On the occasion of the slaughter that occurred last week at a casino in the city of Monterrey (52 people died), the media and public opinion have referred again to the "Colombianization of Mexico."

This seemed to be a good week for public university. After the return of President Santos from Chile (where students have been protesting for six months), the government announced it was withdrawing the proposal to establish colleges for profit (just under the bill to reform higher education) and earmark additional resources of 1.5 billion pesos to finance the public university. This is good news indeed, but the problem of education in Colombia is so big it takes much more than that.

In these days I was in the difficult task of explaining to a foreigner the details of the current electoral debate. I started then the list of political parties and their ideological differences.

Last week, Nicolas Uribe, a columnist of this newspaper, recalled the importance of confining ourselves to serious arguments in the abortion debate.

One of the most difficult questions to resolve in a society open to dialogue is: how far should we tolerate the intolerant?

Aristotle said that fair or equal treatment was all about treating equal cases equally and different cases differently.

I DON'T MEAN TO spoil the party of the 20th of july, but I think a celebration like this should not only be a reason to exalt our glories (rather rare, in fact), but also an occasion to reflect on our mistakes as a society or what we have not been able to achieve in these two centuries of republican life.

All societies (like people) at some point ask for their identity.

Faith in God is not the result of reason but of will.