Hi guys,
You’ve got Monga this week – an interesting article that I hope stimulates you to reflect on what the hell it’s all about. I, of course, will ask you why I assigned the article as week 4 reading. What’s the logic of skipping from culture as an individual process to mental representation systems to the faulty assumptions of macro-economics. What’s the message! What “frames” do we bring into play and are they effective for understanding economic and business problems? Heh heh – anyway, I’ll leave something for us to discuss in class.
How’s it going otherwise? Have you got into Everett yet? I like that book. If you get a chance, read it all the way through, the last part is more scientifically interesting and shows a decent “redemption” of the initial premises of Everett’s mission.
In other news, we’ll be moving the lesson to the Istituto di Lingue for module 2 – from 3-4 (I think, I have to check the schedule again). NEXT WEEK, however, we will meet at the agreed upon time on Tuesday. Anyway, I will see you tomorrow!
All the best! Happy reading!

isto é roriz

Não devia ter feito aquilo, mas a insônia pegou na última terça- feira. Nessas horas, a televisão pode ser boa companhia, naquele dia, não foi. Como o sono não chegava, liguei a tevê, passava o programa do Lobão na emetevê. Fazia tempo que eu não assistia o canal. Mas o dia foi duro e eu nem pensei em mudar.

Pensei, deixa aí, é agora que eu durmo. Mas o sono não chegava e, em um dado momento, me senti em uma sessão de tortura. No programa, os convidados falavam sobre a proibição do fumo em espaços nomeados como “ambientes coletivos” no estado de São Paulo. A famigerada lei anti-fumo.

Um show de horror. O apresentador não consegue parar de falar; nenhuma questão é apresentada e tudo é definido em termos de valores últimos como a salvação da humanidade de si mesma. Ninguém fala com ninguém, não se debate a lei, se parte para o ataque pessoal, uns falando em sentidos abstratos como a “preservação da vida”, o “bem comum” e a “liberdade individual”. Uma médica fazia um panegírico sem sentido da necessidade do estado se intrometer na vida dos drogados, uma tristeza.

Com tamanho grau de banalidade, eu pouco aprendi.  O que deve ser feito em termos de saúde pública, o direito de se fazer o que se quiser com o corpo, bem como os prazeres do fumo, não foram discutidos. Ali, era impossível. Mesmo que um ou outro convidado mencionasse uma questão relevante ela não ia adiante. Era ou está comigo ou está semigo. Sem contar que a insuportável palavra balada (para falar de festas) foi pronunciada em todos os blocos. Mas isso é chatice minha.

Fiquei o quanto deu. Quando uma moça bonita, simpática, de boa vontade e valores corretos começou a dizer que no Brasil as pessoas só aprendem no chicote, desliguei a televisão e fui dormir. Vi a moça se tornar a Odete Roitmann diante de mim. Era como uma transformação do circo, uma hora um doce de pessoal, no instante seguinte MONGARRASTAZUMÉDICI.

Lembrei dos tempos mais duros das ditaduras militares que vivemos e pensei: Será possível que eles ainda pensem assim? Acredito que seja inocência, mas me lembrei dos motoristas de taxi que vez ou outra começam uma frase com :”Mas na época dos militares…” e terminam com uma catástrofe qualquer.

Há pouco mais de um mês, o governador de São Paulo José Serra (PSDB) proibiu o fumo em todo e qualquer ambiente coletivo da cidade. A princípio pensei que o governador, morrendo de saudade de Brasília, quis fazer do seu dia-a-dia o mesmo que tinha quando morava no Planalto Central. Trazer Brasília para São Paulo e brincar que já era presidente. Lá as restrições ao fumo já existem a mais tempo e segundo os meus bons leitores, desde a época do governo Cristovam, que com virtude entregou o governo de bandeja para o Roriz.

Só os incautos não sabem que fumar em espaços coletivos é proibido por lei no Distrito Federal desde 2004. Não sei se a imprensa regional teria a mesma simpatia da caneta de Roriz e Maluf (outro paladio da luta anti-fumo) que teve com a caneta de Serra, mas vá lá.

Embora eu não abra mão à crítica a certos princípios da lei, como mudar poster de filme (Channel) e fazer de cidadãos cagüetas em potencial, tenho mais dúvidas que certezas.

Mesmo que guiada por bons princípios, a lei é de um puritanismo cego, como aquele da época de Platão. Ele também em nome da harmonia, da racionalidade e de uma boa convivência civil, pedia que expulssassem os artistas da cidade, acabassem com os laços maritais e se bobear nem dançar rolava (acho que não, ele fala alguma coisa sobre músicas arrebatadoras).

Mas além disso, tenho muitas dúvidas. Como ainda não achei resposta para elas, as posto aqui no blog para saber se algumas destas aproximadamente 400 boas almas que frequentam aqui diariamente podem me responder.

Antes de começar, lembro uma coisa: nunca fumei e nem nunca fui fumante, mas ser fumante passivo, de fato nunca me incomodou. Portanto, não é com o meu conforto individual e nem a garantia à minha saúde que me preocupam, mas a eficácia desta lei no combate de problemas de saúde pública e as suas implicações na vigilância.

São perguntas muito simples:

1) Desde a vigência da lei no DF, alguém sabe qual foi a redução do número de fumantes na capital e quais resultados a lei teve?

2) Este programa de combate ao fumo implica em alguma ação mais efetiva contra a indústria tabagista? Estão sendo movidas ações judiciais em favor das vítimas do fumo? Pensa-se em alguma política de taxação do cigarro? Uma forma de fazer com que o tabaco chegue ao varejo mais caro? O quanto isso pode ser efetivo?

3) Em que medida a lei federal, de espaços segregados não resolve o problema?

4) Em relação às drogas, as polítcas repressivas não funcionam. Por que funcionariam com o tabagismo?

5) Será que esta lei não segue o padrão da política internacional falida de combate as drogas: se pune o consumidor, o varejista, mas nunca o topo da cadeia: o grande produtor e, sobretudo, o financiador do esquema? Pois só o pessoal do Tropa de Elite pensa que a ponta do varejo paga o negócio todo.

6) Antes do Platão (sobretudo o das Leis), a idéia de se restringir a liberdade individual para se garantir certo civismo é pensada. Um esforço em nome da virtude, do comportamento racional. Aqui, trata-se de uma medida de saúde pública que afeta os hábitos das pessoas.  Em que medida o número de leis precisa ser ampliado e em que medida políticas públicas poderiam reduzir o número de leis e criar algo mais eficaz?

7) Por fim, se o governo, além da preocupação com o fumo passivo, manifestou preocupação com o fumante que quer parar de fumar, mas não consegue. Existe algum tipo de politica de tratamento para estas pesoas?

Para alegrar a rapeize mais um vídeo dos Sun City Girls (tabagistas militantes)

I feel comfortable to use the term food security instead of food crisis in our country’s context. Whenever we talk about food crisis, the word starvation comes up in our mind, or more commonly when we mention hunger and then the issue of death from hunger surfaces. Hunger related death, is not an issue in our country as it is relevant to the Sub Saharan countries.

The staple food of our country is rice. When we talk about food grain, it is meant rice. The vast majority of the people of the country eat rice as the a staple food. Wheat, potatoes, corn was also grown in the country however, they seldom has been used as substitute of rice, and that is an issue of food security in our country. Down through the ages, the people of this region had been depended on rice.

Bangladesh never exported rice for the last 50 years. Again, since the end of the British Colonial Period in 1947 , Bangladesh never faced severe food crisis, except in 1974. It used to import food grains traditionally, but it never exceeded 15 % of the total domestic production. There are some exceptions, in the year 1999, due to severe floods huge quantity of food stuff had to be imported. We do not produce much wheat, traditionally we import about 2.5 million tons of wheat each year on an average. Rice is not much available in the international market.

In the year 1974 we had a famine like situation in Bangladesh, there were cases of starvation to death also. This was mostly for political reasons, international politics hindered our import of food grains that year, causing severe suffering of the people.

During our liberation in 1971, we had a population of 75 million people and we used to grow 10 million tons of food grains annually. Last year, we had a bumper harvest and the estimated food grain production was around 30 million tons. Now our population is estimated at 150 million people. Our population has increased two folds and the food production has increased three folds in the last 37 years. The per capita intake has also increased by one and half folds. The annual boro rice production has increased to 18 million. This is just the double of 1986 & 1987. Our aman rice production has also increased in the same ratio. We produce mainly these two varieties of rice. During the year 1998-1999, the production of wheat also increased to the extent, where we had surplus, but unfortunately the wheat production decreased from thereon.

In short we can say that the issue of food crisis is not severe as it has been always projected. The trend is that our annual food production is in the marginal level to meet the demand of the country. Whenever there is any disruption in the normal food production, the matter of food shortage arises leading to food crisis.
Bangladesh is prone to natural calamities like the floods or cyclones. Whenever the country is devastated by cyclone or floods, this hampers the food production. In such a situation, if the governmental policy or mechanism for food imports does not synchronize well, then we suffer from food scarcity.
In the years 1988, 1989 & 1999 we had severe floods which engulfed two third of the total areas of the country, in such a situation, one crop had totally failed, however, the huge quantity and rapid grain imports had tackled the situation.

In November 2007, the southern part of the country had been totally devastated by Cyclone Sidr. This was also responsible for the massive crop failure. During the beginning of the year 2008 we were having a sort of food crisis, for the crop failure secondly for the world wide food grain shortage and also the price spiral. This had a very negative impact. The food grain price had nearly doubled and it was very difficult for the poor people to buy food. People at the lower strata suffered a lot, but there were no reports of starvation related deaths. However, situation changed with the next harvest which was a bumper crop. The prices of food grains had come down now.

The other food related issue in Bangladesh is the availability of fertilizers, seeds, proper irrigation system to the farmers. If any of these components fall short, it too has negative impact in rice production. For example, the newly elected Government after being elected at the end of last year, immediately arranged 50% subsidies for fertilizers, again we had a drought like situation here in Bangladesh during this monsoon, the Government immediately had provided free electricity to the farmers for irrigation purpose. These steps augments the food production in the country.

The other issue is that when the price of food goes up the people whom we term as ultra poor, looses the buying capacity, resulting in less food intake. The problem of malnutrition comes up then.
Similarly, in the northern part of the country, when the harvest is over during the winter season, no work is available in the field. Being unemployed the poor people loose the capacity to buy food, though food is available in the market. This is somewhat an annual phenomenon in the northern region, especially in the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur etc. We term this as ‘monga’ a semi famine like situation. The ultra poor section of the country suffers a lot during that time. Now a days the Government takes much measures to provide work for the people so that they can have some income to buy their food and the situation is improving each year.

The food supply situtation of our country is more or less quite secure. However, we have to be cautious, especially dealing the food production during droughts, floods, cyclones. We have to see that the farmers have easy access ot agricultural amenities always and also they have a fair price of the products. Thus we can maintain a favorable condition in food production in our country.

uhaeuehuaehuahauhea, essa eu não podia deixar de postar, o pessoal do GTO está se superando ultimamente… rs

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Por favor galera, levantem-se para aplaudir!

Porimol Palma, The Daily Star, 08 June 2008

 The government plans cultivation of newly invented rice variety– BRRI Dhan-33 — on 40,000 hectares of land in five northern districts in the coming Aman season to fight Monga (near-famine situation).The new variety can be harvested during the Monga period, creating job opportunities for farm workers.

“BRRI Dhan-33 can be harvested during October 15 – November 15, agricultural labourers will get employment just at a time they find no jobs locally. Marginal farmers, who also traditionally face financial crisis due to Monga, can from now have a harvest at this time,” said Dr MA Mazid, chief of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Regional Station, Rangpur.

Monga is an annual phenomenon in October-November in Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha and Nilphamari districts with marginal farmers and farm workers facing economic crisis and lack of jobs. This forces them either to leave for other districts for employment or puts them in dire distress.

The plan to cultivate the new variety with higher yield aims at creating employment opportunities for 27.5 lakh farm labourers and helping 8.5 lakh farmers in the five Monga-hit districts increase production, agriculture experts said.

Mazid, who also heads the BRRI Dhan-33 and Monga mitigation programme, said after harvesting the new variety, farmers can go for early cultivation of Rabi crops like potato, which will also create employment for farm workers. Early cultivation of potato yields higher output, he noted.

Traditionally, small and marginal farmers are forced to sell their produce in advance to millers or hoarders, while labourers sell labour in advance, Mazid said. These practices add to their miseries during or after Monga.

“We hope that when rice will be available in market, and farm workers get jobs due to early harvest of BRRI Dhan-33, the curse of Monga will be over,” the agriculture expert said.

After harvesting potato and other Rabi crops, farmers can also cultivate other crops including maize and oil seeds sesame seeds to have three crops a year from their land, he added.

“Our target is cultivation of the new variety of rice in 1.07 lakh hectares of not so high and high land owned by marginal farmers in the five Monga-hit districts by 2010.”

After the invention and validation of the variety in 2004-05, it was cultivated on an experimental basis in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture Extension and some NGOs working in the northern region.

Output of this variety per hectare is 4- 4.5 tonnes, which is slightly less than that of BR-11. But considering the short duration of production period, it is much more profitable. This also makes it possible for the land to be three-cropped one, the agriculture expert said.

Bringing 40,000 hectares of land under BRRI Dhan-33 cultivation requires 1,600 tonnes of seed. The authorities have already started registering farmers who can cultivate this variety in the Aman season, and depending on that seeds will be supplied.

Mazid mentioned that BRRI has already collected 501 tonnes of seeds from farmers, BRAC has 80 tonnes and RDRS (Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Services) has 50 tonnes. Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation will supply other seeds if there is any shortage of it.

The government will supply other farm inputs in time so that the marginal farmers do not find it difficult to cultivate this variety.

Desenhado direto no Photoshop com tablet.

¿Quien cóño trabaja en IKEA? .. eso dicen muchos, pues tu te lo cojes, tu lo cargas, tu lo montas (si pudes). En IKEA no trabaja nadie, sólo las cajeras!!!.

Éste Retrasado tampoco se ha podido resistir al magnetismo de la tienda sueca y se ha traido una mesa original a la par que práctica. Con su puta monga que hace las veces de patas de la mesa sosteniendo sobre las rodillas cristal templado dondes se apoya el mejor de los caldos de cebada.

Importante tenerla atada para aprovechar su multifuncionalidad de sus orificios. En IKEA el diseño no está reñido con la funcionalidad.

La mesa viene con varios pares de medias y bragas de distintos colores para adaptarlos a juego con el mobiliario circundante.

Desde que la poseo, tengo cada día más invitados.