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Arquivo para a ‘Recursos comuns’ Categoria

A cold and dangerous European winter

25 Sep

We are entering spring in the southern hemisphere and autumn in the northern hemisphere, in Europe the concern about fuel stocks for the winter due to the Russian embargo is growing, there is a danger of rationing and a rush to use coal, in Poland for example there is already queues to buy stocks.

But this is not the only aspect, the reduction in the supply of diesel by Russia will affect the entire world market and the price of fossil fuels could skyrocket, according to Abicom (Brazilian Fuel Association) the defense in Brazil is 7% in relation to the international market and 12% in the case of diesel, and may increase.

Another crisis is that of food, because Ukraine has maintained a large part of its production, which helps the international market, but there is a conflict over the flow through Poland where the country’s producers have protection and the port of Gdansk is famous, since in Black Sea military clash in Crimea grows.

The geopolitical crisis is the most serious problem, if Ukraine loses part of its territory, Baltic countries such as Estonia and Latvia which border Russia and Belarus, and Lithuania which borders Belarus feel threatened (map), and the question is who will be the next target.

The news talks about NATO’s help, but these small countries, due to their fragility, have supported Ukraine militarily and materially, there are even several reports of military enlistment in the war in Ukraine.

The United States announced long-range missiles (ATACMS type) and winter is always a strategy during war due to difficulties in logistics and troop mobility, now also due to supplies and heating energy.

Ukraine proposed a peace plan that was rejected by Russia, Zelensky went to the assembly that was taking place and had bilateral talks, including with Brazil, which certainly irritated Russia, but beyond the principles of peace and mutual aid there is no indication of a Brazilian position in the confrontation.

What can be expected for winter, if there is no peace, it is dangerous not only for the countries in conflict, but for all of Europe due to its proximity and everyone due to economic issues, fuels are just one aspect.

 

 

Administer the common good and peace

22 Sep

I thought about keeping silent and just writing PEACE, PEACE, PEACE today, but that would be silent.

Managing the common good is making peace prosper, disregarding it is allowing a large space for hatred, intolerance, violence and on a larger scale: war.

The 21st of September was established by the UN as an international day of Peace, the secretary general António Guterres cited in a video the effect of conflicts that expel a record number of people from their homes, and did not fail to also talk about these factors people, other factors such as: fatal fires, floods and high temperatures, combined with poverty, inequalities and injustices in a reality of distrust, division and prejudice.

In Italy, a group with numerous social initiatives launched a campaign “Italy united for peace”, the Community of Sant’Egidio stands out for a dispassionate and bilateral vision on the problems of wars and peace, it has the authority to talk about peace.

On the 10th to 12th of September in Berlin, Germany, they had already promoted a religious meeting that they called “The boldness of peace”, and there was no shortage of reflections on social inequalities, intolerance and injustices present in various areas across the planet.

We need to manage what Nature, the Planet and human development itself have given us to allow for a more fraternal, more just and more humane world.

For those who believe, all this is a divine gift, but it is necessary to manage it well as we will be charged in some way for the consequences of our actions, as the biblical parable says of the employees who were entrusted with talents through the owner of a vineyard.

The contract workers arrived, but as he needed more he went to the square and also hired those who were unemployed, and asked why they were there without work, they replied: “because no one hired us” (Mt 20,7) and then they were also hired.

At the end of the afternoon he paid the same salary, 1 silver coin to everyone, and some who were there from the beginning didn’t think it was very fair, but the boss remembers that the agreement was a silver coin so everyone was receiving the agreement.

So the meaning of the common good is that everyone has the right to a decent wage, but correct administration and honesty and zeal on the part of those who pay are necessary, it is fair for everyone to receive a decent wage.

But peace also requires a heart open to the just and dignified rights of the excluded other.

 

 

 

Urgent: earthquake in Morocco

09 Sep

The news began to emerge in the early hours of Brazil, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit the center of Morocco approximately halfway between the historic cities of Agadir and Marrakech, the region is called Adassil, according to the country’s interior ministry 820 people have already died (the number exceeded 2000 in the early hours of Sunday), 672 people have been injured and 205 are in serious condition, according to the latest information.

People rushed into the streets and the earthquake was felt in Portugal, Spain and Algeria, an aftershock of magnitude 4.9 was felt 19 minutes later.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the epicenter was in the mountains known as the High Atlas, 71 km from Marrakech, at a depth of 18.5 km, the city was heavily hit and has a historic center declared a world heritage site, it occurred in middle of the night, but online newspapers don’t give the exact time.

Several governments declared solidarity and promised help, the pain is hard, but it awakens solidarity, even Zelesnky from Ukraine and Putin from Russia declare their regret.

All solidarity with the Moroccan people, the under-20 Brazilian team is there and there were no injuries.

 

 

Taxes, profit and tithing

15 Aug

Whenever a crisis appears on the horizon, the most common temptation is to overload society and the issue of taxation is on the agenda not only in Brazil, but worldwide.

For benefits to be incorporated into civil life, the state needs taxes, but they should not serve as perks of the state since it is a service provided to society, and taxes incorporated into costs and prices distort and can strangle investments, savings public and private and inhibit export.

The problems in the country are enormous, the most common is double taxation (taxes on services that are already taxed, road fees for example), but governments are insatiable, they need to feed the plentiful tables of those who sustain them in power.

Profit must be thought of as having three purposes, the maintenance of social services that also serve companies, goods and social security that serve all citizens, especially workers, and the growth of the company itself and the country in investments.

Finally, the contribution to the cultural, social and religious interests of specific groups can be seen both as a society, to which everyone freely opts, and as a compulsory one, provided that there is a prior agreement for this.

The important thing is to understand that fraternal relationships, which are spontaneous, differ from obligatory ones, which imply a type of society that, once broken, the bond is lost, and this must be the case of tithing, spontaneous donation and action “between friends”.

In the philosophical field, Paul Ricoeur wrote about these relationships between partner and neighbor (Le socius et le Prochain, 1954) and

Those who doubt that this is biblical, I recommend reading Mt 17,25 when asked if they paid the temple tax: Peter replied: “Yes, pay”. Upon entering the house, Jesus came forward and asked, “Simon, what do you think: Who do the kings of the earth collect taxes or fees from: children or strangers?” to which Peter replied of the strangers, but Jesus, in order “not to offend” ordered that the taxes be paid.

The three behaviors are not far apart: dishonest profits, high tribute, and temple taxes.

 

 

welcome to polycrisis

04 Apr

This is the part of title of the article by Adam Tooze, professor of history at Yale University (USA) written in the Financial Times in 2022 that drew a lot of attention: pandemics, droughts, floods, mega storms, forest fires, war in Ukraine and high prices of fuel and food, as is typical of the magazine and of today’s world, the economic aspect stands out.

But Edgar Morin’s polycrisis went deeper, the author recognizes the origin of the term, but is unaware of what Edgar Morin and many other philosophers actually think, who point to the most fundamental root of these evils: our way of thinking. thinking and the vision of the world that we create from it and implant in our societies.

The term cited by Morin was said for the first time in 1990, but in an interview with Le Monde on April 20, 2020, the French educator updated the word: “The health crisis triggered a chain of crises that were linked together. This polycrisis or megacrisis extends from the existential to the political, passing through the economy, from the individual to the planetary, passing through families, regions, states. In short, a tiny virus in an overlooked village in China has unleashed a world of disruption.”

In his view, the polycrisis crossed our ways of being, living together, producing, consuming and being in the world, challenging us to think about all our paradigms, much of what he wrote talks about new methods such as hologramatic and the danger of hyperspecialization of science that leads “to a new obscurantism” that is our inability to see the whole in modernity.

It is true that we are going through other crises, but Tooze’s article shows the implications of the war in Ukraine and the pandemic in accelerating these crises (see the Map), in the pragmatic aspect of the economic it is clear, in the spiritual and ontological aspect it is still not so clear , but it may be clearer soon.

 

 

War becomes dangerous and can get out of hand

13 Mar

As the war scene advanced in Eastern Europe, several analyzes were made here showing an increasingly cybernetic war and with chances of being nuclear, now both international news (such as CNN for example) and the American intelligence services, point out this tragic evolution.

Officials of the US Senate Intelligence Committee spoke last Wednesday (08/03) of this scenario affirmed what is written in the report of the Office of National Intelligence: “degraded Moscow’s conventional land and air capabilities and increased its dependence on weapons nuclear weapons”, so a window for peace is becoming smaller and smaller.

The battle of Bakhmut, which could pave the way for a larger invasion of Ukrainian territory, is costing both sides dearly, but will intensify the war on Ukrainian soil, with losses and unpredictable scenarios.

While the Russians announce victory in Bakhmut, the Ukrainians say that each Ukrainian soldier killed cost the lives of 5 Russian soldiers, propaganda aside, Russia does pay an expensive cost for the dispute in the region and shows that it will be a war step by step and costing many lives, in addition to refugees and material destruction.

At the global level, NATO’s involvement grows as Russia seeks allies beyond China.

The involvement with weapons and even training of troops from Poland and Germany, as well as the already evident involvement of NATO since the beginning of the war, can extrapolate the limits of Russia and Poland and pass to the entire European continent, already a Russian “new Pearl Harbour”. , launching long-range missiles into American territory would start a global tragedy by the power of weapons.

Weapons are available and there is also tension in the East, now with South Korea and Japan approaching Western forces.

Peace is always possible, but it requires an environment of cooperation and understanding between nations.

 

 

The fair and the legal

08 Feb

Legality is evidently based on laws, even if strange or questionable, it is a kind of “social contract” for living in society, which is why the topic of the previous post is relevant, even more so if one considers that the highest point of what is legal today is neocontractualism.

Paul Ricoeur wrote in two volumes on the subject, done in the form of essays, in the third essay he deals with John Rawls’s Theory of Justice, not only attests to its relevance but also he claims what almost all of us said at a time in our childhood : “this is unjust” and then this precedes the sense of the Just as they also concern not only the law, but all people.

Ricoeur in the preface of Justo 1 already pays attention to the detail that the theme is connected to the idea of ​​what is ethical, in classical philosophy, is “the desire for a ‘good life’ with and for others in just institutions”, and here he situates A good part of the civilizing crisis has emerged: the mistrust that exists in democratic institutions.

The expression “good life” taken up from Aristotle is a qualifier of good in a strict ethical sense, so the good is inseparable from the good of the other, under the penalty of being nothing more than a reprehensible selfishness, which degrades the subject in the sense of moral plane.

Put more clearly, the relationship with the other is constitutive of self-awareness, and it is, to a certain extent, ethical beyond the legal and merely moral.

Where only obedience is decisive, even with an inner conformity to the moral Law, which can be unavoidable in every ethical life, this has something beyond the Law, in it man desires the Good, aspires to the Good for himself and for others, in a sense that also becomes consciousness for the other.

It is obvious that this finds a barrier in our faults, the bad feelings, the bad actions, the violence that mark society since the most primitive times, in this sense it is necessary to awaken the conscience of guilt, which contains in it the very conception of judgment, this means to limit yourself.

For this reason, the theme of freedom is relevant, what kind of freedom is desired and under the pretext of what conception of justice, thus “fair institutions” are needed.

So this is Ricoeur’s formula: “: « the desire for a good life with and for others in just institutions », without them the legal becomes revolting.

However, it must be said that “institutions” are not limited to the legal aspect, in the same way that what is fair cannot be reduced to what is legal, it is necessary to analyze it in depth.

To explain this, Ricoeur says what is awareness of the Law: “Applying a norm to a particular case is an extremely complex operation, which implies a style of interpretation irreducible to the mechanics of practical syllogism”, that is, simple logical rules, there is not one subjectivity, but a transcendence.

When giving a lecture to the L’Arche Association (founded by Jean Vanier) that cares for exceptional people, he addressed the theme and spoke of respect when dealing with the difference between the normal and the pathological, relying on the works of Georges Canguilhem, who discusses the epistemology of biology.

 

 

 

War at the crossroads and pandemic under review

30 Jan

Analyzing these two themes of great global relevance, complicating elements of the great civilizing crisis, which we have already analyzed the political and cultural aspect that is its background, we see a war on a global scale and a pandemic under analysis by the WHO, regarding the use of the term.

These are two euphemisms, as the war already has global proportions with the sending of Leopard tanks by Germany and Poland, while Russia sends its ship called “the end of the world” to international waters in the North Atlantic, there is no prospect of Peace, the pandemic continues what is being discussed is whether the word should continue to be used, the kraker variant infection is already seen worldwide as fast and easy to transmit.

After the announcement of the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Russia has already bombed the country with hypersonic missiles that are out of radar range and announced the development in scale of the Poseidon nuclear weapon (image), an Autonomous Nuclear torpedo with intercontinental capacity, as relies on submarines can reach coastal cities in practically all continents.

Vice-President of Security Council and ex-president of Russia Dmitri Medvedev said that whoever has nuclear weapons does not lose a war, and the declaration is seen as a threat to the involvement of European countries and the United States, now seen as direct involvement by the declared shipment of weapons.

Analysts from all over the world, including the so-called symbolic “Doomsday clock”, which began after the end of World War II, advanced the “clock” to 90 seconds from midnight, due to the war in Ukraine and the escalation of threats between the West and Russia.

In 1945, created by biophysicist Eugene Rabinovitch and organized by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock featured scientists such as Albert Einstein, J. Robbert Oppencheimer and Marx Born, who are still renowned scientists who maintain this analysis, the 23:58 time: 30 is the closest since its inception.

The WHO is also considering suspending the state of “public health emergency of international interest”, a euphemism for declaring the end of the pandemic, which is worrying because more than 170,000 deaths have resulted in China alone in recent weeks, and the kraken variant continues expanding, with this the help of nations with health difficulties and a global policy to combat the virus is weakened.

I do not believe that the current crisis, which includes and is based on cultural values, can dissipate, but attitudes of peace and care for life can give us some warning, the authorities must bear this in mind.

Addendum:

After the publication of this post, came the official WHO statement: “We cannot control the covid-19 virus, but we can do more to deal with the vulnerabilities of populations and health systems”, said its Director General Tedros Adhanom this Monday. -Friday (01/30/2023).

 

 

Insanity in War and Indefinition in the Pandemic

16 Jan

The news of the War in Eastern Europe is that the struggle for the conquest of the Soledar region had a high military cost and the city was practically destroyed with just over 10 thousand inhabitants has a strategic military significance and the consolidation of Russian positions in the Donetsk region , while the missile frigate Zircon sails across the Atlantic.

The Ukrainian defense denies dominance in the region, while the Russian one celebrates amid a controversy with the mercenaries of the Wagner command who claim that they fought in the region.

The meaning of this battle is that of a war that each piece of territory means bloody battles and still indicate a long period, unless a more aggressive and more dangerous strategy.

The inhabitants of the neighboring city of Sirversk dream of peace, but it could be the next combat, as well as the strategic city of Bahkmut for the land war.

The pandemic is experiencing days of uncertainty, neither the diagnoses nor the severity of the new variants are clear, but it is known that “kraken” is highly contagious.

Although the WHO policy is not to make a fuss and leave the measures to be taken unclear, the picture is alarming (see map)+ and the kraken variant has proven to have higher contagion rates and the effectiveness of vaccines from the WHO is not clear. first lineage.

What is expected in war and in the pandemic is that affective measures are found to save lives, avoid even greater radicalization than the current situation and give simple people hope for a future with peace and security.

 

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.