the global responsability: actions and inactions. From Katin to Iraq

Ring around the Roses,
a pocketful of posies.
Ashes, ashes,
we all fall down!

There is a new plague throughout the world. A plague called deafness of the heart. Contentment. Non-active behaviour. Blame outsourcing. Selfishness. Ostricht style blindness. Ennui. A plague cherished by the actual sublimation of self castration of the will to locate blames out of our entourages. By self induced innocence, for it is not us who make the bombs, the bullets. Look at your shoes, your shirts, your jeans: do you think they would be worth 40/50$ if hoestly manufactured in an European country, where social rights are guaranteed? Do you think we could keep our actual standard of living if a global equality of rights existed? death is necessary; poverty is necessary; war is unavoidable to keep prices and interest rates. I strongly suggest the reading of Eduardo Galeano's "las venas abiertas de América Latina" (the open veins of Latin America), in order to know about intrahistory. Realism, reasons d'etat, economical decisions concerning retirement of stocks are necessary for the keeping o fthe occidental way of life. The problem is that the formerly scattered arab tribal groups -which later became, artificially, nations-, have found a catalyzator, someone to hate, a reason for them to get together: us. We have crumpled the ages-old "divide and conquer" politics, and have succeeded at the only task we shouldn't have ever started: to become the occidental demon in the eyes of many. If we add the massive emigration fluxes, the new world powers revelation, Chaos in the ancient communist regimes and a pathetically obvious decadence of Occidental culture, might not we feel doomed? Let us fill our pockets with roses, look for red or black blotches on our necks and pray (those which haven't forgotten God). Vale.

The land of the free, or the land of the WASP?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062002543_pf.html

Tovah Calderon is a dearest friend of mine. Juan spotted this article and just sent it to me. Today, I will make an exception and post a reflection, regardless of the comments (if any) it may arise. Tovah is not just a professional overachiever, but one of the best human beings I've ever met, gifted with a true vocation for civil rights and a matchless intuition for legal matters, completed by an international background only match to few. If the one who gave those insidious orders had just a ten per cent of her brains, intuition or culture, he could count himself fortunate. But no, instead of surrounding himself of excellence and vocation, he just followed either his pathetic convictions or someone else's instructions, which is worse. I doubt that there are "better americans" than Tovah or her colleagues, what leads me to a second issue: who sets the standards for "good americanism"? is it related to race, creeds, skin colour, political convictions? good nationals are those who can critizise the state of things in order to make things better, those who, instead of making cheap politics or behaving like good dogs, invest their time and efforts to build a better country with better people. I would advise Mr. "good american" to read some more, specially classic philosophy, political thought or just a good story of the US Constitutional process, to learn the true principles of patriotism, and what links a nation together. The true fabric of a country comes from the idea of both union and diversity, both interacting with a common goal, and not seeing and appreciating the worth of true professionals only shows one thing: fanatism.