Dear students,
This month, I'm going to propose a more intense participation on the blog.
I've selected some topics on Politics, Culture and Technology to suit all tastes and hope to have your lively participation. Here they are:
1) SCO Summit. Do you know what SCO stands for? If not, go to the following video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m5pPXXT68g&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWs4aX7Efs&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYlo6GM0vFs&feature=channel
Also, go to WIKIPEDIA to be well-informed about SCO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation
Then, you can post your comments on the following point:
Do you think these international organizations (SCO, BRIC, to name some) can help improve regional and international trade and security? Why?
2) Endangered Cultures:
This video shows some interesting points on endangered cultures. Watch it and point out which aspects you agree or not with:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/por_br/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
3) Twitter, Facebook - new technologies:
This is a very interesting presentation by Clay Shirky on the new technology trends. At the end of the presentation, he asks a question that you can try to answer:
How can we make best use of this media even changing the way we've always done it?
http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html
Have fun and mind work with English!
Hope to see your post here!
Flávia
http://www.creativeenglishlearning.com.br/
I am Rogério Araújo, lawyer of Lotti and Araújo Law Firm, and I saw the video on Technology.
ResponderExcluirI totally agree with the idea of technology becoming more social, considering several environments that we have nowadays at our disposal, i.e., Internet, mobile phones, computers, and so on.
With these tools, we have a signifigant speed in communication, crossing the network, and the most important thing is to create the active communicator's voice for individuals, who become producers of information.
( Due to loads of work, I'm posting Rogerio's answer. So I invite you all to comment on his answer. Flávia)
This post is from Lígia Capriotti (Cunningham Co.), related to the 1st topic on BRIC and other International Trade Organizations.
ResponderExcluirHope you can comment on all the posts. Take this chance to practice English.
These international organizations are focusing their discussion on global economic crisis, terrorism, mutual security, new currency and signing cooperation agreements. The most developed and richest countries are considering this moment as the right one to invest in the emerging giants, as Brazil.
In the long term, it could help regional and international trade. We have to take into account some positive points about Brazil, such as its variety of products that could be exported. By increasing the export, it is possible to make some agreements focusing on other countries’ goods that could be imported, if necessary, at a reduced taxation. The idea of a new currency - a common currency to the cooperation countries - could be a way to diminish this taxation, thus promoting a market opening.
The cooperation between countries, and by its means would create more jobs in order to improve the economic situation, by supplying recovery, mainly in time of crisis. Moreover, technology, scientific researches, energy, and the defense area would be stronger with the knowledge of the most developed countries in each area.
As a complement to all the cooperation is the exchange of cultures. With well-intentioned projects and the right agreements, the improvement will occur, even in the long-term.
Este comentário foi removido pelo autor.
ResponderExcluir(Now I'm posting engineer Mário Soares 's(Energyworks) writing piece on the 3rd video: New Tchnologies. He raises an interesting issue by criticising red tape and offering a solution. Read it carefully and add your comment to that!
ResponderExcluirOne of the most importat advantages of Internet and digitalized media is its high capability of making some tasks easier and svaing time. On the other hand, besides all of the advantages of this kind of media and the increase of the number of computer users, we still have a high time consumption issue called bureacracy, mainly when you talk about getting legal documents.
So, I think that one of the best manners to simplify this documents traffic and reduce the bureaucracy for getting them is to create a huge data bank which would contain all information about each citizen. All of this information could be stored in a simple ID card that every person could use to deal with situations where legal information was required.
Therefore, the development of different kinds of communication media and information storage can be used to improve our life quality, not only referred to entertainment and direct communication, but also to simplify some trivial human activities, creating tools to save time and money, thus reducing bureaucracy.
Este comentário foi removido pelo autor.
ResponderExcluirThis is Lígia's comment on Mário's message.
ResponderExcluirI agree that we are stuck in bureaucracy, as for example, when we ask for credit approval from a bank. Despite their advertising of great services, they still hamper the flow of the deal, even for big corporations.
(I'm posting André Teixeira's - Energyworks Co. - very good writing piece on the video Endangered Cultures by Wad Davis - National Geographis expert. Hope you have a little time to read it, 'cause André defedend his opinion very well contrary to Davis's point of view. Who do you agree with? Why?)
ResponderExcluirEndangered Cultures
Wade Davis talks about a great dilemma - how to deal with the endangered cultures, how to protect them from the contamination of our civilized world. It is a rich speech, very well based on his traveling life through very different lands and cultures.
I agree with the end idea that it is very important to have a multicultural world and that we do not have the right to deliberately destroy someone’s culture or even impose a different culture as the best one to anyone. I also agree that we should be humble to accept the idea that our culture is not necessary better than the other ones, and, as a result, we also have things to learn with these other cultures.
However, there are some aspects I totally disagree with that teased me to comment on.
Fist off all, what is a culture? People communities in search for survival and better life quality, who develop a way of life involving: beliefs, knowledge, social rules, language, art, religion, etc. This conjunction of factors that works to allow this specific group of people to live their life is these people’s culture. That is why it is so important for them. It is the way of life that this group learned, shared with their neighbors, and needed to live in their environment.
In this way, the extinction of one culture means a great sensation of loss. The loss of a portion of a thing what Wade calls the etnosphere. Values and knowledge that were important for the life of some people that live on Earth, and so, part of our world. Facing this, he is concerned about the future of these people and fears that the world becomes boring and poor with a completely unified culture.
But, in this point of view there is a great mistake.
An important aspect about the cultures is how a culture is formed. It is not a static thing, but a very dynamic process. In an analysis of a culture, we have a tendency to look at it as a photo, something static in time. It is not true. Any culture is a result of a historic transformation process. This is a live process that never ends.
A lot of aspects move on the process of a cultural transformation: the development of new technologies, changes in the environment, new religious concepts, new ideas and new philosophical aspects. Although part of these cultural transformations is guided by internal insights, a great part of it comes from external motivations, mainly as a result of contact with other cultures. These contacts influence both sides and almost always result in changes in both of the original cultures.
Therefore, the transformation by the influence of other cultures is a very important aspect of the evolution of all cultures in the world. But, the transformation process that allows the evolution of the cultures is the same one that destroys the old culture; it is a natural and inevitable process. To go ahead in our evolution and development process, we need to lose part of our past, part of our old culture. We could preserve it as history, in books and museums, but not totally as a life culture.
NOTE: SORRY, BUT THERE IS A LIMIT FO CHARACTERS FOR EACH POST. SEE THE NEXT 2 POSTS TO CONTINUE READING ANDRÉ'S TEXT...
NOTE: THIS POST IS ANDRÉ TEIXEIRA'S SEQUENCE OF LAST POST.
ResponderExcluirBy this process, the civilizations learn to raise animals and lose their ability to hunt, start to practice the agriculture and lose the possibility to immigrate, learn how to use the iron and forget the techniques to use rock tools. All of these changes imply in a great change in these people’s life style, and so in their cultures. But, it is the only way to improve their lives.
This process could be painful, and some people have difficult to accept it, but it is fundamental for the progress of the people’s culture itself. To try to stop it means to condemn these people to be frozen in the past and be seen as zoo animals or a museum piece, only for the delight of the studies and the curiosity of the rest of the world.
Of course this is not a change to be promoted by force; this has been one of the greatest mistakes committed in history. The process should be spontaneous, as the simple contact of cultures drives it. The natural curiosity, the options and opportunities opened will make the people to interact. From this interaction, both cultures will be affected.
Actually, even in the cases of these cultures be melted or one absorbs the other, the resultant culture will contain aspects of all the previous ones. Our culture is so rich because it is blended as a result of a lot of cultures which formed it. In the same way, cultural differences always remain around the world because people live in different environments.
One interesting point that drives some people to the idea of this ancient cultures’ preservation from the “contamination” by the civilized world is the sense that our civilization’s culture is corrupted and the ancient ones are pure and good. In some way, this is the old and romantic thesis of the noble savage. Wide Davis criticizes this thesis as a racist one, but during almost all his presentation, his point of view converges to it. This theory is totally wrong.
A good example of this is his reference to whom he defines as the most extraordinary people he meets, the Kogis, people who live in Colombia’s Mountains. He describes as a very interesting thing the preparation of a boy to be a priest of this culture. The boy is separated from his parents and from his common world, at an age of 3 or 4 and is maintained all the time, being educated, in a dark cave during a period of 18 years. Then, from the first time in his life, he is allowed to see the sun rise. Of course he should admit that it is very beautiful. It was presented as a good way to inspire a good and different perception of a need to preserve those beauties and so the environment. The trauma of a boy being kept for 18 years in a dark cave is not even considered.
What I want to say is that in parallel with some interesting points of these old cultures, there are some other practices absolutely cruel and savage, in the complete sense of this word.
Despite the clear aggression to the children, the main issue is not to prohibit or not these stupid practices, but to allow these people to make their own options. Till the Kogis did not have contact with the civilized world, this kind of education could be considered the best one that their children could have received. But, when they meet one child educated in a multi-cultural school of the civilized world, and compare his level of his knowledge and education with his own children, when they start to see the difference of opportunities in life they are going to have, the option to assume this new culture will be irresistible. Some generations more and this old practice will be completely outmoded. Fortunately!
NOTE: SEE THE NEXT POST TO SEE ANDRÉ'S CONCLUSION TO HIS WRITING ON ENDANGERED CULTURES
NOTE: THIS THE LAST PART OF ANDRÉ TEIXEIRA'S IDEAS ON THE VIDEO ENDANGERED CULTURES. SEE THE PREVIOUS 2 POSTS.
ResponderExcluirSo, this is a fundamental approach in the question, to show to these communities the possibilities that they could have and to prepare them to live in the civilized world. It means not to impose a new culture, but to give them the option.
Debating about the preservation of the Amazon Basin Indians culture, commenting on some suggestions of segregation of the tribes from the civilization, someone argued: “What crime have these Indians committed to be condemned to live forever in the Stone Age, out of the benefits of the civilization?”
It is clear that, when these contacts deals with people from cultures of different stages of development, care must be taken to protect the few developed ones from the tremendous shock of this interaction. Mainly, not to let them be exploited by unscrupulous civilized people. They must be protected in terms of preservation of their natural environment and culture. This protection should be kept during all the period that the interaction process occurs, and it could take some generations. The process must be conducted by specialized people in a sense to minimize the undesired aspects of the shock and to help the people from the less developed cultures to be adapted.
Anyway, the end objective should not be the permanent segregation of these people in order to preserve their culture, but to promote their familiarity and interaction with the civilized world, and so, give them the real opportunity to choose.
One ancient culture can disappear, but, in some way, our culture will be influenced by it. We can live in a common culture world, but it will be a richer culture, for everybody.
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