Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Return of the Macaws!
A few days after the first macaw sighting, I walked outside to find not two, but four macaws eating out of my neighbor's hand! The landlady told me that she's seen up to 8 out there at a time. And for those wondering, no, these are not domesticated macaws. :)
Monday, May 10, 2010
In the words of Chico Buarque, Brasilian Minister of Education...
Living in Venezuela has made me much more conscious of the changes that are occurring in the climate, and not just the aspects that have to do with global warming, but the natural processes that occur throughout the year, too. Because there are only two seasons here, wet and dry, it is fairly easy to tell in what season we are currently in. For example, when I arrived in September of last year, everything was lush and green because of the rain. By the beginning of 2010, the trees were turning yellow and brown from the lack of rain. Luckily, it started raining last month (we're now officially in rainy season again) and the country is once again full of flowers and greenery. The article I posted recently about the burning of lands by the Pemón tribes in the south of Venezuela has made me think more about the effects that we as humans are having on the environment. It brought up the question of if we should interfere in the affairs of indigenous tribes (or other groups) if their actions, in turn, affect others not involved in the situation.
Brazil has had its own problems in this area. The Amazon rain forests have been destroyed at an alarming rate, causing international conflict. The article refers to the forests as "the lung of humanity." Who should be held responsible for this destruction of these irreplaceable ecosystems, an issue that affects the whole world? Is it the responsibility of the country where the forest is located or should the forests be "internationalized" (that is, the international community as a whole would share the responsibility)? The following is an article with the transcription of a response to this question given by Chico Buarque, Brazilian Minister of Education, four years ago at a US university. I agree with the comment that it is still a topic of vital importance even though four years have passed.
Internationalize the Amazonia?
Brazil’s Amazon basin, some 360 million hectares cleaved by the world’s largest river, the Amazon, whose 80,000 kilometers in length is equal to the distance between New York and Berlin, holds the planet’s greatest biodiversity reserve. This unique, complex, exceptional ecosystem is a colossal Patrimony of Humanity. Should it be internationalized?
Cristováo Buarque
During a debate in a US university over four years ago, a young US ecologist asked Cristóvão Buarque, then the Workers Party governor of the Federal District of Brasilia and currently Brazil’s minister of education, about his ideas on internationalizing the Amazonia, so often described as the “lung of humanity.” It was then and still is a theme strongly sustained in Washington’s power circles.
The young man said he hoped Buarque would answer with the vision of a humanist rather than of a Brazilian. What he got was a response that was both Brazilian and humanist, one as valid and timely today as it was four years ago. As increasingly happens with such important and surprising messages, it has been repeated on various Internet pages, accompanied by the implicit digital sign, “pass it on,” it’s for everyone. Hundreds of groups, organizations, institutions and publications that present alternative ideas to today’s “single thinking,” most of them outside the United States, have already reproduced his response. Better late than never, envío is also helping to disseminate his brilliant and clinching message, which we strongly applaud.
“From a humanist perspective...”
“As a Brazilian I would always argue against internationalizing the Amazon Rain Forest. Even though our government has not given this patrimony the care that it deserves, it is still ours. As a humanist who fears the risks posed by the environmental degradation the Amazon is suffering, I could imagine its internationalization, just as I could imagine the internationalization of everything else of importance to humanity.
If, from a humanist perspective, the Amazon must be internationalized, we should also internationalize the world’s petroleum reserves. Oil is as important for the well being of humanity as the Amazon is for our future. The owners of the reserves, however, feel that they have the right to increase or decrease the amount of oil production, as well as increase or lower the price per barrel. The wealthy of the world feel they have the right to burn up this immense patrimony of humanity.
In much the same way, the wealthy countries’ financial capital should be internationalized. Since the Amazon Rain Forest is a reserve for all human beings, no owner or country must be allowed to burn it up. The burning of the Amazon is as serious a problem as the unemployment caused by the arbitrary decisions made by global speculators. We cannot permit the use of financial reserves to burn entire countries in the frenzy of speculation.
“Let’s internationalize all the world’s children as patrimony of humanity”
Before we internationalize the Amazon, I would like to see the internationalization of all the world’s great museums. The Louvre should not belong merely to France. The world’s museums are guardians of the most beautiful pieces of art produced by the human genius. We cannot let this cultural patrimony, like the natural patrimony of the Amazon, be manipulated and destroyed by the whims of an owner or a country. A short time ago, a Japanese millionaire decided to be buried with a painting by a great artist. That painting should have been internationalized before this could happen.
The United Nations is holding the Millennium Summit parallel to this meeting, but some Presidents had difficulties attending due to U.S. border-crossing constraints. Because of this, I think that New York, as the headquarters of the United Nations, should be internationalized. At least Manhattan should belong to all humanity, as should Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Río de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife... Each city, with its unique beauty and its history, should belong to the entire world, to all of humanity.
If the United States wants to internationalize the Amazon Rain Forest to minimize the risk of leaving it in the hands of Brazilians, we should internationalize its nuclear arsenals, if only because the country has already demonstrated it is capable of using these arms, causing destruction thousands of times greater than the deplorable burnings done in the forests of Brazil.
In their debates, the US presidential candidates have defended the idea of internationalizing the world’s forest reserves in exchange for debt relief. We should begin by using this debt to guarantee that each child in the world has the opportunity to go to school. We should internationalize the children, treating them, all of them, no matter their country of birth, as patrimony that deserves to be cared for by the entire world. Even more than the Amazon deserves to be cared for. When the world’s leaders begin to treat the poor children of the world as a patrimony of humanity, they will not let them work when they should be studying, die when they should be living.
As a humanist, I agree to defend the internationalization of the world. But, as long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight for the Amazonia to remain ours. Ours alone.”
Retrieved from this website on May 10, 2010.
Brazil has had its own problems in this area. The Amazon rain forests have been destroyed at an alarming rate, causing international conflict. The article refers to the forests as "the lung of humanity." Who should be held responsible for this destruction of these irreplaceable ecosystems, an issue that affects the whole world? Is it the responsibility of the country where the forest is located or should the forests be "internationalized" (that is, the international community as a whole would share the responsibility)? The following is an article with the transcription of a response to this question given by Chico Buarque, Brazilian Minister of Education, four years ago at a US university. I agree with the comment that it is still a topic of vital importance even though four years have passed.
Internationalize the Amazonia?
Brazil’s Amazon basin, some 360 million hectares cleaved by the world’s largest river, the Amazon, whose 80,000 kilometers in length is equal to the distance between New York and Berlin, holds the planet’s greatest biodiversity reserve. This unique, complex, exceptional ecosystem is a colossal Patrimony of Humanity. Should it be internationalized?
Cristováo Buarque
During a debate in a US university over four years ago, a young US ecologist asked Cristóvão Buarque, then the Workers Party governor of the Federal District of Brasilia and currently Brazil’s minister of education, about his ideas on internationalizing the Amazonia, so often described as the “lung of humanity.” It was then and still is a theme strongly sustained in Washington’s power circles.
The young man said he hoped Buarque would answer with the vision of a humanist rather than of a Brazilian. What he got was a response that was both Brazilian and humanist, one as valid and timely today as it was four years ago. As increasingly happens with such important and surprising messages, it has been repeated on various Internet pages, accompanied by the implicit digital sign, “pass it on,” it’s for everyone. Hundreds of groups, organizations, institutions and publications that present alternative ideas to today’s “single thinking,” most of them outside the United States, have already reproduced his response. Better late than never, envío is also helping to disseminate his brilliant and clinching message, which we strongly applaud.
“From a humanist perspective...”
“As a Brazilian I would always argue against internationalizing the Amazon Rain Forest. Even though our government has not given this patrimony the care that it deserves, it is still ours. As a humanist who fears the risks posed by the environmental degradation the Amazon is suffering, I could imagine its internationalization, just as I could imagine the internationalization of everything else of importance to humanity.
If, from a humanist perspective, the Amazon must be internationalized, we should also internationalize the world’s petroleum reserves. Oil is as important for the well being of humanity as the Amazon is for our future. The owners of the reserves, however, feel that they have the right to increase or decrease the amount of oil production, as well as increase or lower the price per barrel. The wealthy of the world feel they have the right to burn up this immense patrimony of humanity.
In much the same way, the wealthy countries’ financial capital should be internationalized. Since the Amazon Rain Forest is a reserve for all human beings, no owner or country must be allowed to burn it up. The burning of the Amazon is as serious a problem as the unemployment caused by the arbitrary decisions made by global speculators. We cannot permit the use of financial reserves to burn entire countries in the frenzy of speculation.
“Let’s internationalize all the world’s children as patrimony of humanity”
Before we internationalize the Amazon, I would like to see the internationalization of all the world’s great museums. The Louvre should not belong merely to France. The world’s museums are guardians of the most beautiful pieces of art produced by the human genius. We cannot let this cultural patrimony, like the natural patrimony of the Amazon, be manipulated and destroyed by the whims of an owner or a country. A short time ago, a Japanese millionaire decided to be buried with a painting by a great artist. That painting should have been internationalized before this could happen.
The United Nations is holding the Millennium Summit parallel to this meeting, but some Presidents had difficulties attending due to U.S. border-crossing constraints. Because of this, I think that New York, as the headquarters of the United Nations, should be internationalized. At least Manhattan should belong to all humanity, as should Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Río de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife... Each city, with its unique beauty and its history, should belong to the entire world, to all of humanity.
If the United States wants to internationalize the Amazon Rain Forest to minimize the risk of leaving it in the hands of Brazilians, we should internationalize its nuclear arsenals, if only because the country has already demonstrated it is capable of using these arms, causing destruction thousands of times greater than the deplorable burnings done in the forests of Brazil.
In their debates, the US presidential candidates have defended the idea of internationalizing the world’s forest reserves in exchange for debt relief. We should begin by using this debt to guarantee that each child in the world has the opportunity to go to school. We should internationalize the children, treating them, all of them, no matter their country of birth, as patrimony that deserves to be cared for by the entire world. Even more than the Amazon deserves to be cared for. When the world’s leaders begin to treat the poor children of the world as a patrimony of humanity, they will not let them work when they should be studying, die when they should be living.
As a humanist, I agree to defend the internationalization of the world. But, as long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight for the Amazonia to remain ours. Ours alone.”
Retrieved from this website on May 10, 2010.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Rotary Las Mercedes- March 2010
Here you can read (in Spanish) and see pictures of the day I gave a speech to Rotary Las Mercedes back in March.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Visiting Macaws
When I walked out of my apartment building the other day, I heard what sounded like an army of macaws (I know their "rawk" very well by now because they enjoy the trees close to my apartment and I hear them all day) having a party. I could see some of the birds in the trees next to my building and across the street, but it seemed like they should've been closer for how loud they were. I turned around in the parking lot and saw them- there were two of them on my neighbor's porch! Apparently she leaves food out for them, and this day I even saw her come out and give them food from her hand. There was a little mini-doberman/chihuahua dog on a nearby porch that looked quite nervous. I paused to contemplate them and took this picture.
ProPaz's blogspot about the radio interview!
In the ProPaz blog, an entry was written about the show last Monday that I participated in. You can read the entry (in Spanish) here.
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