" exists, but not in the way many understood.

National Geographic`s 2010 Photo Contest

2011-07-22T12:15:00.000+02:00

A sample of the fantastic pictures:

more here

Towards understanding 'the other'

2011-07-22T07:27:00.000+02:00

"Rageh Omaar ( /ˈræɡi ˈoʊmɑː/; Somali: Raage Oomaar, Arabic: راجح عمر‎), (born 19 July 1967) is a Somali born British journalist and writer.
His latest book Only Half of Me deals with the tensions between these two sides of his identity. He used to be a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq. In September 2006, he moved to a new post at Al Jazeera English, where he presented the nightly weekday documentary series Witness until January 2010. The Rageh Omaar Report, first aired February 2010, is a new one-hour, monthly investigative documentaries in which Rageh Omaar reports on the world's most important current affairs stories."

I like the way he explains things, the variety of points of views he gets in his reporting without judging, and above all his very human approach to any subject matter. In these episodes, precisely because of the two sides of his identity he tries to explore notions of history and depict reality as perceived by many. Understanding differences and bridging divides is important. The first step in any case, is to be informed.

lies exposed

2011-06-28T19:12:00.000+02:00

Remember when teachers, nurses, doctors and lollipop ladies crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses and paid no tax? No, me neither.

But I do remember reading about the Greek DEBT! and wondering how could such a country owe so much money?!

Here is an explanation:

Debtocracy International Version by BitsnBytes

If you watch it together with another documentary called "The Inside Job" then, you start recognising some names, and even some faces.

Goldman Sachs comes up so often you start wondering how come you've never read about anybody from that bank facing a court of justice......

Even if you don't care about Greece, it is worth watching, it could happen to you too....

10 Things You Can Do to Stop Violence Against Women

2011-06-24T11:23:00.000+02:00

1.Approach gender violence as a MEN’S issue involving men of all ages, socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds. View men not only as perpetrators or possible offenders, but as empowered bystanders who can confront abusive peers.

2.If a brother, friend, classmate, or teammate is abusing his female partner – or is disrespectful or abusive to girls and women in general – don’t look the other way. If you feel comfortable doing so, try to talk to him about it. Urge him to seek help. Or if you don’t know what to do, consult a friend, a parent, a professor, or a counsellor. DON’T REMAIN SILENT.

3.Have the courage to look inward. Question your own attitudes. Don’t be defensive when something you do or say ends up hurting someone else. Try hard to understand how your own attitudes and actions might inadvertently perpetuate sexism and violence, and work towards changing them.

4.If you suspect that a woman close to you is being abused or has been sexually assaulted, gently ask if you can help.

5.If you are emotionally, psychologically, physically, or sexually abusive to women, or have been in the past, seek professional help NOW.

6.Be an ally to women who are working to end all forms of gender violence. Support the work of campus-based women’s centres. Attend “Take Back the Night” rallies and other public events. Raise money for community-based rape crisis centres and battered women’s shelters. If you belong to a team or fraternity, or another student group, organise a fundraiser.

7.Recognise and speak out against homophobia and gay-bashing. Discrimination and violence against lesbians and gays are wrong in and of themselves. This abuse also has direct links to sexism (e.g. the sexual orientation of men who speak out against sexism is often questioned, as a conscious or unconscious strategy intended to silence them and a key reason few men do so.)

8.Attend programmes, take courses, watch films, and read articles and books about multicultural masculinities, gender inequality, and the root causes of gender violence. Educate yourself and others about how larger social forces affect the conflicts between individual men and women.

9.Don’t fund sexism. Refuse to purchase any magazine, rent any video, subscribe to any Web site, or buy any music that portrays girls or women in a sexually degrading or abusive manner. Protest sexism in the media.

10.Mentor and teach young boys about how to be men in ways that don’t involve degrading or abusing girls and women. Volunteer to work with gender violence prevention programmes, including anti-sexist men’s programmes. Lead by example.

By The Pixel Project

29 ways to stay creative

2011-06-22T21:32:00.000+02:00

East Jerusalem, by its residents

2011-06-19T18:15:00.000+02:00

"Five Palestinians and two Israelis used cameras provided by the Guardian and B'Tselem human rights organisation to record video diaries about their lives and experiences in East Jerusalem"

un analisis muy acertado, de lectura casi obligada

2011-06-15T06:53:00.000+02:00

¿A quién importa en Oriente Próximo lo que dice Obama?

Este mes, Oriente Próximo ha visto a un presidente de Estados Unidos degradado. Más que eso, ha corroborado el prestigio más bajo de EEUU en la región desde que, en 1945, Roosevelt se reuniera con el rey Abdul Aziz en el barco USS Quincy en el Lago “Great Bitter”
Mientras Barack Obama y Benjamin Neranyahu representaban su farsa en Washington con Obama tan servil como siempre – los árabes seguían adelante con la seria tarea de cambiar su mundo, manifestándose, luchando y muriendo por las libertades que nunca tuvieron. Obama divagó sobre el cambio en Oriente Próximo y el papel de EEUU en la región. Estuvo patético. “¿Que es esta cosa de ‘papel’?”, me preguntó un amigo egipcio el fin de semana: “¿Todavía se creen que nos importa lo que piensan?”
Y esto es verdad. El fracaso de Obama en apoyar las revoluciones árabes hasta que estuvieron casi terminadas, hizo que EEUU perdiera la mayor parte de su crédito restante en la región. Obama estuvo callado en el derrocamiento de Ben Alí, solo se unió al coro de críticas contra Mubarak dos días antes de su salida, condenó al régimen sirio, que ha matado más personas que cualquier otra dinastía en esta “primavera” árabe a excepción del espantoso Gadafi, dejando claro que desearía la continuidad de Assad, moviendo su débil puño ante la crueldad del pequeño Bahrein y manteniendo un absoluto, asombroso silencio sobre Arabia Saudí. Anda de rodillas ante Israel. Por tanto, ¿Resulta extraño, que los árabes den la espalda a EEUU, no desde la furia o la ira, ni con amenazas o violencia, sino con desprecio? Son los árabes y sus congéneres musulmanes de Oriente Próximo quienes están tomando las decisiones por sí mismos. [..]

Uno de los más frívolos elementos de la política exterior de EEUU hacia Oriente Próximo se funda en la idea de que los árabes son de alguna forma más estúpidos que el resto de nosotros, desde luego que los israelíes, más alejados de la realidad que los occidentales, que no entienden su propia historia. Así ellos tenían que estar rezando, disertando y halagando a Clinton y su estirpe, tanto como sus dictadores hicieron y hacen, figuras paternas guiando a sus hijos por la vida. Pero los árabes son mucho más ilustrados que lo fueron ellos hace una generación; millones hablan un perfecto inglés y pueden entender muy bien todo, la debilidad de la política y la irrelevancia de las palabras del presidente. Escuchando el discurso de 45 minutos de Obama este mes, (el “comienzo” de cuatro días enteros de declaraciones ambiguas y autobombo por el hombre que trató de llegar al mundo musulmán hace dos años en El Cairo y a continuación no hizo nada), uno pudiera haber pensado que el presidente de EEUU había iniciado las revueltas árabes en vez de quedarse al margen por temor. [...]

Dudo mucho si los palestinos permanecerán en silencio. Si hay una “intifada” en Siria, ¿Por qué no una tercera intifada en “Palestina”? No una lucha de bombas humanas suicidas, sino de masas, protestas enormes de millones. Si los israelíes disparan a unos pocos cientos de manifestantes que trataban (y en algunos casos lo consiguen) de cruzar la frontera israelí hace casi dos semanas, que harán si se enfrentan a miles o millones. Obama dice que el estado palestino no debe ser declarado por Naciones Unidas. ¿Pero, por qué no? ¿A quién importa en Oriente Próximo lo que dice Obama? Parece que ni siquiera a los israelíes. La primavera árabe pronto llegará a ser un verano cálido y también habrá un otoño árabe. Para entonces, el Oriente Próximo puede haber cambiado para siempre. Lo que Estados Unidos diga no importará nada.

El original es de Robert Fisk para The Independent (y es el post anterior)
La traduccion y el articulo al completo aqui

for a spot on analysis

2011-06-14T18:27:00.000+02:00

he could also be talking about Ashton.....

Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says?

President Obama has shown himself to be weak in his dealings with the Middle East, says Robert Fisk, and the Arab world is turning its back with contempt. Its future will be shaped without American influence

This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking of the President of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945.

While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington – Obama grovelling as usual – the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed. Obama waffled on about change in the Middle East – and about America's new role in the region. It was pathetic. "What is this 'role' thing?" an Egyptian friend asked me at the weekend. "Do they still believe we care about what they think?"

And it is true. Obama's failure to support the Arab revolutions until they were all but over lost the US most of its surviving credit in the region. Obama was silent on the overthrow of Ben Ali, only joined in the chorus of contempt for Mubarak two days before his flight, condemned the Syrian regime – which has killed more of its people than any other dynasty in this Arab "spring", save for the frightful Gaddafi – but makes it clear that he would be happy to see Assad survive, waves his puny fist at puny Bahrain's cruelty and remains absolutely, stunningly silent over Saudi Arabia. And he goes on his knees before Israel. Is it any wonder, then, that Arabs are turning their backs on America, not out of fury or anger, nor with threats or violence, but with contempt? It is the Arabs and their fellow Muslims of the Middle East who are themselves now making the decisions. [..]

One of the vainest elements of American foreign policy towards the Middle East is the foundational idea that the Arabs are somehow more stupid than the rest of us, certainly than the Israelis, more out of touch with reality than the West, that they don't understand their own history. Thus they have to be preached at, lectured, and cajoled by La Clinton and her ilk – much as their dictators did and do, father figures guiding their children through life. But Arabs are far more literate than they were a generation ago; millions speak perfect English and can understand all too well the political weakness and irrelevance in the president's words. Listening to Obama's 45-minute speech this month – the "kick off' to four whole days of weasel words and puffery by the man who tried to reach out to the Muslim world in Cairo two years ago, and then did nothing – one might have thought that the American President had initiated the Arab revolts, rather than sat on the sidelines in fear.[...]

But now the narrative has been twisted out of all recognition. Hamas are the super-terrorists, the "al-Qa'ida" representatives in the unified Palestinian leadership, the men of evil who will ensure that no peace ever takes place between Palestinians and Israeli. If only this were true, the real al-Qa'ida would be more than happy to take responsibility. But it is not true. In the same context, Obama stated that the Palestinians would have to answer questions about Hamas. But why should they? What Obama and Netanyahu think about Hamas is now irrelevant to them. Obama warns the Palestinians not to ask for statehood at the United Nations in September. But why on earth not? If the people of Egypt and Tunisia and Yemen and Libya and Syria – we are all waiting for the next revolution (Jordan? Bahrain again? Morocco?) – can fight for freedom and dignity, why shouldn't the Palestinians? Lectured for decades on the need for non-violent protest, the Palestinians elect to go to the UN with their cry for legitimacy – only to be slapped down by Obama.

Having read all of the "Palestine Papers" which Al-Jazeera revealed, there is no doubt that "Palestine's" official negotiators will go to any lengths to produce some kind of statelet. Mahmoud Abbas, who managed to write a 600-page book on the "peace process" without once mentioning the word "occupation", could even cave in over the UN project, fearful of Obama's warning that it would be an attempt to "isolate" Israel and thus de-legitimise the Israeli state – or "the Jewish state" as the US president now calls it. But Netanyahu is doing more than anyone to delegitimise his own state; indeed, he is looking more and more like the Arab buffoons who have hitherto littered the Middle East. Mubarak saw a "foreign hand" in the Egyptian revolution (Iran, of course). So did the Crown Prince of Bahrain (Iran again). So did Gaddafi (al-Qa'ida, western imperialism, you name it), So did Saleh of Yemen (al-Qa'ida, Mossad and America). So did Assad of Syria (Islamism, probably Mossad, etc). And so does Netanyahu (Iran, naturally enough, Syria, Lebanon, just about anyone you can think of except for Israel itself).

But as this nonsense continues, so the tectonic plates shudder. I doubt very much if the Palestinians will remain silent. If there's an "intifada" in Syria, why not a Third Intifada in "Palestine"? Not a struggle of suicide bombers but of mass, million-strong protests. If the Israelis have to shoot down a mere few hundred demonstrators who tried – and in some cases succeeded – in crossing the Israeli border almost two weeks ago, what will they do if confronted by thousands or a million. Obama says no Palestinian state must be declared at the UN. But why not? Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says? Not even, it seems, the Israelis. The Arab spring will soon become a hot summer and there will be an Arab autumn, too. By then, the Middle East may have changed forever. What America says will matter nothing.

mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo

2011-06-13T21:40:00.000+02:00

y a los 94 anos de sabiduria aprendida, vivida se dicen cosas como:
Nuestro tiempo es para mí, esencialmente, un tiempo de barbarie. Y no me refiero solo a violencia, sino a una civilización que ha degradado los valores que integraban su naturaleza. Un valor era la justicia. Dígame si Guantánamo o lo que pasa en China es justicia. Se juzga a la gente en virtud de la presunción de culpabilidad. Todo eso del ataque preventivo, un nombre eufónico para hablar de la ley de la selva. En 2000 años, la humanidad ha progresado técnicamente de forma fabulosa, pero nos seguimos matando con una codicia y una falta de solidaridad escandalosas. No hemos aprendido a vivir juntos y en paz.

Una cosa es la vida espiritual, incluso el sentimiento de que hay más allá, y otra las religiones con funcionarios que las explotan. Cuando el hombre se cree por encima de la naturaleza, piensa que puede transformarla, iluso.

Para determinar nuestra conducta, las creencias son más importantes que la verdad. Y los que creen en esa inmortalidad hacen bien en comportarse según ella. Lo que hacen mal es exigir que los demás lo hagan.

El desarrollo está pensando en la rentabilidad. Lo importante no son esas tres palabras que ahora todo lo mandan: productividad, competitividad e innovación. En vez de productividad, propongo vitalidad; en vez de competitividad, cooperación, y frente a esa innovación que consiste en inventar cosas para venderlas, creación. Esa es otra. El arte es mercancía. Esos artistas como Hirst, que cogen una cabeza de vaca, le ponen un diamante y se forran. Perdonen, pero eso no me parece desarrollo. El desarrollo humano sería el que condujera a que cesaran las luchas y supiéramos tolerarnos. Y ser libres, pero todos, porque la libertad es de todos o no es.

El mercado no da la libertad. La libertad es como una cometa. Vuela porque está atada a la responsabilidad del que maneja. Lo sabían los revolucionarios franceses: libertad, igualdad, fraternidad. Hay que tener el pensamiento libre y crítico. Para ser yo, la poca cosa, la neurona que sea, necesito pensar con libertad.

Los titulares de los periódicos son efímeros, tienen muy poca importancia frente a cosas como Guantánamo, un insulto a la justicia y a la inteligencia. ¿Y de Japón? ¿Y de Haití? Del sida en África, o de la falta de educación, no habla nadie porque no interesa al poder, que es el que dispone de los medios, que dicen lo que al poder le interesa. Contra eso hay que indignarse, reaccionar y decir no.

toda la entrevista con Jose Luis Sampredro

history + technology = beautiful pictures

2011-06-11T12:34:00.000+02:00

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.

learn french:you just need one word!

2011-06-08T22:25:00.002+02:00

y tu que coño hacias antes de esto??

2011-06-08T22:21:00.000+02:00

Españistán

2011-06-03T12:44:00.000+02:00

Españistán, de la Burbuja Inmobiliaria a la Crisis (por Aleix Saló)

Survivors, a project you can do something about

2011-05-31T08:31:00.000+02:00

Survivors

Los Gobiernos deben asegurar libertad, hermandad, igualdad y justicia social.

2011-05-29T11:12:00.000+02:00

[...] Cuando la dignidad se pone en cuestión es necesario reaccionar. La indignación viene del pisoteo de la dignidad que cada ser humano lleva consigo. Por eso siempre me remito a la Declaración de Derechos Humanos. En su artículo primero ya dice: Todos los seres humanos somos iguales en dignidad y en derechos. [..]

Enfadarse y ya, para mí no tiene sentido. La ira no conduce a ninguna parte, debe ir seguida de compromiso. No propongo a la gente que se enfade sin más, sino que se pregunte cuáles son las razones que ponen en peligro esos valores fundamentales que hemos heredado y que ahora tiemblan. No es fácil [..]

se ha ido imponiendo otra ideología perversa basada en el mercado y nada más que en el mercado. Hoy, usted y yo, sufrimos sus consecuencias, las de un grupo privilegiado que busca sus beneficios a nuestras expensas. ¿Qué proponer como alternativa? La democracia real.
Confiar en depositar cada vez más poder en la gente común para que sus necesidades sean la prioridad a resolver por los Gobiernos, el primer deber. Los Gobiernos deben asegurar libertad, hermandad, igualdad y justicia social. [..]

Progreso no significa acelerarse, sino ser consciente de cuáles son los valores que ayudan a crear un mundo mejor y cuáles no. La democracia es exigente en sí. Demanda más a los políticos y logra tejer un sistema del que es difícil salir bien parado si actúas mal. [...]

Contra gobernantes de ignorancia supina, ¿qué se puede hacer?¡Indignarse! Necesitamos otros gobernantes, y también, compromiso de la sociedad para aupar a los más decentes. No podemos caer en esa desazón de la juventud, ni en pensar que todos los políticos son iguales, porque no es cierto. La rabia y la indiferencia no nos llevan a ninguna parte.
En su vida ha existido otra indignación persistente: Palestina. De nuevo, la ruptura de las reglas internacionales, la brutalidad impuesta, la situación en Gaza y Cisjordania aúnan todo lo que más he detestado en mi vida. Parecida a la que sentí en los campos de concentración. Siento un gran aprecio por el Estado de Israel, pero cuando su Gobierno se comporta de una manera similar a los peores Gobiernos que yo he tenido que soportar en mi vida, no puedo admitirlo y me rebelo y denuncio esos abusos cometidos por ellos con el permiso de Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea y algunas empresas involucradas en la situación. Es lo mismo que siento respecto a la incapacidad para ponerse de acuerdo sobre el cambio climático. [..]

AUTORIDAD MORAL

Toda una vida de lucha por el progreso, de resistencia frente a los totalitarismos, de autoridad moral, y este francés nacido en Alemania en 1917 se ha ganado el éxito y el aplauso mundial con un pequeño libro panfleto, '¡Indignaos!' (Editorial Destino, con prólogo en español de José Luis Sampedro), que ha sacudido el descontento en los países desarrollados frente a un sistema económico-político lleno de goteras.

Este judío, muy crítico con la política de Israel hacia Palestina, participó en la resistencia francesa contra los nazis, estuvo preso en varios campos de concentración y participó en la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos.

La entrevista al completo: "La indignación debe ir seguida de compromiso

STÉPHANE HESSEL

los resultados electorales recientes, vistos de otro modo

2011-05-24T11:28:00.000+02:00

de democracia real Ya
tambien se recomienda la lectura sobre el sistema electoral español, que "es desproporcional, impone el bipartidismo, fomenta la polarización y hace casi imposible que surja un tercer partido moderador. Los nacionalistas quedan como única alternativa para pactar"

The road to truth involves a certain amount of diarrhoea.

2011-05-21T13:41:00.000+02:00

Referred to the Middle East, although applicable throughout the world:

Too many journalists report official narratives of the powerful, missing the stories of working class people.

Too often, you consumers of mainstream media are victims of a fraud. You think you can trust the articles you read - why wouldn't you? You think you can sift through the ideological bias and just get the facts. But you don't know the ingredients that go into the product you buy. It is important to understand how knowledge about current events in the Middle East is produced before relying on it. Even when there are no apparent ideological biases, such as those one often sees when it comes to reporting about Israel, there are fundamental problems at the epistemological and methodological level. These create distortions, falsehoods and justify the narrative of those with power.[...]

the road to truth involves a certain amount of diarrhoea. [...]

There are many brave and dedicated journalists working in the Middle East whose work deserves attention and praise. Some even work for the mainstream media. Too often their independent voices are drowned out by the mass of writers who justify power instead of opposing it. Our job should not be about speaking truth to power. Those in power know the truth, they just don't care. It's about speaking truth to the people, to those not in power, in order to empower them.

full article in AlJazeera, by Nir Rosen is a journalist from the US

Manifestación 15M Democracia Real Ya

2011-05-20T07:13:00.002+02:00

El manifiesto y las palabras de la gente Indignada

El corruptodromo, o mapa de politicos corruptos, sea imputados, o sentenciados

Fotos de testig@s y presentes

Dado el sistema electoral 'maquiavelico', en palabras de uno de sus principales 'padres', un articulo para explicar que significan realmente los votos nulos, en blanco y las abstenciones....la mejor solucion??

Spain Taken the street for a TRUE DEMOCRACY - May 15th 2011

2011-05-20T07:11:00.000+02:00

Porque mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo

2011-05-19T06:56:00.000+02:00

y que razon tiene ademas...!

Informative opinion piece

2011-05-14T13:56:00.000+02:00

by Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.

The rights of Israel

Israel's "lawfare" against the Palestinian people is rooted in a ficticious narrative of having a "right" to exist.

The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, now entering their twentieth year had been hailed from the start as historic, having inaugurated a "peace process" that would resolve what is commonly referred to as the "Palestinian-Israeli conflict". For the Palestinians and the international community, represented by the United Nations and the myriad resolutions its Security Council and General Assembly issued since 1948, what was to be negotiated were the colonisation of land, the occupation of territory and population, and the laws that stipulate ethnic and religious discrimination in Israel, which, among other things, bar Palestinian refugees from returning to their land and confiscate their property. In their struggle against these Israeli practises, Palestinian leaders, whether in Israel, the Occupied Territories, or the diaspora, have always invoked these rights based on international law and UN resolutions, which Israel has consistently refused to implement or abide by since 1948. Thus for the Palestinians, armed by the UN and international law, the negotiations were precisely aimed to end colonisation, occupation, and discrimination.
On the other hand, one of the strongest and persistent arguments that the Zionist movement and Israel have deployed since 1948 in defence of the establishment of Israel and its subsequent policies is the invocation of the rights of Israel, which are not based on international law or UN resolutions. This is a crucial distinction to be made between the Palestinian and Israeli claims to possession of "rights." While the Palestinians invoke rights that are internationally recognised, Israel invokes rights that are solely recognised at the national level by the Israeli state itself. For Zionism, this was a novel mode of argumentation as, in deploying it, Israel invokes not only juridical principles but also moral ones.
In this realm, Israel has argued over the years that Jews have a right to establish a state in Palestine, that they have a right to establish a "Jewish" state in Palestine, that this state has a "right to exist," and that it has a "right to defend itself", which includes its subsidiary right to be the only country in the region to possess nuclear weapons, that it has the "right" to inherit all the biblical land that the Jewish God promised it, and a "right" to enact laws that are racially and religiously discriminatory in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state, otherwise articulated in the more recent formula of "a Jewish and democratic state". Israel has also insisted that its enemies, including the Palestinian people, whom it dispossesses, colonises, occupies, and discriminates against, must recognise all these rights, foremost among them its "right to exist as a Jewish state", as a condition for and a precursor to peace.

continue reading

a ver quien la tiene mas grande....

2011-05-14T13:02:00.000+02:00

muy divertido!

even if there are always two sides to a story

2011-05-13T22:42:00.000+02:00

even if language and terminology are far from neutral by either side
this, is still a reality, for so many people

asi es como pasa

2011-05-10T19:56:00.000+02:00

Brontosaurus

2011-05-10T12:12:00.000+02:00

by xkcd

un poquito de alegria pal cuerpo

2011-05-08T22:41:00.002+02:00

Pondering about Happiness

2011-05-08T21:03:00.001+02:00

"People prior to the late 17th century thought happiness was a matter of luck or virtue or divine favor. Today we think of happiness as a right and a skill that can be developed. This has been liberating, in some respects, because it asks us to strive to improve our lots in life, individually and collectively. But there have been downsides as well. It seems that when we want to be happy all of the time, we can forget that the pursuit of happiness can entail struggle, sacrifice, even pain." A History of Happiness

"Much advance publicity was made for the address the Master would deliver on The Destruction of the World and a large crowd gathered at the monastery grounds to hear him. The address was over in less than a minute. All he said was:
"These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.""

Step by step, let whatever happens happen. Real change will come when it is brought about, not by your ego, but by reality. Awareness releases reality to change you.

"What is the secret of your serenity?
Said the Master "Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable."

Why is everyone here so happy except me?"
"Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere," said the Master.
"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"
"Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside."

all of the above by Anthony de Mello, Redescovering Life,

quien son los verdaderos piratas??

2011-04-27T19:26:00.003+02:00

¡Piratas! from Juan Falque on Vimeo.

holiday blues

2011-04-19T14:01:00.000+02:00

Definition
The depression and boredom that follows when you arrive back from a holiday. It may result in tiredness, loss of appetite, strong feelings of nostalgia, and in some cases, depression. Jet lag may intensify the post vacation blues.

Treatment
In general, post vacation blues wear off after time. It usually takes a few days for the mood to wear off, although in some cases, it can take up to 1.5 times the length of the trip. Other ways of treating holiday blues are for the person to share their experiences with family and friends, or to look at photo and souvenirs.

Similar moods
■Monday blues - may be experienced by persons after weekends.
■Post holiday blues - sometimes experienced by persons after long breaks.
■Post party blues - may be experienced by persons after an enjoyable party or nightlife experience.

I am so happy to have the internet for a bit of self-diagnosing.....

rather original!

2011-03-30T23:02:00.002+02:00

the debates where states statements speak volumes for their values

2011-03-30T22:49:00.002+02:00

On 22 March 2011 the Human Rights Council (the Council) held a general debate on follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action(VDPA). The VDPA reaffirms core principles of the international human rights framework, including the universality of human rights and non-discrimination. The highlight of the meeting was a joint statement delivered by Colombia on behalf of 85 States on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity (view a video of the statement). This is the highest number of States ever signing on to a statement of this kind. [..]

In response to the joint statement, Nigeria (on behalf of the African Group) argued that the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity were still undefined, and that African leaders had decided during the Kampala summit in July 2010 that they would not accept the integration of an undefined concept into international law. Therefore, the African Group opposed the call on the Council to give attention to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity and criticised the ‘haphazard and disjointed manner’ in which special procedure mandate holders address these issues. In its national capacity Nigeria expanded further on this theme, stating that the concept of ‘sexual orientation’ goes against ‘everything Africa stands for’ since it touches upon the African notion of women, children and the family. NIgeria also blamed the special procedures for reducing Africa’s problems only to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, and thereby overlooking the problems related to poverty and health.

Similarly, Pakistan (on behalf of the OIC) asserted that the joint statement was an attempt ‘to shift the focus from the real issues that constitute marginalisation and exclusion’. It also argued that notions of sexual orientation and gender identity had no legal foundation in any international human rights instrument, and noted with concern ‘attempts to create “new rights” or “new standards”, by misinterpreting the Universal Declaration and international treaties to include such notions that were never articulated or agreed to by the general membership’. The OIC furthermore described advocacy for decriminalisation of same-sex relations as an intervention in the domestic affairs of States, violating the principle of non-intervention contained in the United Nations Charter. The Holy See made an apparent call for criminalisation of same-sex relationships, arguing that the concept of sexual orientation in international law was a reference to feelings, not behaviour. While persons should not be deprived of their human rights on the grounds of their sexual orientation, it argued certain types of sexual behaviour should be punished by law.

The Russian Federation expressed concern that attempts to create a ‘new category of persons’ could lead to a weakening of protection of other vulnerable categories. Other States made reference to the need to prioritise the right to development (Algeria, Iran), women’s rights (Indonesia), and the rights of the child (Azerbaijan). While reiterating the ‘universality, indivisibility, and interdependence’ of human rights, Algeria stressed the importance of taking regional differences and traditional values into account.

International Service for Human Rights

REACCIONA!!!

2011-03-30T22:39:00.000+02:00

Frente a armas de dominación masiva como el miedo, el individualismo, el fomento al desprecio a la política y la democracia ("es mejor que los ciudadanos no participen, no pregunten, no controlen") y el omnipresente dinero, apunta, dispara y acierta: "Es necesario cambiar la lógica del máximo beneficio individual [...]. La atomización del trabajo, la precariedad de las condiciones laborales nos conduce al aislamiento, al enfrentamiento y a la indiferencia [...]. Hay que recuperar la comunicación directa con los demás, vernos, hablar y actuar unidos".
como poco!

mas aqui

Toilet wisdom

2011-03-30T22:20:00.002+02:00

I WISH NOT TO BE NOTICED
BUT TO BE DISCOVERED

What International Humanitarian Law says....in the Lybia case

2011-03-30T19:06:00.001+02:00

[...]
Jus ad bellum vs. jus in bello
At the outset, it is important to stress that international humanitarian law (IHL) applies equally to all sides of an armed conflict, regardless of the lawfulness of the resort to force by either side. This is due to the separation of the jus ad bellum (the law governing the resort to force) and the jus in bello (the law applicable to situations of armed conflict). As (now Judge) Christopher Greenwood writes, "The principle that international humanitarian law applies equally to both sides of a conflict irrespective of the reasons for resort to force or its legality is one of the best established principles of the jus in bello." Accordingly, once an armed conflict exists, all parties to the conflict must comply with the relevant provisions of IHL.

Key principles
As reflected in customary law, IHL requires all parties to an armed conflict at a minimum to adhere to the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity, among others.[...]

Qualifying the armed conflict(s) in Libya
The question arises as to whether the situation in Libya amounts to a non-international armed conflict or an international armed conflict—or, perhaps, to multiple ongoing armed conflicts. [..]

A separate, but related, question arises regarding whether an intervention by foreign forces on behalf of a non-state armed group fighting the host state’s armed forces"internationalizes" an already-existing non-international armed conflict. If so, the "new" conflict would in principle be governed by the provisions applicable to international armed conflicts.

Harvard University, IHL in Action

A la carte humanitarian intervention, such as in Libya

2011-03-30T19:00:00.000+02:00

The attacks on Libya risk a bloody stalemate and are a threat to the region. The alternative has to be a negotiated settlement

Very good article by Seumas Milne
in The Guardian

[...] Only a western solipsism that regards it as normal to be routinely invading other people's countries in the name of human rights protects Nato governments from serious challenge. [..] But on the other side of the Arab world, in western-armed Bahrain, security forces are right now staging night raids on opposition activists, house by house, and scores have gone missing as the dynastic despots carry out a bloody crackdown on the democratic movement. And last Friday more than 50 peaceful demonstrators were shot dead on the streets of Sana'a by government forces in western-backed Yemen.

Far from imposing a no-fly zone to bring the embattled Yemeni regime to heel, US special forces are operating across the country in support of the government.

The point isn't just that western intervention in Libya is grossly hypocritical. It's that such double standards are an integral part of a mechanism of global power and domination that stifles hopes of any credible international system of human rights protection.

[..]

For the western powers, knocked off balance by the revolutionary Arab tide, intervention in the Libyan conflict offers both the chance to put themselves on the "right side of history" and to secure their oil interests in a deeply uncertain environment.

"This reminds me of most of the meetings I have to sit through..."

2011-03-30T17:02:00.000+02:00

Es urgente que la noción de "crimen económico" se incorpore al discurso ciudadano

2011-03-29T14:38:00.000+02:00

"[...] En un artículo publicado en Businessweek el 20 de marzo de 2009 con el título "Wall Street's economic crimes against humanity", Shoshana Zuboff, antigua profesora de la Harvard Business School, sostenía que el que los responsables de la crisis nieguen las consecuencias de sus acciones demuestra "la banalidad del mal" y el "narcisismo institucionalizado" en nuestras sociedades. Es una muestra de la falta de responsabilidad y de la "distancia emocional" con que han acumulado sumas millonarias quienes ahora niegan cualquier relación con el daño provocado. Culpar solo al sistema no es aceptable, argumentaba Zuboff, como no lo habría sido culpar de los crímenes nazis solo a las ideas, y no a quienes los cometieron.

Culpar a los mercados es efectivamente quedarse en la superficie del problema. Hay responsables, y son personas e instituciones concretas: son quienes defendieron la liberalización sin control de los mercados financieros; los ejecutivos y empresas que se beneficiaron de los excesos del mercado durante el boom financiero; quienes permitieron sus prácticas y quienes les permiten ahora salir indemnes y robustecidos, con más dinero público, a cambio de nada. [..]
De la misma forma que se crearon instituciones y procedimientos para perseguir los crímenes políticos contra la humanidad, es hora de hacer lo mismo con los económicos. [..]"

Crímenes económicos contra la humanidad

Happy 137th Birthday Houdini!

2011-03-24T07:52:00.000+01:00

Harry Houdini

Un poquito de perspectiva: lecciones de hipocresia

2011-03-01T19:35:00.000+01:00

"[...] Estados Unidos tuvo que poner ayer en juego su prestigio (italica mia) en el mundo árabe para proteger a Israel y vetar en el Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas una resolución de condena al gobierno israelí por la construcción de asentamientos judíos en territorio palestino. El veto de Estados Unidos, el primero durante el mandato de Barack Obama, fue imprescindible para derrotar una resolución que califica de "ilegal" la política de asentamientos y que obtuvo el respaldo de los otros 14 miembros del Consejo de Seguridad. El texto rechazado exigía también a Israel el cese inmediato de esas construcciones. La Administración norteamericana se opone también oficialmente a los asentamientos pero ha considerado, según declaró ayer su embajadora en la ONU, Susan Rice, que la aprobación de una resolución de esta naturaleza hubiera sido contraproducente para el proceso de paz palestino-israelí, actualmente bloqueado." El Pais, 18/02/2011

"En las ciudades de Libia es el Ejército de la Jamahiriya el que usa los helicópteros, tanques, misiles, granadas y cazas vendidos por las potencias occidentales para reprimir a sangre y fuego las protestas de los ciudadanos que exigen el final de un régimen que dura 41 años. [...] Un socio de peso para muchas empresas y países de Occidente. Su principal socio comercial es Italia, el segundo es Alemania. Y sobre todo, Libia es el octavo Estado mundial en reservas de petróleo [...]. El líder de la revolución libia empezó el siglo XXI en lo alto de las listas de apestados internacionales y de Estados terroristas, pero su metamorfosis ha sido meteórica: hace solo una semana era un ejemplo de inversor civilizado y empático. [..] El baño de sangre ha cogido a la comunidad internacional con las manos en la caja. La crisis se está viviendo con creciente repulsa ciudadana en Washington y en la Unión Europea, que ultimaba ya su acuerdo comercial con Libia cuando Gadafi decidió resucitar su retórica genocida y su rostro de carnicero y contratista de mercenarios. [..] La operación catapultó a Gadafi al corazón de las instituciones financieras italianas y europeas: de los 316 votos que administran el Banco de Italia, Unicredit posee 50, tantos como el San Paolo. El Banco de Italia posee el 12,5% de los derechos del Banco Central Europeo. [..] La fuerza de la presencia de Gadafi en Europa -países de la UE importan casi el 90% del crudo libio- se pudo medir el pasado martes. Ese día sucedió un hecho raro en la historia del capitalismo. La Bolsa de Milán estuvo cerrada toda la mañana a causa de una nunca aclarada "avería técnica". El mercado de Piazza Affari paró por completo durante seis horas. Casi nadie entendía nada. El regulador pedía explicaciones, los brokersprotestaban. Poco después se supo la verdad. No había tal avería, sino solo miedo al derrumbe de Gadafi. El cierre se produjo por temor a que se hundieran los títulos de las empresas italianas con intereses en Libia y de las sociedades en las que ha invertido el líder libio. El miedo es libre.

El día anterior, lunes, empezaron a llegar noticias sangrientas desde Trípoli. En solo unas horas, los títulos de la crema industrial, energética y bancaria italiana (Finmeccanica, Impregilo, Mediobanca, Generali, Fiat, ENI...) perdieron en el parqué milanés porcentajes cercanos al 5%. Petróleo y sangre es una mezcla que huele mal. Apesta. [...] l miércoles, mientras el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU y la UE balbuceaban un comunicado de condena, y el ministro de Exteriores italiano, Franco Frattini, hacía acrobacias verbales para defender lo indefendible, en Roma se anunciaba que Libia acababa de comprar el 2% de las acciones del grupo estatal Finmeccanica, octavo vendedor de armas y equipos aeroespaciales del mundo." El tirano que compro a Occidente, El Pais 27/02/2011

" el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU aprobó esta madrugada por unanimidad una resolución que convierte a Muamar el Gadafi en un paria de la comunidad internacional. [...] La resolución costó casi 10 horas de discusión porque algunos países, entre ellos dos miembros del Consejo con derecho a veto, Rusia y China, ofrecieron resistencia a respaldar un texto que de forma tan evidente se involucra en los asuntos internos de otra nación. [..] l texto aprobado incluye sanciones económicas contra el régimen libio, prohíbe los viajes al extranjero de Gadafi, su familia y la camarilla que los protege; congela sus cuentas, embarga las ventas de armas a ese país y, sobre todo, denuncia las atrocidades cometidas como "crímenes contra la humanidad" que "merecen ser juzgados por laCorte Penal Internacional de La Haya". El Pais, 27/02/2011

Aclaraciones importantes:

1. El Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas está conformado por 15 naciones, 5 permanentes y 10 temporales. Los cinco miembros permanentes son los Estados Unidos, la República Francesa, el Reino Unido, laRepública Popular China y la Federación Rusa. Los 10 miembros no permanentes son electos cada dos años como representantes regionales. Cada miembro del Consejo tiene un voto. Las decisiones en general requieren del voto afirmativo de, al menos, nueve miembros. Sin embargo, los cinco miembros permanentes cuentan con derecho a veto.

2. La Corte Penal Internacional (llamada en ocasiones Tribunal Penal Internacional) es un tribunal de justicia internacional permanente cuya misión es juzgar a las personas acusadas de cometer crímenes de genocidio, de guerra y de lesa humanidad. Tiene personalidad jurídica internacional, y no forma parte de las Naciones Unidas, aunque se relaciona con ella en los términos que señala el Estatuto de Roma, su norma fundacional. [..] Según la Corte Penal Internacional, en su página web, actualizada hasta diciembre de 2009, 110 países han firmado el Estatuto De Roma de la Corte Criminal Internacional. [..] El Estatuto de la Corte no ha sido firmado ni ratificado, entre otros países, por Estados Unidos, Rusia, China, India, Israel, Cuba e Irak, lo que denota la política de evitar someter a organismos supranacionales este tipo de casos.

3. Los asentamientos israelíes son colonias construidas por Israel a partir de 1968 en territorios conquistados a los países árabes limítrofes durante la Guerra de los Seis Días y por lo tanto ilegales según el derecho internacional. Los asentamientos, sus consequencias para la poblacion y su relacion con la ley en la pagina del Comite Internacional de Cruz Roja. Traduccion fisica y en fotos

Rwanda : Paul Kagame et ses alliés apprendront-ils des événements de la Tunisie et de l'Égypte?

2011-02-24T08:59:00.000+01:00

Par leurs soulèvements, les Tunisiens et les Égyptiens viennent de chasser du pouvoir les dictateurs qui les avaient opprimés pendant des décennies. Il s'agit d'un exemple patent qui montre combien il est impossible d'étouffer indéfiniment les aspirations de liberté, de justice sociale et de démocratie d'un peuple. Cependant, la question reste de savoir si les dictateurs de ce monde sont capables d'assimiler cette leçon.

Prenons le cas du Rwanda. [...] Dans le classement mondial 2010 de liberté de la presse effectué par Reporters sans frontière, le Rwanda figure parmi les 10 pays les plus grands prédateurs de la presse. Comme l'on voit bien, la contestation qui a emporté les dictateurs tunisien et égyptien et qui s'étend désormais partout dans les pays arabes pourrait trouver matière à contagion ailleurs dans le monde. Elle ne devrait pas non plus préoccuper uniquement les dictateurs. Elle interpelle aussi les puissances occidentales qui, malgré de beaux discours sur les droits de la personne et la démocratie, soutiennent fermement les régimes répressifs et liberticides, soi-disant au nom de la stabilité.

Autant Ben Ali et Moubarak étaient fortement soutenus par l'occident, autant Paul Kagame est soutenu par les grandes capitales occidentales, principalement Londres et Washington, qui financent la moitié du budget de son gouvernement et sa machine de répression. [...]

L'argument de stabilité à n'importe quel prix, longtemps présenté pour appuyer des dictatures, vient de montrer sa faille dans l'effondrement brusque des régimes Ben Ali et Moubarak au grand dam de leurs alliés. Le monde devrait désormais comprendre que la seule stabilité qui vaille la peine d'être défendue est celle qui émerge des institutions démocratiques et répond aux profondes aspirations de tous les citoyens.

L'article entier, par Emmanuel Hakizimana, Ph.D.

Tahir song

2011-02-14T19:07:00.002+01:00

y que dure! inshallah!

judge for yourself

2011-02-13T21:26:00.002+01:00

proud

2011-02-13T10:12:00.000+01:00

proud of the people, proud of egyptians
may they be our inspiration

there is still much to do

humour against the ridiculous

2011-02-04T15:20:00.002+01:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Rape Victim Abortion Funding

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

The Daily Show on Facebook

After top-lining the 'The No Taxpayer Funding For Abortions Act' currently being considered in the house, Jon Stewart brought on Senior Women's Issues Correspondent Kristen Schaal to discuss the issue in depth.
the link

the best of people: tension into jokes

2011-02-04T14:57:00.000+01:00

“The running joke,” Amr says, “is that the upcoming Arab League summit will need a lot of icebreakers because there will be so many new faces.”

Cairo’s Band of Geeks Survives Tahrir Square Assault

the capacity of some people

2011-02-04T14:50:00.000+01:00

to resume in one drawing the current conversations, possibilities...

Egypt, Palestine and a regional order

2011-02-01T13:18:00.001+01:00

"We are in the middle of a political earthquake in the Arab world and the ground has still not stopped shaking. To make predictions when events are so fluid is risky, but there is no doubt that the uprising in Egypt -- however it ends -- will have a dramatic impact across the region and within Palestine.

[...] The relative ease with which Tunisians threw off their dictator, and the speed with which Egypt, and perhaps Yemen, seem to be going down the same road, may well send a message to Palestinians that neither Israel's nor the PA's security forces are as indomitable as they appear.
[...] Built on the foundations of a fraudulent peace process, the US, EU and Israel with the support of the decrepit Arab regimes now under threat by their own people, have constructed a Palestinian house of cards that is unlikely to remain standing much longer. " full article: Egypt's uprising and its implications for Palestine

traducido al espanhol : El levantamiento Egipcio y sus repercusiones para Palestina

********* ***************** ******************
"[...]The revolution in Tunisia and the mass anti-government protests in Egypt demand a shift in the way Israel's leaders see the regional order and Israel's place in it. Instead of seeking refuge in the known and the familiar - the tired claims that "there's no one to talk to and no one to rely on" - Israel's foreign policy must adapt itself to a reality in which the citizens of Arab states, and not just tyrants and their cronies, influence the trajectory of their countries' development.

The time has come to start preparing for a new regional order. Instead of clinging to the old, collapsing order, Netanyahu must seek peace agreements with both the Palestinians and with Syria in order to make Israel a more welcome and desirable neighbor. " Preparing for a new regional order, Hareetz editorial

warning signs

2011-01-30T21:38:00.000+01:00

although citing from memory
there was segregation and increased racism and sexism, before and during:
the holocoust
the former Yugoslavia wars
the genocide in Rwanda
in the north of Sri Lanka only last year
the north of DRC
and also, in every other conflict I can think of, which are many and in all continents
so watch out! when hatred becomes more and more explicit!
"dont' take our girls" was heard in all those instances mentioned above

en tiempos de inmediatez, una pausa para la reflexion

2011-01-30T21:09:00.000+01:00

La esencia de la libertad es poder escoger a qué quieres dedicarle tu atención.

[..] todos los pasos que damos online se convierten en información para empresas y Gobiernos. Y la gran pregunta a la que tendremos que contestar en la próxima década es qué valor le damos a la privacidad y cuánta estamos dispuestos a ceder a cambio de comodidad y beneficios comerciales. Mi sensación es que a la gente le importa poco su privacidad, al menos esa parece ser la tendencia, y si continúa siendo así la gente asumirá y aceptará que siempre están siendo observados y dejándose empujar más y más aún hacia la sociedad de consumo en detrimento de beneficios menos mensurables que van unidos a la privacidad.

[....]nos estamos dirigiendo hacia un ideal muy utilitario, donde lo importante es lo eficiente que uno es procesando información y donde deja de apreciarse el pensamiento contemplativo, abierto, que no necesariamente tiene un fin práctico y que, sin embargo, estimula la creatividad. La ciencia habla claro en ese sentido: la habilidad de concentrarse en una sola cosa es clave en la memoria a largo plazo, en el pensamiento crítico y conceptual, y en muchas formas de creatividad. Incluso las emociones y la empatía precisan de tiempo para ser procesadas. Si no invertimos ese tiempo, nos deshumanizamos cada vez más.

Un mundo distraido, entrevista con Nicholas Carr, en El Pais

for hope, for the people, for justice, for human rights

2011-01-29T15:37:00.000+01:00

Photo: A protester kisses a police officer during a demonstration in Cairo January 28, 2011. Police and demonstrators fought running battles on the streets of Cairo on Friday in a fourth day of unprecedented protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to Mubarak's three-decade rule. (REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Reactions against sexism

2011-01-25T10:54:00.000+01:00

The sad Italian reality....:

Las curvas antes que el currículo , El Pais
La mujer italiana es rehén de la imagen frívola que transmiten sus líderes y los medios. [..] Los datos retratan a la italiana en una situación laboral y familiar que parece un cuadro antiguo. [...] La imagen de una mujer sometida al hombre de poder, rehén de la apariencia, de valores efímeros y superficiales, ahoga a la mujer real. [...] La mortificación de la dignidad femenina, herencia más sangrante del berlusconismo, está siendo el motor de una nueva participación colectiva.

The sad UK reality....with a silver lining:

Sky Sports duo Andy Gray and Richard Keys were stood down from Monday's game between Bolton and Chelsea following comments about a female official. , BBC news
Sky sexism was no surprise but prejudice needs punishment, The Guardian

The same sexist racism than in Germany in the 30s?

2011-01-20T09:58:00.000+01:00

"On a recent Monday, more than 200 Jewish Israelis rallied in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv under the banner 'Keep Bat Yam Jewish'. The demonstrators, most of whom were religious and young, were there to protest against romantic relationships between Arabs and Jews, particularly those between Arab men and Jewish women.
[...]
Most Israelis are apathetic. This leaves the Right free to take over - although the government is trying to distance itself from their efforts."

The full article

solo ficcion??

2011-01-20T09:52:00.000+01:00

[... ] Florence Thomas escribe: “El lenguaje es el fundamento de la reproducción del sexismo; es un aparato de construcción y de representación de la realidad y por consiguiente de la acción sobre ella por medio de elaboraciones simbólicas. A través de él internalizamos ideas, imágenes, modelos sociales y concepciones de lo femenino y de lo masculino, entre otras..” En cristiano: que de lo que se lee, se aprende, y que la única forma de cambiar la sociedad pasa por intentar transformar los modelos de representación que reproducen las estructuras dominantes.
[...]
Preguntamos otra vez: ¿Si lo que se escribiera fuese complaciente y acrítico con la tortura a luchadores sociales, con la persecusión a pueblos originarios, con la explotación de trabajadores? Dirían: ¡Pero si es sólo ficción!…

el articulo al completo

I want my ball back! thanks (part II)

2011-01-04T09:26:00.001+01:00

One of the things people have told me is that they cannot imagine IT, despite being able to imagine how would it feel

The (imagined) SHAME exported to Barcelona

For the real one follow this link

(Note: these images are from Servei Civil Internacional from Barcelona)

Encountering Peace: The Forgotten Soldier

2011-01-04T08:32:00.000+01:00

"By GERSHON BASKIN, 01/03/2011, Jerusalem Post (link for full art.)

Gilad Schalit isn’t home yet because no one [nor Israel, nor the USA, nor Egypt, nor Jordan nor the Palestinian Authority] wants to give Hamas a victory. "

for an interesting insight into local politics....

2010-12-31T21:10:00.001+01:00

Me permito poner la felicitacion de una amiga, que resume la inquietud pero tambien el espiritu para este año que empieza en poquito tiempo:

Mañana entramos en un nuevo año, el 2011,

Pasamos la primera decena del siglo XXI

No son tiempos fáciles,

Vientos huracanados promovidos por los de siempre

intentan derrumbar muchas de las conquistas

que la lucha de mucha, mucha pero mucha gente,

conquisto paso a paso..

Desde que la humanidad es humanidad ha habido mujeres y hombres que han luchado contra esos vientos huracanados

y han conseguido abrir espacios

(a veces pequeños, a veces enormes)

de más

dignidad, justicia, social, equidad género, derechos humanos...

Mujeres y hombres que nos recuerdan que no podemos desfallecer, desilusionarnos, desmotivarnos, desmovilizarnos, derrumbarnos,

En su recuerdo,

y en él de todas aquellas mujeres y hombres

que hoy siguen sufriendo

los efectos de esa tormenta huracanada de injusticia, inequidad, sinrazón

que el 2011 nos ayude a

Levantarnos cada día con ilusión

y ganas de

convertir en realidad sueños

sonreír ante los problemas,

hacer volar la imaginación

y, sobre todo, de

crear otras historias, otras vidas, otros mundos

Para ello

OS DESEO QUE

Lo podáis hacer en compañía, en buena compañía, creando redes de solidaridad, cariño, amor, cercanía, abrazos, risas…

Gracias por seguir ahí,

sin perder la esperanza,

abriendo caminos,

luchando contra esos vientos huracanados

abriendo nuevos espacios de dignidad y justicia

J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide

2010-12-15T10:57:00.001+01:00

"How do I know that Interpol, Britain and Sweden's treatment of Julian Assange is a form of theater? Because I know what happens in rape accusations against men that don't involve the embarrassing of powerful governments. [...]

Keep Assange in prison without bail until he is questioned, by all means, if we are suddenly in a real feminist worldwide epiphany about the seriousness of the issue of sex crime: but Interpol, Britain and Sweden must, if they are not to be guilty of hateful manipulation of a serious women's issue for cynical political purposes, imprison as well -- at once -- the hundreds of thousands of men in Britain, Sweden and around the world world who are accused in far less ambiguous terms of far graver forms of assault.

Anyone who works in supporting women who have been raped knows from this grossly disproportionate response that Britain and Sweden, surely under pressure from the US, are cynically using the serious issue of rape as a fig leaf to cover the shameful issue of mafioso-like global collusion in silencing dissent. That is not the State embracing feminism. That is the State pimping feminism."

Naomi Wolf for The Huffington Post

I want my ball back! thanks

2010-12-12T16:14:00.000+01:00

The SHAME

free advertising space

and..... one of my personal favourites

Sabiduria Nobel II

2010-12-08T14:04:00.000+01:00

"Detesto toda forma de nacionalismo, ideología –o, más bien, religión–
provinciana, de corto vuelo, excluyente, que recorta el horizonte
intelectual y disimula en su seno prejuicios étnicos y racistas, pues
convierte en valor supremo, en privilegio moral y ontológico, la
circunstancia fortuita del lugar de nacimiento."

Discurso Nobel. Mario Vargas Llosa

allhumdullillah!

2010-12-01T22:26:00.000+01:00

bedouin taxi, air conditioned

the size!

playing with Toy, former Toyota, in Wadi Rum

and if you get lost, this is how you know your way