Arquivo para a ‘Social Network’ Categoria
There is no neutrality or presumed innocence
04
Oct
The electoral result in Brazil was a surprise to many people, among the parties in dispute there is always a triumphalism, that is even natural, but within the rules
and electoral laws that include the rules for the dissemination of polls and this is the biggest surprise of the election in Brazil.
The worst result of democratic elections is always some scratch on the already fragile democracy.
The free debate of ideas and political proposals is essential in politics and in society as a whole, these limits when they are extrapolated create gaps of hate and intolerance harmful to the political process, there is no way to say that the researches were very wrong, but they were only wrong in a sense and this is beyond the assumed neutrality of research institutes.
There is not only misinformation, therefore, there is also bad information and badly worked by the bodies that should preserve the scientific, mathematical and statistical criteria, to say that there was a turnaround on the eve of the elections, it is possible in two to 4 percentage points, above the alleged margin of error, but they reached 10% and even more, this does not contribute to democracy and turmoil.
Even the STF and STE are exempt from any blame or request for an investigation, after all, all polls must be taken to the STE (Supreme Electoral Court) in order to be disclosed, that is, it may not endorse (it is not he who does the research), but authorizes the disclosure and is solidary.
In order for there to be no political-electoral exploitation, a response to society is necessary, even serious researchers and analysts have commented on the fact, I quote Pablo Ortellado from USP (see BBC interview) who gave an interview saying that they should review the “methods”, understand- if here method by methodology, I think that it is not necessary to have a criterion of scientific and political neutrality.
For the sake of democracy, for a peaceful and democratic course in the second round, it is necessary to clarify society as a whole, saying that polls do not influence is sophistry.
It is necessary to safeguard the democratic electoral process and respect the rules of the game, in Brazil it is very difficult, but fragile democracy needs this and society is expected to respond.
Russian Roulette: The Atomic Peril
03
Oct
Russian and NATO rhetoric grows as Russia retreats from
the Ukraine war, the forces of this country arrived in Lymann, a city within the Oblast (extado) of Donetsk, where contested plebiscites were held there and also in Luhansk, and Announcement of annexation to Russia.
The advance towards the Donetsk Oblast actually looks like a retreat of Russian troops, we warned last week that Russia would not react peacefully in a loss of the war, the annexation announcement demonstrates this, but the call-up of reservists seems to warn of something greater .
The call volume of 300,000 reservists doesn’t seem to be just a function of the Ukraine war, the nuclear threat from both Russia and the US government’s response don’t seem like bluffs, Putin himself said it wasn’t a bluff, and Western analysts say that Russian TV even mentions in its war news, Armageddon, alluding to the battle at the end of the world.
Only nine countries in the world have nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the two main powers in the conflict the United States and Russia, together have 12,853 nuclear warheads on the planet, of course what is known, and this is 90% of the total, China for example has only 350 warheads, North Korea makes a big deal out of less at 100, warheads are explosive charges having a cylindrical nuclear capsule placed inside a rocket, missile or projectile. India is fifth member.
Nuclear power plants should also be considered in this account, which once bombed can have even more devastating effects than warheads, but it is thought that at an early stage weapons considered “tactical” would be used, but it is evident that this would happen in a domino effect.
This whole scenario is terrifying, negotiation is always possible, China has already spoken out harshly warning of this possible spillover, but the preparation and tension between NATO and Russia seem to put at risk at the highest alert level.
Peace is always the path to the civilizing process, it has social and political nuances of course, but the defense of life and civilization must prevail over insanity, we hope.
The moments are of high tension and October will be very decisive for the conflict.
Wisdom and training
27
Sep
The most beautiful image that Plato made of Socrates about
philosophy was not the ordering of knowledge, the epitheme that is also necessary, through which the sophists were fought, but the image that exists in his book Symposium, the one with which we have access to philosophy and knowledge of the Supreme Good and in it “the” wisdom.
The one that says that a philosopher is not moved only by a “know-how” as the utilitarian world wants, the presence of Socrates by the “testimony” of Alcibiades, with an appearance without any compatibility with the Beauty of classical Greece, and which imposed to whom he was questioned a change of attitude, not a passive receiver of ideas.
Questions and interrogation are no less important than putting oneself actively in front of oneself and the world, there is a desire to take the lead and to respond to really important questions.
As we read in Theaetetus, Socrates is defined as atopos, with “no-place”, or even “weird”, as one who creates aporias, that is, he does not solve things, he only raises questions, he does not then help the harmony of the “polis”. ” or the cosmos.
What kind of wisdom is this then, “not knowing” is very significant for Socrates, he is a scathing critique of the pretension of the known, after all their knowledge is not the result of conversation, of dialogue, it is not aware of the contradictory questions of the your knowing.
Every Socratic-Platonic-Aristotelian edifice did not resist the brute force of the Roman empire, and falls into ruin before the mighty Roman army, as war won Greek wisdom, acquiring it and making it serve its purposes, the Roman gods were no other. but those corresponding to the Greek gods, but philosophy has decayed.
This is the possible current parallel, there is an almost general feeling that regret is no longer useful or reasonable, and philosophy would be nothing more than mere speculation, says Sloterdijk “it is not a favorable time for thought”, or we go for pragmatism of action or for the deleterious.
There is little room for the birth of the new, for Paidéia with its effect of education and training, everything goes towards the immediate and the market.
Even in environments where culture is present, it seems that the ideals of wisdom are under suspicion and vulgarity is promoted even with a certain ‘status/’, the way out is to call men to conscience and common sense.
Plato. The Banquet of Plato. CHICAGOWAY AND WILLIAMS, 1895. (pdf).
Scalation of war
26
Sep
We warned last week that the risk of a Ukrainian advance would
provoke Russian anger and this is indeed what is happening, the government has called up 300,000 reservists, and the UN OVD body reported that there have been protests in 38 cities and 1,400 people were detained (source RTP Portugal).
The war in eastern Ukraine begins to reverse the trend, on the eve of a plebiscite held by the Russian government, Ukrainian troops advance in the Donetsk region, strategic because it has roads and railways to reach the regions to the east, including Mariupol and Kherton.
What the next steps will be will depend on the severity of the Ukrainian advance, at first these young people and parents of families who are being called up will go to the front so the idea of waiting for the winter and trying to contain the advance of Ukrainian troops seems like a first strategy, but provocations of the use of nuclear weapons continue and US media outlets report that the Biden administration had made a private call to the Russian government.
Putin has so far kept protests and opposition to the war under control, at the cost of arrests and a certain restriction of press freedoms, most regions are also ruled by pro-Kremlin authorities, but it is possible that the internal situation will worsen (protests in photo).
An aggravation that is uncomfortable for the Russian government are the border disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and also Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and Russia itself has a territorial dispute with Georgia, in addition to the various border conflicts (Finland, Moldova, etc. ), in practice, Russia would like to return to being the great Soviet federation, but the scenario is already different, and the Chinese government called this weekend for there to be no “overflow” from the war.
The Russian issue is that NATO takes advantage of these conflicts to have new allies, in addition to the post-war territorial expansion, which is the main reason alleged for the war with Ukraine.
The siege of Leningrad, today Saint Petersburg, was to prevent Russian trains from reaching the city and there was a food ration card, when a person died the first thing they did was steal the card, also if someone was transporting food. in the city was robbed, the city had about 3 million inhabitants and the only passage to Russia was Lake Ladoga.
Winter came and the lake became frozen and possible to be used as a route, while the situation of the German army was that it faced difficulties in supply and conditions to withstand the cold.
The current situation in Ukraine is that there is all autumn for winter to accompany the Dombass regions, and avoid the Dombass ones, while the Russians want to stifle the resumption, first through a referendum that guarantees support for the Russian and then with the sending of more troops.
Further Russian defeats could exacerbate the nuclear issue and Ukraine itself could suffer from the cold if forced to shut down its Zaporijia plant.
Meanwhile the Europe of gas spend the winter, has already returned to using fuel fuel to avoid the use of gas in nuclear agreements, strategically wait for the winter to avoid the use of nuclear energy, strategically wait for the winter for their investigations .
There are possibilities for a peace agreement, but they lack a reasonable agenda, a polarization mines as possibilities.
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.
The winter and the war
20
Sep
Ukraine has announced a counter-offensive in the Oskil region where they
have won important points and begins a counter-offensive in Kherson promising to reach even the occupied region of Crimea.
How will Russia react and what is the importance of this resumption of Ukraine? Before any analysis, it is necessary to recognize that the collapse of Russian forces on the Kharkiv front is a serious defeat and it is unlikely that Putin will not react, the problem is what the reaction is.
News from various sources is that Ukrainian troops have made major incursions on the Kharkiv front, for example the US-based Institute for War, where around 2,500 square kilometers have been recovered from Russian forces.
Ukrainian forces pushed the front line from Kharkiv some 70 km east to the Oskil River, capturing several key strategic points, particularly in the Izyum region, where bodies were in common speech with marks of torture and on the west bank. from Kupyansk.
Winter is coming, and Russia in addition to controlling energy sources, also the nuclear plants that are under its control, can cut off the gas and suffocate not only Ukraine, but much of Europe.
But what is more worrying is Russia’s reaction if the defeats are prolonged, the use of strategic nuclear weapons could trigger a NATO chain reaction and a difficult scenario could be drawn.
We will enter the autumn of Europe, which corresponds to our winter in the southern hemisphere, and tensions tend to escalate.
It is necessary for peacekeeping forces to mobilize and prevent a crisis that could lead to drastic actions and even greater horror.
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.
Be fair in the little things
16
Sep
Money is in history and in life just a symbol of exchanges and
goods that must circulate socially so that everyone has a dignified and fair life, dealing with it is something that should be treated with the same respect that people socially deserve.
A fair person is also fair in small things, social injustice does not start with big robberies, they are an indication that those people do or will one day do greater social injustices.
The public sphere is corrupted when those who determine social justice: rulers, judges and legislators have lost the notion and values that small thefts and injustices can lead to big ones and make the whole society corrupt, then everyone will say this is normal.
When these values start to become dubious, it means that morally society as a whole is shrouded in corruption, immorality and a great lack of ethics, everything that is public begins to fall apart and there appear profiteers and opportunists who will make use of public corruption.
The biblical reading (Lk 16,1-13) which speaks of a manager who, seeing that he was going to be fired, starts to negotiate with the debtors of a rich man, and calls the debtors and begins to reduce the debts, so it is not a smart but dishonest administrator.
The parable seems strange if it has not been read to the end, because when he begins to relieve his debts to save himself, he reveals his true character, which was to squander the master’s goods, says the reading in verses Lk 16, 10-11: “Whoever is not faithful in small things will not be faithful in great things either, and if you are not faithful in the use of unjust money, who will entrust you with true good?”.
The true good is nothing other than a full life, not only eternal life for those who believe, but also an earthly life, difficult perhaps, but serene for those who have not included in their daily life, in the “little things”, deviation, the theft and corruption of other people’s things or public goods.
Small vices lead to big ones, and they cannot lead to a full life, but increasingly troubled, more greed and lack of control of consumption and of life itself, it is the bad administrator who squandered the rich man’s goods, that is, we throw the real riches of life outside because of greed and consumerism.
