Un par de cosas para leer …

… y comentar, si les parece.

Seguro que más de una vez han intentado vislumbrar los motivos por los que en paises tan ricos en recursos naturales como los hispanoamericanos, y salvo muy contadas excepciones, la pobreza se ha convertido en denominador común de la región. Les dejo con un escrito de Jorge G. Castaneda apabullantemente aclaratorio:

… The rest of the world has begun to take note of this left-wing resurgence, with concern and often more than a little hysteria. But understanding the reasons behind these developments requires recognizing that there is not one Latin American left today; there are two. One is modern, open-minded, reformist, and internationalist, and it springs, paradoxically, from the hard-core left of the past. The other, born of the great tradition of Latin American populism, is nationalist, strident, and close-minded. The first is well aware of its past mistakes (as well as those of its erstwhile role models in Cuba and the Soviet Union) and has changed accordingly. The second, unfortunately, has not.

 … The leftist leaders who have arisen from a populist, nationalist past with few ideological underpinnings — Chávez with his military background, Kirchner with his Peronist roots, Morales with his coca-leaf growers' militancy and agitprop, López Obrador with his origins in the PRI — have proved much less responsive to modernizing influences. For them, rhetoric is more important than substance, and the fact of power is more important than its responsible exercise. The despair of poor constituencies is a tool rather than a challenge, and taunting the United States trumps promoting their countries' real interests in the world. The difference is obvious: Chávez is not Castro; he is Perón with oil. Morales is not an indigenous Che; he is a skillful and irresponsible populist. López Obrador is neither Lula nor Chávez; he comes straight from the PRI of Luis Echeverría, Mexico's president from 1970 to 1976, from which he learned how to be a cash-dispensing, authoritarian-inclined populist. Kirchner is a true-blue Peronist, and proud of it. …

El artículo: Latin America's Left Turn

Si el solaz dominical les permite leer alguna cosa más y también están interesados en el tema del terrorismo, les recomiendo leer este otro artículo de Stephen Schwartz. Nos muestra de forma sencilla y clara cómo es posible acabar con el terrorismo sin caer en el buenismo, ni en la correción política del "diálogo a cualquier precio" en los que andamos sumidos a este y al otro lado de los Pirineos:

I recently heard it said here in Washington where I live and work that the phenomenon of terrorism is infinite, and cannot be eradicated.

 

... These misconceptions have led to a serious weakness in Western strategy – the failure to observe contradictions and to exploit differences in the ranks of the enemy.   For this reason, U.S. and coalition leaders of the War on Terror have neglected to encourage splits and defections in the opposing forces.

 

… Terrorism without financing is individual and isolated. …

 

El artículo: Is Terrorism Infinite?

 Y ya para terminar, les dejo con una "anécdota" de esas provocadas por la estupidez inherente a las nuevas legislaciones antidiscriminatorias. Esas leyes que, de forma totalmente justa, impiden desigualdades por razón de religión, por ejemplo, pero que, y debido a la falta total de rigor a la hora de redactarlas, al mismo tiempo favorecen situaciones tan absurdas como la que nos describe y denuncia Iain Dale en su blog:

A SMOKER was refused cigarettes at a Cambridge store because the Muslim hop assistant said it was against her religion to  ell tobacco. A 31-year-oldwoman, who asked not to be identified, was shocked when she attempted to buy apack of 20 cigarettes at the WH Smith store in Market Street and was turneddown. She said: "I asked for a pack of 20 Lambert & Butler and the womanbehind the desk asked me if they were cigarettes. "When I said they were shetold me that it was against her religion to sell them – I couldn't believe myears.

 Que pasen un feliz Domingo.