THE GLOBALPOST Apologizing for a fathers sin When Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar was gunned down in 1993,his teenaged son Juan Pablo declared: If its true,Ill kill all the sons of bitches. But thankfully,the junior Escobars life took another route: to Argentina where he worked as an architect and with a new name,Sebastian Marroquin. He has now reappeared as the central character in a documentary about his fathers violent legacy: Pecados de mi Padre,or The Sins of my Father. In an interview with GlobalPosts John Otis,Marroquin speaks about his father rather fondlysomeone who instilled many values in me. When asked if his dad wanted him to take over the Medellin Cartel,Marroquin says he never insisted; instead he said he would back him in whatever he wanted to do. Marroquin also takes a touching stand: I,Sebastian Marroquin,am taking responsibility for the acts of my father in respect for the victims who suffered from his violence. RED PEPPER The great global land grab Some two years ago when financial players foresaw the economic crisis,they put their money in the safer commodities market. That led to an artificial food crisis and prices rose dramatically. Thats when rich,food insecure nations went looking for land in poorer countries,primarily Africa. That was the beginning of the great global land grab,says Sue Branford. There is much to worry us about the new carve-up. Some of the worlds poorest countries are letting go of land that they need to feed their own populations, the author says. Besides affecting domestic food supplies,Branford says,it could be a time bomb for the worlds ability to cope with climate change. BULLETIN OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS A neglected climate strategy As the Copenhagen clock ticks away and with no immediate climate solution in sight,the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has come up with a strategy: empower women,slow population growth. The writer,Laurie Mazur,admits that the idea seems counterintuitiveanother excuse by the West to sit on its emissions considering that its the developed world that does all the polluting while much of the population growth happens in the poor countries. So how can slower population growth help solve the climate crisis? Slower growth can spur development in low-income countries by enabling families and governments to make essential investments in development and social services. At the same time,a smaller population will help limit the environmental damage that development brings, the report says. But it also says that population control is not a quick fix for climate change and it is not all we must do. THE NEW YORKER Defending the Arsenal Are Pakistans nuclear warheads in safe hands? The writer,Seymour M. Hersh,talks to officials in Washington and Islamabad and says the US administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military to ensure that the arsenal is safe. But Pakistanis are obviously unhappymany of them believe that Americas true goal is not to keep their weapons safe but to diminish or destroy the Pakistani nuclear complex. A Pakistani official is quoted as saying,Youd (the Americans) like control of our day-to-day deployment. But why should we give it to you? Even if there was a military coup détat in Pakistan,no one is going to give up total control of our nuclear weapons. Never. Why are you not afraid of Indias nuclear weapons? THE GUARDIAN The truth about cankles What do you do when you have cankles? Ah,thats like having a uni-leg,says the expert on an Oprah Winfrey show. Like having a what,asks Hadley Freeman. Freeman answers questions on the insecurities that the fashion industry loves to generate. By the way cankles,she explains,are just chubby ankles,so that there is apparently no separation between leg and foot. So here is what I say about your cankles.They do not exist. They just dont. They are merely some new coinageprobably invented by the womens magazine market as opposed to the fashion industryto make you feel bad about a perfectly normal part of your body, Freeman says.
