Blog de César Salgado

Estados Unidos, en concreto o Estado de Georgia, levou a cabo esta semana a primeira execución dunha pena de morte despois da moratoria de sete meses durante a cal o Tribunal Supremo decidiu sobre a constitucionalidade da inxección letal.

O executado foi William Lynd, e fai o número 1 100 desde que, no 1976, se retomase no país a pena capital.

Enlaces relacionados:

• Coalición Mundial contra a Pena de Morte
• Death Penalty Information Center
• National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Manuel Gago Mariño, autor dunha das millores bitácoras en lingua galega, “Capítulo 0″, convídanos a visitar xoias naturais pouco frecuentadas: Pena Trevinca e o teixedal de Casaio, na fronteira entre a comarca de Valdeorras e as provincias de León e Zamora.

Fixo para nós itinerarios con mapa e vídeo incluídos. A montaña sempre merece a pena, pero estamos avisados de tres inconvenientes: a) o teixedal é de grande importancia ecolóxica pero é pequeno, nada “espectacular”; b) o camiño é longo e difícil; e c) teremos que atravesar paisaxes horriblemente degradadas (isto podo confirmalo, estiven en Casaio) pola mala xestión das canteiras de lousa (se falas galego e non entendes “lousa” é porque moita xente usa a palabra española “pizarra”).

As anotacións son de onte e de antonte. Aquí están os enlaces:

• “A salvaxe agresión das louseiras ao Macizo de Pena Trevinca: deben parar xa”
• “Como chegar ao Teixedal de Casaio en Pena Trevinca”
• “Proxecto Dous Miles (5): O Teixedal de Casaio, en Pena Trevinca”

Birmania é un país do sudeste asiático gobernado por unha sucesión de xuntas militares desde o 1962. O contraste económico é inmenso: grandes recursos en petróleo, minerais (incluídas pedras preciosas) e bosques fronte a grandes capas da poboación que malviven coa agricultura de subsistencia centrada no arroz e co cultivo e tráfico de drogas.

Véxase como en Birmania, segundo o último Human Development Index, 105 de cada mil nenos morren antes de cumprir cinco anos (eu comparo Birmania coa ex-colonia española Guinea Ecuatorial, tamén dominada por unha elite corrupta e tamén potencia petrolífera e forestal, onde 205 de cada mil nenos morren antes de cumprir cinco anos).

A dictadura de Birmania reprimiu duramente ós opositores políticos (por exemplo á premio Nobel Aung San Suu Kyi) e ás minorías étnicas. Mesmo cambiou o nome do país por Myanmar, no 1989. Este cambio de nome non foi recoñecido pola oposición e tampouco por moitos países e medios de comunicación, que seguen a chamarlle Birmania.

Estes días Birmania sufriu o paso do ciclón Nargis, que acabou con moitos asentamentos humanos: decenas de miles de mortos, cultivos e vivendas arrasados. A xunta militar negouse a permitir que entrase axuda humanitaria, en parte porque quere esconder como viven realmente no país, e ata que punto vai ser un engano o referendum constitucional previsto para este mes: a maioría da poboación non coñece o texto, algúns nin comprenden as linguas nas que se publicou, a oposición segue a ser reprimida e non se permite o debate público…

Human Rights Watch publicou a semana pasada un informe de 61 páxinas sobre este fraudulento referendum constitucional. O informe leva por título “Vote to Nowhere: The May 2008 Constitutional Referendum in Burma”. Copio un extracto da súa introducción:

On May 10, 2008, the Burmese military government will hold a referendum on a draft constitution that it claims will usher in a new era of “discipline-flourishing genuine multiparty democracy.”

However, the generals’ referendum, reflecting 46 years of brutal military rule, will not bring the people of Burma any closer to a democratic and rights-respecting government they so desperately seek, and for which they have courageously struggled. Instead, the draft constitution that the generals are demanding the Burmese people approve is designed to perpetuate military control in Burma, and obstruct any steps toward a meaningful multiparty democracy that upholds human rights.

The environment in Burma prior to the referendum has been one of continuing intimidation of the political opposition and general populace, denial of basic freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, and arbitrary arrests and detention. Under such widespread repression and a pervasive climate of fear, no free and fair referendum can take place in Burma. [...]

The Burmese people have the right to make up their own minds about the draft constitution, but the conditions for the May referendum do not allow them an informed and free choice. Most Burmese have not even seen the draft constitution, a 194-page document (in Burmese and English, and in none of the minority languages) that was released only a month before the referendum and is only available for purchase in some bookshops.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has refused to allow any meaningful public discussion and debate of the draft constitution, and has arrested and jailed those who have expressed opposition to its contents. The government-controlled press writes endlessly about the merits of the “discipline-flourishing” draft constitution, and viciously denounces its opponents. The more independent weekly newspapers and magazines have decided to refrain from making any critical comments about the draft constitution, preferring self-censorship to the known consequences of speaking out—detention and the closure of their papers. At least seven prominent journalists remain imprisoned in Burma, convicted on spurious charges such as “engaging in anti-government propaganda” for writing about human rights abuses, and publishing information that “makes people lose respect for the government.”

The SPDC also denies the Burmese people the right to freely discuss the draft constitution, or to engage in any form of assembly or association to protest the upcoming referendum. SPDC spies and informants are everywhere, severely limiting the ability of people to speak freely even when talking with friends in teahouses or private homes. Any gathering of more than five people is banned in Burma, and even solitary peaceful protesters face the full wrath of the generals.

Activists have been detained for holding peaceful protests urging a “No” vote on the referendum; on March 30, security forces detained five activists of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), three days after they had participated in a protest by 30 NLD activists who wore T-shirts emblazoned with the word “No” during a brief, peaceful walking protest in Rangoon. Two other NLD activists were detained on the night of April 1.

Opposition political parties operate in a climate of severe harassment and repression of their activities by the authorities. Most political parties have been deregistered in Burma since the annulled 1990 elections, the NLD and the military-backed National Unity Party (NUP) being the main exceptions. Pro-SPDC groups routinely pressure NLD members into resigning from their party, under threat of vigilante violence. In April 2008 a number of NLD officials and human rights activists were attacked by alleged pro-junta elements operating in plainclothes. There are some 1,890 political prisoners in Burma, including 755 detainees arrested since January 2007, most of them for the peaceful expression of their political beliefs or their participation in peaceful opposition activities such as rallies.

The referendum process will not be monitored by any independent local or international monitoring organizations. The SPDC has rejected UN assistance in organizing a free and fair referendum, saying that Burma “has adequate experience”—even though the last national referendum, in 1973, was blatantly rigged, and the most recent elections, in 1990, had their results overturned. [...]

P.S. Debe facernos reflexionar en que mans quedaron as colonias despois de descolonizadas, porque algunha responsabilidade terán (teremos) as potencias colonizadoras que ían (iamos) levar alí o progreso ou algo parecido…

Outrosí é chamativo que o inglés (a nosa actual koiné) incorporase como préstamos (supoño que despois de vistos os exemplos de Argentina, Chile…) as palabras junta e incommunicado.

Xa está disponible unha nova versión estable, a 4.9.1, do Notepad++, que eu defino como un lixeiro pero completísimo editor de texto e HTML.

Quero dicir: eu úsoo para iso, pero os programadores saberán apreciar que recoñeza a sintaxe de ducias de linguaxes máis, como C, C++, XML, CSS, PHP, Java, Perl, JavaScript, SQL, Python, TeX, etcétera.

E o millor de todo, é totalmente aberto e gratuíto (licencia GPL). Un único inconveniente: so funciona en Windows, aínda que tamén pode funcionar en Linux coa axuda de Wine.