KABUL — The Afghan “Pentagon” being built here is a sprawling symbol of U.S. generosity.
The American government has already spent about $107 million — double the initial estimate — on the five-story Defense Ministry headquarters, which will include state-of-the-art bunkers and the second-largest auditorium in Kabul.
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Church services are held across South Africa to remember the country's former president, Nelson Mandela, following his death on Thursday
The former pope reportedly sees management training as torment. As a conception of hell, it makes more sense than everlasting fire
Last week, an unnamed Vatican source close to former Pope Benedict XVI was quoted as saying: "His idea of hell would be to be sent on a one-week management training seminar."
Hang on – that's not the ill-informed impression of hell that I've gained over the years. Where is the red chap with the forked tail and the trident? Where are the flames and brimstone? Where are the tormented souls hanging upside-down in chains?
I suppose the ex-pontiff should know better than most. He had a professional interest, so to speak. But I have to say his idea of hell didn't strike me as particularly, well, hellish. Talk about damp squibs. This theological revelation (no pun intended) must be the biggest religious disappointment since the world failed to end last December.
I've been on more than my fair share of management training seminars. Most of them were pretty tedious. But if the worst punishment God is prepared to dish out for a lifetime's sins is to spend a week on a problem solving course, drinking cups of tea tainted with UHT milk, making notes with crappy free ballpoint pens, bring it on! To think I could have been taking the Lord's name in vain (Deut. 5:11), stealing (Deut. 5:19), and coveting my neighbour's ass (Deut. 5:21) all these years, had I not refrained from so doing in the mistaken belief that hell involved a furnace of fire and a wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:42). I feel like a complete idiot.
According to Dante, hell comprises of nine concentric circles. I'm no theologian but to remain consistent with the latest ex-papal theory, the first circle, limbo, must represent some sort of training registration area. I'm not sure what the second circle, lust, equates to – by the sounds of it, I've been going to the wrong sort of seminars. The third circle, gluttony, clearly represents the finger-buffet. It all starts to make sense.
To be honest, I was always a bit sceptical about the whole "depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' malarkey". (Matt. 25:41) Anyone who knows anything about the second law of thermodynamics knows that an everlasting fire is physically impossible. It's an entropy thing; the heat death of the universe, and all that. In reformulating the Vatican's theory of hell, Pope Benedict seems to have been attempting to bring religious dogma in line with the most important law in science. I can't say I blame him. In the wise words of Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington: "If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation."
But what about all that hellish eternal torment? Granted, the data protection seminar I attended seemed to drag on forever. The structured interviews course was patronising and bordering on infuriating – I had "an attitude problem" apparently. Yet somehow I managed to get through them. In reality, the worst thing that can happen to you on a management training seminar is to have to take the rest of the class through your group's asinine brainstorming results. It's hardly being consigned to a "part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. 21:8), but it certainly isn't fun.
On reflection – and I never thought I'd say this – I'm beginning to think that ex-Pope Benedict might have a point. The biblical descriptions of hell, such as they are, simply don't stand up to scrutiny. They need modernising.
I used to think management training seminars were purgatory. It turns out I was wrong: they were hell.
SEOUL — South Korea on Sunday announced the expansion of its air defense identification zone, extending it farther south into an area that overlaps with similar zones of Japan and China.
The South’s decision, widely expected after a week of government discussions, marks the latest move in a regional struggle over airspace above the East China Sea.
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La primera ministra de Tailandia, Yingluck Shinawatra, ha propuesto un referéndum sobre su continuidad en el poder como salida a las protestas de la oposición que se vienen sucediendo desde hace semanas en el país. Promete la jefa del Gobierno que dimitirá si eso es lo que decide la población en la consulta, aunque se niega a hacerlo sin ella. Consciente de que probablemente no triunfaría en la votación, la oposición, que reclama la salida de Shinawatra, hermana del ex primer ministro Thaksin Shinawatra, depuesto en 2006 y condenado por corrupción, se prepara para una gran movilización mañana lunes.
En una intervención televisada, Yingluck Shinawatra, ha apostado por esa consulta para acabar con las manifestaciones que desde hace semanas mantienen casi paralizada la capital tailandesa, Bangkok, desde hace semanas. Los partidarios de la oposición creen que Thaksin, antiguo magnate de las comunicaciones exiliado desde 2008 en Dubái para escapar de la condena de dos años por corrupción, es realmente quien dirige los destinos del país. La semana pasada, miles de manifestantes tomaron las calles y rodearon varios edificios oficiales. Los enfrentamientos con la policía, que no ha usado excesiva fuerza con los manifestantes, y los partidarios de Shinawatra, han causado la muerte de al menos cinco personas. Sin embargo, la protesta se frenó el jueves de esta semana para celebrar en paz el cumpleaños del rey Bhumibol, reverenciado por casi toda la población.
“Deberíamos celebrar un referéndum para que la gente pueda decidir qué debemos hacer”, ha dicho la primera ministra, que se ofrece a dejar su puesto si la pierde. "Estoy dispuesta a escuchar las propuestas de la oposición. No soy adicta al cargo. Estoy dispuesta a dimitir y dissolver el parlamento si eso es lo que los tailandeses quieren”, ha dicho.
Consciente de sus escasas posibilidades, el líder opositor, Suthep Thaugsuban, exvicepresidente del Gobierno del Partido Democrático, apuesta por un consejo de sabios nombrado por el rey, que la jefa del Gobierno rechaza por inconstitucional. Mientras, ha señalado la protesta de mañana como definitiva para acabar con el “régimen” de los Shinawatra. Si no lo consigue mañana, ha anunciado, dejará la lucha.
Thaugsuban lidera un movimiento que aglutina a las clases urbanas de Bangkok, junto con las élites monárquicas, frente al apoyo de las zonas rurales más desfavorecidas que fueron el semillero de voto que llevó al poder a los Shinawatra. La rivalidad entre las dos facciones se extiende desde hace casi una década y ha llevado a oleadas de protestas de distinto signo en varias ocasiones. El detonante de esta última oleada, iniciada en octubre, fue una proposición de ley de amnistía que podría haber beneficiado a Thaksin y facilitado su regreso al país. Decenas de miles de personas salieron entonces a las calles en protesta, en una repetición de una muestra del mismo tipo de oposición popular que ayudó a allanar el camino para el golpe de Estado que derrocó a Thaksin en 2006. Yingluck rápidamente dio marcha atrás en el plan, pero las manifestaciones continuaron, y agravaron la tensión entre los partidarios del Gobierno y la oposición.
