A Rhapsode's journal

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-explained_2 Israel police officers throwing stun grenades and flashbangs to Palestinian civilians. 71 dead, which 65 were Palestinian. Another internal crisis that has shaken the news worldwide. First Colombia, not a month after, Israel and Palestine crisis reactivates again. This crisis has not been over or ease since it started. I label it as a coin conflict because is a conflict for territoy in which it is one or the other to be a winner, but not both. A fixed pie, a Paretho's Optimum. This has been latent since the creation of the Islam religion. Jews has been always around the world but have had a place that they feel they have the property, a place that are proud to call it home, and the origin of thousands of wars. Jerusalem.   I will make a little reminder of everything around Jerusalem and why it is important for Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam. All three have in common that main prophets have passed through ...

Sympathy, the word that has been in the mouth of all Colombians these last few days. Privilege, the condition that makes someone blind to the suffering of others since it has its world unaltered. These are the two words that I most see in social media nowadays and the sentence with these two words is the following: “Do not let privilege blinds your sympathy.” https://www.pulzo.com/nacion/carteles-paro-nacional-21-noviembre-PP803351 Sympathy with those who have been injured, suffered, or killed during the riots and protests these 2 last weeks in Colombia. For those who are knew to the problem, let´s recap shall we? 3 weeks ago, the government announced that a new tax reform was about to be released in a few days. A tax reform that is necessary since, the government has done a lot of spending in trying to soften the shock of the crisis and buying essential medical stuff to attend to the sanitary and health crisis. According to IMF, Colombia spent 4,1% of its GDP in measures to ...

International relations have been transformed alongside history. A sense of this discipline started in 1648 with the treaty of Westphalia, then it became formalized after 1918 in the beginning of the inter war era; then in 1945 was the starting point for the creation of several international instruments and institutions that later will shape the way in which international relations will be carried out. 2001 was a key event to introduce into a more detailed scope of analysis the terrorist groups and then, we have 2008, the year in which financial and economic aspects became the center of attention for the international relations. Will 2020 be recalled as a year of global politics or international relations shift? Will Sars-Cov-19 pass to the hall of fame for scholars when they talk about shifters in balance of power in the far future? In simple terms, this crisis that has been catalogued as Black Swan has not been a major factor to the point of change the way international relations h...

One year ago, most of the countries worldwide were in three different situations facing Covid-19: there were a peak of infections or it was just arriving, or the country already had a tool to control the spread. A year ago, these three scenarios can be seen in Colombia, New Zealand, and China. The situation in which these countries are nowadays, are based on how they managed the initial outbreak and its follow up. Let us start in the first appearance of the virus; Wuhan, China. By march of 2020, the Chinese government already had 4 months forward in comparison with other countries in restrictions, and countermeasures. They already were in stage 3 of control of the spread. By now, the intense fight against Sars-Cov-2 was already won, malls started to reopen and the foreshadows of an imminent hecatomb, were now a last night nightmare. Millions of deaths were prevented after the countermeasures implemented by NHC (National Health Commission of the People´s Republic of China). Which were t...

Around a year ago, it all began. A total lockdown have been applied to all Colombian population. Uncertainty was common those days in all areas. Panic was the main player in our minds, making us buy irrational quantities of toilet paper, wondering until when we will be locked in our houses. We all were worried about what wwould go next, are we all going to die? is the food we have enough? is everyone going to turn into some kind of zombies? do we have enough supplies for an everlasting lockdown? Questions that we all set in our minds once. At first glance, it was a relief, happiness not to have classes for a week. Mini vacation time! we all thought. What we did not know was that all staff of the university was doing their best to get us into virtuality and not interrupt our learning process. Virtual classes were great! You can sleep more, you can attend them in pajamas, eat, not paying attention without the pressure that the teacher would see you not attending him, then, you can be bac...