Posts Tagged ‘Colombia’
The Ethics of Responsiblity
In an interview published in this newspaper, Senator Jorge Robledo reiterated his idea that Santos, Zuluaga and Uribe are the same thing, and insinuated that to maintain ideological coherence and defend his principles, he will not vote for any of them.
Read MoreInflection Point
In Colombia, elections tend not to lead to big social or political changes.
Read MoreCaudillo Warriors
Jose Gasper Francia was a Paraguayan president who governed during the first part of the XIX Century.
Read MoreBitter Regrets
Garcia Marquez once said that the secret of a happy marriage is not to discuss conflicts between the spouses; it is better to go to sleep without talking about it, he would say
Read MoreThe Crippled Philosopher
García Márquez had a unequalled talent for capturing that typical Latin American condition of living between myths and realities.
Read MoreThank You Daniel
I learned to read the newspaper with Daniel Samper Pizano, with his columns and his delicious articles.
Read MoreElectoral Fraud
In Colombia, politicians don’t resign themselves to losing. Once a congressional election for is over we witness the same ritual of the losers denouncing that the winners committed fraud (along with the electoral authorities).
Read MoreBlack Communities in the Islands of Rosario: Between Tourism Development and Environmental Regulation
The government could formulate a policy that reconciles the rights of the community, the protection of the environment, and the development of tuorism to resolve these tensions.
Read MoreLess than What the Land Gives Us
According to a popular saying, societies have the governments they deserve, and by extension, the customs and politicians they deserve. There is something both true and false about this saying.
Read MoreCitizen 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 MoreProgressive Winds Blow In from Administrative Law
Administrative Law judges and the justices of the State Council may be innovating their way of protecting the public interest and of promoting regulation.
Read MoreEquity and Hospital Infections
A recent State Council decision established that if a patient gets an infection in a hospital, the hospital has to compensate him or her unless the hospital can prove that the infection was acquired elsewhere.
Read MoreRemembering our Brothers and Sisters: November 20th, Transgender Day of Remembrance
The fact that 64% of transgender persons in Bogota suffer some sort of aggression because of their gender identity shows that we need to exchange our prejudices for respect and comprehension.
Read MoreOnline education and the Classroom Dictatorship
Why do professors insist on teaching the same course over and over? When did teaching became “lecturing”?
Read MoreThe Missing Persons of the Palace of Justice and the IACHR
It is contradictory for the Government to accept responsibility before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR) for two of the disappearances at the Palace of Justice and for the torture of two of the detainees, but then try to minimize its responsibility with regard to the other nine missing persons or the execution of Clerk Urán, by saying that what happened was a merely a governmental failure, but not a disappearance or execution.
Read MoreThe Inspector’s General’s Crusade Against the Environment
Thanks to information sent by several readers, I see that my last column fell short in criticizing the pressure that the Inspetor General’s office asserts on public officers protecting the environment
Read MoreWas the Health Reform the Victim of a Stampede?
In his Treaty on Probability (1920) and the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1937) John Maynard Keynes made a fundamental distinction between the notion of “risk” and “uncertainty.”
Read MoreInjustices and Wars
Injustices cause wars but wars, in turn, also cause injustices. In Colombia, for example, injustice derives from the high inequality in agrarian land ownership, which was used by the guerrillas as a justification for their armed uprising.
Read MoreThe National University is Really in Crisis
The fact that more than half of the buildings of the main public university in Colombia are at high risk of vulnerability and four percent of them are in imminent risk of collapse generates indignation.
Read MoreSecond Attempt at Judicial Reform: What is Essential?
After the last failure, we are still waiting for a proposal that will allow us to overcome the three main problems in the judicial system. A key issue is to reform the Superior Council of the Judiciary, which has brought so much discredit to the judicial branch.
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