Diálogo Plural

There are many things that can be said about the new Pope. I'll try to be balanced. As conservative as they come, former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became head of the Roman Catholic Church a little before 18:00h CET on April 19, 2005. Before his election by the College of Cardinals he led the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Inquisition) where he disciplined some of the most brilliant theologists for falling outside the doctrinal boundaries of Catholic Dogma. With this he assured the Church's lingering in medieval attitudes 'per secula seculorum' as well as many faithful to exercise their God-given free will in favor of using their common sense when approaching issues like contraception. Of course, one must also give the new pope the benefit or the doubt and there are signs that the new Pontiff is tempering his postures. Read this piece published electronically in Yahoo! News . Here are some quotations: The new pope said he...

Pope John Paul II has died. What can I say about such an important and at times controversial figure in world history? I would have nothing to add to this NPR's obituary by Sylvia Poggioli . Read also this written obituary be The Guardian . As a person who voluntarily separated from the Catholic Church because of all its banal medievalist views I always would take the opportunity of criticizing strongly the Pope for its stubborn adherence to strict traditional dogma. His resistance to change left the catholic faithful in some parts of the world flabbergasted, provoking in the end an exodus from the Church into other faiths or out of religion altogether. Still others remained in the Church humoring official Roman Catholic conservative preaching while realistically adapting their spiritual and practical needs to the realities of everyday life (such as their viewpoints on contraceptives, sex, and celibacy). It is ironic that in this interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski by NPR'...

There was outrage on the part of James Roosevelt, Jr. by Fox News' Attempt to distort the truth on Franklin D. Roosevelt's stand on Social Security. John Nichols from The Nation had this to say. I ask myself, why has the burden of shame fallen heavy on the New York Times and USA Today's scandals with Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley, respectively and Fox News is still able to distort the truth with impunity? On the Jack Kelley affair see: USA Today editor quits, scandal brews , from CNN-Money. Read also this article on Metaforix: Workplace culture in the USA today. A sobering work, which includes details on the CBS mess-up of George W. Bush's National Guard Service, can be read here . A more recent narrative can be found here . As long as you're there, browse through the articles of Columbia Journalism Review. . There is a complete trancript of a panel discussion in PBS' Newshour with Jim Lehrer along with streaming video and audio files and a repertoire of l...

I heard the term 'the end of history' in mid-1995 in Carlos Pabón's 'Problems of the Contemporary World' history class at the University of Puerto Rico. Right from the beginning I opposed the pomposity with which Francis Fukuyama thrusted the idea into academic and policy circles. I was also taken aback by the arrogance of making such a declaration. But the main objection I put forth was, of course, ideological. I was convinced that the supremacy of the market would not stop being questioned, even though the economic model of the United States and Great Britain was implented generally in Latin America except Cuba. The market still produced poverty and social inequality, which the state apparatuses of these countries could not bear nor would they regulate in order to balance its outcomes; only now do we begin to see its product. One only has to look at the economic histories of Argentina, Perú and Bolivia during the 1990's to surmise that something went ter...

Please take a moment to reflect on the events of this date. One year ago a terrorist attack in Madrid's Atocha train station left over 200 dead in a most vile act. Never more...

Yesterday, Puerto Rico Senate President Kenneth McClintock (NPP, at large) forwarded five letters asking Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (PDP) to withdraw five of his nominations for cabinet posts. Among these is Roberto Sanchez Ramos, nominated by the Governor to head the Island's Department of Justice. None of the nominees have been to a confirmation hearing. Apart from the anti-democratic disposition of not even allowing the formality of rejecting the nominees in a Senate's hearing, the mere fact of the letters' timing is quite revealing. They were sent at 6:15 on the evening of March 10 after all TV news headlines had passed. He got his wish; one only has to take a look at the headlines of all major newspapers on March 11th: El Nuevo Día (also here ) A complete account is also available in Primera Hora , also here . Notice the stupidy of senator Jorge de Castro Font's declaration at the end of the article. Also read El Vocero's damning editorial . The driving...

Cupey, Puerto Rico Mehr Licht! With this simple statement I begin posting. Welcome to a Rose in a sea of manure, the newest blog that you probably will not read. My aim is simple: to get people thinking seriously about politics in Puerto Rico and the rest of the world; to fight against the common statement that: 'People do not care'; to promote the ideas of social democracy, a social market economy, and social justice. All of it with a tad irreverent tone, if that's what it takes to get people to think and react. Speaking of reaction, Puerto Rican politicians seem to entertain themselves in the sterile debate about the island's political future and other menial stupidities. One only has to take a look in Puerto Rico's main daily newspaper 'El Nuevo Día' (http://www.endi.com). Just make a comparison between two of its most popular sections: 'El País' (Local News) and 'Política' (Politics). Notice that while the country is in shackles our ...