Wednesday 1 August 2012

Sustentabilidade e Cidadania – Um relacionamento insustentável

Olá pessoal, Para brinda-los com mais uma postagem em português decidi tratar de um tema quotidiano e corriqueiro hoje em dia, mas que não e tratado com a devida atenção e respeito que merece. Espero que gostem!

'Sustainability graphic on Performance.gov' photo (c) 2011, photologue_np - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Em tempos onde sustentabilidade e meio ambiente parecem ter virado uma febre nacional, gerando a falsa crença do bom samaritano, e preciso enfatizar o papel da educação e cidadania na construção de metas sustentáveis.

Não quero aqui soar arrogante ou melhor do que ninguém, mas não posso deixar de registrar minha humilde visão de uma realidade que muitas vezes, no dia a dia não e percebida. Temos visto constantemente na mídia pessoas com um belo discurso sobre como podemos ser sustentáveis, sobre como podemos ajudar o meio ambiente, sobre como sermos mais preocupados com o amanha e bla, bla, bla. Mas será que um cidadão comum, como qualquer outro, ou ate mesmo um estudioso do assunto sabe em seu intimo o que significa a palavra sustentabilidade? E o que dizer da palavra cidadania?

Muitas são as definições, mas me atenho aqui as mais simples que encontrei e que explicam meu parecer. De acordo com o dicionário Michaelis Online, Sustentabilidade e: Qualidade de sustentável, o que nos remete a palavra sustentável: que se pode sustentar. Pois bem, parto agora para a palavra Cidadania, descrita no mesmo dicionário como: qualidade de cidadão, o que nos remete a palavra cidadão, descrita como: Morador de uma cidade. Aquele que está no gozo dos direitos civis e políticos de um Estado.

Tendo dito isto, parto agora a explicar: Qual a relação entre sustentabilidade e Cidadania? A resposta esta na primeira palavra que os define: QUALIDADE. Seria algo impossível agirmos com pensamentos e valores sustentáveis se não conseguimos ao menos sustentar um nível de qualidade para sermos cidadãos. No quotidiano fazemos coisas que passa bem longe da tal qualidade: esbarramos no outro e nem sequer pedirmos desculpas, xingamos o próximo no transito sem nem sequer nos preocupar a quem estamos ofendendo, agimos com preconceito contra o negro, o magro, o gordo, o gay, a mulher, os mais velhos e por ai vai a lista de ‘malvadezas’, e aqui falo especificamente do povo brasileiro.

Passamos a refletir então nossas atitudes perante ao próximo: políticos roubam dinheiro com o consenso dos governantes, puxa-se a perna de um colega de trabalho para galgar-se cargos mais altos, o trabalho duro passa a ser para os fracos. Desrespeitam-se o idoso e o cadeirante, o paralitico, o que não tem dinheiro para comprar o almoço. Desigualdades sociais são vistas com descaso pelas autoridades e com superioridade pelos ascendentes sociais. Então pergunto: onde vamos parar? Onde vamos nos sustentar? Que exemplos daremos as nossas futuras gerações se hoje em dia matar os filhos e comum, o que falar dos filhos que matam os pais que não lhe dão um futuro de qualidade? Onde se sustenta o futuro de qualidade que pensamos e cuspimos a torto e a direito? Onde esta a nossa ética nisso tudo?

Ser sustentável não esta apenas no falar em sustentabilidade, no pensar no meio ambiente, quando apenas falamos da boca pra fora. Já dizia o velho ditado: ‘E fácil falar, difícil e fazer’. Por que a ambição e a ganancia, o despeito e arrogância são mais importantes do que a planta que regamos diariamente no quintal de nossa casa? Como podemos ousar dizer que somos sustentáveis ou cidadãos verdes e conscientes se ainda desrespeitamos o mundo e o próximo como faz-se diariamente.

E ambíguo e duro ver os outros falarem em sustentabilidade se nem sequer estamos preparados para sustentar uma convivência quotidiana, se nem sequer podemos qualificar o nosso ser, se não sabemos lhe dar com o direito e dever que temos. Um cidadão completo não e só aquele que fala que sabe fazer, mas sim aquele que faz, que ajuda, que respeita, que sustenta o próximo assim como gostaria de ser sustentado, nos pilares humanos da sociedade civil por direito. Como podemos então falar em qualidade de ser sustentável, de poder sustentar um futuro melhor, se nem mesmo começamos a viver uma melhoria presente, um futuro hoje. Deixo aqui meu manifesto para que posamos ser mais, que posamos praticar mais a tal sustentabilidade que tanto pregamos.


Por hoje e só meus amigos, que possamos refletir um pouco mais antes de falar e pregar algo que não podemos cumprir. Aquele abraço e ate a próxima postagem!

Thursday 28 June 2012

What do you thing about the current system of education?

Hey folks,

After a long time without publishing in English, I would like to bring about a polemic subject: The current system of education. For that reason, and to support my arguments I am also publishing here an enlightening video entitled: " Changing Education Paradigms" from Sir Ken Robinson. He is a influential speaker and author on creativity, innovation and education. Hope you like it and leave your comments bellow. What do you think? lets make this debate go around.


I have been thinking about this subject for a long time, since I was in secondary school to be precise. Now, when I am about to graduate in university and receive my diploma, becoming finally ready for the professional world, a bunch of questions keep bugging me. Is education a valid thing? Is it a guarantee that you will have a job? Or it is just chatter? These are some the doubts I have about the current system of education.

I would like to start off this debate by stating that throughout all these years I have been educated in school and consequently university, I have never doubted the power of a diploma as I do now. Perhaps my concern is just a small fag from all these years seating on a school bench, or just a concern rose from exalted conversations with friends. But, the matter of the fact is: I am not sure if I am correctly prepared for my upcoming professional career. Of course I am not rejecting that without a diploma of higher education you will never climb that far in the career ladder, I am just bashing at another angle.

What I am questioning here is not the value of having graduated from university and leave the school bench for a while. Instead, I am suggesting a drastic reform in the education pattern. I then agree with Sir Ken Robinson in this video, the problem relies on how we have been taught. The method of education needs to be changed, the structure of teaching and educating needs to be fine tuned in order to form a creative professional, capable of anything, no matter in which environment that professional is being put into.

One simple example given in the video is the way that students are organized. The proposed system divide people by ages, what does not necessarily mean that an individual who has 8 or 9 years old have to behave like one in his age. That is why we have gifted children as we also have children with a mental deficit. In this way, age does not signify a line of thought and education compatible with a certain year in school. The individual is much more important in this case. It is imperative to emphasize here the talents that can be developed, no matter what year someone has achieved in school. 

Another element worth noticing here is the words DON’T or CAN’T said by a teacher. Who said that someone cannot perform a certain action? Who established that convention? This constant enforcement is certainly something that can definitely shrink any person’s mind and/or creativity. Additionally, when that individual comes to the end of its secondary school he begins to question if all that was valid; if his basic education was enough to move him to next level.

In conclusion, I need to make clear that I do not regret going to university or been to school in my early ages of life. What I want to bring to the surface is the constant method employed by educators all over the world to educate millions of children. It is a claim for all governments to care more about the future, to care more about what kind of professionals’ society is forming? It is not about being polite or becoming academics, but it is about creativity and personal care. Educators need to let that creativity that many times was just fenced inside a gifted child flourish increasingly more. Governments also must let those educators do that way. This is for sure a subject that is not ending here, many more posts are needed, much more people are necessary to gather to support that change. Therefore, if each of us do not understand that and change it, the future will not be as bright as it could be.


That's it for today people. Hope you have liked it and leave your thoughts for us bellow. Thanks for your support in advance and stay tuned for more on this subject. See you later!

Saturday 9 June 2012

Iniciativas diarias para preservar o meio ambiente

Ola pessoal,

Depois de muito tempo sem postar nada em portugues, resolvi faze-lo hoje. E para isso escolhi um tema atual e que muito preocupa quando se pensa em futuro. O que sera do futuro de minha geracao, os meus filhos ou seus filhos ou netos que sofrerao os efeitos do aquecimento global e efeito estufa. Em epoca de Rio +20, quando muito tem se falado sobre sustentabilidade e meio ambiente acho justo publicar aqui uma lista que produzi, baseado em leituras e bom senso, que consiste em 20 iniciativas que podemos realizar diariamente (e que ja realizo o maximo possivel diariamente) para ajudar na preservacao do nosso planeta. Sao elas:


1.    Comprar produtos de madeira certificada
2.    Escovar os dentes e urinar durante o banho
3.    Manter uma alimentação baseada em frutas e legumes sem agrotóxicos
4.    Plantar uma arvore
5.    Usar mais a bicicleta
6.    Priorizar o uso de transporte publico
7.    Separar o lixo em casa
8.    Comprar objetos que vão demorar para virar lixo
9.    Comprar produtos em embalagem reciclável e fácil de descartar
10. Substituir descartáveis por laváveis
11. Andar mais a pé
12. Diminuir o consumo de açúcar refinado
13. Não usar mais sacolas plásticas
14. Passar a diante objetos que não são mais uteis a você
15. Dispensar o papel de seda nos embrulhos de presentes
16. Não jogar lixo na rua, guarde com você ate encontrar um local adequado para dispensa-lo. E se ver alguém fazendo educa-lo a fazer o correto.
17.  Controlar o desperdício de agua
18.  Busque informações sobre meio ambiente e sustentabilidade
19.  Não deprede o meio ambiente, evitando pisar na grama ou arrancar arvores e flores
20.  Mantenha maior contato com a natureza, realizando trilhas pela mata ou qualquer outra atividade do gênero


Com estas pequenas ações quotidianas acredito que poderemos cooperar para um futuro melhor e mais sustentavel para nossas geracoes futuras. E espero que de fato nossas autoridades possam cada vez mais investir em iniciativas ambientais duraveis, da qual poderemos coletar os frutos num futuro breve. Quero lembrar tambem que ha alguns meses atras fiz 2 postagens aqui, em ingles, sobre o tema meio ambiente e cidadania, as quais recomendo a re-leitura. Os titulos sao:
The Environment Needs You
Sustainability: a Thought for the Future

Espero que tenham curtido e que realmente pratiquem o que esta escrito aqui. Por hoje e so e ate a proxima.

Friday 8 June 2012

Top 10 most viewed posts

Hey folks,

I know I have to say sorry to you guys for the long time without publishing anything here, but things have been so busy for me that I did not find the appropriate time to do it. However, now I would like to freeze posting for a bit to let you know the most visited posts so far. In that way I hope you can re visit those publications meanwhile I prepare one more exiting post to you guys.
So here are my top 10 publication titles for you to go and look for them:

  1. Innovating Consumption Thinking 
  2. Branding in the World of Digital
  3. Social Networks in the Reach of the Universe
  4. Sustainability: A Thought for the Future
  5. Your Say!
  6. The Environment Needs You
  7. Technology in the Service of Information
  8. Interesting Questions
  9. 'Who Moved My Cheese' Review
  10. 'In Time' Review
Well... that is it for today, hope you enjoy your search!

See you soon and take care!

Thursday 15 March 2012

Branding in the world of digital

Hey folks, In order to celebrate the one year birthday of this blog, I have selected a video to discuss a theme that have not been mentioned before. And also, took the opportunity to call to our minds previous publications to make it easier for me and for you to understand the concept and ideas of this blog. Hope you like it.

After one year of making this blog, I am kind of connecting the dots I have left behind. Much has been said about technology, digital media, innovation, creativity and sharing, but one theme seems to have been left out: Advertising and branding. But why was that? It seems to me that advertising is too much incorporated in our lives and online activity that we do not notice how it affects the way we use technology. In this enlightening video posted bellow, it is mentioned the future of brands and marketing activities in the world of digital and the Internet. The integration between the digital world and consumers, stated in the beginning of this video, make me recall the last publication here about collaborative consumption.

There certainly is a convergence between brands and consumers through the use of technology, shifting the idea of communicating to the mass, to the idea of communicating with the mass. It is also indeed true that digital technologies are becoming integrated and growing stronger, but I do not think that brands should be completely dissolved into these advancements. I do not believe that the future of brands and advertising is digital. Although we should consider its main advantages, such as high reach and fast pace movement, but there are offline types of advertising that would work better.

Returning to the point made when discussing collaborative consumption, traditional forms of social engagement should not be disregarded completely. Outdoor advertisements and mainstream media strategies, such as television or cinema, would reach the same amount of people, but in a different way. However, if brands are now engaging with consumers and talking with them, how above the line activities can do this? The answer to this is simple: be innovative.

Outdoor advertisements made by big car companies, where a guerrilla activity was proposed, by taking a car out, put it in the middle of a busy street and invite people to test it, feel the smell, engage with the brand is a good example of those novel ways I mentioned. The seeking for authenticity and balance in the way we consume, as said before, must be applied to branding. We should not exclude offline activities, but just combine both for better results.

The facts and figures given about out of home consumption online and offline, does not translate consumer feelings. The loosing of human senses is being stressed here. If digital and traditional media are combined, the 13% growth in revenue for online out of home actions plus the 2% of offline action would be transformed in a percentage even higher. Yet, it is just a question of creativity, of thinking ahead of the game and to put real efforts into real relations, human relations.

Therefore if Brands and consumers have now more opportunities to connect, advertisers then should think correctly on how to engage without forgetting. The questions are convergence not only of technologies and digital platforms, but also of traditional media put together with digital technologies, making audiences connect even more, engage even more. Innovation is a key also to change participation.

That is is it for today, wishing a life long for this blog and that you can engage more! See you next time guys, take care!

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Innovating consumption thinking

Hey everyone,

Here is one more interesting reflection on this interesting video about collaborative consumption. Hope you like it, and think about it!




Linking back to some of the key ideas of this blog, and to the main theme of innovation, I found this video very enlightening. In a time of crisis and social networking, when the Y generation have taken over the world of technology, it is worthy thinking of consumption.

It is very intriguing to notice that once upon a time consumption was pretty much related to what we consume, as suggested by Rachel Bostman in the video. Even more shocking is to notice that it is true, if we think of a time where we consumed because we used to give value to the product, to the material, to the fabric, to the colours. In the capitalist world, consumption has gone far away from the idea of what we consume to why we consume and how we consume. I suppose that there are different types of consumption: the ones who consume because they want to, is a desire (present in all other kinds of consumerism); a minority, I would say, consume because they are used to it; and the other half of people today consume just to show off.

The fact that you have a Porsche, a Mercedes Benz or a Ferrari, the fact that you wear Armani, Gucci or Lacoste or that a woman has a Prada bag, certainly makes a lot of impression and make others think that you are rich. However, in the connected world, in the digital era the feeling must change, the perception must be focused on how we consume. Amazon and eBay has made the world of the Internet a millions business of consumption and sharing as put forward in this video.

Regardless of why you consume, I would say that the desire element is always present on the top of you head, only satisfied when you purchase that brand or product. Bringing it down to the world of the Internet and collaborative consumption, as mentioned throughout the video, novel ways of bringing that perception out of the desire are becoming popular. In the digital era where everything is related to the “I” theme, such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, the idea of sharing becomes of interest and needs to be further explored. The social media revolution I mentioned in an early publication on this blog comes back in the film, when Bostman explains what she believes are the four steps of that revolution, which for the purpose of her explanation she names Digital sharing evolution.

When the digital natives group moved from early forms of technology such as email, to Facebook and then the sharing of music and other interesting contents embedded within it, we then became interested to know more, to go further and explore other ways of sharing that might push forward the barrier of technologies and its features. The idea here is not just to be different and innovate, but to return to traditional forms of contact, as treated in the clip, but I would say that is not only because of we returned to that old school technique of sharing, but because we seek something new, we seek authenticity.

We are reaching a time in society’s attitude and mood when we are in a way becoming plastics, inanimate, mechanized as the Fordist industrial world was centuries ago. But on the other hands, the new generation are aware of this and are desperately hunting for new forms of being, new desires, authentic thinking. That authenticity then may be found in the nature of the past, in the nature of meeting the farmer who made the fresh milk, who produced the cheese and bread we are going to buy. The connection between digital and real then becomes necessary, becomes a need, not only that desire.

In the world of technology when everything is about self reflecting and turning to the inner personnel, it is just the correct time to wake up and say “there is also a world outside”. Yes, there is room for real connection, for authentic conversation rather than just chat with friends on Facebook and sharing content. It is good and necessary to have the technology, but it is also possible to link, the real and unreal, the authentic and the plastic.

Websites like eBay, amazon and others are just reinforcing some kind of consumption that we do not want anymore, the idea of a plastic and cold consumption where we do not touch things, we do not feel, we do not smell, human senses are being disposed off. In a world of global recession and global warming, we need a global understanding of how to build authentic lines of trust and relationships with goods and people, with environmental concern and health, to then be able to buy something because we capture the real need to it, the real objectification and necessity; the real self and the real desire.

In conclusion, the redefining of more, put by Bostman, is the major proposal here, is something that will certainly change the future by connecting past generations with future generations, the hard copies with digital copies to finally making together a real copy digitally made by social relations. The real future should indeed be a collaborative consumption future, where we think about how we can contribute to this world (remembering here the environmental and sustainability posts I recently did), to the society, not just thinking of consumption as a way to show off our material desire for goods, but to really care of what is important to consume, realize that together we can do, with the aid of digital, a brighter future.

That is it for today folks, sorry for the deep and long analyze here, but I just got a bit a excited about the topic. Hope you enjoyed and see you next time!

Thursday 16 February 2012

Your say!

Hey Folks,

This blog is just a month far from completing its 1 year birthday, and therefore I think this is the right moment for you to have your opinion and views on it helping me to improve it even more. Some time ago I have already published here some interesting questions for you to answer, but it seems that in that time nobody was really willing to give me any feedback, but this time considering that this blog has already improved its content and style of publication, I hope you can help me.

I am not listing any questions this time, I just want you, as a reader and perhaps a blogger as well have your say on this by telling me what is your expectations on this blog? what would you like to see here? I have acknowledged that you have been visiting a lot this blog, which is good and it is because you may have been attracted to a particular topic or point of view. For this reason I think you should tell me now why you come here and what can drag you to flip through the pages more frequently.

To finish this boring talk (it's important though) I would like to say that if you have a blog and have something to say about my blog, just leave your comments bellow and I will give you this unique chance to advertise your blog here, by pasting its link in the end of your comments. Deal? I hope so, and also wish that everyone visiting this blog from now on leave your comments and a feedback right bellow this post.

Thank you very much, take care and I will see you later!

Thursday 9 February 2012

Sustainability: a thought for the future

Hi Folks, Following the kind of same idea of my previous post on how to protect the environment, I found a video which kind of summarize the main points I was trying to say. I know it may sound annoying and boring for you to read and see this kind of video, but if you do not care about this, your sons may not be able to see the planet as you saw it when you were born, or perhaps will not be able to live as long as you did or you grand parents did. Take it serious, and have a look at this short video, leaving your comments after, lets share our thoughts and concerns. It helps you to understand the key issues around the theme sustainability and environment.

As I have already said, its quite self-explanatory, so I will skip my comments for today to allow you to concentrate on this video and in the words that can change the future of the planet!

Think about it and leave your thoughts by commenting bellow. See you next time and take care!

Friday 3 February 2012

The environment needs you!

Hey folks,

Welcome back to my blog if you have been away for a while. After a long holiday being away from my blog, I am coming back for one more posting that can help you to reflect on an issue that concerns all of us, citizens of the world. Hope you like it and leave me your comments bellow.




Within the past decades we have seen human beings turning into beasts regarding the environment. Trees have been cut down, rubbish thrown over seas, streets, gardens, and other public spaces. An ever-increasing amount of cars being sold encouraging carbon emission, factories burning hazardous gases to the environment and so on. There is no preoccupation or whatsoever with the future of the world, with the place that we are leaving to our children and post generations.

The consequences for this have been experienced nowadays, with the global warming changing the world’s climate forever. The polar crops are slowly melting down, perhaps in the same way as our brain activity to find a way out of it. Healthy and environmental authorities have already warned the population years ago, but we seem to have not listened to a single word of what they said. People seem to ignore the facts and figures, and just keep busy with their own lives. But how can we call this life if it has been draining down because of our bad habits?

The future of our children can be even worse if nothing is changed, if nobody listens to the fact presented in the news everyday regarding our own protection. An action must be done now to save the later; following the principles established by the old say ‘better sooner than later’. We must do something now, but how? What? It does not need to be big actions as becoming scientists to close the enormous hole in the atmosphere. Little actions, inserted within our daily life can make the future a better place, can make the world change and stand still for the sons of our sons, and the days after our days.

The video on the top of this text gives you and me a well presented, simple but beautiful advice on how we can make that change. Planting a tree per day, water the plants, contribute to recycling by separating our rubbish will make indeed a huge contribution. Everyone can help; it is like Tesco’s motto “Every little helps”. If each of us can contribute daily to protect our own living environment, our future can have a future. Our planet will improve; will get healed off of all the wounds we have been causing.

Do your part, while I am doing mine. Do not buy plastic bags from supermarkets; bring your own paper or cotton bag. Do not throw your rubbish away around public spaces, which is why rubbish bins exist. Find the nearest bin to you and do what you have to do, or just carry the rubbish with you until you find a proper place to it. One simple and lovely action as the one in the video can make you and I feel better, allowing the planet to give it back, to thank us. Lets always bear in mind that what we give is what we receive. Thank you!

That is it for today, hope you can think about it, see you next time and take care!