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Food / Travel Society

The Madrid Neighborhood Where The Spanish Literary Giants Live On

There is a charming little sector of central Madrid where towering figures of Spanish literature lived, loved, wrote … and mocked each other.

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In The News

Betancourt Is Back, Again! Former Hostage Can Set Colombian Politics Free

With a personal history of suffering and a humane discourse, the liberal Ingrid Betancourt’s return to Colombian politics, even if not a presidential candidate next year, may prompt voters to shun the extremes.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Biden’s Democracy Summit: The Sad Truth About The Invitation List

Can the countries the United States have invited to an exclusive summit on democracy safeguard and spread a system that is inherently flawed and fragile?

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In The News

Why Ghosts Of Hitler Keep Appearing In Colombia

Colombia’s police chiefs must be dismally ignorant if they think it was “instructive” to expose young cadets bereft of historical education to Nazi symbols.

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In The News

Abraham Accords Unleashed: The Middle East Will Never Be The Same

The peace accords signed between conservative Arab states and Israel are the start of an inevitable opening for the Middle East, and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan means a new post-American, post-oil future.

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In The News

Not Safe For Netflix, Medellín Is Back To Its Bad Old Ways

A dramatic, cinematic-like bid to rob a gold depot in the iconic Colombian city associated with Colombia’s most violent drug cartels is just the latest sign that the city is back to its its old system of crime and no punishment.

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In The News

The Hispanic World: United By Spanish, Divided By Spanish

Latin Americans are proud to be part of a “brotherly” region united by its Hispanic heritage, until they suffer hearing each other’s “Spanish.”

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Society

Capture Of Drug Kingpin Otoniel, What It Means For Colombia

The capture of Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker shows that in spite of the cartels’ resilience, the state can and will fight crime at the highest levels, writes top Bogotá daily El Espectador.

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In The News

Like Afghan War, The U.S. War On Drugs Must End

The United States has long dictated policy regarding narcotics, and Colombia, in particular, has paid a heavy price. The current presidential race is an opportunity to shift course and prioritize the welfare of everyday people.

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In The News

When Will COVID End? The Question That Won’t Go Away

Vaccination was supposed to free us from the pandemic’s frightening grip. Things would go back to normal, with parties and hugs and everything else. But now with the Delta variant, and the vaccines less than full-proof, COVID is again dominating our collective psyche.

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In The News

Deadish: What General Anesthesia Taught Me About Death

Anesthesia, or a temporary state of “nothingness,” may be our closest experience of death without dying, and a reminder of the fragility of our lives.

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climate change Future Green Society

Will Climate Woes Spell The End Of The “Western” Lifestyle?

The global warming we have been warned about is here, and it will, with its calamities, change so many ideas about what we need to live well.

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In The News

Colombia: The Cost Of 50 Years Of Failed Drug Policies

Colombia, not the United States, has been the chief victim of drug trafficking and failed anti-narcotics policies. It has a right, if not a duty, to seek other ways of curbing a chain of actions that have corrupted its society.

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In The News

The Europe v. South America Football Question Has An Easy Answer

European soccer is inspiring and professional, in sharp contrast with the national histrionics and ‘amateurish’ mediocrity of South American football.

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Economy Geopolitics

Colombian Farming: The Costs Of Replacing Coffee With Avocados

The Hass avocado, fast becoming one of Colombia’s big export earners, is  threatening local ecosystems and causing water shortages.

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In The News

Daniel Ortega Must (And Can) Be Stopped

The region, from the U.S. to Latin America, has the diplomatic, economic and legal leverage to end the brazen abuses of Nicaragua’s aspiring dictator-for-life.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Colombia Protest Violence: Stop Blaming The Victims

More than 20 people have been killed since demonstrations erupted against a government plan to raise taxes. Dozens more are missing, and yet some insist still on blaming the protestors.

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas

To Fix The Border, Biden Needs To Look Beyond It

Rather than ratchet up spending on America’s already bloated military, the U.S. president should take a broader view of national security and help develop economies elsewhere.

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Ideas Society

Child Soldiers In Colombia: Victims Or Killers?

Underage or not, guerillas who continue taking up arms against the state are ‘war machines,’ the Colombian defense minister recently stated. But what if they were forcibly recruited?

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Geopolitics Green Or Gone

Climate Migration, A Very Different Global Crisis Is Coming

While the pandemic has restricted people’s movement, climate change will increasingly do the opposite as populations move from the worst to less affected zones.

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Geopolitics

Third Way For Parenting: Neither Patriarchy, Nor Kids In Charge

In many ways we’ve moved beyond outdated parenting models of the past. But the modern parent too often produces ‘little tyrants’ who wind up as dysfunctional adults.

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In The News

How Pablo Escobar’s Hippos Sparked An Ecological Debate

Once part of the cocaine kingpin’s private zoo, the animals are now an invasive species impacting the local environment. But few in Colombia have the heart to kill them off.

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Ideas Society

Why Local History Matters In A Globalized World

History, as it takes place on the local level, is more than just a precious heritage. It also reflects the multiple visions that our societies need to remain healthy and vibrant.

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In The News

On The Hypocrisy And Empty Slogans Of ‘American Democracy’

A motley crew barging into the U.S. Capitol can hardly be considered to be an attack on democracy in a country where capitalism has already systematically squeezed the rights of common folk.

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Ideas

Let’s Make 2021 The Year Of Social Justice

This new year may be one of greater justice and better social conditions, but only if people fight for them.

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Ideas

Democracy Has More Grit Than You Might Think

There are more and more elected leaders these days willing to ride roughshod over the rules of democracy. But that hardly means the system’s doomed.

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In The News

The Pandemic Has Changed The Meaning Of Work And Free Time

Bill Gates is among those predicting that the shift toward remote work will last beyond the COVID-19 crisis. But what if, to compensate, people start making more of an effort to mix and mingle?

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In The News

Pests Of Populism: Latin America Knows Why Trump Won’t Go Away

Like former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Evo Morales in South America, Donald Trump may keep infecting public life, even after he exits the White House.

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Society

The Pandemic As A Welcome Lesson In Humility

The coronavirus crisis has been stressful and tedious. But it’s also a reminder that we can’t have everything we want, when we want it. And that, in many ways, is a good thing.

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Economy Geopolitics

Bolivia Elections, A Quiet Revolution Bound To Reverberate

The decisive reelection of the left in Bolivia, after Evo Morales was crudely ousted, is a message to all those powers that aim to unseat the popular will.

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In The News

Colombia’s Indigenous Self-Defense Troops Go Without Guns

Rural communities that have lost leaders to targeted killings have taken to protecting themselves, and without the use of firearms.

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In The News

The News Media And Advertising: Evolution Of A Zero-Sum Game

Even in its more profitable heyday, the ad-driven media model had its fundamental flaws.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Is The UN Security Council Destined To Disappear?

The pandemic has delivered yet another blow to the increasingly irrelevant, UN-led multilateral system that was created after World War II.

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In The News

Pardon? How Venezuela’s Maduro Is Undermining His Opponents

The leftist strongman’s latest prison releases of political opponents has nothing to do with being magnanimous.

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In The News

Why Feminism And Capitalism Can Never Be Reconciled

The ‘feminist free marketeer’ is an oxymoron, when the free market is a bastion of the socioeconomic inequalities feminism opposes.

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In The News

Surveillance And Servitude: The Pandemic’s Most Sinister Legacy

The powers that be responded to the pandemic with an array of life-altering directives that, to an astonishing degree, people quietly accept. So what happens next?

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In The News

Hands Off! Pandemic, Sin And Fears Of The Human Touch

Contagion fears and extreme attachment to the internet are reinforcing that most traditional of moral injunctions

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Geopolitics Green Or Gone Ideas

How To Conserve The Amazon Rainforest: Pay The Rent

The Amazon jungle provides benefits that extend well beyond the river basin itself. It stands to reason, therefore, that countries like Colombia be paid to protect it.

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In The News

Sexuality And The Pandemic: Can We Go Back To Getting It On?

The jury’s still out on whether COVID-19 can be transmitted sexually. But there’s no doubt that it has made many people more cautious about intimacy.

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Geopolitics Ideas

No Mercy For Conquistadors, But We Can Let Their Statues Stand

Latin America can do a lot more to right history’s wrongs than topple the bronze effigies of its conquest-era villains.

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