Today Brazil, among other countries in the G20 team, is discussing with industrialized G7 countries what has to be done to rescue the financial industry. It is very interesting to see how difficult is to the countries to put their different perspectives together.
The French finance minister, Christine Lagarde has said yesterday: “Don’t imagine that we’ll have a harmonized response that will be the same for everybody because you can’t apply the same method to different market situations.”
Japan is concerned about damage the financial crisis not of its own making (italic is ours) can provoke in its industry and, consequently, in its biggest banks that heavily lend to industry. Italia asks for a tougher plan or they will not sign it.
Germany is reluctant, fearing that an agreement to nationalize banks would end up bailing out the banks of its neighbors. Britain demands coordinated guarantees and waves to other countries deposits (hey, come here, trust me, and come to our British-style guarantee of loans…).
Outside G7 or G20, the same conflicts. Inside USA, McCain starts the campaign “Chicago way” denouncing bad partners of Obama, as terrorists leader, another corrupted person and so on, with the alert: “There’s more you need to know”. Are them trying to overcome crisis with another one? Inside Italy, a politic criticizes Berlusconi telling that the crisis is not a “disco” where he can say jokes.
Blogs are full of comments of ordinary people, in the same tune as London: “Why should we pay for their crisis?”, “I told you so”. Now the State will pay the bill which means that we, the people, will pay the bill with our taxes, while all this time just banks had profits. In Brazil, bloggers are criticizing Lula’s speech: go for a big Christmas shopping, my people.
All these scenes, initiatives, words and people should stop for a while and look to other side, other scenes, not so glamorous and poorly announced by media, but most important than these, in two steps.
First: we should change our position from critics to respect and support. What about the Japanese traditional salutation to start this change?
Second: we would have to listen to the men that are being celebrated this week for their work on peace among nations.
The first one is Kofi Annan that received Westfalia Peace Prize in German and that also received Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. His words: international financial markets are guided by an old-fashioned system that must be changed.
The other is the Former President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who has worked to end conflicts in troubled spots around the world for more than three decades, and that won the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. He had an important role helping to resolve disputes involving delicate matters of ethnicity, religion and race. After knowing about his indication as 2008 Nobel Peace Prize he said: “I hope this… tells about our society and what is important to us.”
Many have been said about peace.
Now it is time to remember the actions, plans and words of those who performed peace through all these years of neo-liberal policies, in order to bring harmony to the mind of the people that led our countries economy and decide about the money energy flow in the world.
1st picture: Luke McGregor/Reuters. “Demonstrators clashed with police in the financial district of London on Friday” (on New York TImes article from Oct 10th, 2008).
2st picture: Takeo Nakazono, center, president of Yamato Life Insurance, at a conference Fryday in Tokyo. Kyoto, via Reuters. (on New York Times article from Oct 10h, 2008).
Anatel, the agency that regulates communication in Brazil, just announced that the total number of cell phones in Brazil are 152.364.986 (Feb 2009) which amounts to almost 80% of the number of inhabitants in the country.
Deep Ecology
Posted by Nadiva Olivier on January 18, 2009
At the same month Mr. Naess died, Brazil is about to realize the World Social Forum 2009, created on an idea of a Brazilian man in 2001, and now a healthy Swiss foundation, which works as an UN consultant and is financed by more than 1,000 international companies. The event stimulates reflective thinking of “groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberals and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.” I am not sure but these last paragraphs seem to be full of irony. Shadow of my anger? Let me try reflecting a little more then because I do not like unfair things.
The movement was created aiming to oppose the World Economical Forum in Davos. It evolved to specific discussions. The first and second events were around four areas: production of wealth, sustainability, political power and ethics. The third event brought also themes like democracy, media, and militarization besides the first ones. The 4th event discussed information, environment and rights and equality, besides militarization and what they called transversal themes such as imperialist globalization, patriarchy, castes and racism, and religion like fundamentalism. The 5th event (India) was extensive, including all past themes and others like: art, communication, diversity, genres, human rights, autonomous thinking. The polycentric 6th event, held in Africa, Venezuela and Pakistan brought discussions on environmental issues at least in two of these places. The 7th FSM, in Kenya (2007) brought poverty and inclusion subjects among the usual ones. And so on…
The interesting characteristic of FSM, being a horizontal open space for exchange and discussions, is that it allows all this diversified approach, encompassing all mankind issues. The first themes remain and others are progressively aggregated in order to better evaluate what is happening in the world. That is why environmental question was growing up, until now, in the 2009 FSM event, that is held exact in the main forest area the capitalism is fighting for – Amazon forest. Nothing less than 12% of all planetary forests.
Arne Naess did not come to Brazil but certainly this 2009 Forum will have his ideas spread on the many discussions the event will conceive. Ten goals guide the 2009 event and the last one is “the defense of the environment (amazonic and others ecosystems) as source of life for the planet Earth and for the originary peoples of the world (indigenous, afro-descendent, tribal and riverine), that demand their territories, languages, cultures, identities, environmental justice, spiritually and right to live.”
I was anger because Brazil did not realize who Arne was. Probably Jose Lutzemberger, the Brazilian ecologist which ideas were so closed to Arne Naess, had already made the sufficient contact with him, concerning ethics. His participation in more than 40 international events must have impressed him with so many good ideas like Arne´s ones. He was decisive to put Brazil away of the atomic bomb plans. He died in 2002 and, surprisingly, it was his decision to be buried naked, wrapped in a sheet of linen, no coffin, that is, with no impacts to the environment in a manner consistent to with his life.
I must confess: these reflections made my sadness turn into a good feeling. I have the sensation that, by different ways and levels, all countries are getting together in the same consciousness about the meaning of this planet to our complex life and soul and vice-versa. In a way, naked Lutzemberg and Arne Naess are looking, from the high point of a paradise mountain, to the way we evolve here to the deep ecology.
World Social Forum 2009 – Belém, PARA – Brazil. www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br
Photo: Belém, in the State of Para, Brazil: Ver-o-Peso market, created in the Brazilian Colonial historical period. It is the largest free fair in Latin America. Belem is the territory for WSF 2009.
Posted in Environmental, General Comments | Tagged: Arne Naess; Jose Lutzemberger, World Social Forum 2009; Belém; Ver-o-peso market; deep ecology | Leave a Comment »