Arquivo para a ‘Recursos comuns’ Categoria
Society in a transient moment
13
May
Life has changed all over the planet, the limitations imposed will certainly not
be permanent, but some concerns that were born with health, with the invisible and with new technologies will be permanent as to the importance and transformed when taking them more into account.
The transient also observes the idealistic dichotomies of subjects and objects, or subjectivity seen as a false model of the subject, that he is devoid of materiality or substantiality, the disease is a proof of this error, or of a false objectivity, our certainties about our empirical objects have failed and continue to fail in predictions and models, the old age of uncertainty, old because it has been a “theory” since the last century, now became narrative.
The old idealistic theories, which history made them fundamentalist ideologies, have as their epicenter the idea that we must develop and advance the economic models (in the end it is always the idea of “more production”) until an even greater exhaustion, before the nature and now of life itself on the planet put at pandemic risk.
Sloterdijk warns in an interview in El País “current life does not invite us to think”, and the reason that I have a relative optimism about social distance (I prefer isolation, as society as a whole works in a network), is in the reasoning he does in the same interview: “For Husserl and his phenomenology it was necessary to get out of the impetuous time of life, the most elementary device was to always take a step back. This action allows you to become an observer. ” .
And this is the basic assumption of uncertainty, that the observer is part of the phenomenon, the idea of science that we can repeat the experiment observing the phenomenon, must take into account that the observer is part of the phenomenon, in times of pandemic, if not me prevent pandemic affect.
The whole of this epoch change, since its foreshadowing came from the two great wars, which not by chance came from the worst pandemic that humanity faced was the Spanish flu, which is a good example when there is no social distance, which lasted 2 years (January 1918 to December 1920), infected a quarter of the planet (500 million people) and killed between 20 and 50 million people.
Two untruths exist about this pandemic, first #lockDown is not good (see numbers above) and that has not changed anything, it happened right at the end of the 1st. world war (from 1914 to November 1918) that had deteriorated Europe’s sanitary conditions and economic resources, but that’s when the League of Nations model emerged (installed in January 1919, shortly after the Versailles treaty), even though it insufficient to avoid the 2nd. world war, started the discussion of the basic principles of social rights.
Also the old truths about the invisible hand of the market, laissez faire, began to change, with the provident state, and after the 2nd. world war the UN with important departments like FAO, UNICEF and WHO itself, an organization of great influence now in World Health and that gives guidelines to face the pandemic.
So, after this war that is now a war for everyone, against an invisible enemy and one can still say unpredictable, there will be changes and they must be thought out globally, but we are in a transient where the old ideas still resist seeking the previous normality of a consumerism and a society of inhuman and unequal tiredness.
Peak crisis and do not rush the future
04
May
We are at the peak of the crisis and we are already talking about the post-traumatic
situation, there are many doctors and sociologists who want to hurry up an analysis, China emerged from the crisis, Europe begins the new stage in 3 distinct and elongated phases and Brazil and countries from the southern hemisphere winter is approaching.
The analysis of the curve and the peak made by DataScience shows that the social distance was worth it, however, governmental hesitations and the approach of winter may even if the curve flattens, the data indicate that yes, it may be lengthened, that is, the “new normality” will be delayed.
The name “new normality” already excludes all analyzes that indicate any impossibility of returning to the previous stage, that is, an agitated and unprotected life, what Edgar Morin calls everyday “intoxication”, and an accelerated economic development, with its added price.
The moment in Brazil and I believe that most countries in the southern hemisphere is to create even tighter conditions to disadvantage “social relaxation”, in a way even understandable since the quarantine if it were even 40 days, it would be running out, everything indicates not. To further complicate political crises, in the Brazilian case, they deepen and seem to have no end, the problem of governability and political instability accelerates and deepens the health crisis.
Concentrating our efforts and focusing only on the health crisis, the economic and the social exist, however, they should not justify deaths and crisis in health care, we must consider that we are at the upper level of the curve, and the numbers seem to stabilize, they are high, it is true, if if we take #lockDown seriously we could already be seeing a way out, but that’s not the case.
One of the consequences of the pandemic is the so-called Kawasaki Syndrome, in England for example, the Health System (NHS, the acronym in English) has already detected an increase in the number of children with multisystemic inflammation, gastrointestinal problems and physical inflations.
In the middle of spring, but already with signs of summer, Europe will gradually return to activities, and we will be able to see how the social and economic problems will be faced, here is the future.
The way up
22
Apr
For both faith and science, the way up is to contemplate the truth and as the
philosopher of science Karl Popper proposes, treading the path of falsifiability and science as a human project, is not impassive of transformation, that is why several theories arise.
However, the arrogance and use of authoritarianism is incompatible with faith, the Encyclical Veritas Splendor of John Paul II, next to the affirmation of faith also establishes in paragraph 39: “Not only the world, but man himself was entrusted to his own care and responsibility. God left him “left to his own decision” (Sir 15, 14), so that he could seek his Creator and freely reach the perfection Achieve. it means personally building up such perfection ”, it is not a matter of Platonic perfection.
But rather the rise that Teilhard Chardin proposes, it is, therefore, a path and not a state, so there are people capable of external attitudes, but without values. Dialogue can be established in these circumstances, and there are certain issues, such as medicine and many other professions, that the truth, or the verification of falsifiability as proposed by Popper, must be verified by science.
A comment on the faith, it is interesting that the Risen Jesus who appears after Easter, goes to bake a fish, talk to Thomas who doubts that he would be alive, exhort the disciples, but there is no demonstration of spectacles or miracles in him.
The Enlightenment intended to present its light, but it is in the Heideggerian “clearing” that modern philosophy found a way, the ontological resumption, and only through it can one better get out of the pandemic crisis, look at an earthly world where the Being lives.
We have to walk in the light, but with everyday life and not reject the truth, but the path of falsifiability, that is, proposing that some assertion is false until it proves its truth is a safe path for science and faith it is not blind, otherwise it gives no real hope.
The “war” and pandemic economies
08
Apr
The only economic model we have of a situation in which the productive forces
of society are disorganized by the impossibility of going to work or by the effort concentrated in another activity is the “war” economy, however there is a difference because it is not war between peoples , the enemy is now a virus that has the power to do a war-like damage.
John Kenneth Galbraith wrote after the September 11 attacks, believing in a possible war, that “in a war economy, the public obligation is to do what is necessary: to support the military effort, to protect and defend the national territory, and especially to maintain the physical well-being, solidarity and morale of the population ”.
Of course, military effort can be exchanged here for medical effort, but it is already happening because not all productive forces are disorganized, the reorganization of oeconomicus, the initial meaning in ancient Greece that gave rise to the word economy, that is, the domestic economy. However, the social economy must reorganize, still in a period of pandemic, paralyzed sectors such as domestic tourism, the light and heavy mechanics industry and the consumer goods industry can be rethought around the “war effort”, in several countries to the auto industry has been called to make and restore hospital equipment, and hotels are used to house some homeless people, in short it is possible to rethink some things.
Volunteers working in needy communities are also an important effort, clothing stores can make clothing and masks to help the population, probably this should continue after the pandemic, as shown by eastern countries, the use of masks is common in Japan and some eastern countries. Family spaces should also be rethought, personally I have always built an office outside or isolated in the home environment, an American report went viral that the reporter’s wife enters his current office to remove the children.
We also did not make monthly purchases, of course, storage has a perverse side of being able to increase or even disappear some products, as happened in Brazil with milk, and the gas cylinder apparently has some speculation at stake, but we must reorganize the economy of the “Neighborhood” where people can travel less and make monthly purchases.
The main thing is to overcome an “economocentric” model and think of a biocentric one, I prefer the anthropocentric one because pets and nature must also be thought of in the social relationship.
There is a “paschal” side not only for the period we live in, but for the number of deaths and the struggle to reduce this number, in those who have sensitivity there is a feeling of death, but the struggle for life, the essential thing is the bread of each day and the resurrection to come gives this paschal environment.
Healing the Other
25
Mar
The psychologist Carl Jung gives an expanded sentence of what many have already said,
among them Gandhi: “You cannot hurt the other without hurting yourself”, thus also added Jung: “he who heals the other, heals himself”, in times of pandemic it is good to think this.
Fools say, the older and the sick are the group at risk this would happen, but more people infected and greater is the social contagion, and more people outside the “risk group” are affected, we are at an exponential moment in the Americas, it’s time to take care of yourself.
The economies are collapsing it is true, but along with it the idealistic models that have been in crisis for a long time, the agony came due to the fragility in which they found themselves, it is not this or that model, all current models are centered on “Economy” and development, sustainable development was invented for a time, but nature has shown that this model is unsustainable and resources are exhaustible.
Let us return to disease, the source of current blindness, and the prolongation of the cultural crisis and night of God, the appeals and prophecies are not lacking everywhere, they want signs and miracles as in the Jewish culture of the time of Jesus, but the sign is there and it is the blindness that prevent us from seeing.
The crisis was in the media, or in networks that are different things, now they are the lifeline to keep in touch with the proper distance, to keep companies and schools running, they were not evil.
Of course not, the loss of relationships does not depend on the means (the media) we use, and putting ourselves in a network now seems clearer, it is putting ourselves first in front of those closest to us, taking care of and taking care of them, things that we remember to do for our grandparents, who seemed closed and backward.
Saving the economy even if people die, that is the foundation of a world where, at bottom, the economy that everyone was concerned about, maybe a minority really thought about the well-being and balance of life lived in essence, without luxury and with a certain “ comfort”.
Due to the circumstances we have to think like this, after all the oecomicus (in Greek: Οικονoμικός), by the writer Xenofonte is a Socratic dialogue that deals with the domestic economy and agriculture, yes the economy has evolved, but nobody should have lost its origins, after all no one went to the malls, but to the markets to buy food and be able to #StayAt home.
A dark night of humanity
20
Mar
One night falls on mankind, but it must be noted that this night the virus that 
has hit the whole planet has been happening is a catalyst and despite being lethal and bringing a lot of care can wake us up from a night that was happening: night of culture, night of God, night of science reduced to questionable specialties and methods and mainly night of man.
The rampant and often meaningless life, the search for efficiency and productivity, the idea that economic growth brings happiness and especially the exclusion of the Other, now seem to be inverted with the need to stay at home: #StayAtHome.
Tonight provoked a collective blindness, culture is anything goes, scribbles and blots became art, purely genital expressions without any affectivity of sex, and the religious culture that helped people find peace of mind became pure superstition, appeal wealth and money, or mere poverty on the other hand without anything to make you understand the deep sense of detachment and living in the essence of life.
The religious night or night of God is an attachment of men to their closed circles now, if they are prudent, also prevented from meeting, gross manipulation, fundamentalist reading of the Bible, which are the worst contemporary blindness, also reduces man to being-for-death and not being-for-life.
Contemplate the mystery of the universe beyond what we already know, we know little of the mass and dark energy that makes up 94% of the universe, and that it may still have one beyond its “bubble”, it can open the eyes of those who think they know everything because they learned science, or because they read the Bible with their eyes of cultural blindness and their closed and petty circle of “elect”.
When Jesus heals the blind man, he scares the Pharisees who want the blind man to shut up, science helped a little this abandonment of superstitions and helped to illuminate human intelligence, also put to the test by the virus, in the biblical passage we read in John 9: 7- 9:
And [Jesus after putting clay in his eye] said to him: “Go and wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (which means: Sent). The blind man went, washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who used to see the blind man – because he was a beggar – said: Isn’t he the one who kept begging? Some said: “Yes, it’s him!” Others said: “It is not him, but someone like him”.
However, he said: “It is me!”, And the religious wanted to forbid him to speak.
The virus and its lessons
18
Mar
Suddenly the society that couldn’t stop, the “tiredness society” of the mind-boggling
rhythm, of daily shows, has to resume a vision that you don’t know anymore, stop or at least slow down, stay at home, live with family members that are almost weird.
The fact is that the universe, nature and in it human nature has its laws, and these can be beyond a Big Bang, we can be inside a bubble and whose laws come from “outside” it.
I saw a hashtag go off and was surprised first, but then I gradually understood, mainly young people used #stayfuckatHome in response to “StayAtHome, of course it is not easy for those who never had this cultivated habit, now having to face it.
I was unable to measure both hashtags with the tools, but the universe conspires and makes us stop and stay at home, because events are canceled, there is nothing to do on the street, even the shops give their stop signs, and of course who continue to think on the economic side.
Well we must save the economy, even if it means a rapid explosion of a virus, in short the universe has taught its lesson, it is not the economy that lives for man, but the man who lives for there to be economy, and if it has its own laws, that they do not contradict nature and man, it seems that we have a checkmate.
The lessons for the online universe are twofold, on the one hand, face-to-face resumes a course that should never have left, the face-to-face relational world and fraternal circles and on the other the need for relationships that are public or private to have adequate online tools.
Conflict exists at both ends, nor do we make satisfactory face-to-face relationships, are elusive, authoritarian or worse, indifferent, and we don’t even know how to behave in the online world (the virtual exists before the internet and the digital universe), and always who criticize use it badly and do not understand the “logic” of this universe that asks for relations different from those in person.
Now we have to schedule online meetings, use chats and videos and finally we will go beyond religious and ideological preaching to non-face-to-face relationships that are in fact “relationship”, because virtual comes from the Latin “virtus” which is similar to “potential” either saying we must “cultivate” the virtual to become a real relationship (virtue comes from virtus), the face-to-face does not guarantee the “relationship”.
The great lesson, there will be many others, is that we must share and share responsibilities to overcome the pandemic crisis, which is already social and economic, and depends on the attitude of each one.
From darkness to light
24
Jan
The relationship between tradition and change is greater than you can think, even Marx went to study English economists, German idealism and
French politics to think about his change, it is a fact that this thought today is already part of tradition, so what will be the new ?
We started the week talking about Buzzwords, however the big change that happens nowadays is in the aspect of production and consumption the digital change, the market and the hurryers already use the word “digital transformation”, a strong buzzword, however it is not about ignore it, but understand in the context of the changes that are taking place.
All the tones of the change agree that one must think about collective forms of work, of thought, however what is called collective is in different social, economic and even religious niches, it is a “us” closed in groups and currents of thought .
Tradition seeks the center, where power and wealth are, change seeks the periphery.
However, it is from the crisis that the light is born, it is curious that the Bible prophecy, as well as the text of Matthew (Mt 4,15): “Land of Zabulon, land of Neftali, way of the sea, region on the other side of the Jordan River , Galilee of the pagans! ”Speaks of a people and a land far from religion and where Jesus went to gather his first disciples, because the“ religious ”were Pharisees.
And dialogue with tradition, yes, Jesus will dialogue with Pharisees all the time, what lesson can be taken for the contemporary world and its cultural and spiritual crisis.
The new needs “new wineskins”, so new wine in a new barrel, but the culture of wine is not disregarded but improves its appreciation and production, it is not a new process, but a planting in new soil, in fertile land and where hearts are open.
Web Summit in Lisbon
08
Nov
One of the biggest events of the Web was this week, it was a side event, I could only 
follow videos and news, undoubtedly the biggest star was the founder of the Web Tim-Berners Lee who already has a great new project, although he has spoken between the lines.
He started an interview, which in fact he spoke at will without many questions saying the beginning of the Web and how his growth was also surprising for him, he told technical details like “I wrote the code of the first server and the code of the first browser, it was called WorldWideWeb.app “and was on info.cern.ch.
He then said that his concern is the same as everyone, after 25 years we should deal with: cyberbullying, misinformation, hate speech, privacy issues and said what many are talking about, “What the hell could go wrong?” to the public: “in the first 15 years … great things have happened. We had Wikipedia, the Khan Academy, blogs, we had cats, “he said jokingly, adding:” Connected Humanity should be more constructive, more peaceful, than Humanity disconnected”, but jnt (just not).
“Because we are almost at the point where half of the world will be online”, explained the British engineer was referring to the ’50 / 50′ moment, that is half the connected humanity expected in 50 years, but it should reach this point in May 2019.
After trying to argue the responsibilities of governments and companies, I believe they can happen but they will be slow, he spoke indirectly of his SOLID (Social Linked Data) project, stating that “as individuals we have to hold corporations and governments accountable for what is happening on the internet ” and “the idea is, from now on, everyone is responsible for making the Web a better place, “said encouraging start-ups too to get into this process.
Thinking about the development of interfaces where users know people from different cultures, but above all ensure the universality of the Web, according to Berners-Lee the main aspect should be (speaking indirectly again of SOLID) that the popular intervention at global level and that made the Web “just a platform, without attitude, that should be independent, can be used for any kind of information, any culture, any language, any hardware, software”, linked data may help this.
Tim Berners-Lee presented the #ForTheWeb movement on the same day that his World Wide Web Foundation released the report “The Case for the Web”, the event had a superaudience, more than 30 thousand people, there are several videos, but the Opening Ceremony is one of the most outstanding and has Tim-Berners Lee as well, see on vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkzNZKCxM
Child abandonment
17
Apr
I find, reading a Portuguese newspaper that the number
of abandoned children worldwide reaches 220 million worldwide, one in ten, and the number caught my attention because it is practically the population of Brazil.
The news of 2016 says that only in Portugal about 8,600 children were removed from their families in 2015, and also very curious news that in three villages where these Portuguese children are referred (there is still much life and many villages in Portugal, which differs from small towns), the villages of Bicesse (photo), Guarda and Gulpilhares, they are integrated into a house with a “social mother” and cohabit with the other children as brothers.
What is the school success of the current 120 children? in all villages have already lived in these villages more than 500 children, the school success rate is 88%, do not report the metric, but I believe that is the approval, since they do not talk about evasion numbers.
The time I went to look for what are social mothers has turned out to be an even greater reality, the NGO SOS mothers was founded in Austria in 1949, and is already in 135 countries, with about 2000 programs in the areas of protection, prevention, health, education and emergency.
The aldeias-SOS.org program is one of these programs. In the case of Portugal, it aims at Family Empowerment through 130 biological families, who receive an “employment grant”, with parents selected through such a detailed profile: – age between 30 and 55 years old; – minimum schooling 9th year, preferably secondary education and training in the area of education; – experiences in daily management of care and teamwork; – personal availability, intense professional commitment with majority residency in the SOS Village; and, – determination, tolerance and perseverance; – resistance to frustration and conflict resolution; – flexibility: ability to adapt to different situations and individual characteristics; – communication and empathic skills.
Expression and understanding of the other’s feelings. – ability to work in team and organizational competence. It is not just a program for social families, it is a program for all families, but more importantly, besides being a social work, it is a source of income for families with the capacity to face the challenges of family education.
