quinta-feira, dezembro 31, 2009
sexta-feira, dezembro 25, 2009
PROPOSTA DE NATAL - III
Três Cantos: José Mário Branco, Sérgio Godinho e Fausto no Campo Pequeno. Registados pela camera da magnífica fotógrafa, Rita Carmo.
Reportagem no Blitz
PROPOSTA DE NATAL - II
«"Olhar / Look at Niemeyer" mostra o génio do brasileiro no dia no dia dos seus 102 anos
Mais de 300 fotografias de 103 autores estão reunidas no livro "Olhar/Look at Niemeyer", que será lançado em Lisboa no dia 15 e mostra a "genialidade actual" do arquitecto brasileiro, disse à Lusa o coordenador da obra.
Destak/Lusa | destak@destak.pt»
domingo, dezembro 13, 2009
CONTUNDENTE, REELIÇÃO DE MORALES
«O presidente da Bolívia e candidato do Movimento para o Socialismo (MAS) Evo Morales foi reconduzido no cargo, domingo, por uma maioria de 61 a 63 por cento dos votos, segundo as estimativas, deixando a uma distância de cerca de 40 por cento o principal opositor no sufrágio, o ex-governador da província de Cochabamba, Manfred Reys Villa, que deverá obter entre 23 a 25 por cento dos votos.
À esmagadora eleição à primeira volta de Morales, o MAS junta a conquista da maioria de dois terços dos deputados no Senado e no Congresso bolivianos. Dados preliminares divulgados pela da Agência Boliviana de Notícias indicam que no primeiro hemiciclo o MAS ganha 25 dos 36 lugares disponíveis, ao passo que no parlamento o partido deverá eleger 88 deputados em 130, ou seja, mais 4 que os necessários para garantir a maioria qualificada.
Para além da assistência excepcionalmente alta às urnas, cerca de 94 por cento dos eleitores habilitados, Evo Morales e o MAS garantiram a vitória em todas as regiões do país, exceptuando Beni e Santa Cruz, e mesmo nestas duas cresceram em percentagem e número de votos face à última consulta popular.»
Fonte: Jornal Avante
BOLÍVIA + EQUADOR = SUCESSO
Ao contrário dos paradigmas estabelecidos pelos gurus da economia neo-liberal a Bolívia e o Equador acabaram com os favorecimentos às multinacionais e decidiram favorecer os seus próprios países e o resultado foi este: «Bolívia e Equador são casos de sucesso no meio da crise global!»
«Latin America's economic rebels - Ecuador and Bolivia are achieving remarkable growth because they reject conventional economic wisdom
Among the conventional wisdom that we hear every day in the business press is that developing countries should bend over backwards to create a friendly climate for foreign corporations, follow orthodox (neoliberal) macroeconomic policy advice and strive to achieve an investment-grade sovereign credit rating so as to attract more foreign capital.
Guess which country is expected to have the fastest economic growth in the Americas this year? Bolivia. The country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, was elected in 2005 and took office in January 2006. Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, had been operating under IMF agreements for 20 consecutive years, and its per-capita income was lower than it had been 27 years earlier.
Evo sent the IMF packing just three months after he took office, and then moved to re-nationalise the hydrocarbons industry (mostly natural gas). Needless to say this did not sit well with the international corporate community. Nor did Bolivia's decision in May 2007 to withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration panel, which had a tendency to settle disputes in favour of international corporations and against governments.
But Bolivia's re-nationalisation and increased royalties on hydrocarbons has given the government billions of dollars of additional revenue (Bolivia's entire GDP is only about $16.6bn, with a population of 10 million people). These revenues have been useful for a government that wants to promote development, and especially to maintain growth during the downturn. Public investment increased from 6.3% of GDP in 2005 to 10.5% in 2009.
Bolivia's growth through the current world downturn is even more remarkable in that it was hit hard by falling prices for its most important exports – natural gas and minerals – and also by a loss of important export preferences in the US market. The Bush administration cut off Bolivia's trade preferences that were granted under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, allegedly to punish Bolivia for insufficient co-operation in the "war on drugs".
In reality, it was more complicated: Bolivia expelled the US ambassador because of evidence that the US government was supporting the opposition to the Morales government, and the ATPDA revocation followed soon thereafter. In any case, the Obama administration has so far not changed the Bush administration's policies toward Bolivia. But Bolivia has proven that it can do quite well without Washington's co-operation.
Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, is an economist who, well before he was elected in December 2006, understood and wrote about the limitations of neoliberal economic dogma. He took office in 2007 and established an international tribunal to examine the legitimacy of the country's debt. In November 2008 the commission found that part of the debt was not legally contracted, and in December Correa announced that the government would default on roughly $3.2bn of its international debt.
He was vilified in the business press, but the default was successful. Ecuador cleared a third of its foreign debt off its books by defaulting and then buying the debt back at about 35 cents on the dollar. The country's international credit rating remains low, but no lower than it was before Correa's election, and it was even raised a notch after the buyback was completed.
The Correa government also incurred foreign investors' wrath by renegotiating its deals with foreign oil companies to capture a larger share of revenue as oil prices rose. And Correa has bucked pressure from Chevron and its powerful allies in Washington to drop his support of a lawsuit against the company for alleged pollution of ground waters, with damages that could exceed $27bn.
How has Ecuador done? Growth has averaged a healthy 4.5% over Correa's first two years. And the government has made sure that it has trickled down: healthcare spending as a percent of GDP has doubled, and social spending in general has expanded considerably from 5.4% to 8.3% of GDP in two years. This includes a doubling of the cash transfer programme to poor households, a $474m increase in spending for housing, and other programmes for low-income families.
Ecuador was hit hard by a 77% drop in the price of its oil exports from June 2008 to February 2009, as well as a decline in remittances from abroad. Nonetheless it has weathered the storm pretty well. Other unorthodox policies, in addition to the debt default, have helped Ecuador to stimulate its economy without running too low on reserves.
Ecuador's currency is the US dollar, so that rules out using exchange rate policy and most monetary policy for counter-cyclical efforts in a recession – a significant handicap. Instead, Ecuador was able to cut deals with China for a billion-dollar advance payment for oil and another $1bn loan.
The government also has begun requiring Ecuadorian banks to repatriate some of their reserves held abroad, expected to bring back another $1.2bn, and it has started repatriating $2.5bn in central bank reserves held abroad in order to finance another large stimulus package.
Ecuador's growth will probably come in at about 1% this year, which is pretty good relative to most of the hemisphere. For example, Mexico, at the other end of the spectrum, is projected to have a 7.5% decline in GDP for 2009.
The standard reporting and even quasi-academic analysis of Bolivia and Ecuador says they are victims of populist, socialist, "anti-American" governments – aligned with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Cuba, of course – and on the road to ruin. To be sure, both countries have many challenges ahead, the most important of which will be to implement economic strategies that can diversify and develop their economies over the long run. But they have made a good start so far, by giving the conventional wisdom of the economic and foreign policy establishment – in Washington and Europe – the respect it has earned.»
Fonte: Guardian - Mark Weisbrot
«Latin America's economic rebels - Ecuador and Bolivia are achieving remarkable growth because they reject conventional economic wisdom
Among the conventional wisdom that we hear every day in the business press is that developing countries should bend over backwards to create a friendly climate for foreign corporations, follow orthodox (neoliberal) macroeconomic policy advice and strive to achieve an investment-grade sovereign credit rating so as to attract more foreign capital.
Guess which country is expected to have the fastest economic growth in the Americas this year? Bolivia. The country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, was elected in 2005 and took office in January 2006. Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, had been operating under IMF agreements for 20 consecutive years, and its per-capita income was lower than it had been 27 years earlier.
Evo sent the IMF packing just three months after he took office, and then moved to re-nationalise the hydrocarbons industry (mostly natural gas). Needless to say this did not sit well with the international corporate community. Nor did Bolivia's decision in May 2007 to withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration panel, which had a tendency to settle disputes in favour of international corporations and against governments.
But Bolivia's re-nationalisation and increased royalties on hydrocarbons has given the government billions of dollars of additional revenue (Bolivia's entire GDP is only about $16.6bn, with a population of 10 million people). These revenues have been useful for a government that wants to promote development, and especially to maintain growth during the downturn. Public investment increased from 6.3% of GDP in 2005 to 10.5% in 2009.
Bolivia's growth through the current world downturn is even more remarkable in that it was hit hard by falling prices for its most important exports – natural gas and minerals – and also by a loss of important export preferences in the US market. The Bush administration cut off Bolivia's trade preferences that were granted under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, allegedly to punish Bolivia for insufficient co-operation in the "war on drugs".
In reality, it was more complicated: Bolivia expelled the US ambassador because of evidence that the US government was supporting the opposition to the Morales government, and the ATPDA revocation followed soon thereafter. In any case, the Obama administration has so far not changed the Bush administration's policies toward Bolivia. But Bolivia has proven that it can do quite well without Washington's co-operation.
Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, is an economist who, well before he was elected in December 2006, understood and wrote about the limitations of neoliberal economic dogma. He took office in 2007 and established an international tribunal to examine the legitimacy of the country's debt. In November 2008 the commission found that part of the debt was not legally contracted, and in December Correa announced that the government would default on roughly $3.2bn of its international debt.
He was vilified in the business press, but the default was successful. Ecuador cleared a third of its foreign debt off its books by defaulting and then buying the debt back at about 35 cents on the dollar. The country's international credit rating remains low, but no lower than it was before Correa's election, and it was even raised a notch after the buyback was completed.
The Correa government also incurred foreign investors' wrath by renegotiating its deals with foreign oil companies to capture a larger share of revenue as oil prices rose. And Correa has bucked pressure from Chevron and its powerful allies in Washington to drop his support of a lawsuit against the company for alleged pollution of ground waters, with damages that could exceed $27bn.
How has Ecuador done? Growth has averaged a healthy 4.5% over Correa's first two years. And the government has made sure that it has trickled down: healthcare spending as a percent of GDP has doubled, and social spending in general has expanded considerably from 5.4% to 8.3% of GDP in two years. This includes a doubling of the cash transfer programme to poor households, a $474m increase in spending for housing, and other programmes for low-income families.
Ecuador was hit hard by a 77% drop in the price of its oil exports from June 2008 to February 2009, as well as a decline in remittances from abroad. Nonetheless it has weathered the storm pretty well. Other unorthodox policies, in addition to the debt default, have helped Ecuador to stimulate its economy without running too low on reserves.
Ecuador's currency is the US dollar, so that rules out using exchange rate policy and most monetary policy for counter-cyclical efforts in a recession – a significant handicap. Instead, Ecuador was able to cut deals with China for a billion-dollar advance payment for oil and another $1bn loan.
The government also has begun requiring Ecuadorian banks to repatriate some of their reserves held abroad, expected to bring back another $1.2bn, and it has started repatriating $2.5bn in central bank reserves held abroad in order to finance another large stimulus package.
Ecuador's growth will probably come in at about 1% this year, which is pretty good relative to most of the hemisphere. For example, Mexico, at the other end of the spectrum, is projected to have a 7.5% decline in GDP for 2009.
The standard reporting and even quasi-academic analysis of Bolivia and Ecuador says they are victims of populist, socialist, "anti-American" governments – aligned with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Cuba, of course – and on the road to ruin. To be sure, both countries have many challenges ahead, the most important of which will be to implement economic strategies that can diversify and develop their economies over the long run. But they have made a good start so far, by giving the conventional wisdom of the economic and foreign policy establishment – in Washington and Europe – the respect it has earned.»
Fonte: Guardian - Mark Weisbrot
NV, KILLING MOON
Contemplar a mesma paisagem com outra companhia ... Killing Moon, canção composta pelos Echo & the Bunnymen, desta vez adaptada por Nouvelle Vague.
terça-feira, dezembro 01, 2009
DAVYDENKO O OPERÁRIO
«Mestre da classe dos operários
Não possui o glamour das grandes figuras do ténis actual, mas também não se mostra nada incomudado com isso. "sou um operário não uma estrela" [...] Aos 28 anos, Nikolay Davidenko sagrou-se, na O2 Arena, em Londres, campeão do Masters (ATP World Tour Finals).
Fonte: Jornal "O Jogo" de 30 de Novembro de 2009
A "DEMOCRACIA" DOS "DEMOCRATAS"
A presente condição das Honduras é o perfeito reflexo da condição dos Estados Unidos da América face a governos indesejados ... face a políticas que não lhes convém ... mesmo que essas sejam a vontade dos povos. Outro elemento a reter destes acontecimentos, é que, tal como escreviam os "profetas da desgraça", OBAMA é uma nova cara para a mesma política.
O Cantigueiro apresenta o modo de operar da administração norte americana. Eis então:
«1. Criar, financiar e ajudar a executar o golpe, afastando o Governo ou Presidente indesejado, substituindo-o por um qualquer lacaio.
2. Declarar publicamente que “condenam” o golpe, mostrando “grande preocupação”.
3. Não fazer nada para que a legalidade seja reposta.
4. Se o Presidente legítimo deposto mostrar grande resistência e gozar de forte apoio popular, começar a insinuar que essa resistência e apoio popular é que são os culpados pela “tensão” no país.
5. Encenar umas “negociações” que não levem a nada, propondo de imediato a realização de “eleições livres” em que o Presidente legítimo não possa participar.
6. Fazer ganhar o candidato dos golpistas.
7. Apoiar publicamente o “novo presidente” e dar vivas à “democracia”.
8. Esperar que a comunidade internacional, uns por interesse, outros por pura cobardia, aceitem esta farsa como acto eleitoral.
9. “Incentivar” fortemente os indecisos a darem o seu “apoio”.
Apenas uma pergunta paira nos corredores do poder da Casa Branca:
- Será que ainda conseguimos continuar a "enganar" milhares de fazedores de opinião, por esse mundo fora?
- Yes, we can!»
Sobre as eleições é importante referir que Zelaya apelou ao boicote, sendo importante avaliar a participação no pleito. Segundo o Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, registou-se uma abstenção menor que 39%, mas de acordo com os dados dos delegados do partido de Zelaya, que acompanharam o escrutíneo a abstenção superou os 67%.
O Cantigueiro apresenta o modo de operar da administração norte americana. Eis então:
«1. Criar, financiar e ajudar a executar o golpe, afastando o Governo ou Presidente indesejado, substituindo-o por um qualquer lacaio.
2. Declarar publicamente que “condenam” o golpe, mostrando “grande preocupação”.
3. Não fazer nada para que a legalidade seja reposta.
4. Se o Presidente legítimo deposto mostrar grande resistência e gozar de forte apoio popular, começar a insinuar que essa resistência e apoio popular é que são os culpados pela “tensão” no país.
5. Encenar umas “negociações” que não levem a nada, propondo de imediato a realização de “eleições livres” em que o Presidente legítimo não possa participar.
6. Fazer ganhar o candidato dos golpistas.
7. Apoiar publicamente o “novo presidente” e dar vivas à “democracia”.
8. Esperar que a comunidade internacional, uns por interesse, outros por pura cobardia, aceitem esta farsa como acto eleitoral.
9. “Incentivar” fortemente os indecisos a darem o seu “apoio”.
Apenas uma pergunta paira nos corredores do poder da Casa Branca:
- Será que ainda conseguimos continuar a "enganar" milhares de fazedores de opinião, por esse mundo fora?
- Yes, we can!»
Sobre as eleições é importante referir que Zelaya apelou ao boicote, sendo importante avaliar a participação no pleito. Segundo o Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, registou-se uma abstenção menor que 39%, mas de acordo com os dados dos delegados do partido de Zelaya, que acompanharam o escrutíneo a abstenção superou os 67%.
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