We are still racists

Christmas is round the corner. You can tell it for the millions of commercials on TV about peace, love and family getting together. It's funny that while some are trying to reunite between ourselves, others look after the differences. Ok, I’m first on the line to be proud of each one own heritage, but it ends being sick when you bring it to the extreme.

USA has been critizised many times in the past few years for their despair of anything not WASP. But it seems that’s about to change with Mr. Obama. The Government of the new kid in the block (sorry, in the Office) will include minorities from almost everywhere: gays, women, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians...)

Meanwhile in Europe, the Old Europe proud of having left behind racism in spite of integration, the situation is slightly different. From the reborn of the Nazism in Germany to the difficult adaptation of the Arabs to the European cities -and thedoubts that awakes-, giving birth to the Euroarabism. All this without forgetting the already known antisemitism, that is more and more más extended worldwide -specially in the Muslim countries- and growths at a worrying fast rate. But is true as well that the Jews are capable enough by themselves of generate that hate. It’s need only a few Israeli extremists -helped by the sinking of the Israeli Laborism- to give enough reasons to the World for being worry about them. And in between all this, almost in the border with human stupidity -if not plenty inside it- the Jewish Nazis.



Irony about this comes from the fact that they are immigrants who benefit from the Law of Return in Israel. Usually it’s the opposite: the natural from the country is the one who hates the outsider. And normally, those outsiders are the first ones suffering from the economic breakdown. They are just a temporal solution, and once have being used and are any more useful, they are sent back. Like a jacket that you bought but you realize you don’t like once at home.

However, only a few reckons that immigration is need. In both sides of the Atlantic ocean, but even more in countries with a low birth rate, like in USA or Europe. Without the African immigration, the fields of Spain and Italy would be in lack of workers. And even in the North, in countries like Ireland people is wondering what will do the Polish outsiders now in Hibernia. They are many, and they can boost the Irish economy -now in recession- or sink it. On the ground, the Polish are measuring their own options. Some are willing to stay, others are leaving and back at home are being encouraged to keep claiming benefits to the countries where they emigrated... by the Polish Government!

But, an addition of different issues -financial crisis, World warming, ageing of the population- can make this migration flow reverse in the next century. In my opinion, this could be an oxygen boost for many countries, too xenophobic for a Global World -that in fact, at least for now, it’s only global for a few ones and in only one direction.

I always though that racism and xenophobia disappear when you travel. Or even better, when you live abroad for a while. I’m not talking of those one month holidays of many executives or their kids’ holidays in a foreign country to learn the language. Not. I’m talking of the experience of having to speak everyday in another language, deal with another culture, another system to measure your drinks or your meal (not everywhere people use liters and kilograms), and survive to that and solve your problems by your own in those conditions. Of course is not something easy to accept. Ask the American lawyers that are being sent to Shangai, Dubai or Bombay. Or bye bye.

Some other countries like Spain could be seriously threatened in the next century by the challenges of the global warming, and that force their inhabitants to emigrate. Greenpeace has made some aggressive campaigns about that in the past. Even the UN has been warning the unbelievers about the dangers hidden round the corner. It won’t do any good if they are still believing more their cousins opinions than the scientific proofs -after all, they are the same ones that say those lies about evolution. It won’t help either that they will continue being paid by oil business like Exxon Mobile.



Who cares? If we need, we’ll ask for help to the Third World countries -if there is something to take from them by then. By any means, we’ll get it. The West is proud of being the world protector, but abandones at their own risk those places without anything profitable to steal.

Later, they will wonder why the fishmen whom we stole their fishes will become pirates. Or why they would like to expell our companies from their land, the same one that we drill. Or why the people we went to liberate from the oppression of a tyranny throw at us now their shoes and call us dogs.

After all we did for them...





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Sex, drugs and Rock'n'roll

I ended my last post with the excessive spending of the CEO’s of the Big Three. But as a friend pointed to me later, I could have followed quotating cases. There are lots of executives spending millions of dollars while their employers are losing their jobs amazingnly fast. One of the most famous cases was when a few AIG executives spent $440.000 in a spa just after receive a bailout of $85 billions from the American Government. Sorry, the American taxpayers.

In a spa, yes! Just to relax themselves. Maybe shortly that will be the only option they’ll have. If -as I said a week before- they are cutting the spending on their lovers, is to expect less generosity from them in the bedroom. And at the lap dance clubs, is not gonna be easier. In UK, Gordon Brown’s laborist Government plans to change the law for those kind of locals, increasing the requirements for them. From the inside, their owners say they aren’t offering sex, just “dancing”.

Sure.


The law, however, is only an amend that, according to various sources, doesn’t solve the problem. And it leaves nobody happy. Like with another sex law in preparation that seeks criminalize the people hiring prostitutes that are being exploited by others, equaling having sex with them with a rape, and banning pimping.

Sounds good. But in an insight look, is not so good. According to The Economist, the law leaves a lot of empty legal spaces that are even more dangerous. The prostitutes themselves argue that the only clients that won’t go anymore are the gentle clients, while the aggressive ones will continue even harder.

The ideal situation would be -again according to The Economist- a complete banning of prostitution (like in Sweden) or an open permission (like in the Netherlands, where some politicians went to test the system). If not, there is the risk of falling on the same mistakes as Hong Kong.

Without leaving the bedroom, last week I found on the Internet something really funny. It’s not enough with fruit flavored condoms, here comes the beer flavored condom! My question is: will it be available for different brands? Because it’s not the same a Budweisser, a Guinness or a Heineken. Anyway, a great way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ending of the Dry Law with your partner.

But there are some things that never change. Like Chicago being the centre of corruption. Yesterday it was the Mafia; today are politics (Seriously, they are not the same). Not good for Obama, as it is the state he came from and there is already something that could get him down.

And about some other things, we discover -some of us already suspected it- that have been used longer than some thought. We knew the hassasins used hashish, but we didn’t know the Chinese smoked marijuana. Some other drugs only change the way they come. And finally, in Afghanistan maybe will be more profitable from now on to harvest the pomegranate rather than the opium. Well, not really.


At least, rock’n’roll is still legal. Except in China.


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Flying

Planes are back on the track. And I'm not saying this because I'll have to take a few from now until the end of the year (four that I already took in the past month plus six that I will take), but because in the last few weeks everyone is talking about them.

Let's say Ireland, where they are now crazy about the idea of the disappearing of Aer Lingus. The ancient company is going through a bumpy trip, including cutbacks everywhere, while her lifelong nemesis, Ryanair, enjoys a sunny holidays. That's why Ryanair made a bid for Aer Lingus. But the remnant of the flying Celtic tiger is not dead still, and refused the offer. It's a pity, because this year we could have had more girls in the Ryanair calendar. Cute.

Another one who had to think as well that she should be cute is Ms. Mary Harney, head of Health. Now she has behind the ghost of a $400 hairdresser bill she spent in an official FAS trip in 2004. Even worst is the chapter for the flight tickets. Not only she and her team bought First Class tickets to Florida, but the never used it. The use instead the Taoiseach private jet, at a cost of €80.000 for the taxpayer. Of course, now that the difficult times are there, Ms. Harney tries to skip the responsibility: it was Bertie Ahern, then Taoiseach, who granted the permission for the flights. Like if he hadn't enough with his own troubles...


The Irish Government is not the only one under critics. Recently, the Spanish Government fleeted an Air Force plane to evacuate a group of 400 Spaniards stuck in Thailand, while a coup d'etat was feared for some to be soon. Add protesters in the main airports cutting the traffic, not enough space for everyone on the plane and the human nature and you will get fights for occupy a seat, trying to do it even before than a pregnant woman.



Obviously, these critics come from the opposition, the Popular Party (PP). However, the Government is defending itself by attacking back. At the same time that Thailand was about to suffer a soft coup d’etat according with his Government, in Mumbai, India, a few Islamist terrorists loaded with guns attacked the financial centre of the second largest city of the country, targeting Western diplomats. And in between them, a delegation of Madrid’s regional Government, with her president Esperanza Aguirre, head of the PP in the region at the front of it. She didn’t hesitate when someone offered her a plane to go out of there as soon as possible, doesn’t matter if that meant leave the rest of the delegation on the ground, in a dangerous land.

Back in Madrid, Ms. Aguirre was keen to give heroic speeches full of danger to whoever wanted to listen. She didn’t even had time for meeting her family properly. Survivor of a helicopter crash, the survival to the “hell of Bombay” gives her points ahead in the electoral polls. Seriously, I don’t know why, but somehow she reminded me Hillary Clinton’s brave adventure in the Balkans when she landed under “heavy sniper fire”. Something widely used by Mr. Obama’s campaign to undermine her alter it was revealed as false.

Precisely in Obama’s land, Detroit, is where this post ends. Last airplane polemics comes with the Big Three (the three main American car constructors) petition to the Congress for a rescue plan of $35 million. But they went all that way, from Detroit to Washington, using their private jets -remember the previous numbers for Ms. Hanley, because it applies here as well (for the three of them): near $80.000.

At least, while begging for Money, you need to look like you really need it. Or that you are not going to burn it in a crazy way when you get it. The Big Three apparently learnt the lesson, and the second time they went to beg for (more) money, they did it in their hybrid cars to Washington. Nevertheless, if there is a financial crisis worldwide, and you are cutting the spending on your mistress, why not as well the budget for airfares?


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Pirates!

I'm late. I know, and I'm sorry. It's something I'm trying to solve, but I can't help it. I'm one of those people genetically programmed to always arrive late. And my Latin blood makes the rest. My friends are aware about it and they just accept it. They know that probably, they will have to wait for me. So now, we directly meet into the pub, where the cold weather is not so cold, and dangers are instead of getting too hot.

However, arriving late makes me lose something sometimes. Arriving late to the blogosphere made me lose the American presidential campaign -nowadays, if you lost it as well, here is a good two minutes resume- or what some people called the 2008 crack even before it happened. But I'm here, and I'm on time to suffer their effects. It's gonna be a very agitated sea out there in the next few months. And talking about an agitated sea, I arrive in the peak of pirate season.

I'm not talking this time about the increase of pirate CDs and DVDs sold due to the mix of X-mas shopping and breakdown times. I'm talking about truly pirates, although in the XXI century and without rum -these prefer a hallucinogen called qat. Attacks in open sea to all size boats and vessels to get an economic benefit from it.



It's not new. Piracy is as old as navigation. In fact, these modern pirates aren't so different from those who sailed the coast of Barbery. For a long time, the vessels across the Strait of Ormuz and the coasts of Indonesia have had several ways of protecting themselves from pirate attacks. They are well prepared for that. But a conjunction of a lack of effective rule in the Islamic Somalia and economic difficulties, have made the piracy boom to rise dramatically in the past two years.

According to an article from Jon Henley in The Guardian, in 2007 there were 264 successful attacks. By the end of August this year they were 199. But the most impressive number is about the "where" have they been. Before, the majority of those attacks were on the China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, today it is in the eastern cost of Africa where the problem resides. Here they went from 30 assaults in 2006 to 60 in 2007 and they are almost 100 since the beginning of 2008. Half of the total of attacks of the year worldwide.

And there is a significative difference. While in Asia they are quick assaults -pirates only want money onboard and they leave- in Africa are more common the hijackers. Hijackers heavily armored, from automatic guns to grenade launchers, that seize the ships and their crew asking for millionaire rescues.

For now they have reached nearly $30 mill this way. The African pirates operate from small speedboats launched from mother ships and have good contacts in the Gulf who provide them with the details of the routes of their preys. Nowadays, although a boat could be as big as a football pitch, the sea is a very vast space to search in.

The seize of a freighter with 30 tanks and other heavy guns onboard and the recent hijack of a supertanker -both in Kenya's waters, far away from the Somalian pirate bases, an example of their voracity- have lighten the alarms in some desks. Especially concerning to the second one. Her tanks, full with oil with a value of more than $100 mill, made rise the price of the Brent oil barrel over $1 that day.

All this, together with some previous hijacks -including several European fishing boats and a luxury French yacht- forced some NATO countries to send a multinational small fleet to patrol the area. There have even been some fights already. Like the one of two weeks ago, that ended up with the sinking of a suspected pirate mother ship -it ended up being a hijacked fishing boat- by an Indian frigate or the shooting involving the Royal Navy.

Against this cloudy future, some companies have announced their interest in contracting mercenaries to escort their freights. Sounds reasonable, especially because the pirate activity is forcing them to take an alternative -and very expensive- route through South Africa. That means to increase the trip in several weeks and in consequence, as well the final price of the products -increase on the bill that at the end will pay the European consumers, the final destiny of many of the goods transported by those companies. And that's even without considering the increase of the insurance prices.

And what says Blackwater, the mercenaries' company that has been sharing their bullet-proof love all around the globe for the past few years, about all this? Well, they responded to the call with a noisy... Aaaaarrrr! The North Carolina company anounced that they will send the McArthur, the first of many vessels, to the area by the end of the year. Pirates against mercenaries. Like in a Hollywood movie and, a priceless end of the story? Of course, both will feel like fish in the water in a wild and outlaw area like those seas -or in Somalia's Puntland, that's the same.

In the meanwhile, in Somalia the situation is very different to what it was. In Eyl, a pirate's refuge, new wealthy people is the average, especially on the pay day. Those days, dollars come from the sky. Literally, as many rescues are paid by dropping sacks of money from helicopters. According to the locals, even women prefer to marry a pirate, as they have more resources. Or simply, they have resources. No wonder, as paying for an Islamic marriage is not cheap for the groom. Those pirates live in harmony, without fights between themselves, and in democracy and equality: decisions are taken by voting and prizes are divided equally, except for the one that recovers the money from the rescue. Usually it is the oldest member of the gang and he gets an extra for the risk of the operation.

It's no strange that many young Somalian are leaving College to find a way of living in piracy. In a country where life expectancy is on 46, the average annual income is $600 and has been immerse on a continuous civil war since for decades, who rejects an opportunity to get money fast and not very dangerous? Not even Jack Sparrow had it better to get his crew.

And to end, following on the seven seas, something funny. The Australian navy will shut down on Christmas. An unusual way of holidays for modern armed forces that made some people -specially in the USA- get reluctant about that idea. Even more on a time when another potentially dangerous actor of the area, China, has built a new hospital ship. What is it for? To be able to help on natural disaster -the tsunami of two years ago left China on a shame as they couldn't send help to the area? Or is it to support possible terrestrial deployments? Maybe in Taiwan?

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