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People who resisted empires
04
Aug
The great Persian empire expanded from Cyrus the Great in the
year 558 BC, and dominated the Medes and took all of Mesopotamia, Cyrus respected the culture and customs of his enemies, but expanded his empire to Egypt, and advanced over the Greeks, but was defeated by Athens.
After Darius I, Xerxes I and his son Artaxerxes also tried to conquer Greece and failed, in the year 332 BC. Emperor Alexander of Macedonia the Great organized an invincible army and ended up taking Greece and eventually winning the Persians, establishing a new empire, Macedonian.
Alexander’s death from typhoid fever or malaria (the poisoning hypothesis is not accepted by historians) the dispute between generals ended up weakening the empire and starting a decline.
The period established between the starting point of the Classical Era is pointed out with the first record of the poetry of the Greek Homer, in the 7th-8th centuries BC. and will extend to the period from 300 to 600 A.D. which is called Late Antiquity, when the Middle Ages begin.
In this interregnum between the Macedonian Empire and the Roman/Byzantine Empire, Greek culture developed in classical antiquity, which is deeply influential to this day with the so-called Western culture.
Greek culture and language were for that time what the English language is today, great developments were made from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, names in several areas of knowledge stood out: Hippocrates in medicine, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in theater , Apelles in painting, Phidias in sculpture, Archimedes in mathematics, Aristarchus, Erastothenes and Hipparchus in astronomy, are some important names that still influence our culture today.
This small nation was a great founder of concepts and thoughts that reached our days: the Organon and the Ethics of Aristotle, the Geometry of Euclid and Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras in mathematics.
They won battles uniting the city-states, but they were a small people with a strong culture and humanistic values that are remembered to this day, although they can be modified and updated.
People who changed the course of history
03
Aug
For centuries in the Iranian plain the Semitic and Akkadian
peoples dominated and established their civilization there, the Medes and Persians settled later and until the period between 500 BC. and 448 BC. the Persians established a domain and started conflicts with the Greeks, the so-called Medical Wars.
The city-states of Greece came together and managed to impose their cultural and society model on the peoples and started a new cultural process called Classical Antiquity, the Greek polis, art and the civilizing model would be established, including a cultural return in a later period. called renaissance.
These empires disappeared without leaving any traces and only historical records, the marks of cruelty, decadence and impiety of the warlike forces of these empires disappeared.
In times of civilizational crisis, it is good that peoples who had not only a great military force, but also a great cultural appeal, managed to change the course of history and strengthen the civilizing process in a broader democratic and cultural direction.
Great empires such as the Persians, the Roman, the Mongol empire (picture) and more recently the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires also went into crisis and succumbed, unfortunately not without wars and with great loss of civilian life and a critical analysis of wars is always important. .
Part of this story, forces that mobilize peace and dialogue took humanity from even greater scourges that could occur and if we cannot avoid wars, we can maximize efforts so that civilian human lives are spared.
History also teaches that peoples that were not empires and even numerous can and should influence the course of history from a civilizational experience, like the Greek polis and the world today lacks models that can unite humanity in a solidary effort for peace. .
War: current affairs and possible scenarios
02
Aug
The release of a grain ship from Ukraine is an important symbolic
factor, although Ukraine bombed Russia’s HQ in Crimea while Russia killed Oleksly Vadatursky, founder and owner of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies.
The symbolism is important and it is a relief because the confiscation of grain could cause a cascading price surge that would affect the price of food around the world.
The war, however, is far from having an announcement of peace and denunciations of atrocities by Ukraine (a video of the castration of a Ukrainian soldier by Russians was removed from twitter) and Russia, which protested the attack on the Crimea HQ.
There is controversy among experts about the future of 20% of Ukraine’s territory that is already occupied by Russia, most consider it impossible to retake these areas without civilian deaths and this would be a turning point for Ukraine in its narrative of placing Russia as ruthless and cruel.
In the middle of European summer, the European Union achieves a 15% reduction in gas consumption, to try to guarantee a stock for the winter, but Russia’s dependents will be more vulnerable from the end of October, the gas pipelines are simpler than the transport of liquefied gas which even makes it more expensive, in Germany, for example, the demand is great.
In the most worrying future scenario, the 10th will start again. Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Agreement, yesterday Biden made a statement hoping that there would be “good faith” to carry out the agreement, clarifying that even in the cold war there was never a rupture of talks and the scenario of the war now worries more deep.
According to May 2019 data from the World Nuclear Association (WNA), there are 447 nuclear reactors in operation in the world and they are in 30 countries, each of which is also a nuclear hazard, either by disaster. natural as in Fukushima in March 2011, or due to operating errors like Chernobyl in April 1986.
It is worth remembering that each plant is also a potential bomb and could be bombed in a war, it is likely that the new nuclear agreement will include this aspect.
Covid 19: Origins and possible future
01
Aug
A recent study, published by the journal Science, with researchers
from 18 countries, reveals that the origin of the Covid 19 virus was even in the Wuhan meat market that sells game meat and types unsuitable for human consumption: such as foxes, bats and dogs.
The studies had been published online as prepints (provisional publications on sharing sites) in February and have now had workshop publication in the journal Science (science.org).
One of the researchers publishing the study, Kristian Andersen, clarified to the Associated Press news agency that they have not refuted the lab leak theory, but “I think what’s important here is that there are possible and plausible scenarios and it’s really important to understand that there’s no means equally likely” depending on the mapping of the initial cases of the virus.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom reiterated that the pandemic “is far from over”, but stressed that the current situation is “very different from a year ago” with important lessons such as vaccinating the right groups and that this assessment “this is not theoretical, this is real” pointing to several countries where the number of hospitalizations is increasing.
The current data from Covid shows that it is still far from the end, in Brazil it has a moving average of cases below 40 thousand and the number of deaths still above 200, with a slight increase of 10% compared to the previous week.
In China, the inhabitants of Shanghai who are under a long and hard stage of Lockdown are already irritated and are tired of the limitations imposed by the authorities, in Wuhan, place of origin, new 4 cases triggered a new lockdown and China follows the zero cases policy. criticized.
In the West, the policy is confusing and varies from country to country, it can be said that there is no standard protocol and when there is, it is rarely observed by the population and supervised, the testing mechanism is particular and inefficient.
International Day of Friendship
30
Jul
The date of International Friendship Day was established by the
UN to remember solidarity between peoples, respect for diversity and I make a special repost of content from this blog in this regard:
The philosopher Plato defined friendship as “the reciprocal predisposition that makes
two beings equally jealous of each other’s happiness”, Augustine of Hippo affirmed that “being a friend merges us in the friendship of being; friends are one soul” and Aristotle seems to merge the two thoughts: “friendship is a soul with two bodies”.
It was Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics dedicated two books to the study of philia and friendship, who defined friendship in three types: for interest, that for pleasure, for interest and true friendship, the first is easy to identify because it is the pursuit of mutual pleasure, the second because they are useful to each other, and the third, it is possible between good men because they desire good for its own sake and do not place pleasure or interest above friendship.
In chapter IXI the Peripatetic philosopher states:
“Perhaps we can say that there is nothing strange about breaking a friendship based on interest or pleasure when our friends no longer possess the attributes of being useful and pleasant; in fact we were friends with those attributes, and when they disappear it is reasonable not to continue in love. ” (Aristotle, IX, 3, 1165b) .
In the chapter “The partner and the neighbor” of the book “History and Truth” by Paul Ricoeur he will talk about the difference between these relationships, he talks about charity: “Charity doesn’t need to be where it appears; it is also hidden in the humble and abstract post office, the social security; it is often the hidden part of the social”, Paul Ricoeur, Le socius et le Prochain (1954).
We are reminded by the philosopher that just as institutions can only have corporate relationships, they can also have interpersonal relationships, of affection and solidarity and that make them less cold and less bureaucratic, where one sees not a client or a service more, but a neighbor in which one may be interested.
It is not by chance that it is a chapter of History and Truth, because the truth is only established between true and close friends, and if they are partners, it will only be to be closer.
The Twinkl website referenced this post in function of this date, thanks for the reminder.
Imbalance and false treasures
28
Jul
It is food and public goods (water, energy and sanitation) that
are the real basic inputs of the population, but it is what you see little in advertisements, they show riches that are accessible to few and only remember the real ones at election time.
Talking about hunger has already been the slogan of many elections, all over the world, but the conditions that are sustainable for this are little or almost never understood, and they depend on a greater balance of world markets and guarantees of imports and exports of basic inputs, including for health.
Economic crises, basically, is an imbalance between the production and distribution of essential goods and consumption, and they arise in isolated sectors of the economy, it is not necessary that there is a shortage of various goods, it is a cascading imbalance and capital and stock exchanges are more reflections than origin of these crises, which include wars and revolutions.
Also natural factors can influence (droughts, floods, epidemics or some major event like an earthquake or an atomic crisis that is now possible).
Thus, the real treasures must be those that lead humanity to greater balance and sustainability, including care for nature, as the production of food, energy and even less essential consumer goods depend on it.
The real treasures like this, even if we only think of the earthly, forgetting about the spiritual ones that give us comfort and true joy, are those that provide a greater civilizing understanding, tolerance between races and cultures, and those that include the spiritual plane.
The growing culture of individualism, hatred (of different types), the accumulation of goods as a symbol of happiness, consumption even of the human body and mind lead to the opposite path of those who want to build real treasures.
Illusions pass, the moth consumes, time rusts or rots, but what remains is essential and a true spiritual asceticism depends on it, a good that glimpses future generations, and for those who believe, eternity.
So the current crisis is at its base a crisis of thought, of ethical and solidary values, of mutual respect and of a clarity about what it means to build true
War and famine
26
Jul
War is not just a dispute over markets and measuring “ideals”,
it is above all an atrocity on a scale, if murder is reprehensible why wouldn’t it be a war? during the Serbia/Bosnia war I asked a Serbian activist why she wanted to destroy Bosnia, she told me that they were historical factors that would be difficult to explain, but she said that her country was a “victim” of bombings that had no justification.
Such is hatred, intolerance and the absence of dialogue, often concealed with docile words to win public opinion, but every war has as its principle some atrocity, some unjustifiable hatred and some cultural intolerance (it can be of many types), not there is no other way to go back other than repentance (on both sides of course) and acknowledging that they chose the worst way, of course, and then sitting down at the table.
One of the consequences, already inevitable, even if there is an agreement for Ukraine’s grain exports, will be the lack of grains on the world market, as shown in the chart above, the country at war is responsible for 42% of sunflower oil in global exports. , 16% of corn, 10% of barley and 9% of wheat (2019 data, see graph) as Russia exports fertilizer and gas to Europe.
There was an agreement mediated by Turkey, but due to the war it is a fact that part of the production was lost and the price of food has already risen worldwide, the current crop will be exported, but little or nothing can be said about future crops, good part of the population left Ukraine, including in rural areas.
It is difficult for a process of regression, apparently throughout the world the confrontation and cultural and social hatred has spread, even among those who should proclaim peace.
Last week we explained the importance of friendship and empathy between men for a true spirituality, which can help civilization in this difficult process.
There is only one way, to change the climate of empathy, peace and solidarity among people, so that politicians and leaders who grow up around hatred may lose ground.
Plague, War and Famine
19
Jul
This vicious circle seems to perpetuate itself in history, and the
recent data and provocations of the war in Europe not only frighten, but cause a justifiable fear when it is observed that all over the world there are “fans” on both sides, and it is not a game , but a great genocide like any other war, but of greater proportions because it can involve the greatest world powers.
The generation that witnessed the horrors of the first two wars no longer remembers it, counting from the start date, the assassination of Duke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, by a Serbian nationalist and which is considered the trigger of the first war.
What preceded it was a period of European politics from 871 to 1914 called “Paz Armada”, where there is an intensification of disputes over markets, colonial territories and a vision of predominance in European geopolitics, where the Austrian Empire stood out. Hungarian to which Francisco Feerdinad was heir.
A documentary about the rise of the Nazis in Germany can be seen in a documentary made by the History Channel, and we will see a similar scenario: recent wars, economic crisis and not mentioned in the documentary: the Spanish flu (1918-1919).
The parallel with the growing tension between NATO and Russia in the current Ukraine war is evident, and therefore the fear of a war of civilizing proportions must be feared, including the inclusion of Serbian separatists, whom China is accused of send weapons.
The future scenario is one of a market crisis, especially in grains that will affect, in particular, the poorest, is already a visible scenario for many analysts. Global Hunger Index reports show that violent conflict is a major contributor to hunger (photo).
Civilization proportions are due not only to the number of nuclear weapons, but to more than 400 nuclear plants spread across the planet, the documentary on what the Nazis thought helps to reflect on our thoughts on popular “myths” and “fantasies” .
There is no vigorous force that fights for peace, but small attitudes such as gestures of empathy and friendship can help to overcome the current growing climate of hatred and lack of love.
Covid 19: increase and new variant
18
Jul
We have only posted the number of infections that experience a significant
increase, but a recent report by CNN warns that the number of deaths has increased by 67% in the last month and the data is worrying, the new variant BA.5 seems to be linked to the fact.
According to CNN itself, Japan experiences a record of more than 110,000 cases, which made Prime Minister Fumio Kishida say on Thursday (14/07) that the wave is spreading quickly and asked for special care on holidays and weekends.
In Brazil it is no different, we posted the number of deaths (see the graph above) just to alert the seriousness, since the current wave has not represented a great concern in the eyes of the authorities, although experts are already starting an alert because of the new variant.
Experts detected the BA.4 and BA.5 variants in South Africa and then started monitoring it in the UK, the US and now it spreads across Europe.
The most worrying thing is that it even affects people who have had Covid recently,
These subvariants that emerged from the “original” omicron were added to the World Health Organization (WHO) watch list in March of this year and also ended up designated as variants of concern in Europe.
The important thing is to point out that as the virus spreads (that is, it continues to circulate) it allows new mutations, so even immune and asymptomatic people should have the same care as others.
An awareness campaign is needed, and there are few campaigns in this direction.
Covid on the rise and new variants
11
Jul
Covid 19 remains on the rise in the country under the carefree
gaze of the authorities, environments where protocols are respected are rare, and the numbers of new variants have already appeared.
According to a study by Fiocruz, the new subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which were around 8% in May, rose to a percentage of 25% in June, but the issue of lethality is not mentioned, but the transmissibility is as high as the variants previous.
The only quote I found in the medical field was from an immunologist at the Center for Biomedical Innovation at Pioneer Peking University in China, who claims that these variants are “certainly” more infectious compared to the previous ones, but more studies are needed.
The scenario is similar across North America and Europe and this indicates that the two new subvariants should become dominant in the country, also the vaccine efficacy is not clear.
What has helped in Brazil is a less severe winter, which does not worsen respiratory syndromes, but a new polar mass is expected for the middle of the month and the beginning of August.
Internationally, experts are concerned but emphasize that vaccines and boosters are not completely ineffective, Dan Barouch, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School, said in Boston: “Immunity from current vaccines must still provide robust protection. against serious illness, hospitalization and death”, is reassuring.
Even more encouraging news was published by National Geographic, which in addition to reporting that vaccine manufacturers are talking about a specific vaccine against Òmicron and according to Stephen Zeichner, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Virginia Medical Center: “It is very clear that the virus continues to evolve and in the future there is a need for a universal vaccine against covid 19 or even a universal vaccine against coronaviruses.”
Until we have this security, including against new variants, it is important to maintain care.
