Corruption

Is incredible how important and urgent it is to stage a true war against corruption in Portugal. Only second to the number of times the issue is in politicians and civil society mouths, with no pragmatic result.

http://www.publico.pt/Política/cravinho-a-corrupcao-politica-esta-a-solta_1430262

Bang on

Simple. Clear. Straight. This editorial from Diario Económico...

http://economico.sapo.pt/noticias/nao-usamos-a-divida-para-criar-riqueza_85435.html

Greece vs Portugal

To keep it short and clear. The main differences between Portugal and Greece are:

- Public accounts transparency. Portugal has not an issue on public accounting credibility. Lets recall that Greece accounting is under fire for suspicious operations that enabled it to hide its mounting debt. That situation is not an issue in Portugal, with public accounting being considered regular by European autorithies;

- Time. Actually, one of the main differences is... time. If Portugal doesn't act NOW (and actually it should have done so years ago) in 5 years time, we will be in a similar situation to Greece. We need to control unproductive public expense and focus on revitalising the economy, choosing and investing in key industries.

http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/portugal-pode-ser-afectado-pela-instabilidade-na-zona-euro_1428965

Breaking dogmas

The turmoil around Catholic Church priests child abuse in the late XX and begin on XXI centuries risks breaking two important dogmas:

1) Priest celibacy. It is now clear that a relevant number of priests can't fight back sexual surges, despite a vow in that direction. For some of those, children turn out to be a natural escape. In the light of these event, it would be reasonable (at least) for the Church to open a reflection on celibacy.

2) The vision of the Church as a good instituition, devoted at doing so and determined to fight evil. The speed with which it closed its ranks (until it was too late to ignore the abuse) and the policy of secrecy instituted for decades (Centuries? Ages?) show too clearly that this is an instituition composed by men, that aren't (naturally) perfect. And raises the question of law enforcement when necessary, putting aside some of the slack that has been given in some cases.

It would be of great advantage for the Catholic Church to act swiftly on this issue, or face delusion from a World where it already struggles to find a place.

http://www.edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/15/church.abuse/index.html

Mulheres

Below, the link to a UN article about violence against women throughout the World. An article that deserves all the attention.

http://bit.ly/dcoaGW

My generation's battle

It is said that all generations have their battles. The one's that help the shape of it, of it's personality, values and character. In the 60's it was freedom, the racial issues. Then the Vietnam and colonial wars, the 25th April's and similar revolutions. In the 80's, the Cold war. In the 90's it was personality expression, setting the world forward, shaping an information culture that would explode later on. But my generation's battle, our war will be the environment.

We are at the edge of knowing what we want for our future. And that's what the environmental war is all about. It is not about saving the whales. It is about saving our health in the future and the one of our children's. Like Al Gore quoted, the way our children and grandchildren will live depends on us - and so depends the way they will look at us, as the ones who were brave, intelligent and resilient enough to find solutions for their future, or as the ones who were too lazy and selfish to trade simple instant sweets for the common future good. To we really want to keep on borrowing resources from the future that our children will have to pay?

That is the battle of my generation. And it is a battle I want to win.

Wellfare

Is it right to keep the retirement age at 65?

The world is changing. Like it always did. Over the last century, for every decade, a person's life-expectancy increased by 2 years. That trend is still in effect today, and is especially true in the western World. As important as that, the productive years in a person's life have climbed at even a faster pace - today a 65 year old is not an old man, it's someone active, that can positively contribute to the World in which he lives for still a significant number of years.

Is it right to take these persons out of the work force at such an early age:
- unjustly burdening their labour years?;
- burdening the shrinking younger work force?;
- condemning them to adapt to a new daily situation (retirement is a shocking process) most don't know how to handle?;
- taking experience and expertise out of the economy?

Everytime I think of myself as an old person I think of an active man. I hope to be healthy enough to keep working, to still take part in orienteering meetings (I will rule the veterans races!!!), to be a volunteer actively participating in shaping what I believe to be a better World. That is my dream (together with grandchildren and sons, a loving wife, quality of life...). I hope I make it.

But, to raise the retirement age, to extend the active years for the general population (and to fullfill my dream), a number of points must be taken into consideration:
- continuous education is and will be necessary to ensure adaptation to an ever changing World. When I am 70 I can't be looking at some new technology the way my grandparents looked at cell phones. Constant adaptation will be needed to ensure competitiveness through new skills learning and competences development;
- health education. The western world's generation that will be 60's and 70's by 2050 must learn how to fight its biggest enemy to health and activity - obesity and 'stillness'. We must all need to learn how to take a better care of ourselves through active choices in our current (and the next 30 years') daily life. Things like choosing to do a bit of exercise every morning or afternoon (even if a 30 minutes stroll, that can make such a big difference in our mood). Choosing the right diet - not depriving ourselves of what we like, of our teeth-sweetners, but to know when to eat them and not make them our regular choices. Things like choosing the stairs for that "2-storyes-up" meeting.
- health systems improvement. It is common sense to think that an older population will need better health care systems to keep active. We need to work on that from now on.
- mobility. In some cities around the World an experiment is taking place - volunteers and policemen are being asked to move through these cities (and remember that in 2050 there will be a lot more persons living in cities than in rural areas) with weights on their legs, dirty glasses, uncomfortable shoes. The aim? To understand how the older persons cope with cities that were (really) not made for them - with traffic lights that don't let them time to cross a street, uneven sidewalks, ...
- how can the family support its older members? Despite what some people might think, I am a family person - I think there is nothing more important than the people we love because they are our parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, wives and husbands. Whatever its composition (divorces, same-sexs relationships, non-religious marriages,... - it doesn't matter, that is just a form, not the important look you should give to family). In a complex World, where distances have become so much different than in the past, in which aging will necessarily be different, it will be important to know how to keep the bonding and support, without the burden.

If we want to collect on the seniors experience, to balance wellfare, to keep a well balanced aging process, these are our challenges. Retirement at 65 will not happen in the nearby future, but we must pave the way now for a successful extension of our working years.