Diálogo Plural

See this report by WAPA TV , where Governor-elect Luis Fortuño presents his advisory board on the Puerto Rican Government's fiscal situation. Notice how most of the members are from the banking and private sector (large enterprises, mostly) and none - according to the report - from medium and small enterprise, cooperative, and union sectors. Two Comments: I am no friend of the New Progressive Party (NPP). I remember too well what has been done in the past politically and economically and how damaging it has been for the island and its people. Having said that, I think what the governor is doing is quite commendable. Therefore whatever the findings of this board he needs to understand that the present situation, apart from the obvious global circumstances, is the doing of reckless spending and political patronage from the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) as well as the NPP. If he assumes this line of thought, he will have taken a step in the right direction. After all, the road to e...

Read this compelling article by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.  Although I disagree with his argument about trascending race (we did, in a way, but this is only just the first step towards an America that will only look at a man for his merits) Friedman has a deep sense of the challenges that lie ahead.

As Barack Obama ponders on the huge responsiblities he is about to face, newspapers have seized on this historic moment. The New York Times has, as always, excelent coverage of this overwhelmingly historic event. The biggest losers in this elections are, well, conservatives, not republicans.  As I have argued before both are not  s ynonyms.  Conservatives just happened to be in the Republican Party, which they kidnapped at the end of the 60s and people who argue for and promote true republican values are nowhere to be found.  I refuse to believe this is the same party that sent a brigade (Abraham Lincoln Brigade) to defend the Spanish Republic in the 1930s.  Perhaps the only true republican in that collectivity is Colin Powell, who I hope will have an important position in the coming administration. Conservatives, apparently, have no clue.  In a display of their typical undemocratic attitude the Republican National Committee did not display any message congratulating the President-ele...

How do you even start writing a blog entry when there is so much to say about this historic event? You start browsing the Internet for everything you get your virtual hands on... An extraordinary event has happened on the night of November 4, 2008.  With Barack Obama the President-elect of the United States, this country is headed in a different - and hopefully good - course. For starters read this article from the  Houston Chronicle .   Read also this short but effective analysis from the same newspaper.  Here's a short excerpts of the demographics that gave Obama the Presidency: Within a month, a two-point McCain lead in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls became a 7- point Obama advantage. Key swing voting blocs swung to the Illinois senator. He made significant — and lasting — gains among Hispanics, Midwesterners, highly educated men, suburban independents and blue-collar voters. And as the economy became more important and Palin became more controversial, "wo...

NB: at the time of publishing this note Barack Obama has been declared President-elect of the US. Also, Luis Fortuño became governor-elect of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. jrr As we get close to election day we notice an increasing hostility towards Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. It is more evident and nasty towards the democratic presidential candidate, branding him - of all labels - a socialist. For lack of a better word, this is just plain absurd. Read this exceptional article by Adam Serwer in The American Prospect . As annoying and unfair as I find this it doesn't bother me as much as it concerns me (check out this article ). Living in Puerto Rico, were political intolerance in the discussion of the simplest of issues is disturbingly normal (a practice, by the way, instituted by pro-statehood activists in the second half of the 1990s only to find it continued by certain elements of the pro-commonwealth camp in the first four years of the 21st Century, and also - a...

The article titled 'Making America Stupid', tells us about conservatives' obsession with the cultural wedge they're driving on the issues in this presidential campaign. Even on something as vital as energy policy and how they trivialize to the chant of drill baby drill! Read this article and reflect on its analysis Comments on it and other posts are welcome.

Read this article by New York Times' Columnist Thomas Friedman - Author of 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' (Anchor Books, 1989). It is a reminder of how unilateral action by the United States can affect us all. It also speaks of deep interconnections between politics and economics and how dependent we are of one another. Some excerpts, "Sarah Palin won’t have to worry that she doesn’t know what the Bush doctrine is. No one really knew what it meant. But it had something to do with the unilateral exercise of American power, and the next president’s ability to act unilaterally on anything other than vital national security issues is going to be reduced. As the old saying goes: He who has the gold makes the rules. Well, we no longer have as much gold, and until we get some, we will have to pay more heed to the rules of those who lend us theirs." "There was a lot of talk after Russia invaded Georgia that globalization was over and we were seeing the return of “histor...