quarta-feira, 27 de julho de 2016

Portugal na imprensa estrangeira - "Portuguese character trumps French frailty" - Tunku Varadarajan


One team had the will to win. The other just had je ne sais quoi.

Cortázar no Cinema - "Mentiras Piadosas"


Realização de Diego Sabanés

Lettre de Vincent Van Gogh à Paul Gauguin


Mon cher ami Gauguin,

Merci de m’avoir de nouveau écrit, mon cher ami, et soyez assuré que depuis mon retour j’ai pensé à vous tous les jours. Je ne suis resté à Paris que trois jours et le bruit, etc., Parisien me faisant une bien mauvaise impression, j’ai jugé prudent pour ma tête de ficher le camp pour la campagne, sans cela j’aurais bien vite couru chez vous.

Et cela me fait énormément plaisir que vous dites que le portrait d’Arlésienne, fondé rigoureusement sur votre dessin, vous a plu. J’ai cherché à être fidèle à votre dessin respectueusement et pourtant prenant la liberté d’interpréter par le moyen d’une couleur dans le caractère sobre et le style du dessin en question. C’est une synthèse d’Arlésienne si vous voulez; comme les synthèses d’Arlésiennes sont rares, prenez cela comme oeuvre de vous et de moi, comme résumé de nos mois de travail ensemble. Pour le faire j’ai payé moi pour ma part encore d’un mois de maladie, mais aussi je sais que c’est une toile, qui sera comprise par vous, moi, et de rares autres, comme nous voudrions qu’on comprenne. Ici mon ami le Dr Gachet y est après deux, trois hésitations venu tout à fait et dit: « Comme c’est difficile d’être simple ». Bon – je vais encore souligner la chose en la gravant à l’eau-forte, cette chose-là, puis basta. L’aura qui voudra.

J’ai encore de là-bas un cyprès avec une étoile, un dernier essai – un ciel de nuit avec une lune sans éclat, à peine le croissant mince émergeant de l’ombre projetée opaque de la terre – une étoile à éclat exagéré, si vous voulez, éclat doux de rose et vert dans le ciel outremer où courent des nuages. En bas une route bordée de hautes cannes jaunes, derrière lesquelles les basses Alpines bleues, une vieille auberge à fenêtres illuminées orangée, et un très haut cyprès, tout droit, tout sombre.

Sur la route une voiture jaune attelée d’un cheval blanc et deux promeneurs attardés. Très romantique, si vous voulez, mais aussi je crois de la Provence.

Probablement je graverai à l’eau-forte celle-là et d’autres paysages et motifs, souvenirs de Provence, alors je me ferai une fête de vous en donner un, tout un résumé un peu voulu et étudié. Mon frère dit que Lauzet, qui fait des lithographies d’après Monticelli, a trouvé bien la tête d’Arlésienne en question.

Alors vous comprenez qu’étant arrivé à Paris un peu ahuri, je n’ai pas encore vu de vos toiles. Mais bientôt j’espère y retourner pour quelques jours.



domingo, 24 de julho de 2016

"WikiLeaks" - Turquey (The AKP email database)

WikiLeaks releases part one of the AKP Emails. AKP, or the Justice & Development Party, is the ruling party of Turkey and is the political force behind the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with 'A' through to 'I' containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files. The emails come from "akparti.org.tr", the AKP's primary domain. The most recent was sent on July 6, 2016. The oldest dates back to 2010. It should be noted that emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.

The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government's post-coup purges. We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state.

"Gaza in context"


A short new film on the historical, political and humanitarian situation in Palestine takes aim at the corporate news media’s coverage of Israel’s July-August 2014 assault on Gaza.

Israel killed 2,251 Palestinians during the attacks, including 551 children. Approximately 75,000 people remain displaced two years later.

“Despite overwhelming evidence of the disparity of power between Israel and all Palestinians and the aggressiveness of Israel’s exercise of its power, including excessive and brutal violence and collective punishment in Gaza in the form of occupation, siege, and frequent military assaults against dense and captive civilian populations,” the film’s producers assert, “mainstream media and educational materials continue to frame Israel as the victim.”

Gaza in Context, they add, is an attempt to situate the attacks in 2014 – and attacks of the past and future – within Israel’s broader settler-colonial aspirations in Palestine.

The film explains Israel’s historical treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, but does so “without committing the common error of treating Gaza in isolation from the rest of Palestine,” according to Raja Shehadeh, co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.


"5 REASONS WHY TRUMP WILL WIN" - a letter from Michael Moore


Friends:

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”

Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.

I can see what you’re doing right now. You’re shaking your head wildly – “No, Mike, this won’t happen!” Unfortunately, you are living in a bubble that comes with an adjoining echo chamber where you and your friends are convinced the American people are not going to elect an idiot for president. You alternate between being appalled at him and laughing at him because of his latest crazy comment or his embarrassingly narcissistic stance on everything because everything is about him. And then you listen to Hillary and you behold our very first female president, someone the world respects, someone who is whip-smart and cares about kids, who will continue the Obama legacy because that is what the American people clearly want! Yes! Four more years of this!

You need to exit that bubble right now. You need to stop living in denial and face the truth which you know deep down is very, very real. Trying to soothe yourself with the facts – “77% of the electorate are women, people of color, young adults under 35 and Trump cant win a majority of any of them!” – or logic – “people aren’t going to vote for a buffoon or against their own best interests!” – is your brain’s way of trying to protect you from trauma. Like when you hear a loud noise on the street and you think, “oh, a tire just blew out,” or, “wow, who’s playing with firecrackers?” because you don’t want to think you just heard someone being shot with a gun. It’s the same reason why all the initial news and eyewitness reports on 9/11 said “a small plane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center.” We want to – we need to – hope for the best because, frankly, life is already a shit show and it’s hard enough struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We can’t handle much more bad news. So our mental state goes to default when something scary is actually, truly happening. The first people plowed down by the truck in Nice spent their final moments on earth waving at the driver whom they thought had simply lost control of his truck, trying to tell him that he jumped the curb: “Watch out!,” they shouted. “There are people on the sidewalk!”

Well, folks, this isn’t an accident. It is happening. And if you believe Hillary Clinton is going to beat Trump with facts and smarts and logic, then you obviously missed the past year of 56 primaries and caucuses where 16 Republican candidates tried that and every kitchen sink they could throw at Trump and nothing could stop his juggernaut. As of today, as things stand now, I believe this is going to happen – and in order to deal with it, I need you first to acknowledge it, and then maybe, just maybe, we can find a way out of the mess we’re in.

Don’t get me wrong. I have great hope for the country I live in. Things are better. The left has won the cultural wars. Gays and lesbians can get married. A majority of Americans now take the liberal position on just about every polling question posed to them: Equal pay for women – check. Abortion should be legal – check. Stronger environmental laws – check. More gun control – check. Legalize marijuana – check. A huge shift has taken place – just ask the socialist who won 22 states this year. And there is no doubt in my mind that if people could vote from their couch at home on their X-box or PlayStation, Hillary would win in a landslide.

But that is not how it works in America. People have to leave the house and get in line to vote. And if they live in poor, Black or Hispanic neighborhoods, they not only have a longer line to wait in, everything is being done to literally stop them from casting a ballot. So in most elections it’s hard to get even 50% to turn out to vote. And therein lies the problem for November – who is going to have the most motivated, most inspired voters show up to vote? You know the answer to this question. Who’s the candidate with the most rabid supporters? Whose crazed fans are going to be up at 5 AM on Election Day, kicking ass all day long, all the way until the last polling place has closed, making sure every Tom, Dick and Harry (and Bob and Joe and Billy Bob and Billy Joe and Billy Bob Joe) has cast his ballot? That’s right. That’s the high level of danger we’re in. And don’t fool yourself — no amount of compelling Hillary TV ads, or outfacting him in the debates or Libertarians siphoning votes away from Trump is going to stop his mojo.

Here are the 5 reasons Trump is going to win:


1. Midwest Math, or Welcome to Our Rust Belt Brexit. I believe Trump is going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the rustbelt of the upper Great Lakes – Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four traditionally Democratic states – but each of them have elected a Republican governor since 2010 (only Pennsylvania has now finally elected a Democrat). In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for the Republicans (1.32 million) that the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is ahead of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio. Tied? How can the race be this close after everything Trump has said and done? Well maybe it’s because he’s said (correctly) that the Clintons’ support of NAFTA helped to destroy the industrial states of the Upper Midwest. Trump is going to hammer Clinton on this and her support of TPP and other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four states. When Trump stood in the shadow of a Ford Motor factory during the Michigan primary, he threatened the corporation that if they did indeed go ahead with their planned closure of that factory and move it to Mexico, he would slap a 35% tariff on any Mexican-built cars shipped back to the United States. It was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the working class of Michigan, and when he tossed in his threat to Apple that he would force them to stop making their iPhones in China and build them here in America, well, hearts swooned and Trump walked away with a big victory that should have gone to the governor next-door, John Kasich.

From Green Bay to Pittsburgh, this, my friends, is the middle of England – broken, depressed, struggling, the smokestacks strewn across the countryside with the carcass of what we use to call the Middle Class. Angry, embittered working (and nonworking) people who were lied to by the trickle-down of Reagan and abandoned by Democrats who still try to talk a good line but are really just looking forward to rub one out with a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs who’ll write them nice big check before leaving the room. What happened in the UK with Brexit is going to happen here. Elmer Gantry shows up looking like Boris Johnson and just says whatever shit he can make up to convince the masses that this is their chance! To stick to ALL of them, all who wrecked their American Dream! And now The Outsider, Donald Trump, has arrived to clean house! You don’t have to agree with him! You don’t even have to like him! He is your personal Molotov cocktail to throw right into the center of the bastards who did this to you! SEND A MESSAGE! TRUMP IS YOUR MESSENGER!

And this is where the math comes in. In 2012, Mitt Romney lost by 64 electoral votes. Add up the electoral votes cast by Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s 64. All Trump needs to do to win is to carry, as he’s expected to do, the swath of traditional red states from Idaho to Georgia (states that’ll never vote for Hillary Clinton), and then he just needs these four rust belt states. He doesn’t need Florida. He doesn’t need Colorado or Virginia. Just Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And that will put him over the top. This is how it will happen in November.


2. The Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Our male-dominated, 240-year run of the USA is coming to an end. A woman is about to take over! How did this happen?! On our watch! There were warning signs, but we ignored them. Nixon, the gender traitor, imposing Title IX on us, the rule that said girls in school should get an equal chance at playing sports. Then they let them fly commercial jets. Before we knew it, Beyoncé stormed on the field at this year’s Super Bowl (our game!) with an army of Black Women, fists raised, declaring that our domination was hereby terminated! Oh, the humanity!

That’s a small peek into the mind of the Endangered White Male. There is a sense that the power has slipped out of their hands, that their way of doing things is no longer how things are done. This monster, the “Feminazi,”the thing that as Trump says, “bleeds through her eyes or wherever she bleeds,” has conquered us — and now, after having had to endure eight years of a black man telling us what to do, we’re supposed to just sit back and take eight years of a woman bossing us around? After that it’ll be eight years of the gays in the White House! Then the transgenders! You can see where this is going. By then animals will have been granted human rights and a fuckin’ hamster is going to be running the country. This has to stop!


3. The Hillary Problem. Can we speak honestly, just among ourselves? And before we do, let me state, I actually like Hillary – a lot – and I think she has been given a bad rap she doesn’t deserve. But her vote for the Iraq War made me promise her that I would never vote for her again. To date, I haven’t broken that promise. For the sake of preventing a proto-fascist from becoming our commander-in-chief, I’m breaking that promise. I sadly believe Clinton will find a way to get us in some kind of military action. She’s a hawk, to the right of Obama. But Trump’s psycho finger will be on The Button, and that is that. Done and done.

Let’s face it: Our biggest problem here isn’t Trump – it’s Hillary. She is hugely unpopular — nearly 70% of all voters think she is untrustworthy and dishonest. She represents the old way of politics, not really believing in anything other than what can get you elected. That’s why she fights against gays getting married one moment, and the next she’s officiating a gay marriage. Young women are among her biggest detractors, which has to hurt considering it’s the sacrifices and the battles that Hillary and other women of her generation endured so that this younger generation would never have to be told by the Barbara Bushes of the world that they should just shut up and go bake some cookies. But the kids don’t like her, and not a day goes by that a millennial doesn’t tell me they aren’t voting for her. No Democrat, and certainly no independent, is waking up on November 8th excited to run out and vote for Hillary the way they did the day Obama became president or when Bernie was on the primary ballot. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. And because this election is going to come down to just one thing — who drags the most people out of the house and gets them to the polls — Trump right now is in the catbird seat.


4. The Depressed Sanders Vote. Stop fretting about Bernie’s supporters not voting for Clinton – we’re voting for Clinton! The polls already show that more Sanders voters will vote for Hillary this year than the number of Hillary primary voters in ’08 who then voted for Obama. This is not the problem. The fire alarm that should be going off is that while the average Bernie backer will drag him/herself to the polls that day to somewhat reluctantly vote for Hillary, it will be what’s called a “depressed vote” – meaning the voter doesn’t bring five people to vote with her. He doesn’t volunteer 10 hours in the month leading up to the election. She never talks in an excited voice when asked why she’s voting for Hillary. A depressed voter. Because, when you’re young, you have zero tolerance for phonies and BS. Returning to the Clinton/Bush era for them is like suddenly having to pay for music, or using MySpace or carrying around one of those big-ass portable phones. They’re not going to vote for Trump; some will vote third party, but many will just stay home. Hillary Clinton is going to have to do something to give them a reason to support her — and picking a moderate, bland-o, middle of the road old white guy as her running mate is not the kind of edgy move that tells millenials that their vote is important to Hillary. Having two women on the ticket – that was an exciting idea. But then Hillary got scared and has decided to play it safe. This is just one example of how she is killing the youth vote.


5. The Jesse Ventura Effect. Finally, do not discount the electorate’s ability to be mischievous or underestimate how any millions fancy themselves as closet anarchists once they draw the curtain and are all alone in the voting booth. It’s one of the few places left in society where there are no security cameras, no listening devices, no spouses, no kids, no boss, no cops, there’s not even a friggin’ time limit. You can take as long as you need in there and no one can make you do anything. You can push the button and vote a straight party line, or you can write in Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. There are no rules. And because of that, and the anger that so many have toward a broken political system, millions are going to vote for Trump not because they agree with him, not because they like his bigotry or ego, but just because they can. Just because it will upset the apple cart and make mommy and daddy mad. And in the same way like when you’re standing on the edge of Niagara Falls and your mind wonders for a moment what would that feel like to go over that thing, a lot of people are going to love being in the position of puppetmaster and plunking down for Trump just to see what that might look like. Remember back in the ‘90s when the people of Minnesota elected a professional wrestler as their governor? They didn’t do this because they’re stupid or thought that Jesse Ventura was some sort of statesman or political intellectual. They did so just because they could. Minnesota is one of the smartest states in the country. It is also filled with people who have a dark sense of humor — and voting for Ventura was their version of a good practical joke on a sick political system. This is going to happen again with Trump.

Coming back to the hotel after appearing on Bill Maher’s Republican Convention special this week on HBO, a man stopped me. “Mike,” he said, “we have to vote for Trump. We HAVE to shake things up.” That was it. That was enough for him. To “shake things up.” President Trump would indeed do just that, and a good chunk of the electorate would like to sit in the bleachers and watch that reality show.


Yours,

Michael Moore

"The Strongman’s Power Trap" - Nina L. Khruscheva


Earlier this year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was forming a 400,000-man national guard that would report only to him, many Russians wondered why a new military force was needed. After all, Russia’s army was supposedly back: Putin had equipped it with new toys, and even arranged for two small wars – in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine, starting in 2014 – to prove it.

quarta-feira, 20 de julho de 2016

"Flores para Algernon" - José Pacheco Pereira



"Dr. Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me ...

He said now sit down Charlie we are not thru yet. Then I dont remember so good but he wantid me to say what was in the ink. ...."


(Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon)



Hoje espera-se que eu escreva sobre o atentado de Nice. Ontem sobre as sanções. Anteontem sobre Durão Barroso ou o “Brexit”. Antes foi o dia do espasmo patriótico, o retorno à unidade orgânica da pátria, a realização do mito do unanimismo, o fim das divisões perversas no altar da selecção. Todos de cachecol, Marcelo, Costa, Jerónimo, os bloquistas, o CDS, os artistas menores do PSD, porque o maior mantém a compostura de Primeiro-ministro no exílio. Traz a bandeirinha à lapela e a zanga com o destino que lhe deu a geringonça no bolso.

Nos vinte dias anteriores era futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol. Num dia, no meio do futebol, alguma coisa sobre os atentados na Turquia. Antes dos dias do futebol havia os dias do meio-futebol, ou dos preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol, preliminares do futebol. Havia um Deus revelado nestes dias e chamava-se Ronaldo. Acabaram os canais noticiosos, todo o cabo é desporto, todos unidos, todos iguais. Acabaram as notícias, e os locutores que agora se chamam pivot pedem desculpa por ainda terem que falar de coisas menores, o Daesh, Trump, Clinton, o Deutsche Bank, os curdos, a Síria. Já não me lembro. Como é que me posso lembrar se foi tudo há tanto tempo e durou tão pouco tempo?

Antes? Também já não me lembro. A Caixa Geral de Depósitos associada às peripécias da Comissão de Inquérito? Talvez. Talvez os colégios de amarelo. Onde estão? Lá muito atrás um sussurro sobre os refugiados, ou melhor sobre os cadáveres dos refugiados. E estamos a chegar a uma outro campeonato, o de cá. E outra vez futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol, futebol. Futebol sob a forma de intrigas, declarações tonitruantes, vinganças, relvado e o seu estado, pernas, joelhos e outras partes da anatomia inferior dos jogadores, treinos, treinos, chegada de autocarros, partida de hotéis, chegada dos exércitos das claques, declarações dos responsáveis da PSP, horas e horas e horas e horas e horas e horas de programas desportivos. Emissões especiais, conferências de imprensa dos treinadores, dos jogadores, dos dirigentes desportivos…

Já não me lembro. Mas havia uma voz. Uma voz acompanha tudo, 200 dias, 500 Declarações do Presidente da República, à média de mais de duas por dia. Dessas lembramo-nos de dez. As mais importantes? Quando se fazem 500 declarações nenhuma é importante. Talvez nos lembremos das mais engraçadas. Ou, melhor ainda, das imagens, que são sempre mais fortes do que as palavras. Agarro-me ao segundo critério para haver memória: há imagens, há notícia, seja uma coisa séria ou irrelevante. Não há imagens, não há notícia. Por isso toda a gente se mostra diante das câmaras. Mas o que fazem, o que dizem? Marcelo a dançar em Moçambique, talvez a mais relevante, mas também já não me lembro bem…

Cada vez mais para trás. Já não me lembro. Mas passaram apenas meia dúzia de meses? Já não me lembro. Houve eleições. Parece um outro mundo. Ganhou Passos Coelho e Portas. Fizeram governo? Já não me lembro, só sei que durou pouco. Caiu. Foi-se a avantesma, veio a geringonça. A Europa do PPE e os socialistas da corte de Merkel arrebitaram as orelhas. O quê? Os comunistas estão no poder em Portugal? E o Syriza local? Temos que tratar disso, voltar à austeridade, voltar ao respeitinho com os Grandes. O Plano B. Não devia já existir, estar em pleno vigor? Já não me lembro. Pensar faz-me mal à cabeça.

Leio jornais, vejo televisão, tenho cada vez menos memória e cada vez mais memória mediática, uma contradição entre os termos. Curta. Muito curta. Atafulhada de bola, casos da vida, acidentes, incidentes, nada. Dura um dia, quinze dias? Mais? Já não me lembro porque não é para lembrar, é para entreter, para distrair, para passar o tempo. Não sei. Sei cada vez menos. Devo estar doente. O meu cérebro está cada vez mais pequeno. Pequenino.

Já não me lembro. Coloquem flores na campa de Algernon.

"O verdadeiro golpe de Estado"


...Na madrugada de 16 de julho, os nossos colegas turcos membros de organizações internacionais de magistrados vieram, um por um, despedir-se de nós. Todos recebemos e-mails e mensagens desesperadas com relatos angustiados de quem acabara de deixar os filhos em casa de familiares e aguardava a chegada da polícia a qualquer momento. Um por um foram detidos, levados das suas casas e famílias. Questionaram quem os deteve sobre os motivos da detenção e as respostas obtidas foram acusações vagas e sem qualquer mínimo indício de prova, como a pertença a "organizações terroristas armadas"....

Obrigada à Joana Lopes

"Poor Leadership Makes Bad Globalization" - Jorge G. Castañeda


...Popular backlash against disruptive change is inevitable, and occasionally serves as a useful counterweight to heedless leadership. What is new today is the extent of the backlash in Europe and North America, which many pundits and policymakers believed were better equipped than ever to manage change. Judging by the reaction of voters in Britain, the US, and Mexico, no country is immune to its leaders’ mistakes.

segunda-feira, 18 de julho de 2016

Mandela Day! - 18/07



"Unburdening the Facebook Generation" - Mohamed A. El-Erian


...I am in my late fifties, and I worry that our generation in the advanced world will be remembered – to our shame and chagrin – as the one that lost the economic plot....

Lettre de Jacques Brel à Lino Ventura


le 28 décembre 1974 au soir

A bord de la « Korrig »

Cher Lino,

Plus de deux mois en mer déjà sur ce petit bateau, du vent, des orages, de la pluie qui lave et ce soir l’envie de te parler.
Tu sais, Lino, je suis plus jeune que toi mais je crois tout de même être autorisé à te dire que je t’aime bien.
J’ai rencontré si peu d’hommes en 45 ans qu’il me semble une faute de ne pas les serrer un peu contre moi, même si en échange, j’ai bien peu à donner.
Tu vois, je ne sais ni ce que sera ta vie ni ce que sera la mienne mais je trouverais désolant que nous nous perdions trop. C’est si rare la tendresse.
Bientôt j’aurai un bateau et je veux que tu saches que tu y seras toujours le très bienvenu.
Je te souhaite heureux et fier d’être.
Et je pense que de deviner tes fragilités je sais aussi ta force.
Tu sais Lino, nous avons 15 ans et je crains que nous n’en sortions jamais.
Au fond je vais très bien sur ce bateau. Ça n’est pas le grand confort et c’est bien fatigant mais il y a des moments formidables.

Bien sûr l’Atlantique c’est long mais avec la lune par-dessus et du vent dans les voiles, cela ressemble à une chanson d’amour. Et je ne sais encore rien de mieux que cela. Dans huit jours, je retrouverai ma Doudou à Point-à-Pitre puis nous rentrerons en France. Peut-être seras-tu à Paris fin janvier ? Je serais bien heureux de pouvoir te voir un soir.

Pour ne parler de rien et juste se comprendre.

A bientôt Lino, je t’embrasse de loin, il fait nuit et l’eau à 27°.
Sincèrement, Jacques.

Livro recomendado - "A Nova Odisseia"


domingo, 17 de julho de 2016

"Turkey’s Baffling Coup" - Dani Rodrik


Military coups – successful or otherwise – follow a predictable pattern in Turkey. Political groups – typically Islamists – deemed by soldiers to be antagonistic to Kemal Atatürk’s vision of a secular Turkey gain increasing power. Tensions rise, often accompanied by violence on the streets. Then the military steps in, exercising what the soldiers claim is their constitutional power to restore order and secular principles.

Remembering two giants - Billie Holiday (d.17/07/1959) & John Coltrane (d. 17/07/1967)







"AFTER NICE, DON’T GIVE ISIS WHAT IT’S ASKING FOR" - Murtaza Hussain


... ISIS’s model for terrorism relies on the weaponization of individuals such as Bouhlel; the group calls on the young, angry, and purposeless around the world to lash out at those around them in its name. In this way, the power of desperate insurgents is magnified through a combination of social media and propaganda of the deed. An influential text used by the group, titled The Management of Savagery, prescribes terrorist attacks as a means of “inflam[ing] opposition,” to drag ordinary people into conflict whether “willing or unwilling, such that each individual will go to the side which he supports.”...

World Press Cartoons 2015 - 15

Maidan - Cost - Ucrânia, 3º prémio editorial cartoon

quinta-feira, 14 de julho de 2016

Filme recomendado - "The BFG" (pura magia)



Realização de Steven Spielberg

Magnum Photography Awards 2016 - Maurício Lima - "Refugees"


Idomeni, Greece, November 28, 2015. Barred refugees struggle for donations of water, blankets, diapers and a few clothes. Everyone here has completed their 10th day encamped by the train station in Idomeni, Greece. They still have not received permission to cross the border into the Macedonian town of Gevgelija. Only refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been allowed to cross and continue their journey to Europe through the Balkan countries.


Horgos, Serbia, August 30, 2015. At dusk, Roujin Sheikho, on the left, carries her daughter Widad followed by her son Nabih, on the right. This group walks among other refugees from Syria, who are allowed to cross the barbed wire in the dark into Hungary, on their long road to Sweden.


Budapest, Hungary, September 1, 2015. Dozens of refugee families, mostly from Syria, camp underneath the Keleti train station in central Budapest.


Budapest, Hungary, September 5, 2015. Ahmad Majid, top right, overnights on a bus floor next to his son Zin (blue t-shirt) and daughter Widad, bottom left, amidst other members of his family. They left Keleti central station in Budapest during the early morning, heading towards Vienna, Austria.


  Idomeni, Greece, November 22, 2015. Refugees from Iran press their claim for freedom while sitting on a railway. Macedonian riot police officers block them to mark the border limit. Only refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been allowed to cross the border into Gevgelija, Macedonia and thus continue their journey to Europe through Balkans countries.


Idomeni, Greece, November 28, 2015. Macedonian soldiers in Greek territory carry barbed wire as they build a border fence that divides their town of Gevgelija (background) from the other side. In this small Greek town, nearly 2,500 refugees have gathered, hailing from as far away as Bangladesh, Iran, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Yemen.


Gevgelija, Macedonia, November 21, 2015. Waiting hours under cold temperature after crossing from Idomeni, Greece, a refugee family from Syria gets some warmth before being registered at a reception center in Macedonia. There, they will board a train to Belgrade, Serbia and continue they journey towards Europe.


Gevgelija, Macedonia, November 21, 2015. After crossing into Macedonia from Idomeni, a group of refugees waits to be registered.


Lesbos, Greece, November 1, 2015. The body of a refugee, who attempted to cross the Aegean sea from Turkey (in the background), washes ashore on the Greek island of Lesbos. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, fled their homes, risking their lives in dangerous boat trips, illegal border crossings and long bus and train journeys, seeking asylum and a decent life in Western Europe and Scandinavia. The latest UN report from January 2015 estimated that more than 220,000 people have become fatal victims of the endless war in Syria.


Lesbos, Greece, November 7, 2015. At dusk, part of a huge pile of discarded life vests, inner tubes and deflated rubber dinghies. This is the basic equipment that thousands of refugees have been using to cross the Aegean sea from Turkey towards the Greek islands.