Demonizing the rich, a pastime of Colombia’s political Left, doesn’t help social progress. Yes, the rich must pay a high share of taxes, but capital and opportunity cross borders like never before.
Author: Bertrand Hauger
Bertrand Hauger is a graduate of La Sorbonne Nouvelle school of bilingual journalism, and joined Worldcrunch after working briefly as a reporter in a local newspaper in his native eastern France. He now serves as Worldcrunch’s deputy editor-in-chief and director of content.
Categories
Bordery Forgery
This footbridge between two of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River is often hailed as being the “shortest international bridge in the world.” The border that separates Canada from the U.S. is said to pass exactly between Zavikon Island and Little Zavikon Island, making for a great anecdote told by many tour guides. […]
NEW HOPE FOR UKRAINEGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama later today in Washington for talks that will focus primarily on a ceasefire for eastern Ukraine. This comes after emergency meetings Friday and Saturday in Kiev and Moscow to negotiate a possible agreement ahead of a four-way meeting Wednesday in […]
Categories
Extra! SwissLeaks In The Spotlight
Geneva-based daily Le Temps features on its Monday front page an ominous-looking photo of HSBC’s Geneva headquarters together with the headline “What the Falciani files reveal,” referring to the latest developments in the giant tax evasion scheme led by the world’s second largest bank, HSBC via its Swiss subsidiary, HSBC Private Bank. According to a […]
Categories
Mighty Piton
Don’t let it fool you: The roads that lead to the Reunion Island“s Piton de la Fournaise (in the background) may be barren and stunningly quiet — but the volcano is one of the most active in the world. Just two years before we went there, the March 1998 eruption lasted 196 days, and le […]
Yes, an open mind in Europe is necessary, but debt reduction isn’t even in the Greeks’ own interest. It’s time to change the way Greece works.
A trial public work program for German drug addicts promised modest hourly wages and optional bottles of beer. The results have surprised social workers.
WARRING UKRAINE PARTIES CALL TRUCEPro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have reached agreement with government forces on a humanitarian corridor to allow the evacuation of civilians out of Debaltseve, a key railway hub in the heart of the latest fighting, AP reports. A rebel spokesman said 1,000 civilians would be evacuated today, though it’s not clear where […]
Categories
Appointed Chairman
Who needs a moving truck?
Categories
Cristina Kirchner’s 11 Worst Gaffes Ever
Argentine President and faux pas expert Cristina Kirchner graced us with yet another verbal woopsie Wednesday, when she tweeted, while on a state visit to China seeking investment: Más de 1.000 asistentes al evento… ¿Serán todos de “La Cámpola” y vinieron sólo por el aloz y el petlóleo? … — Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) February 4, […]
Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner came under intense criticism after she mocked Chinese pronunciation on Twitter while on a state visit to China seeking investment. But there was no mention of the diplomatic faux pas in the Thursday edition of Chinese newspaper People’s Daily, which instead chose to feature a picture of a friendly, if slightly […]
JORDAN VOWS “HARSH” WAR VS. ISISJordan’s King Abdullah II has vowed to wage war against terrorist group ISIS. He explained that his country’s response to the killing of a Jordan pilot, shown in a video that has shocked the world, “will be harsh because this terrorist organization is not only fighting us, but also fighting […]
Categories
Spanish Steps To French Church
The Italian Renaissance Trinità dei Monti church, at the top of the famous Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna, was a little bit like a home away from home for us French travellers. “La Trinité-des-Monts,” as we call it, was built by a French king and has been under French responsibility ever since — together […]
JORDAN EXECUTES TWO PRISONERS AFTER PILOT BURNED ALIVEJordan hanged two Iraqi prisoners Wednesday in retaliation to the killing of a Jordanian pilot by the terrorist group ISIS. Sajida al-Rishawi, a female jihadist involved in a 2005 bombing that killed 60 people in Amman and whose liberation had recently been requested by ISIS, and Ziyad Karboli, […]
Categories
Down By The River
Same brand, different technique: These Ecuadorian women were washing their clothes using Ariel, a brand of laundry detergent popular both in Latin America and Europe. Their washing machine was just slightly bigger than ours — the Ambato River, a stream that ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Amazon.
Novelist and Nobel laureate J.M.G. Le Clézio welcomed the resolve of millions of his fellow Frenchmen uniting against terrorism. But he’s ready to ask the uncomfortable questions.
STOCKHOLM — Tove likes math because it’s so logical, the sixth grader says. If she doesn’t understand a question, the boy who sits next to her, Viggo, repeats it for her. Tove is deaf and wears a hearing aid, though it’s not visible under her long blonde hair. But it’s the reason that during class […]
HAGUE ISSUES GENOCIDE RULINGAfter years of investigation, the Hague’s International Court of Justice has ruled that Serbia did not commit genocide against the Croats during the Balkan wars in the 1990s. While acknowledging that crimes had been committed, the court argued that Croatia failed to prove that Serbia had intended to “destroy in whole or […]
Categories
Has ISIS Really Arrived In Libya?
Deadly attacks in Tripoli are prompting fears that ISIS is spreading north and west. Others however warn of the spectre of a “counter-revolution” of Gaddafi nostalgics similar to what’s happened in Egypt.
The English have long occupied Malta, hence the driving on the left with steering wheel on the right-hand side. But they haven’t managed to import the Anglican religion: Catholicism is still deeply rooted in the island, as evidenced by the religious icons and Latin formula Verbum Dei caro factum est (“The Word of God was […]
Categories
Extra! Fidel Castro Resurfaces
Granma, February 3, 2015 HAVANA — Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Granma has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in months, amid rumors that the health of the 88-year-old former Cuban leader has recently deteriorated. Granma“s front page Tuesday reads “More than three hours with Fidel.” In an article entitled Fidel es un fuera de […]
LAUSANNE — She’s seen me naked. How can I leave her? He brought me so much. How can I tell him I’m leaving? I spent so much time finding the right one. Now we’re supposed to just split up? And yet things were clear from the start: This was always going to be a temporary […]
Categories
The Cradle Of The Himalayas
A wicker basket worked just fine as a crib for this baby in eastern Nepal, though she looked just about ready to outgrow it.
In 1794, German immigrants brought a petition to the U.S. House asking for all legislation to be published in German and English. It narrowly failed, leading to the Muhlenberg urban legend.
U.S. PONDERS ARMING UKRAINEThe United States may decide soon to equip Ukraine’s armed forces with “defensive weapons and equipment,” The New York Times reports, adding that many military and administration officials “appear to be edging toward that position.” Secretary of State John Kerry, who will travel to Kiev Thursday, is said to be open to […]
Political drama may have once served Argentine President Kirchner, but now national debt, corruption and the suspicious death of a prosecutor are turning the people against her.
The Jan. 29 front page of Morocco’s weekly magazine Alwatan Alane features French President Francois Hollande wearing a Nazi outfit, complete with a swastika armband and Adolf Hitler’s trademark mustache. The controversial photomontage is accompanied by the title, “Will the French revive Hitler’s concentration camps to exterminate Muslims?” Contacted by francetv info, publication director Abderrahim […]
BOGOTA — The significance of Uber goes well beyond its specific function, which is to connect willing drivers with people who need to move around in a safe, comfortable and punctual manner. The deeper message of the controversial digital application — and others like it — is in the changing way labor and service markets […]
EGYPT’S ISIS TARGETS MILITARYAt least 26 people were killed yesterday in a series of attacks by an ISIS-affiliated group in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, Al Jazeera reports. Most of the victims were Egyptian troops, but civilians were also among the victims. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cut short his visit to Ethiopia, where he was attending […]
Categories
Unmistakably Portuguese
The traditional pavement in front of Funchal“s 17th century Igreja do Colégio can be found throughout Portugal but also in the country’s former colonies. My grandson recently took pictures of similar black-and-white sidewalks bordering Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
In China, there is no shortage of economic commitment to research and technical advancement. But state graft and insider favors drive the process rather than a pure pursuit of innovation.
A German take on new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who looks ready to peddle his sense of alienation beyond Greece’s borders? If so, Europe itself is at risk.
HEZBOLLAH SENDS MESSAGE OF RESTRAINTWhile many feared that yesterday’s deadly clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces on the Lebanon border might ignite a new war, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Israel had received a message from Hezbollah in which the Lebanese group said it was retreating from further violence, Haaretz reports. According to […]
Categories
Little House On The Fjord
In 1960, I was able to afford a trip to faraway Norway, because I’d just won the first prize at a radio show trivia contest — 1,280 new francs, the currency that had just been introduced in France at the beginning of the year. Of course we went there by car, in our robust Peugeot […]
Another more environmentally friendly option for what to do with the dearly departed has been legalized in a few U.S. states, with several European countries now considering it as well.
Just a few months before the Paris terror attacks, and arguably late to the game, France launched a “disindoctrination” program for Islamist radicals that relies on social and religious approaches.
Images are spreading of extreme cruelty to animals at the corralejas, a version of bullfighting in remote areas of Colombia. Social media can be both enemy and friend for animal rights activists.
ISRAEL-LEBANON-SYRIA SKIRMISHES INTENSIFYAn anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanon border Wednesday, wounding four soldiers, Reuters quoted a military source as saying. The incident came several hours after Israel launched an air strike in Syria amid tensions that have escalated in the frontier area over the past 10 days. According […]
Categories
Tiananmen Transportation
Twenty years ago, Beijing was already dealing with monstrous pollution — and since then, China has surpassed all other countries in vehicle sales. So cyclists in the capital must have a harder time navigating Tiananmen Square … and breathing along the way.
“My Great-Grandmother’s Suitcase” — Die Welt, Jan. 27, 2015 The suitcase featured on Die Welt“s front page is kept at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and is labeled “Zdenka Fantl.” It belonged to a young woman who was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 — and survived it. The woman’s great-granddaughter Kim Sarah Mojecki […]