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"We are paying for you"

Immigration again. More and more a difficult subject to discuss, an issue to tackle, a theme to debate. What (long ago…?) was just a demographic question has become a touchy matter, involving incredibly different aspects from geographical borders to personal relationships. Whoever is an immigrant does not need deep intellectual analysis about what this concept englobes. And those who never experienced moving from home country to living ‘abroad’ sometimes get stuck in the frontiers that separate their humanitarian feelings and their documented citizenship.

It is more than natural that such a polemic subject draws the attention of the studious from different areas. If we only think about the amplitude of what is contained in the term ‘immigrant’ it becomes easy to understand why so many people consider it important to learn about it. Immigration has been part of human History since we are on Earth and started to have a sense of distinction. My tribe, your tribe, my group, your group, my country, your country, my people, your people.

Geography and Politics have always played a crucial role here. Where science and power try to cohabit, there is an entangling tissue called emotions. Undefined and mysterious spaces officials try to delimitate in many different ways and through the most crucial means bringing no other consequences than making people go apart.

There are probably no precise data about when and where the concept of border was first established. We got used to the idea that this is so because it is so. Why bother to know details? An individual is entitled or not to some rights depending on where and when s/he was born. Those rights are represented by something called documents, which represent a very complex thing called citizenship, which defines a whole list of obligations and does altogether impact on the way people live and relate to each other.

We just don’t seem to have a clue about the name of the genius who invented the passport, but s/he surely built a global empire of bureaucrats, paradise for very few and total hell for very many.

Not being in condition to decide where we are born, sometimes it happens that we get the chance to choose where to live. Some other times we just have to move independently of our will and are rushed into leaving our homes without questioning why, and into being happy as in cases like that, it means the chance of staying alive.

To this type of immigrants a special name is given, ‘refugees’, what means they are entitled to certain compensations for having to leave their homes. At any rate their lives are in danger and there is a general understanding that they deserve some care and basic assistance in their new countries. Fair enough, humans are a sympathetic race, aren’t we?

But not only devastation and destruction cause people to move to another country. Work, studies, romance, family, adventure. There is an unquestionable charm and excitement about new discoveries. Challenges, lessons of life, people and their cultures. Awesome. Here we go.

Notwithstanding the circumstances, at any point people get involved in the process or with immigrants themselves. Probably there are not many who do not have any case of immigration in their genealogical tree. But then was then and now is now, and life can be difficult for those who work hard to pay for their living..

And so it is that at some point people coming from different countries but united by mutual admiration, common values and loving feelings can look at each other and suddenly, the one who is an immigrant hears ‘we are paying for you’.

Well, maybe yes. But then again, maybe not. There is a clear border that separates the concepts of ‘gigolos’ and ‘immigrants’. Through history, everywhere, most immigrants have become contributors to their new society. Better think who is paying for what.

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Why not make children?

For a simple objective reason: there are too many abandoned children in the world. And even if many people strive for human rights and a fair distribution of wealth, at this point there seems to be only a slow change in this direction, not to say it will not happen at all in the coming years.

In the meantime, wars caused by greed, natural disasters – mostly caused by the destruction of nature and its resources – and all the consequences of our individualistic society, are killing people and animals and forcing an uncountable number of children to suffer hunger, abandon, all sorts of cruelty that lead to traumas and loneliness.

No humanitarian organization is able to take care of and provide shelter for so many children! These infants are victims of tragic situations they have no way to understand but that affect them directly, denying their right to a home, love and protection. All children are entitled to grow in a peaceful environment and to have kind people looking after them.

The way things are now, it is important to realize this: being mother or father does not imply making babies, but loving children! All this talk like ‘my biological clock is ticking’ is nothing more than an excuse for not being open to give a lonely child the opportunity of being loved and having a family. A woman’s body does not contain a clock!!!

At this point, considering that most countries do not provide sexual education, and that there is no effective demographic control anywhere, what we see is a reproduction of misery. The planet can not sustain the increase of population foreseen for the coming decades. The conclusion is that nowadays, making children turned out to be anti-ecological and this fact should not be disregarded, specially by those who plan for the future.

Do you love children? Do you want to have a family? Do you want to be a mother or a father? Wonderful. But consider whether there are any special reasons for your DNA to be considered better than anybody else's. Not necessarily your genes will generate better human beings.

Usually adoption procedures are very complicated and require determination, patience, money, time and energy. Laws ruling adoption must be made to help people not give up because it is too difficult and expensive to adopt a child. Fight for your rights to be parents without procreating.

Be generous to children. Fight for them!

Go for adoption and be happy with your family!

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The price of your rights

This is an old, well-known and very repetitive fact. What means it is not inspiring to any story nor causes any type of text. Why do some people insist on telling what has already been told? Is there a lack of creativity going around or is there any other possible reason?

Yes, sorry to say, yes. The question here is not why to repeat the story but why does the story keeps being repeated. The point is, even most people who take the time to read this, or even give this a thought probably have experienced this fact in their life.

The fact: companies and organizations charge for products, services or faults people never bought, used or made. Over and over again. The basics lie on the fact that the amounts mentioned on the bills or unduly charged are not significative. You take the bill and see it is not correct but, but… the difference is not worth all the trouble and time you will need to protest and try to get the reimbursement.

Of course you get irritated and even angry, with this ‘it happened again’. You decide not to buy any product from that company any more, or never use that service from that organization again. Sometimes – if the mistaken amount is noticed in a bad moment – you even think about the best strategy to be used to express your indignation and your demands in order to get the whole thing straightened up. You are an honest citizen, you pay your dues, etc etc and you want to be treated fair. This is more than a wish, this is your right.

Then you look at the clock, at the agenda, at the calendar. That annoying paper saying you made something wrong and you have to pay an X amount to have all solved is still in front of you and now it seems you bump into it just anywhere you are. You can’t forget it: the deadline for you to make the financial settlement is approaching and all you have done so far is to complain with your family and friends, to get more and more irritated, and to have more and more adrenaline in your blood. That means, you did exactly what the producers of these unfair extra charges had planned. They have a pretty good idea about how tiring it can be to work honestly. They have your records. They know you will get tired.

So, yes, you get tired. You don’t want to think about the whole thing any more. You want to enjoy your short free time, not invest it in endless letters, emails, forms or calls to get your money back. It was such a small amount after all, wasn’t it? Why have so much trouble for some small amounts after all? You give up, they win.

This old story has an old moral: when you give up fighting for your rights, because of ‘too small amounts that are not worth the trouble’ you are agreeing that your rights can be purchased. When many people act like that it means that much money can be made that way, easily and softly. Because we are too busy to protest and defend our rights we end up having no rights to defend.

This is an old story. We get what we deserve. Or: we don’t get what we deserve.

The choice is ours.

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Before this revolution starts

A deep historical research would be needed to trace the facts around breast-feeding vs women-at-work and this is not really what this article is about. Not because of lack of fascination regarding such a study but for practical reasons leading to the question: how would profound historical analysis bring light into our present situation as to help us take positive decisions and move towards positive resolutions? Probably not much.

Probably not much, why? The answer can be simple: globalization is a modern fact and what we are facing now is directly linked to our times. When we consider all the technology around communication it becomes easy to understand that the sense of privacy and community has suffered some dramatic changes along with other social ways of being together, sharing problems and finding solutions.

Breast-feeding then. Surely an all-times situation faced by women since we are on Earth, specially by women who had to spend time working, be it in a tribe or in a metropolis. Everywhere and always, there have been pregnancy, work, babies, work, breast-feeding and… work places. Considered as a feminine matter – yes, for sure – caring that a baby be fed requests special organization and women have proved to be united with each other to support mommies who had to stop their activity to feed their babies.

This ‘I give you a hand so that you can give your breast to your baby’ always worked well and most employers never cared to think how did their female professionals manage after the official mother leave is over. As long as the lady in question is back on the work scene all is ok.

But all is not ok just by decision of bosses. More and more women in work places necessarily meant more and more babies being born and the complexity of the working conditions has made it complicated for those babies to enjoy their right of being breast-fed. Many doctors and scientists advocate in favor of the babies but not many employers have applauded this marketing to the point of creating nurseries in the companies. Women have counted on their women colleagues to solve the practicalities about breast-feeding and they have done so silently and efficiently for many and long years.

This silence is now broken by some daring ladies who decided to ignore conventions and give their babies the good milk during their work hours. In August 2018, in Germany, Madeleine Henfling, politician of the Green Party, was not allowed to vote in a state parliament because she had brought her baby with her. A month later, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, caused strong reactions when she flew with her infant daughter to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Some days ago, on March 19, Mette Abildgaard, group leader for the Conservative Folk Party of Denmark was requested by the Parliament Speaker to leave the parliamentary hall in Copenhagen, when she brought her five-month-old daughter with her.

At this point it becomes crucial that law makers focus on women’s reality. Things are different when women-at-work occupy high political positions and can afford all the financial onus and – most of all – face whatever surprise and criticism their attitude causes. By breast-feeding their babies or bringing them to parliament halls in order to carry on with their work, these ladies are not only acting ‘differently’.They are making History and exposing facts that demand new action from those in charge of working places.

Hello, entrepreneurs! Hallo CEOs, Human Resources Directors, Headmasters, hello everybody. There is a Mommy-Baby Revolution on the way and you would better keep moving and organizing nurseries and hiring professionals who can take care of young children so that your female professionals can perform their job. You want to do that before your company starves, don’t you?

We are talking baby-milk here. Better not mess around with young mothers!!! Yeah?

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Crisis for Evolution?

Does anybody want crisis? It sound naive or even stupid to think someone would deliberately look for crisis, in fact this decision would fall into categories of mental disorders, emotional disturbances, intellectual nonsense or whatever, because truly speaking nobody would welcome a crisis. For example, there is no marketing to sell live crisis. On the contrary, the idea is that our lives be programmed as steady and explicable as possible, everything on its right place, and ‘being in control’ is a highly valued slogan, inside corporations or even personal relationships. Who in a hell would create a crisis and get compliments for that?

Well...rules need exceptions to confirm them. Maybe this is the reason why people who usually create crisis have their special role in most societies: they are called ‘artists’, meaning they have social permission to dare go against what is considered to be the good way of living. They create crisis, live in crisis, spread crisis and... sell art!

Artistic considerations apart, most crisis happen either when we thought all was fine or because it was already there... and we refused to admit it. In this case, it always borders despair, as there is this sense of too late. Observation and perception failed and that’s it, here we are, deep in a black hole.

Avoiding crisis demands wisdom. Getting out of it requests creativity and a deep belief in life, that strong decision of moving forward and the courage of fighting for happiness. Those actions speak of intensity of feeling and – on the practical side – of the way to make a turn and go towards the unknown, leaving behind what was there with no regrets, no attachments, no sorrows. It is not a question of walking away. From a deep hole the only way out is to fly.

Look up, spread wings, fly. There is an exciting open horizon to be conquered, but new opportunities won’t knock at nobody’s door, specially not when we are locked up in a crisis.

It is when we take the decisive move towards ‘whatever’ that we can find ‘whatsoever’.

This process can be excruciating and painful. But it is wonderful.

It is called Evolution.

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SPECIAL EDITION:
Open Letter to Malena Emman and Svante Thunberg

Dear Malena and Svante,

At this moment in history when we are lost in the chaos we created, much has been said and falsely demonstrated to prove that nothing is as bad as it may seem, bla bla, a voice speaks loud and clear, fresh as water from a natural source.

You two have all the reasons to be very proud of your daughter! Her fragility is the strength no-one can deny. Her voice and shy way of speaking do not let anyone pretend they hear nothing. At such a young age, your girl has been discussing deep and grave matters with the knowledge and wisdom that come from those who speak from the heart. Yes, you have a very special kid, there.

Now, I wonder what it is like to be parents of a genius. How are you coping with the fact that your teenager is not one of a million enjoying the possible fun of being an adolescent but a world famous lady, who abdicated her right to those pleasures in order to help all of us stay alive?

I wonder how was the day when your little girl started questioning about ‘adult’ matters, and even more, the day when she decided to start an unprecedented strike… how was it? Did she say ‘hi mommy and daddy, today I am not going to school because I am going to start changing the world’? Most probably not. Most probably neither of you ever considered the possibility that this was what it is now. How was that for you when you saw her sitting all alone in front of a building that symbolizes high power, just by herself, that skinny and lovely girl, that daughter of yours?

Did you try to convince her to go home? Did you stay there with her? What about the other members of the family? Were they worried? Did you go on with your usual lives while she was there, sitting next to her backpack, having a simple sign at her side? How did she come home after hours of lonely protest? How did you two react to the comments about her strike from people you know?

And then… one day there was a reporter. And then… there is mass media. And then your little daughter became famous, an example to other youngsters who are asking what is this world they are receiving as heritage, a leader for those who were hopeless, a… threat for those who are used to fool people and remain unpunished. I wonder: how is it for you to be parents of a world famous ‘climate activist’? Probably some big part of your privacy has disappeared. Maybe you were not prepared for the many calls from newspapers, tv channels, invitations for lectures that keep flooding your letterbox.

I wonder if you ever imagined your baby would become an adult at such young age. What about yourselves, have you ever imagined being the parents of a world leader? I don’t think so. Anyway, now this is your life and I want to express my admiration for you, who brought up such a special human being. This must not be easy. I confess: if Greta were my daughter I would not be able to have a single night’s sleep, I would be worried all the time.

Please accept my deep compliments for being the parents you are. I sincerely hope Greta will keep on marching toward the fantastic new horizon she has opened to all of us and that her words will be heard and followed.

As Greta, I also do not believe in words that are not backed up by actions. I sincerely hope everyone will take action.

My sincere respect to you and my deep admiration for Greta.

Very kindly,

Touché Guimarães

written on Fur, Denmark, on January 31st, 2019

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Long live idleness!

One of the serious contradictions of our time regards the way we discuss idleness, not because the term requires much linguistic knowledge to be explained, but due to the controversial aspects contained in it. However, no matter how strongly favorable someone can refer to being idle there is no doubt about the negative connotation usually attributed to this concept. Maybe some analysis can help find out why this is so and why this should – or not – remain so. Hopefully it should NOT.

In Old English, ‘idleness’ meant ‘vanity, frivolity, emptiness, vain existence’, and certainly none of those synonyms appeal to good comments. Definitely the ‘state of being unoccupied, doing no work’ does not describe the ideal conditions for societies and groups which should be using their time to produce. Being defined as ‘idle’ is not exactly a compliment. Etymology dictionaries mention the adjective ‘idel’ (empty, vain, worthless) as originated from Proto-West Germanic ‘idla’ which is also source of Old Saxon ‘idal’, Old Frisian ‘idel’, Old Dutch ‘idil’, Old High German ‘ital’, German ‘eitel’, and none of those words are positive.

In English some new labels have been ‘glued’ to the first definitions and ‘idle’ became also a way to describe someone who is not employed or doing work, evidently indicating that this is not the best social behavior. ‘Lazy’ and ‘slothful’ are also other moral judgements that became part of the adjective ‘idle’. In late 15th century the verb ‘idle’ became used as ‘make vain or worthless’ and in modern times, in 1916, it was first recorded as ‘run slowly and steadily without transmitting power’ (as a motor). Not nice, at all.

With all these bad historical records it is very improbable that someone will declare him/herself idle and even worse praise idleness as his/her favorite way of spending time. However as many other fossilized ideas the idle state demands to be reviewed as it becomes more and more evident that without idleness creativity is not possible. The simple question is: how can somebody dive and fly in the world of imaginings if rush and pressure is all there is around? Practical examples are easy to find in all fields of art, but not only there. In any work place there is room for idleness as the possibility to find solutions for problems that seem insolvable and generate so much stress just because those who have to make things work have their minds occupied by the need to solve those failures as soon as possible.

It is only when we do not have to think that we can… think. As it is only when we do not have to dance that our bodies flow in the great swings of life. Idleness means quality of life. And tranquility to experience it without the fear caused by criticism and rejection. Being idle gives us the opportunity to find new questions to old answers, new melodies to repetitive sounds, new movements to paralyzed minds.

Yeah. Maybe it is not so bad to run slowly and steadily without power after all. People are no motors! Long live idleness, folks!

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"Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good."– Søren A. Kierkegaard

"Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything."– Floyd J. Dell

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