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Sobre a política brasileira

Recentemente a Marina Silva decidiu juntar esforços para criar um novo partido político no Brasil. Eu li sobre ele, seu estatuto, vi algumas entrevistas e resolvi apoiá-lo. Eu não sou o tipo de pessoa politicamente engajada, mas ultimamente eu tenho prestado atenção na política do Brasil. A visão que eu tive, de fato, não é bela. A governança é muito complicada, e as boas intenções ficam perdidas em um processo longo, burocrático e muito dependente de troca de favores. Eu fico triste em ver como uma coisa tão importante para o desenvolvimento e organização de um país, quando visto de perto, pode se reduzir a um processo tão mesquinho. Mas é melhor eu explicar o que eu vejo, porque a gente tem olhos diferentes.

O trabalho de um político é discutir e propor leis (projetos de lei, medidas provisórias, emendas na constituição, etc.) com o objetivo de melhorar o país. Isso é um processo democrático, e os políticos votam nas leis uns dos outros e elas só são aprovadas se obtiverem uma certa porcentagem dos votos. Até que não parece tão mal, certo? Mas aí eu comecei a acompanhar notícias, ler sobre a tramitação (uma palavra elegante para o vai e vem que uma proposta sofre antes de ser definitivamente aprovada ou reprovada) dessas leis e entender realmente como isso funciona.

Pra começar, não existe essa coisa de discutir antes de elaborar uma lei. Cada um trabalha mais ou menos independente, e propõe leis ao seu bel prazer. Às vezes acontece de um grupo elaborar alguma lei, mas em geral, as leis têm como autor uma pessoa só. Bom, vamos supor que todos estejam interessados no bem comum (e ignorar projetos propostos para benefício próprio ou irrelevantes). Hoje o Brasil tem 513 deputados (mais o Senado, câmaras, comissões, presidente, tribunais, etc.) que podem propor leis. Então a gente tem um monte de propostas por aí, e os políticos devem ler essas propostas, sugerir mudanças (emendas), revisar as mudanças, revisar as emendas sugeridas para as suas próprias propostas e votar. Só que é muita coisa! Só em 2012, foram 1841 propostas, em 2013 já são 638, e isso são só projetos de lei. Existem quase 400 propostas em regime de urgência. O Brasil vive um momento relativamente estável, será que esse tanto de lei é necessário? Será que não existe um monte de assuntos com vários projetos de leis diferentes?? Por que as pessoas interessadas no mesmo assunto não se reuniram antes pra discutir como (e se) deveria ter uma lei pra isso? O processo pelo qual passa uma proposta é longo e burocrático, e se as propostas forem menos e mais coesas, tudo ficaria mais fácil pra todos.

Então, no meio desse mar de sugestões, como é que um deputado vota? Ele é afiliado a um partido político, então ele vota a favor de propostas de pessoas do seu partido e de partidos aliados. E ele vota contra propostas de partidos aos quais o partido dele faz oposição. Por que? Porque essas pessoas depois vão votar nas propostas dele, independente delas serem boas ou ruins para os eleitores, porque elas também querem o voto dele em alguma coisa. Ao meu ver, isso é uma luta cega por aprovação de propostas e parece que quem aprova mais, ganha. Mas ninguém está realmente prestando atenção se as coisas votadas são coerentes e de acordo com seus princípios ou não. Daí acontecem coisas do tipo a reforma do código florestal ser aprovada e o Marco Feliciano ser eleito presidente da comissão de direitos humanos… (o que não é uma lei per se, mas também depende de votações). Me parece que os políticos estão tão preocupados com a rede de favores que vai fazer com que eles consigam votos que, na hora de votar, pensam somente em quem vão agradar ou desagradar com seu voto (lá dentro, não a gente) e não em que se está votando realmente.

Entre o caos, surge a Marina Silva como candidata a presidente em 2010, dizendo que não vai fazer alianças ou prometer cargos, e sim chamar as pessoas mais competentes para cada trabalho. Ou seja, ela queria fazer o que é certo. O partido que ela quer criar agora não é diferente. Ela se recusa a assumir uma posição cega de apoio ou oposição ao governo e afirma que vai apoiar o que é bom e criticar o que é ruim. Diz também que não vai fazer alianças com partidos políticos, mas pode apoiar candidatos de outros partidos que tenham uma causa compatível com os ideais do novo partido. No meu ponto de vista ela está tentando acabar com o jogo de interesses e focar novamente na qualidade das propostas, e não em quem está por trás delas.

Ao perguntar a algumas pessoas o que elas achavam, fiquei surpresa ao descobrir que a maior crítica é exatamente a que, na minha opinião, são seus pontos fortes. As pessoas dizem que existe uma falta de posicionamento porque a Marina não adotou um rótulo direita/esquerda ou pró/contra o governo. Mas na verdade ela está disposta a apoiar o que é bom em todos os lados. O problema em escolher lados é que você acaba ficando preso a uma filosofia ou pensamento, e quando vê algo bom em outro lado, ou você não apoia por teimosia, ou apoia e corre o risco de ser chamado de hipócrita e perder a credibilidade. Qual o problema em não tomar lados e analisar, o mais imparcialmente possível, as ações de todos os lados e decidir qual é a melhor no momento?
As pessoas dizem também que ela não consegue ganhar uma eleição ou governar sem fazer alianças porque “é assim que o sistema funciona”. Pra mim é muito claro como essas alianças atrapalham o poder de julgamento dos deputados, e mesmo que alguém me diga que o projeto X só foi aprovado por causa de alianças, eu digo que se os políticos analisassem objetivamente e X fosse um bom projeto, ele seria aprovado de todo jeito. É óbvio, pelo menos pra mim, que quanto menos interesses estiverem envolvidos na votação de um projeto, mais objetiva será sua análise. Então por que não acabar com as alianças políticas? “Porque é assim que o sistema funciona” é uma desculpa muito ruim. Tantas coisas já mudaram! Eu não sei que incredibilidade é essa. Afinal de contas, quem vota é a gente, e se quisermos eleger só candidatos sem alianças, dispostos a lutar pelo bem coletivo (seja lá qual seja sua definição de bem coletivo, existem várias delas e várias ideologias defendendo cada uma), basta votar neles. Eles são poucos, mas eu finalmente acredito que eles existem.

Deixo aqui meu apelo por eleitores, candidatos e políticos mais transparentes, simples, objetivos e unidos pelo bem de todos.

Perspective

This is an old post in fact… it’s been one year or more that I’ve written this in my notebook, and in the middle of an organization of notes, I decided to write it here and have an extra page to go to the recycling bin.

This week I went with João to a (very fancy) hairdresser so he could have his hair cut. Everything was very modern and new, and the hairdresser himself had a very stylish braided beard and a tail on the back of the head. He spoke little English, and since we speak little German, the conversation was basically noun-driven. Initially he thought we were from Portugal, as we told him we spoke Portuguese. But as soon as he found that we were actually Brazilians, he was more enthusiastic about it. And then came all the comments about the summer, football, etc. Suddenly he made a very interesting remark: he noted how nice it was that in Brazil kids go out to play football on the streets and how bad it was that in Austria kids come home from school and are just on the internet the whole day.

It is interesting because in these moments we realize how Brazil is perceived. We did not bother to explain him, but we Brazilians know it’s not like this. If you live in a relatively big city, say, more than 0.5 million inhabitants, you know the only kids playing football on the streets are the really poor ones, that live in a favela or something close to it. The kids from middle class families or above are too afraid (or have parents that are afraid) of going out to play on the streets. They are playing with their neighbors in the buildings’ playgrounds, or maybe going to football (or karate, or tennis, or English) classes in private schools (by car, of course) or, most likely, inside their own apartments playing video games and chatting to their friends on the internet. Children (or people in general) are not really engaged into outdoor activities, mostly for security reasons.

It’s funny how we observe exactly the opposite in Vienna. It’s summer now, so we see people riding bikes, running, having picnics in parks or by the river, strolling around the parks… Also, we see *a lot*, really, almost every day, groups of kids with teachers walking around to visit places or go to parks. And they even use the public transportation! It looks very nice!!

So how can the hairdresser make a comment like that? Maybe it’s because he has never lived in Brazil, maybe we haven’t been here enough… but quality of life in Vienna is amazing in any case. 

Blueberry muffins

Ingredients (for 12 muffins):
125 g of blueberries
200 g of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of lemon zest*
125 g of soft butter
125 g of sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar (the sachet I used had 8 g)
1 egg
220 g of yogurt
Preparation:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Select the blueberries (I had to get rid of some that looked very ugly…), wash and dab dry.
Mix the flour with the baking powder and the lemon zest. Keep it in a separate bowl. Beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and the egg until creamy (if the butter is melted in advance, this mixture is more homogeneous, if not, it will look a bit lumpy, but both worked). Mix in the yogurt. Immediately stir in the flour mixture. Once it is thick (like a soft bread dough) throw the berries in and gently mix it.
Fill in the molds with the dough, not completely, leave some space for them to grow. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until they look like muffins. 
Here’s the result 🙂 
* Note for the portuguese speaking people: Lemon zest é a casquinha de limão siciliano (aquele amarelo) ralada.

About Waldorf schools

Today my brother in law sent me a radio interview of this Brazilian journalist who is (was?) in the United States and got to know a Waldorf school in the Silicon Valley. He speaks as if it is the latest thing, which was a bit comic, since there are Waldorf schools in Brazil since before I was born. Anyway, this triggered me to write something about this very unconventional teaching method, which I post here now.

I know the Waldorf method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education) from a school in my town (my mother knows some kids who study there and got the chance to visit the school and go to some of the students’ events) and also because schools like this exist in Austria. From what I could understand so far, this is an unconventional education method: the kids are free to do what they want, there are no clear distinction on the subjects (math, physics, history, etc) and no tests, and they learn music, painting, agriculture, etc. Maybe you (and me!) can learn more from this Wikipedia link. Like all things, this has a good and a bad side. Here is Austria, there is a general prejudice against students from these schools, I’ve heard from more than one person. In general, they think that these students are less prepared for a higher education, such as a university, which is not untrue after all. An evidence of that is the final examination of high school. From what I understand, here there are no entrance examination to the university, you just need to present this final examination from your school to prove you are apt to follow the courses. It turns out that the exams from Waldorf school (if there are any) are not accepted. You must take the exam somewhere else. Maybe this is because these schools will not evaluate the exact abilities a university is interested that its students have.

In the end, the idea of a school where kids are free might sound good, but I am not sure if I would let a kid of mine study in such a place until he/she is 18. Maybe until the are 3… I think that the abilities the Waldorf school proposes to develop, team work, self-teaching, creativity and other, can be very well learned in “regular” schools. Me and lots of friends are here to prove we have turned out just fine. Also, almost all of us were able to go through higher education courses without major difficulties. Which I think would be a bit harder (of course not impossible) for Waldorf school students, who will suddenly have to get used to exams, deadlines and a competitive environment.

Something that is more or less related to this is a book I am reading from a neurologist. The chapter I am currently reading is about this girl who is retarded, and has cognition and motor coordination problems. He tells how she fails drastically on the exams made in his office, and how she looked incapacitated  but how she looked like a completely normal girl when he met her at the park, appreciating the spring. And how she even recited some poems to him. Also, her motor skills seemed perfectly well when she was dancing. Then he discuss these two functions of the brain, a “schematic” and “narrative” (artistic) one. For me it’s like “regular” schools tries to develop this schematic ability, of solving problems and algorithms, while Waldorf schools focus on the other side, the creativity and artistic.


The problem I see in putting a kid to study in this Waldorf education scheme until he/she is 15 years old is that, in case this person decides to follow a “scientific” career, this is made more difficult from that fact that he/she was used to another type of education. On the other hand, if the kid decides for an artistic career, the math and history learned in school will not be an obstacle.

About social networks

It’s been a long time since I have this inherent annoyance and restraints against social networking. The mere though of thousands or millions of people checking around on other peoples’ lives on the internet makes me nervous. Nevertheless, I am also part of this world. Although I did not want to, originally, moving countries and having people that I am only able to contact via Facebook kind of made me do it. More or less the same reason why my grandma now can call me on Skype. I realized this some time ago, and sent her an actual written letter. After all, why is she the one having to adapt to my means of communication when I can very well use hers? Turned out to be a very nice experience, writing a letter and all, and I will do it more often.

But back to the Facebook thing… After some thinking, I guess I can finally point out some reasons why I dislike so much this kind of interaction. And maybe this will shed a light on how I should use this in a way that makes me happy, and not angry.

The first thing is what I read on some news today (what actually made me finally write this… I’ve been meaning to do it for a while): “Endless sharing and clicks on “like” are, after all, far easier than taking the time to work out what we actually feel.” (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130104-pay-attention/1). I must be honest that the few times I clicked on “like” was because I did not want everybody to see my comment on the subject, although the person that posted was expecting a reaction from me. It’s ugly and I am embarrassed, but I would really rather that things directed to me are sent to me only, and not posted on some wall for everyone else, expecting a public reaction from me. Anyway, I agree with the guy that said this… liking and sharing is much easier than figuring out how you really feel about something, but it’s very shallow and lazy.

Another thing that annoys me is the amount of unwanted information you get from people. So somebody got married… graduated… had babies. Facebook tells you this. What are you going to do? “Like”?? It was not even the person that told you this. I never know if people really expect some reaction from a mere Facebook status change (“What do you mean you didn’t know?? It was on my Facebook!!”) or if they never stopped to think on what’s being published or not (“Ah… thanks… but how did you know it? Facebook? Ah… yes…”). Unfortunately not all people have the patience to go through the endless privacy configurations and filter who gets to see what. My policy: if you want me to know something, tell me. I am rarely on Facebook, and even if I am, don’t expect me to go to your profile to find out if there’s something new.

Speaking of the privacy thing, I will not even begin to argue how dangerous this can be (just check http://pleaserobme.com/). We all know that (I hope!), but what I am most concerned recently is what people are sharing about other people, without their consent. You post a picture of you and your friends at some place, suddenly you reveal some information about all the people on the picture, ever thought of that? Maybe some of the people in the picture don’t even know this, or maybe they don’t like to publish photos online. But out of politeness, they won’t tell you this, and just avoid taking pictures with you the next time. There’s an option to remove the tag from the picture, nevertheless, all the people that know you and see the picture, know it’s you. I think it’s just rude, and I have warned my mother about it (the only person I was brave enough to do so). If you want to put pictures online, please ask first the people on the picture. It’s polite to take into account others’ opinions. In fact, not only pictures, but any personal information. If it’s not yours, it’s not yours to share.

I guess the last thing (which usually makes me more sad than angry, and then angry for going into Facebook and becoming sad) is what other peoples’ lives look like. I know everybody has problems, I know life is not perfect, but when you only see the people online, it seems everybody is so so happy! They have wonderful pictures of vacations, outing with friends, the staff smiling at work, important events happening… I could go into the race, and post pictures of happiness of my own, but I don’t want to. We shouldn’t need to have to show a happy life to actually be happy. And this accounts for showing everywhere, on and off-line.

After figuring out all this, the only thing I could do was to go over the long long privacy settings on Facebook to block most of the information (and delete, when possible). I am working on removing the picture, but I am afraid this would cause some comments I don’t want to deal with (such as “Why did you remove the picture? It was great!”). For some time I thought of using it only for professional purposes, but this would annoy 99% of the people there. Using it as my blog is certainly not and option… I don’t want to broadcast these posts. What to do then? Oh well… back to work.

PS: The sentence of the day (I saw it twice already) seems to be “your attention has a limited capacity”, so use it wisely!

PS2: A more professional view on the subject: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120703-tackling-technology-overload

Sony computers, ath9k driver and a slow internet connection

We’ve been having some problems updating the OS’s of the computers here at home… Joao was braver than me and tried it a few months ago. Ha has a Sony and a LeNovo laptops, both running Ubuntu 11.04 at that point. When Ubuntu 11.10 was released, he updated the LeNovo without any problems, but it did not go so well with his Sony machine. Suddenly the internet connection was very slow, although the computer was able to connect to the wireless network without a problem. He was puzzled for some days with this, even trying other systems such as Linux Mint and Debian, with no success. They all presented the same slow slow connection. Then, some day, he took his computer to the university and, voilá! The internet was at full speed again. We wondered if the problem was our router and even tried updating it, but nothing seemed to do the trick. Also, the other computers were working perfectly fine on this network, including my Ubuntu 11.04.

Well, after all this headache I decided not to update my Sony laptop so soon. But soon has passed, and this weekend I finally gathered the courage, time and patience to do it. I was on the safe side, so I made live USB’s of Ubuntu 12.04, Mint 13 and Mint LMDE (Debian based). I tested all of them, and nothing worked. The same weird behaviour happened again… It was able to connect to the wifi but surfing the internet was a torture. After some hours searching forums here and there, I finally found a solution that worked for me. It worked on the three systems I tested, and I finally installed Linux Mint LDME 🙂

So I will post this here as a future reference.

Problem: The computer connects to the internet but the connection is incredibly slow (it might happen on some wifi networks, not all).
Machine: Sony VPCEA46FG (Joao’s laptop is a Sony Z series, but we still have to bring it home to test the solution)
Wifi card: Atheros AR9285
Driver: ath9k
Solution: Deactivate the hardware encryption of the driver. Here’s how:

echo “options ath9k nohwcrypt=1” | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
sudo modprobe -rfv ath9k
sudo modprobe -v ath9k