Refugees

I will never understand a world that beats up a doctor to prevent him from selling sunglasses in a train station. The same world that pushed that doctor away from home and into selling those glasses, fleeing from war, corruption, misery. The world is far from a Paretto efficiency, and it should be our responsibility to improve it, maximizing every single person's potential and recognizing they are human beings

Is the European Left focusing on the right battle?

Over the past few years i have seen a striking silence over one of the biggest changes the world is seeing.

Over the past decade, the weight of Labour in countries' income has been shrinking considerably, while Capital has been gaining steady ground. And this under a complete silence from the educated european left (not Syriza and Podemos, but the socially educated left that is the backbone of Europe's social status and welfare state) that prefers to focus on Greece's debt (mainly caused by a poor economic management from the country at micro and macro-economical levels).

This is a global trend, let's be honest. The world global population still grows faster than global gdp, and this drives a Supply surplus on the economy, that tends to be compensated by Labour costs. Not even the fact we currently claim we are in a talent economy disguises it - that is true for a short number of professions (IT engineers are typically the best example) and countries (niches in south-east asia, africa...), but not for the whole population that fits in Labour extensive production networks).

But the silence that we all hear on this subject is deafining. Instead of renewing their approach to focus on salary gains indexed to productivity gains, we all tend to focus on less working hours, high pensions or fixed salaries - that are impossible to bear on the long term. And this puts in an extra weight on the global economy, that depends greatly on the economical power of the masses for Consumption.

Enviado do meu iPhone

A great article about poverty

http://observador.pt/opiniao/pobreza-tenham-decencia-nem-sabem-que-estao-falar/

2014 CO2 evolution in EU

The European Union has managed to cut CO2 emissions by -5.4%, in which is a huge hope signal to the world in terms of climate changes limitation. But EU is not alone in the World, and if the USA speech is increasingly moving in the right direction, China and India's (that, together, comprise 37% of world's population) is not. The focus of these tow nations should not be to have a modernization plan whose energy side replicates the XIX and XX centuries ones from EU and the USA, it should be to enhance the existing and short-term coming technologies to speed development in a cleaner, more efficient way.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/07/asia/india-climate-coal-power/index.html

A footballer's view of Brussels

An amazing statement from Vincent Kompany, the captain of the Belgium Football National team - an incredibly straightforward and balanced view of what happened in Paris and Brussels, and why integration respecting cultural diversity is a fundamental value of democracy and development.

"The real wealth of a nation is diversity of cultures", as he quotes a subway graffitti. 

Read the full article in http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/26/sport/paris-attacks-vincent-kompany-football/index.html

P.S- And, sometimes, there are still people who see these new star athletes and dumb people that were only naturally gifted to play a physical sport...

A balanced view on how to thwart ISIS

I never heard of Joe Parini before, but I must say I agree with this article in CNN -  http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/16/opinions/parini-paris-and-history/index.html

Lars Sorensen - Top CEO of 2015, according to HBR

- "I've been part of some of the most stupid mistakes"

- "If we end up curing diabetes, and it destroys a big part of our business, we can be proud, and you can get a job anywhere. We'll have worked on the greatest social service of any pharmaceutical company, and that would be a phenomenal thing"

- "It's to our advantage to have high-quality generic products (...) for countries and populations that can't afford most advanced products"

- "Our philosophy is that corporate social responsibility is nothing but maximizing the value of your company over a long period of time, because in the long term, social and environmental issues become financial issues"

- "When we make decisions, the employees should be part of the journey and should know they're not just filling my pockets. And even though I'm one of the lowest paid people in your whole cohort, I still earn more in a year than a blue-collar worker makes in his lifetime"

- "It is easier to lead when the pay gap between the CEO and workers is smaller."

- "There is nothing more motivating for people than to go to work and save people's lives"