Best option for Syria: stalemate
While Assad’s compatriots cut each other's throats, we can enjoy relative peace
Opinion
The worst Euro crop
In the midst of a devastating economic crisis, European institutions have been going through the biggest downturn in terms of political leadership qualities in living memory
Tale of two cities
Madrid is no longer a peasant village dominated by a proud palace, but the economic center of the country. Nonetheless, the stereotypes remain
Tobacco
Who cares about smoking? Adelson’s Madrid casino will generate a cesspool of corruption while generating very little tax revenue
opinion
Off with her head
The relations between Islamic activists and pop culture are explored in an interesting new book: Schmoozing with Terrorists, by Aaron Klein
Angels and the Alligator
Berlusconi has finally met his Brutus; now he must finally face justice
My Gibraltar granny
Could the British press be suggesting that a Spanish relative allows you to play soccer for the Rock? Surely not…
Apprentice sorcerers
For years now, Spain's principal conservative party has opted for immediate electoral profit, by picking causes that might bring their voters out
Three contracts
If the Dutch declare the European social model defunct, what can we expect in politically hobbled, closed societies like ours?
Abuse and the muse
High school girls like myself who were crazy about literature would have gladly given themselves up to any real, live author who happened to walk by
Spirit of ’45
The same people who are helping to destroy the welfare state are those who benefited from it
Christmas in September
As soon as he entered the house, he knew something strange was going on… Grandma?
Indonesian night
In Indonesia, in less than a year, about a million people were murdered as a consequence of a military coup d'état
Wadjda
Islamism is not Islam, though it does rely on the most intransigent elements of the sacred texts to impose a closed society, where the woman is the victim
Rehncession
The commissioner may sees himself as the savior of the euro, but many blame his recipes for the depth of the European slump
Off the record
The bankers and politicians who have squandered have spoiled Spain’s image, not those who reveal corruption
opinion
Multipolarity
Moscow and Washington used to share a world hegemony called bipolarity. But lately, lacking one of the two Atlases that sustained it, the system has become inherently unstable
Search me
No one is ever to blame for the fraud and mismanagement that has exacerbated Spain’s crisis
Right to decide
Few venture to say aloud that they think that the right to vote on Catalan independence is a load of meringue whipped up by the nationalists
Reserved domains
It is a democratic anomaly that leaders of the world’s nuclear powers can go solo on military decisions
Negotiate, but what?
Spain’s government must do more than merely point out that any Catalan referendum would be unlawful
Rajoy's agenda
What humiliation for the Spanish media - to languish starved of news as to our government's line on the question of Syria and the looming military sanction for the use of chemical weapons
Bin Laden’s shadow
Even if the West, weary of apparently unsolvable problems, washes its hands of the dirty business that goes on there, Osama bin Laden is laughing in his grave. And he will go on laughing for years.
Mid-Life Crisis: Chilean Democracy 40 years after the Coup
The past remains a point of deep controversy and disagreement, but the future seems to hold something different
G20 / Olympic bubble
The result seems premonitory of a global trend: the central countries are in their best economic position in years, growth is slowing in emerging countries, and the south of Europe remains prostrate
Deaths and deaths
All lives have the same value, but the political and legal consequences of the use of chemical weapons have to be different
Living abroad
Foreigners are often surprised to see how much good cheer there is still on display in Spain
Memories of Syria
Simplicity, as the Americans have been learning, is a quality not often found in Middle Eastern political problems
Screwdrivers
The Popular Party took two personal computers from Luis Bárcenas and had their hard disks carefully erased, rendering them useless as evidence in court
Unknowns
The plan to punish Assad, Spain’s economic recovery and the PP corruption case are all very much in the balance