"Banana's Republic", by Uncyclopedia

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The Presidents of Portugal

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Mission Impossible

"The vicious cycle of violence in Darfur has resumed, says the United Nations, with Sudan army involvement increasing.
A UN spokesperson said that last week had seen both government and rebel forces launch attacks, displacing 7,000 people and killing an unknown number.
More than 2m people still live in camps in Darfur, driven from their homes by two and a half years of fighting. (...)"

BBC News, 9th December 2005

"The Islamic nation is in a crisis - this crisis does not reflect on the present alone, but also on its future and the future of humanity at large."

OIC summit statement
BBC News, 9th December 2005

Living in Istanbul - 2nd lesson

"How to spend time"

Strange weather

Will you take me across the Channel,
London Bridge is falling down.
Strange a woman tries to save her
more than a man will try to drown
And it's the rain that they predicted
Its the forecast every time.
The rose has died because you picked it
And I believe that brandy's mine.

And all over the world
Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It's the same
It's the same
It's the same.

The world is getting flatter,
The sky is falling all around.
And nothing is the matter
For I never cry in town.
And a love like ours, my dear,

Is best measured when its down.
And I never buy umbrellas,
For there's always one around.

And all over the world Strangers Talk only about the weather. All over the world It's the same
It's the same
It's the same.

And you know that its beginning,
And you know that its the end
When once again we are strangers
And the fog comes rolling in.

And all over the world
Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It's the same
It's the same
It's the same.

by Tom Waits (for Marianne Faithful)

22th November - white night @ Istanbul

Yes, that's a pijama...

Living in Istanbul - 1st lesson

"How to make a project"

Islam tests French secularism

On Friday, France is marking 100 years since the separation of Church and State. With Islam on the rise in the restive suburbs, French-style secularism is being questioned. Concluding a series on French Muslims, Henri Astier asks whether it can remain a core value of the Republic.
To outside observers, French secular laws can work in mysterious ways.
Consider the country's top two religions. One, bringing together six million faithful, is thriving: converts are joining all the time and prayer halls are springing up.
The other is languishing. The number of preachers has halved in 40 years. With dwindling congregations, places of worship are inexorably closing down.
Yet no public money can go to the first, while millions of euros are spent every year on maintaining buildings the second no longer needs.
The reason is that under the 100-year-old law that founded modern French secularism, the state offered to take over the churches' existing buildings, while cutting all others' ties.
The French Catholic Church - the foundering religion described above - eagerly accepted the offer. Islam - the new, thriving faith - was not there to do so.
Concentrated in poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities
Many conclude that the 1905 law is in serious need of updating.
"It should be revised to allow the central government or local authorities to contribute to the construction and the upkeep of mosques or pagodas," Manuel Valls, an MP for the socialist party, told the BBC News website.
Mr Valls, who has written a book entitled La Laicite en face (Looking Secularism in the Face), says such a revision would be only fair.
Above all, it would help counter what he views as a real threat to the Republic: meddling by outsiders from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.
"A change [in the 1905 law] would prevent mosques being financed by foreign powers - notably the Wahhabi kingdom," Mr Valls says.
The socialist MP is not alone. Calls to amend the law on the separation of Church and State are getting louder, and transcend party politics.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a popular conservative, supports reform for much the same reasons as Mr Valls.

FRENCH ISLAM

Second largest religion
Five million Muslims (estimate)
1,600 places of worship
35% Algerian origin (estimate)
25% Moroccan origin (estimate)
10% Tunisian origin (estimate)

(...)

BBC News, 9 de Dezembro de 2005

Olha a novidade...

"Les partis politiques sont perçus comme étant les plus corrompus" dans 45 des 69 pays ayant fait l'objet d'une enquête auprès de 55 000 personnes, affirme l'ONG Transparency International (TI), dans son Baromètre mondial de la corruption 2005, publié vendredi 9 décembre.
"Globalement, les partis politiques ont été, de loin, perçus comme les institutions les plus corrompues de la société, estime ainsi TI. C'est un chiffre en progression par rapport à l'année dernière, où 36 pays sur 62 avaient cité leur système de partis comme l'institution la plus corrompue."
Or, indique l'ONG, la corruption a d'autant plus d'impact sur la vie personnelle des individus qu'ils sont pauvres. 42 % des personnes à bas revenus affirment que la corruption les affecte moyennement ou beaucoup, contre 36 % de celles à revenu élevé, et 54 % des pauvres indiquent qu'elle ne les affecte pas du tout ou un peu, contre 62 % des riches.
"Nous estimons que la corruption est un problème majeur dont l'impact le plus sérieux repose sur les pauvres", souligne Huguette Labelle, la présidente de TI. (...)

Le Monde, 9 de Dezembro de 2005

The Balkans: From Invention To Intervention

- I think the best way is to become the 51st state of the U.S.
- Excellent. But how do we do that?
- We declare war on the U.S.
- And then?
- Then, they take us seriously; they invade us; they occupy us; they set us straight.
- Brilliant. And what if we win?

(in Buckley, William Joseph; 2000: "Kosovo - Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions", p.159)

Via: Dawn of the herd

Horror...

Esta semana é um horror que passa na minha vida. Não suporto isto, cada vez mais azares, cada vez menos certezas de ser alguma vez desejado, a não ser debaixo da terra. Tenho cada vez menos força para suportar este mundo. Tenho cada vez menos coragem para enfrentar que o mundo nos oferece. Não sei porque tudo acontece... Sábado soube que a minha psicologa morreu. Ninguém sabe do quê, mas ela teve o cuidado de avisar a maioria dos clientes que ia deixar de poder ajudá-los. Ela sabia que os seus dias estavam no fim. Boa mulher, não quis dar trabalho, e agora está, no Céu, ao lado de Deus em quem ela tanto acreditava (se alguma vez ler isto, mande um sinal cá para baixo). Agora, hoje, chumbo num miserável exame de código ao corrigir uma pergunta que tinha bem, e pus mal. Que miséria... E para mim, o pior, a perca de um amigo. Neste caso de uma amiga. Porque tem de ser o amor tão díficil de enfrentar? As pessoas fogem a esse tema, não gostam de o viver, e até parece que não gostam de o sentir. É verdade que dói e corrói as entranhas de um futuro que pode vir a ser promissor. Porque se foge de uma coisa que pode ser tão boa? Enfim... Não percebo as pessoas de uma geração igual à minha, mas que no entanto sinto que não lhe pertenço.

Já não sei se tenho de sofrer, ou sequer se nasci para sofrer. Acredito que tudo seja passageiro e apartir de um certo dia, tudo mude, que o Sól brilhe como um dia brilhou, como um dia se fez passar por entre um céu carregado de nuvens negras como terra que talvez nunca voltarão a desaparecer. Bem, o futuro trará o que eu mereço e logo verei a minha missão neste mundo de podridão.

Alexandre MM Caetano

Paixão vicia tanto como as drogas

"A paixão é viciante. Para quem não acredita, um estudo de uma equipa de cientistas norte-americanos revela que o químico responsável pela dependência de drogas – a dopamina – desempenha um papel importante no jogo do amor. (...)"

Correio da Manhã, 6 de Dezembro de 2005

Poll finds broad approval of terrorist torture

"Most Americans and a majority of people in Britain, France and South Korea say torturing terrorism suspects is justified at least in rare instances, according to AP-Ipsos polling.
The United States has drawn criticism from human rights groups and many governments, especially in Europe, for its treatment of terror suspects. President Bush and other top officials have said the U.S. does not torture, but some suspects in American custody have alleged they were victims of severe mistreatment.
The polling, in the United States and eight of its closest allies, found that in Canada, Mexico and Germany people are divided on whether torture is ever justified. Most people opposed torture under any circumstances in Spain and Italy. (...)"

MSN NBC, 6 de Dezembro de 2005

Song by John Donne

Sweetest love, I do not go,
For weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me ;
But since that I
At the last must part, 'tis best,
Thus to use myself in jest
By feigned deaths to die.

Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet is here to-day ;
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor half so short a way ;
Then fear not me,
But believe that I shall make
Speedier journeys, since I take
More wings and spurs than he.

O how feeble is man's power,
That if good fortune fall,
Cannot add another hour,
Nor a lost hour recall ;
But come bad chance,
And we join to it our strength,
And we teach it art and length,
Itself o'er us to advance.

When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away ;
When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,
My life's blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thou lovest me as thou say'st,
If in thine my life thou waste,
That art the best of me.

Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill ;
Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy fears fulfil.
But think that we
Are but turn'd aside to sleep.
They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be.

A morte...

Morreu a nossa psicóloga, mas acima de tudo nossa grande amiga Doutora Maria de Fátima Rosendo. Julgo que falo por ambos, eu e Susana, que ela era uma dos nossos melhores amigos, sempre com aqueles conselhos que tanto nos ajudaram. Aquela maneira de enfrentar a vida, aquelas piadas inteligentes sobre problemas que nós tinhamos e que desabafavamos com ela, com aquela certeza de sermos ouvidos com atenção. Foi ela que me "obrigou" a perder 40kg, foi ela que nos tratou dos nossos problemas da mente. Aquelas gotas que ninguém percebia ao certo o que eram e para o que eram, mas que nos faziam bem, e nós sentiamos que ficavamos melhor. Apesar de já não me ver há tanto tempo, sinto que não me esqueceu e eu também díficilmente a esquecerei. Sinto que a Doutora era uma pessoa especial em todos os sentidos. Vivia uma vida complicada com problemas de saúde, com um filho rebelde e com outras tantas coisas que só ela sabia. Gostaria de perceber como morrem as pessoas boas primeiro? Gostaria de compreender o porquê de uma morte tão repentina. Enfim... Falando pelos dois,

Obrigado por tudo e um até sempre...