This text belongs to the newsletter 'The Director's Bulletin', which is sent every Friday morning. If you want to receive it, sign up here.
Good morning,
“In times of desolation, do not move,” Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote in one of his spiritual exercises. The updated phrase could be that in times of desolation - the popular version changes this word to tribulation - invest your capital in the precious yellow metal. Gold has risen 25% since the Hamas attacks half a year ago. In a world convulsed by the threat of a conflict caused by Russia and the powder keg of the Middle East, the markets' reaction is to go to a safe haven value like gold. And, as the days go by, the geopolitical situation only gets more complicated.
This week we have been painfully informing you of the situation in Gaza, where the Israeli Army not only ignores the mandates to hold a ceasefire, but continues to make it impossible for food to reach a malnourished population. All that was left was for a military humanitarian aid convoy from the World Central Kitchen organization to be bombed by an Israeli drone, causing the death of seven aid workers. Our correspondent in New York, Francesc Peirón, who knows the founder of this organization, the Spanish chef José Andrés, well, explained the importance of his work in the world and the impact that the news had caused on North American public opinion. The indignation caused by this senseless attack is perfectly reflected in the article written for us by Òscar Camps, founder of Open Arms, and collaborator with José Andrés in the distribution of food for the Palestinian population.
It is too early to know if this event could be a turning point in the war in Gaza, but pay attention to the unanimous reactions of rejection that are occurring around the world. The pressure to stop supplying weapons to Israel is becoming increasingly stronger.
In Spain, Pedro Sánchez has stood in front of the demonstration of European leaders against Israel's military intervention and has not hesitated to criticize Beniamin Netanyahu. The Spanish president has made a tour of different Arab countries, reported these days by our colleague Juan Carlos Merino, and has not hidden his preferences for the creation of the Palestinian State. No one can argue with Sánchez about his political sense - sometimes excessively accommodating to circumstances - and he has seen in this issue a clear opportunity to lead a generalized unrest in Spain due to the bombings and famine suffered by the Palestinian population. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has preferred not to be the protagonist in this issue, unlike José María Aznar who has entered the fray to say that he finds the idea of a Palestinian State absurd. What was it like with the former presidents and the Chinese vases? If he has not done so, we recommend that you read the article published this week in La Vanguardia by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shlomo Ben Ami, about the conflict.
And speaking of the internal Spanish situation, nothing new under the sun. This midnight the electoral campaign started in the Basque Country, which will hold elections on April 21. Immediately after, on May 12, the Catalan ones will be produced and the European ones on June 9. It goes without saying that if the political climate was excited in these previous weeks, it is now reaching embarrassing extremes. The statements of both parties cover up the underlying problems and there is more talk of investigative commissions or judicial proceedings, with the parties themselves acting as private prosecutors, than of the management of the problems. The PP has turned the Senate, where it has a majority, into a chamber of wear and tear on the Government and is failing the ministers, one after another, so repetitively that it stops being news and the previously sought effect is lost. Even Pere Aragonès turns his presence in the Upper House this coming Monday into a rally for his electoral campaign.
And this week a great photographer has left us, but above all a great person. The sensitivity that Juan Guerrero had to capture those images that were so beautiful and, at the same time, so simple, were understood by his kindness. Anyone who knew him would sum up that he was a good person, a very good person. I attest to having done a few reports with him for El Periódico and El Observador, in other lives. And I remember how, faced with my natural impetus, he would stop me and always ask me to stay a little longer wherever I went to try to take a better photo. “Why are you in such a hurry?” He told me and laughed with those eyes that conveyed so much expressiveness. Two great photographers of this house, Pedro Madueño and Xavier Cervera, have portrayed him as he deserves. May he rest in peace.
Happy Friday
