Sunday, October 30, 2016

Who Wants to Be the World's 5th Largest Economy? Plese, STOP THIS SHIT






***"Garbage (Plastic Debris/ Torres)" for more images of the same region see here;
Roberto Saviano (L'Espresso, 2013);
Mario Sergio Conti (Globonews) interview avec José Arthur Gianotti (a philosophe brésilien plus intérressant que Marilena Chauau & Márcia Turíbulo) [not available anymore, because Rede Globo blocked this video in Youtube];
Bonna Petit (for more A/Z videos, for more see here);
L'Affaire Duhamel: caso real de "mamadeira de p...", e devem existir outros especialmente entre essa gente decadente da universidade e inclusive que se diz de esquerda, como o Duhamel (uma esquerda alinhada com perspectivas como a defesa de Cuba); essa gente de inteligência muito ligeiramente acima da média (e que não são senão predadores capazes de calcular) domina mesmo os ambientes burocráticos, como a universidade; isso não tem nada a ver com pensador de verdade (que se sobressaem na França, mas mesmo lah se contam nos dedos, e geralmente têm uma relação muito mais esquiva com a academia), como Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva; o caso Duhamel eh muito bem representativo do caso típico e lamentável desses professores mundanamente bem-sucedidos e arrogantes, q no final das contas (incapazes de pensar) não produzem nada próprio original, e se acham os supra sumos da inteligência pq humilham alunos, manipulam colegas e se intitulam donos da verdade em certos nichos: em suma a essência mesma da intelectualidade acadêmica bem estabelecida pra quem no geral se bate palmas!!! [L'Affaire Duhamel: un vrai cas de "biberon" (fake news diffusée par la droite brésilienne pour combattre Lula et Haddad à la présidentielle de 2018), et il doit y en avoir d'autres surtout parmi ces décadents de l'université et même ceux qui se disent de gauche, comme Duhamel (une gauche alignée sur des perspectives comme la défense de Cuba); ces gens à l'intelligence un peu au-dessus de la moyenne (et qui ne sont que des prédateurs capables de calculer) dominent mainte fois les milieux bureaucratiques, comme l'université; cela n'a rien à voir avec les vrais penseurs (qui excellent en France, mais là encore ils se comptent sur les doigts, et ont généralement un rapport beaucoup plus distant avec l'académie), comme Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva; l'affaire Duhamel est très représentative du cas typique et pitoyable des professeurs arrogants, qui finalement  (incapables de penser) ne produisent rien d'original par eux-mêmes, et qui se considèrent comme des sommets de l'intelligence parce qu'ils humilient les étudiants, manipulent les collègues et se disent détenteurs de la vérité dans certaines niches: bref, l'essence même de l'intelligentsia académique bien établie, généralement applaudie et félicitée!!!]; 

"L'ossessione dello sviluppo è cosí efficace nel nostro tempo, perché coincide col progetto biopolitico di produrre un popolo senza frattura."
Agamben, Homo Sacer
"You could say that sometimes things work in a narrow context, but they are producing havoc in a greater context. It is like the idea of making a pact with the Devil, as Faust does. He got everything he wanted, but the whole thing was worthless."
David Bohm (interview)

"O progresso é uma ação de despejo em execução."
Iberê Camargo, Gaveta de Guardados
"... la primera, Nueva España, fue una realidad histórica que nació y vivió en contra de la corriente general de Occidente, es decir, en oposición a la modernidad naciente; la segunda, la República de México, fue y es una apresurada e irreflexiva adaptación de esa misma modernidad..."
Octavio Paz (Las trampas de la fe)

"Faire partager le bien-être aux ouvriers qui l'on produit? — bien sûr, mais le vrai bien-être ce serait peut-être autre chose qu'une salle de bains, une auto ou un briquet à ressort — ce serait peut-être de fabriquer moins d'objets inutiles et affreux."
André Masson (Letre a Charles Bataille, 6 octobre 1935)
"... comment ne pas voir que les seuls esclaves ce sont les adorateurs du progrès matériel. Qu'ils soient riches ou pauvres, communistes ou fascistes; qu'ils s'appellent Monsieur de Wendel ou Madame ta concierge, Monsieur Marx ou Madame Mussolini, mais mon vieux! ils aiment tous la même merde."
André Masson (Lettre à Georges Bataille, 8 novembre 1935)

"Unbedingt jasagend, mich sogar in dem verschärfend, was ich über die Sprach-Verlumpung in Deutschland zu sagen gewagt hatte (—heute spielen sie die Puristen und können keinen Satz mehr bauen—), in gleicher Verachtung gegen die 'ersten Schriftsteller dieser Nation, endete er damit, seine Bewunderung für meinen Muth auszudrücken — jenen 'höchsten Muth, der gerade die Lieblinge eines Volks auf die Anklagebank bringt'... Man schweigt, man behandelt mich in Deutschland mit einer düstern Vorsicht: ich habe seit Jahren von einer unbedingten Redefreiheit Gebrauch gemacht, zu der Niemand heute, am wenigsten im 'Reich', die Hand frei genug hat. Mein Paradies ist 'unter dem Schatten meines Schwertes.'"
Nietzsche
**************************************************************

"De um lado, tem-se [no Brasil] intelectuais que da maneira mais séria do mundo, como se nada tivesse acontecido, nos falam da “violência revolucionária”, ou nos explicam que o que importa é a “história e não o bem e o mal”, ou ainda (sic!) que Cuba caminha para o comunismo (trata-se de referências literais). É uma esquerda jurássica, retaguarda e não vanguarda, que faz muito mal à juventude e só atrapalha na luta pelo progresso social. Depois se tem a turma do “fechamento” da situação. Não haveria mais nada a fazer. Eles partem no fundo do mesmo esquema clássico, só que são pessimistas. Em terceiro lugar, estão os petistas, ou, se preferir, os petistas acríticos. Estes defendem o partido e também os membros do partido diante das acusações de corrupção e denunciam um complô da imprensa. Como observou um colega, certa intelectualidade petista denuncia a imprensa (que, sem dúvida, não é inocente), mas o estilo de certa intelectualidade petista é, ele mesmo, puramente jornalístico. E jornalístico no pior sentido da palavra. Prefiro não dar exemplos. A corrupção é problema sério demais e, na realidade, veio a substituir a violência, isto é, assumiu o papel que tinha a violência no esquema antigo. Assim, a leniência de certos intelectuais petistas diante da corrupção tem raízes profundas e indica a continuidade de uma descrença geral na democracia."
**************************************************************

— a description from HELL, that is, of Sao Paulo's public transport system at a time when Brazil was expected to become the world's fifth-largest economy (laurels to right and leftwing politicians, PT and PSDB alike): 
"At rush hour commuters can line the subway platform ten people deep, and when the train pulls in, spitting out a few passengers, the crowd outside will do its best to ram its way into the crowd inside. You'll see people half-emerging from the doors, and still someone will run up and press herlself against them, seeking to enter by osmosis. Station attendants wedge people in so the doors can close. The bus experience is similar, except without air conditioning; bad shocks lurch you into sweaty strangers" (Alex Cuadros, Brazillionaires, p. 10). 
#tvplimplim
#PSDBemManiacos
#foratemer

The mistake is the same: to complain against Lula with dictatorship nostalgia & to celebrate Lula as a watershed. Actually, both the military government and Lula embraced a desenvolvimentista program, backed by similar coalitions and even the same companies (with the help of people that nowadays support Michel Temer's government, such as Paulo Maluf and Delfim Netto): "Camargo Correa wasn't the only contractor to acquire power in those years. A few others leaned on regime friendships to grow their businesses—including Odebrecht..." (Alex Cuadros, Brazillionaires, p. 44).
"Since 1970, a fifth of Brazil's Amazon rain forest has been slashed and burned, an area nearly equal to that of France and Germany combined" (Brazillionaires, p. 61-62).

Right or left-wing politicians usually don't mention the things displayed in the pictures above. All of them advocate economic growth. You won't see them either in media channels like Rede Globo (#PlimPlim) or RBS (an affiliate of Globo in the South of Brazil), which actually benefit from economic growth, sometimes in the most hoggish way.
But the pictures show what follows an undertow, when the ocean throws up everything people have been disposing of near it.
The pictures are of a stretch of coast in the Northeast region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This is a small beach, which used to be clean.
I believe that garbage concessions in many cities are just criminal, almost mafia-like (and we need a Roberto Saviano here to expose them). On the other hand, people cast garbage away irresponsibly, thinking that the government will automatically take care of it.

****Rupert Sheldrake on big science and politics:
"While there is a difference between countries in the question of separation of churches and state, in all modern countries there is very little separation between science and state, as you point out. All modern countries empower scientific academies and scientific expertise, and fund enormous amounts of scientific research—in the defense sector, above all. Because modern states rely so much on science as the basis of technology, innovation, and high-technology businesses, and because most politicians know very little about science, scientific experts and advisers can have a very large influence, causing governments to spend billions of dollars that they might not otherwise have done. The Star Wars program in the United States—very actively promoted by Edward Teller, the “father of the hydrogen bomb”—was one example. It is probably inevitable that governments will be influenced by experts, including educational experts. Presidents, prime ministers, and ministers cannot know everything and have to rely on advisers in all sorts of different areas, including science, technology, security, business, banking, medicine, and so on," (Rupert Sheldrake's interview, TBS);

See also:
American "Liberal" Hell;
Banality of Evil in Brazil;
And also:
Land of the Southern Lapwing;
Torres (Northeast of Rio Grande do Sul);
Garbage (Plastic Debris, Coast of Rio Grande do Sul);

***NEW, about the Venezuela's crisis (12/02/2019): 


"El gobierno de Hugo Chávez, que hace veinte años despertó alguna esperanza de cambio de esa realidad, al menos en el discurso, también quedó atrapado en la lógica de “la maldición de la abundancia” y de la funcionalidad a los intereses de grandes capitales transnacionales (entre rusos, chinos y demás, e incluso norteamericanos)...
"En especial, con Maduro en el poder luego de la muerte de Chávez, la represión adquirió un tinte brutal que, junto con la caída de los ingresos petroleros, transformó al “clientelismo” político en un burdo uso de la fuerza y del chantaje. Así, al ahogar la participación ciudadana sobre todo el madurismo terminó por vaciar la democracia, tendencia irreversible por más consultas repetidas hechas al pueblo en las urnas."
"Con esto arribamos a una explicación profunda: en la periferia capitalista, el hiperextractivismo -y la consecuente falta de transformación estructural- camina de la mano del hiperpresidencialismo, que cobija y alimenta el autoritarismo y la corrupción. O en palabras de Eduardo Gudynas, “las distintas asociaciones entre extractivismos y corrupción se articulan entre sí, derivando hacia situaciones que erosionan la calidad de la democracia”, ahondando la violencia consustancial a los extractivismos (situación vista también en otros países extractivistas, con gobiernos conservadores o progresistas, como es el caso de Ecuador y sus patologías de la abundancia)."
"Y son estos gobiernos hiperpresidencialistas los que atienden de manera paternalista y clientelar las demandas sociales obteniendo recursos de la ampliación de los extractivismos, configurando el caldo de cultivo para nuevas conflictividades sociopolíticas y ecológicas. Tal como se constata con el fin del reciente ciclo de gobiernos progresistas, no se enfrentaron estructuralmente las causas de la pobreza y marginalidad, menos aún la matriz productiva primario exportadora y dependiente (más cuando se toma en cuenta que muchos sectores burgueses que se “enchufan” al proyecto clientelar de hecho lucran de la dependencia y el estatus quo). Igualmente los significativos impactos ambientales y sociales, propios de estas actividades extractivistas a gran escala, aumentan la ingobernabilidad, lo que a su vez exige nuevas respuestas represivas…"
"En este complejo entorno emerge el actual conflicto venezolano. Las presiones e intereses del imperialismo occidental chocan con las del imperialismo de oriente, como Rusia y sobre todo China. Como plantea Emiliano Terán Mantovani, “China es también responsable de la crisis venezolana actual”; Rusia tampoco se queda atrás con los multimillonarios préstamos entregados (e incluso con las importantes ventas de armamento al país caribeño)," (Alberto Acosta, Venezuela y la guerra por el excremento del diablo, Equador Today);

*****On the Ecological Apocalipse and how to avoid it:


'For Isra, when it comes to discussing the environment, it’s crucial to talk about environmental racism – i.e., environmental and climate change issues that specifically affect black and brown communities. “There’s a pipeline being built in my state (Minnesota) and it’s going straight through indigenous treaty lands and sacred wild rice beds,” she explains. “This pipeline will destroy their water and their sacred wild rice and also just ruin their land. Some places are more privileged than others.” More than anything, we should make sure people “recognise their privilege in the movement”.'
'As far as US Youth Climate Strike is concerned, Isra says, “we try and avoid things like sit-ins or a lot of marches, only because we deal with so many minors – we don’t want any of them to get arrested – especially with youth of colour. We try and focus on really safe forms of activism so everybody can participate.”'
'Everybody gets there at their own pace. It took me some time – it probably takes everybody some time. And whether or not you get media coverage or you get a great response it doesn’t mean what you’re doing is wrong. You should know what’s best for you and what you believe in, and nobody should be able to tell you any different.”'
'“It is a lot to handle, and it’s a full-time job,” says Isra, who is a high school student, juggling her school work along with her activism. “You have to make sure you balance time and that you get your priorities right.” Self-care is a must. “There are so many things that need to be tackled, but also you come first – make sure that you are OK enough to partake in that activism,”' "How to fight for climate action, according to Isra Hirsi" (Niellah Arboine/Dazed, 05/13/2019);
'“We have shown that we are strong, we are determined,” she said. “I have never – I’ve been a police officer for 36 years – I have never known an operation, a single operation, in which over 700 people have been arrested.''Max Wedderburn, a 13-year-old from Milton Keynes, addressed crowds at the bridge and received cheers and applause. “We are getting bigger, we are getting stronger, we are gathering momentum. Together we can change the future,” he said.'
'Speaking afterwards, he said he became inspired to fight against climate change after learning about it from his mother. He explained: “My lifelong dream is to become a zoologist but I feel there is no point if half of the animals are all dead by the time I reach that goal.”'
'Around 20 activists, most of them aged under 17, had staged a brief demonstration on roads near Heathrow Airport on Friday morning and were arrested. “One thing that is unusual about this demonstration is the willingness of those participating to be arrested and also their lack of resistance to the arrests,” said a spokesperson,' "Extinction Rebellion: More than 750 protesters arrested as climate change activists block London roads for sixth day" (Independent, 04/21/2019);
'The political class, as anyone who has followed its progress over the past three years can surely now see, is chaotic, unwilling and, in isolation, strategically incapable of addressing even short-term crises, let alone a vast existential predicament.'
'Even when broadcasters cover these issues, they carefully avoid any mention of power, talking about environmental collapse as if it is driven by mysterious, passive forces, and proposing microscopic fixes for vast structural problems. The BBC’s Blue Planet Live series exemplified this tendency.'
'Our system – characterised by perpetual economic growth on a planet that is not growing – will inevitably implode.'
'... for a peaceful mass movement to succeed, a maximum of 3.5% of the population needs to mobilise.'
'When a committed and vocal 3.5% unites behind the demand for a new system, the social avalanche that follows becomes irresistible,' "Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse" (George Monbiot, The Guardian, 04/15/2019);

- Extinction Rebelion;
- UK Student Climate Network/ Youth Strike For Climate (YS4C);

**************************************************************

Brazil's edible plants (from a paper by researches of the University of Leiden): 


"Piso indicated that roots [tubers] of S. tuberosa deserved special attention, because of the way they developed underground and their use as a refreshment [water reservoir] for feverish patients and exhausted travelers, as he experimented himself. He and Marcgrave also described how its fruits were valued as food... Currently S. tuberosa, known as Umbu or Umbuzeiro, is an important economic and subsistence food resource for rural communities in semiarid regions of northeast Brazil. Its specialized root system (xylopodia) bears tubers that store liquids, sugars and other nutrients and allow the survival of the tree during the dry seasons of the caatinga and central Brazilian savanna, where this species is endemic. The water or sweet juice of these xylopodia is still used as an emergency thirst quencher in extreme arid areas of the Brazilian sertão..."
"Several rainforest trees were highly valued for its edible fruits or seeds, such as Hymenaea courbaril L. or Lecythis pisonis L., of which the 'seeds (also called chestnuts) were eaten raw or roasted' and 'were considered aphrodisiacs.' The fruit of Macoubea guianensis Aubl. was 'appreciated for its sweetness by the indigenous peoples to eat during their travels, while Europeans used it to treat chest affections.' The fruit of Swartzia pickelii Killip ex Ducke was 'not eaten unless it was cooked, from which the inhabitants made a wholesome delicacy for the stomach called Manipoy.' The same applies to the tomato-like fruits of the African eggplant Solanum aethiopicum L., which were 'eaten cooked, after seasoning with oil and pepper; it has lemon taste'..."

Degradation of Brazilian's flora (from a paper by researches of the University of Leiden)


"In the past centuries, the Atlantic Forest and savannah regions of northeast Brazil have been severely affected by habitat loss and degradation due to the expansion of urbanization, intensive agriculture, farming and logging. Several plant species that were abundant enough to be noted by European artists around 1640 are not common anymore today. According to the IUCN Red List, eight species in the Libri Picturati, seven in the Theatrum and one in the LP are currently experiencing population decline or are at risk of facing extinction. Several endemic plants from the northeast Atlantic rainforest and caatinga biomes appear in the illustrations. Four species in the Libri Picturati are currently CITES-listed and restricted to trade: the cacti Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis (Willd.) A. Berger, Cereus fernambucensis Lem., Epiphyllum phyllanthus (L.) Haw. and Melocactus violaceus subsp. margaritaceus N. P. Taylor. The latter is an endemic cactus of the coastal sand dunes’ ecoregion in the Atlantic rainforest known as restinga, which is severely threatened by agricultural expansion and urbanization."
"Some endemic species are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN or the CNC Flora (12 species), while others (13 species) have not been evaluated yet. The MC does not contain threatened species, but includes two endemic trees: Attalea compta Mart. and Eugenia cf. brasiliensis Lam., which are only found in the biodiversity hotspots of the Atlantic rainforest and the cerrado, both greatly affected by habitat loss. The mangrove vegetation along the Brazilian coast has been severely affected by urbanization, pollution by industrial and domestic waste and climate change, threatening the populations of the mangrove trees Avicennia schaueriana Stapf & Leechm. ex Moldenke and Laguncularia racemosa (L.) C. F. Gaertn. The occurrence of anthropogenic impacts and the lack of available data call for the implementation of more in-depth and continuous studies on the conservation status of these vulnerable populations."

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3:56 PM

    I love the efforts you have put in this, thanks for all the great posts.

    ReplyDelete

Leave your comments below: