Editor’s Note

A new year has arrived, just a milestone in the continuity of time. Even when the most prominent objectives remain, circumstances, far from being static, inexorably keep changing. Thus the …

The economic concentration process is accelerating (1% of the population already controls almost 60% of the global wealth), something outrageous, indecent, and unsustainable; military and geopolitical power remains concentrated in a main power and a handful of others that follow it; a fraction of the media increases its hegemony asphyxiating the diversity of informational perspectives and the multiple ways of perceiving reality; concentrated groups finance strategic think tanks that provide them with value and ideological coverage. The power to impose weighs heavily. We are on values and communicational alert, to preserve the diversity that enriches us, to avoid the extinction of “unauthorized” voices, cultures, and nations. In this issue of Opinion Sur we note that in Europe and in other latitudes “the king is naked” and that time has come to address truths firmly and frankly; that a good part of the solutions requires the elimination of wealth concentration, critical substratum of contemporary problems; that the so much needed mercy strengthens with the understanding of why things are as they are. We keep learning from those who contribute with their efforts in the search for and the construction of a fairer and more sustainable world. Here is where we are: learning and offering what we have learned. Greetings The Editors

The globalization process has placed the world geopolitics as one of the mayor constraints in the course of humanity and their planetary consequences: it makes for the development or subjection …

Parecieran aspectos distanciados del devenir de la humanidad y, sin embargo, son múltiples las interrelaciones geopolíticas, nacionales y ambientales que condicionan cualquier trayectoria. En este número de Opinión Sur abordamos aspectos críticos de estas tres dimensiones: en lo geopolítico, el tremendo descontrol que da paso a recurrentes conflictos, fuertes corrientes de emigración y débiles liderazgos; en lo que hace al desarrollo, la gravosa estructura del ahorro que prevalece en muchos de nuestros países y la esterilización y deficiente asignación resultantes; en lo ambiental, el desafío para nuestros países de cuidar y saber utilizar estratégicamente en el contexto global los recursos naturales esenciales que disponemos.   They seem quite distant aspects from humanity’s future and, yet, there are multiple geopolitical, national, and environmental interrelations that condition any trajectory. In this issue of Opinion Sur we address critical aspects of these three dimensions: in geopolitics, the huge chaos that paves the way for recurrent conflicts, steady migration flows, and weak leaderships; regarding development, the onerous savings structure that prevails in many of our countries and the resulting sterilization and poor allocation; in the environment, the challenge for our countries to care for and knowing how to strategically use our essential natural resources in the global context.   Greetings   The Editors

Europe reacts against the immigrants as if there had not been permanent migrations in the entire history of humanity. To hide their shame they adduce the crisis they are going through and the preservation of their identities; fear and pettiness weigh heavily. They should know that they are not barbarians but simple humans those that flee from collapsed countries; in the same way that Europeans did so many times, fleeing from wars and huge socioeconomic downturns. With one difference: they were welcomed by countries from all over the world and with time they become socially and culturally integrated into those societies. If migrants that try to reach Europe are progressive and fully integrated, they also will not undermine the diverse European cultures but instead will contribute to enrich and invigorate them.