Economic growth poses threat to the environment

By PHILIP O'NEILL

Irish Independent, August 10, 2019

The Celtic Tiger did much to sustain the myth that if the economy grows it will benefit all. This same ill-grounded confidence is peddled by Britain's Brexiteers, although it is generally agreed by many economists that the benefits of growth do not trickle downwards; on the contrary, a form of osmosis known as greed tends to facilitate a relentless upwards trickle. Even hardcore economists find it difficult to say "trickle down" with a straight face.

The economic divide between the beneficiaries of the fruits of economic growth and those who just observe it, has generated a political divide that reinforces the advantage over the poor of the better-off.

What is becoming evident is the fragility of democratic institutions as divisions between competing views of wealth creation and distribution vie with one another. This is significant in relation to the persistent insensitivity to the impact of the misuse of the earth's resources, where again the poor of the earth are but hapless spectators.

One of the legacies of the heady Celtic Tiger years was an emerging awareness of the significant long-term threat to the environment that rapid growth and development pose. This includes the threat of irreversible damage to ecosystems, land degradation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

In Ireland, our future was hijacked and forfeited to powerful companies who ministered to various forms of rogue capitalism. The housing bubble resulted from reckless gambling; our country was securely in the hands of a powerful elite who had no thought for tomorrow. The rest of us were nurtured by the rhetoric of orthodoxy and resignation.

For some economists, poverty is assumed to be the price we have to pay if our economy is to thrive. The religious minded may be content to pray for the poor. However, there is little sense in praying for them while the rest of the world preys on them. As the poet Yeats would say: "The poor have only their dreams."

Localismos y aprendizaje de idiomas

Por CARLOS MARTÍN GAEBLER

La curiosidad por conocer al otro, la cultura del otro, la lengua del otro es requisito imprescindible para el aprendizaje de un idioma diferente al nuestro materno.  Una visión cosmopolita de nuestro entorno facilita la adquisición de habilidades idiomáticas diferentes de las propias. A la inversa, sucede que cuanto mayor sea el apego por la cultura local menor será el interés por conocer una lengua extranjera. Tras tres décadas dedicado a la enseñanza de idiomas, he podido constatar que, cuando un individuo está involucrado únicamente en su cultura autóctona, éste se ve incapaz de adquirir destreza en el uso de una lengua extranjera. Se trata de una relación causa efecto. Sin embargo, aquellos individuos que viajan a otros lugares, ven y escuchan películas de otras partes del mundo, o leen sobre otros asuntos además de sobre su cultura local, muestran una disposición natural al aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera, pues consideran que ésta les enriquece como personas y les hace sentirse ciudadanos del mundo, sentimiento que no ansían quienes, en su obsesión identitaria, sólo se enorgullecen de una cultura autóctona que, por su riqueza y omnipresencia en la vida colectiva, perciben como autosuficiente. 

Por lo general, quienes simplemente se conforman con sus tradiciones, con la foto fija de liturgias locales, siempre idénticas y periódicas, carecen de la curiosidad por ver, a través de la ventana del cine, imágenes en movimiento de historias multiculturales localizadas en otras latitudes de la sociedad global. En su narcisismo no son capaces de apreciar otros acentos, otros idiomas, ni sienten la necesidad de aprenderlos. Dice Antonio Muñoz Molina que una cultura personal se adquiere con mucho tesón y esfuerzo a lo largo de la vida, igual que se adquiere la destreza para hablar un idioma extranjero; una cultura autóctona se posee tan solo por nacer en ella. Sentirse exageradamente orgulloso de haber nacido en tal o cual sitio es un acto empobrecedor y ridículo, como lo es también creerse el ombligo del mundo. El localismo es una forma primigenia de nacionalismo o, como dijo Karl Popper, una regresión a la tribu. 

Estudiar y escuchar un idioma extranjero requiere un esfuerzo intelectual que es incompatible con la práctica de cualquier forma de fanatismo. Algunos se ven incapaces de abandonar su zona de confort, fascinados de por vida por la contemplación de la patrona local, una pequeña estatua articulada de madera a la que adoran, entre otros motivos, porque representa a una mujer que, dicen, "engendró" sin sexo previo.

Una vez conocí a un universitario de una ciudad del sur de España, narcisista como ninguna otra, que confesaba que sólo le interesaban los arquitectos nacidos en su ciudad y no entendía el entusiasmo que sus compañeros de la Escuela de Arquitectura sentían tras anunciarse un taller que iba a ser impartido por dos reputados arquitectos portugueses. A quienes durante gran parte del año ocupan su pensamiento en perpetuar las tradiciones locales o nacionales poco tiempo les queda para ocuparse de estudiar una lengua extranjera que ven ajena a su propio grupo social, no creen necesitar y consideran una asignatura maría. Un estudiante de secundaria me confesó en cierta ocasión que, en lugar de irse de crucero cultural en el viaje de fin de curso con sus compañeros para conocer el Mediterráneo esa primavera, había preferido peregrinar al Rocío, ¡por décimo año consecutivo! Ninguno de los dos habla una segunda lengua. cmg2014

Mass Shootings Are Terrorism

The New York Times, August 7, 2019

If one of the perpetrators of this weekend’s two mass shootings had adhered to the ideology of radical Islam, the resources of the American government and its international allies would mobilize without delay.

The awesome power of the state would work tirelessly to deny future terrorists access to weaponry, money and forums to spread their ideology. The movement would be infiltrated by spies and informants. Its financiers would face sanctions. Places of congregation would be surveilled. Those who gave aid or comfort to terrorists would be prosecuted. Programs would be established to de-radicalize former adherents.

No American would settle for “thoughts and prayers” as a counterterrorism strategy. No American would accept laying the blame for such an attack on video games, like the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, did in an interview on Sunday when discussing the mass shooting in El Paso that took 20 lives and left 27 people wounded.

In predictable corners, moderate Muslims would be excoriated for not speaking out more forcefully against the extremists in their midst. Foreign nations would be hit with sanctions for not doing enough to help the cause. Politicians might go so far as to call for a total ban on Muslims entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

Even a casual observer today can figure out what is going on. The world, and the West in particular, has a serious white nationalist terrorist problem that has been ignored or excused for far too long. As President George W. Bush declared in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we must be a country “awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.”

There are serious questions about how the United States has approached Islamic extremism, but if even a degree of that vigilance and unity of effort was put toward white nationalism, we’d be safer.

White nationalist terror attacks are local, but the ideology is global. On Saturday, a terrorist who, according to a federal law enforcement official, wrote that he feared a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” was replacing white Americans opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso. In a manifesto, the gunman wrote that he drew some inspiration from the white nationalist terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead. The F.B.I. is investigating the El Paso mass shooting as a possible act of domestic terrorism. The motive behind another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, is under investigation.

In April, another terrorist who opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., echoed the words of the Christchurch suspect, too, and appeared to draw inspiration from a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last fall. The alleged Christchurch terrorist, for his part, wrote that he drew inspiration from white supremacist attacks in Norway, the United States, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

An investigation by The Times earlier this year found that “at least a third of white extremist killers since 2011 were inspired by others who perpetrated similar attacks, professed a reverence for them or showed an interest in their tactics.”

White supremacy, in other words, is a violent, interconnected transnational ideology. Its adherents are gathering in anonymous, online forums to spread their ideas, plotting attacks and cheering on acts of terrorism.

The result is an evolving brand of social media-fueled bloodshed. Online communities like 4chan and 8chan have become hotbeds of white nationalist activity. Anonymous users flood the site’s “politics” board with racist, sexist and homophobic content designed to spread across the web. Users share old fascist fiction, Nazi propaganda and pseudoscientific texts about race and I.Q. and replacement theory, geared to radicalize their peers.

While its modern roots predate the Trump administration by many decades, white nationalism has attained a new mainstream legitimacy during Mr. Trump’s time in office.

Far more Americans have died at the hands of domestic terrorists than at the hands of Islamic extremists since 2001, according to the F.B.I. The agency’s resources, however, are still overwhelmingly weighted toward thwarting international terrorism.

The nation owed a debt to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, to take action against the vile infrastructure that allowed the terrorists to achieve their goals that horrible Tuesday. We owe no less of a debt to the victims in El Paso and to the hundreds of other victims of white nationalist terrorism around the nation.

American law enforcement needs to target white nationalists with the same zeal that they have targeted radical Islamic terrorists. Ensuring the security of the homeland demands it.

There can be no middle ground when it comes to white nationalism and the terrorism it inspires. You’re either for it or against it.