Posts Tagged ‘paz’
Turn of the turn: 2023
31
Dec
Where we will go depends on us, on a healthier, more fraternal environment
where men desire and build peace.
Not only because of the pandemic, because of the economy and wars, the social environment becomes toxic, it is in micro-relationships, in cultural and even falsely spiritual propaganda, that the new is built or destroyed.
We talk about violence, we indicate some readings to understand cultural aspects (we indicate Zizek and Darlymple), technological with the very brief introduction of Margarete A. Boden and spiritual (we indicate Anselm Grün), but there are many other serious authors (it is necessary to separate superstitious, fatalists and soothsayers in this field), many of which indicate a great civilizational danger every year that begins.
Anselm Grün quotes in his book Aristotle: “Joy is an expression of the full life” and says it is characteristic of “those whose activities are not blocked by internal or external factors” (Grün, 2014, p. 15) and thus we also find joy in times of tension and anger, and we make room for the hopes that can only spring from a full life and its social exercise.
Zizek, in a broader sense, often defends violence in a more conscious way, states that: “Not even in the field of politics should we aspire to systems that explain everything and to projects of global emancipation; the violent imposition of great solutions must give way to specific forms of intervention and resistance”, he also said in an interview that “We do not need prophets, but leaders who encourage us to use freedom”.
In the field of technology, which is subject to criticism yes and we often quote the lucid and critical of digital media Byung Chul Han, there is a lot of daydreaming and attempts at explanations by essayists (which is what they really are) who write about technology, but because they don’t know their insides, they navigate through problems and questions that are neither demystifying nor clarifying and they do what they most criticize, which is political and religious fanaticism, due to technological ignorance.
Margarete A. Bodan’s proposed text (Artificial Intelligence – a very brief introduction), although it is historical and not very deep (in the technological aspect) is illuminating and can help critics.
All this is not because of the pandemic and the economic crisis, which are just new harmful elements, but mainly because we don’t introduce more empathy, more joy into personal and social life.
Happy 2023, Monday I have a new vision operation and we will be without access to digital media and devices for a few days, it’s a good start with this forced break.
GRÜN, A. Viver com alegria (Live Joyfully) Trans. Luiz de Lucca. Brazil, Petropolis: Voices, 2014.
2022 alert and hopes
29
Dec
The balance of 2022 began with the successful launch of the James Webb observatory (at Christmas 2021, but arrived in 2022), its first images and scientific data impacted astronomy
and already balance current physical theories, new conceptions of the universe itself, the formation of galaxies, dark matter and black holes and it is predictable changes in physical laws from observations.
He arrived at his destination at a point of equilibrium in the gravitational attraction of the Sun called the Lagrange point L2, and he sent the first impressive images only in June, and always accompanied here on our blog we show the first 5 images on July 12th and make them available the available zoom tool link that allows you to choose the view target in the universe.
Another warning aspect was the war in Ukraine, we followed the evasions of Russia that would not invade the country, then the invasion with the excuse that it was to fight Nazism and militarization, but the war was becoming more bloody and although they reached Kiev, after countless setbacks, has retreated, the number of dead and refugees is enormous, in addition to the physical destruction of the country, Ukraine’s reaction was a great surprise and the war will complete a year in February, still with few expectations of negotiation and peace .
Tensions between China and Taiwan, involving the US and Japan are also on the agenda, internal tensions in Islamic countries are also a cause for concern.
In Brazil, the highlight was the electoral race, wrapped in an even greater polarization than the previous one, with even worse denunciations and provocations than the previous ones, intolerance and the lack of constructive dialogue was one of the hallmarks of the elections, with the victory of the united left in a broad front, and with a reaction still from the results of the polls.
The new government however waves to conservative sectors with a center-left minister and even respected people in agribusiness, fragility is still a clear proposal in the economy, congress and the senate had an advance in the number of Conservative seats.
Throughout Latin America, the advance of leftist forces is visible, Colombia and Chile were the most impactful victories, in addition to Brazil of course, but the general picture is still a little conservative.
Throughout Latin America, the advance of leftist forces is visible, Colombia and Chile were the most impactful victories, in addition to Brazil of course, but the general picture is still a little conservative.
Covid gave signs of a truce, seeming to cool down, but at the end of the year it returns to worry about a serious health crisis in China, and the increase in cases and deaths, which could grow again to worrying levels.
There are still hopes and concerns for next year, the picture is not good for the world economy, the health and humanistic aspect draws attention and must be dealt with in greater depth, the G7 meeting for January, the expectation of alliances that should arise in Latin America, they should make the geopolitical framework quite modified for 2023, there are always hopes and forces that fight for peace.
Violence and power
28
Dec
All contemporary Western literature leads to the reading of two things that are
apparently not opposed, but are frontally opposed: love and power.
Violence has been a common theme since man has been a man, the confrontation was initially aimed, like animals, at the domination of a territory, the demarcation of countries, it does not always mean nation and its culture, it is imposed by the dominating power, thus the first Babylonian empires were born , Persian, Roman in its decadent stage, the medieval monarchies, the Mongol empire and later the Turkish-Ottoman one.
Since the discussions of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, the so-called contractualists, who disagreed about the violent origin of man: man is bad, man is good and it is society that corrupts him and man natural is good, the so-called good savage, what is certain is that the modern state, unlike the Greek polis, is the one that has the right to violence.
In Plato’s Republic it was not like that, the idea of this philosophical school was to educate man to be a politician, he should have wisdom and virtues (aretê), wisdom being the greatest of virtues, but it is necessary to remember the polarity between Athens, city of the wise and Sparta, city of warriors, so the idea of violence remained in everyday life, and Aristotle not only walked in this direction but also became tutor of Alexander the Great, Emperor of Macedonia.
Thus, Plato’s idea remained influential in Greece, and the attempted alliance between Greeks and Macedonians to defeat the Persian empire did not happen, even so the empire extends throughout Asia Minor, reaching India, but not the conquest, without heirs and with disputes between his generals the empire splits and weakens, soon in the following period the Roman Empire begins to form.
Modern violence before the wars was concentrated in the division of kingdoms, with the Protestant reform and also the Anglican one in the United Kingdom, until the Peace of Westphalia was established.
The great theory about the modern State and power will be elaborated by Hegel, it is dominant today regardless of ideological positions, after all Karl Marx was also Hegelian (news, as he called himself), but it is the modern state that holds the power to cause Peace, Pax Eterna as Kant intended, but which resulted in two wars and we are on the verge of a third, which we hope will not happen.
However, looking at the current literature, a good part of it deals with barbarism, the two books that I indicated and will read next year go in this direction, although with opposite political tendencies, Zizek and Dalrymple focused on the theme, but there are many others: “Anger and time” by Peter Sloterdijk, “Violence” by Slavov Zizek and “Nonviolent Communication” by Marshall Rosemberg among others.
I remember Byung Chul Han’s quote from his book No Enxame, which analyzes the violence of new media, where he states that only respect is symmetrical, that is, both sides are non-violent.
The novel/fiction by Gabriel Garcia Márquez “Love in the Time of Cholera” risked a happy ending, unlike other books he wanted to make happiness possible, creating a kind of modern fable or a desperate hope, where “a utopia of life , where love is indeed true and happiness possible” (Márquez, 2005).
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia (2005). Love in the Time of Cholera. Rio de Janeiro, ed. Record, Brazil. (in portuguese)
Still the war and still the pandemic
26
Dec
The news of the war in Ukraine is of a depletion of military forces, in the middle of 
winter, even though Moscow talks about peace negotiations, a new attack on Kiev is foreseen by the military command of Ukraine, while Russia had an attack on Crimea, what is visible is that each side is starting to use up its reserve forces and the scenario is one of exhaustion.
The human, military and material losses are enormous, as well as the challenge of maintaining the initiative with the arsenal at hand, is the analysis of many war observers, such as Igor Gielow of Folha de São Paulo.
Russia does not cede the conquered territories, which represent its control over the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, passage to the Mediterranean, even if it has to pass through Istanbul, a member of NATO and which controls the strait and the passage of ships.
On the side of Ukraine and NATO, the conquered territories are non-negotiable, so the possible agreement would be to go back to 2014 when Crimea was annexed to Russia.
Another worrying scenario at the end of the year is that of the Pandemic, although some announce the end of masks, the explosion of the Pandemic in China and a significant increase in cases, although the majority are mild, the end of the Pandemic seems to be far away, and the truce inspires even greater care.
In an interview on Christmas Eve with CNN, infectologist Raquel Muarrek, from the D´Or network, said that specialists are working with a new expectation that Brazil should have “a higher incidence of cases of Covid-19” in the next two months, and I say the origin is the high transmission that is already taking place in China, where control now even generates a social crisis, as the population is exhausted.
It remains to be seen what the attitude of the new rulers in the country will be, since the states enjoy a certain amount of autonomy to face the serious crisis, but the fact is that we will not be able to live with the neglect at the beginning of the year, and we expect preventive attitudes from the governments .
A scenario of uncertainties ensues, the Economic Forum in Davos promises many controversies, it is likely that left-wing countries will not attend, including Brazil, which has a new government in January, when the event takes place.
War in Ukraine and pandemic
19
Dec
Due to visual difficulties, today’s post will be short and without references,
due to the difficulty of reading, however the news of the war between Russia and Ukraine increases the concerns of those who are really in favor of peace, because there is no peace possible if the speeches and positions do not lead to agreements.
Russia continues its strategy of obstructing Ukraine’s energy sources, which are strategic during the cold European winter, on the other hand Ukraine resists in the fights in the east of the country and threatens the Crimea already annexed to Russia in the previous war, with the Russia’s strategy of dominating the Sea of Azor and the Black Sea region.
Ukraine’s strategy is to reach possible targets in Russian territory, which in addition to military bases can operate strategic nuclear weapons, the greatest fear of this war is an imminent and possible atomic war, which would be a scourge.
Christmas, which is a celebration of Light and peace, has the deepest strategic struggle on this side of the planet and with consequences that are still not very predictable, but in the short term, there will be more Russian bases affected in its territory and Ukraine is already experiencing a serious energy crisis , the allied countries react with measures of sanctions against Russia and attempts to help the Ukrainian people.
Regarding Covid 19, there is a concern that cases will increase again in 2023, just as health organizations are already anticipating a possible new pandemic, as we wrote, due to visual difficulties, we were unable to list the sources of this information due to the difficulty of reading.
Ukrainian War and Pandemic´s Brazil
12
Dec
The war in Ukraine continues in increasingly
dramatic situations due to the cold and the Russian strategy of undermining the country’s energy sources, which is a war crime since it hits the entire civilian population and not just the military. , while Ukraine looks to attack military bases now on Russian soil via suicide drones.
The bases attacked were in Engels, in the province of Saratov and Diaguilevo, near Ryazan, only 240 km from Moscow, showing that it has weapons to reach targets on Russian soil.
Russia has an attack in Crimea, while it intensifies defense in the strategic region of Dombass, territory claimed by the Tusso government, the bases for negotiation practically do not exist, since this region is disputed by two countries and there is no possible agreement in this regard.
Russia reiterates that it will not be the first to use chemical weapons, and that it knows the risk of this use, a war of unstoppable humanitarian populations, but both sides have weapons for this, and the very bases that are attacked by Ukraine aim to destroy possible bases of these weapons.
In the middle of winter the martyrdom of the Ukrainian people continues and the calls for peace go unheeded.
Covid 19, although whiter, continues with worrying rates, since it shows no signs of a truce, in Brazil the number of deaths and the moving average of known cases continues to grow slowly.
In the country there seems to be a paralysis of strategy, recommendations for preventive measures and incentives for vaccination, but without responses from society as a whole, or from effective control policies.
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.
The War in Eastern Europe and Covid
05
Dec
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with President Putin
for the first time since September, last Friday (12/02), for more than an hour, but made little progress.
The German leader tried to find a diplomatic path to the war, suggesting a withdrawal of Russian troops from the disputed regions of Ukraine, using the words “as soon as possible”, which indicates a possible escalation in the near future.
The shipment of long-range weapons to Ukraine suggests that an attack on Russian territory is possible, which would represent a new escalation in the war.
Kremlin diplomats conceded to German pressure, and Putin’s response to Schols was: “reconsider your approaches to the context of Ukrainian events” and drew attention to the “destructive line of Western states, including Germany” and therefore rejected the diplomatic negotiation proposals.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, told journalists earlier that Putin was open to negotiations aimed at “securing Russian interests”, but it is clear that Moscow is not willing to accept the conditions imposed by the US: “what President Biden said in fact ? He said that negotiations are only possible after Putin leaves Ukraine”, and this hypothesis does not exist for Russia.
War continues to worry humanity and its escalation could lead to a conflict of catastrophic proportions.
Another problem that affects humanity is Covid 19, whose numbers have risen again, although less than the peak of the Pandemic, in Brazil 86 deaths have been recorded in the last week and a moving average of 26 thousand cases.
Blindness and new paths
02
Dec
The greatest of all personal blindnesses is hatred, and the greatest social blindness is war, in which men lose their reason and become fanatics.
It is common in times of crisis and few know and actually defend the path of serenity and wisdom in these moments, polarization and war were signs, resorting to authoritarianism and social misguidedness is the consequence.
The visual physical limitation made me have the exact feeling of what this means, first recognizing my own blindness and then knowing how to walk with it and accept the limits resorting to healing.
Socially it is not quite like that because the narratives make men believe in what they say and say and what they imagine they see, we have already posted here Saramago’s essay and other blindness, also their meaning around the pandemic.
The social course of a society in disequilibrium and under tension is always worrying, because common sense does not always win, remember the two wars and their humanitarian disasters and other pandemics.
The Christian liturgy at this Christmas time does not speak only of the advent of the baby Jesus, it also speaks of the Parusia, that is, of a new advent, where it also says that there will be cuts and changes (Mt 3,10): “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”, that is, the root of all evils and disagreements.
In religious terms, conversion is asked, a change of route, in social terms it is necessary to recognize what is not in the path of hope and love, and cut it at the root because it is the only way to change.
Folly and messy house
29
Nov
In addition to the war in Eastern Europe, a possible return of the
pandemic, human common sense seems to be out of fashion, days are confusing, even the dates of the week and the end of the year, traditionally more festive and calm, seem to give in to an atmosphere of foolishness and protest, due to the sporting event that involves at least 32 nations: The World Cup.
Although the house is in disarray, all the political rage seems to have gone to football, in fact politics looks like football with organized supporters destabilizing social life and removing authorities from their status quo, the judge who lowers himself to the fool, the president who rebels with the power it represents, new land invasion movements and calls for more authoritarianism in the midst of an evident crisis of authority.
Although the fan threw the LGBTQIA+ flag on the lawn, he was also protesting the war in Ukraine and the oppression of Iranian women (see the picture).
The Cup already had a protest from an Islamic country that did not sing its own anthem, a fan who invaded the field to protest against gender inequality and even a request for the selection to be expelled from the World Cup, the player is injured and the fans themselves celebrates, finally, wisdom seems to be out of kilter.
After all, a sport is fun, it does involve passion, but it is only within its limits, and cultural diversity must also be respected, as well as the right to protest within the limits of the demonstration.
The important analysis is that none of these facts should be taken out of context, an isolated fact or just the manifestation of minority groups, the house is in disarray, there is something dark in the air.
There are isolated and muffled voices that ask for a return to the axis and the solution of problems that are serious, yes, but they cannot be solved with foolishness, a messy house requires care in tidying up every corner, cleaning every hidden object or left aside, and let that sport is what it is in essence, a peaceful way to compete and bring joy to balanced national hearts and sentiments.
