Diplomatic honesty uncovered: The valedictory reports
The BBC, through the freedom of information act, has made public a series of of valedictory reports written by various UK ambassadors. These straightforward reports were a centuries-old tradition that only ended in 2006 under labour government, after worries that they were a bit t

The Eitingons and Trotsky´s murder in Coyoacán
Leon Trotsky´s biography has been a constant in my life, as I am sure it has been to several others. A ubiquitous presence when living in London´s East End, when thinking about the Mexican and the Russian revolutions, the muralist and surrealist movements, and when listening to family stories r

Mexico gets one good, one bad and apache dance!
Even if what they say is not true, they make it true by saying it. In this case, the modern sages of The Economist have spoken about Mexico twice this week. For good or for bad, I think this time they got it very right.One bad:The Economist bullies Mexican oil giant PEMEX for sheer inefficiency. The editorial team asks: How many Mexicans does it take to drill a well? Answer: 140,000, and they are not very good at it. It is all true. Oil production has been falling non-stop since 2004, and few new reserves have been discovered and exploited successfully (not even the rich Chicontepec oil and

Does evolution explain human nature -if there is such a thing-?
The Templeton foundantion has funded for a number of years people reflecting on religion, morality, and human nature from an evolutionary point of view. Here is a biologist, an anthropologist, and a psychologist of primates putting forward their views on the issue. I found it a lot more telling and thought provoking than Richard Dawkins' usual preach.

Civilian casualties demand a new form of warfare
Right now, the mainstream narrative goes like this: we have to move on to new forms of warfare because the new challenges to world stability are not as they used to be. Globalisation and interdependence have limited inter-state and troop-intensive forms of war, and incre