Saiu na Folha, não estava ainda no Estadão, mas soube mesmo pelo pessoal de casa: blecaute em várias cidades do Brasil. Teorias da conspiração abundarão…

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

 Enquanto nos preocupamos com nossos problemas, compromissos, projetos, dissabores, mais de um bilhão de pessoas no mundo têm fome.

Fonte: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1

Conta simples: 1.000.000.000 / 7.000.000.000 = 14,3%.

Mas é claro que existem coisas muito mais importantes a se considerar…

Creio que a violência jamais será erradicada em lugar nenhum do mundo, porque somos animais de racionalidade limitada — e esta é uma afirmação de caráter consensual. Porém, quando a violência se torna uma necessidade, um sentimento cotidiano, uma irracionalidade já pasteurizada por justificativas nobres e nem tão nobres, ela também se torna expressão de questões mais profundas de uma sociedade, a distribuição da propriedade, a discriminação racial-social-cultural-econômica-religiosa-etc, o desemprego, a saúde, a vida. E está na maneira em que assimilamos a leitura dessa expressão a definição de como enfrentar o problema.
 
Se você me perguntar o que eu acho, e eu tiver de fazê-lo em uma só frase, diria simplesmente que ‘violência gera mais violência’. Frase quase ingênua, mas que poderia servir de guia para as pessoas. Porque a violência não está somente na agressão física, mas também na indiferença, no desrespeito, etc. Temos, assim, de enfrentar de maneira completamente prioritária a violência exercida pela sociedade ao permitir a discriminação, a falta de saúde, de educação de qualidade, levando fazendo com que ela se restrinja somente a momentos de descontrole, que por estes passamos ou poderemos passar todos. Parece óbvio? Quanto mais anos tenho, menos óbvio me parece.

Sempre que envio algo do tipo a alguém, acaba sendo inevitável a sensação de ser ridiculamente ingênuo. Mas já está enviado ao Obama’s Suggestion Box (lógico, ainda por cima acha que vão ler o que você escreveu), e, imagine se alguém realmente leu e, além do mais, gostou, seria muito bacana ver nascer o sol deste dia.

I would like to suggest the creation by President Obama of a Cease-All-Violence Day, a day in which all US troops and other official institutions with the right of violence propose a cease-fire in all fronts, conversations may be held, understanding may be reached. A day that inspires one to think about the other, about the other’s problems and difficulties, and also about oneself, about one’s own dreams and aspirations, without fear.
I hope the institution of this Day may bring about bona-fide counterparts, willing to truly resolve things and quit the political opportunisms that eventually arise. Because we, citizens-politicians, are always thinking deeply about ways to make people’s lives easier, more enjoyable, richer in all aspects. Not only in our country, upon which we look up more fondly, but in the world. And the blood that runs out of people shot in their heads and hearts is the same in Sri Lanka or Canada, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, Angola, the US or any other equally respected country, established or not (in a profoundly sincere sense of community, not because of clear nebulous interests). Therefore, violence, in any of its forms, is disrespectful before the world. And we are all wrong as humans beings.

Sincere regards, Douglas

“O mundo era tão rico que apodrecia”.

Clarice Lispector, Amor (dica do glorioso Idelber Avelar)

Um discurso inspirador do presidente Obama no Egito, abordando de maneira clara e geral grandes e importantes questões da atualidade: a relação do mundo islâmico com os EUA, a ameaça do terrorismo e a posição dos EUA a respeito, a guerra no Iraque e no Afeganistão, Israel e Palestina, as ameaças nucleares, democracia, direitos humanos.

Admitindo, dentro dos limites do possível, as culpas históricas e atuais de seu país — sem mencionar na intensidade necessária os interesses escusos e desrespeitos aos direitos humanos contra civis existentes nas recentes ações militares no Iraque, por exemplo –, o presidente faz um chamado à compreensão, ao respeito e à construção de novos caminhos em relação a todas estas questões. Obviamente, o uso de ‘novos’ deve ser compreendido em relação à realização prática destes caminhos, uma vez que muitos deles já se propunham há bastante tempo.

De todas formas, quando o presidente de uma nação admirável de muitos pontos de vista advoga o respeito mútuo e sem estereótipos entre islâmicos e a sociedade norte-americana, a necessidade de combater o terrorismo — e aí talvez tenha faltado ênfase no fato de que este combate deva passar mais pela redução de sua influência política, ao não lhes ‘dar pretextos’, que pelo esmagamento militar, estratégia mais custosa, dolorosa e potencialmente fracassada –, a correção de rumo no Iraque, a construção de um estado judeu e um palestino coexistentes e fraternos, e compromissos com a erradicação de armas nucleares (de maneira vaga, entretanto), com a democracia e com a igualdade de direitos, em especial a de homens e mulheres — constatando muito corretamente que este é um problema longe de ser exclusivamente do mundo islâmico –, não se pode senão sentir a esperança de que é possível que o bom senso um dia prevaleça. E Obama traz justamente isso: bom senso.

Entretanto, ainda que sejam belas palavras, são necessárias demonstrações práticas, são necessárias ações. Discursos não se sustentam muito além dos momentos em que as palavras nos atingem os ouvidos. E nesse sentido seguem as palavras do professor de História e História do Oriente Médio Joel Beinin (recebidos em e-mail da Jewish Voice for Peace):

An articulate and charismatic President of the United States named Barack Hussein Obama giving a speech at Cairo University co-sponsored by al-Azhar, the most eminent institution of Muslim learning – now that’s a new picture.  Its enormous symbolic value is President Obama’s biggest asset as he implements policy on the entire range of difficult issues he mentioned.  The President stated, “Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail.” This is an excellent basis for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The President did not provide details on how the conflict should be resolved beyond general support for “two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”  But the meaning of this formulation is now contested due to its empty repetition by presidents and prime ministers whose actions and inactions have undermined it.  Instead President Obama emphasized U.S. rejection of “the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” saying nothing about the future of those settlements already existing and their nearly 500,000 inhabitants.  By limiting himself to an apparently pragmatic “first step,” President Obama may have made his task harder.  If he does not produce concrete results very soon on this limited, albeit it absolutely necessary, measure, then the potential value of his fine words in Cairo will soon diminish.

Joel Beinin

June 4, 2009
Stanford, CA

Que sejam proféticas as palavras do presidente.

Esta notícia vem de uma província ao norte do país em que estou, o Canadá. Nunavut, de área considerável e população ínfima, vem ganhando maior atenção devido às discussões sobre o aquecimento global, uma vez que é um dos locais em que se notam mais claramente seus efeitos. Sim, eles têm ursos polares.

Stop climate change to save polar bears: WWF
Fund uses charismatic bears as lightning rod
JOHN BIRD

The World Wildlife Fund is using the polar bear as a lever to force Canada, the United States, Norway, Denmark and Russia to take seriously their responsibilities to address climate change.

Speaking on the eve of an historic meeting of the five countries that signed the original polar bear treaty in 1973, the WWF urged them to protect bears and their habitat by significantly reducing greenhouse-gas production, and by pushing hard for a “fair, effective climate change agreement” in Copenhagen next December.

In the case of Canada, it will be an uphill battle.

Iqaluit-based human-rights lawyer Paul Crowley recently told Nunatsiaq News that at international meetings he attended last December, Canada had consistently blocked progress on greenhouse gas reduction.

It also dropped any pretense of meeting the Kyoto accord agreements it had signed to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Canada is not only the highest per-capita producer of greenhouse gases in the world, but is also second last among the world’s 57 biggest producers of greenhouse gases, in terms of acting to reduce emissions.

Also last week, a meeting in Copenhagen of the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change reported that changes in the global climate system have already become drastic enough to begin causing social upheavals around the world.

Global weather patterns are changing faster than the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had predicted only two years ago, delegates at the Copenhagen meeting heard from scientists.

The results have included drought and uncontrollable brush fires in Australia, the imminent flooding of the Maldives Islands in the South Pacific, shrinking glaciers and ice caps at both poles – and of course, melting Arctic sea ice that is disrupting traditional hunting patterns for both Inuit and polar bears.

“There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts,” the scientific congress said.

Both the world’s oceans and the immense areas of northern permafrost are important “carbon sinks.” They hold vast quantities of carbon that could otherwise be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts as a global blanket to hold in heat absorbed from the sun. As CO2 levels increase, they throw off the climatic balance “within which our societ[ies] and econom[ies] have developed and thrived,” the scientific congress said.

But melting permafrost could potentially release huge quantities of carbon, and acidification of the oceans mean those seas are reaching the limits of their abilities to absorb carbon, thus piling on the atmospheric blankets even thicker.

And scientists are now saying shrinking sea ice cover could leave summer Arctic waters virtually ice free within just over a decade. Dark, ice-free waters absorb more of the solar heat that ice and snow would reflect back into space, also feeding climate change.

Two Inuit hunters who had to be rescued from a floating ice pan near Coral Harbour last week may be one small example of those disruptions to traditional social and economic patterns that are beginning to occur around the world due to climate change.

Sandy Pudlat and Greg Ningeocheak were hunting March 12 when the ice they were standing on broke off the floe edge and drifted away, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

Military rescue crews dropped emergency supplies until the pan drifted back to the floe edge.

The incident happened just after Iqaluit’s Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik told Nunat-siaq News that search-and-rescue crews are increasingly having to help hunters who aren’t lost, but who have become stuck due to unpredictable ice melting.

Only urgent action to stop global climate change can save polar bears from extinction, the WWF said in its teleconference from Norway.

The WWF also called on the five polar-bear countries to take indigenous knowledge and experience into account to develop, implement and sustainably fund a circumpolar action plan for polar bear conservation by the end of this year.

Representatives from the five countries were meeting in Tromsø, Norway, this week to discuss polar-bear-management issues. It’s only the second such meeting since the original treaty was signed in 1973.

The fund urged the polar-bear nations to integrate the projected impacts of climate change, development, harvesting, and human-bear conflict into all management and planning for polar bears and habitats.

The WWF has long used the polar bear – the most charismatic of the “charismatic megafauna” – as a lightning rod to attract support to its campaign for action against climate change.

And sometimes that tactic has brought the fund into conflict with Inuit harvesters and wildlife managers, even though both groups share a common concern about climate change.

They also share a common commitment to sustainable harvesting. But they have differed on what sustainable means, as the WWF more often sides with science-based managers with whom many Inuit have found themselves in increasing disagreement.

This week, Inuit harvesters from across Nunavut are meeting with wildlife managers from all levels of government and from the Inuit organizations to address some of their differences over wildlife management, and to seek common ground.

Uma notícia sobre este país que está em situação política precária há quase duas décadas, sem governo e dividido, com facções armadas dominando parte dele. Um artigo recente da Economist apresenta uma possibilidade de melhora com o novo presidente, e deu a ideia para procurar notícias recentes sobre a Somália. A escolhida não é das melhores:

Fighting Between Islamists Kills About Ten People (15/mar/2009)

Mogadishu — At least ten people, mostly combatants, were killed and two were injured after Al-Shabab and Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a Islamists fought in Wabho Village in central Somalia, witnesses told radio Shabelle on Sunday.

The fighting started after Ahlu Sunna Waljma’a forces attacked the village where al-Shabab has been controlling and both sides used heavy machine guns and artillery fire.

Witnesses told radio Shabelle that eight combatants and one civilian woman were killed in the fighting.

Sources indicate that the fighting intensified and restarted this morning after the fighters got reinforcements.

Civilians started to flee from the fighting areas where the two groups are fighting each other.

Ahlu Sunna and al-Shabab fought in central Somalia for several times.

Ahlu Sunna Waljamca is a moderate religious organization that does not have a political ambition and supports the new government led by president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed while al-Shabaab vowed to keep on fighting against the new government.

Estive sem internet ontem, por isso lanço hoje uma notícia sobre Camboja, país de história recente sangrenta. Interessante é ter chegado ao país ao ler um pouco da biografia de Sérgio Vieira de Mello, o diplomata brasileiro que fora morto em 2003 no Iraque.