In 1954 When I was a one year old , my Spanish mother took me to see a bit of Royal pageantry near Buckingham Palace on the occasion of Emperor Haile Selassie’s state visit to the UK. So my mother told me many years later, she arrived to find that the crowds had built up, led by a line of uniformed English nannies with their young charges occupying the first row giving on to the main square from the side of St James’s Park. Undeterred, my mother gently moved her …
El sentido liberal
El sentido liberal Es estos días que avanzan las fechas de elecciones en España y el Reino Unido, dos países que por sangre de madre y padre me unen en un compartido sentido de patriotismo, quería reflejar sobre aspectos que me llaman la atención ya que tienen que ver con algunos valores de conducta cívica además de política. De los recién acontecimientos, quería remarcar en dos que se vivieron por separado en ambos países a principios de esta semana y que por algunas horas dominaron la cobertura mediática nacional. …
El Sentido Liberal
El sentido liberal Es estos días que avanzan las fechas de elecciones en España y el Reino Unido, dos países que por sangre de madre y padre me unen en un compartido sentido de patriotismo, quería reflejar sobre aspectos que me llaman la atención ya que tienen que ver con algunos valores de conducta cívica además de política. De los recién acontecimientos, quería remarcar en dos que se vivieron por separado en ambos países a principios de esta semana y que por algunas horas dominaron la cobertura mediática nacional. El …
Coffee Minister
Coffee Minister Manuel Canelas By Jimmy Burns Manuel Canelas is a relaxed, as well as a bright guy who is worth getting to know in an informal environment. So I was not surprised that the place agreed for our first meeting during my recent visit to his country, was not his ministerial office but a boutique cafe of those that offer a certain style and comfort amidst the urban chaos of the capital La Paz, a genial and fraternal venue , away from the more spooky aspects of Bolivian …
Cafe Ministro
Tomando café con el Ministro Boliviano Manuel Canelas escribe Jimmy Burns Marañón Manuel ‘Manu’ Canelas es un tipo relajado, además de bien informado, que vale la pena ganarle confianza en un ambiente informal. Así que no me sorprendió que el lugar acordado para nuestro encuentro durante mi recién visita a su país, no fuese su oficina ministerial sino un café boutique de esos que ofrecen un cierto estilo y comodidad en medio del caos urbanístico de la capital La Paz , escenario agradable y fraternal, alejado del aspecto …
Encounters with the Common Good
I know I am not alone in struggling not to be overwhelmed at times by all the negativity in so many words and acts, a sense of despair about the state of the world from Brexit to Trump, via massacres and other man-made disasters. So let me share three shared encounters in recent days that reminded me that our spirits can be lifted if we allow other less binary, less visceral and conflictive human narratives to give us direction and a sense of common purpose. The first was a silent …
Falklands War-History & Legacy
The Falklands War, following the Argentine military occupation of disputed British territory in the South Atlantic, involved the biggest British naval deployment since WW2, lasted 74 days and cost the lives 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders . It ended in British victory, the collapse of Argentina’s military regime, and contributed to Mrs Thatcher’s reelection as prime-minister. To a new generation of young European adults, the Falklands War not only barely features in their collective memory, but is largely ignored as a subject worth …
Notes around the 29th March
Part One: Nothing like a two day trip out of London to remind me why I still feel profoundly grateful that I remain a committed citizen of Europe. In Manchester the north-south divide and Brits against spiks mentality that that coalition of nationalist prejudice UKIP , hard-line Tory Brexiteers, and some Corbynistas are so fond of turning into a battle cry, is defied by a less binary reality. Under its elected Labour Mayor, the very pragmatic and non-ideological Andy Burnham ,Manchester is a thriving multicultural hub full of commercial enterprise, …
Postcard from Turin
Greetings from Turin where I am spending a couple of days updating my double bio on Cristiano and Leo. Nothing like a quick hop over to the European mainland for a check on reality or as my spiritual mentor St Ignatius would put it ‘discernment’. Flying in over the spectacular sweep of the snow covered Alps, I overheard some excited Brits exchanging tips about the best ski slopes. Arrival at the small but welcoming airport servicing north and southern Europe was a doddle. A charming policeman took me to on …
The Lost Leader
I am thinking Brexit- or not. In moments of doubt and darkness, I find myself not for the first time rereading Graham Greene, a fellow Catholic who struggled throughout his life with no small number of existential and political crises of his own, and yet still managed to draw sufficient creative inspiration and faith in God and humanity as an author and journalist. In a review of Postscripts published in the Spectator on the 13th December 1940, Greene paid tribute to the way the novelist J.B. Priestley’s broadcasts lifted the …
