Obama's First 100 days in office (Updated)

By Reportajes Cuatro. And according to:The Washington PostThe Wall Street JournalThe Daily BeastMedia MattersFlickr PhotosBBCCNNAmnesty InternationalMSNBCThe Independ...

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They'll never learn

They cannot help it. It doesn’t matter what History mastered us. It doesn’t even matter what today’s world shows us. For politicians, to say that we are going well, or we will be soon, it’s as normal as a rainy day in Dublin. It must be the use of lying.But that’s exactly what Japanese Finance minister, Kaoru Yosano, said. He argued that the “worst is over”. His counterparts from in G7 were just out of a summit and agreed with him. It’s still needed more money for the IMF, more liquidity for the banks and more gasoline to kill the fire, more resources for the 25 people who got us here first. But nobody panics, the worst is over.Unfortunately,...

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Schwarzenegger in "State of alert"

No, relax. Governator is not gonna make a new movie. It is just that his state, California, is under health alert because of the swine flu.Media has jumped in like hyenas over the influenza cases over the world. In mostly of the cases, with excess of alarmism. Just like it was with the Y2K, the mad cows, the avian influenza or the contaminated pork in Ireland last summer. Let’s hope that the strong survivors from those dangers to the humanity (us) will be able to survive too this new threat and repopulate Earth.First, there are three numbers to consider: possible affected, confirmed affected and deaths. For now, although there are about two hundred...

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Friendly fire 28/04/09

- The surviving pirate from Maersk Alabama incident, being judge in NY. And according to his smile, not very sad for it.- A Predator drone down in Afghanistan. It is the third one.- The F-35, hacked, and the future of American air power in the hands of... these models? Definitely, it is not what it used to be...- Berlusconi second act. After suggesting their own people affected by a earthquake to take it as a “camping holidays”, now il cavaglieri encourages them to “buy in IKEA”.- Russian Police Forces: about water throwing trucks and efficiency (second try...

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A matter of honor

I always said that in a fight, is better losing the argument than losing yourself. Quarrels are based on defending a position we think is morally superior to that of our opponent. In the case of wars, we have to add to the balance a few deaths. It is here, when people start to die, when having the moral superiority and the right on our side turns out to be fundamental.If we punish a murderer by killing him, a robbery by cutting the hands of the robber or adultery by stoning to death, where does that leave us? Definitely not in a better position that those we pretend to judge. And losing the moral battle, takes away from us the capacity to judge...

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Should I stay or should I go?

Maybe Russia is withdrawing from Chechnya, but Medvedev doesn't have any intention to pull out from the Caucasus leaving it unattended. It's worth remember that, besides Chechnya, Georgia is also in the region (among other independentist wannabe regions). So the Russian bear shows his fauces to all of them by deploying six attack helicopters Mi-28N. The final number will increase to up to 67 by 2015.And you though Medvedev was chikening out.Photo: ITAR-T...

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World leaders' summit... in Facebook!

Does anyone not know Facebook? For those living out of this galaxy, Facebook is a social network on the Internet. And everybody is there. Your friends, your exs, your school friends, the dog of the Quinns... Even Worldwide is there (and if you still don't follow us there, click here)But, do you know who else is on Facebook? World leaders (click here to enlarge image).Kudos to Jehad for the ima...

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Honey, get over it (Updated)

A week ago, John Kerry -the former next president of America- said that the USA really lacks of a clear strategy for Pakistan. Oh, thanks. That’s perfect, just what we needed. And to make it worse, it comes from a holy cow of the Democrats. Great!But however, maybe there is something going on in the US. Here in Worldwide we have been saying it for a long time. To solve A’stan you need to focus on Pakistan, and to solve that you need to keep an eye on India.Well, apparently in Washington offices they are also realizing this. Do they read us? General Petraeus went this week to the Pakistanis and said the damn “We need to talk” sentence. At the...

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Presidential Nip-Tucking

Spot the seven mistakes in this photo:Well, actually they are less than seven, but the most important is on Obama. On his pecs, to be precise. As the own Washingtonian magazine admits, the graphic team played with Photoshop over the Presidential musculature.If we compare the photo with the original, taken by Bauer-Griffin, the Washingtonian kids changed the color of the pants, his skin tone and the volume of his pecs. This isn’t, however, strange to politicians. They use Photoshop in every campaign they do. But some magazines also use it on them and that’s seen with less permissivity. It is highly remembered the scandal in France after Paris-Match...

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Happy Earth Day!

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Friendly fire 20/04/09

- No-one is surprised by Human Rights Watch report's appreciation: Hamas too used Gaza war to apply justice. Their way.- Beware, Scottish criminals. Here comes the Jedi (Police) Force.- The outlaw country no-man’s land of Somalia adopts the Sharia. Well, at least it’s something... On the other hand, the only theological country in the world (the Vatican) condemns Belgium condemn of the Pope words in Africa about condoms. But everybody is cool if they are the ones trying to affect other country’s policy.- Being a journalist today sucks. Being a journalist in Israel sucks even more. Being a journalist in Israel being paid by a Spanish news agency;...

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Matryoshka wars

So in the end Russia is leaving Chechnya. Great, isn’t it? It’s Medvedev the new Russian Obama? Well, not so fast.After more than ten years of wars, the Russian National Committee for Anti-terrorism has decreted Chechnya as an area free of “antiterrorist operations”. This effectively means that Russia will leave the Republic and won’t consider it anymore a threat. Maybe the conflict is over -for now-, but the subjacent cause is still there. In fact, all the region is a great threat. And in this dangerous area, will remain on top the present Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov. Probably, he is the worst one for the job. Kadyrov has gained a reputation...

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Lucky bastard

Lucky bastard definition: 32 year old British soldier, electricist back at home, three-son father, on tour in Afghanistan and almost new to it. Gets a bullet in his head, it pass through the kevlar headgear from side to side......and doesn't touch his head by 2mm.The rest of the story of the officially "luckiest soldier" in BBC websi...

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Aye captain, no end on sight!

Asymmetrical warfare is the new black in international armed conflicts. Obviously, the seas weren’t going to be indifferent to this fashion.The problem of the Somali pirates is starting to become too big to be handled by traditional Navies. And its aftermath will be sensitive for the Western countries. Already in an economic downturn, it specially affects the Europeans, that can see the consumer goods’ prices climbing too much. For Americans and Russians the problem is not so bad: neither their commerce is directly affected nor their ships use those routes. That’s why only last week we had the first seizure on an American freighter: the odds...

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World leadership without a leader

Kofi Annan. Hands up who remember him. Of course you do. Just having watched TV for a while sometime in the past ten years you have known a thing or two related to him. He made of his time in the UN General Secretary office a valuable period. Maybe he wasn’t as successful as he should have been, but it was more because of having in front a super-villain like Bush Jr. rather than for lack of effort. Somewhat like why Larry Bird wasn’t as bright as he should have been: because he had in front of him two people like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.But, anyone knows the current UN General Secretary?Ban Ki-Moon -that’s his name- is a complete unknown...

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Damn you Kim Jong-Il!

In the end, the United Nations Security Council could make it forward for a document condemning the DPRK’s launch of a long-range missile/satellite-rocket. The text also includes possible new “hard sanctions” for North Korea. And Kim Jong-Il said...So... What?As many analysts predicted, the DPRK not only ignored the resolution but also warned the Western countries with going back to the nukes line production. After a long up-down six-party negotiation, Pyongyang dismantled his Yongbyon nuclear reactor and agreed to do so with other facilities in the country. However, last December, the talks got stopped.New American Administration has been able...

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Hard to be a woman in Afghanistan

It’s understandable see the Talibans trying to stab to death the Americans from behind in Afghanistan. What is not so cool is Hamid Karzai, president of the country thanks to the Marines, doing so. But that’s exactly what has happened.Campaign in Afghanistan was sold as an all war on terror, for democracy and freedom. In the whole world people could see on their TVs images of women completely covered by burqas, living under the dictatorship of their husbands and the Talibans, with no rights, not even the most elementary ones. Liberation of Afghan women was made the motto of the antiterrorist operation in Central Asia.Seven years later, the situation...

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US Navy 1 - Pirates 0 (Updated)

Finally. Captain Richard Phillips, kidnapped by Somali pirates since Wednesday in the Indic Ocean waters, was freed yesterday by the US Navy SEALS.Details from the operation are coming out quietly. We know for sure that Obama approved at least twice similar operations to liberate Phillips –for those angry Republicans accusing him of not doing anything. In fact, last Friday the Navy tried to reach the lifeboat of the pirates, but they were repeled with fire.At the end, Navy snipers took their chance when one of the pirates was onboard the USS Bainbridge negotiating the fate of Captain Phillips. They shot down the other three in an intense but...

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Behind PDRK's epic rocket-fail

Against what Kim Jong-Il is telling us, probable the North Korean satellite is now transmitting (indeed) from a subacuatic orbit instead than over our heads. But at least now we know the real reason for that. Japan said that they wouldn’t do anything to stop the launch, but they left free their anti-Godzilla monster (via Lumberjack):This is outrageous! Kim Jong-Il, declare war on them!And Jon Stewart about the Korean Dong missiles. Best part from minute 3.30.The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10cBad Korea Movethedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesEconomic CrisisPolitical Hu...

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Friendly fire 11/04/09

- A man who attempted to kill Obama was detained in Turkey. At least JFK had a year of Government.- After suffering a horrible earthquake, Italy faces its worst fear, something much worse: Berlusconi. What he said to the victims that had just lost everything, including relatives and friends: “Take it as a camping holidays”. Sure.- The shoe-throwing fever reaches India. In Iraq, the man who started it all, saw his sentence changed into one year instead of three.- Elections in Moldova, including assaults to the Pairlament. Follow the revolution via Twitter. Welcome to the new era of cyber-revolutionaires.- Israeli commandos in Suda...

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Killing flies with cannonballs

Back in last year’s November, when I started writing this blog, I did so talking about pirates. Then, the modern buccaneers were right on the top of the wave. The kidnapping of a supertanker and a freighter loaded of tanks woke up Governments all around the globe.Immediately, some countries sent their ships to the area. Not so China and the US, who joined the force months later. Since then, it’s become the biggest and most heterogen combat fleet since World War II, according to the CNN. And although at the beginning it seemed to have some effect on the attacks, truth is that pirates are back in business. They were just enjoying the money from...

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New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part IV (So far...)

So, basically the changes concur with Gates and Obama’s new perception of 21st Century. The F-35 is a jet much more qualified than the F-22 for the new battle grounds (skies) -not to mention that, as the el Lightning II can be exported, unlike the Raptor, it is a better business. And about the FCS, it was a very ambitious project that hadn’t shown results yet (and probably won’t do so in the next few years); so it needed to be terminated. Neither the LCS has shown good results, but at least it suits better to the new counter-insurgency scenarios.Meanwhile, the Marines should be really happy. Almost all their projects passed the cut untouched....

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New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part III (US Navy and Special Ops)

The USAF and the Army didn’t go off well from Gates’ budget, that’s clear. What about the Navy? Well, they did better.It’s true that the eleventh combat group won’t be created (including the cancellation of a new aircraft carrier, being the George H. W. Bush the last Nimitz class being built). Future perspectives for carriers aren’t better, as the Ford class carriers will stay only in the designing tables. But even though, the American airborne deterrent will continue to be the biggest in the world.The plans for a new stealth destroyer, the DDG-1000 class ships, hit too the drydock for now. As it does the troubled presidential chopper.But the...

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New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part II (US Army)

The USAF has been, clearly the most damnified by Gates’ new budget. But the Army didn’t go away to well either.Many of Army’s Generals’ hopes were under the FCS (“Future Combat System”) umbrella. This complex project joined other ventures, including new drones, new ammunition, new personal weapons and new vehicles, highly interconnected with a dedicated computer network.Right now, in words of Gates. The Army has 6 ton Humvees to carry infantrymen on open grounds; 18 ton Stryker Armored Personal Carriers to bring a small squad into urban combat theatres; and heavy 72 ton Abrams to combat other first line main battle tanks.The FCS wanted to substitute...

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New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part I (USAF)

They are tough times. Times of change. And the American Armed Forces wants to adapt to them. Or even if they don’t want, they will.Robert M. Gates, Defense Secretary under the late Bush Administration and only survivor to him in the Government, announced this Monday the budget for the military for FY10. And just in case you don’t want to read the speech or listen to the half an hour time of the bloggers’ press conference, here is my analysis.Before we start, it’s to be said that there is not all sold. Still the text has to go to the Senate, with a long history of resistance to cut-spending in weapons. But for sure it will get the approval from...

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Green farts

If you think you have seen everything about dumb ideas on how to save the World, think again. Maybe you though it was impressive the Discovery Channel series “How to save the Earth". But raining forests, cover the ices in Greenland or even throw tones of iron into the sea are nothing compared with what suggest an article from this week’s New Scientist magazine: using a micro-organism’s farts to produce fuel.According to Tom Curtis, form the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability of the University of Newcastle, in the UK, there is a micro-organism capable of producing methane (in the form of farts) from electricity and CO2. The...

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