Citizen Culture
The antipathy toward the word “culture” from those who profess ideas of the extreme right is well know.. “When I hear people talk about culture, I pull out my gun,” the Nazi leader H. Goering once said.
Read MoreThe Affirmative Action Debate Moves South
The critiques of affirmative action that academics and news outlets like The Economist offer show how difficult it is for society to change the status quo of inequality, where goods and opportunties are only available to certain groups.
Read MoreIntellectual Revolutions
The insensitivity to social injustice and dogmatism are, in my opinion, two of the biggest ideological obstacles for the development of Latin America.
Read MoreFrom Inequality to Creativity: Funding Human Rights Organizations in the Global South
This is an invitation. An invitation to respond to a difficult landscape of inequality and shortage with creativity, with new ideas, not just to get more funding but also to be more efficient and independent.
Read MoreThe Catholic Opinion
In a previous column about the Catholic Church’s campaigns against abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia and divorce, I said that it seemed as though Catholics today were listening to Martin Luther, 500 years too late.
Read MoreInternet without Wiretapping
Norms are created more slowly than the rapid pace at which technology advances, therefore there is often a disconnect between the rules and the reality they are applied to.
Read MoreMilitary Intelligence
In a country that is in fourth to last place in PISA student-testing, where no university is among the top 400 of the world and no research center is among the top 600, it is deplorable (to say the least) that we only speak about intelligence when we denounce abuses of so-called “military intelligence.”
Read MoreCourt Decisions: Just Words on a Paper?
The Court ordered their governments to protect their rights, such as their right to free, prior, informed consultation and their right to their territory. Yet, in every case, the governments have failed to obey the Court’s orders.
Read MoreEthics and Economics
Some weeks I can’t find a topic to write about and on others I have too many topics. On this occassion I have in mind three topics: one about the Oxfam report about global inequality published on January 20th, another about President Obama´s State of the Union last Tuesday, and another about a conference that Michael Sandel gave last Thursday at Los Andes University.
Read MoreRepeating Oneself and Expecting a Different Result
About 15 years ago, the national government passed a law regulating the prior consultation process without, ironically, consulting the ethnic communities first.
Read MoreInternational Day of the World’s Indigenous people
Today, International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, there is nothing to celebrate in Colombia
Read MoreProtecting the Book Fair
Two days after the Book Fair’s closure, the controversy over the results turned hot
Read MoreRule of opinion or rule of law?
President Uribe has suggested in more than one hundred occasions that Colombia is under a “Rule of opinion”, a superior stage of the Rule of law. The idea may sound beautiful, but in truth it is ambiguous and dangerous.
Read MoreThe media prefers “gringas”
A judge’s election in the US is more relevant for the media than the election of national (Colombia) judges.
Read MoreThe outrages
Angel Genivet, an intellectual of the ’98 Generation, said that the Spaniards’ ideal was to carry an official document that stated they were authorized to do anything they wanted.
Read MoreDivide and re-elect yourself
Too much has been said about the President’s statement of the Rule of opinion as a higher stage of the Rule of Law.
Read MoreWar against latifundium
Up to date, land distribution to peasants hasn’t been seen. Instead, the State distributes it to few owners.
Read MorePolitics overdose
After three years of permanent presidential debate due to re-election, we head towards Uribe’s last year in office, which is nothing else than one full of presidential debate.
Read MoreForgiveness without acknowledging guilt?
Who genuinely apologizes acknowledges his guilt. He accepts to have offended somebody or to have contributed in some way to the humiliation.
Read MoreDepression and paranoia
I once heard a psychology professor say that mental illness depends a lot of the society where one lives. For example, while in the US lots of people get depressed, in Latin America they suffer from paranoia. I have no idea what theory explains this phenomenon, but mine is as following.
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