The surge in worldwide refugee numbers may be alarming, but for Argentina it should be seen as an opportunity to boost its economy. Much like in the past.
Month: September 2017
-Analysis- PARIS — Imagine if a foreign entity neutralized the public health system in the Paris region. Or if it went on to attack the electric grid, interfering with the meteorological services, manipulating French President Emmanuel Macron’s emails and targeting the military and police communication systems. All from a computer keyboard. Nobody would get killed, […]
The success of the far-right populist party Alternative for Germany in this week’s parliamentary elections has prompted comparisons to the rise of Nazism. There are in fact similarities, but also key differences. An overview.
Chinese domestic brands like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are undercutting the American giant, which aims ever more upmarket.
Historically for Madrid, there is no such thing as delicate diplomacy. But that approach has boomeranged in the face of the Catalan push for independence.
-Analysis- PARIS — It was a final gift from the American patron of beauty and pleasure: The sight of Hugh Hefner’s silk-robed portrait, splashed across the top of the internet as Paris woke up this morning, was an odd kind of relief from the neverending stream of terrorism, natural disaster and nuclear threats. The death […]
Did adverse conditions force such Latin American strongmen Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro to clamp down, or did they hide their authoritarian designs from the start?
Ammar Abd Rabbo covered two Assad presidencies from the inside, but his view changed when the Syrian civil war started.
Categories
Chinese Apparel
I stumbled upon a parade in full traditional attire in the lush gardens of Suzhou, in eastern China. What I like most about this shot is the pair’s symmetrical contrast with the man and woman in contemporary uniforms just over their respective right shoulders.
French President Emmanuel Macron has just set himself up as the European Union’s would-be savior. Seen from a Swiss point of view, there’s no better option out there.
VISSO — Francesco Sbaffi was recouping after a long day during a busy wine harvest when a powerful earthquake struck this idyllic town in the Apennine Mountains 11 months ago. The grape must was already fermenting in barrels at the Coppacchioli winery, where Sbaffi works as an oenologist, when the earthquake hit. As thousands of […]
High education levels and salary expectations have created something of a disconnect between South Korean job seekers and employers.
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Germany, Welcome To The New Normal
The success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the election is history’s revenge against the idea that Germans had to be a model for the rest of the world.
The tragedy of the Rohingya in Myanmar should be viewed within the region-wide context of the resurgence of religious nationalism across Southeast Asia.
-Analysis- Is there ever a good time to hold an independence referendum? Of course the answer to that question, from Kurdistan to Catalonia, depends on whom you ask. For those looking to declare a new nation based on ethnic, economic or political claims, there’s no time like the present to take destiny into your own […]
Though Angela Merkel has secured a fourth term with Sunday’s election, the populist party Alternative for Germany will be the first far-right party since 1961 to enter parliament.
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Olympic Pause
Running, discus throw, long jump, javelin throw, wrestling … After learning all about the Ancient Olympic Games, my wife was enjoying a well-deserved break in the shade, sitting on the ruins of the sanctuary of Olympia where the very first competitions were held.
Once again, life imitates art. In his masterpiece 1984, George Orwell wrote, “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.” This quote has proven particularly relevant in recent weeks as activists in the West suddenly […]
The Getty Center launches a festival of Latin American art that also considers its influence on American culture and identity. In the age of Donald J. Trump, this has become doubly significant.
China, for one, sees the incumbent German Chancellor as the ‘mother if not grandmother’ of all of Europe. Her likely victory will be good news for her nation, and the planet.
Facebook has agreed to give the government information on political ad campaigns. But the social media giant must behave more like other media companies in a functioning democracy.
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View From A Batak Backyard
It’s sometimes easy to forget that the Batak houses of Indonesia’s North Sumatra are not there only for the tourists’ viewing pleasure — people actually live in them. All you need to do is take a little walk around the impressive facades to get a glimpse of the Batak’s way of life.
-OpEd- In his account of the 1985 earthquake, which killed between 6,000 and 30,000 people (there are no precise figures) and destroyed more than 800 buildings in Mexico City, Carlos Monsiváis, one of the country’s greatest writers, described what he saw as the “emergence of civil society.” At the time, Monsiváis, who died in 2010, […]
A recent series of documentaries unveil untold chapters of ugly Japanese history.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — In August 1894, while traveling to Venezuela, the Colombian poet José Asunción Silva spent time in Cartagena de Indias, the colonial port on Colombia“s Caribbean coast. He wrote about his impressions of the city to his mother and sister. He had taken a liking to the locals, who were cheerful and informal, […]
With each passing day, war with North Korea seems to draw closer. Kim Jong Un continues to test his arsenal; Donald Trump issues new threats and nicknames his nemesis “Rocket Man“; Kim responds in kind, saying the U.S. president’s speech yesterday at the United Nations was “the sound of a dog barking.” Some say the […]
The French coastal city was home to the infamous makeshift village of migrants seeking to cross to the UK. The ‘Jungle’ was dismantled less than a year ago, but immigrants are now back in town.
German elections will see the results of a seismic change within the German political landscape, as Merkel’s moderate policies have opened space on the right for extremists.
-Essay- SANTIAGO — Nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to surprise anyone. This is a big challenge, especially in the entertainment industry where you need to make a considerable effort to stage memorable events that have an impact. When you consider that most consumers now are millennials, you have to ask, how do you make them pay […]
Milenio Novedades, Sept. 20, 2017 For the second time is as many weeks, “Mexico Shakes,” as the front page of the Yucatán daily Milenio Novedades reports, following a 7.1-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday that toppled buildings and killed at least 216 people. Many more are missing. Victims include a group of children in Mexico City’s Coapa […]
The U.S. president’s threat to ‘totally destroy’ a nation is beyond the pale. But is there method to it?
-OpEd- TURIN — Everyone knew that Australian politician Rachel Carling-Jenkins had filed for a divorce, but nobody knew why. She explained it herself, a few days ago, standing up to speak before the state parliament of Victoria, of which she is a member. In February 2016 she had found images on her husband’s computer of […]
Libération, Sept. 19, 2017 Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday broke her silence on the violence in her Buddhist-majority country that has forced hundreds of thousands of minority Muslim Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. French newspaper Libération featured a picture of her with the headline “A Nobel and a massacre” splashed on […]
Categories
Lining Up For Lenin
Even a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, people were lining up in Red Square to get a glimpse of Vladimir Lenin: the Communist leader’s embalmed body remains on display inside the mausoleum.
GENEVA — She didn’t expect the enthusiasm with which she was honored. When she received the 2017 Sergio Vieira de Mello Award, which is named after the former High Commissioner for Human Rights who was killed in Iraq in 2003, it was followed by a spontaneous roar of applause. Rebecca Dali, 56, was being feted […]
In places like Venezuela, electronic interactions may be a more reliable source of information than the government.
-Analysis- The blueprints of the Middle Ages are back. Even as metal and glass have long since replaced stone and mortar, there is an unmistakable parallel to be drawn between medieval fortifications and the walls rising in all corners of the world: from the U.S.-Mexico border to Hungary, from São Paulo to the West Bank. […]
The PLO gives monthly allowances to the families of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. The Israeli and U.S. governments want the practice to stop.
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The idea of economic planning dominated the imagination of 20th-century economists. Unlike the classical liberal view, the planning concept supports clear government intervention in the spontaneous course of markets. By implementing one plan or another, the theory goes, governments can speed up a process or correct a wrong course. Plans are […]
There is no contradiction between feeling French (or Catalan, or Berliner) and becoming a European citizen. But it is time for that citizenship to have real civic meaning.