Posts Tagged ‘pandemia’
Give a “soul” to the Earth
18
Mar
The idea of giving the man of our time a planetary citizenship, we
live in a time of globalization or globalization, and this implies rights, it will only be sustainable if in return this path also points to an earthly “soul” where everyone sees themselves as codependents among themselves, the pandemic should have sparked this, but not yet.
Says Chardin in the book we are analyzing: “the man of our time will still go through a period of great illusion, imagining that, having reached a better knowledge of himself and the world, he no longer needs Religion” (Chardin, 1958) and this gets worse when we see the night of God hanging over humanity, confused between ideologies and fundamentalisms.
He saw the imperative that “from universal evolution God emerges in our consciences”, and he saw that it was necessary to overcome “religion understood as a simple appeasement of our difficulties, nothing ‘opium’. Its real function is to sustain and stimulate the progress of Life”and note that the systems proposed against it have not been able to prove effective in this direction.
He explains that the religious function is “born of ´hominization´, and linked to it can only be continually with the Man himself”, and he will ask: “Isn´t this what we can verify in our life? When, in the Noosphere, was there a more urgent need to seek, to find a Faith, a Hope to give meaning, a soul to the immense organism that we built?
It implied that this process of hominization, as the highlight of the complexification of the Cosmos, its “more advanced” form is “personalized”, and it raises a double necessary condition for the future: to super-animate the Person (anima-soul and animation has the same etymological origin), but without destroying it, and a universal convergence “must still (eminently) have the quality of a Person”, we purposely invert, due to current events.
Chardin imagined that the person would grow up with this “super-anima” (here in the sense of the animation) but we see that the Person was in the background, or as most current existentialists prefer, the Being and the Being-with-the-Other, that should have evolved along with the super-anima, but it didn’t.
In the 1937 Beijing writings, he speculates about this human energy that drives so many advances and this “being-more” force in a more primitive and more savage form: the War.
He believed that the time will come when “those who triumph over the mysteries of Matter and Life” as opposed to being used for war, armies and fleets, “doubling this other power that the machine will make free, and an irresistible tide of energies available will lead to the most progressive circles in the Noosphere”.
As a first conclusion, the texts will still go ahead, he says: “Love, like thought, is always in full growth in the Noosphere. The excess of their energies in relation to the increasingly restricted needs of human propagation is becoming more flagrant every day”.
Chardin, T. (1958) Construire la Terre. Paris: Editions du Soleil.
Healing, the soul and the law
16
Mar
The pandemic follows an even more dangerous path, which is the
production of new variants or new strains, all humanity wants a cure, even the so-called denialists, we all suffer and because the cure does not come, what is missing for science, or for understanding the virus that does not happen, in fact we have other diseases that are social comorbidities: hunger, misery, ignorance and intolerance that do not give respite too, and the disease of the soul that is not talked about.
Ah it was always like that, we have no other solution, we talked in the previous post about the next pandemic, if we do not cure ourselves, of course, there is a different and emblematic case.
In 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, who was a hospital cook in Somalia, caught smallpox, he didn’t know, but he was the last person in the world to naturally contract the disease, she infected 1 billion people and killed 300 million in the 20th century, when he was cured he went down in history, smallpox was considered eradicated, two things were needed: the vaccine and managing the disease.
Management must be global and WHO must play an essential role in this struggle, identify outbreaks and act quickly and firmly to prevent infectious diseases from spreading.
The disease that prevents this is the disease of the soul, we are almost always in radicalization poles and we do not allow a fraternal and general advance of all countries and in all countries by WHO, this problem of the human “soul” will not be solved only by law, politics and repression, it is necessary to educate.
Religions could play an essential role in this, created to make the human family the daughter of one Father and thus all his children, limited as we are in the face of sanitary and social diseases, cannot be fulfilled because the human soul remains ill, and only “law ”does not solve the need to change the mentality, only radicalization will produce more dictatorships and less fraternity.
n the Bible passage that Jesus heals a paralytic, and he goes out taking the bed, the Jews say that it was not allowed to carry the bed on the Sabbath (John 5: 10-13) and Jesus had already forgiven his sins, that is, healed his soul, and we remain sick with sin and new mentality.
Teilhard Chardin wrote “Construire la terre” (Ed. Soleil, 1958) where he speaks of the “common soul”, we will return to the theme.
The unpredictable future of the pandemic
15
Mar
It is becoming increasingly clear that the future of the pandemic
may be far from what everyone imagines, the number of variants of the virus, scientists are beginning to identify the small variations it makes in its genetic code, and for years epidemiologists have said that we should be prepare for a next pandemic, if we haven’t done it before, now more than ever should be done.
Meanwhile, the epidemic shows no signs of cooling, despite the number dropping, in Europe for example, there was a considerable increase this week, of every 100 infections registered in the world, 41 are from Europe, the Brazilian case we have already revealed is tragic due to the records infections and deaths higher than last year’s data.
The studies on the variants also find a change in its genetic code that is frightening because with each transmission, changes in the genetic code can influence the efficiency of the vaccine (we have already explained the efficacy rates that depend on the “type” of the vaccine), that is it may happen that the next epidemic is the coronavirus itself in one of its mutations.
What to do for now, increase the vaccine and combine it with lockdown, is a cultural fact that will be difficult in Brazil and the restrictions are highly unpopular, but there is nothing else to do, and it needs to be combined with increased rates. vaccination.
Another problem is the humanitarian crisis that can occur, limiting the movement of people means limiting trade, consumption of goods, etc., which in 2020 had a positive fact, since the little circulation of vehicles and the use of non-renewable energies, it caused CO2 emissions to drop by an average of 6% across the planet, and some signs of nature rehabilitation appeared, the presence of dolphins close to the coast, which means an abundance of fish, improved levels of pollution in large cities.
However, it is important to say that the number of deaths grows that had started to decrease, returns to very worrying levels, and new bouts happen again due to the virus variants.
The economy must also be a worrying factor because there are already signs in many countries of social problems, unemployment, poverty levels and related issues: income distribution and impoverishment.
We can learn from this cruel lesson, but still most people care little about what hasn’t directly affected them yet, but it will gradually affect everyone.
LockDown of Brazil calamity and the P1 variant
08
Mar
We could have mitigated the most critical periods of the 
pandemic since the beginning of the pandemic with phases of lockdown and opening. However, it almost always faltered due to the unpopularity of the measure, mainly to trade and some environments that prioritize profits over lives, because several non-essential sectors they could have closed, not to mention the irresponsibility of parties and agglomerations for some kind of “party”.
Now almost every country in the red phase that indicates the exhaustion of hospitals and record numbers of contamination and deaths, we still hesitate in harsh but necessary measures.
The Brazilian variant of the virus, called P1, is more contagious and for which the Coronavac vaccine is even less effective, and AstraZeneca, which is more efficient, is still in the slow phase of vaccination, in total we have not yet vaccinated 10% of the population and the reduction of 8 million vaccines was announced by the government itself.
Countries that have increased vaccination efficiency have combined lockdown with vaccination, because vaccine contact with researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Leicester explains that contact between vaccinees and variants can give rise to “superpowering” mutations that are capable of circumvent the immunizing action, and this in Brazil can become a pandemic bomb.
The calamity in which almost all states and most cities are located, can put a little judgment in the minds of those who manage the crisis, not only the central government, but also the state governments and the mayors of Brazilian cities.
The P1 variant is already feared, many countries are already taking care of Brazilian migration, fearing that the variant will spread and contaminate the process that in many countries is already reducing the pandemic, it is sad for Brazil, but we must understand these measures as necessary.
It is true that some services cannot stop, there are essential services and they must be active so that there is no shortage, an even greater loss of purchasing power, some are already observed in everyone, but life precedes gains and they are necessary measures that guarantee the minimum sacrifice, especially to the poorest.
A tough measure is necessary and without it, even vaccination can be compromised, and it is also necessary to take care of the effectiveness against the P1 variant already present in most Brazilian cities.
It will be a tough week and we should all be more careful and understand if the authorities have to take restrictive measures, the scenario is practically a war.
It is almost impossible in the Brazilian context to ask for this, but it would be good to have greater and genuine solidarity to face the most critical moment of the pandemic.
Good news, bad and post-pandemic trauma
01
Mar
The good news is that the pandemic is decreasing worldwide, the
bad thing is that in Brazil at least 7 states with a worse worsening than the data from 2020, it is worrying, but what is already beginning to be thought is what will come next, our worldview has changed and we need to take a new path.
These are events that happen individually when we have a serious accident, a rupture in personal relationships, or something that creates trauma, according to David Trickey, a psychiatrist and member of the UK Trauma Council, the trauma rupture is a “construction of meaning” .
The psychiatrist explains: “the way you see yourself, the way you see the world and the way you see other people” are shaken by the turn of an event, a gap in your “guidance system” and a simple everyday stress turns into trauma if they are mediated by strong and prolonged feelings of helplessness and apprehension.
It will be necessary to look at people’s mental health, to extend our limit of tolerance and attention, it is at this moment that intolerances and practices of latent or simply little pessimism
What is this guidance and meaning system about, we all have a kind of “personal GPS”, connected to work, human fulfillment and their needs, in short self-esteem and the relationship with others, we dealt with the subject in the past week.
Mental resilience is a kind of balm that moves our cognitive machine and makes us move on from stress and if it gets close to exhaustion it creates a psychic trauma, as serious as a physical trauma.
Remembering the lessons of this pandemic crisis and building new meanings is more difficult than just being “optimistic”, but the penultimate great epidemic of the Spanish crisis has shown that it has been forgotten and the lessons we could learn have not been learned.
Martin Bayly, a social scientist at the London School of Economics (LSE), quoted in a BBC report, went to revisit files on Spanish flu in the UK where 250,000 people died, and could not find any evidence of public homage, he said in the report “The absence of memorials made it disappear from public memory, when writing history”.
This affects our preparedness for future crises, when the 1957 pandemic occurred (the Asian flu killed one million people), several analysts pointed out, according to Bayly’s report, “we completely failed to learn the lessons of 1918”, but also the moral lesson why we were in the middle of war.
Creating a meaning from a social narrative would be an important step, highlights the report, and one of the efforts in the United Kingdom will be to remember the NHS (National Health Service) in the Brazilian case the SUS (Unified Health System), in addition to this thinking about memories and other ways of remembering and recounting this crisis will be alert and preparation for the future.
The asceticism of the soul
26
Feb
We live in times when even organized thinking has deviated and
whoever wants to find the truth will have difficulty, the vast majority of people seek asceticism through what Peter Sloterdijk calls “exercise life”, recipes for how to have a good life, in general , only financial, but in many cases also the care with food and the body and beyond, how the asceticism of the soul is and where to find it is the question.
It is true that there are those who do not even believe that the soul exists, but live in a discomfort of clinging only to the things that pass and never find what does not, we developed this week is the asceticism of the encounter with the Other, the one who does not it’s the mirror.
The organized fans of this or that type, this or that form of spirituality, this or that current are only looking for the mirror, someone who thinks and lives the model of asceticism linked only to a group, for this reason as they are exclusive, they do not they are a model for everyone and cannot be a true ascesis.
Even in terms of religion, he who “loves God who does not see and does not love the brother who sees, is a liar” (John 1: 4,20) also other religions have similar formulas that are summed up in the so-called “golden rule” , not doing to the Other what you would not like to be ugly to you.
Markets and shopping malls fill up in times of pandemic, apparently even more than in normal times, of course when they are open and it is allowed, people look there for what a false asceticism gave, that is, a life of exercise, in this case of consumption.
So times will be harder, and with more difficulty finding the true peace that is the one that takes us to the top, after all asceticism means to rise, rise and reach a region of soul comfort, not material and not even that which we entered there and we were fine (in our group or crowd), but an elevation of the spirit and soul that comforts us, even in crisis.
The biblical passage that reveals this asceticism is the passage in which Jesus chooses three disciples and goes to Mount Tabor (beware because Jesus’ other ascension is a debt ascension, which was after his Death and Resurrection), says this passage (Mc 9 , 2-3): “At that time, 2Jesus took Peter, James and John with him, and took them alone to a separate place on a high mountain. And he transfigured himself before them. Her clothes were shiny and as white as no washerwoman on the earth could target”.
After Mount Tabor (see the picture above) they had to return to reality and descend from there, Peter wanted to stay there, this is the difference from the other ascent in which Jesus returns to his divine reality (heaven is a metaphor of the divine live).
A time of true ascension, the pandemic removed everything that was false from us, we stand before Being.
Healing the Other
24
Feb
Gandhi affirmed that “one cannot hurt the other without hurting oneself”, but Carl Jung has an expanded recipe “the one who heals the other, heals himself”, in terms of the pandemic it is good to think about this, to take care of the distance, hygiene rules, etc.
Some say this will never happen to me, they are people with comorbidities, etc. yes they are in the risk group, but the pandemic now with the new strains has expanded the “risk group”, it can be said that the whole society is vulnerable.
And along with the pandemic, economies are collapsing, but the idealistic models are still there, we have the answer for so long, do not forget that they have already been tested, so it is not about this or that model, all current models are centered on “ economy ”as the center of any policy and not in the human being, this was even more valid in this crisis.
The Fukushima plant for example, there have been tremors in that region recently, it has shown new leaks, the water used to cool it will be poured into the sea and then it will go around the world now.
If we have other natural accidents, earthquakes are always happening here and there, and if they are close to other plants, and if another type of planetary crisis, other than the pandemic comes, and this is not just pessimism, it is a possibility that we all know exists .
Yes, now the problem is the disease, the source of the current blindness, it is also an extension of the cultural crisis and night of God, see the different types of religiosity that grows, the appeals and prophecies are not lacking everywhere, in my view some may to be true even, but this is not about this, but about asking how “healthy” life is going on the planet, and there comes the Other.
They said that the crisis was in the media, or in the networks, which is a very different thing, now they are the lifeline to keep in touch with the proper distance, time it wasn’t the cell phones that did this and why they don’t do it now, to keep companies and schools running , it is not so bad, the use yes.
Of course not, the loss of relationships does not depend on the means (the media) that we use, and putting ourselves in a network is even better, now it seems clearer to put ourselves first in front of those closest to us, take care of and take care of them, things that we remember being asked by our grandparents, who seemed closed and backward, but they knew what it meant to be close, to be loving and to be faithful.
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”.
Remember that the Greek oeconomicus was about the domestic economy and agriculture, it is true that the economy has evolved a lot, but it shouldn’t have lost its origins, organizing people’s “domestic” economy and producing food, it seems essential in this crisis.
We don’t just have to heal ourselves, we need to heal and care for the other, so our medical heroes teach us, because the consequences will be for everyone, the discovery of this interdependence is healthy for a world that begins to close itself in authoritarian nationalisms and mentalities.
Variant, slow vaccination and the third wave
22
Feb
There are several variants, especially South Africa, Brazilian
and British, although there are controversies about their severity, it is certain that the spread of the virus is faster, and in the Brazilian case it already seems to be present in good part of the Brazilian territory, there is no isolation of regions and combating the pandemic is one of the most inefficient and faltering.
Vaccination remains slow, but results in Europe are more effective because they are combined with restrictions and confinement policies, and are also in late winter, and the arrival of new batches of vaccines is expected, AstraZeneca confirms a batch 10 million vaccines for Brazil at the end of February, but vaccination is slow in other countries as well.
The so-called third wave is due to Europe’s release for Christmas and the end of the year, many governments have recognized the error, here in Brazil the beaches continue to register movement and there is no clear policy to avoid agglomerations, it is not just about closing stores and commerce, as some cities have even done with supermarkets, the central problem is awareness.
The third wave then came because of the liberality of the holiday season, and soon afterwards almost all of Europe closed, including Sweden, which was more liberal until the arrival of winter, the only country that begins to release gradually is Greece but it had a very austere #lockdown.
Another concern is with the third wave is the variant, the infection is faster and quickly fills hospitals and creates a situation of chaos in the already stressed health system that struggles for a year with the most serious cases, Covid’s numbers officially fall worldwide and is restrained in Europe, but the measures remain severe.
The number of vaccinated people in Brazil exceeds 5.5 million, but the pace could be higher, the problem is the supply, 18 million more doses of Coronavac and 16.9 million of AstraZeneca are promised for March, the other Chemical Union / Gamaleya and Precis / Bharat Biotech are on schedule, still for the first semester, the laboratories produce the Sputnik V and Covaxin vaccines, respectively.
The state of Amazonas has the highest number of vaccinates 4.87%, while São Paulo has the highest in absolute numbers, a total of 1,620,182 people vaccinated in a percentage of 3.5% population, with a large percentage of second doses.
The map above shows the various lockdown situations in Europe.
The pandemic, the desert and temptations
19
Feb
The pandemic put us in check as to the rules of conduct of our
lives, first the primary (but widely used) idea that we can do everything we want if it is within our reach, the second is to imagine human omnipotence in the case of human medicine for face any difficulty that imposes on us, and the third the crude game of power, which forgets those who suffer.
Temptations are not just a religious problem, they also exist in the spiritual realm (human omnipotence above divine mysteries), but it is also a social problem, we want to drink, leave the house, go to the malls to enjoy the social benefits, and few Sometimes we remember that they are not accessible to everyone, and that their use should also be moderated.
The isolation proposed to us a more restricted way of life, a greater coexistence with those who are closest to us, but also when going out for some activity to remember those who are obligatorily facing the pandemic: the people in the health area, the people responsible for the supply of foodstuffs (remembering those who do not have enough) and also the people responsible for security and essential services (there are many, but the controversy here can be left aside).
We have to face our own desert, isolation forces us, to face our own limits first, to accept them, not to be afraid to ask for help on the issues necessary for our survival: the desert, silence, reflection, knowing how to collect yourself is also an exercise.
There is a more usual temptation which is that of power, only our idea and our concepts are the ones that must be accepted, and also the struggle for power in a growing social polarization where little or almost nothing is discussed, we point out in this blog that it is now on a delicate summit.
The Christian recipe for power is very simple, in addition to valuing the humility and respectful listening of the Other, worshiping and calling only your God and your only son a teacher: Jesus, without this the struggle for power is growing and can lead to wars and social upheavals.
Before beginning his public life Jesus went to the desert to face his human frailties (Mk 1,12-13), it was his great asceticism, the Jews believed that in the desert lived an evil spirit called Azazel (Lev. 16 and Tb 8 , 3) however, a contemporary reading, the pandemic is an opportunity, even if forced and not exactly good, it is a serious disease, the desert that each one had to face can be an asceticism.
Review life and re-educate to live
18
Feb
Part of the world economic crisis, this is Morin’s analysis
is beyond economic, moral and ethical, in his sixth book on the Method of complexity, he develops the anthropological, historical and philosophical analysis of the problem, explaining that it starts from a concept inspired by Kant.
Here ethics is defined as a self-imposed moral requirement, instead of imperatives arising from practical reason, in Morin’s ethics based on complexity, it comes from three sources: one internal, analogous to our conscience, the other simulated and oriented external by cultures, beliefs and norms pre-established in the community, and from previous sources that are the very organization of living beings and transmitted genetically.
His ethics thus presents an ethics that requires reflection on our moral, social and values choices that we bring to our daily lives, here the civilizational crisis is serious.
However, Kantian ethics favored a self-centered, egocentric ethics, according to my interests and my will, ignoring that it should share with others, and this means that we must also orient ourselves towards a vision that is sensitive to society as a whole and those without a voice.
In times of a pandemic, we were “forced” for reasons of public health, but also for education, to limit our movements, to maintain safe social isolation, and to look at each person and feel responsible for him, is this what all do
This apparent limitation of freedom is in fact one that should already be incorporated into our social ethics, without a consistent education for the practice of fraternity and a careful and sensitive look at the other, we can fall into a social vacuum and feed the already present civilization crisis. .
It is necessary to go through a long path of personal reflection and be willing to change habits and attitudes to help society as a whole to emerge from a crisis that is not only health but also social.
