Birds on the Wires

Robert Gupta: Música é remédio, música é sanidade

Robert Gupta, violinista Orquestra Filarmônica de Los Angeles, fala sobre a aula que ele deu uma vez a um músico brilhante e esquizofrênico -e o que ele aprendeu. Chamado ao palco mais tarde, Gupta toca sua transcrição do prelúdio da Suite No.1 para Violoncelo de Bach

So I just started playing. And I played the first movement of the Beethoven concerto. And as I played I understood that there was a profound change occuring in Nathaniel's eyes. It was as if he was in the grip of some invisible pharmaceutical, a chemical reaction, for which my playing the music was its catalyst. And Nathaniel's manic rage was transformed into understanding, a quiet curiosity and grace.

Link para trailer do filme que ele comenta sobre a história de Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Junior e Steve Lopez: O solista

Escravidão Contemporânea

My biggest challenge is society. It is you and me. My biggest challenge is your blocks to accept these victims as our own. It is very fashionable to talk about human trafficking, in this A-C hall. It is very nice for discussion, discourse, making films and everything. But it is not nice to give them employment in our factories, our companies. It is not nice for our children to study with their children. Many times when I talk to people I keep telling them one thing: don’t tell me hundred ways how you can not respond to this problem. Can you ply your mind for that one way that you can respond to the problem? Can you break your culture of silence? Can you speak to at least two persons about this story? Tell them this story. Convince them to tell the story to another two persons. I’m asking you to help them, accept as human beings, not as philanthropy, not as charity, but as human beings who deserve all our support. I’m asking you this because no child, no human being, deserves what these children have gone through

Organização de Sunitha Krishnan: PRAJWALA

Vou me permitir recortar, praticamente picotar o texto do Study Guide do UFRGSMUN 2009 – Comission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice – Felipe H. da Jornada, Luciana Ghiggi, Thiago Borne, Hander da Costa Leal e João Marcelo Cornetet

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND TRANSNATIONAL AND ORGANIZED CRIME:

In Europe, the fall of the Berlin wall and the social gap resulting from the imminent economic disorder of the unstable USSR brought about an escalation of human trafficking between Southern Eastern European countries and the former Soviet republics.

During the Yugoslav War, women were trafficked to sexual exploitation not only within the Balkans but also outside them, and this region became a major source of women for other European countries. By that time, the increasing demand for cheap labor and sexual services in Western Europe stimulated human trafficking, and in response, Human Rights groups pushed for new laws.

During the 1980s and the 1990s, South East Asia joined the routes of trafficking in persons, intensifying the internalization of this illegal activity. It was and still remains an extremely common practice in countries such as the Philippines and Thailand, where women and children are especially vulnerable as major sources of earnings in the markets for prostitution and sex tourism.

Economic stagnation, poverty and civil conflicts in Latin America forced the population to look employment and better conditions abroad, giving the subcontinent the highest rates of emigration in the world.

The Brazilian Federal Police estimates that 250,000 children are exploited for prostitution, although NGOs put the number as high as 500,000 (USDOS, 2008).

Although trafficking in human beings is now perceived by international community as a threat to global security, accurate data on the extent of the trafficking does not exist (GOODEY, 2008). The United Nations has developed a range of global estimates on the extent of human trafficking, In addition NGO and IGO reports, together with the media and researchers, present the richest sources of information on the nature of trafficking, and in particular on victims’ experiences (GOODEY, 2008). However, the international community still faces a lack of quantitative information or understanding, weak methods to reach and gather information, data gaps, and numerical discrepancies regarding the scope and development of human trafficking around the world: human trafficking remains an underreported crime, and the majority of cases are not discovered (WILSON & DALTON, 2008; LACZKO & GRAMEGNA, 2003). Available information accounts that 600,000 to 820,000 people are victims of cross-border trafficking every year (USDOS, 2005), or 2 to 4 million if victims of internal trafficking are included; and data from International Labor Office point that this market moves around $31.6 billion annually (ILO 2005; BELSER, 2005)

Certains situations make the emergence and existence of criminal groups quite natural, especially in areas with power vacuum and transitioning economies.

The United Nations Convention agains Transnational Organized Crime adopted in 2000 is the main international instrument to counter organized crime.

Trafficking [is not] a problem of forced migration, but rather of economic desperation

In Brazil, since the issue was put in the government agenda, a National Policy on Trafficking in Persons was set in January 2006 and a National Plan of Action for 2008-2010 entered into force in January 200. The Plan, launched in cooperation with international organisms, aims to develop mechanisms to prevent and tackle human trafficking, to prosecute traffickers and to protect victims.

Superávit Cognitvo e Informação

I call it cognitive surplus. And it represents the ability of the world’s population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects.

Clay Shirky analisa o "superávit cognitivo" -- o trabalho online compartilhado que realizamos com os nossos ciclos cerebrais extras. Enquanto estamos ocupados editando a Wikipedia, postando informações no Ushahidi (sim, e até mesmo repassando fotos engraçadinhas de gatos...), estamos construindo um mundo melhor e mais cooperativo

Um dos motivos para fazer este blog é uma necessidade minha de compartilhar informações, as quais devem vir por todos os lados. Não podemos nos prender a dogmatismos. O conhecimento adquirido através de uma base sólida de informações deve servir para a melhor construção de decisões, a todos os níveis e em todos os campos.

A internet nos propicia um acesso a diversas redes de informações e em quantidade absurda. O Ushahidi demonstra como as redes e a circulação de dados podem criar estruturas de divulgação e construir bases para tomada de decisões.

O professor Plauto Faraco de Azevedo - do qual tive o prazer de ser aluno e para quem o Rodrigo fez uma linda dedicatória ao falar sobre a qualidade das informações (aqui) - em seu Ecocivilização nos diz que Para que se possa buscar a permanência da vida, é indispensável compreender a situação presente em seu conjunto, de modo a poder-se, rapidamente, enfrentá-la. Faz-se necessária a utilização de um pensamento complexo, conforme o ensinamento de Edgar Morin: “A palavra complexus, que significa tecer junto, invoca um pensamento que considera o que é tecido em conjunto e reúne os saberes separados”. Apesar do caráter ineludivelmente conjunto do conhecimento, somos educados de modo a compartimentar os seus diferentes aspectos, deixando de integrá-los no todo de que fazem parte. Assim como quando trata da abordagem do Direito: não se pode considerar a norma jurídica isoladamente, sendo necessário buscar sua conexão com seu fim, com seu conteúdo ético-jurídico e com sua repercussão social, com as condições históricas em que surge com seu desenvolvimento em nossa época. Donde ser indispensável ligar vários aspectos: o histórico, o sociológico e o sistemático, ou, como dizia o jovem Savigny, o filosófico. Só assim, com está visão ampla, pode a Ciência jurídica desempenhar de modo satisfatório a tarefa social que lhe incumbe.

O perigo da história única

Informação serve para nos livrarmos da História única. Só a partir de diversas fontes de informação, de dados de diversas áreas de conhecimento é possível a formação de uma base sólida de conhecimento e de argumentação sobre tal conhecimento

As nossas vidas, as nossas culturas, são compostas por muitas histórias sobrepostas. A romancista Chimamanda Adichie conta a história de como descobriu a sua voz cultural - e adverte que se ouvirmos apenas uma história sobre outra pessoa ou país, arriscamos um desentendimento crítico.