OPINIÓN
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La esencia de los pueblos: Navarro, pueblo de futuros posibles
La esencia de los pueblos… ¡Qué difícil es encontrarla y que fácilmente se pierde!
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La participación de la mujer en las listas
Pasaron ya 70 años de instauración del voto femenino en Argentina. Aquel 23 de septiembre de 1947 el ex presidente Juan Domingo Perón firmaría el decreto presidencial que cambiaría la historia política argentina otorgándoles a las mujeres el derecho al sufragio. Derecho que fue impulsado por su esposa Eva Duarte de Perón.
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Yamil Santoro : ¿Siguen los caballos?
La consecuencia natural y hasta irrefrenable de promulgarse la ley que prohíbe las carreras de galgos es que también se prohíban las carreras de caballos. No sólo las de caballos, sino también toda competencia que involucre a algún animal. Me horroriza el maltrato animal en cualquiera de sus formas y me parece que era necesario implementar medidas más severas para evitar que se se siga cometiendo daño a los mismos pero creo que esta ley quizás no sea la herramienta más adecuada para hacerlo. Creo que es fundamental poder separar intenciones de medios para alcanzar los objetivos propuestos.
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The Nexen-CNOOC deal: How to define ‘net benefit’?
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), China’s largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas, has placed a bid of $15.1 billion to take over Nexen, a Canadian oil and gas company active in some of the world’s most significant basins — including Western Canada, the U.K. North Sea, offshore West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed buyout is controversial because the interested buyer happens to be wholly owned by its government — a government, it can be argued, whose values and beliefs differ greatly from those of our country, Canada. It wasn’t long ago, just 2005, when China Minmetals made a bid for Noranda, then Canada’s largest mining enterprise. The proposal was abandoned when it became aware that Minmetals was a branch of the mines department of the Beijing government. There are obvious areas of concern in the Nexen deal: • National security and the pursuit of certain state-owned enterprise agendas. • The nationalization of a strategic Canadian company. • The sale of domestic ownership of our non-renewable natural resources. • CNOOC’s corporate governance standards — the likely refusal to abide by Canada’s standards and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) regulations. • Equivalent access to China’s market. • Undisputed access to Canada’s technological …
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Human rights gone wrong: The case of sex selection
In a perfect world, sex selection would not exist. Parents would not prefer a male child, even to achieve a gender balance in their offspring. Vulnerable women would not be subjected to abortions, including late-term abortions because they are carrying a female child, or be required to be continually pregnant until a male is born. The increase in trafficking of women due to adverse sex ratios would dry up and alleged associated ills such as an increased number of rapes, abduction and wife-sharing would end. At the political level, the predominant number of men would not re-enforce male control over political power. However, it is not a perfect world, and so we are confronted with efforts to ban sex selection to stop discrimination against females, such as those of MP Mark Warawa in Bill M-408. The family pressures through which sex selection are sometimes required and the surrounding culture of discrimination against women surely constitute a grave problem, especially in countries with wildly skewed sex ratios like India and China. Such circumstances have led the United Nations Human Rights machinery to attack all sex selection. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has concluded that it is discriminatory …
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Loblaw cuts 700 Toronto head office jobs
The decision by Loblaw Companies Limited to chop 700 jobs from the payroll in administration and at head office in Brampton on Tuesday was met with mixed reviews from analysts and investors. After the announcement, shares rose 84 cents and closed at $34.72. Loblaw has been upgrading its supply chain technology and infrastructure and while the job cuts may reflect greater efficiencies, Perry Caicco, managing director, CIBC World Markets, warned investors against applying the savings directly to the company’s bottom line. “Notwithstanding that these job cuts probably reflect a demand from the parent company to generate some return on the outsized capital spending on systems, it is highly unlikely that these actions will directly boost earnings,” wrote Caicco in a note to investors on Tuesday. “The recent history of the company suggests that some of these job cuts will be replaced by equally expensive outsourcing, and that the company will struggle to re-assign eliminated roles in a productive fashion. In other words, we believe the risk of poor head office execution and service to stores will be high for at least 12 months.” Caicco said some portion of the cuts will likely reduce expenses, a necessity in light of the …
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Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart—the Best of Their Reunion Pics!
Did anyone really think Robsten wouldn’t survive a little cheating scandal? Of course not. Since word of their much-anticipated reconciliation broke this week, the Twilight twosome seemed to go out of their way to publicly flaunt their reunion. Yep, Christmas came early for the Twi-hards. Rob and Kristen back together—on Breaking Dawn Part 2 poster! So, in celebration of their momentous recoupling, we’ve rounded up the best pics of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart getting back together. The first sighting, of course, came Saturday night, when R.Pattz and K.Stew hit up a friend’s birthday party together at Chateau Marmont. On Sunday, they were back together at Ye Rustic Inn in Los Feliz. Rob and Kristen move past cheating scandal—but not quite ready for PDA And by Monday, wearing similar baseball caps, Robsten headed to lunch together with some pals in Hollywood. The Rob and Kristen road to reconciliation has been a process over these past few months. Check out Robsten’s road to reconciliation timeline A source told E! News, however, that Rob «decided to forgive her. He’s justifying it by believing her story that it was a one off mistake and will never happen again.» On behalf of Twi-hards everywhere, …
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Lance Armstrong steps down as head of foundation, gets dropped by Nike
In his first acknowledgment that his personal brand has been damaged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s voluminous account of what it characterized as “serial cheating” throughout his cycling career, Lance Armstrong resigned as chairman of the Livestrong Foundation he created to help cancer patients, he announced Wednesday. And in a further blow to Armstrong’s reputation, longtime corporate sponsor Nike announced it was terminating its contract with Armstrongbut would continue supporting the Livestrong initiatives.Nike is the foundation’s most substantial corporate partner, marketing a line of athletic apparel and equipment that bears the Livestrong brand. Nike was also the creative mind behind the wildly popular Livestrong wristbands that since 2004 have generated roughly $80 million in proceeds. Those associations will continue, as least for now. But Armstrong himself will no longer be compensated as a Nike athlete in the wake of USADA’s scathing report, his public personae deemed too tainted even for a company that has remained loyal to, and in some cases cultivated associations with, athletes with controversial images. USADA’s 202-page report, which was backed by more than 1,000 pages of supporting documents and testimony and made public Oct. 10, asserted that Armstrong achieved all of his record seven Tour de …
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Stifled West Bank economy drains Palestinians’ hopes
Passers-by linger in front of the window displays on a main shopping street in central Hebron but seem reluctant to enter the stores. In the old market, vendors call out their wares but are largely ignored. The city is the largest in the West Bank and a major commercial and industrial hub, accounting for about one third of the West Bank’s GDP. Recently it was also the scene of some of the worst violence during Palestinian economic protests. Locals blame the discontent on high unemployment, low wages and the rising cost of living as well as the heavy burden of consumer debt. «Our economy depends 100% on customers and as you can see, now the customers have no money,» says Ayman, a tour guide. As the global recession plays out, the Palestinians are not alone in facing such woes. Yet, as a recent World Bank report highlighted, there are some unique factors that also hurt their economy. The Palestinian Authority (PA) relies on international aid but has seen a recent shortfall in donor funding, the World Bank says, while the Israeli occupation of the West Bank sets obstacles that «constrain investment, raise costs and hinder economic cohesion». Worryingly for the …
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Fear and loneliness in China
What kind of society will China’s new leaders inherit? China has developed at unimaginable pace, lifting millions out of poverty. But as part of a series of viewpoints on challenges for China’s new leadership, Gerard Lemos, who conducted research in the mega-city of Chongqing, says it is easy to overlook its lonely underbelly. An old man was hanging upside down in the public square. His feet in traditional cloth shoes were over the parallel bars from which he had suspended himself, for what were presumably his morning exercises. He was fully clothed and in a padded overcoat to combat the spring chill. I saw this when visiting a factory community in Beijing in 2008. On the face of it, this was a peculiar act to perform in a public space, but people walked past taking no notice. In such traditional Chinese communities, this public square served as a communal living room; most of the people around are friends and neighbours. Not being surprised by the unusual behaviour of your neighbours is an aspect of intimate community life. But this kind of sight will become rarer as a changing China sees the fragmentation of these communities. When I was a visiting …
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