Categoria: Idiomas

Who embarrassed Brazil at home and abroad

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

It is part of the popular football culture to boo some of the players, the judges and, finally, some authority who happens to be present. But here, the insults, expletives and obscenities that even children could hear is unprecedented in Brazilian football. The harsh words were directed at the highest authority of the country, President Dilma Rousseff, who was in a back seat of the official gallery.

These shameful insults could only come from a class of people that still has visibility in the country, “people of the very White class A, uneducated and sexist”, commented Ana Thurler, a sociologist with the Center for Feminist Studies.

Those who know something of the history of Brazil, or who have read Gilberto Freyre, Jose Honorio Rodrigues and Sergio Buarque de Hollanda, know how to identify such groups immediately. They are sectors of our elites, the most conservative in the world, who lag well behind in the process of global civilization, as Darcy Ribeiro used to point out; sectors that for 500 years occupied the levers of the State and voraciously benefited from it, denying the rights of citizens in order to guarantee corporative privileges. These groups have not yet rid themselves of the Big Mansion with which they are fixated, nor have they forgotten the pillory were the Black slaves were beaten. Not just their mouths are dirty; they are dirty because their minds are dirty. They are antiquated, and still think within the paradigms of the past, when they lived in luxury and conspicuous consumption, as in the times of Renaissance princes.

In the harsh language of Capistrano de Abreu, our main mulatto historian, the majority of the elite always «castrated and re-castrated, bled and bled again» the Brazilian people. And they are still doing it. With no sense of limits and thus full of arrogance, they believe they can hurl any insults they choose, and disrespect any authority.

What happened demonstrated to Brazilians and to the world the type of elites that still exists in Brazil. They embarrassed us at home and abroad. The people are not ignorant, uneducated or shameless, as they often think and say. Those who are shameless, uncouth, uneducated and ignorant are those who think and say such things about the people. They are mostly the independently wealthy, who live off financial speculation and have millions and millions of dollars abroad, in foreign banks or fiscal havens.

President Dilma put it well: “the people do not react this way; the people are civilized and extremely generous and educated”. The people can boo, and plenty do. But the people do not insult a woman with machista and chulo language, especially not the woman who holds the highest office in the country. With serenity and a palpable sense of dignity, Dilma personally replied to these uncivilized groups: “I have endured almost unbearable physical aggressions and nothing has deterred me from my path”. She was referring to the torture to which she was subjected by agents of the State of terror installed in Brazil beginning in 1968. In the speech she made later on television, she proved that nothing either deters her from her path, or scares her, because she lives with different values and aspires to be in consonance with the greatness of our country.

This shameful act was rejected by the majority of analysts and of those who spoke out publicly. However, the reaction of the two candidates to replace her in the Presidency was lamentable. They used practically the same expressions, in line with the brutish groups: “She is reaping what she sowed” said one. Another implied that she deserves the insults she received. Only the mean spirited and those lacking a sense of dignity could react in this manner. And they are the ones who want to define the destiny of the country. With that spirit! We are tired of mediocre leadership that continues scratching at the soil, like chickens, incapable of taking flight like the eagles we deserve, with a greatness proportionate to the size of our country.

A friend from Munich, who understands Portuguese well, was impacted by the insults, and commented: “not even in Nazi times were the authorities insulted in this manner”. Perhaps he does not know the history we have lived, the type of elite sectors that continue to dominate, and the overbearing manner in which they make themselves heard. They are primarily responsible for keeping us socially, culturally and ethically underdeveloped. They shame us in a manner that we really do not deserve.

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Renewing the natural contract with the Earth

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

Until now, the Western White man’s dream, made universal by globalization, is to dominate the Earth and subdue all other beings, in order to gain unlimited benefits. That dream, four centuries later, has turned into a nightmare. Now as never before, the apocalypse can be precipitated by us, as the great historian Arnold Toynbee wrote before he died.

For that reason, we must reconstruct our humanity and our civilization through a different kind of relationship with the Earth, so that she may be sustainable: that is, to attain the conditions for maintenance and reproduction that sustain life in the planet. That will only happen if we retake the natural pact with the Earth and if we consider that all living beings, carriers of the same basic genetic code, form the great community of life. Every being has intrinsic value and therefore has rights.

All contracts start with reciprocity, inter-exchange, and a recognition of the rights of each party. From the Earth we receive everything: life and the means of living. In return, in the name of the natural contract, we have a duty of gratitude, reciprocity, and caring, so that she may maintain her vitality and may do what she has always done for all of us. But we broke that contract long ago.

To remake that natural contract we must act like the prodigal son in the parable of Jesus of Nazareth. We must return to the Earth, to the Common Home, and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness means a change in our behavior regarding the respect and caring she deserves. The Earth is our Mother, the Pacha Mama of the Andean people, and the Gaia of the moderns. If we do not re-establish that link it will be difficult for us to survive. The Earth may not want us anymore on the face of the Earth. This is why sustainability here and now is essential. Either it prevails or we will experience a tragedy of the life-system and the human species.

All the times we have broken the natural contract notwithstanding, Mother Earth still sends us positive signs. In spite of global warming, and the erosion of bio-diversity, the sun is still shining, the sabia, the Brazilian thrush, still sings every morning, the flowers smile to all who pass by, the hummingbirds hover over the buds of the lilies, children continue to be born and confirm to us that God still believes in humanity and that it has a future.

Remaking the natural contract implies rescuing the vision and values expressed in the speech of Duwamish Grandfather Seattle, uttered in the presence of Isaac Stevens, the governor of Washington territory, in 1856:

“Of one thing we are certain: the Earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the Earth. All things are interconnected. What hurts the Earth, also hurts the sons and daughters of Mother Earth. It was not the human being who created the fabric of life; the human being is only one thread in it. All that a human being does to that fabric, he does to himself. … We would understand the intentions of the White man, if we knew his dreams, if we knew the hopes he passes on to his sons and daughters in the long winter nights, what visions of the future he offers their minds, so that they may create dreams for tomorrow”.

On April 22, 2009, after long and difficult negotiations, the Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted the idea that the Earth is Mother. This declaration is filled with meaning. The Earth as soil and ground can be removed, used, bought and sold. The Earth as Mother can neither be sold nor bought, but only loved, respected and cared for, as we do with our mothers. This behavior will reaffirm the natural contract that will provide sustainability for our planet, because it reestablishes the relationship of mutuality.

The Aymara President of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, never ceases to repeat that the XXI century will be the century of the rights of Mother Earth, of nature and of all living beings. In his April 22, 2009, intervention in the UN session in which I took part with a speech on the theoretical foundations of the Earth as Mother, he succinctly enumerated some of the rights of Mother Earth:

– the right of regeneration of the bio-capability of Mother Earth,

– the right to life of all living beings, especially of those threatened with extinction.

– the right to a pure life, because Mother Earth has the right to live free of contamination and pollution,

– the right of all citizens to a good living,

– the right to harmony and equilibrium with all things,

– the right to a connection with the Whole of which we are a part.

This vision allows us to renew the natural contract with the Earth that, combined with the social contract between its citizens, will, in the end, reinforce planetary sustainability.

For the original peoples such an attitude is natural. We, to the degree we have lost the connection with nature, have also lost the awareness of our relationship of knowledge and gratitude towards Mother Earth. Hence the importance of revisiting the original peoples and learning from them the respect and veneration the Earth deserves.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, cybermelinaalfaro@bandalibre.com,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Renewing the natural contract with the Earth

Leonardo Boff
Theologian-Philosopher
Earthcharter Commission

Until now, the Western White man’s dream, made universal by globalization, is to dominate the Earth and subdue all other beings, in order to gain unlimited benefits. That dream, four centuries later, has turned into a nightmare. Now as never before, the apocalypse can be precipitated by us, as the great historian Arnold Toynbee wrote before he died.

For that reason, we must reconstruct our humanity and our civilization through a different kind of relationship with the Earth, so that she may be sustainable: that is, to attain the conditions for maintenance and reproduction that sustain life in the planet. That will only happen if we retake the natural pact with the Earth and if we consider that all living beings, carriers of the same basic genetic code, form the great community of life. Every being has intrinsic value and therefore has rights.

All contracts start with reciprocity, inter-exchange, and a recognition of the rights of each party. From the Earth we receive everything: life and the means of living. In return, in the name of the natural contract, we have a duty of gratitude, reciprocity, and caring, so that she may maintain her vitality and may do what she has always done for all of us. But we broke that contract long ago.

To remake that natural contract we must act like the prodigal son in the parable of Jesus of Nazareth. We must return to the Earth, to the Common Home, and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness means a change in our behavior regarding the respect and caring she deserves. The Earth is our Mother, the Pacha Mama of the Andean people, and the Gaia of the moderns. If we do not re-establish that link it will be difficult for us to survive. The Earth may not want us anymore on the face of the Earth. This is why sustainability here and now is essential. Either it prevails or we will experience a tragedy of the life-system and the human species.

All the times we have broken the natural contract notwithstanding, Mother Earth still sends us positive signs. In spite of global warming, and the erosion of bio-diversity, the sun is still shining, the sabia, the Brazilian thrush, still sings every morning, the flowers smile to all who pass by, the hummingbirds hover over the buds of the lilies, children continue to be born and confirm to us that God still believes in humanity and that it has a future.

Remaking the natural contract implies rescuing the vision and values expressed in the speech of Duwamish Grandfather Seattle, uttered in the presence of Isaac Stevens, the governor of Washington territory, in 1856:

“Of one thing we are certain: the Earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the Earth. All things are interconnected. What hurts the Earth, also hurts the sons and daughters of Mother Earth. It was not the human being who created the fabric of life; the human being is only one thread in it. All that a human being does to that fabric, he does to himself. … We would understand the intentions of the White man, if we knew his dreams, if we knew the hopes he passes on to his sons and daughters in the long winter nights, what visions of the future he offers their minds, so that they may create dreams for tomorrow”.

On April 22, 2009, after long and difficult negotiations, the Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted the idea that the Earth is Mother. This declaration is filled with meaning. The Earth as soil and ground can be removed, used, bought and sold. The Earth as Mother can neither be sold nor bought, but only loved, respected and cared for, as we do with our mothers. This behavior will reaffirm the natural contract that will provide sustainability for our planet, because it reestablishes the relationship of mutuality.

The Aymara President of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, never ceases to repeat that the XXI century will be the century of the rights of Mother Earth, of nature and of all living beings. In his April 22, 2009, intervention in the UN session in which I took part with a speech on the theoretical foundations of the Earth as Mother, he succinctly enumerated some of the rights of Mother Earth:

– the right of regeneration of the bio-capability of Mother Earth,

– the right to life of all living beings, especially of those threatened with extinction.

– the right to a pure life, because Mother Earth has the right to live free of contamination and pollution,

– the right of all citizens to a good living,

– the right to harmony and equilibrium with all things,

– the right to a connection with the Whole of which we are a part.

This vision allows us to renew the natural contract with the Earth that, combined with the social contract between its citizens, will, in the end, reinforce planetary sustainability.

For the original peoples such an attitude is natural. We, to the degree we have lost the connection with nature, have also lost the awareness of our relationship of knowledge and gratitude towards Mother Earth. Hence the importance of revisiting the original peoples and learning from them the respect and veneration the Earth deserves.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, cybermelinaalfaro@bandalibre.com,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Nuestros presupuestos equivocados nos pueden destruir

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Innegablemente estamos viviendo una crisis de los fundamentos que sustentan nuestra forma de habitar y organizar el planeta Tierra y de tratar los bienes y servicios de la naturaleza. En la perspectiva actual están totalmente equivocados, son peligrosos y amenazadores del sistema-vida y del sistema-Tierra. Tenemos que ir más lejos.

Dos de los padres fundadores de nuestro modo de ver el mundo, René Descartes (1596-1650) y Francis Bacon (1561-1626) son sus principales formuladores. Veían la materia como algo totalmente pasivo e inerte. La mente existía exclusivamente en los seres humanos. Estos podían sentir y pensar mientras que los demás animales y seres actuaban como máquinas, desposeídas de cualquier subjetividad y propósito.

Lógicamente, esta comprensión creó la ocasión para que se tratase a la Tierra, a la naturaleza y a los seres vivos como cosas de las cuales podíamos disponer a nuestro gusto. En la base del proceso industrialista salvaje está esta comprensión que persiste aún hoy, incluso dentro de las universidades llamadas progresistas, pero rehenes del viejo paradigma.

Las cosas, sin embargo, no es que sean así. Todo cambió cuando A. Einstein mostró que la materia es un campo densísimo de interacciones, y más aún, que ella en realidad no existe en el sentido común de la palabra: es energía altamente condensada. Basta un centímetro cúbico de materia, como le oí decir en 1967 en su último semestre de clases en la Universidad de Munich a Werner Heisenberg, uno de los fundadores de la física de las partículas subatómicas, la mecánica cuántica, que si ese poco de materia fuese transformado en pura energía podría desestabilizar todo nuestro sistema solar.

En 1924 Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) con su telescopio en el Monte Wilson en el sur de California, descubrió que no solamente existía nuestra galaxia, la Vía Láctea, sino cientos de ellas (hoy cien mil millones). Notó, curiosamente, que se están expandiendo y alejándose unas de otras a velocidades inimaginables. Tal verificación llevó a los científicos a suponer que el universo observable había sido mucho menor, un puntito ínfimo que después se inflacionó y explotó, dando origen al universo en expansión. Un eco ínfimo de esa explosión puede ser identificado todavía, lo cual permite datar el evento como algo ocurrido have 13.700 millones de años.

Una de las mayores contribuciones que están desmantelando la antigua mirada sobre la Tierra y la naturaleza proceden del premio Nobel de química el ruso-belga Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003). El dejó atrás la concepción de materia como inerte y pasiva y demostró experimentalmente que elementos químicos colocados bajo determinadas condiciones pueden organizarse a sí mismos bajo modelos complejos que requieren la coordinación de billones de moléculas. Estas no necesitan instrucciones ni los seres humanos entran en su organización. Ni siquiera existen códigos genéticos que guíen sus acciones. La dinámica de su autoorganización es intrínseca, como la del universo, y articula todas las interacciones.

El universo está penetrado de un dinamismo autocreativo y autoorganizativo que estructura las galaxias, las estrellas y los planetas. De vez en cuando a partir de la Energía de Fondo se producen afloraciones de nuevas complejidades que hacen aparecer, por ejemplo, la vida y la vida consciente y humana.

Toda esa dinámica cósmica tiene tiempos propios: tiempo de las galaxias, de las estrellas, de la Tierra, de los distintos ecosistemas con sus representantes, cada uno también con su propio tiempo, de las flores, de las mariposas, etc. Los organismos vivos especialmente tienen sus tiempos biológicos propios, uno para los microorganismos, otro para los bosques y las selvas, otro para los animales, otro para los océanos, otro para cada ser humano.

¿Qué hemos hecho nosotros modernamente para gestar la crisis actual?

Inventamos el tiempo mecánico y siempre igual de los relojes. El dirige la vida y todo el proceso productivo, no tomando en cuenta los demás tiempos. Somete el tiempo de la naturaleza al tiempo tecnológico. Un árbol, por ejemplo, necesita 40 años para crecer y una motosierra lo derriba en dos minutos. No cultivamos ningún respeto hacia los tiempos de cada cosa. Así no les damos tiempo de rehacerse de nuestras devastaciones: contaminamos los aires, envenenamos los suelos y quimicalizamos casi todos nuestros alimentos. La maquina vale más que el ser humano.

Al no concedernos un sábado, bíblicamente hablando, para que la Tierra descanse, la extenuamos, la mutilamos y dejamos que enferme casi mortalmente, destruyendo las condiciones de nuestra propia subsistencia.

En este momento estamos viviendo un tiempo en el que la propia Tierra está tomando conciencia de su enfermedad. El calentamiento global indica que ella va a entrar en otro tiempo. Si seguimos maltratándola y no la ayudamos a estabilizarse en ese otro tiempo, podemos contar las décadas que faltan para la tribulación de la desolación. Por causa de nuestros equívocos no concientizados y formulados have siglos que no hemos corregido y obstinadamente reafirmamos.

Con Mark Hathaway escribí El Tao de la Liberación, premiado en Estados Unidos con medalla de oro en nueva ciencia y cosmología.