Decades of war between FARC guerrillas and the government seem to have made aggression a widespread social trait in Colombia that’s reflected in cases of domestic violence, bullying at school and a tendency to talk tough. The peace deal could help
Category: Ideas
Financial advice from computers could help private investors make more rational, efficient and profitable decisions. But even if a human element is irreplaceable, the humans in the industry must adapt.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is just the latest female world leader who’s not a mother. A hard look at a gender double standard that reaches all the way to the top.
Who knew what and when? Questions linger two months after the coup attempt was quickly stamped out.
-OpEd- PARIS — In the northern German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) defeated Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in local elections. In the United States, the Republicans chose Donald Trump as their candidate for the White House. The British voted for Brexit. Italians elected as mayors of Rome and […]
The weakening power of the “Mother of Europe” comes at a bad time for both Germany and the rest of the continent.
Whatever the hopes for Cuba, the country’s regime seems keen to follow the profit model for the economy to shore up its political grip. Just like China and Russia.
The withdrawal of the ambassadors of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela from Brazil to protest Dilma Rousseff’s ouster is a good example of partisan zeal harming the national interest.
It is a philosopher’s job to debunk prejudice and foregone conclusions. But isn’t there also a duty to not ignore the facts? A look back 15 years later from a prominent Paris thinker.
Instead of global stability, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an age of high-tech changes and social turmoil. New tales of two cities for the 21st Century.
A clearer picture is emerging of the socio-political profile of those who recently voted to oust Dilma Rousseff from the Brazilian presidency: right-wing males with a penchant for more “traditional,” submissive women.
Even for those who abhor the Republican nominee, it’s important to get the terminology right.
-OpEd- Frustration is the lifeblood of dictatorship. Just look at what’s happening in Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro recently declared that he had readied a decree to revoke the institutional immunity from criminal prosecution of “all public positions,” including members of parliament of course. As you may recall, since the last elections in January, the majority […]
The past few months have left a feeling of an ever less stable future. But a clean defeat of the Republican in November is the quickest way to bring back some order to the world.
Little is known of what Dilma’s successor actually plans to do to lift Brazil out of its crisis. Temer, whose career has been defined by discretion, must now show his hand.
In big and small companies alike, security risks have entered a whole new era.
-Analysis- BOGOTÁ — Decades of civil conflict and the formation of the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) could be attributed in part to the struggle for land in this Latin American nation. That’s why land was one of the most important issues in FARC’s peace negotiations with the government. A historic deal was […]
-OpEd- As I walk through central London, I see many women wearing burqas passing me by. And as I’ve always felt in that sort of situation, I was uncomfortable. Physically and morally uncomfortable. They say you’re not supposed to feel such things. Nor to write about them. What right, indeed, do I have to impose […]
The third of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.
-Analysis- RIO DE JANEIRO — Andrew Zimbalist’s Circus Maximus is a book well worth a read. In it, the author — a U.S. economist specialized in the sports industry — argues that there’s a growing consensus among economists that playing host to a mega-event like the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup is a […]
The second of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.
Trump is supported by 1 in 5 younger voters, an astonishing and consequential collapse for the GOP.
Tensions remain high in Turkey following the July 15 failed coup attempt, with the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focusing most of its wrath on the exiled imam Fetullah Gulen and the purge of his Gulenist followers. But could Erdogan’s reaction backfire? -OpEd- ISTANBUL — You don’t want Fethullah Gulen to be deported back […]
Can Dündar, a recipient of the *Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2016 International Press Freedom Awards who served jail time this past year and was facing another prosecution, announced in his column that he was resigning as editor of the opposition daily newspaper Cumhuriyet. He is believed to be in Germany, and wrote Monday that he […]
As President Daniel Ortega and his relatives continue to accumulate power in Nicaragua, they are becoming a close copy of the venal political dynasty Ortega fought to overthrow.
The first of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.
Both President Erdogan and top opposition parties are focused on national reconciliation. But Erdogan’s plans will ultimately exclude democracy.
-OpEd- So let’s stipulate: Donald Trump is not Vladimir Putin’s willing agent, and it’s not certain if or to what extent Putin is trying to elect Trump president. The real issue is that Trump and Putin share the same nihilistic approach to international relations. Together, they could transform our world. Putin already has fostered a current of ruthless, cynical and utterly unprincipled opportunism in what, before his arrival, was thought of as an increasingly cooperative and rational international community. The Russian president has embraced and perfected the use of lies for geopolitical advantage, pursued and murdered his opponents in foreign […]
Note: This article was originally published on July 13, before the failed coup attempt -Analysis- ISTANBUL — This newspaper (Turkish daily Hürriyet) published the following report last month: “Syrians who want to spend the Ramadan Bayram (Eid al-Fitr) holiday with the relatives they left behind in their country where a horrible civil war is still […]
Can we accept cultural “sensitivities” as an excuse for undemocratic behavior? Can we accept a Muslim father not shaking the hand of his child’s teacher because she is a woman? Yes, it’s all connected to recent terror attacks in
PARIS — This month’s Republican and Democratic national conventions put an end to whatever doubts may have persisted about the parties’ respective presidential candidate choices. There were grumblings to be sure — from Ted Cruz and the “Anyone but Trump” crowd at the Cleveland convention, to the “Bernie or Bust” folks among the Democrats in […]
-OpEd- The Democratic National Convention will feature plenty of well-earned criticism of Donald Trump’s isolationist, revisionist, immoral and self-contradicting foreign policy agenda. But if Hillary Clinton wants to win the argument, she must also convince voters that the world is not in the catastrophic state that Trump would have them believe. Foreign policy was always going to be a big part of the 2016 presidential election, as far as the Clinton campaign was concerned. Its candidate spent four years as secretary of state and is running on her record of service. What the Clinton team did not anticipate is that […]
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — Having survived the coup attempt is not enough to put our minds at ease in Turkey. Turkey is on a road that doesn’t lead to a pluralistic and democratic system. We wake up to a new nightmare every day about our nation’s direction. What’s happening on Turkish soil is worrisome. But it’s […]
How should we react in the face of the threat of Islamist terrorism? It’s a fine line to walk between the double threat of jihadism and our own worst instincts.
WASHINGTON — These are anxious times in America. Despite a steadily, if slowly, growing economy and the absence of a major war, people remain troubled by a sense of national underperformance and myriad social ills, most recently the surge in racially tinged fatal shootings committed by law enforcement officers and against them. A new Gallup poll reports that only 17% of Americans feel satisfied with the way things are going, the lowest percentage since October 2013 — and down 12 points in just the past month. For many, of course, a cause of concern is Donald Trump, who accepted the […]
With the third major terrorism attack on French soil in 18 months, the question “Why France?” is another way to measure the stakes that apply to us all.
ISTANBUL — Turkish society was on the verge of a major disaster last Friday. If the attempted coup d’etat had achieved its purpose, we would probably already be facing a large-scale civil war today. During the coup attempt, which lasted about 12 hours, we lived through a miniature version of this civil war with all […]
In Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, home to many people of Turkish descent, opinions about Recep Tayyip Erdogan and last week’s failed coup that tried to oust him range from shock to skepticism.
Recounting and reflections of the failed Friday night coup, and the mob mentality left in its wake.