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Russia

Gerhard Schröder Bows Before Putin, With A Nod To Steven Seagal

The former German Chancellor has had a troubling second act in global politics.

Putin and Medvedev, as Schröder waits his turn on Monday
Putin and Medvedev, as Schröder waits his turn on Monday
Sascha Lehnartz

-OpEd-

BERLIN — After his inauguration in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin shook hands with just three men: first the Patriarch Cyril, then the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and finally Dmitry Medvedev — whom he confirmed shortly afterwards in his position as Prime Minister.

The significance of such symbolic protocol gestures should not be underestimated. In autocratic regimes, the privilege of sitting or standing in the front row, close to the great wise leader, is always comforting evidence that you're still in the boss' good books, for now. The box seat is a life insurance policy, but one that can be canceled unilaterally at any time.

Things are no different in the Russian Federation's 18-year-old "managed democracy." Gerhard Schröder has thus finally reached the front row of exemplary Putin propagandists. He faithfully fulfills the role Putin has assigned him. Cyril gives Putin the spiritual blessing, Medvedev is his political henchman, Schröder's task is to give post-Soviet neo-czarism a touch of international respectability.

This is depressing.

Schröder thus supports a Russian foreign policy the primary goal of which remains to undermine the international order where it still exists. And he tolerates continued internal repression. Just this past weekend, some 1,600 anti-Putin protesters were arrested across Russia.

The fact that a former German chancellor can be recruited for this role is depressing. The prerequisite for the position is that you leave your political judgment and moral compass at the Kremlin's cloakroom.

By the way, just a bit behind Schröder was Steven Seagal, a down-and-out action movie actor who hasn't had a box-office success in 20 years. The longer you look at the pitiful picture, the clearer it becomes that this is the league in which Gerhard Schröder now belongs: He is the Steven Seagal of international politics.

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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