Categoria: Economia

Dramatic times are coming with Trump

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Humanity faces several threats: the nuclear threat, shortages of drinking water in vasts regions worldwide, increasing global warming, the dramatic consequences of overuse of the natural goods and services indispensable for life (the Earth Schoot Day).
To these threats is added another, no less dangerous one, already noted by several world analysts, such as Nobel Prize Laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglizt. Italian-Argentinian economist Roberto Savio, co-founder and general director of Inter Press Service (IPS), now emeritus, recently wrote an article that should give us pause. It is titled: Trump came to stay and to change the world (ALAI-America Latina en Movimiento, June 20, 2018).

In that article, Savio asserts that Trump is not the cause of the new world disorder. Rather, Trump is a symptom: a symptom of a time when the civilizing values that gave cohesion to a people and to international relations, are, simply put, annulled. What counts is the narcissistic will of the all powerful head of state. Trump replaced those values with money and business: pure and simple. Money and business definitely are what count. Everything else is a cover for world domination.

America first must be interpreted as being only America, and her world interests, that count. In furtherance thereof, as he foretold in his electoral campaign, Trump has broken commercial treaties with old European allies, pulled out of the Transpacific Alliance, and started a risky trade war with the biggest rival, China, imposing tariffs on products worth billions of dollars, as well as tariffs on steel and other products from other countries such as Brazil.

It is the nature of authoritarian and narcissistic figures to dispense with legislatures. When it is convenient, they go around them without giving reasons. Trump values the invention of «a truth» more than a factual truth itself. The fake news is a resource always present in his tweets. According to Fact Checker, from the time he assumed the Presidency, Trump has said about 3.000 lies. Truth and lies only have value to him to the degree they support his interests. Curiously, he won his principal battles, and has the approval of 44% of the public, and 82% of the Republican Party.

Trump does not tolerate criticism, and surrounds himself with servile advisers who must say «yes» to him, or risk being summarily fired.

If he is re-elected –what is not improbable–, this style of government, and elimination of all ethics, could be irreversible. Let’s not forget that Hitler and Mussolini were also elected and created their own lies, which they sold to their people as «truths». We may be facing a world marked by xenophobia, the exclusion of thousands and thousands of immigrants and refugees, excessive affirmation of nationalism, and rejection of the values of the others.

Such attitudes, transformed into official policies, can be the source of grave conflicts, whose «growth» can even threaten the human species. Nearly 1300 Northamerican psychoanalysts and psychiatrists have identified serious psychological deviations in the personality of Donald Trump.

What would be the destiny of humanity in the hands of a narcissist such as Trump, whose parallel is found only in Nero, who enjoyed seeing the fire that engulfed Rome; with the difference that now it is not about just any fire, but a fire in our whole Common Home. Since he is unpredictable, and can change his position at any time, we wonder, both frightened and terrorized, what will be his next move.

May God, who announced Himself as «the passionate lover of life» (Sabiduria 11,24) save us from the tragedies that may befall us, given the irrationality of someone who sees «only one world and only one empire» (the Northamerican empire).

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher and Member of the Earthcharter Commission

 

CON TRUMP TEMPI DRAMMATCI CI ASPETTANO

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Sull’umanità incombono varie minacce: quella nucleare, la scarsità d’acqua potabile in parecchie regioni del mondo, il riscaldamento globale crescente, le conseguenze drammatiche per l’eccessivo consumo di beni e servizi naturali indispensabili alla vita (The Earth Overshoot Day).
A queste minacce, aggiungiamone una non meno pericolosa già ventilata da vari analisti mondiali, come i premi Nobel Paul Krugman e Joseph Stiglitz. Recentemente un economista italo- argentino, Roberto Savio, cofondatore e Direttore Generale della Inter Press Service (IPS), ora in pensione, ha scritto un articolo che ci deve far riflettere. Titolo: ”Trump è venuto per rimanere e cambiare il mondo” (ALAI-America Latina en movimiento de 20 junio de 2018).
In quel passo, Roberto Savio afferma che Trump non è la causa di un nuovo disordine. È un sintomo. Sintomo di tempi in cui i valori di civiltà che davano coesione a un popolo e alle relazioni internazionali sono semplicemente annullati. Quel che conta è il volontarismo narcisista di un potente capo di Stato, Trump, che al posto di questi valori ha messo puramente e semplicemente il denaro e gli affari. Sono questi che alla fin fine contano. Il resto son tutte bellugie di cui si può fare a meno per il dominio del Mondo.Quello che ha fatto ai bambini separati delle siue famiglie dimonstra la sua mancanza di una umanità minima che é espressione di massima barbarie.
“L’America first” dev’essere intrepretato come “Solo l’America” e i suoi interessi globali contano. In nome di questo proposito, già preannunciato nella sua campagna, Trump ha stracciato trattati commerciali con vecchi amici europei, la Aliança do Transpacifico e ha avviato un’arrischiata guerra commerciale con la sua maggior rivale, la China, imponendo sovrattasse di importazione a prodotti il cui valore assomma a miliardi di dollari, oltre a imporre tasse sull’acciaio e altri prodotti ad altri paesi come il Brasile.
È proprio dei personaggi autoritari e narcisisti far poco conto delle leggi. Quando gli conviene, ci passano sopra senza dare spiegazioni. Per Trump ha più valore l’invenzione di “una verità” che non la verità fattuale stessa. Alle fakenews ricorre spesso nei suoi twitters. Secondo Fact Checker, da quando ha assunto la Presidenza ha contato circa tre mila bugie. Verità e bugie valgono nella misura in cui difendono i suoi interessi. Curiosamente ha vinto le principali sfide e ha l’approvazione del 44% dell’opinione pubblica e dell’82% del Partito Repubblicano.
Non tollera critiche e si è circondato di assessori succubi, che gli dicono “sì” per ogni cosa, a rischio di essere sommariamente scaricati.
Se per caso fosse rieletto, il che non è improbabile, lo stile di governo e tutta l’etica potranno diventare irreversibili. Non scordiamoci che Hitler e Mussolini erano stati eletti e crearono le loro menzogne spacciate per “verità” per tutto un popolo. Cancelliamo questa, davanti a un mondo segnato dalla xenofobia, esclusione di migliaia e migliaia di migranti e rifugiati, dall’affermazione eccessiva dei valori nazionali in spregio di tutti gli altri .
Tali atteggiamenti, trasformati in politiche ufficiali possono essere addirittura fonte di gravi conflitti il cui “crescendo” può perfino minacciare la specie umana.
Circa 1300 psicanalisti e psichiatri Nordamericani hanno denunciato disturbi psicologici gravi nella personalità di Trump. Come sarà il destino dell’umanità abbandonata nelle mani di un narcisista di questa stazza, il cui parallelo si trova soltanto in Nerone che si divertiva assistendo all’incendio di Roma, con la differenza che ora non si tratta di un incendio qualsiasi, ma dell’intera “Casa Comune”. È imprevedibile e perciò in qualsiasi istante può mutare di posizione, assistiamo spaventati e orrorizzati, quali saranno le sue prossime mosse.
Il Dio che si è presentato come appassionato amante della vita (Sap,11,24) ci liberi dalle tragedie che potrebbero nascere, data l’irrazionalità di un qualcuno che annuncia un mondo solo e un solo impero (quello nordamericano).

*Leonardo Boff è teologo,filosofo e scrittore. Ha scritto: Salvar a Terra- proteger a vida. Como escapar do fim do mundo? Record, RJ 2010.

Traduzione di Romano Baraglia e Lidia Arato

Con Trump nos esperan tiempos dramáticos

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

La humanidad está bajo varias amenazas: la nuclear, la escasez de agua potable en vastas regiones del mundo, el calentamiento global creciente, las consecuencias dramáticas de la Sobrecarga de los bienes y servicios naturales, indispensables a la vida (the Earth Overshoot Day).
A estas amenazas se añade otra no menos peligrosa, sugerida ya por varios analistas mundiales como los premios Nobel Paul Krugman y Joseph Stiglizt. Recientemente un economista ítalo-argentino, Roberto Savio, co-fundador y director general de la Inter Press Service (IPS), ahora emérito, escribió un artículo titulado: “Trump vino para quedarse y cambiar el mundo” (ALAI-América Latina en Movimiento del 20 junio de 2018), que nos debe hacer pensar.
En él afirma que Trump no es una causa del nuevo desorden mundial. Es un síntoma. El síntoma de un tiempo en el que los valores civilizatorios que daban cohesión a un pueblo y a las relaciones internacionales, han sido simplemente anulados. Lo que cuenta es el voluntarismo narcisista de un poderoso jefe de Estado, Trump, que en el lugar de estos valores ha puesto pura y simplemente el dinero y los negocios. Son estos los que definitivamente cuentan. El resto son naderías prescindibles para el dominio del mundo. Lo que ha hecho con niños de refugiados arrancados de sus familias y puestos en jaulas muestra el nivel de desumanidad y de barbarie a que ha llegado Trump. Esto clama al cielo.
“America first” debe ser interpretado como “sólo América” y sus intereses globales cuentan. En nombre de este propósito, pre-anunciado ya en su campaña, Trump ha roto tratados comerciales con antiguos aliados europeos, la Alianza del Transpacífico y ha abierto una arriesgada guerra comercial con su mayor rival, China, imponiendo aranceles a la importación de productos que suman miles de millones de dólares, además de cobrar tasas sobre el acero y otros productos a otros países como Brasil.
Es propio de figuras autoritarias y narcisistas hacer poco caso de las legislaciones. Cuando les conviene pasan por encima de ellas sin dar mayores explicaciones. Para Trump vale más la invención de “una verdad” que la verdad factual misma. “Fakenews” es un recurso presente en sus twitters. Según Fact Checker, desde que asumió la presidencia ha dicho cerca de 3.000 mentiras. Verdad y mentira valen en la medida en que respaldan sus intereses. Curiosamente ha ganado los principales pleitos y tiene la aprobación del 44% de la opinión pública y del 82% del Partido Republicano.
No tolera las críticas y se ha rodeado de asesores serviles que le dicen a todo que “sí” ante el riesgo de ser sumariamente dimitidos.
Si es reelegido, cosa que no es improbable, el estilo de gobierno y la negación de toda ética podrán volverse irreversibles. No olvidemos que Hitler y Mussolini también fueron elegidos y crearon sus mentiras vendidas como “verdades” a todo un pueblo. Podemos estar ante un mundo marcado por la xenofobia, por la exclusión de miles y miles de inmigrantes y refugiados, por la afirmación excesiva de los valores nacionales y el desprecio a los demás.
Tales actitudes transformadas en políticas oficiales puede ser fuente de graves conflictos, cuyo “crescendo” podría llegar a amenazar a la especie humana. Cerca de 1300 psicoanalistas y psiquiatras norteamericanos denunciaron desvíos psicológicos graves en la personalidad de Trump.
¿Cómo será el destino de la humanidad, entregada a un narcisista de este jaez, cuyo paralelo sólo se encuentra en Nerón, que se divertía presenciando el incendio de Roma, con la diferencia de que ahora no se trata de un incendio cualquiera sino de la Casa Común entera? Como es imprevisible y en todo momento puede cambiar de posición, asistimos, asustados y aterrorizados, a cuáles serán los futuros pasos.
Que Dios que se anunció como “el apasionado amante de la vida” (Sabiduría 11,24) nos libre de las tragedias que podrían ocurrir, dada la irracionalidad de alguien que anuncia “un sólo mundo y un sólo imperio” (el imperio norteamericano).

*Leonardo Boff es teólogo, filósofo y escritor y ha escrito “Salvar la Tierra-proteger la vida: cómo escapar del fin del mundo, Madrid, Nueva Utopía & Record, RJ, 2010.

Traducción de Mª José Gavito Milano

The worst aspect of the coup: it prevents the Brazilian Social State

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Recent events: the refusal to allow 1980 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and other important politicians to visit former President Inacio Lula da Silva, a political prisoner and friend of all who wanted to see him, is the best evidence that we live under an exceptional juridical-mass media regime. The robes rule. Judge Catarina Lebbos, the right hand of Judge Sergio Moro, showed signs of cruelty and inhumanity when she refused to allow a physician to check on the health of the prisoner President. I am not sure, but I even suspect that this was a criminal act, warranting punishment.
The most serious aspect of our crisis is the strategy for breaking the social pact built under the hegemony of the progressive democratic forces contained in the 1988 Constitution. It is espoused by the wealthiest 0.05% of the Brazilian population, associated, as always, with the economic-financial consortia, even foreign ones, including the conservative monopolies of our mass media.
Thanks to the consensus the 1988 Constitution engendered among different, even antagonistic, groups, it formed the basis for the creation of a Brazilian Social State. It was a first step to addressing our worst wound, the perverse social inequality, thereby accomplishing the inclusion in the citizenry of millions of Brazilian men and women.
The leader was someone never accepted by the backward elites, who had to bow to the verdict of the voting booths; a worker who came from the impoverished North: Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. With his social policies he had ensured that all those of the lower classes could climb up one step on the social ladder.
When the old elites realized that a new hegemony could arise, one of a progressive popular character, the elites, as has always occurred in Brazilian history, according to our best historians such as Jose Honorio Rodrigues, plotted a class coup. It was about ensuring the means by which they accumulated their wealth, and their control of the state apparatus, from which they plunder their millions.
Times change, and strategies also change. It would not be a military coup, but a parliamentarian one. In his main declaration, Marcelo Odebrecht, president of one of the largest Brazilian enterprises, confessed that he had paid ten million reales to buy 140 representatives who guaranteed the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and usurpation of the power of the State.
A Congress, one of the most mediocre in the history of the Brazilian republic, with some members who are thieves, others who are accused of corruption or crimes, including murder, with venality, allowed itself to be bought. They accomplished a parliamentary, juridical and mass media coup, unseating legally elected President Dilma Rousseff through a questionable impeachment. The target was not really President Rousseff, but to get at former President Lula and the Labor Party, PT.
The struggle against corruption, the endemic decease of Brazilian politics that must never be excused, served as a pretext for attacking, putting on trial and literally persecuting President Lula, through the proceedings of the lawfare (hastily interpreting the law to hurt the accused). It was so effective that they managed to throw President Lula in jail, through a process that, according to most well known national and foreign jurists, was corrupt and lacked concrete evidence.
What is the main meaning of this coup? To maintain the nature of the accumulation of a rapacious group that controls and pockets a great part of our wealth. But the most disastrous consequence, well analyzed by social scientist Luiz Gonzaga de Souza Lima in a November 22, 2017 conference in Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, is found in the PEC 55 Constitutional Amendment. That Amendment not only tries to establish a ceiling on expenditures, it threatens the country. «The PEC», says de Souza Lima, «is the prohibition against constructing a Social State in Brazil. It Constitutionally vetoes the construction of the Social State; it is more than the freeze on expenditures».
The backward classes opted for the past, accepting that Brazil be recolonized, in line with the interests of the Capitalist empire of the United States. Not through an election, but with a coup, they dissolved the pact created by the 1988 Constitution. de Souza Lima continues: «we now have a coup against the Government elected by the Brazilian people. We are facing a historic inflection point of immense importance: to constitutionally prohibit social investments, especially in education and health».
This is a unique case in today’s world. How can an ill and ignorant people advance towards a development fit for a population of more than one hundred million people?
These elites, extremely egotistical, never had a plan for Brazil. They only thought of themselves and of their absurd wealth. Presently they have empowered a right wing that is fascist, authoritarian, violent, and racist and that rejects the people, whom they consider vulgar and contemptible. To our shame, they are partly supported by the Judicial body and by the heavy hand of the military police, capable of repressing and killing, especially the Blacks and the poor.
The struggle now is to regain a minimum democracy, and above all to re-validate the 1988 Constitution, damaged by the coup, but one which would open a space for peaceful coexistence and human development.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher andEarthcharter Commission