Just a sum up of my holidays so far...
films, internet, shopping, books, tv...it is raining and cold so there is nothing else we could do. I could easily trade all that for just a couple of days on the beach :-)
BTW, just wanna show my "appreciation" for FB posts from friends saying they are heading to ipanema or whatever beach is closer to them.
In the meanwhile Sir Arthur C. Doyle, Keith Richards autobiography and few others are my best companion. And lil' bit of JD of course.
Cheers!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
sneaking around
So here we are in Dublin to celebrate another xmas. Yes, xmas here is on the 25th. So while my sister-in-law Ingrid M. is cooking something nice for us I've just came here to say "hi" and check drunk messages from friends from Brazil,lol.
2012 is going to be the year of the dragon and we can expect a lot of cool stuff. But before it I will make sure I enjoy my so well-deserved 10 days off. So raise ur glass and sláinte!
Beijos e hugs
AJ
Friday, December 16, 2011
Sligo can be hot :-P
When we think we've seen it all...wait a min.
If you wanna have a clue of how is the place where I' ve been living for the past 3 years there is nobody like Aine Chambers to show us, so here we go:
http://www.sligozone.net/ presented by Aine Chambers.
and that is the place where I lived for one and half year: http://www.sligozone.net/Enniscrone.htm
and here is one of my favorite places for surfing/dining/visiting: http://www.sligozone.net/Strandhill.htm
These are also presented by Aine, so you can actually kill two birds with a stone, if you know what I mean, lol
If you wanna have a clue of how is the place where I' ve been living for the past 3 years there is nobody like Aine Chambers to show us, so here we go:
http://www.sligozone.net/ presented by Aine Chambers.
and that is the place where I lived for one and half year: http://www.sligozone.net/Enniscrone.htm
and here is one of my favorite places for surfing/dining/visiting: http://www.sligozone.net/Strandhill.htm
These are also presented by Aine, so you can actually kill two birds with a stone, if you know what I mean, lol
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Belo Monte is our business
Here we go for another political post. This time I am going to raise a topic that is on the news at the moment in Brazil and surely you can find a lot of information out there. You will need to be lucky in order to find good information in English as most of it is in Portuguese, though, as this is clearly a Brazilian business. Many information is also unrealiable, so my advice is to research as much as you can.
Sociologically, historically and economically speaking, my country is a bit complicated. Sociologically, because although we are on the top 10 of the largest economies in the list of countries with most billionaires in the world we are also among the most socially unequal in the planet. Historically, because we are a nation that has a mixing of cultures including the native indigenous people (0.3% of the total population).
The current discussion is on the proposed hydroelectric dam called Belo Monte. On one side we have some environmentalists against the dam claiming that the environmental impact is huge. On the other side we have some specialists and the government stating that the dam is necessary and the benefits will be huge. Also, the project was rewritten many times and now it is smaller than the first one.
The porposal of this post is to inform whoever feels like need more information about it. I've read texts from both sides: green party, specialists including physicists, cientists, historians and politicians. I've also debated with people like me or like you that are interested in politics or just curious about it. I am still learning with it but it seems that the more I read, the more arguments I have for defending the project.
One thing that pisses me off is to see someone like J. Cameron, director of Avatar and many other blockbusters, going to Brazil to protest with the indigenous against the dam. What does this guy know about Brazil and its necessities? I guess he has much more to concern about his own country which is the second nation on top ten emmiters of GHGs ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol)
Let me explain this better. There is a video that became viral last month from the main tv channel in Brazil. This video shows some of the Brazilian famous artists explaining why they are against the dam. They obviouslly don't know nothing or very few about it. We can see some discrepancies on what they say. They say that the indigenous people will be affected. Well, I guess the 300 to 500 indigenous(numbers vary depending on the sources) that lives in those areas won't have any problems specially because the dam is going to be at 1300km from the Xingu river! This is going to be a renewable and clean source of energy. In other words, all the water that goes through the dam comes out the same way. And the water keeps going on and on and on...
So, let's see the numbers:
- The Belo Monte dam will be also the second largest in Brazil and the third largest in the world.
- The generated energy can be up to 11.000 MW and it will be enough to bring eletricity to over 20 million people! That is 10% of the Brazilian population. Besides that this project is being discussed for over 3 decades and it didn't happen before because the government just simply couldn't afford it.
- The Amazon forest area is 5.500.000 km2, the area of the current Belo Monte dam project is 516km2 or 0,01% of the total of the Amazon area! By the way, this project was reduced in size along the years mostly to reduce the impact to its minimal damage possible
Brazil does have a big problem with energy distribution and such a project will benefit millions of people directly and indirectly.
This is a topic that I would like to share with you my dear reader and ask you to participate, regardless if you are against or in favour. My question is: what other alternative would we have? We all know that solar and wind power are fine for small countries like Ireland, but when it comes to a population like Brazil, it turns out that it is economically and geographically not a good idea. Even Patrick Moore, one of the early members of Greenpeace supports the hydroelectrics.
The references below are all in Portuguese. Note that I include all types of arguments: in favour and against so you can judge them by yourself.
a fail attempt of "Avatar 2" that j. cameron was trying to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjfLyGTXSYo&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAAdXrdXSpM (the controversial video by Globo TV artists)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VjZAYTlOs&feature=related
http://www.institutojoaogoulart.org.br/video.php?id=82&back=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feG2ipL_pTg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhYd48tQav4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gVC_Y9drhGo
http://www.funai.gov.br/quem/legislacao/indios_na_constitui.htm
http://www.observadorpolitico.org.br/observador-tv/alguns-numeros-sobre-belo-monte/
http://blogs.estadao.com.br/dener-giovanini/um-belo-monte-de-verdades/
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usina_Hidrel%C3%A9trica_de_Belo_Monte
http://www.blogbelomonte.com.br/usina-belo-monte/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kDbMExh1OSQ
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull481/htmls/nuclear_rethink.html
Sociologically, historically and economically speaking, my country is a bit complicated. Sociologically, because although we are on the top 10 of the largest economies in the list of countries with most billionaires in the world we are also among the most socially unequal in the planet. Historically, because we are a nation that has a mixing of cultures including the native indigenous people (0.3% of the total population).
The current discussion is on the proposed hydroelectric dam called Belo Monte. On one side we have some environmentalists against the dam claiming that the environmental impact is huge. On the other side we have some specialists and the government stating that the dam is necessary and the benefits will be huge. Also, the project was rewritten many times and now it is smaller than the first one.
The porposal of this post is to inform whoever feels like need more information about it. I've read texts from both sides: green party, specialists including physicists, cientists, historians and politicians. I've also debated with people like me or like you that are interested in politics or just curious about it. I am still learning with it but it seems that the more I read, the more arguments I have for defending the project.
One thing that pisses me off is to see someone like J. Cameron, director of Avatar and many other blockbusters, going to Brazil to protest with the indigenous against the dam. What does this guy know about Brazil and its necessities? I guess he has much more to concern about his own country which is the second nation on top ten emmiters of GHGs ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol)
Let me explain this better. There is a video that became viral last month from the main tv channel in Brazil. This video shows some of the Brazilian famous artists explaining why they are against the dam. They obviouslly don't know nothing or very few about it. We can see some discrepancies on what they say. They say that the indigenous people will be affected. Well, I guess the 300 to 500 indigenous(numbers vary depending on the sources) that lives in those areas won't have any problems specially because the dam is going to be at 1300km from the Xingu river! This is going to be a renewable and clean source of energy. In other words, all the water that goes through the dam comes out the same way. And the water keeps going on and on and on...
So, let's see the numbers:
- The Belo Monte dam will be also the second largest in Brazil and the third largest in the world.
- The generated energy can be up to 11.000 MW and it will be enough to bring eletricity to over 20 million people! That is 10% of the Brazilian population. Besides that this project is being discussed for over 3 decades and it didn't happen before because the government just simply couldn't afford it.
- The Amazon forest area is 5.500.000 km2, the area of the current Belo Monte dam project is 516km2 or 0,01% of the total of the Amazon area! By the way, this project was reduced in size along the years mostly to reduce the impact to its minimal damage possible
Brazil does have a big problem with energy distribution and such a project will benefit millions of people directly and indirectly.
This is a topic that I would like to share with you my dear reader and ask you to participate, regardless if you are against or in favour. My question is: what other alternative would we have? We all know that solar and wind power are fine for small countries like Ireland, but when it comes to a population like Brazil, it turns out that it is economically and geographically not a good idea. Even Patrick Moore, one of the early members of Greenpeace supports the hydroelectrics.
The references below are all in Portuguese. Note that I include all types of arguments: in favour and against so you can judge them by yourself.
a fail attempt of "Avatar 2" that j. cameron was trying to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjfLyGTXSYo&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAAdXrdXSpM (the controversial video by Globo TV artists)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VjZAYTlOs&feature=related
http://www.institutojoaogoulart.org.br/video.php?id=82&back=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feG2ipL_pTg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhYd48tQav4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gVC_Y9drhGo
http://www.funai.gov.br/quem/
http://www.observadorpolitico.
http://blogs.estadao.com.br/
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usina_Hidrel%C3%A9trica_de_Belo_Monte
http://www.blogbelomonte.com.br/usina-belo-monte/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kDbMExh1OSQ
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull481/htmls/nuclear_rethink.html
Thursday, December 1, 2011
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