The puns can only get worse

News stories continue to vie for attention with punishing titles.

Impunity 2, Insurgency 1, Iraq 0

“Failures do not come any more abject than Iraq, nor catastrophes any more pure.”

¡Viva México! Down with collusion, corruption, and impunity!

“In these hills there are probably hundreds of graves. In Mexico there are thousands.”

More than a whiff of corruption

“Power is not a means; it is an end,” wrote George Orwell in his novel 1984. And, as we all know, there is one rule for the rich and powerful, and another for the rest of us.

Reopening old wounds in Spain and making a mockery of justice

United Nations experts are urging Spain to investigate what happened to thousands of people who went missing during the Spanish civil war and under the Nationalist Franco dictatorship. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church has beatified 522 people killed by Republicans, rubbing salt into the open wounds of impunity and denial.

The wages of sin: Time to abandon Spain’s pact of silence

Many countries have been persuaded that it is better to ignore and suppress the past in the interest of forgiving and forgetting. Such arguments are often put forward by those who have most to hide and most to lose. The opposite argument – that past sins must be publicly acknowledged – recognizes that in violent conflict everyone is scarred for life.