Christmas: Seeing by the eyes of the heart

We've been living in a world where the goods are the most explicit object of desire for children and adults. The goods must have brightness and magic, otherwise nobody buys them. They mean more to the covetous eyes than to the loving hearts. It is within this dynamic, which fits the figure of Santa Claus. It is the commercial development of St. Nicholas, whose feast day is celebrated on December 6. He was a Bishop born in the year 281 in modern Turkey. He inherited the family fortune. At Christmas he used to dress himself in red- bishop dress - wear a cane and a bag with gifts for children. Giving them with a note saying it came from the Child Jesus.

Our children are not the same they used to be anymore, they know what they want and make lists to the good man. Long lists encouraged by the advertisements in the media.

 I came to know about a seven years old girl that scared her mother to death when asked for condoms as Christmas gift, once she saw on TV that it would prevent her of having babies; so she came to the conclusion that if she used it, she wouldn’t get any other dolls as gift, because she already got five barbies…

Santa Claus was a creation of American cartoonist Thomas Nast in 1886, later released by a certain Cola's company, once on this cold season consumption diminished.

 The image of the good old man in red clothes and bag in the back, good-natured, giving good advice to children and giving them gifts is the predominant figure in the streets and in stores in time for Christmas. His country of birth would have been to Lapland in Finland, place of  heavy snow, elves, dwarves and gnomes, and where people move in reindeer sledding.
Nearly a century ago, did the party start to become a way of heating the consumer market at a time when there were not many sales, due to holiday season, in the northern hemisphere, or the holiday in the southern hemisphere. It is worth it to remember that in south hemisphere is Summer time, but our Santa Claus wears those heavy dresses and boots and everything, as if he was in Winter time.

Thus, the celebration of Christmas is becoming increasingly important as a marketing tool by encouraging consumption, once this is the most profitable holiday for shops in predominantly Christian countries, although trading in this period also reaches other countries.

What we need mostly today is the ability to rescue the creative imagination, the innocence of children stolen by the media; start seeing with our heart’s eyes in order to design a better world. Had we rescued those values, there would not be such violence, neither abandoned children nor the suffering of Mother Earth being completely devastated.

Sustainable development

photo credits Rodrigo C. de Souza

When we talk, our words are often best understood not only by the meaning itself, but also by the tone of voice we use. I believe, it occurs the same thing to the written words, depending on who writes.

It reminds me a couple just married gazing the horizon. The bride commented:” Oh, those clouds covered the moon!” And then the groom replied: “No, it was ashamed of your beauty and hid itself!”

Thirty years later, the same couple, beneath the same moon…Hey, dear look, the moon has hidden itself…

“Don’t be stupid! Can’t you see it is going to rain!!?”

Thus the term "sustainability" when written by someone of the capitalist system means you can dispose of land and resources to continue shameless to serve the consumer market, to the profit without measures and to the technological development for palliative solutions.
In order to maintain this cycle, they should avoid by all means, that new emerging countries rapidly deplete the assets of the land and threaten the level of consumption of the richest nations.
Imagine if Africa with its millions of people entering the wave of consumerism. The cake of global wealth will have to be shared into smaller slices to serve everybody. Sustainability in this sense means restricting new consumer markets in order that the feast of the rich countries is extended.

On the other hand over the viewpoint of a writer from a developing country, sustainability takes on a tone to share with more justice, restraining wasting in rich countries, especially with the surplus, avoiding excessive consumption, restraining the arms industry and using oil for individual transport.
Those can only accept a development that is present for all humanity and ensure the future of new generations; because the leftovers from the tables of the rich people are in lack on the tables from the poor ones.

Maybe the groom should have known better and if instead of the first answer just have replied: “Let’s get inside” He could still use the same answer thirty years later without any problems.

Will we be able to enjoy our natural resources in thirty years, being kind in our answer to the situation we’ve been facing in our planet today?

Remember that nothing lasts forever and we should face the reality without romantics’ feelings that lead us to disappointments in the future.

Cop-16

Another year comes to an end and next week I am on vacation ...Here in southern hemisphere we will enter summer time. Lots of sun, beaches some heat, by the way, “hell’s heat". Last year we reached 50 ° C here in Rio de Janeiro. But Brazil is so good ...In the morning the blue sky gives us a sense that paradise is just around the corner, around noon white clouds cover the entire scenario and a fresh wind blowing through the trees. At three o'clock the white clouds become black and that goes down storm with thunder and lightning. At 8 pm ... Moon and many stars. Let me enjoy while we still have beaches once due to the increasing level of water on the oceans our beaches are disappearing… check this post:

http://panchtatva-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/ecosystems-threatened-by-global-warming.html

Travelling would be great. Spending my vacation in Cancun who knows? 

Speaking of Cancun, it ended yesterday the meeting of world leaders to discuss the reduction of carbon emissions and all that stuffs. What they were trying to settle was a mechanism that would ensure transparency by major emerging countries. These countries in turn said they would only accept such measures, were adopted another type of transparency - Financial - from the part of industrialized countries.
The deal is this: Nobody wants to give up economic growth because of global warming. Let the glaciers melt or the oceans to warm up.

Ivo Morales, Bolivia's president, warned that if they send the Kyoto Protocol to the rubbish bin they will be responsible for genocide and ecocide because they will be sending many people to their deaths.

Mexico has proposed they include the establishment of a new "Green Fund for Climate" to help the world's least developed countries, payments for the protection of tropical forests and another agreement to share technologies with low carbon emissions.

Jairam Ramesh India’s Minister of environment says there should be an initiative to stipulate that all countries whose emissions account for more than 1% or 0.5%, of total global emissions, submit a report every two years. The frequency would be lower for others.


Apparently, Transparency will come only from the water that runs down the mountain due to the warmth up there, because not even our river water is so transparent anymore due to pollution. But this is subject for another post.

See you there!

Is it worth it palliative solutions for global warming?

Global warming is here knocking on our door. It seems to be here to stay. And what scares me most in this story are the attitudes of some scientists and others who no longer talk of avoiding it or do it backwards, but try to adjust our lives to what is understood as inevitable.
What leaded me to this conclusion was some news I read in Internet and will transcribe part of it for you here:

"The Agriculture Ministry of Japan announced that they will develop a new type of rice resistant to heat and lack of water, in anticipation of shortages caused by global warming. The measure is part of a study that foresee decreases in rice production and loss of forests if the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere duplicate and increase the level of mercury. "
The news showed also the increasing average in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the end of the century, but to me, a laywoman like most who read it, caused a deep malaise. I could not applaud the efforts of scientists to try pulling rabbits out of the hat in order to the human species continues to survive despite the damage it causes to the planet. Are we right in our final days or will we adapt and survive? Despite all the intelligence, will we perish like the dinosaurs?
These are issues that alarm us all today and much more will alarm our grandchildren in 30 or 40 years if instead of action to stop this insanity that is the pollution and devastation of our planet, we prefer palliative to live with it.
I fear that they perform the feat of not only develop a rice more resistant to heat, but also taking advantage of the excessive heat of global warming, and get this cereal produced already cooked.

While leaving my worries to overtake me and wandered into daydreams, my daughter - who was sleeping on the couch - woke up and came to me in search of caring. She is 8 years old and is one of those who will inherit this beautiful planet and the changes carried out by us that are slowly changing the Earth’s face. She came, rubbing her eyes with the back of the hand, yet drowsy and yawned long while nestled in my lap. She looked at me and smiled gratefully by the reception and care received . But she said something that made me gloomy and thoughtful, "Mom, I dreamed that in 2100 the chickens will lay fried eggs.”
I frowned, said nothing to her, but here to myself I thought: "It makes sense”!