Arquivo para a ‘Economia’ Categoria
Reflections for 2023
27
Dec
I always make a proposal for some readings at the end of the year, sometimes
I abandon some and always attach others, due to the duty of the teaching profession and the emergence of new facts, as was the case of the pandemic in 2020 and the war in Ukraine in the last year.
Among others, four books already ordered, which I intend to read in the year 2023 are: “The new Vicky syndrome: why European intellectuals surrender to barbarism” by Theodore Dalrymple (pseudonym of British physician, psychiatrist and essayist Anthony Daniels, 72). years), although 2016 had several successes of the conjuncture, the second book is by Slavov Zizek: “The year we dream dangerously” (2012), the third is about technology, many bizarre things are written about technology and its advances, since we quote Jean Michel Ganascia: “The Myth of the singularity”, now we want to reread Artificial Intelligence from the author of the area but on basic things and on the dilemmas of AI: “Artificial intelligence: a very brief introduction”, basic but knowledgeable of the subject, a deeper reading requires study and specialization in the area.
A book of a spiritual nature could not be missing from the list, the book by Anselm Grum, who is a 77-year-old German Benedictine monk, and many of his books have had an impact on different situations, and now he wants to respond to anxiety, depression and hopelessness that affects a large part of pandemic humanity.
From Dalrymple we already posted about the book “Our culture or what we made of it” where the cultural analysis precedes the economic one and converges with the social one, about Slavov Zikek we had some quotations and we already have some reflections on his updated vision of socialism, but whose aspect of violence is not discarded.
In Zizek’s view, the overcoming of the social state or the welfare state, the state today is the administration of a permanent social crisis, and in this book still to be read, the releases and readings allowed online that I could read, he reveals the appreciation of intellectuals (I would say especially of the current editorial groups and their narratives) for the catastrophe, and I would say in disagreement with Zizek that he is also in this process, only due to the aspect of the use of violence expressed in several of his books, the indicated however shows the renewing aspect and true change that these movements of the 2011 were marked, but they were consumed by the current culture.
Although he has this ideological disagreement with Zizek, his analysis of 2011 should be quite interesting, remember the Arab Spring, the occupation movements like “Occupy Wall Street”, in Tahrir Square, in London and in Athens, there were strong movements, there were dark dreams, and certainly an event that Zizek does not remember, but it is important: the Fukushima catastrophe, the nuclear problem, was on March 11, 2011.
AI have much literature with little foundation ventures into the area, where the biggest problem is neither mystification nor ethical problems, but knowledge of the basic elements and future possibilities of the area, specialist Margaret A. Boden who researches in the area and understands the doubts on the subject, makes a very brief introduction capable of elucidating lay people already confused by the obscure and critical literature on the issue.
Perhaps there is a lack of frazilian, Latin or African literature, a book that I have seen and I have not formed an opinion is: “Guimarães Rosa: Dimensions of the narrative” catches my attention, I am not aware of the authors Maria Célia Leonel and Edna Maria F. dos Santos, I’m going to research, the synopsis looks interesting when approaching authors like Gèrard Genette and Ernest Cassirer, among others.
The path and the narrow gate
07
Dec
It is common sense culture that we should
seek a region of comfort or security, but it is neither in the great paths developed by current ideologies nor by the wide door of facilities, in fact the great populists of today are sellers of facilities that are expensive security and the popular economy.
[It is always easier and more popular to propose what seems obvious, to distribute benefits or to favor big companies and big banks to make the economy grow, but they are the greatest causers of havoc in the popular economy, as we developed in the last post to idea of tolerating crimes as a way of destroying culture and favoring marginality, what is called impunity is actually the wide door path to social cultural re-education.
People who grow up and develop a safe and secure life, if they are not thieves and sellers of facilities, are those who have gone through deprivation and difficulties to build a stable and sustainable life, even in the midst of crises and periods of difficulties such as the pandemic is being. which is hard to complete, social health agencies are important, but without personal care what they do is palliative.
For Christians, the biblical passage that says (Mt 11k28): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” is complemented in the following verse Mt 11,29: “ Take my yoke under you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest”, which is omitted by religious people who proclaim the wide door of miracles and favours.
In the numerous correspondences that the famous physicist Niels Bohr exchanged with Albert Einstein, one of them is quite revealing, in which Bohr writes to Einstein that the root of all evil lies in the idea of men that someone can possess all the truth, she who was not a believer writing to Einstein that he was, brings a fundamental idea to know that all wisdom is not present in human consciousness.
Likewise, those who proclaim the pride of possessing all the truth or all the answers to human designs, even if they proclaim divine ideas, do not hold the whole truth, which is why the importance of the verse we pointed out: “learn from me that I am meek and humble in heart,” there is no haughtiness in godly wisdom and no desire for war or strife.
New high in cases of Covid 19
21
Nov
Up for eight days, according to Uol’s website, with an average of 235%
compared to two weeks ago, the regions with the highest growth in Brazil are the Southeast with 333%, the Northeast with 228%, the North with 170% , the South with 160% and the Midwest with 93%, the numbers worry researchers, such as the Fiocruz Foundation.
Data from the foundation of Boletim Infogripe 45/2022 state that 47% of cases of respiratory diseases are due to Covid 19, and in a note on Saturday (11/19) it notes that new infections of covid 19 have skyrocketed across the country, the most The detailed data indicate that respectable infections were 10.3%, 3% for influenza A, 0.3% for influenza B, 24.2% for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and 47% for Sars-Cov-2, among the deaths the presence of the same micro-organisms of the positive cases was 4.1% for influenza A, 0.01% for influenza B, and 1.4% for RSV while 83.6% for Sars-Cov-2 which is alertly, since even the number of deaths is still not great, the percentage is higher than the cases of respiratory viral infections.
The raw data are more than 600 daily deaths in recent days and the moving average reaching 15,500 cases, which characterizes the continuity of the pandemic process.
Sanitary restrictions are still partial, as it is a festive period it is possible that there is a higher tolerance limit, which is worrying, because even though commercial spaces remain open, it is almost politically impossible for them to close, care could be greater with hygiene and prevention with masks and alcohol gel, it is a fact that the population is tired, but it is preferable than going to death.
Government bodies need to take urgent measures, the current political crisis cannot prevent the pandemic from having new tragedies and the virus circulating more widely.
As we always do an analysis of the war in Eastern Europe, due to the seriousness and possibility of extending the war to the entire planet, we make a brief analysis of the retreat of the Russian forces at the same time that they try to undermine the country’s air defense and energy capacity, a since the cold has already started there and heating is vital for human life in Europe.
The damage caused by the missile that was launched towards Poland, with strong indications that it was launched from Ukrainian soil, diplomatically weakens Ukraine and makes the West rethink military and financial aid in the country, the war will have dramatic contours in winter terms humanitarian.
The zeal of the house consumes me
18
Nov
Any parent, boss or zealous administrator must take care of his
“home”, we can also think of the entire planet as our common home, thus not only the economy, cultures but also the environment.
This zeal should consume all of us, taking care only of personal interests is not just selfishness, it is also a form of ignorance, because personal interests depend on common ones, what do we do if there is a lack of rain and therefore a lack of water, what do we do if the environment does not help the plantations and the cost of food in a deteriorated environment, everything is a common interest influencing the individual.
It is not true that only some are responsible and others are not, so conferences like the COP27 that takes place in Egypt should be of interest to everyone, but here we want to remember a mystical body referred to in chapter 2 of the Gospel of John, where it reads (Jn 2,17): “his disciples remembered that it was written: “The zeal for your house will consume me” referring to the attitude of Jesus when he saw that the religion of his time had become a trade (similar to the present day) and Psalm 69, where verse 10 recalls this passage.
Chapter 2 of John recalls the wedding at Cana, a supernatural event, and Jesus’ fury upon seeing corruption around the temples, a natural event, so the zeal is supernatural and human at the same time.
More serious than this the problem of war, we remember in the previous post the passage in which Jesus cries when entering Jerusalem and seeing how far it is from a meeting of peoples and nations and prophesies that it would be totally divided and in permanent war, see the accuracy of this vision 2,000 years ago.
But the prophecy for our days is in the books of Revelation, although this is synonymous with catastrophes and the end of the world, the passages refer to both past and future times, the death of Jesus and his resurrection is an apocalyptic event because the great passion paschal updated the passage of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, and anticipates the passage of humanity to a future full and fruitful life, all this before the end of time, which we do not know when it will come.
In the Easter event, when seeing Jesus on the cross suffering and watching his impotence, they mocked saying “it is not the Christ, save yourself” (Lk 23,39), the divine permission of such atrocious suffering may seem inexplicable, however, this it is the meaning of the “passage” from one state to another, in any natural or supernatural event, this occurs from a “rupture” of a change of context and some strong and catastrophic-looking event happens, so the current times are distressing , but also full of hope.
Although these are troubled times, God is not indifferent to history, and certainly this “passage” will also have his presence and interference.
Ostentation and poverty
28
Oct
It is necessary to produce in order to distribute wealth, the
enterprise, its opportunity and logistics are factors that require investments and capacity for this, in a word: it requires vocation.
What produces poverty and misery is the inability to distribute the wealth and benefits of an intelligent process of production and a social organization of the state, boasting and appropriating social and public goods, in both fields.
Countries that do not produce wealth only organize misery, they cannot distribute what they did not produce and did not deliver into capable and responsible hands for building the wealth of a people.
The idea that wealth was a product linked only to certain nations, coming from Adam Smith’s liberal model, evolves into the idea of exchanging goods and wealth between nations, including the help of poorer nations, unfortunately also evolves into colonialist ideas.
In the sphere of wealth and personal goods, even Adam Smith warned of moral goods, those that make a society balanced and healthy, not outside the construction of relief and aid for the development of the poorest and the social peripheries and nations, there are nations on the edge of poverty, and in general some ostentation exploited them.
It is possible that those who produce and govern think beyond their own personal goods, if they are not profligate and ostentatious they will certainly understand that they have more than what they need for their own survival and investment in the development of social wealth, however as individuals they need to go beyond selfishness and personal ostentation.
Ostentation is not exclusive to a certain social stratum, those who have access to wealth coming from the periphery can also evolve into this pattern of power through money and appearance.
The Biblical passage that Jesus announces to Zacchaeus, who was short and to see Jesus climbed a tree, an important metaphor, when understanding and changing his values and Jesus realized that all the people did not understand that approach of Jesus (Lk 19,7-8 )“:
“Seeing this, they all began to murmur, saying, ‘He has gone to stay in a sinner’s house!’ Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord: “Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone, I will pay back four times as much”, but this remains difficult for the religious to interpret, who continue to murmur.
It is not the production and possession of wealth that produces injustice, but its maldistribution.
The real nuclear danger
17
Oct
While Russia threatens Ukraine’s entry into NATO would lead
to a third war, the rhetoric of Western countries is that Russia’s use of “tactical” nuclear weapons would be war, so the war between these two countries indicates the possibility of a war. world confrontation that would be catastrophic.
It is difficult to find breaches in this scenario for any peace agreement, the escalation of the war is ascending and even public opinion is divided, as in the scenario before the 2nd. War.
North Korea has already tested its cruise missiles, China, in the view of Japan, would reach its territory, China censored its internet (there is a control of the nationalized electronic network) and India presented its submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, Russia already has in time.
The idea of a shield in the form of a mosaic (several countries would help Ukraine to defend its airspace), is an attempt to respond to Russia’s demonstration of its ability to reach not only strategic points in enemy territory, but also tested a response to NATO.
Turkey wants to mediate a deal and Iran continues to send its drones to Russia which has improved its attack capability, also the powerful Himars missiles are now being reached by the Russian anti-aircraft battery.
It is little remembered in the literature, but we have more than 400 nuclear plants, each bombed one is a bomb, and the largest plant in Europe, Zaporizhia (photo before the war) is in the middle of the conflict, the presence of troops there is a possible scenario of a catastrophe that would hit the whole of Europe.
It is difficult to talk about peace, but it must be thought of within a civilizing process that is capable of reversing the tendency to hate, intolerance and peaceful coexistence between different opinions, the social and world scenario is increasingly polarized and the idea of submitting the other by force grows.
The gap between rich and poor
23
Sep
The most varied studies, we commented on some in this week’s
posts, point to a practically stable separation between rich and poor when not growing in some countries, this model can never guarantee sustainable social human development, wars and pandemics increase this gap even more.
The most serious problem that is extreme poverty, we have already analyzed and published in February this year an analysis of global poverty, and also, in another post, the social problem after covid 19.
The sustainability of human economic and social development depends not only on increasing wealth and social production, it is necessary to find a balance where both social mobility of classes and ethnic mobility provide sustainability and overcome inequalities.
The problem of sustainability is not secondary, many models distribute wealth but impoverish the country as a whole, this is because the investment aspects and safer strategies of economic models are only thought of around income distribution, the opposite where there is only an increase without distribution is less sustainable.
For this model, the biblical parable of Lazarus and the Rich man, the poor man who lived on the margins and when the rich see himself condemned, here the parable is valid both personally and socially, asks that he be allowed to warn his relatives of this risk, but says the biblical prophets already said and you didn’t listen, how many people and political actions have already denounced the serious social gap.
For those who don’t know, the biblical parable says (Lk 16:19-24): “At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: 19 “There was a rich man, who dressed in fine and elegant clothes and held splendid parties every day. A poor man named Lazarus, full of wounds, was on the ground, at the rich man’s door. He wanted to satisfy his hunger with the leftovers that fell from the rich man’s table. And besides, the dogs came to lick their wounds. When the poor man died, the angels took him to Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In the region of the dead, in the midst of torments, the rich man lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side. Then he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Tell Lazarus to wet the tip of his finger to cool my tongue, because I suffer a lot in these flames”.
The rich man also asked to warn the living relatives, and he was reminded that they had (and have) the prophets.
For a sustainable social democracy
22
Sep
The Brazilian magazine Exame brought an interesting interview
with Argentine Pablo Acosta, Human Development leader at the World Bank in Brazil and Brazilian Ildo Lautharte Junior Economist of Global Education Practice, although the focus is on “human capital”, the data presented and the discussion around income growth and distribution is important.
The analysis is optimistic about the country, but looking at the data on unshared prosperity, and the data must be validated and checked for an analysis, it shows what is on the agenda in the social discussion, the social inclusion of blacks and indigenous people.
Acosta did not fail to point out regional disparities and stated that “in particular, I would say that the differences by racial groups are quite noticeable, not only at current levels, but in progress over the last decade”, as shown in the chart above.
The graph indicates the HCI (Human Capital Index) and the interviews see the underutilization of human social development potential, seen only from the economic perspective, which only values the aspect of this “human capital”, with the only economic focus being notorious.
In terms of democratic sustainability, not only economic and social development is important, but also the overcoming of inequalities and prejudices, they are vectors that prevent greater mobility and concentrate wealth and, consequently, power in the hands of a few.
The aspect of social vulnerability of layers below the poverty line is not touched either, these indices not only prevent these layers from any social progress, but also compromise future generations in terms of human development, or as economists want, the “human capital”. ”.
The report also brings the strong impact of the Pandemic on the economy, called by the Brazilian Lautharte the lost decade, he highlights: “The main objective of the report is to put people at the center of the debate. Bringing the child to the center of the development process, in an idea of recomposing the impacts of the pandemic”.
Affirmative post-pandemic policies that point to a little or nothing resumption are being discussed, on the eve of an election in the country, it is necessary to understand these lost years.
Reference:
Democracy and the poor
21
Sep
The serious democratic crisis that affects almost all Western and
some Eastern countries has a clear and decisive aspect: the forgetfulness of the most unprotected sections of the population.
Governments were not able to effectively solve the problem of income distribution and where hopes were greater, economic errors and misguided allies among the powerful contributed to a greater distrust of the population.
Politics is driven by money, even spending limits find ways to be circumvented and for this, allies are needed among the rich, most of the time the most dishonest and according to corruption and the use of public money, one enters in a vicious circle.
With the wider dissemination in social media (“networks”), ideologically directed information does not work and amidst fake news, there are those news that everyone knows: the allies among the powerful that feed corruption and misuse of public resources.
The gigantism of the state helps this, it controls capital flows, of course when well managed and when it doesn’t, it throws nations into pits of misery and lack of investment, many countries are on this path.
What is left for politics is not to do well-crafted social justice, without demagoguery and with sustainable long-term planning, on a social populism that the people themselves distrust, and often leads to the option of authoritarian governments and even worse, or else leads to social populism: it promises what it doesn’t deliver.
It is necessary to reflect for a conscious vote, without a fair and balanced society, a sustainable and healthy democracy is not possible, we are taken to dangerous extremes and an uncertain future.
It is necessary to rethink the democratic society in social parameters sustainable.
End of the pandemic in sight
19
Sep
This was the statement of WHO´s Director General Tedros Adhanom
on September 14, last Wednesday, but then he asked that the pandemic continue to be monitored.
Consultant Sylvia Lemos from the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases also told CNN: “It is something that encourages the prospect that something may be ending the end of the pandemic, but it does not mean that the world is free of surprises”, and she also asks for caution. stating that “more sustainable data is still needed”.
The protocols are that in general the use of masks is optional, but hygiene and ventilation care are not expendable, also environments where the use of mask is imperative, as there are still sanitary environments such as hospitals and places of greater danger. .
According to the infectologist, in addition to the fact that every viral infection is cyclic, the last strain must also have lost strength and not have new stronger variants, and it is obvious that vaccination helped.
The country has the lowest rates since 2020, and the downward trend in deaths and cases remains.
It is necessary to understand how the infectious disease specialist reminds us that the action of the virus “does not end” and that science will dictate the new measures to be taken from now on, such as whether there will be annual vaccinations and the prevention of risk groups.
Unless new facts occur, our weekly monitoring of the pandemic will be more sporadic.
