Heart of Saturday Night

A good thing to keep in mind

2011-04-22T10:38:00.002+01:00

"Várias são as vozes que afirmam que o FMI não é nenhum papão e não mete medo a ninguém, porque já cá esteve no século passado e tudo correu às mil maravilhas. É quase verdade, mas esquecem-se de um pequeno pormenor que faz toda a diferença: é que, quando o país sair exausto e exangue dos próximos anos de brutal austeridade, não haverá mais uma CEE à nossa espera para inundar Portugal com as catadupas de fundos comunitários que fizeram a felicidade do cavaquismo!"

Alfredo Barroso, O triunfo dos agiotas

The cause of all evil II

2011-04-19T10:10:00.003+01:00

As I said below (The cause of all evil), the western world is slowly, maybe inexorably, tumbling into decadence and irrelevance. All is said here, in a precise and clear way. Our world is becoming less and less recognizable by the minute...

PS: now S&P is revising the rating of the US republic. And you can be sure it will go down, since the economic and financial problems of the US are mostly still there, namely the insolvency of most of the states finances, extremely low economic growth, inward looking policies, and total subjection of politicians to the financial system.

The biggest Portuguese problem

2011-04-13T10:50:00.005+01:00

Is the extreme low quality of the educational system.

In the last 30 years, the greatest achievement of the democratic system in Portugal was to democratize education and to give the basic formal skills to most of the population. An extremely worthy achievement, one the country should be very proud of. But one huge problem remains to be solved: the quality of the education that is provided to all.

A simple example, which I think of often and that lead me to this conclusion of the failure of the educational system in providing quality education for those that go through it, is the following: most of the skills and knowledge that I acquired and that I use in my professional life (even as an individual seeking his way through the complexity of today's world) were not acquired at school, by which I mean the first 12 years of education. I did get a basic package of skills, like reading, writing and counting, but that was all that those 12 years of school managed to give me. Two of the most important things in life were never considered and taught: the importance of hard work and of using your brain. Repetition and passing exams was the main pedagogical tactic of the system, not forming people that were able to seek answers for themselves (more precisely, the development of a critical mind). School was not demanding and as such it become boring, unchallenging, and as a consequence useless. This is our drama as a nation, to form our people to a high enough standard so that they become critical minds: putting it simply, not a school that produces brains full of content but which in the end is useless, since students are unable to think and to use this content in a creative and critical fashion; instead a school that produces brains that leave school with (maybe) a bit less of content in them but with considerably more skill in finding and critically going through new information and knowledge, therefore being able to create new ideas and thoughts from the information they gather and collect.

For me, the biggest example of the failure of our educational system is the visible incompetence of our politicians, like Socrates and Passos Coelho: people that are clearly technically unprepared (verging on the incompetent most of the time), void of independent thought and novel reasoning regarding the issues that they are faced with, and whose only attribute is a vacuous ability to speak and lead people who are as uncritical as they are.

Lord help us!!

PS: Of course, there are many more problems, such as the "Doctor" mentally and the lack of practical skills and medium technical skills. Probably more on that soon...

The cause of all evil

2011-04-10T10:59:00.006+01:00

Why are the US and Europe in so much trouble, vis a vis their finances and economies?

Because those who used to fund them, or shall we say allowed to be robbed blindly to finance the needs of the metropolis, are now independent.

Asia is now standing more and more on its own legs, master of itself, as the abundant and clear example of China shows. (The Middle East to some, but extremelly important, extent -- most importantly the oil producing states -- is following the same path). Africa is basically where it was 200 years ago, and the part of it not being run by their European "fathers" does not even produce enough wealth for itself ; those African countries that are the exception to this rule are those run by proxies of the European "fathers". In South America it is either crisis and poverty as usual or assertion of economic independence, as is the case of Brazil.
Bottom line, fifty years ago, if the Western powers wanted money, they just managed to get payed (by whatever means necessary) by the poor and those that wanted not to be seen as poor: pride and arrogance, together with the usually unconscious personal and collective shame of feeling second, third or fourth rate as a citizen of the world, is a brilliant unseen catalyst for selling yourself short and giving away the few remaining things of value you might have just so as to feel not so poor or powerless.

Now that is gone, finally the colonial links have fizzled away and the "sons" of colonial Europe and America are grappling their way in the world independently of their progenitors. The world has definitely changed and we, the Western People, those of the Old World, have so far no idea how much. We used to think and behave as if we owned the whole world, evidently shown by how secure we felt about preaching to the world on the superiority of our society, our economy, our value/belief system. The rest of the world is now showing us we are just another piece in the large jigsaw puzzle that is the world community.

Lamuria...

2010-11-24T19:07:00.003Z

...is the Portuguese national sport. No one can convince me otherwise!
I wonder what would be happening in Portugal if CGD, BCP, BES had collapsed, bankrupt, the economy was in recession for the last couple of years, and the budget deficit was around 30%.
I guess everyone would kill themselves. Or maybe they would just go to Madeira, maybe for a holiday, maybe to live at the expense of Mr Jardim.
Now seriously: the lack of love for the country from those who live in it shocks me tremendously.
Oh, dear!

The world is changing

2010-11-24T18:57:00.001Z

The world (both west and east) is changing before our eyes.
Where will we be in two years time?

Goddess

2009-02-07T15:53:00.007Z

"He had met the woman at last -- the woman that he had thought little about, not being given to thinking about women, but whom he had expected, in a remote way, he would sometime meet. He had sat next to her at table. He had felt her hand in his, he had looked into her eyes and caught a vision of a beautiful spirit -- but no more beautiful than the eyes through which it shone, nor than the flesh that gave it expression and form. He did not think of her flesh as flesh, which was new to him, for of the women he had known that was the only way he thought. Her flesh was somehow different. (...) Her body was more than the garb of her spirit. It was an emanation of her spirit, a pure and gracious crystallization of her divine essence. This feeling of divine startled him. It shocked him from his dreams to sober thought. No word, no clue, nor hint of the divine had ever reached him before. He had never believed in the divine. He had always been irreligious, scoffing good-naturedly at the sky-pilots and their immortality of the soul. There was no life beyond, he had contended; it was here and now, then darkness everlasting. But what he had seen in her eyes was soul -- immortal soul that could never die. No man he had known, nor any woman, had given him the message of immortality. But she had. She had whispered it to him the first moment she looked at him. Her face shimmered before his eyes as he walked along, pale and serious, sweet and sensitive, smiling with pity and tenderness as only a spirit could smile, and pure as he had never dreamed purity could be. Her purity smote him like a blow. It startled him. He had known good and bad, but purity, as an attribute of existence, had never entered his mind."

in Martin Eden by Jack London

Meravigliosa Creatura

2009-01-21T02:59:00.001Z

SONETO DO AMOR TOTAL

2009-01-16T14:39:00.006Z

Amo-te tanto, meu amor... não cante
O humano coração com mais verdade...
Amo-te como amigo e como amante
Numa sempre diversa realidade.

Amo-te afim, de um calmo amor prestante
E te amo além, presente na saudade.
Amo-te, enfim, com grande liberdade
Dentro da eternidade e a cada instante.

Amo-te como um bicho, simplesmente
De um amor sem mistério e sem virtude
Com um desejo maciço e permanente.

E de amar assim, muito e amiúde
É que um dia em teu corpo de repente
Hei de morrer de amar mais do que pude.

(Vinicius de Moraes)

Com um beijo enorme!

Alguem disse...

2008-11-20T21:10:00.003Z

Nao gosto de anjos porque nao o sao,
de deuses porque sao falsos,
de demonios porque nao conseguem ser falsos para se tornarem deuses.
Prefiro aturar os homens, criaturas sofríveis.

Chill Out Area

2008-10-05T10:10:00.000+01:00

augustus pablo -- east of the river nile dub

Para a geração dos 30 -- Nuno Markl

2008-09-28T10:56:00.004+01:00

A juventude de hoje, na faixa que vai até aos 20 anos, está perdida. E está perdida porque não conhece os grandes valores que orientaram os que hoje rondam os trinta. O grande choque, entre outros nessa conversa, foi quando lhe falei no Tom Sawyer. "Quem?", perguntou ele. Quem?! Ele não sabe quem é o Tom Sawyer! Meu Deus... Como é que ele consegue viver com ele mesmo? A própria música: "Tu que andas sempre descalço, Tom Sawyer, junto ao rio a passear, Tom Sawyer, mil amigos deixarás, aqui e além... " era para ele como o hino senegalês cantado em mandarim.
Claro que depois dessa surpresa, ocorreu-me que provavelmente ele não conhece outros ícones da juventude de outrora. O D'Artacão, esse herói canídeo, que estava apaixonado por uma caniche; Sebastien et le Soleil, combatendo os terríveis Olmecs; Galáctica, que acalentava os sonhos dos jovens, com as suas naves triangulares; O Automan, com o seu Lamborghini quedava curvas a noventa graus; O mítico Homem da Atlântida, com o Patrick Duffy e as suas membranas no meio dos dedos; A Super-Mulher, heroína que nos prendia à televisão só para a ver mudar de roupa (era às voltas,lembram-se?); O Barco do Amor, que apesar de agora reposto na Sic Radical, não é a mesma coisa. Naquela altura era actual...E para acabar a lista, a mais clássica de todas as séries, e que marcou mais gente numa só geração: O Verão Azul. Ora bem, quem não conhece o Verão Azul merece morrer. Quem não chorou com a morte do velho Shanquete, não merece o ar que respira. Quem, meu Deus, não sabe assobiar a música do genérico, não anda cá a fazer nada.
Depois há toda uma série de situações pelas quais estes jovens não passaram, o que os torna fracos: Ele nunca subiu a uma árvore! E pior, nunca caiu de uma. É um mole. Ele não viveu a sua infância a sonhar que um dia ia ser duplo de cinema. Ele não se transformava num super-herói quando brincava com os amigos. Ele não fazia guerras de cartuchos, com os Canudos que roubávamos nas obras e que depois personalizávamos. Aliás, para ele é inconcebível que se vá a uma obra. Ele nunca roubou chocolates no Pingo-Doce. O Bate-pé para ele é marcar o ritmo de uma canção.

Confesso, senti-me velho...

Esta juventude de hoje está a crescer à frente de um computador. Tudo bem, por mim estão na boa, mas é que se houver uma situação de perigo real, em que tenham de fugir de algum sítio ou de alguma catástrofe, eles vão ficar à toa, à procura do comando da Playstation e a gritar pela Lara Croft. Óbvio, nunca caíram quando eram mais novos. Nunca fizeram feridas, nunca andaram a fazer corridas de bicicleta uns contra os outros. Hoje, se um miúdo cai, está pelo menos dois dias no hospital, a levar pontos e a fazer exames a possíveis infecções, e depois está dois meses em casa a fazer tratamento a uma doença que lhe descobriram por ter caído. Doenças com nomes tipo "Moleculum infanticus", que não existiam antigamente.
No meu tempo, se um gajo dava um malho muitas vezes chamado de "terno" nem via se havia sangue, e se houvesse, não era nada que um bocado de terra espalhada por cima não estancasse.
Eu hoje já nem vejo as mães virem à rua buscar os putos pelas orelhas, porque eles estavam a jogar à bola com os ténis novos. Um gajo na altura aprendia a viver com o perigo. Havia uma hipótese real de se entrar na droga, de se engravidar uma miúda com 14 anos, de apanharmos tétano num prego enferrujado, de se ser raptado quando se apanhava boleia para ir para a praia. E sabíamos viver com isso. Não estamos cá? Não somos até a geração que possivelmente atinge objectivos maiores com menos idade? E ainda nos chamavam geração "rasca"...
Nós éramos mais a geração "à rasca", isso sim. Sempre à rasca de dinheiro, sempre à rasca para passar de ano, sempre à rasca para entrar na universidade, sempre à rasca para tirar a carta, para o pai emprestar o carro.
Agora não falta nada aos putos.
Eu, para ter um mísero Spectrum 48K, tive que pedir à família toda para se juntar e para servir de presente de anos e Natal, tudo junto. Hoje, ele é Playstation, PC, tele-móvel, portátil, Gameboy, tudo.
Claro, pede-se a um chavalo de 14 anos para dar uma volta de bicicleta e ele pergunta onde é que se mete a moeda, ou quantos bytes de RAM tem aquela versão da bicicleta.
Com tanta protecção que se quis dar à juventude de hoje, só se conseguiu que 8 em cada dez putos sejam cromos.
Antes, só havia um cromo por turma. Era o totó de óculos, que levava porrada de todos, que não podia jogar à bola e que não tinha namoradas.
É certo que depois veio a ser líder de algum partido, ou gerente de alguma empresa de computadores, mas não curtiu nada.
Hoje, se um puto é normal, ou seja, não tem óculos, nem aparelho nos dentes, as miúdas andam atrás dele, anda de bicicleta e fica na rua até às dez da noite, os outros são proibidos de se dar com ele... "

I Looooove Amazon!

2008-09-27T08:29:00.000+01:00

Well, as announced in a previous post, I was waiting to receive a new book from Marjane Satrapi.
And, shit, it arrived!
IIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA
Can't wait to start reading...

An amazing movie -- The Curse of the Golden Flower

2008-09-20T11:53:00.000+01:00

I think I've talked about this movie before (I'll check that out later; it'll be interesting to see what I wrote then), but had to come back to it. Why? Well, simply because I bought the DVD (couldn't help it! Long live Amazon and it's glorious bargains!!!) and watched it again.
An the first comment is: the movie is just stunning. The cinematography is blindingly beautiful, tasteful and used perfectly as another way to tell the story, all done in a very effective and sensitive way (yeah, the reds are blinding, but my opinion is that's exactly the idea, more on that later...). The actors are very good, especially Chow Yun-Fat (his usual self, but better) and the BEAUTIFUL Gong Li (brilliant, the woman is a great actress), and an excellent performance by Liu Ye in the role of Crown Prince Wan.
Most important of all is the direction by Zhang Yimou. Rigorous, enthralling, always keeping you on your toes and avidly following the action that unfolds, even though the movie is not an action film, but a tragedy; actually, it's a tragedy filmed like an action movie, which is a very good idea in this case because Yimou is able enough to pull it off brilliantly. He manages to weave all the parts of the movie (dialogue, music -- the soundtrack is beautiful and addictive --, cinematography) into a whole that contributes to tell and enhance all the parts of the plot. Hats off, and that's all. The previous instalments of cinema that Yimou served the public -- Hero, House of Flying Daggers -- were quite good, but this is considerably above those previous efforts by the director.
And what about the plot? Well, here comes speculation on my part. Let me tell you what my outrageous imagination thought of the movie: it's a very, very political movie. The imperial house is completely described in tones of red (red, china, communist party....). We have three types of characters: the Emperor, the Empress, and the three young Crown Princes (Jai the rebel, Wan the wise, and Yu the young). The Emperor represents power (the communist party), the Empress represents China, which is being opressed and poisoned by the Emperor, and the Crown Princes represent chinese youth. From this perspective, the film is a political warning to everyone, westerners included. Above all, mesmerizing.
Well, enough ranting about it. Go and see it!

A New Musical Passion -- Maroon 5

2008-09-15T13:10:00.001+01:00

Yup, these five american guys blew my mind. I knew them from hearing some of their songs on the radio, and whenever I heard one of them I'd spend the whole day singing along to the chorus. Bloody nuisance, if you ask me! Anyway, this sonic terrorism of theirs made me check out some of their videos on youtube, and now that you can download videos using Real Player (amazing idea, very useful), I ended up singing along and listening to their sounds every fucking day. Outrageous! It got so bad that I ended up buying their two CD's (Songs About Jane and It Won't Be Soon Before Long). Now imagine that! The money these bastards made me spend just so that I could overcome the addiction to their music! There's no other way to say it: Fuck them! Bastards! Torturers!
As I don't want to be the only idiot in the world to have been coned by these american mtfs, here's a taste of their wares. Hope you save my shame and get addicted too! Bloody hell!

This love

Makes me Wonder

Wake up call

A great book and author

2008-09-14T16:05:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine decided to offer me a great cartoon book, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and I confess I loved it. It's basically a history lesson about Iran since the time of the Shah given through the life of an Iranian girl from her early childhood up to her adolescence when she decides to return to her native country. A very enlightening, sweet, and enthralling read.
The drawings are distinctive (Satrapi does have her own style of drawing) and the whole becomes very sensitive. Something which comes out quite clearly in the children's book Monsters are Afraid of the Moon, which I'm sure kids will love as the story is very simple, funny, and sweet, but with the added quality that an adult will enjoy reading it as much as their kids.
She has some other books, which I'm quite eager to read (one of them is already on its way, god bless Amazon! ;-)).

Back again & interesting new blog

2008-09-13T17:28:00.004+01:00

Well, after a few (quite long, actually) months away due to huge amounts of work, a certain need to quiet down a tad, and some well deserved hollidays, I've come back to this old house to rant a bit and share some of the good fun I sometimes have in the WebWorld.
Some points need to be taken care of first:
1. Congrats to Xantipa for the two years of her beautiful blog. Keep it up, that's an order!!! ;-D
2. This blog is probably (that's the idea, but who knows) gonna change its tone a bit, maybe become a bit more personal and relaxed. Let's see what happens...
3. Time constraints are great, due to work, so my posting might become a bit random and less periodic than previously.
4. Whatever happens, let it happen...
5. As L. B. Johnson said about making a speech on economics, this blog will continue to be "a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else".

And now for the new blog of the title of this posting. It's called Girl with a one track mind and it's not new, in fact it started in 2004 (and was eventually turned into a book, just like O Meu Pipi), but it's new for me as I only became aware of it recently. Extremely good fun, for both girls and boys. I think it's extremely interesting: for women as they'll recognize themselves there, their questions and problems, in a lot of ways; for men, because guys, if you read it carefully (and by that I mean you read it beyond the porn that, yes, gets you excited and wanting to have a wank and all that; well, if you manage to read beyond that point, you can learn a lot about how women's brains work). So, good things for everyone; enjoy.

O que é uma mulher?

2008-08-09T10:36:00.004+01:00

Dizia-me à tempos um amigo: "Pá, tira-lhes o verniz civilizacional e verás que são tal e qual como no tempo das cavernas. Com tudo o que tal implica para as relações entre homens e mulheres."

Addicted to this young lady

2008-07-24T10:47:00.000+01:00

duffy -- stepping stone

listen to those drums....

2008-07-12T12:17:00.003+01:00

metallica -- metal militia

megadeth -- peace sells... but who's buying

black sabbath -- paranoid

iron maiden -- remember tomorrow

diamond head -- lighting to the nations

slayer -- south of heaven

moonspell -- finisterra

trivium -- pull harder on the strings of your martyr

opeth -- ghost of perdition

deicide -- lunatic of gods creation

bathory -- born for burning

venom -- black metal

Casa da Vinha

2008-07-04T00:34:00.002+01:00

love is a losing game

back to black

No doubt the woman is an artiste. Full of life, a good old-fashioned bit of poetry and bohemia. A junkie and a drunk? Sure, but which really interesting and deep artists were neither? Come on, we're too used to the clean frames, sweet looks and conformist idiots that fill our MTV music fuelled ears. Fuck that....

The Lonely Habit

2008-06-13T23:02:00.002+01:00

People with my sort of interest in life are very isolated. That is, if they're inteligent enough to feel that kind of thing. My mother always says I'm inteligent. She's going to be annoyed when she hears I'm arrested for -- well, no need to be afraid of the word -- for murder.

Brian Aldiss

Chill Out Area

2008-06-04T18:00:00.000+01:00

peter tosh -- downpressor man

Magic

2008-05-03T11:47:00.000+01:00

"Geometry is magic;... it is successful magic."

MusicBox

2008-05-03T11:45:00.000+01:00

el feo -- lila downs

Chill Out Area

2008-04-18T10:16:00.000+01:00

peter tosh -- legalize it

As melhoras

2008-04-13T08:34:00.001+01:00

As mãos

Com mãos se faz a paz se faz a guerra.
Com mãos tudo se faz e se desfaz.
Com mãos se faz o poema – e são de terra.
Com mãos se faz a guerra – e são a paz.

Com mãos se rasga o mar. Com mãos se lavra.
Não são de pedras estas casas mas
de mãos. E estão no fruto e na palavra
as mãos que são o canto e são as armas.

E cravam-se no Tempo como farpas
as mãos que vês nas coisas transformadas.
Folhas que vão no vento: verdes harpas.

De mãos é cada flor cada cidade.
Ninguém pode vencer estas espadas:
nas tuas mãos começa a liberdade.

Manuel Alegre

(Para que melhores depressa!)

Chill Out Area

2008-04-09T15:55:00.000+01:00

horace andy -- skylarking

óbvio?

2008-03-30T10:35:00.002+01:00

«Era para ser treinador e, por motivos óbvios, não sei porque não fiquei...»

Um ex-futuro-treinador, num canal televisivo, um dia destes.

Chill Out Area

2008-03-22T11:14:00.000Z

eric donaldson -- cherry, oh baby

Chill Out Area

2008-03-09T17:35:00.000Z

gregory isaacs -- night nurse

Maybe...

2008-03-09T17:34:00.000Z

How far does the question entail its own answer?

Maybe...

2008-03-06T00:56:00.001Z

How many monkeys can you put on a tree?

Chill out area

2008-03-06T00:54:00.000Z

johnny clarke -- none shall escape the judgement

Chill Out Area

2008-03-02T01:57:00.002Z

johnny clarke -- just call me african roots

Just the two of us --B. Withers

2008-02-24T12:44:00.002Z

A beautiful love song. But just listen to the intro, with all the trademarks of the soul sound of the beginning of the 80's, with that synth sound in the background and then, in the middle of the song, the brass section honking away, the smooth sax dreaming the tones of a lover's night... Cool, I'd say.

Lovely Day -- B. Withers

2008-02-24T12:42:00.000Z

Funky, baby....

Lean on Me -- B. Withers

2008-02-24T12:40:00.000Z

A good lesson anytime...

Grandma's Hands -- Bill Withers

2008-02-24T12:38:00.001Z

One of my personal favourites...
The lyrics are full of life, sweet, but also bitter-sweet.

Ain't no sunshine -- Bill Withers

2008-02-24T12:35:00.001Z

Full of soul, this man's voice...

Goldfrapp

2008-02-24T12:20:00.002Z

Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.

Lovely Head, Goldfrapp

(via Morada Terra)

National Lampoon

2008-02-24T11:55:00.001Z

(by Mike Lynch)

Let's have an argument...

2008-02-16T17:48:00.003Z

Frases Feitas (retaliação machista!)

2008-02-13T18:08:00.002Z

De noite, todas as gatas são pardas.
De noite, todas as gatas são parvas.
De noite, todas as gajas são pardas.
De noite, todas as gajas são parvas.
Ainda assim, gostamos delas*!

(*) O que apenas demonstra as teses da frase feita anterior.

Desculpas...

2008-02-11T20:21:00.000Z

...A todos os que aqui vêm, pela falta de novidades que tem atravessado este blog ultimamente. Muito trabalho, pouco tempo, e muito pouca disposição blogueira. Se não for a Adriana, isto anda às moscas!
Tudo isto gerado pela mudança de emprego, que implicou a mudança de cidade. De Edinburgo vim parar a Aberdeen. Cidade pequena, com algum carácter e detentora de duas coisas que me agradam: costa marítima e bonitos parques. Nã0 é Lisboa, mas dá para enganar. Hehehe.
Bom, irei dando novidades da terra das saias para homens.

Abraço a todos.

Frases feitas

2008-02-10T18:52:00.000Z

De noite, todos os gatos são pardos.
De noite, todos os gatos são parvos.
De noite, todos os gajos são pardos.
De noite, todos os gajos são parvos.

Amuos

2008-01-25T15:03:00.000Z

Anichou-se a mim como não era seu costume.
Acordei com o calor do seu corpo. Tive sede e levantei-me.
Não gosta que o deixe só na cama e levantou-se também, amuado.
Saíu de casa sem dizer nada e não voltou até eu sair.
Eu tinha de sair. Ia viajar. Não quis que me despedisse, o mimado.
Sei que regressou para almoçar.
Nem perguntou por mim.
Bem, de um gato chamado Zé Mimi, que outra coisa poderia eu esperar?

Notícias do Pedro

2008-01-13T13:39:00.000Z

Diz Pedro Duarte Bento:

O axioma que afirma que 'se caminhares sempre somente metade da distância que te falta percorrer nunca chegarás ao destino final' não é apenas uma progressão geométrica decrescente. É também uma definição de carácter. Quem faz as coisas a medo nunca chega a lado nenhum.

Nota: Como estou constantemente a roubar postais ao Pedro, decidi que essas ocasiões merecem a sua própria rubrica! Abraço, Pedro.

Feminismo Inteligente e Natural

2008-01-13T13:28:00.000Z

Para quem acha (moi, moi!) que ser mulher não é imitar os homens, e que não considera este ponto de vista contradictório com feminismo, eis aqui a prova. À ganda Rititi!
O equivalente masculino é, por exemplo, o achar que ser homem, intelectual e desempoeirado, nada tem de incompatível com ler A Bola e destilar enormidades cabeludas em frente a uma televisão que apresenta vinte e dois marmanjos correndo atrás duma bola.... E, claro, eu acho isto tudo.

Enganos

2008-01-13T09:46:00.000Z

Um peso no peito.
Ainda de olhos fechados, acordo com um peso no peito.
O que é isto?
Tento mexer-me.
Abro os olhos devagar.
O peso do peito moveu-se nas suas patinhas brancas e, amuado, saíu de cima.

Nuova Italia!!!

2008-01-08T10:37:00.000Z

Italy is a modern country... or so they say.
Here's a proof of it!
A friend had told me about this, but it still seems unbelievable!

Petição

2008-01-07T09:52:00.000Z

O JPT teve uma excelente ideia e vai daí decidiu fazer uma petição.
Apesar de detestar salas de fumo (fazem-me lembrar jaulas, o que sempre me fez ir à rua dar fumo ao presunto), concordo com o JPT, e daí já ter assinado.

Natal bizantino

2007-12-31T14:25:00.000Z

Hoje, ao meio-dia, os autores (ahhhh - já me apropriei!) deste blogue estiveram a ouvir, sem fuso que os separasse (isto de estarmos no mesmo meridiano é bom), Joel Costa e as Questões de Moral do seu Natal bizantino, em Veneza, Dezembro de 2006. Aqui ficam algumas fotos minhas de Abril, mesmo ano, mesmo sítio, relativas a algumas referências feitas no programa.

Piazza San Marco, vista do Museo Correr, num dia de bruma.

Basilica, Palazzo Ducale e Torre dell'Orologio. Donna a l'ombra.

Árvore genealógica da importante família Foscarini

Ponte dei Sospiri, de dentro... esta era a última visão de liberdade que os condenados tinham antes de serem encarcerados naquela que foi a primeira prisão construída para o efeito. A lenda diz que suspiravam ao passar...

E como estamos a 31 de Dezembro, um excelente 2008!

Recomeço

2007-12-28T02:26:00.000Z

Recomeço a escrever neste blogue. Em tempos fui convidada. Pouco escrevi. O Miguel dá-me a honra de me convidar de novo. Espero não o desiludor muito.

Aos leitores matemáticos e cientistas, não fujam por minha causa! Queixem-se ao dono do dito! Vou tentar participar com toda a humildade de uma cidadã ateniense que gostaria de poder dizer, como se atribui ao seu marido, ser uma cidadã do mundo.

Comentários sobre a entrevista publicada por Pedro de Arroja na revista Visão

2007-12-27T14:06:00.000Z

Concordo c/ o Francisco Martins. De facto, só após o 25 de Abril, alguém com o ano 9º ano escreve com tantos erros ortográficos. Entrou-se numa época de facilitismo. A exigência só necessária para se obter resultados...

Anonymous | 12.27.07 - 11:21 am | #

Exmo.Sr.Prof.Pedro Arroja,

De tempos as tempos neste pais e nas revistas de este genero existe um "milagre".Foi o que me aconteceu quando li a entrevista que deu na revista visão.Se este pais tivesse a sorte de ser dirigido por pessoas com a sua linha de pensamento,capacidade e conhecimento proficional e da vida, nao estariamos onde estamos.
Nasci em 70, tenho 4 filhas, sou casado,pertenco a classe média, tenho o 9º ano,e no entanto não me identifico com nada disto.
Esperava-se que no seguimento dequela semi revolução, no tempo do Sr. Prof. e do pai, que as coisas mudaçem... Pois realmente mudaram, saio-se da ditarura dizem eles, para uma democracia anarquica, onde prospera o sentimento ;..." que se lixe eu tenho só de fazer o meu"...
É uma vergonha, frustrante,e depressivo, para pessoas que foram educadas com os valores basicos de civilização o que o Sr. Prof. dis, a igreja pode ter muitos defeitos , mas uma coisa fez bem, foi indicar os valores indispensaveis para uma boa evoluçao e convivencia...
Tenho 37 anos, e digo -lhe do fundo do meu coração, porque acima de tudo sou um patriota, este pais precisa de pessoas como o Sr.Prof. independentemente das ideias politicas ou outros, pessoas que saibam o que estao a fazer e façam com profundo prazer e sentido publico, porque no final o que realmente conta só quem termina a obra, nao quem a poe em marcha, para ganhar o seu, e depois entrega a batata quente, ao proximo`. Inflismente é esta a raça que tem governado este pais, depois daquele engano do 25 de Abril.Que falta de visão...
Parabens Sr. Prof., continue a esclarecer os portugueses, porque como muito bem diz, mais tarde ou mais cedo, eles vao perceber o caminho a percorrer.
Um Grande Abraço deste seu Admirador,

Francisco O. Martins
Anonymous | 12.27.07 - 11:03 am | #

Os comentários acima referem-se a uma entrevista, publicada na revista Visão, a Pedro de Arroja no dia 26 de Dezembro e que se podem encontrar no blog 'Portugal Contemporâneo'. Uma vez que não tenho acesso à entrevista, sinto alguma hesitação em comentar. De qualquer modo gostaria apenas de observar o seguinte no que respeita aos comentários aqui publicados: sem dúvida que vivemos um período de certo facilitismo a muitos níveis, nomeadamente no que toca à educação; no entanto este facilitismo traduz-se também no facto de que todo o cidadão tem acesso ao ensino. Naturalmente, hoje existem indivíduos com nono ano - até com estudos universitários - que escrevem pessimamente. No tempo do Salazar isto não acontecia, pois claro que não, pois só pessoas privilegiadas estudavam. Pessoas que no presente escrevem com erros ortográficos, num passado salazarista nao teriam tido sequer a oportunidade de escrever. Muito possivelmente, estas mesmas pessoas ainda trabalhariam nos montes a guardar ovelhas, com sacas de batatas enroladas nos pés para se defenderem dos rigores do Inverno, e passariam o dia a pão e azeitonas; os filho destas pessoas hoje em dia estudam, sabem escrever e muitos... sem erros ortográficos, se me perdoam o sarcasmo. Penso que isto ilustra de modo simples a minha mensagem, sem entrar em discussões mais profundas. Preocupa-me bastante que indivíduos de classes que durante a ditadura foram as mais sacrificadas, hoje exaltem aqueles tempos. Não quero aprofundar mais, concluo apenas dizendo que, na minha opinião, culpar o 25 de Abril pelos tempos conturbados que vivemos em Portugal é um raciocínio com uma lógica que me escapa totalmente e considero aberrante. Convém também perceber o que se passa no resto do mundo. Vivemos tempos preocupantes, mas certo tipo de interpretação preocupa-me muito mais. Poderia assinar este post como 'alguém que graças ao 25 de Abril aprendeu a escrever, e creio que sem erros ortográficos, e muito mais'.
Fátima Araújo | 12.27.07 - 1:45 pm | #

Boas festas!

2007-12-23T12:21:00.000Z

Ficam os desejos de um feliz natal e de boas entradas no novo ano a todos os que se dão ao trabalho de ler esta coisa mal amanhada!
Isto tem andado um pouco parado, devido a falta de tempo, mas com o novo ano a actividade retomará (esperemos!).

Um abraço para todos!

Mathematicians X

2007-12-05T11:12:00.000Z

The story of Newton and the falling apple roused Gauss' indignation. 'Silly!', he exclaimed. 'Believe the story if you like, but the truth of the matter is this. A stupid, officious man asked Newton how he discovered the law of gravitation. Seeing that he had to deal with a child in intellect, and wanting to get rid of the bore, Newton answered that an apple fell and hit him on the nose. The man went away fully satisfied and completely enlightened.'

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

This is a brilliant metaphor for our lives, to all those things we just prefer not to see as they really are. Humans love a fairy tale, me included...

Mathematicians IX

2007-11-28T09:44:00.000Z

With characteristic modesty Gauss declared that 'If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries.' Possibly. Gauss' explanation recalls Newton's. Asked how he had made discoveries in astronomy surpassing those of all his predecessors, Newton replied, 'By always thinking about them'. This may have been plain to Newton; it is not to ordinary mortals.

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

Mathematicians VIII

2007-11-20T20:25:00.000Z

No sharper contrast between the mathematician and the military genius can be found than that afforded by their respective attitudes to a broken enemy. We have seen how Napoleon treated Ferdinand. When Napoleon fell Gauss did not exult. Calmly and with a detached interest he read everything he could find about Napoleon's life and did his best to understand the workings of a mind like Napoleon's. The effort even gave him considerable amusement. Gauss had a keen sense of humour, and the blunt realism which he had inherited from his hard-working peasant ancestors also made it easy for him to smile at heroics.

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

I Was Born in Alamo (The Gypsy's song) -- Yasmin Levy

2007-11-13T15:42:00.000Z

I have no place
And I have no landscapes
I have no homeland.

With my cold fingers I make a fire
and with my heart I sing to you
The chords of my heart are crying.

Por aqui, idem...

2007-11-10T11:10:00.000Z

os trinta

Estou numa fase da minha vida em que uma considerável parte das mulheres giras já é mais nova do que eu. Estou numa fase da minha vida em que uma considerável parte das mulheres interessantes e intelectualmente estimulantes continua mais velha do que eu.

Por exclusão de partes, sou trintão.

Abraço, Pedro.

Some sounds for the week

2007-11-04T11:01:00.000Z

A picture for the Weekend

2007-11-03T12:15:00.000Z

Yue Minjun, Girl reading a letter by an open window.
(Click the image to get a larger frame!)

Simply Brilliant!

2007-10-31T23:15:00.000Z

Or, putting it in a more rigorous fashion, simple and brilliant. While watching this film, one might think ''Hey, The Godfather Russian style''. Yes, but most surely no! Yes, there's a lot of the Godfather in it, but it strays away from it to very different paths and becomes something completely different in the end. In the way one sees the ascent of a future mob boss to his position of power, it could be compared with the first instalment of Coppola's trilogy.

But that is the only link. First, this a story about people and made up of different characters, even of normal people, as Stepan, Anna's uncle, puts it. Cronenberg, in a masterful way, uses several devices to achieve this: the young girl's narration, in the tone of an a posteriori documentary about her fate (the detail of the diary is just brilliant!), the simplicity of the photography, the homeliness of everything apart from the Russian's environment, etc. Even Nikolai, magnificently played by Viggo Mortensen, seems like a normal guy of sorts. Is he a hero, a good undercover cop? A double agent, using the FSB and the mob, at the same time, in his own interest? Or simply an old-fashioned power hungry madman? Brilliantly, Cronenberg does not close this line in the plot. And our times don't require an answer, of course, for this is the time of faulted humans, not of heroes.
And what I most liked about this film, especially if read together with the previous movie by Cronenberg, The History of Violence, is its clear and straightforward portrail of true power and true men (heroes, in the end...). And the realism that floods the whole movie is used as a tool to ram home this very same message. Namely, that power is total, and that physical violence is nothing but a tool in the hands of intelligent men. And that it rules the world (to a certain extent, at least). Cronenberg's realism achieves another very important thing: to put this story and its ''facts'' inside our world. Cinema is alive, it seems...

A final word for Viggo's performance. Think of Arnold Schwarzeneger, of the coldness of his characters. And then add masterful skill in minimalistic acting. You got Viggo. A genius of a performance. More than convincing, hyper real. One should praise Cronenberg for creating such a character, but most surely we should praise Viggo for giving it life, for making it live.

Tesouro magnífico!

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000Z

Um tesourinho fantástico vindo do (eter).
A escutar e relembrar (bom, quem conhece e ouviu, claro).

Pick of the week: great electronic sound!

2007-10-29T11:35:00.000Z

Hey, can you see me?

2007-10-26T11:31:00.000+01:00

Come on!!! I'm sure you can see me, up on top? No? Yeah? Uau! Hello!
By the way, does my bum look big in this? And I'm wondering, why aren't we falling down?
Oh, God, vertigo attack!

Lately, I have mostly watched:

2007-10-24T23:18:00.001+01:00

Pedro's comment (a story made of photographs, but also of lyrics) sparked my curiosity and made me decide to go and watch it. Although I'm aware of Joy Division's music and the story surrounding their vocalist Ian Curtis, I'm not really a fan of the band and their somewhat severely depressive style. Nevertheless, this is a must see! I left the cinema thinking that if the band hadn't existed, this could be an amazing movie. But maybe it 's the existence of the band that makes the movie come so alive. First question mark...
The second mark this film left on me is... a question mark. It left me with an enigma, sphinx like.
What is it? I cold never understand the title ''Love will tear us apart'', and I think I still can't...
The film ends very well, rosebud like (but in a well done way ;-) -- Wells just spoiled it for everyone else! LOLLLLLL).

Must have been the third or fourth time I've watched this good story filled with great music (some of it can be heard in the Radioblog on the right, just choose the Soul Time playlist). Still worth it.

A quite good animation film. It's not a comedy, although it has some pretty funny punchlines, but a very sweet, innocent and well constructed story. Remi, the cookamouse, is a great character. Lots of funny french accents. Definitely worth watching.

Only one comment: as bad as the novel by Ian McEwan. Tries to be all arty-farty, but is simply a boring attempt at a grand film. Nearly left the cinema before the end.

Music for the Week: Divine voice!

2007-10-23T12:54:00.000+01:00

Some sounds for the Weekend...

2007-10-19T13:09:00.001+01:00

Mathematicians VII

2007-10-18T10:18:00.000+01:00

Writing to his friend Schumacher on 1 November 1844, Gauss says 'You see the same sort of thing [mathematical incompetence] in the contemporary philosophers Schelling, Hegel, Nees von Essenbeck, and their followers; don't they make your hair stand with their definitions? Read in the history of ancient philosophy what the big men of that day -- Plato and others (I except Aristotle) -- gave in way of explanations. But even with Kant himself it is often not much better; in my opinion his distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions is one of those things that either run out in a triviality or are false.' When he wrote this Gauss had long been in the possession of non-Euclidean geometry, itself a sufficient refutation of some of the things Kant said about 'space' and geometry...

E. T Bell, Men of Mathematics

Mathematicians VI

2007-10-12T15:14:00.000+01:00

All his life there was but one type of man for whom Gauss felt aversion and contempt, the pretender to knowledge who will not admit his mistakes when he is wrong.

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

Sputnik, 50 years

2007-10-08T11:48:00.001+01:00

In the Colosseum, by Robert Fisk

2007-10-07T14:51:00.000+01:00

Given their predicament [death row victims], I guess anyone would reform. But I suspect that guilt or innocence is not what the death sentence is about. My Dad was perfectly aware that the young Australian soldier he was ordered to execute in the First World War had killed a British military policeman in Paris, but the Australian promised to live "an upright and straightforward life" if pardoned. My father refused to kill the Australian. Someone else shot him instead. Capital punishment, for those who believe in it, is almost a passion. I rather think it is close to an addiction, something – like smoking or alcohol – which can be cured only by total abstinence. And no excuses for secret Japanese executions or lethal injections in Texas or head-chopping outside Saudi Arabian mosques. But how do you reach this stage when humanity is so obsessed with death in so barbaric a form?

Whenever the Iranians string up drug-dealers or rapists – and who knows their guilt or innocence – the cranes which hoist these unfortunates into the sky like dead thrushes are always surrounded by thousands of men and women, often chanting "God is Great". They did this even when a young woman was hanged.

Surely some of these people are against such terrible punishment. But there is, it seems, something primal in our desire for judicial killings. George Bernard Shaw once wrote that if Christians were thrown to the lions in the Royal Albert Hall, there would be a packed house every night. I'm sure he was right. Did not those thousands of Romans pack this very same, sinister Colosseum in which I was lying to watch just such carnage? Was not Saddam Hussein's execution part of our own attempt to distract the Iraqis with bread and circuses, the shrieking executioners on the mobile phone video the Baghdad equivalent of the gladiators putting their enemies to the sword? Nor, let us remember, is execution only the prerogative of states and presidents. The IRA practised capital punishment. The Taliban practises execution and so does al-Qa'ida. Osama bin Laden – and I heard this from him in person – believes in the "Islamic" punishment of head chopping.

(...)

Yet I fear the real problem goes beyond the individual act of killing, judicial or otherwise. In a weird, frightening way, we believe in violent death. We regard it as a policy option, as much to do with self-preservation on a national scale as punishment for named and individual wrongdoers. We believe in war. For what is aggression – the invasion of Iraq in 2003, for example – except capital punishment on a mass scale? We "civilised" nations – like the dark armies we believe we are fighting – are convinced that the infliction of death on an awesome scale can be morally justified.

And that's the problem, I'm afraid. When we go to war, we are all putting on hoods and pulling the hangman's lever. And as long as we send our armies on the rampage – whatever the justification – we will go on stringing up and shooting and chopping off the heads of our "criminals" and "murderers" with the same enthusiasm as the Romans cheered on the men of blood in the Colosseum 2,000 years ago.

Mathematicians V

2007-10-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

This indifference of scientists [other than mathematicians] to mathematics for its own sake is as enraging to one type of pure mathematician as the omission of a doubtful iota subscript is to another type of pedant. The result is that but few pure mathematicians have ever made a significant contribution to science -- apart, of course, from inventing many of the tools which scientists find useful (perhaps indispensable).

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

Mathematicians IV

2007-09-28T11:16:00.000+01:00

Thinking to get a rise out of Laplace, Napoleon took him to task for an apparent oversight. 'You have written this huge book [the Mécanique Céleste] on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe.' 'Sire', Laplace retorted, 'I had no need of that hypothesis.' When Napoleon repeated this to Lagrange, the latter remarked, 'Ah, but that is a fine hypothesis. It explains so many things.'

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics

Does God play dice?

2007-09-25T10:53:00.000+01:00

Hell, why not?
I'm sure that, in contemplating his perfection, he is probably utterly bored. So he's most likely going around in some shady bar in Brooklin, downing glasses of whisky one after another while he awaits to do his totally humourless stand up routine:
«Yes, I'm God! Whooptydoo!
And you're my fucking beautiful creation, you men. Ahhh, I spit on you, you miserable breed.
Jack, give us another whisky!
All these bloody arguments about you being made in my image... Well, fuck you! Fuck you all!
I made your breed in order to have something to spit at, a precise image of something contemptible, base, crude, spiteful, mean to the core.
Yeah... my own image... right you are...
Jack! JACK!!! Another whisky, you fucking piece of sewer.»

Eu não o diria melhor...

2007-09-22T11:56:00.000+01:00

... sensualidade e o erotismo suado encarnados em Kathleen Turner. Nessa altura compreendi que um glance tem peso de ouro e que um gesto acertado ou um determinado tom de voz podem ser mais pungentes do que um rosto perfeito. A descoberta do Mundo faz-se à medida que crescemos, como se sabe, e o que eu não sabia era que é sempre preferível uma mulher a uma Deusa.

Um abraço, Pedro.

EL NAVÍO DE ESPEJOS

2007-09-18T17:37:00.000+01:00

El navío de espejos
no navega cabalga

Su mar es la floresta
que le sirve de nivel

Al crepúsculo espeja
sol y luna en los flancos

Por eso al tiempo le gusta
Acostarse con él

Los armadores no aman
su rumbo claro

(Vista del movimiento
Se diría que paró)

Cuando llega a la ciudad
ningún embarcadero lo abriga

Su bodega no trae nada
nada leva a la partida

Voces y aire pesado
es todo lo que transporta

(Y en el mástil espejado
una especie de porta)

Sus diez mil capitanes
tienen el mismo rostro

La misma cinta* escura
el mismo grado y puesto

Cuando un se revuelta
hay diez mil insurrectos

(Como los ojos de la mosca
reflecten los objetos)

Y cuando un de ellos iza
el cuerpo sobre los mástiles
y escruta el mar del fondo

Toda a nave cabalga
(Como en lo espacio los astros)

Del principio del mundo
hasta el fin del mundo

* léxico náutico

Tradução da fantástica, maravilhosa, insubstituível e minha querida amiga Xantipa. I hope this will help, Thalassiné.

Uma lei da vida

2007-09-17T14:06:00.000+01:00

Passam os anos e com eles vão-se as pessoas e as coisas de que gostamos.

Deprimente? Sim, um pouco.
Mas, mais que uma chamada à melancolia, um aviso a nós próprios para darmos valor aos e ao que nos é importante na vida.

Mathematicians III

2007-09-15T23:29:00.000+01:00

''When he [Lagrange] did philosophize in his letters it was with an unexpected touch of cynicism which is wholly absent from the works he published, as when he remarks, «I have always observed that the pretensions of all people are in exact inverse ratio to their merits; this is one of the axioms of morals».''

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics.

Mathematicians II

2007-09-08T11:55:00.000+01:00

''Invited by Catherine the Great to visit her court, Diderot earned his keep by trying to convert the courtiers to atheism. Fed up, Catherine commissioned Euler to muzzle the windy philosopher. This was easy because all mathematics was Chinese to Diderot. De Morgan tells what happened: «Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician was in possession of an algebraic demonstration of the existence of God, if he desired to hear it. Diderot gladly consented. ... Euler advanced toward Diderot, and said gravely, and in a tone of perfect conviction:

'Sir, (a+b^n)/n = x, hence God exists; reply!'»''

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics.

For those readers who are knowledgeable of elementary algebra, you'll realize how monumentally was Euler making fun of Diderot. And poor Diderot swallowed the insult without a sound, since he could understand nothing of Euler's argument. This is an interesting example of what ignorance can do, since Euler's purported proof was complete nonsense. Notwithstanding the veracity of the story, it is still an extremely funny joke!

Homage to a marvelous tenor

2007-09-06T11:12:00.000+01:00

Mathematicians I

2007-09-03T22:50:00.000+01:00

''In the bare summary of what Leibniz accomplished, his multifarious activities and his restless curiosity, we shall see the familiar tragedy of frustration which has prematurely withered more than one mathematical talent of the highest order -- Newton, pursuing a popular esteem not worthy his spitting on, and Gauss seduced from his greater work by his necessity to gain the attention of men who were his intellectual inferiors. Only Archimedes of all the greatest mathematicians never wavered. He alone was born into the social class to which the others strove to elevate themselves; Newton, crudely and directly; Gauss indirectly and no doubt subconsciously, by seeking the approbation of men of established reputation and recognized social standing, although he himself was the simplest of the simple. So there may after all be something to be said for aristocracy: its possession by birthright or other social discrimination is the one thing that will teach its fortunate possessor its worthlessness.''

E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics.

I would venture that this analysis can be applied to any field of science and knowledge, showing that scientists and scholars are just as any other man, subject to the same faults and shortcomings. It has always been fashionable, mostly out of ignorance, to portray the great men of knowledge as extraordinary figures far removed from the main human standard. To this, of course, I totally object. We're all men, irrespective of our abilities, prone to mistakes, unethical behaviour, etc. Well, it seems we can never stop building our golden calfs.

Home, sweet home...

2007-09-01T21:33:00.001+01:00

Criação intelectual

2007-08-30T13:52:00.000+01:00

''O meio português, em vez de facilitar o exercício das faculdades criadoras do indivíduo e de contribuir para o seu desenvolvimento, estiola-as, quando não impede por completo as suas manifestações. Muita da nossa gente pensa que criticar é destruir. Os portugueses são muito pedinchas. Pedem favores, pedem dinheiro, pedem ao Governo, pedem a Deus.''

Azeredo Perdigão, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Salazar II

2007-08-28T10:37:00.000+01:00

Os portugueses ''tendem para o excesso. A História de Portugal é uma oscilação entre tirania e anarquia, os portugueses odeiam os seus chefes e atacam-nos sem mercê até derrubá-los. Somos um povo eternamente saudoso, longe das realidades por termos vivido, em certos momentos, uma realidade heróica mas falsa. Estamos demasiadamente escravizados a um ideal colectivo que gira sempre à roda de glórias passadas. O nosso passado heróico pesa demais no nosso presente. Temos o gosto doentio do que é estrangeiro, a ignorância, ou o desprezo, do que é português. Somos um país pobre, doente, que não suporta facilmente grandes injecções de ideias novas.''
António de Oliveira Salazar, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Salazar I

2007-08-26T15:18:00.000+01:00

''A sua [de Salazar] aspiração é modificar pouco a pouco a nossa mentalidade, fazendo parar as paixões dos homens, atrofiando-as, calando-as, forçando-os a um ritmo vagaroso que lhes faça descer a temperatura, que os cure da febre.''

António Ferro, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Uma imagem que diz tudo!

2007-08-20T20:08:00.001+01:00

Bandeira, mais uma vez, em cima do acontecimento. E, como é usual, com um fino sentido crítico.
Um grande bem haja!

2007-08-19T22:56:00.000+01:00

A pessoa mais sábia do mundo que conheço é a minha mãe. A senhora é tão sábia, tão sábia, que até me conhece melhor que eu! E consegue sempre ensinar-me algo de importante, o raio da senhora. Em suma, adoro a minha querida mãezinha, nem mais.
Ah sim, o meu pai também é um valente sacana! Um espertalhão dos diabos!
Adoro-os a ambos, e muita falta me farão, no dia em que partirem para longe (que esse dia esteja ainda muito longe!).

Abandon ship!!!

2007-08-19T12:19:00.000+01:00

Yes, the ship is sinking, and the British, with their customary practical approach to life, are taking the sensible step (in order to defend their interests, of course) irrespective of how it might appear. They will, as usual, find a way to keep appearances and save face, don't worry! There's no doubt, one has to admire these sons of the old Albion, by Jove!
Here's a very illustrative paragraph on the different approaches that Britain and the US nowadays have regarding Iraq: Britain has realized it's time to jump ship, like a rat (well, a rat, yes, but one has to give it to them that they now how to keep their hides intact; realism, no doubt), while the US keep trying not to accept defeat and call it quits. Actually, can the US really do that? It's their war, after all.

Before the invasion in 2003, officers were told that the Army's war aims were to bring stability and democracy to Iraq and to the Middle East as a whole. Those ambitions have been drastically revised, the IoS understands. The priorities now are an orderly withdrawal, with the reputation and capability of the Army "reasonably intact", and for Britain to remain a "credible ally". The final phrase appears to refer to tensions with the US, which has more troops in Iraq than at any other time, including the invasion, as it seeks to impose order in Baghdad and neighbouring provinces.

Here's a good justification of Britain's exit from Iraq.

What is Poland? Or how European nationalisms are set to undermine the EU

2007-08-19T12:06:00.000+01:00

A terribly interesting read. And some people worry about Turkey in the EU...
My God, with the fierce (although sometimes cloaked, as in the cases of France and the UK) nationalism that afflicts the EU preventing it from fulfilling its true potential for all its members, the Turkish ghost is a very good excuse for not discussing the more important and relevant issues that beset the Union. Just like the Republicans in America wave the terrorist ghost to numb public opinion, so too the european national leaders use Turkey to hide what is more important, namely the construction of a full fledged Union as strong as the national entities that are its constituents. It seems everyone still prefers to feign blindness to the lessons of the Great Wars. 'Till when, that's the question to ask.

Four lines of poetry and time

2007-08-18T09:47:00.001+01:00

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
English lyric poet (1591 - 1674)

Ambição

2007-08-17T10:37:00.000+01:00

''Ambiciono edificar um Portugal desempoeirado, um Portugal de alma antiga e de sensibilidade nova.''

António Ferro, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Esta é uma ambição muito louvável. Abaixo assinado!

Lately, I've been mostly watching...

2007-08-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

O povo e a nação

2007-08-13T13:20:00.000+01:00

''Um povo que pensa sistematicamente mal de si próprio acaba por transformar-se naquilo que pensa.''

Fernando Pessoa, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Sexo e pornografia

2007-08-10T09:24:00.000+01:00

Porque hão-de ser ''só os ricos ou os de maiores posses a terem acesso à pornografia, e não os pobres? As classes mais desprotegidas deviam ter a sua pornografia mais barata, subsidiada pelo Governo*, se o Governo fosse ao mesmo tempo inteligente e progressista nestas matérias. Somos um país imoral, um país depravado às ocultas. Foi isso, no entanto, que nos salvou de mergulhar nas sombras horrendas do puritanismo. Puritanismo que não é parte da nossa herança cultural**. Mil vezes a pornografia do que a castração, a prostituição do que a hipocrisia. Se alguma coisa há que deve ser sagrada, é o prazer sexual entre duas pessoas mutuamente concordantes em dá-lo e recebê-lo, ou negociá-lo. (...) Raros terão sido os jovens seduzidos na sua inocência, o contrário é que é verdade. O fazer amor é uma arte que se aprende, e todas as grandes civilizações, mesmo esta miserável que se chama civilização ocidental, souberam refiná-la desde a iniciação. Se alguma coisa há, num mundo que perdeu a noção do sagrado (que nas suas manifestações sempre incluiu a sexualidade) e guardou apenas o da proibição legal, se alguma coisa há que deva ser sagrado, é o prazer sexual entre pessoas concordantes em usufruí-lo e partilhá-lo.''
Jorge de Sena, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

(*) Bom, poder-se-ia dizer que hoje, a certo nível, tal acontece. Pensemos nas telenovelas, que não passam de pornografia intelectual e sentimental.
(**) Bom, o discurso anterior, se algo afirma, é exactamente o facto do país ser um paraíso de puritanismo hipócrita! Expressões como o ''come e cala'' e o ''uma mão lava a outra'' vêm-me à mente...

Putas e vinho verde

2007-08-08T10:50:00.000+01:00

''Moralmente falando, sou um homem casado e pai de nove filhos, que nunca teve vocação para patriarca, e sempre foi em favor de a mais completa liberdade ser garantida a todas as formas de amor e de contacto sexual. Nenhuma sociedade estará jamais segura, em qualquer parte, enquanto uma igreja, um partido ou um grupo de cidadãos hipersensíveis possa ter o direito de governar a vida privada de alguém.''

Um dos ''prazeres sexuais dos seres humanos tem sido o de reprimir a sexualidade, a própria e a dos outros. Defendo todas as formas de prostituição, como profissão protegida pela lei e vigiada pela saúde pública. Ainda que isso possa chocar muita gente, parece que, desde sempre, houve machos e fêmeas cujo único talento na vida, e cuja vocação definida, é emprestarem o próprio corpo. E quem se vende ou quem compra (o que não tem nada a ver com capitalismo, mas com o direito de qualquer pessoa a dispor de si mesma, em acordo com outra) deve ter a protecção da lei contra redes de exploração, chantagens, etc. O que duas pessoas (ou um grupo delas) fazem uma com a outra, fora das vistas dos demais, não diz respeito a esses demais, a não ser que eles vivam na observação mórbida de imaginarem (num misto de horror e curiosidade, que os torna moralistas raivosos) o que os outros fazem. E o que os outros fazem não altera em nada o equilíbrio social.''
A pornografia pode ser ''um prazer para muita gente e, às vezes, o único que lhes é concedido, pois as pessoa idosas, solitárias, não atractivas, não encontram nunca o chinelo velho para o seu pé doente. Uma prostituição oficializada é obra de caridade para com os feios e os tímidos.''
Jorge de Sena, cit. in Dacosta, As Máscaras de Salazar.

Lately, I've been mostly watching...

2007-08-07T10:31:00.000+01:00

Meu deus, o que eu encontrei!

2007-08-05T12:45:00.000+01:00