El Blog de Juanjo Gabiña

According to the Phoenician International Research Center, PIRC, it is not certain that the Phoenicians call themselves in their own language; it seems to be Kena’ani (Akkadian: Kinahna), “Canaanites”.

In the Hebrew language, the word “kena’ani” has the secondary meaning of “merchant”, a term that characterizes the Phoenicians well. The Greeks gave the name Phoenicians to the Canaanites who lived on the coast and traded with them.

Phenicia is a word in the Greek language that means “purple.” The most probable reason to give them this name was due to the famous purple cloth that was made in Tire and that the Phoenicians made and sold to the rich of the ancient world. For their part, the Romans gave the name of Punic to the Phoenicians of the western Mediterranean.

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It is clear that the Third Economic Depression has started for a little more than a decade and, although the complicit silence of governments, media and universities tried to hide it from the people, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deceive a growing number of citizens who suffer this drama of the economic crisis that never goes back in the bosom of their own families. It is a broken world economy that tries to flee futilely, even if it means adulterating democracy, corrupting more politicians and impoverishing more families and citizens.

It is increasingly evident to us that the current model does not work and that the vast majority of the developed countries of the world are bankrupt due to their growing and exorbitant indebtedness. However, the global financial institutions try to cover with euphemisms the serious situation in which we find ourselves.

Every day that passes, it is easier for us to see that we are going worse. It is still doing more of the same without changing the fundamental thing that would be something consistent like putting in value the whole of the economy, eliminating bubbles, risky financial leverages and other speculative activities that have converted the financial markets into casinos for those who play sell games.

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Climate Change has not been growing as fast as we could think. We have been almost two centuries since the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution, attacking with our CO2 emissions the climatic balance of planet Earth.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, we began to suffer imbalances in the climate that broke with previous patterns and each year that passed became the warmest year, progressively increasing the levels of global warming, as well as the melting of glaciers and ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

This global warming has accelerated also affecting the oceans and we have entered a phase of increasing climatic instability that, as with the unstable balance of an spinning top, the dynamics initiated will bring the climate closer to another stable climate pattern characterized by a new glaciation as this has happened repeatedly over the course of the climatic evolution of our planet.

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Hace tres años, el Grupo de Trabajo III (Mitigación) del Panel Intergubernamental sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC) distribuyó un informe donde lo dejaban todo bien claro y se quedaban cortos con lo que exponían. Decían lo que desde este blog llevo década y media proclamando y, aunque tarde, pues se han perdido años valiosos de lucha eficaz contra el Cambio Climático, se agradece que haya los científicos me den la razón.

No obstante, también es cierto que lamento mucho la cobardía del Panel o comisión de expertos de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático en no haberlo denunciado mucho años antes como lo hicimos algunos prospectivistas que trabajamos en favor de un futuro sostenible, con todos los riesgos que ello representaba para nuestra actividad profesional.
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Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River

Many legends and myths have become a reality contrasted after passing centuries. My theory is that when coincidences have a very low probability of occurrence, we must think that there is some truth, if it is not everything.

There are a few legends that surround the figure of the Basque whalers who were the best whale hunters from the 8th century until almost the 19th century. Following the track of the whales, they left the waters of the Bay of Biscay to the Faroe Islands and Iceland, to sail towards the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.

A legend locates the Basque whalers in the American continent, in the year 1375. Exactly, on the island of Newfoundland, more than 100 years before the arrival in the New World of the Genoese admiral. But they were not conquerors, but fishermen with a reputation as corsairs or pirates. They did not kill Indians but whales for their sustenance and in their factories the whale oil used in the lighting of European houses and cities was produced.

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Porque los que la denigran son malas personas. Son gente interesada, que no tiene principios, ni valores y que actúan saboteando todo lo que puedan para impedir que las ideas de Greta Thunberg se propaguen entre los jóvenes de todo el mundo.

Estas malas personas son iguales en todas partes. Utilizan los insultos personales para degradar a una buena y admirable persona como Greta Thunberg, llegando a realizar amenazas para intimidarla. Con frecuencia, recurren también a chistes y bromas sarcásticas o a ataques fulminantes por medio de las redes sociales con la intención de humillar a sus víctimas.

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I am agree with Bernie Sanders. He shows to have a lot of intelligence and not to be tied to material goods. This implies being a reliable leader who is committed to building a better place for everyone. Also, it is the only way for capitalism to restore dignity to human beings, balance between nature and the environment with human activities and scientific progress. Something that was always with evident Keynesianism, is still denied by a financial capitalism whose engine of development is greed, thus confusing the maximization of the benefit with the wealth and welfare both individual and social.

Why will human beings be so ineffective in fighting the great threat posed by climate change? Will it have to do with the fact that capitalism and sustainability are totally antagonistic and incompatible concepts as argued by various modern thinkers of that social left that contributed so much to erecting the welfare state?

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