Columns & Blogs

WILLIAM OSPINA AND ALEJANDRO Gaviria are two prominent Colombian intellectuals, the former a poet and the latter an economist.

WHEN WE'RE HEALTHY, we think our body is invincible; but when we suffer an illness or an accident, we understand that all we are depends on the performance of a few organs, valves and bones that keep us standing.

AT THE ENTRY OF THE PASTRY Arlequin in Bogota, there's a sign that says: "Eating and drinking holds body and soul together".

Many are worried about the fate the current international order may face with the publication, realized by the organization Wikileaks, of thousands of diplomat cables from the Unites States.

In the book "Almost all the truth," María Isabel Rueda asks Enrique Santos the following: Would you say El Tiempo today has a pro-government stance but is politically asexual?. The interviewee responds, "El Tiempo defends the establishment, make no mistake about that. But it has nothing to do with it being politically asexual. If anything, it is coherent and manfully pro-government. "

Social life depends, to a large extent, on the achievement of people's basic expectations: buy a house, get a retirement, educate their children. All these are reasons that people have to live in society and accept its game rules.

IT IS HARD TO ASSEMBLE A serious public policy discussion with people that only obey their religious convictions.

I always read with interest Alejandro Gaviria' op-eds and I share his concern for improving the quality of national public debate, too biased by opinions that, as he says, "confuse experience with militancy, discourse with analysis, and consistency with paranoia. "

It's a long list of reasons that help explain the recent electoral defeat of President Obama.

IN THE GAME OF LIFE, Daniel Santos sang as follows: "Four doors are open / For those who have no money / The hospital and the jail / The church and the cemetery."

IN MY OP-ED last week I spoke of Columbus Day and tried to explain the significance for Latin America of the Spanish conquest and how much we are still tied to the colonial world.

This weeks celebration of Columbus Day, just in the Bicentenary year, is an event of great importance, which accumulates all our colonial and republican history on the same date.