Baleal Surf Fest II

Nos dia 18 e 19 de Junho decorre na Praia do Baleal em Peniche o BALEAL SURF FEST II.

A génese e conceito do Baleal Surf Fest surgiu de uma necessidade de consciencialização da comunidade de surf e de todas as pessoas que utilizam os oceanos e a sua infinidade de serviços na busca de soluções, mudança, e acção.

A aparente calma e beleza que o oceano nos transmite esconde abaixo da sua superfície uma multiplicidade de problemas e situações que necessitam de atenção urgente e acção.

Baleal Surf Fest

Durante o Baleal Surf Fest decorrem várias actividades que visam promover a cultura e o desporto que é o surf, chamar a atenção para problemas ambientais e celebrar os objectivos sociais e ambientais que nos propomos atingir através de Arte e Música.

Durante a segunda edição do Baleal Surf Fest que decorre nos dias 18 e 19 de Junho na Praia do Baleal, Peniche iremos:
- Dar aulas de Surf Grátis a quem quiser experimentar este desporto único;
- Dar aulas a pessoas com mobilidade reduzida e necessidades especiais a de 3 instituições da região;
- Realizar limpezas de Praia;
- Realizar campeonatos de remada e surf “vintage” (recordando as bases e raízes do surf);
- Exibir o Documentário “THE COVE”, ganhador do Óscar 2009 da sua categoria (com uma breve palestra sobre a condição dos golfinhos e baleias e o debate contemporâneo sobre a Baleação);
- Exibição de pranchas antigas, eco-artesanato, pintura de pranchas ao vivo, e eco-arte;
- Espectáculos de Música ;
- E MUITO MAIS!

Mais informação sobre o evento em www.balealsurffest.com

Angola and STP budgets amongst 10 least transparent

Thought this would have a particular interest so I just quoted all the article.

Source: Macauhub

Lisbon, Portugal, 4 Feb – Angola and Sao Tome and Principe are amongst the tem countries in the world with the least transparent State Budgets, ranking 76th and 85th, respectively out of 85 countries analysed by the Open Budget Index 2008.

The report, which is available on the International Budget Partnership (IBP) website, under “Open Budgets Change Lives”, covers just three Portuguese-speaking countries, the third of which is Brazil, which was placed eighth as it “provides significant information to the population about the Federal Government budget and financial activities throughout the financial year.”

The survey, which was based on data collected up to 28 September 2007, noted that “80 percent of the world’s governments do not provide enough information to the population to post accounts of how they manage their money.”

It also noted that half of the 85 countries analysed, “provide such limited information that it is possible to hide unpopular, loss-making and corrupt spending,” and only five countries provide wide-ranging information,” about state budgets.

In the countries with the most open budgets – United Kingdom, South Africa, France, New Zealand and the United States – “all citizens can have access to information about how much is channelled to different types of spending, which revenues have come in and how international aid and other public resources are used,” the survey said.

In the report on Angola the main problems pointed out were not providing the budget proposal to the population (in 2008 the information was placed in the Finance ministry website for the first time) and the difficulty in accessing data on spending, revenues and loans during the financial year.

In Sao Tome and Principe, the lack of transparency is greater as the proposal is not made available to the population before it is approved by parliament, no final report is published about the financial year and the Government does not make the audit report public, nor does it provide information about whether the recommendations from this document have been successfully applied.

Avant!

Le matin est venu oú j’ai senti. Qu’il n’y avait plus rien a cacher, je tourne la page [difficilement imaginable] mais mon cœur ne sera jamais d’ici. Aussi certain que je respire, aussi certain que je suis triste. Je cette sagesse dans ma chair. Je pars en croyant, plus qu’avant, et il y a une raison pour laquelle que je reviendrai. Je marche dans le monde. Mon vœu de disparaître a été exaucé. J’ai été blessé, j’ai été guéri…

Evolução e progresso?

Mudança, iniciada por uma agitação interior, evolução da mente acompanhada de um processo cronológico que apenas agora começo a perceber e a reconhecer os traços e formas. Um súbito despertar de responsabilidades e deveres que até então me eram desconhecidos. Nunca senti o peso da idade como agora (tenho 26 anos), com as pessoas que me relaciono e olhando já para uma geração mais jovem. Parece que fiquei preso algures nos meus 17 ou 18 anos nem bem adolescente nem bem adulto. No entanto este caminho que sigo fui eu que o escolhi, fui eu que lutei por ele e ajudado pelas pessoas que cruzaram a minha vida e pelas minhas vivências com elas e por elas cheguei a este ponto onde estou. Os meus pais… sem eles; eu nada conseguiria ter atingido, parte integrante do meu ser sem o serem.

Nestes últimos tempos tenho vindo a tentar delinear certos aspectos da minha vida e a entender a nossa sociedade para que me possa tentar integrar-me nela (bem em algumas partes e aceitando alguns factores que estão fora do meu alcance mudar). Vivemos uma crise global em que os bancos vão á falência, as pessoas vão levadas a crer que precisam de coisas que lhes são completamente secundárias mas que tomam um papel primordial, urgente e essencial! Ridículo; é o (des)Progresso e escravização mental…
Mas que muito seguem o ritmo, marchando ao toque do seu tambor, porque se perderem o ritmo deixam de fazer parte, ficam alienados e rejeitados.

Claro que existe um balanço e equilíbrio, e não é errado consumir isto ou aquilo ou tirar proveito dos benefícios que a tecnologia oferece, mas não nos deixando cegar e perder essa concomitância com a natureza e o que nos rodeia, sem perder o nosso altruísmo (se é que isso ainda existe), empatia e amor. Deve ser por isso que as cidades me assustam, somos tantos no mesmo espaço mas vivemos e caminhamos como se estivéssemos sozinhos, e se houver alguém que se aproxime de nós e nos peça algo ou alguém que precise de ajuda, bem isso é outro tema, ou se vira a cara na maioria das vezes ou evitam-se essas situações porque existem mil razões para as esquivar. Normalmente estamos com pressa, não podemos parar. Ah, precisamos de seguir aquela cadência, o ritmo do tambor!

Cebolas

No fundo estamos a perder a nossa humanidade, arraigados a tecnologias e a produtos e a consumismos e perdemos todo o discernimento e conexão á terra, ao que cresce dela e brota. Apenas uma parte da sociedade o sabe, esses são chamados de produtores primários que vivem uma existência aparentemente limitada, sofrida e básica. Contudo são eles que nos alimentam no fundo e não nem disso temos noção porque as coisas parecem melhores e mais decentes quando vêm embaladas e as tiramos das prateleiras dos nossos supermercados favoritos. E poucas vezes paramos a pensar que no fundo estamos todos conectados e que para conseguirmos ter um parafuso para segurar o novo movél que compramos (provavelmente na IKEA) é necessário uma corrente de milhares de pessoas!

Os meu ancestrais são da terra, viviam para e dela. Não usavam pesticidas, nem herbicidas, nem fungicidas, nem fertilizantes sintéticos, nem conservantes, nem hormonas, nem estimulantes, nem etc. Eu como muito do que vem da terra no seu estado mais puro graças á minha mãe e os conhecimentos que recebeu do meu avô que recebeu do meu bisavô que recebeu do meu trisavô e que me passa a mim. Quando plantar, quando colher, baseado em ciclos lunares e estações do ano. Somos saloios, somos da terra.

Eu quero basear a minha vida sobre essas directrizes, trabalhando e com árduo labor conseguir produzir da terra e viver em conformidade com as suas leis. Um estado de vida mais simples e puro. Sou da Lourinhã, vivo no Casal Lourim que em tempo foi conhecido como a estrada das flores dada a quantidade de flores que a prima Sancha punha á beira da estrada e estimava.

Sou filho desta terra!
Os tambores aqui tocam a ritmos diferentes e em direcções opostas…

Dream #1215

It was a blurry dream like many others; I woke up to find the sun entering through the window I had forgotten to close last night. It was like I was being enlightened, I dreamed of my future, our future, and decided to start to take control. For too long I’ve been living bended, scared, and beaten, afraid of my own potential. But today I rise and things look different, I feel strength from within and I’ll clench onto it portrayed by my action of closing my fist. It is time, father, my time …

葉隱 (trans: In the shadow the Leaves)

From Hagakure – The book of the Samurai:

“When meeting calamities or difficult situations, it is not enough to simply say that one is at all flustered. When meeting difficult situations, one should dash forward bravely and with joy. It is the crossing of a single barrier and is like the saying, “The more the water, the higher the boat”*.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo (circa 1700)

*From Pi-yen-lu, a Chinese book of Koans: “The more the water, the higher the boat. The more the mud, the bigger the Buddha”

Lately …

Lately I’m going through changes, and some things in my life what were fermenting and slowly developing finally started to materialize. This year I’ll keep working for the same 3 organization as a Consultant like up to now. They are the International Fund for Animal Welfare, PEW Charitable Trusts, and Global Ocean.

It will start tomorrow as I have a meeting with Rémi Parmentier and Alex Garcia at FLAD (Luso-American Foundation). This is to start organizing the set-up of the meeting that we will have next week in Lisbon hosted by PEW, Varda Group and FLAD.
The work in Africa seems on a good stance and there will be a new effort on Sao Tome and Principe this year. I was also invited to collaborate on the opening of a communitarian centre of artisanal fisheries. Sound to me very interesting and something that can help out the coastal community of the country on a very benefic way.

Kike between boards at Fatum Surfboards Factory

The week started very well, I was in Lisbon with a very good friend of mine, Kike, drinking mate, chatting about all and every subjects. Then Tuesday I was with another very good friend, Mariana that I haven’t seen for a while and her mum, Teresa, for the first time since the last 3 years. It was superb, Mariana is an extension of my soul, and with whom I developed a great empathy and connection over the years. We seem to work at the same level in terms of professional achievements; however we have chosen different paths and ways of achieving the same thing, CHANGE! World change …

Beside that life goes smooth, working on the house and re-building the last bits there is to finish. Very fulfilling and good fun, well, apart from the times when things go very wrong and then I get much stressed trying to remediate my mistakes!
Surf hasn’t been so good lately but got a new board from Gero and I’m quite excited about it!
Also, I’m getting more and more into Jiu-Jitsu, it is really like a chess game more than a fight. Got my first graduation and working on some more!

Italian region will no longer permit non Italian restaurants

My good friend Sidney Holt sent me this article, and using his own words it is “funny and sad”!

Link to article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Comments worth reading

Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities

The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China.

It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is also run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines”.

Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.

Mr Zaia said that those ethnic restaurants allowed to operate “whether they serve kebabs, sushi or Chinese food” should “stop importing container loads of meat and fish from who knows where” and use only Italian ingredients.

Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to eat pineapple.”

Mehmet Karatut, who owns one of four kebab shops in Lucca, said that he used Italian meat only.

Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also opposes the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.

“This is a new Lombard Crusade against the Saracens,” La Stampa, the daily newspaper, said. The centre-left opposition in Lucca said that the campaign was discrimination and amounted to “culinary ethnic cleansing”.

Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that have met and mingled over time.”

He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The San Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons came from the Arab world.

Mr Castellani said that the ban reflected growing intolerance and xenophobia in Italy. It was also a blow to immigrants who make a living by selling ethnic food, which is popular because of its low cost. There are 668 ethnic restaurants in Milan, a rise of nearly 30 per cent in one year.

The centre Right won national elections in April last year partly because of alarm about crime and immigration. This week there was a series of attacks on immigrants in bars and shops after the arrest of six Romanians accused of gang-raping an Italian girl in the Rome suburb of Guidonia.

Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: “To accuse us of racism is outrageous. All we are doing is protecting the culinary patrimony of the town.”

Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to improve the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products. “It targets McDonald’s as much as kebab restaurants,” he added.

There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.