1. CRÓNICA POLÍTICA Y SOCIAL Efraín Pérez

Under the volcano

Chaos in the Twenty-one Century

It is quite a coup de fortune for President Bush electoral campaign the tragedy that occurred this week-end in Russia. Yes, terrorist that held hostages in a school are said to be somehow related to Al-Qaeda.

It evokes possible scenarios of a new kind of classes struggle around the world. No more infantrymen crossing frontiers; no more h-bombs –or clean bombs— threats: just plain people mingling among us “like fishes in the water” will be planting more or less dirty explosives in our children’s schoolyard.

Maybe as soon as next year, political analysts will be reminding us, how sweet old times were, when a couple of superpowers kept law and order thru the world.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was supposedly attained because it overreached their economic base over a vast world territory across the oceans. Instead, now we do have a single Hyper Power with a gigantic budget deficit, trying to impose democratic values with sophisticated weaponry. Cicero made Scipio affirm in “The Republic”, that imminent dangers caused people to yearn for a dictatorship.

Will it be the XXI Century dilemma, tyranny or chaos?

September 4, 2004