English – BLAGH

Civilization

Our civilization is at a crossroads. I do not mean the changes that social networks have already introduced or that robotics will introduce into our lives. I mean those who, really, define civilizations, which is their spiritual health. Greece was its philosophy, Rome its legality, medieval Europe Christianity, modern Europe science. Naturally they are not incompatible findings, but the current Europe is Greek, Roman, Christian and rational. But it is also sophistic, bellicose, pagan and irrational.

A part of Europeans lives luxuriously, another comfortably and the rest acceptably. I will not go over the advantages of being European. We Europeans ask ourselves why when things can go better, unforeseen problems increase. Well, the explanation is because a feature of reality is that differences tend to be reduced by good or bad. And in today’s world, the goodness of communication makes them know, to the part of the planet that has not been able to reconcile population growth with economic advances, that there is a world whose crumbs are better than their daily lives. And they have decided to come and try their luck.

They are millions and can destabilize Europe. But not yet, because we are aging and new sap is needed to maintain the productive system, which will gradually change as robotics is disappearing conventional jobs to emerge the care as the great social task, along with the development of talent.

Naturally it is necessary to get to fix the Africans in their territories with countries whose development allow decent lives to their inhabitants. Although some news about the expansion of a new colonialism owner of immense tracts of land can create new forms of social tension. But it is also necessary that Europe with five hundred million inhabitants maintain a certain homeostatic balance, except for the risk of collapse. But European policies to stop migration are not useful and Africa is especially incompetent in establishing stable and non-predatory political regimes. We europeans, to some extent, are to blame for our merciless action and bordering on stupidity for the way in which we administer those countries with our supposed intellectual and economic superiority. But it has been too long for it to continue to be the excuse for the more intelligent Africans not to find a way to exploit their wealth in favor of their populations, instead of accepting corrupt elites in collusion with global corporations for the looting of commodities. premiums and arable land.

We Europeans also forget that we are an immense mixture in which migrations have played a fundamental role, no matter how much the society of each time believed that it was the end of the world. At this point, of all our inheritance, what suffers the most is not legality or rationality, but philosophy and religion. Our world is based on important philosophical findings about the dignity of each human being and powerful religious proposals about mercy and peace. But while legal regulation and science progress steadily, the problem of mass migration puts us to the test in ethical and religious matters. While we continue with our sophisticated rites, our hearts have hardened and we turn fearful back to the concrete problems of specific people.

It is a curious case that those who wait to be judged in another life for their actions, in this life reject with a gesture of disgust and determined political action accept refugees and those who do not believe in another life consider that it is a due act of mere humanity. Obviously the opposite positions are also given, but they are more rare. The Christian heritage of Europe can not be maintained exclusively and shamefully in the struggle against the presence of minarets, synagogues or Buddhist temples. It has to recover its origins based on the protection of the weak.

At the same time, the Enlightenment tradition of Europe must seek solutions to the structural character of these migrations other than paying corrupt in the coastal countries to cruelly contain the migratory pressure. Can the Christian soul of Europe allow the Mediterranean to be a cemetery? Can the rational soul of Europe abandon the search for a solution? The answer in both cases is that no. And, of course, we must reject both the progressives who do not come with a letter of acceptance in their refugee house, and the enemies of what they call contemptuously «beauty soul», unless they come with the apostasy certificate signed by The Vatican. That is, masks out !.

These individual attitudes are reflected in political positions. It is also necessary for the political parties to seek a better agreement between their underlying doctrines and their political actions. If some choose religion and others opt for illustration, both must be coherent. That is, from incense to the exercise of charity and from the revolution to the exercise of humanity.

As in almost all cases, between the extremes is the possible solution. We must take a step forward when there are dramatic cases as in these years and, at the same time, look for solutions at the heart of European governance. That is why I congratulate Spain and the city of Valencia for receiving the Aquarius and I hope that the Spanish government will achieve decisive political actions with the help of the rest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean that should not only expect tourists on their beaches.

English, Gold is Time, Ocurrencias

Ikea is an «orthodox» company

This morning in only a piece of news two behaviors worthy of reflection have gathered. The company Ikea has launched a special catalog of its products for the home intended for Orthodox Jews. There are no women, no girls. Only men and boys. The reason has been that the orthodox community was scandalized with standard catalogs showing families with father, mother and children. The first behavior to analyze is that of this great international company that adapts so well to the needs of its customers. What does not surprise us seeing how other large corporations accept censorship in China or give data to governments. What do you want an orthodox catalog? there is. What does this reinforce the position of submission of women in that morbid world of Jewish orthodoxy. And so what? Who are we to interfere in the culture of a community? In fact the statement of the company was: «also allow the religious and orthodox public to enjoy the products and solutions according to their customs and lifestyle.» As you can see a respect unworthy of respect. This concept of culture based on the number of those who practice behavior is ethnographic, museum. The lack of commitment of the big corporations with certain transcendental values is a calamity for humanity. In a scene from The Godfather an actor just before shooting at the head of an opponent tells him «it’s nothing personal» although perhaps in the original version the phrase was «it’s business». Be that as it may, although relativists reject the very concept of value or ethics, it is easy to convince them that there are a handful of fundamentally human values and, of course, respect the woman is among them. As is the rejection of ablation or torture. The individual human being must be respected beyond any consideration in his physical and psychic integrity. No «culture» that violates this elementary law of humanity can claim respect for its special ways of understanding the world. And hiding women is an unforgivable and very unorthodox violation today. Ikea is not the only one, because our Spanish Zara has apologized to the Orthodox community for mixing cotton and linen, which would enter into the cultural eccentricities that can be accepted, but that is the beginning of the slope that leads, As Thomas De Quincey said in the free version of «from the murder to unpunctuality.»

But if the company has not found a way to reject, even as clients, this strange culture in which women exist only for the clandestine enjoyment of men, what about the Orthodox Jews themselves who live and encourage them . Let no one waste time looking for anti-Semitism here, but it is really disheartening that from the catacombs of the times of biblical patriarchy is alive in a position so primitive and inhuman. Orthodox Jews represent 10% of the Israeli population but their political presence is felt in the country’s governance given the fragmentation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). Hasidis come from the diaspora of Eastern Europe and are a drag on any agreement with the Arab world that brings peace to those who like the Jews and Arabs have suffered and have so much in common. A pity when the world so much has to thank the Jewish intelligence represented by such extraordinary scientists as Albert Einstein, intellectuals like George Steiner or musicians like Leonard Bernstein.

English, Gold is Time, Política

Obama or the difficulty of doing the good

Obama has one foot out of the White House. His term has been between two presidents that have done and vowed to do things as bad as possible for their country and the world in general. I am quite interested in knowing why american people have tied Obama’s hands with their vote to elect Congress and Senate doing near impossible to develop their politics when barely months before had elected him with a huge majority.

Anyway, everything is going to be very complicate in the future due to the end of the USA election process. A flood of worrisome news is coming. What to say about the appointment of the new cabinet? Each one is a deep concern in every great problem the world has: climate change, Health of the poorest, violence in schools and violence of police officials. What a paradox that a majority of Trump’s voters are going to suffer his policies. How much hostility, hubris and boasting showed the president elected in his first conference. On the contrary, how much politeness, kindness and intelligence has been showed by Obama till his end of term. American people and the rest of the world will miss Barak. A great loss in the years coming.

Maybe there are people who don’t matter to have a well educated man on the summit. People that don’t understand the importance of exemplarity. The way the high echelons do things, so ordinary people will do. Therefore we must to be prepare for a wave of bad guys doing and saying bad things. Obama have been an example of how a great man on the summit have to behave. Moreover he has been an example of dignity facing tough duty against terrorism and, paradoxically fighting with his opponent into the US congress and senate when he tried to change things on favour of vulnerable people.

His speeches will be remembered many years after he leave behind the White House. Its have been a great pieces of oratory that for sure we will miss. Neither the previous president did nor the next will deliver us something alike.

His compatriots, unless those that love culture as a whole pack of compassion and mutual friendship, feel that he heard them because he felt true respect to them. Even foreign people beyond the sea have felt him as authentic world leader. In a way we all will be orphan, even though America have to change a great deal to help the world solve big problems as inequality, tax haven or climate change. He have honestly tried. I hope he will follow helping the world to solve this crucial issues with steady hands.

Good Luck Mr. Obama, dear Barack

English

Aleppo, Martyr City

Troy (XIII BC), Jerusalem (70 AD), Guernica (1937), Dresden (1945), Aleppo (2016). The cities have been subjected to terrible destructions poetically provoked by the abduction of Helen by Paris, by the insurgency of the Jews before Augustus, by the instrumental malice of the Nazi and Spanish nationals, by the vengeance of the Allies for the bombings of London or By the preference of the powers by the dictators. For some reasons or others, the inhabitants were forced to keep their hands on a knife (Numancia, too), and from Guernica civilians are being mercilessly bombarded by the building of entire neighborhoods with debris. All the plagues accumulated in the criminal cowardice that kills and finishes, which destroys the few islands of sanity, which ravages schools and cuts supplies by causing hunger, prevents the entry of aid from the only decent souls of the conflict in the form of Altruistic suicide. Aleppo is the symbol of human madness in our generation, that of the 50’s. A generation that, between the Great Disgrace that was World War and the death of Fidel Castro, lived believing in the therapy Illustrated by education and enjoying the mega bubble created by neoliberalism at the stage where, at least in Europe, they did not yet dare to destroy public services. Today he wakes up proving that the whole educational effort translates into fear of life and encased around insane leaders well educated, but selfish until narcissism; With comfortable lives, but envious of the lives of the rich; With obvious problems to solve, but attentive, only attentive, to its governmental perpetuation. Leaders loose, without ideals, cynical, without vision of global problems and intellectually and emotionally disabled to address them. And yet, the alternative is worse, to fall into the hands of saviors with the same defects but with the brute force behind. This is the case of Assad, the still Syrian president who has preferred a destructive Civil War to prepare his country for democracy. And with the same pretext that is always the energy to prevent the arrival of Islamist extremism, as it was before to prevent the left movements. Lethal geostrategic movement that exports insecurity and suffering to Africa just as it does with electronic waste. And when this suffering materializes, cities are destroyed and with them civic life, rest after work, education and parenting, serene study of problems in the scientific fields and, ultimately, the life of the Civilized polis In Aleppo, where one lives in absolute desolation, unbearable pain, eternal resentment, biblical hatred, psychological misery and deep despair, that civilized life is already a memory.