Cambio climático y seguridad nacional

La revista Nexos, en su edición de octubre, me publicó un artículo acerca de porqué el gobierno federal debe ya considerar al cambio climático como un problema de seguridad nacional en México. Si pueden compren la revista, además tiene varios textos sobre los 20 años de la caída del muro de Berlín.

El aborto ilegal (e insalubre) en Argentina mata a cientas de mujeres al año

Legal o ilegal existirán abortos. ¿Por qué deben cientas de miles de mujeres (generalmente las más pobres)morir en América Latina por ello? En México, las mujeres ricas consiguen que un médico privado las auxilie o van Estados Unidos. El aborto legal, seguro y salubre es la solución para un enorme problema de salud pública en América Latina. Que la mujer elija en su conciencia, con información científica, si desea interrumpir su embarazo o no, que no lo decidan otros en su nombre.

Venezuela compra armas mientras lucha por no quedarse sin luz eléctrica

El precio de la soberbia. El gobierno de Hugo Chávez ha malgastado el dinero de Venezuela comprando millones de dólares en armas a Rusia desde 2005, y ahora quiere más como informa la agencia de noticias rusa Novosti:

"Venezuela ya adquirió en Rusia 24 cazas Su-30MK2, 50 helicópteros y plantas para fabricar fusiles Kalashnikov y cartuchos.

Rusia decidió el pasado mes de septiembre conceder a Venezuela un crédito de 1.000 millones de dólares para las compras de diversos modelos de armas, entre ellos sistemas de defensa aérea "Tor-M1", misiles antiaéreos portátiles "Igla-S" y aviones Il-78 e Il-76..."

Y sin embargo Venezuela tiene un grave problema de suministro de luz eléctrica como informa Reuters:

SAN FELIX, Venezuela (Reuters) – Despite having some of the world's largest energy reserves, Venezuela is increasingly struggling to maintain basic electrical service, a growing challenge for leftist President Hugo Chavez.

The OPEC nation has suffered three nationwide blackouts this year, and chronic power shortages have sparked protests from the western Andean highlands to San Felix, a city of mostly poor industrial workers in the sweltering south.

Shoddy electrical service is now one of Venezuelans' top concerns, according to a recent poll, and may be a factor in elections next month for governors and mayors in which Chavez allies are expected to lose key posts, in part on complaints of poor services.

The problem suggests that Chavez, with his ambitious international alliances and promises to end capitalism, risks alienating supporters by failing to focus on basic issues like electricity, trash collection and law enforcement.

"With so much energy in Venezuela, how can we be without power?" asked Fernando Aponte, 49, whose slum neighborhood of Las Delicias in San Felix spent 15 days without electricity -- leading him to block a nearby avenue with burning tires in protest.

Just next door, Carmen Fernandez, 82, who is blind and has a pacemaker, says she has trouble sleeping through sultry nights without even a fan to cool her..."

El regreso a la Edad Media: estadounidenses abandonan a hijos adolescentes

Hace tiempo que no revisitaba esta serie de posts que hablan de la tendencia ya observada por Umberto Eco hace tiempo: de signos de un regreso a la Edad Media. El que encontré ahora es realmente fuerte. Es el caso de padres y madres de Estados Unidos, y que gracias al amparo de una ley diseñada para entregar a bebés para el cuidado del Estado sin represalias legales, ahora también están entregando jóvenes adolescentes, supuestamente insoportables. Pero ojo, todo ocurre en Nebraska, un estado pobre y que vive ansiedad especialmente en estos momentos. Copio del NYT de hoy:

Older Children Abandoned Under Law for Babies

By ERIK ECKHOLM

OMAHA — The abandonments began on Sept. 1, when a mother left her 14-year-old son in a police station here.

By Sept. 23, two more boys and one girl, ages 11 to 14, had been abandoned in hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln. Then a 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl were left.

The biggest shock to public officials came last week, when a single father walked into an Omaha hospital and surrendered nine of his 10 children, ages 1 to 17, saying that his wife had died and he could no longer cope with the burden of raising them.

In total last month, 15 older children in Nebraska were dropped off by a beleaguered parent or custodial aunt or grandmother who said the children were unmanageable.

Officials have called the abandonments a misuse of a new law that was mainly intended to prevent so-called Dumpster babies — the abandonment of newborns by young, terrified mothers — but instead has been used to hand off out-of-control teenagers or, in the case of the father of 10, to escape financial and personal despair.

The spate of abandonments has prompted an outcry about parental irresponsibility and pledges to change the state law, which allows care givers to drop off children without fear of prosecution. But it has also cast a spotlight on the hidden extent of family turmoil in the country and what many experts say is a shortage of respite care, counseling and especially psychiatric services to help parents in dire need.

Some who work with troubled children add that economic conditions, like stagnant low-end wages and the epidemic of foreclosures, may make the situation worse, adding layers of worry and conflict.

“I have no doubt that there are additional stresses today on families who were already on the margin,” said Gary Stangler, director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative in St. Louis, which aids foster children entering adulthood.

Mark Courtney, an expert on child welfare at the University of Washington, said that what happened in Nebraska “would happen in any state.”

“These days there’s a huge void in services for helping distressed families,” Mr. Courtney said.

When children are abused or neglected, they can be taken by the child-welfare system, and possibly enter foster care. When they commit crimes, they enter the juvenile justice system. In both cases, children and parents are supposed to receive counseling and other aid.

But when troubled children do not fit those categories, they often fall through the cracks, Mr. Courtney said. Even middle-income families with health insurance often have only paltry coverage for psychiatric services and cannot afford intensive or residential treatment programs. The poorest, on Medicaid, often have trouble finding therapists who will take the low rates. And some parents are reluctant to seek whatever help does exist.