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Weak democracies

By: psr, 2009-08-25

Scotland freed one of the Lockerbie bombing terrorists a couple of days ago, on ‘humanitarian’ grounds. The Scottish authorities are dumb. If the guy was jailed for killing over 200 people, he wasn’t very ‘humanitarian’ to others, was he?. Then, why free him on ‘humanitarian’ grounds? Why treat humanely someone who showed no humanity? Healthy or ill, the criminal is a criminal, and if he was senteced to life in jail, it is wrong to release him just because he is ill.

This is just another sign of the weakness of modern democracies.

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2009-08-25 | Braindead - Rights - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Defenceless society

By: psr, 2009-03-01

Life imprisonment: yes or no. This debate has briefly appeared on Spanish media in the last few days, after a young woman was murdered in Sevilla. The Spanish penal code does not consider life imprisonment for any type of crime.

Those against this type of sentence argue that the Spanish Constitution does not admin life imprisonment, but in fact the Constitution does not mention it at all. It is absolutely untrue that life imprisonment is incompatible with the Constitution. They argue that such sentence would be “degrading”, and this is not allowed by the Constitution. However, this is merely a matter of opinion: is a 30 or 40 year jail sentence “decent”? is life imprisonment “degrading”?. They can both be …

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2009-03-01 | Rights - Spain - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Fire

By: psr, 2009-02-15

Australia has been hit by enormous wildfires, and not-so-wild ones too. Now authorities suspect some of those fires were actually arson. This seems to be a recurring theme everywhere in the world where supposedly wildfires break out. It’s the same story in the U.S., Greece, Spain and many other countries.

However, this time in Australia, I was very happy to hear the prime minister, Mr. Kevin Rudd, call things by their name. He has called the fires “mass murder”, and he is absolutely right, although he’s probably referring only to the human lives lost in the fires. His words are perfectly applicable to the murder of wild life in the scorched forests, both fauna and flora. Finally a government official (the …

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2009-02-15 | Rights - World | Trackback | No Comments »

“Revolution” as an end in itself

By: psr, 2009-02-01

This weekend (Jan 31, 2009) Madrid has seen at least two public demonstrations related to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution: one on them in favor, the other against it. As usual, there’s people for everything.

All Cubans I’ve met, in the U.S. and Spain, are against Castro’s dictatorship, so I’ve never met an advocate of the “revolution” who could explain to me what’s good about it… but it seems its advocates speak of the revolution as an end in itself, not a means. They seem to imply that what is important is that a revolution took place, regardless of its outcomes.

However, a “revolution” is drastic change done for a purpose… but it’s not clear that the revolution 50 years ago in Cuba had any positive impact …

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2009-02-01 | Rights - Spain - World | Trackback | No Comments »

USA 2008 Election

By: psr, 2008-11-04

I haven’t commented much about the election in USA in this blog. Lots has been said about it and about the two main candidates, McCain and Obama. The big news headlines, as always, did not discuss the issues and the actual political programmes of these two gentlemen. Likewise, the main reasons influencing people’s votes are rarely rooted in the actual political agenda. Instead, the campaign itself, the image and the three or four big sounding messages from each candidate are what drives a large number of people to decide their vote.

Polls predict Obama will win. Clearly there’s strong momentum for him to win. Many people prefer a younger candidate versus the older McCain; many like the idea of having a …

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2008-11-04 | General - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Third U.S. Presidential debate in Madrid

By: psr, 2008-10-18

In Madrid today took place the public screening of the third U.S. presidential debate. It was originally scheduled for last Thursday, October 16, to be followed by a local debate between Madrid-based democrats and republicans. The screening was later moved to October 18 (today).

When I got there I noticed fewer people than at the first screening. Then Ms. Deborah Luhrman, of Democrats Abroad, made an announcement before the screening begun: there would be no republican representatives present for the after-screening local debate. She explained that this resulted from the change of date, which made it impossible for the republican Representatives (she didn’t name who) to participate in a debate today. She complained that the republicans could not find or appoint another …

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2008-10-18 | General - Spain - World | Trackback | 1 Comment »

Let it all fall down

By: psr, 2008-10-14

Governments around the world are trying out different formulae to tackle the financial crisis. They claim they are trying to reactivate the financial sector, to encourage banks to offer loans to small businesses and people, and to other banks. Other cases of government intervention are focused on preventing banks from going bankrupt.

This is all wrong. If the financial sector is in a financial crisis, let the financial sector sweat out its own illness. Any part of it that cannot survive the crisis should simply be left to die, because its demise means that it has no value. The crisis must be allowed to work as it should, promoting consolidation, discarding some old players and creating opportunities for new players to enter.

Government intervention is absolutely wrong. …

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2008-10-14 | Economy - Europe - World | Trackback | No Comments »

US Presidential Debate in Madrid

By: psr, 2008-09-27

Yesterday’s presidential debate between McCain and Obama was screened today at Casa de América in Madrid. Following the screening, another debate took place between representatives in Spain of the Republican party, Mr. James Levy and Mr. Edward Ruf, and Democrats Abroad Spain president Alana Moceri and vice president Gil Carbajal. It was moderated by Spanish TV anchor Lorenzo Milá.

The screening and debate was organized by Democrats Abroad Spain, and it showed, because when it came to the Q&A session, the occasion turned into a republican bashing event. There were few questions but lots of comments calling McCain a warmonger, or disqualifying him as president because of his past and his family’s possessions. We saw no real questions, and no discussion about political agendas. The …

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2008-09-27 | Spain - World | Trackback | 2 Comments »

Let us establish the death penalty

By: psr, 2008-08-17

Late last month (July 2008), it became known that the U.S. would execute the death sentence of soldier Ronald Gray after his conviction for rape and murder.

The decision is correct and must be applauded. The death penalty should be applied more frequently in similar cases. The execution of such criminals may not necessarily heal their victims, families or society, but execution is the just response from society to individuals who have completely violated the rules of society, showing utter contempt for those people who became their victims. There is no possible reintegration. It is necessary for society to have mechanisms to get rid of such cancers. Such elements are not worthy of cure; they are rather malignant tumors to be removed completely from society.

Apart from the possible deterrent …

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2008-08-17 | Europe - Rights - Spain - World | Trackback | No Comments »

In capitalism’s defence.

By: psr, 2008-06-25

There are plenty of anti-capitalism opinions reflected in print, the media and on the Internet. When I read such material, I feel the need to reply in the form of an article in this blog, but I can rarely find the time.

Recently, however, I came across another such article in the blog of a friend of mine (the English text is a Google translation from the Spanish original), which has motivated me to write back.

The above-linked article presents capitalism as the source of corruption, slavery, drug trafficking, real state speculation, and several more calamities and misfortunes. It also describes capitalism as a system consisting of robbery, oppression of people, exploitation of workers, all for the benefit of just a few people (the capitalists). It even …

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2008-06-25 | Economy - General - Rights - World | Trackback | 1 Comment »

Archive for the 'World' Category

Weak democracies

Defenceless society

Fire

“Revolution” as an end in itself

USA 2008 Election

Third U.S. Presidential debate in Madrid

Let it all fall down

US Presidential Debate in Madrid

Let us establish the death penalty

In capitalism’s defence.

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