Justiça em Portugal

 O facto de José Sócrates ter sido detido tomou conta dos media e da cabeça dos portugueses, por completo. Isto porque a ideia de que os poderosos fogem sempre às mãos da justiça está tão calcada em algumas mentes que, assim que a notícia veio cá para fora: uns quantos abriram garrafas de champagne para celebrar, o PSD esfregou as mãos de contente por ter acertado em cheio no timing e, simultaneamente, o Seguro rebolou-se a rir em casa.
 "Piadolas" à parte, passemos ao que é realmente sério.
 Pela filosofia política, desde a Grécia Antiga, até aos tempos mais modernos, passaram N teorias do Estado, N teorias de qual será o melhor regime.
 Hoje, encontramo-nos perante um regime democrático, com um Estado de Direito, onde todos temos direitos e deveres e somos iguais perante a Justiça.
 Justiça essa que se vincula em determinados princípios, como o segredo de justiça - sendo este «a regra segundo a qual, aos sujeitos processuais não interessados ou a terceiros, é legalmente proibido conhecer o conteúdo dos actos e diligências praticadas no processo».
 É intolerável que, seja quem for, seja considerado "culpado até prova em contrário".
 É intolerável que, num Estado de Direito, se chame a televisão para assistir a uma detenção, neste caso de José Sócrates, a qual nem sequer se justifica naquele local, uma vez que não havia perigo de fuga. Para além disto, ainda fomos completamente gozados pelos jornalistas que fizeram afirmações como "estávamos, por acaso, a passar aqui no aeroporto da Portela (...)", quando todos sabemos que foram, claramente, chamados ao local.
 São intoleráveis os pontapés a torto e a direito, passo a expressão, no segredo de justiça, como a comunicação social está a fazer, ao fazer acusações gravíssimas antes, sequer, do indivíduo em causa ser julgado.
 É de notar que não é minha intenção defender José Sócrates. Isto é intolerável no seu caso, tal como seria no caso do cidadão A, B ou C.
 Como é que pode existir um julgamento justo se há fugas de informação que podem baralhar toda a investigação e criar falsos alarmes, exagerando factos, simplesmente porque há a necessidade de vender informação por parte dos media?
 Em detrimento da justiça, a comunicação social tem a capacidade de gerir a opinião pública, colocando-a à mercê de qualquer interesse, de qualquer órgão de informação.
 Para que não haja margem de manobra para interpretações erradas, quero sublinhar que fico feliz e aliviada por saber que, finalmente, o nosso país está a usar os meios que possui para combater a corrupção. Só que há, para que o meu ponto fique esclarecido, uma grande discrepância entre utilizar esses meios e utilizar esses meios correctamente.

"Malaysia Airline flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in eastern Ukraine."

The plane reportedly went down near the border between Russia and Ukraine.

This is such a sensible area, geopolitically speaking. 

Even thought it is the second time an accident happens with a Malaysian airlines's plane, it is too much of a coincidence that the plane went down in the Ukraine-Russia border. 

Right now, everything is really messy. People are not sure what really happened and there's a lot of speculation in the air. 

Let's imagine that it really was Russia who putted down this airplane. Where does that leave us? 

If this Russia-Ukraine's situation didn't cross the line already for some, they've just crossed the line infinite times

We all have been hearing about 'sanctions'. Just yesterday a notification popped on my phone: "U.S. Increases sanctions against Russia" ... Well, this isn't, for certain, enough. I think if we weren't, every and each on of us is aware of that fact right now. It is not enough. 

Some of you are probably asking yourselves "okay, Captain Obvious, if the most soft power move doesn't work, what do you want?" 

I say we go harder on the punishment. No, I'm not referring to hard power, of course, that would be a not smart kamikaze move that would provoke a WWIII. 

I'm talking about isolating Russia. Cut off diplomatic, economic, every single relation with Russia. 

CNN confirmed right this instance that the plane was mistaken with an Ukrainian military plane. 

Well.. It isn't speculation anymore. My guts were right.  

We live in a world where interdependence is a reality. We all depend on each other mutually in so many ways. That leaves us, in our consciences, a weight, a pressure, a feeling that consumes us: the feeling that it is one of our responsibilities find a solution for this huge problem. 

What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to discuss this right in the comments bellow. I'll make sure to read them and respond if you want to ask something directly.  

The world just got even more poor.

It's been a long time since I last wrote something here.
Everyone needs to open their eyes and see how much the world lost yesterday but also won.
We lost a lider, an intelectual idol but we won his values, his knowledge, his ideas. He showed us that when we need to change something about the world we just have to do it.
It doesn't matter what it'll have to take, to say or to do.
You just do it.
We all know very well the world we live in, even though
we might close our eyes sometimes to certain events.
Don't close your eyes.
Don't shut down your opportunities to enlarge your knowledge.
Knowledge is power and power is what you need to  influence others in believing in you.
 Read. Learn. Speak. Use your voice every time they try to take you down.
"Education is the most powerful weapon you can choose to change the world." Learn from him.
 Don't just say how much you're sorry just because you heard he was someone important and then go back to your normal, peaceful life. Be the change you want to see in the world, don't just wait for someone else to do it! Why? Because they might not have the guts and the only ones who really have the guts are the ones who really want to see a change.
 He's gone, yes, but never forgotten. May all of us learn from him, follow him and make the world a better place to live in.
 He shall rest in peace, with no regrets in life because he did everything he could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpw8AU3wMsM

O Direito de voto

 O Direito ao voto foi uma reivindicação revolucionária ao longo de muito, muito tempo. Ao longo desse tempo muitos lutaram para que nós, hoje, pudéssemos ter o poder nas nossas mãos de eleger aqueles que queremos que nos governem.
 Ter essa capacidade, esse poder, é algo de que nos devemos orgulhar sempre. Principalmente se, como eu, são mulheres, pois não foi assim há tanto tempo que nos deram esse direito.
 Hoje, senti-me um pouco desiludida. (http://www.publico.pt/politica/noticia/afluencia-as-urnas-ao-meiodia-era-de-1944-1607470)
 Eu compreendo o descontentamento dos portugueses, eu compreendo a mensagem que pretendem transmitir. Agora, se a forma é a mais correcta? Não.
 Abstenção, não.
 Nós temos no nosso direito a realização de um simples acto de colocar a cruz num quadradinho que pode mudar o futuro. Nós é que os escolhemos.
 O importante é marcar presença, dar jus àqueles que outrora perderam as suas vidas em troca de nos dar este direito hoje. Se não querem / não confiam no partido x e no fulano y, votem em branco! Mas exerçam esse direito!
 Deixar de marcar presença, não ir votar por "não estarem satisfeitos" é do mais contraditório que podem dizer. Se não estão satisfeitos, é precisamente por isso que devem ir votar. Não o fazer é deitar fora o poder que temos que nos é fornecido pelo regime democrático de exprimir as nossas escolhas, sejam elas políticas, sociais ou morais.
 A melhor e única maneira de defender o Direito ao voto é exercê-lo, aliás, a maneira de defender qualquer direito é exercê-lo ! Seja qual for esse direito.

 Votar é mostrar que a luta de muitos e muitas valeu a pena.
 Votar é mostrar o nosso contentamento / descontentamento.
 Votar é ajudar à mudança
 Votar é definir o futuro.

Não sejam indiferentes a este assunto. Abstenção, não.

Unfair world

We live in a world. An unfair world where only money matters.
Yes, it won't bring you love, family, neither will give you life lasting friendships.
But we need some money. Or what? You will starve, you won't fall asleep at night because your money isn't enough to pay the mortgage, you will be worried because books are expensive and everyone knows that books are doors to knowledge ...
And if money wasn't such a brainwasher , corruption wouldn't be so frequent like what we acknowledged every single day, people wouldn't "give a hand" to get favors done, if you know what I mean.. The whole concept of globalization would actually work!
It's such a paradox. We need money because we need a way to keep things stable, to get what we want and what we need but, on the other hand, there are such unfair situations, I mean, what if the cure for diseases, the answer to world peace is trapped in the mind of someone who can't afford education?
I've lived all my entire life watching bad people living good and good people living bad.
I live in a country where a guy from the government didn't graduate, and worse, pretended he graduated. He "gave a hand". He graduated in one year! 36 subjects, in one year? I feel ashamed!
People, smart people, who worked hard their entire life, actually graduated, are starving right now. Because there's no place for them here. There are no jobs.
Money is important, yes it is. But people who have big and expensive things... Aren't they supposed to have it because they deserved it? Because their spending honest money? What happen to that? Each one has the right to spend the money they earned , the way they want. But I'm talking about honest money, not dirty money. How can a person feel good and say "I did it" if they actually didn't do it and didn't deserve it? I'd rather be miserable but honest instead of rich but immoral, untruthful. It's not a shame to have a humble job and earn just a few coins. Stealing is the real shame!
What happened to the big dream of world peace and making a difference?
How did the world end up like this? Like it's worth it taking someone's life for money?
When did pieces of paper and pieces of metal made people lose their values, their ideals, ideas and priorities?
Unfortunately, since ever. It has always been this way and people only complain and argue.
Words mean nothing if there's no intention to make a move.

Greatest speech ever made

 I just wanted to share something with you. To show you that we've lost the way and we are the only ones with the power to change the path.
 Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo


"I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
 We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
 

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

 But we have lost the way.

 Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
 

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

Philosophic Thoughts

 Every new year is a new book full of 365 blank pages for you to write your own story. And who knows? Maybe make some history. Maybe this year is a beginning of a whole new journey.
 Or maybe not. We'll never know.
 Do you believe in faith? Do you believe your path has already been written? Do you believe in destiny? That everything happens for a reason and we shouldn't question it?
 Don't. Just don't.
 The real beauty of life is in tracing your own path. Is in believing in you. And if you want the world to change, then just be the change you want to see in the world. Nothing's stopping you.
 We are what we are because we were born in the middle of a culture, of a society, in the middle of values and beliefs that we do or do not agree with. In the middle of people that will influence our journey, whether we want it or not. They will influence us. Because, in the end of the day, we are human beings, we only are what we are because we interact, cooperate with each other.
 Either way, it's not your beliefs, values, that make you a better person. Your actions are what defines you from being either good or a bad person.
  We are exposed to dogmatic situations where we are forced to choose between just believing or questioning it. Why believing in something that is humanly impossible to prove? (until now) And, on the other hand, you may ask, why not just accepting the facts and be happy? Why would you? Because the less you know the happier you are? It's not suppose to be like that.
 We don't need to hold on to something we are not sure of the existence just to have peace in our minds. Just because it makes us feel safer from the unknown. Yes, we are afraid of the unknown.
 But the more we question, the more we'll learn and pieces of puzzles we'll be brought together, at some point. We'll just figure out the unknown. The answer is probably more simpler than we expect.
 I don't judge you if you believe in some kind of force that's omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, because, after all, we have no idea how we end up here. I judge you if you decide to ignore your guts, your values and what's important to you because another person coerced you into jumping to some conclusion that will affect your and maybe others conduct.
 So look at the 365 blank pages. Think wisely before you write on them because once you write and turn the page, there's no way you can erase it. The only way out will be ending a chapter and sometimes it's not as easy as it seems.
 Question before you speak.
 Read before you write.
 Think before you explain it.
 Understand before you believe it.