English, Personal, Política, Sociedad, US 2016 Presidential Election

Lies, damn lies and statistics

The famous quote, credited to former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain, classifies in those three categories the different kinds of lies. In Spain we know a lot about the misguided use of statistics, as our national newspapers –this morning’s example– tend to use quotes generally attributed to a high percentage of Spaniards, or voters of this or that political party. Usually, a political party which happens to have said a few days ago exactly the opposite of what its own voters apparently believe, and the Editorial Board thinks. Continúa leyendo «Lies, damn lies and statistics»

Cataluña, corrupción, Derecho, English, Política, Sociedad

Sorry, Mr. Puigdemont. Democracy is not bending the knee whether you like it or not

In response to Carles Puigdemont’s article in The Washington Post, titled Sorry, Spain. Catalonia is voting on independence whether you like it or not. You can read this article in Spanish here. Thanks to Christian Caryl, editor at The Washington Post, for his attention and kindness.

Democracy is the rule of the many, with due respect to the few. Both sides of the coin are indispensable, and neither of them can break the other. The rule of the many, called majority, is granted by the rules of the game: the set of agreements which the political community, on its very foundational moment, agreed on. And the due respect to the few, called rights, is also granted in the same set of rules, because if the majority were to be always right and its will always sovereign, there would be no point in having rules at all.

Continúa leyendo «Sorry, Mr. Puigdemont. Democracy is not bending the knee whether you like it or not»

English, Política, Sociedad, US 2016 Presidential Election

How did we get here?

Yesterday’s debate will get into the literature about Presidential campaigning as the weirdest, dirtiest, and dishonest discussion ever held by two candidates to the White House. Yet Hillary Clinton remained as presidential as she could, Donald Trump’s provocations made it quite hard for her to hold it together. The GOP candidate threatened, no less, with a special prosecutor over the email issue, and stated that if he would have been President, Clinton would be in jail. He also said that if he would have held the Oval Office, Captain Kahn –the Muslim soldier who died in Iraq and whose parents were insulted by Trump– would still be alive, meaning that President Obama is unable or unwilling to avoid military casualties, which is one of the worst assumptions ever made by a nominee for President. Continúa leyendo «How did we get here?»

English, Internacional, Personal, Política, Sociedad

Freedom

LEER ESTE POST EN ESPAÑOL»

Facebook will not delete the picture heading this post, eventhough it is contrary to its Terms of Use. A few days ago it did so with the picture which passed into History as the icon of the failure of the United States in the Vietnam War. World’s biggest social network erased a post from Norway’s main newspaper, Aftenpoften, which had this photo as an example of pictures which had changed our conception of war. The next morning, the editor-in-chief put the picture into the newspaper’s printed front page with a white, big «Dear Mark Zuckerberg» printed on a facebook-blue background, and flooded Oslo with it. The Prime Minister Solberg and the rest of the politicians went further and, together, they published the picture in their personal profiles; Facebook also deleted those posts but, under the pressure of the international media, it gave in and backed down. Continúa leyendo «Freedom»

English, Personal

Erasmus, o cómo cambiar una vida – Erasmus, or how to change a life

For the English version, scroll down

Por los cálculos que he hecho, más o menos en el momento en el que se publica esta entrada mi avión estará abandonando el espacio aéreo de Noruega, en dirección al Reino Unido. Este avión cierra un círculo, y es el vuelo de vuelta emparejado con aquel otro –entonces sólo de ida; qué miedo da eso– al que me subí lleno de dudas y con muy pocas certezas el 6 de agosto de 2015. Trescientos doce días después vuelvo a España. La paradoja es que, a su vez, éste vuelo tiene también vuelo de vuelta para regresar al país que me ha cambiado la vida. Continúa leyendo «Erasmus, o cómo cambiar una vida – Erasmus, or how to change a life»

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