Friday, April 23, 2010

Regulated but democratic Internet

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Most websites publish the address of the manager and almost all have special sections for reporting malicious or abusive users. But not only that, from defamation to plagiarism, many of the crimes that existed before the invention of the Internet are now applicable to the virtual world.

Several international terrorist groups have their web pages, like child pornography and the hundreds of sites that share plagiarized content, but the fact that we find pages involved in illegal activities does not mean that the Internet should be seen as a place where the law can be violated with impunity. While it is true that some manage to evade the legal system, the cases of persons punished for committing crimes through the Internet are abundant.

Even when there are no special laws, the Internet is in practice a regulated space, and we should not be surprised if, in the future, new rules for the global network are implemented, as has happened with almost all human activities. However, we must be clear that is not the same regulating with democratic ends, than controlling with authoritarian targets. In democratic countries, the governing institutions impose the legal order on everyone; while in authoritarian countries, the government allows access only to the information selected by a small sector of the nation.


Related articles:

- The antagonism between Internet and socialism

- Some contradictions of the left in Latin America

- Socialist dictatorship vs. capitalist hegemony

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Polls for Colombia's presidential election

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

The coming May 30 is the date on which Colombians will choose their next president. And while Alvaro Uribe failed to advance the reforms necessary to seek a third term, he has the consolation that his candidate has lead the polls throughout the campaign period.

According to recent opinion surveys, the candidate with greater voting support is from the Party of the U -Juan Manuel Santos- with 29,5%, followed by Green Party candidate -Antanas Mockus- with 24.8%, the Conservative Party -Noemi Sanin- with 16,4%, and the Liberal Party -Rafael Pardo- with 5,2%. Survey conducted by Datexco from 6 to 8 April 2010, 3.7% margin of error.

The preference for the Uribista candidate is clearly a vote of confidence in the policies of President Alvaro Uribe, particularly in relation to the fight against insurgent groups and economic liberalization. On the contrary, it is curious that no leftist politician enjoy significant acceptance for these elections.

Update 29-04-2010: Santos 34.2%, Mockus 31.6% and Sanin 16.2%. Survey conducted by Gallup from 22 to 25 April, margin of error 3.2%. According to the same study, Mockus would defeat Santos in the second round election by a 47.9% to 42.2% margin.


Related articles:

- Why the Colombia-US military agreement

- Trade sanctions: Bad for Cuba, good for Colombia?

- UNASUR: Hypothesis worry more than realities

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Venezuela: Estimate of 2010-I GDP growth

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

The first quarter of 2010 has ended, but for some strange reason the Central Bank of Venezuela takes nearly two months to calculate the percentage change of GDP in each period. Nonetheless, according to our estimates, the Venezuelan GDP should have fallen more than 6% during the first quarter of this year -specifically, we believe that the change was -6.2% over the same quarter last year-.

If these calculations are correct, this would mean that the Venezuelan economy would have recorded four consecutive quarters of contraction, which would not be at all unusual for a country that has the characteristics of Venezuela: national electricity crisis, currency maxi-devaluation in January, undermined private sector activity, delayed government payments and drastic legal reforms.


Related articles:

- Venezuela 2010: Estimate of GDP and inflation

- Electricity crisis deepens recession in Venezuela

- Maxi-devaluation in Venezuela, without a rise in prices?