L'oasi catalana.

El alcalde Bartomeu Muñoz y su concejal de urbanismo, Manuel Dobarco, el director gerente de servicios del ayuntamiento, Pascual Vela, el ex conseller de Economia y el ex secretario general de Presidència en gobiernos de Jordi Pujol, el ex diputado del PSC Luis García, y los dos empresarios del ramo de la construcción, Josep Singla y Luis Casamitjana están arrestados por los delitos de cohecho, tráfico de influencias y blanqueo de capitales.

(Los detenidos en la operación Pretoria)

Chi ha paura dell'Orso nucleare?

Russia’s new military doctrine, which is to come into force in 2010, has provoked a heated debate, first of all because it stipulates preemptive nuclear strikes.
Moreover, it says that nuclear weapons may also be used in local conflicts in case of critical threats to Russia’s national security.

That war game showed that only nuclear weapons would save Russia in case of a Western aggression. The Russian government subsequently changed the schemes of using nuclear weapons, especially tactical ones.

Russia’s new military doctrine also has a clause on the use of military force to protect the lives and interests of Russian citizens abroad. This new addition to the Law On Defense was approved in the summer of 2009, and it will also be sealed in the new military doctrine.

(Who should fear Russia’s new military doctrine?)

Viaggio nel tempo.



(Un album sulla Corea del Nord)

La stagnazione del centrodestra.

Se il centrodestra vuole garantirsi un orizzonte di governo che superi la vita, biologica o politica, del suo leader è giunto il momento di copiare dagli odiati nemici almeno il metodo. La democrazia, si sa, è un sistema pessimo e pieno di insidie. Ma è ancora l’unico che garantisce ricambio, competizione leale e merito. Su questi valori abbiamo fondato anni di battaglie sociali, economiche, politiche. Al centrosinistra che accusavamo di volere una società immobile ed uguale per statuto, opponevamo la forza dirompente della meritocrazia, il valore di chi, a parità di condizioni di partenza, vince. Il nostro partito, invece, è diventato il simbolo della fissità, dell’incapacità di innovare e di innovarsi, del rifiuto di ogni regola di mercato. E’ ora di aprire una riflessione. Senza isterismi, ma con serietà.

(PdL, la lezione delle primarie)

Democrazia controllata o autocrazia mascherata?

Il sistema Putin è quello che ha portato la Russia protagonista sulla scena internazionale e soprattutto dato una svolta decisa a un paese che sotto Eltsin era finito al collasso (default 1998). È la reazione al sistema caotico, oligarchico e pseudo democratico di Eltsin. È il sistema che la stragrande maggioranza dei russi condivide perché ha portato ordine, stabilità e grandi miglioramenti. Nessuno dice che sia un sistema perfetto, tutt’altro, visto che i problemi russi sono ancora enormi, ma Vladimir Putin ha dato una nuova prospettiva al Paese.

(Il sistema Putin e l’Europa. Intervista a Stefano Grazioli)

Il ritorno di Henry Kissinger.

There is no bottom-line conclusion here: in a presidency that is so young, one cannot know whether the soft line taken toward China, Sudan, Russia, and other violators of human liberties will in the end dominate Mr. Obama's foreign policy decisions. But neither can the early signs be ignored. For the moment, it appears, Henry Kissinger is back.

(Obama's Inner Kissinger)

Formidabile quell'anno/3. Per ovvi motivi, questo è il libro da leggere da qui al 9 novembre prossimo.

 

Diffidare di tutti. Il ricatto della delazione nella Romania comunista.

The fact that I was now considered a spy because I had refused to become one was worse than the attempt to recruit me and the death threat. I was being slandered by precisely the people that I was protecting by refusing to spy on them. Jenny and a handful of colleagues could see the games that were being played with me. But those who knew me less well could not. How could I have explained to them what was going on, how could I have proved the opposite. It was completely impossible, as the Securitate knew only too well, and that is exactly why they did it to me. They knew, too, that such perfidy would be far more destructive than any blackmail. You can even get used to death threats. They are part and parcel of this one life we have. You can defy anxiety to the depths of your soul. But slander steals your soul. You just feel surrounded by horror.

(Herta Müller on Securitate Spies and Friends)

Tigri Tamil e rifugiati: problemi diversi per lo Sri Lanka.

Measures have been taken to rehabilitate some 10,000 LTTE fighters – many of whom were forcibly conscripted by the separatist rebels. On 20 September the Justice and Law Reforms ministry announced a $23m programme called Reintegrating ex-LTTE Cadres into Civilian Life, in association with the International Organisation for Migration. The United States, Japan, Britain and India have promised financial assistance to the programme; Unicef and INGOs will be helping; and many big Sri Lankan companies have offered their support.

Conditions in the camps were highlighted by an incident in the Menik Farm camp on 26 September when, according to the UNHCR, “several people are said to have been injured, including a child who was hit by a stray bullet and is now paralysed.”
Col R Hariharan, head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987-1990, believes the EU cannot ignore strong public opinion about Sri Lanka’s conduct. He says the government “has to come out with a list of LTTE cadres and camp followers in custody so that there is a record of who is where, lest further accusations of executions in custody pile up. These are basic norms of good governance and Sri Lanka is expected to adhere to them. These issues are gathering adverse international momentum and nothing convinces international community as much as visible results.”

(Rehabilitating the Tigers)

I primi quattro.

Chinese authorities have carried out their first executions of Tibetans in connection with the deadly riots that swept Lhasa last year, according to exile groups.

It identified three of the executed Tibetans as two men – Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak – and a woman named Penkyi. The fourth victim was not named.

(China executes Tibetan protesters)

Resistenza.

The posters are a matter of some concern to the local party apparatus, in part because Kim Jong Il’s name was used without any honorific title (Great General, Grand Kleagle, Most Omnipotent Plenipotentiary, His Previously Porcine Majesty). How concerned are they? Apparently, the security forces have plans to haul in 80,000 people for handwriting samples.

(Anti-Kim Jong Il Posters Trigger Massive Dragnet in Small Farming Town)
(N Korea food shortage 'desperate')

Il grande imbonitore (già alle corde).

The White House trying to dictate who's a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?

(Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals)

Tutti pazzi per Kim.

He showed a lot of enthusiasm. He said he hopes the North and South Korean government can talk things through so to have a lot of South Korean companies enter the North, and he also said that since they have the natural resources and the South has the skills to sell, if both sides work together he expects the North and South to prosper.

(Doing business in North Korea)

Ci siamo giocati anche il Darfur.

The Obama administration has formulated a new policy for Sudan that proposes working with that country’s government, rather than isolating it as President Obama had pledged to do during his campaign.
In an interview on Friday, President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, retired, said the policy, to be announced Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, would make use of a mix of “incentives and pressure” to seek an end to the human rights abuses that have left millions of people dead or displaced while burning Darfur into the American conscience.

(Obama Drops Plan to Isolate Sudan Leaders)