domingo, 28 de outubro de 2012
quarta-feira, 24 de outubro de 2012
Greece and Its Parallel Society (doc)
http://studyingabroadingreece.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/greece-and-its-parallel-society/
The social trends taking place in Greece in the past three years have been stunning.
According to published reports, 20% of the population of Athens has left the city to go to live in the countryside.
Because Greece has a high percentage of homeownership, 80%, higher than most industrialized countries (67% for the United States), there is a home waiting for those exiting the capital city.
Once there, they can raise vegetables and animals on their property and get by.
Fishing, too, has seen a great uptick.
What emerges is a parallel society different from the mainstream one.
Regular society is about consumption, spending, shopping and racking up bills. It’s about fancy vacations in other parts of Europe, including Turkey, and maintaining a certain lifestyle – car, vacation home, expense account, going out to eat, drink and regular plastic surgery visits.
The economic crisis has fundamentally changed all that in Greece.
Greeks are not spending like what they once did. They tied with Italy in the highest per capita consumption of clothing and hours watching television (is this why they got the stereotype of being “lazy?”).
Clothing consumption has fallen dramatically, as increasingly shuttered clothing and shoe stores reveal. Just a simple walk along Ermou Street in downtown Athens highlights this stark reality.
The consumptive world that so dominates industrial nations is taking a beating in Greece.
Instead, the country reverts to old traditional methods of sustaining itself.
Has anything like this happened on such a grand scale?
The contrast between this parallel society and the mainstream one is unprecedented. It’s as if Greeks live in two completely different and contradictory worlds.
I have high hope for Greece because in a strange way the country represents the future.
It is a fact of modern life that we as a global society have reached a kind of end point in the efficacy and utility of our social institutions.
Most of our modern institutions, particularly those of the industrialized west, grew out of the Renaissance after the 1500s.
Today those institutions have become fat and bloated and no longer serve the needs of human beings. They are, in short, completely corrupt.
It is not just the sex assault scandals of the Catholic Church, or the excessive corruption of governments in Europe and the U.S., but it is the reality that as a society we live under tremendous suppression and control that has made life often unbearable and stifling.
Under these circumstances, it is impossible to “breathe.” To be fully human beings. To be something other than shopping robots.
Eventually these corrupt institutions will harden and not be able to face crisis.
And only those societies that developed people-centered, parallel institutions will thrive.
Parallel Societies (doc)
http://www.economicthinking.org/international/parallelsocieties.html
Parallel Societies
"This movement should create a situation in which authorities will control empty stores, but not the market; the employment of workers, but not their livelihood; the official media, but not the circulation of information; printing plants, but not the publishing movement; the mail and telephones, but not communication; and the school system, but not education." Solidarity's Wiktor Kulerski on Poland's parallel society (written while in hiding).
[This essay was first published in 1987 in Econ '87 and was later reprinted in the International Society of Individual Liberty's Freedom Network News.]
Dozens of countries around the world hold parallel societies--one on the record, obeying government regulations, paying taxes, following orders, and the other off the record and underground. Often, individuals keep one foot in each world and learn to play by two sets of rules.
In Poland and Peru free societies are flourishing--off the record. Poland's underground may lead to an anti-Communist revolution [it later did, of course--Editor]; Peru's black markets may hold the answer to Third World poverty. Two world-class problems solved with one stroke. Maybe.
The "second society" in Poland has a long history. Operating in parallel to the legal economy, it has provided products from refrigerators to books to dozens of other goods consumers want, but which the legal economy seems unable to provide.
When Polish authorities imposed marshal law in 1981, they pushed the Solidarity movement underground. Pamphlets began to appear in Warsaw calling for the "self-organization of society." Polish dissident Adam Michnik, in his book Letters from Prison and other Essays, says, "Our unofficial life is our authentic life," and called on his fellow Poles to act as if they were free. Many Poles acted out their freedom by joining any of the hundreds of private enterprises that make up Poland's diverse black markets.
Long before Solidarity, Polish authorities had quietly relied on black markets to produce goods and services their planned economy could not. In doing so they let loose a whole new set of incentives. As Poles earned profits from these private enterprises, they learned the benefits of economic freedom, even in its severely limited form. Over time black market enterprises grew in scope and complexity, and have crossed over into political life through private publishing firms.
In universities, banned books by free-market economists are turning up on assigned reading lists. Seven major underground publishing operations have--among them--translated and printed works by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, George Orwell, Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and others.
The Polish government is not alone in its worries about growing black markets and demands for political freedom. The Economist reported on "The Stirrings of Yugopluralism" (February 21, 1987 p. 45), in Yugoslavia. Aged Eastern Bloc leaders are caught between growing "second" societies underground, and Gorbachev's calls for economic and political reform above ground.
But black markets are a much wider phenomenon than those known in communist countries. Black markets arise wherever government regulation makes voluntary economic activity illegal. And virtually every government does that to some extent.
Black markets in the Third World
Although U.N. officials and other development experts are blaming corruption and black markets for hampering economic growth in the Third World, David Osterfeld, a fellow of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, sees it differently.
Osterfeld argues that Third World corruption is fundamentally different than in western societies. "In the West," Osterfeld says, "the market is the basic social institution within which business is conducted. Corruption here takes the form of payments to public officials in return for licensing restrictions, tariffs or other policies or practices that shield businesses from competition… In contrast, throughout the Third World the state rather than the free market is the basic social institution. Their corruption often takes the form of payoffs to public officials, or other illegal measures, designed to obtain permission to enter the market. Hence, in contrast to corruption in the West, which reduces competition. Third World corruption tends to increase market competition."
Osterfeld cites China's absence of labor markets as an example. Without such markets, Chinese managers hire peasants illegally to meet production quotas. Fancy bookkeeping hides their wages, but such illegal workers are estimated to make up 25-50 percent of China's entire industrial work force.
In some western countries though, individuals have launched their enterprises completely outside the system. Take Peru, for example.
Peru: where black is informal
Hernando De Soto is in favor of black markets. So is Mario Vargas Llosa, the famous Peruvian novelist Llosa's major New York Times Magazinearticle on De Soto, "In Defense of the Black Market" (February 21, 1987), argues that because government bureaucracies are the problem in Peru, black markets are the solution.
In his new book El Otro Sendero ("The Other Path"), De Soto describes the "informal" economy that has arisen because the "formal" economy is tightly bound by thousands of regulations. Llosa explains "In Peru, there are more than 500,000 laws and executive orders governing even the simplest of daily living needs. Given that burden, illegal solutions are all that remain." Peru's informal economy forms a vast parallel society, operating next to but largely independent of the legal Peruvian economy.
In 1980, De Soto founded the "Institute for Liberty and Democracy" to study the phenomenon of black markets in Peru and around the world. Black markets are often criticized as competing unfairly with legal firms (since they rarely pay taxes). But De Soto found that entrepreneurs turned to black markets to avoid regulations more than taxes. Endless regulations protect the wealthy and established firms from competition. Llosa explains that the real problem is the state "whose Byzantine legal system seems designed to favor those already favored and to punish the rest by making them permanent outlaws. The informal market is actually the solution to the problem: the spontaneous and creative response of the impoverished masses to the state's inability to satisfy their basic needs."
How extensive is Peru's informal economy? According to Llosa and De Soto, over 400,000 people in Lima, Peru's largest city, are directly supported by the commercial black market. The informal economy has invested more than $1 billion in transportation (in Lima 95 percent of public transportation is in the hands of the informal economy). Half the population of Lima lives in houses constructed by the informal economy, which between 1960 and 1984 spent $8.3 billion on housing, while the government spent only $173 million. The black market businesses of the informal economy are not only far more efficient than their regulated and government counterparts; they utterly dominate much of the Peruvian economy.
But why doesn't the government face up to the reality? Why not deregulate the economy and thus make legal the thousands of enterprises that, in reality, keep the Peruvian economy operating. De Soto calls the problem "mercantilism," a word that describes an economic order based on detailed government control of the economy, in partnership with established businesses.
De Soto says that though the Peruvian government defends its taxes and regulations on the grounds of social justice, and claims to redistribute wealth from rich to poor, the reality is very different. Llosa explains "Redistribution, which is supposed to mean the taking of money from the elite to give to the poor, actually involves the concession of monopolies or favored status to the elite, who depend on the good graces of the state--which, in turn, is dependent on the elite… While the nation's wealth remains concentrated in a small minority, the interests of the majority are largely ignored."
De Soto's Institute for Liberty and Democracy, with 40 full-time employees, provides studies to document the effectiveness of black markets in solving economic problems and to expose the true nature of Peru's legal economic problems and to expose the true nature of Peru's legal economic system, "De Soto's studies strip away any pretensions anyone may have about the validity of the mercantilist system. This system, he shows with devastating accumulation of data, is not only immoral but also inefficient. Within it, success does not depend on inventiveness and hard work but on the entrepreneur's ability to gain the sympathy of presidents, ministers and other public functionaries--which usually means his ability to corrupt them."
Peru's mercantilistic economy, like Poland's communist economy, is based on privilege. Instead of all people being equal in the eyes of the law, their laws look first for the mark of status--one's family or party membership decides which set of rules apply. But black markets are based on equality before the unwritten laws of the market. Informal markets are open to men and women of all races and religions. Wealth accumulates through production, and labor is rewarded according to the combined and voluntary valuations others place on one's labor in the marketplace. Peru's informal economy grows ever more efficient, its formal economy is the stagnant clone of ten dozen other impoverished Third World countries.
Poland and Peru offer a strange vision of the future. An unauthorized future that no authorities anywhere seem willing to accept. These growing free economies may--at any moment--be crushed by new "reforms" designed to stamp out "corruption," and establish purer socialist or communist ideologies. Just as the Cambodian economy was crushed by the idealistic Khmer Rouge in 1975.
Or, they may continue to evolve toward freedom. Political freedoms grow from the economic freedoms practiced daily in black market activities. These parallel free societies may over time gain strength and stability as their command economies fade. The authorities in Poland and Peru may eventually be left with only bare shelves, unproductive firms, unread newspapers, and empty schools. And their own endless and unenforceable regulations.
Afterword (August, 2001)...
Communism fell, but informal economies still flourish. For the latest work by Hernando de Soto, see the review of his recent book on the Laissez-Faire Books web site: The Mystery of Capital. Also recommended, this Forbes article on De Soto's work, "Waking Dead Capital" (sign in required)]
http://books.google.pt/books?id=geagUiHx4GsC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=parallel+societies&source=bl&ots=ZDJ5Nx9iA3&sig=0ArZyxL8at9t5truT1A-H76zxQo&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=aQaIUPOZOtSAhQfowoGYBw&ved=0CHcQ6AEwCTgo
http://aa.ecn.cz/img_upload/f76c21488a048c95bc0a5f12deece153/WHiscott_Parallel_Societies.pdf
http://books.google.pt/books?id=geagUiHx4GsC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=parallel+societies&source=bl&ots=ZDJ5Nx9iA3&sig=0ArZyxL8at9t5truT1A-H76zxQo&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=aQaIUPOZOtSAhQfowoGYBw&ved=0CHcQ6AEwCTgo
http://aa.ecn.cz/img_upload/f76c21488a048c95bc0a5f12deece153/WHiscott_Parallel_Societies.pdf
terça-feira, 23 de outubro de 2012
quinta-feira, 18 de outubro de 2012
quarta-feira, 17 de outubro de 2012
Chucky's name comes from (trivia)
Chucky's true name is Charles Lee Ray, (Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Ray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Ray
quarta-feira, 10 de outubro de 2012
Campanhas de sensibilização (Work)
A Sensibilização Ambiental é uma ferramenta fundamental para a mudança comportamental relativamente ao meio ambiente. Sensibilizar é procurar atingir uma predisposição da população para uma mudança de atitudes. Mudar atitudes requer educação, apresentando os meios da mudança que conduzem à melhor atitude, ao comportamento adequado perante o ambiente.
As acções de sensibilização e educação ambiental, visam estimular nos cidadãos mudanças de condutas e comportamentos, em particular ao nível do espírito de participação e responsabilidade civil, demonstrando a importância da limpeza pública, do planeamento e execução da recolha de resíduos, de reduzir a produção dos resíduos e reutilizar, reciclar e/ou valorizar determinados resíduos.
São assim os objectivos da Sensibilização para a Higiene Urbana:
- Reforço da consciencialização dos munícipes e dos operadores económicos visando a adopção de comportamentos mais adequados.
- Diminuição da quantidade de resíduos produzida por habitante, promovendo hábitos de consumo sustentável.
- Maximização da reciclagem de materiais que permita o cumprimento das metas estabelecidas em termos de recolha selectiva e reciclagem.
- Reforço da capacidade de intervenção da gestão municipal, sobretudo ao nível do controlo operacional e do apoio aos munícipes e operadores económicos.
- Sustentabilidade económica da gestão municipal, com a recuperação de custos e a adopção de instrumentos económicos adequados.
CAMPANHAS DE SENSIBILIZAÇÃO
Através de soluções personalizadas que visam despertar consciências, a área de Comunicação de Marketing desenvolve um conjunto de campanhas de sensibilização (ver portfólio) que se dirige a diferentes públicos internos e externos.
A comemoração de Dias Nacionais, Internacionais ou Mundiais, o Universo FEUP vivido diariamente pela Comunidade que o compõe, etc, constituem apenas alguns pontos de partida.
A Casa África apoia esta campanha da Fundação CEAR- Habitáfricaque irá desenvolver actividades de sensibilização e formação durante todo o ano de 2011. A apresentação desta iniciativa terá lugar na sede da Casa África no próximo dia 6 de Abril às 17h.
O projecto "África nos fogões" contribui para a sensibilização da sociedade canária pela mão das mulheres cozinheiras africanas, através da realização de ateliers de gastronomia africana. Por outro lado, promove-se o emprego das cozinheiras africanas que irão receber formação específica em animação gastronómica, bem como em técnicas empreendedoras.
As linhas de acção desta campanha coincidem, em grande parte, com os objectivos fixados no enquadramento da iniciativa do "Cantinho Gastronómico Africano (RGA)" promovido, em 2010, pela Casa África e cuja primeira edição decorreu no local África Vive.
Mais informações:
BGH in Argentina is promoting its new line of silent air conditioners with “Big Nose”, an integrated advertising campaign offering 25 percent discounts to people with big noses. The new line, with 5 stages of filtered air, was considered to be most helpful to people with big noses. The company worked with Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi to create the nose-o-meter, an in-store device capable of measuring noses. If your nose touches the sensor, an alarm goes off and you win the discount. Atbignosebgh.com online visitors can upload their profile picture, in order to find out if their nose has the chance to win. The site indicates where shoppers can find the nearest nose-o-meter and includes a gallery of noteworthy big noses.
http://www.delcamposaatchi.com/es/trabajos/tv/bgh_-_padres_en_slip
Sensibilization campaign "Death on the Road"
6 June-30 September 2011, ACA-M - Associação de Cidadãos Auto-Mobilizados
This campaign aims to raise awareness among drivers, especially younger drivers, about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol, which remains a major cause of road accidents in Portugal, especially among young people. The campaign has the slogan "If you drink, let me drive", message that is presented by the metaphorical figure of "death". This campaign is conducted in collaboration with the public security police, in Lisbon, with the possibility of being extended to the entire country in the near future. The message includes statistics on accidents in Lisbon and safety tips for drivers.
Contact: Manuel João Ramos
Tel: +351 217801997 / +351 931406941 Email: aca-m@aca-m.org
(How to: ideia - Design)
Primeiros passos para aceitar comida diferente.
How to accept something different
social/cultural refers to the "personal relations, community values, and cultural relations which affect peoples use of food."[3]
Food system refers to how food is produced and reaches consumers, and consumer food choices. It subsumes the terms ‘food chain’ and ‘food economy’, which are both too narrowly linear and/or economic. The food system can be broken down to three basic components: biological, economic/political, and social/cultural. The biological refers to the organic processes of food production; the economic/political refers to institutional moderation of different group's participation in and control of the system, and the social/cultural refers to the "personal relations, community values, and cultural relations which affect peoples use of food."[3]
Local food systems are an alternative to the global corporate models where producers and consumers are separated through a chain of processors/manufacturers, shippers and retailers. They "are complex networks of relationships between actors including producers, distributors, retailers and consumers grounded in a particular place. These systems are the unit of measure by which participants in local food movements are working to increase food security and ensure the economic, ecological and social sustainability of communities."[4]
Promover comunicação através da partilha de cultura gastronómica para melhorar a qualidade de vida das pessoas.
How to create 'local food systems?
(Spot ideia televendas bimbas/Superhomem, explosão de energia..)(Step 1 plant food, Step 2 sell in market, step 3 buy from market...)
O prazer proporcionado pela comida é um dos factores mais importantes da vida depois da alimentação de sobrevivência. A gastronomia nasceu desse prazer e constituiu-se como a arte de cozinhar e associar os alimentos para deles retirar o máximo benefício. Cultura muito antiga, a gastronomia esteve na origem de grandes transformações sociais e políticas. A alimentação passou por várias etapas ao longo do desenvolvimento humano, evoluindo do nômade caçador ao homem sedentário, quando este descobriu a importância da agricultura e da domesticação dos animais.
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place.
the economic/political refers to institutional moderation of different group's participation in and control of the system, and the social/cultural refers to the "personal relations, community values, and cultural relations which affect peoples use of food."[3]
These systems are the unit of measure by which participants in local food movements are working to increase food security and ensure the economic, ecological and social sustainability of communities."[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Madre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_Taste Conclusão: FOOD SURFING! At CouchSurfing, we envision a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter. Building meaningful connections across cultures enables us to respond to differences with curiosity, appreciation and respect. The appreciation of diversity spreads tolerance and creates a global community. |
segunda-feira, 8 de outubro de 2012
Joana Marques Vidal é a primeira Procuradora-Geral da República (Noticia)
http://www.publico.pt/Sociedade/joana-marques-vidal-e-a-nova-procuradorageral-da-republica-1566471
A procuradora Joana Marques Vidal, 56 anos, é a primeira mulher a liderar a Procuradoria-Geral da República, anunciou esta segunda-feira o Presidente da República, Cavaco Silva, em comunicado publicado no site da presidência.
A tomada de posse está marcada para a próxima sexta-feira. O anúncio é feito no dia em que o actual procurador-geral, Fernando Pinto Monteiro, termina o mandato de seis anos.
Licenciada em Direito pela Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa, Joana Marques Vidal é procuradora-geral adjunta, sendo actualmente representante do Ministério Público na Secção Regional dos Açores do Tribunal de Contas. Especializada na área de Direitos da Família e Menores, a procuradora é desde 2010 presidente da Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima.
Filha do juiz jubilado José Marques Vidal, que dirigiu a Policia Judiciária, a magistrada é irmã do procurador João Marques Vidal, que coordenou a investigação do proceso Face Oculta.
Licenciada em Direito pela Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa, Joana Marques Vidal é procuradora-geral adjunta, sendo actualmente representante do Ministério Público na Secção Regional dos Açores do Tribunal de Contas. Especializada na área de Direitos da Família e Menores, a procuradora é desde 2010 presidente da Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima.
Filha do juiz jubilado José Marques Vidal, que dirigiu a Policia Judiciária, a magistrada é irmã do procurador João Marques Vidal, que coordenou a investigação do proceso Face Oculta.
José Marques Vidal: “Quando se corta nas estruturas e quadros da Administração Pública e se mantém praticamente intacta a rede de institutos, empresas públicas, participadas parcial ou totalmente pelo Estado, e as parcerias público-privadas e a sua gigantesca teia de administradores e empregos criada à base de favores partidários, o desalento começa a minar os que acreditaram numa mudança de rumo”
domingo, 7 de outubro de 2012
terça-feira, 2 de outubro de 2012
segunda-feira, 1 de outubro de 2012
Prostitutas casam em massa numa aldeia indiana
Chama-se Vadia e é conhecida como a "aldeia das prostitutas". Vítimas de antigas tradições, querem agora libertar-se de uma vida de marginalização.
Numa aldeia árida, empoeirada e esquecida do mundo, no estado indiano de Gujarat, ser prostituta não é uma opção. Em Vadia, onde vive a tribo Sarania, a prostituição é uma tradição e foi imposta a cerca de cem mulheres, incluindo adolescentes que são obrigadas pelas famílias.
As mulheres da tribo costumavam ser bailarinas e cantoras nas residências de quem detinha o poder local. Depois da independência da Índia, em 1947, passaram para o jogo e a prostituição, o que marcou a aldeia durante várias gerações, uma vez que as filhas das prostitutas também eram consideradas indignas de se casarem.
No entanto, este domingo, 32 mulheres vão casar-se numa cerimónia múltipla, que pode contribuir para diminuir a opressão social e marginalização a que têm sido sujeitas.
"Vai ser a primeira vez na Índia independente que as mulheres vão romper as correntes da prostituição", afirmou Mittal Patel, a coordenadora de uma ONG, que convenceu homens de outras aldeias a contrair matrimónio. Patel espera que estes casamentos signifiquem uma revolução social para as mulheres e que acabe com a prostituição.
"As nossas filhas já não vão ter uma vida humilhante. Vão ter uma vida como as outras raparigas, com dignidade", afirmou uma prostituta.
Ler mais: http://visao.sapo.pt/prostitutas-casam-em-massa-numa-aldeia-indiana=f652029#ixzz283oFfg58
ANTÓNIO BORGES MENTIU DESCARADAMENTE QUANDO AFIRMOU QUE AS DESPESAS COM PESSOAL NA ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA REPRESENTAM 80% DAS DESPESAS TOTAIS
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