Thursday, November 30, 2006

My English Accent: I am a "Chicago Boy"!?

Thanks to "No Pasarán", I came across this quiz that discovers from where your english accent comes from.
In my case it seems that I am closer to Chicago than I ever dreamed of - for a Brazilian.
I got it! I was raised in a city named "Passo Fundo" - Brazil (where ET got caught on video on the film "Signs"). Passo Fundo was so crowded of violent criminals that in the seventies it was called "Chicago from the Pampa" (Pampa = steppe like terrain in south of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina).
The other coincidence is that the pupils of Milton Friedman were called "Chicago Boys"...

See the results!

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Inland North

You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

The Midland

The South

The Northeast

Philadelphia

North Central

The West

Boston

What American accent do you have?
Take More Quizzes

Brazilian press: blindness or just "wishingful thinking"?

Miriam Leitao, a famous Brazilian reporter dropped this "analysis" of post-election of Lula on the new Washington Post blog- "PostGlobal". Read this excerpt.

Amazonian & Afro-Brazilian Power - Miriam Leitao at PostGlobal
Recently in Brazil traditional forces have gained political power. President Lula won again and built a governing coalition from among the most conservative forces in the country's political spectrum

I wonder who are the supposed "conservative forces" that entered Lula's 'coalition' government..
FARC? They recently announced they support to Lula's new term.
Chávez? Lula flew to Venezuela just after the election..

"Traditional" parties in Brazil means a bunch of political parties that have one simple goal: to make all of integrants richer. It's the only field that a real capitalist can make a lot of money in Brazil. The recipe is : Support the government and profit. Elections? People in Brazil never remember who they cast their votes. But the government sure, always remembers who's for and who's against them. These politics love bribery. It has nothing to do with "conservatives".

She has to realize that what government calls "coalition" means "come on: there's money and ministry budget enough for all" while Lula still ahead of the continental silent revolution.

It is not just bad journalism. It's a fraud.




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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

My New Podcast on FreeSpeech Audio

Here´s my new podcast on Freespeech audio. This one has the title "Post Election Blues" and reflect my feelings after the Lula da Silva election in Brazil and the situation in LA and USA too...







MP3



Luis' Post Lula Victory


Nov-27-06 by Jose Reyes



Luis has a post election summary of the unfortunate victory of Lula in Brazil. He also covers the elections in Venezuela and adds his views.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

The real "best weblogs" contest


While the official competition for "best weblog" is crowded of anti-freedom allies posing as "rebels" among other frivolities, Jose Reyes from Cubanology.com has started a real contest: the Anti-Communist International awards.

This page is a proud integrant of such freedom defenders.
Enjoy the contest!!



Cubanology, 2006 Anti-Communist "International" Awards
These awards will be different from the typical awards out there because they will be based on more detailed important matters so the categories will reflect more significant results. Voting will start on Monday November 20th and will end on December 31st. Will have Updates every Sunday and will announce the Winners on January 1st 2007.


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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

New blog -- "De Review"



About
"De Review aims to provide cosmopolitan readers with the bests news on global affairs, books, and culture scattered throughout the internet."

A new blog called "De Review!" has just started. It seems a very good selection of analysts and posts.
"Swimming" is among the links listed there.


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Greetings from Porto Alegre

Yes! Besides the fact how much politics - I mean bad politicis or better "socialist" politics- have been impoverishing the city and making it uglier and violent, Porto Alegre's skyline is still beautiful. Enjoy - taken by me in 2004. Posted by Picasa

Friday, November 17, 2006

Lula and Chavez / Lula and Garcia / Lula and Evo: The Character behind the mask.

As we've seen in the magistral movie "V - for Vendetta", a character behind a mask will always be a character behind a mask.
As "Evey" (Portman) asked to the masked man "who you are?", "V" replied that it was a paradox to ask a masked man who he is.

That's exactly the situation of Lula da Silva.

He will never explain who he is. He has to be perceived a character in "chiaro-scuro", or in the North-American way "noir", someone emerged from an old expressionist film. Someone half in the light and half in the dark.
Lulas has two sides.

Lula is a "good guy" - The "bright" side
This is the side of Lula's personallity that he wants to be known. He over-acted this role when is needed. It is needed when he is in front of a large audience formed of countries and statesmen that he must to convice that he is a former leftist that believe in the free market but is worried with the poor and the hunger worldwide. He made his best efforts to ensure he is a reasonable guy that could put out the fire of Latin America, acting as a fireman to explosive leaders like Chavez and Morales.

Lula is the leader of a Gramscian revolution - The Dark Side
While he keeps his mask as good guy to Europe and US, he spread his claws to Brazil and influence other countries in LA to guarantee that his comrades from the "foro"
- Stay in power in the countries that are on their hands
- Reach the power in the countries that they are on the opposition (democratic) hands

I know that many would like the first to be the real, perhaps because this nightmare would be bleaker enough to bear, or just because they believe communism is dead, or even just by a process of wishfull thinking (magical thinking?). But is not.

The real Lula - or someone that is known as Lula - is a character created by former revolutionaries in Brazil.

Luis Inacio (before he changed his name to his nickname "Lula"- that means "squid" in portuguese) was an ordinary mechanical worker jumped to the leadership of one of the biggest union trade of Brazil in the middle of seventies. He lead the greatest strike in the car assemblers industry during the military regime. He became famous. But that time he was still capitalist, even facing the military regime.

Well, in 1979, the "evil" military released a wide amnesty resolution that forgave all crimes perpretraded by activists and terrorists and even the military that exceeded their actions against them, so thousand of Brazilian emigrés returned to the country. Here they knew the power of Luis Inacio. He has all the features of a leftist leader to complete the work that was left behind in the sixties: popularity and charisma.

The communist revolution in the sixties did not have any popular support because it was fought by students, intellectuals and "catholic" left (theology of liberation). That lesson was learned. They needed a real worker to get the support from the masses and Luis Inacio was perfect to the role.
Luís Inacio was adopted by these revolution veterans, that fed him with ideology. So they gave birth to "Lula", just like other revolutionary legend in Brazil, Chico Mendes that was created by the same way in the eighties.

The fact is that Lula enjoyed so much the character that he never unmasked himself again. The creature now moved on his own feet.

To become the creator of PT's party in the eighties , the candidate in the first free president election in Brazil and the creator of Foro de Sao Paulo in the nineties were just developments of the same plot/acting plan.

Now Lula changes his behavior from good guy / bad guy everytime he wants to hide his real intentions.

With Chavez (a friend and a comrade from the Foro): he must guarantee the he is going to be elected. Pure and simple. It is good for the Foro, not for Brazil. He must stop Rosales. Nothing to do with money!! He is saving a comrade!!
With Evo (other from the Foro) he even went further: he backed Eve when he said is going "nationalise". He said Evo will not do it, it was just campaign talk. Evo did it, invaded our machinery in Bolivia and Lula did not move an eyebrow.

But Garcia is not from the "Foro". He is just a loser. In fact. A person that could win even with all Foro Boys against him, that won Humala that was backed by Lula and Chavez could not acted as he did: just after the election he declared an open support for the re-election of Lula. This guy is nuts. He could join Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe, but not. He preferred to run for the arms of the "squid".

To be final: I cannot bear the silly talk about "progressive" left. As one of Ludwig Von Mises pointed out in his famous work "Middle of the road policies leads to Socialism" : these "progressive" guys are nothing that the old lefties in capitalist disguise. They still believe that capitalism is a system that "hurts the vital interests of the immense majority of people for the sole benefit of a small minority of rugged indivifualists". That's all they believe.

The last Lula's surprise-not-so-surprise-for-those-who-knows-who-he-really-is is that he will follow Chavez footsteps: he is going to change the constitution to run again for president!!!

Garcia is a fool.
Lula is not a solution.
Lula is not a good guy.

If there's a character that fits perfectly on Lula is not the "good guy" model. It's Goethe's "Faust" .

That's why I don't believe in a near future for Latin America. The only glimpse seems to be Rosales.

Atreve-te Venezuela!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Coup d'État under way in Venezuela: An Urgent Memo to the OAS

I've just received this message from the yahoo group - Chavez Huguito - and I am fowarding It very important and all bloggers from LA and USA must be aware of it.

LA

Coup d'État under way in Venezuela:
An Urgent Memo to the OAS
By Gustavo Coronel
November 10, 2006

A coup d'état is in progress in Venezuela at this very moment. Hugo Chávez leads it in his double role as president and presidential candidate in the upcoming elections.
This open rebellion against the constitution and the laws of the republic started several days ago, when Rafael Ramírez, the Oil Minister cum president of the State oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), addressed employees of the company to tell them that whoever was not with Chávez had to leave the company immediately. Ramírez threatened to fire anyone who dissented, in the same way that Chávez sacked 19,500 PDVSA employees in 2002 for being "enemies of the revolution." Ramírez said that PDVSA was "red" from top to bottom, red being the color chosen by the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution" of Hugo Chávez.
This speech was recorded in its entirety and its authenticity is not in dispute. On the contrary, next day the Venezuelan strongman publicly congratulated Ramírez and asked him to "repeat the speech one hundred times a day."
In the same opportunity he said that the Venezuelan armed forces were equally "red" and at the service of the revolution. This also constituted an open violation of the Venezuelan constitution in its article 328 and to the laws of the republic. How would the international opinion react if Bush or Fox, just to mention two presidents of democratic countries publicly stated that the armies of their countries were at the service of their political parties or groups?
Why would this create a global commotion but there is no reaction when it takes place in Venezuela?
The most probable explanation is that the reaction should start at the local institutions which represent the citizens of the country, those institutions in charge of the checks and balances that are indispensable to democracy.
Unfortunately the Venezuelan strongman has captured these institutions and their leadership behave as Chávez's errand boys. This is the case of the National Assembly, of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the Ombudsman, the General Comptroller and the Attorney General.
This is also the case with the Defense Minister who has kept essentially quiet after Chávez's statement of open rebellion. In fact, what he has said so far (La Verdad, Maracaibo, November 8, 2006) is that he would not comment on Chávez's statement.
Taking this silence as tacit approval, Admiral Luis Cabrera has just told the State TV channel that "we are in a revolution and that the revolution is the constitution," an outburst that cannot be interpreted as in any other manner than as an open rebellion against the laws of the country.
This is taking place in our country as the popular mood seems to be changing clearly against Chávez and as election day gets closer.
The open rebellion of Hugo Chávez against the constitution and the laws of our country has the objective of getting his followers ready to deny an electoral victory to the opposition.
The reasons are twofold: one, the desire by Chávez to stay in power indefinitely and, two, his realization that if he loses and yields power, he and his accomplices will be criminally indicted for the ruin they have brought upon the country, for the loss of national sovereignty he has allowed and for the multiple violations he has committed against the human rights of Venezuelans.
The secretary General of the Organization of American States, on a recent visit to Caracas, stated, "only Venezuelans can solve their problems."
But, how can we solve the Venezuelan tragedy when the strongman is closing all democratic paths?
What is developing in Venezuela, in view of Chávez's attitude, is probably a violent confrontation between a dictatorial regime with a well-armed paramilitary force and a very frustrated and unarmed civilian population.
Although I realize that the OAS is a very bureaucratic organization and slow to move, I urge the Secretary General to use his diplomatic clout to try to prevent a tragic outcome of the coming Venezuelan electoral process.
The evidence is there for all to hear and see.
© 2006 Gustavo Coronel

Only the paranoid survive - "The FreeNet Project" - the freer internet (?)

As Intel's chairman Andy Grove said once "Only the paranoid survive"!!
This is true not just inside of big-business field.

When you see the outlaw countries and UN forcing to take control over the net, you have to be a paranoid. They say they are the good guys trying to release the girl from the villain when it is exactly the opposite.

In this hard times for freedom, and I think that it will be worse and worse, all people like us that defend truth and freedom must protect ourselves too. The high exposibilty of internet is a two-way road: while ease the information access to people that's been fooled,  transforms you into a high viewable target.
Browsing trough the internetm I found out this project, called "The FreeNet"..
Read on!.



What is Freenet?

http://freenetproject.org/

Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.

Communications by Freenet nodes are encrypted and are "routed-through" other nodes to make it extremely difficult to determine who is requesting the information and what its content is.

Users contribute to the network by giving bandwidth and a portion of their hard drive (called the "data store") for storing files. Unlike other peer-to-peer file sharing networks, Freenet does not let the user control what is stored in the data store. Instead, files are kept or deleted depending on how popular they are, with the least popular being discarded to make way for newer or more popular content. Files in the data store are encrypted to reduce the likelihood of prosecution by persons wishing to censor Freenet content.

The network can be used in a number of different ways and isn't restricted to just sharing files like other peer-to-peer networks. It acts more like an Internet within an Internet. For example Freenet can be used for:

  • Publishing websites or 'freesites'
  • Communicating via message boards
  • Content distribution

Unlike many cutting edge projects, Freenet long ago escaped the science lab, it has been downloaded by over 2 million users since the project started, and it is used for the distribution of censored information all over the world including countries such as China and the Middle East. Ideas and concepts pioneered in Freenet have had a significant impact in the academic world. Our 2000 paper "Freenet: A Distributed Anonymous Information Storage and Retrieval System" was the most cited computer science paper of 2000 according to Citeseer, and Freenet has also inspired papers in the worlds of law and philosophy. Ian Clarke, Freenet's creator and project coordinator, was selected as one of the top 100 innovators of 2003 by MIT's Technology Review magazine.


Friday, November 10, 2006

Start blogging for freedom

FYI. Important announcement.
My two blogs "Swimming against the red tide "  and (portuguese) "Nadando Contra Maré Vermelha" are among the blog list.
If you have sometime, check it out!!!

"Weblogs pop up regularly on the Internet, but many fade away shortly after without trace. In some countries no blogs means no access to independent information, and there is reason to be concerned about a blogger's safety when new entries stop appearing.

Men and women from the United States to Iran and Brazil to China have risked imprisonment and personal safety by voicing their opinions and spreading information in their Weblogs, and these are the bloggers honored in the Deutsche Welle's annual Best of the Blogs Awards. Ten of the world's most influential blogs promoting freedom of expression can be found at www.thebobs.com. Cast Your Vote Now!

The BOBs are also proud to partner with Reporters Without Borders ( www.rsf.org) in campaigning for the release of more than 60 imprisoned cyber-dissidents and in calling for Internet users to support freedom of expression around the globe.

Join Reporters Without Borders and the BOBs in a 24-hour cyber demonstration against the Internet's Black Holes and register your opposition to censorship.

Give cyber-dissidents the help they need.

Get more information on Weblogs in the Deutsche Welle awards at www.thebobs.com and add your voice to the fight against online censorship at www.rsf.org.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

New blog: nzeal

A new blogger - who dives against the red too - soon will be added to my blogroll. Newzeal.blogspot.com

The owner, Trevor, described it here. Wellcome.


"My Blog New Zeal, deals a lot with the Latin American red tide, so it was good to find you and your colleagues. You can find me at newzeal.blogspot.com, or simply google New Zeal."

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Brasil - El Acuerdo Secreto - Olavo de Carvalho en "La Historia Paralela" de Argentina


One of Olavo´s latest articles was translated to spanish.
Here´s an excerpt.

 

Brasil - El Acuerdo Secreto

Publicado el 6 de November, 2006 en Internacional

Olavo CarvalhoEl punto culminante del debate del viernes fue la declaración de Lula respecto a que ningún gobierno anterior investigó tan a fondo o estaba tan bien informado sobre los crímenes de corrupción como el suyo. ¿Acaso no es justamente maravilloso que el más informado de los presidentes nada sabía de los crímenes cometidos por cinco de sus propios ministros? ¿No es una delicia que un gobierno que lo percibe todo sobre la delincuencia esparcida en el país entero, ignore lo que pasa en el Palacio de Planalto?De nuestra generación no se puede decir que vivió, sino que se arrastró en silencio: los jóvenes rumbo a la decrepitud, los viejos rumbo a las sepulturas sin honra.

(Tácito, historiador romano, 56-117 AD)


Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Intimidation of press: Abuse, Threats and Pressure. New Lula government have just started!

Sooner than you think, what Lula means to say on "social control of the means of communication" has just started.
And started with journalists from weekly magazine "Veja" the one that do the real journalism in Brazil.

"Veja" has started the scandal of the buy of the fake dossier against opposition (Serra - São Paulo state governor candidate **elected** and Alckmin) . They published the photos of the money found with friends of Mr. Lula to complete the operation. The money was withdrew from the public view but Veja got copies of the photos.
"Veja" has denounced the operation known as "abafa" - a white-washing operation from PT to clean the scene of the crime - related to the faked dossier agains Alckmin.

Federal Police seems to started to be used as Lula´s bulldog.

Another chapter on the "Death of a democracy".. Read it!!

Abuse, Threats and Pressure against "Veja" journalists
31 de Outubro de 2006   


With the excuse of obtain information to a investigation on internal affairs of functional rights of their sheriff and agents, Federal Police convocated five journalists from weekly magazine Veja to a kind of interrogatory. They were responsable for the reports that related the involvement of feds in acts described as the "abafa" (white-washing) operation on purpose to get Freud Godoy - presidency assessor - rid from the attempt of buying the infamous faked dossier that would be used against political adversaries of the government. Three from the five convocated - Julia Duablili, Camila Pereira e Marcelo Carneiro - were heard on tuesday afternoon by the sheriff Moysés Eduardo Ferreira.

For the surprise of the reporters their inquiry was not taken as witnesses, but as suspects. The questions were about the magazine that, for its turn, seemed to be the real focus of the police investigation. The description from the reporters and the  lawyer that was with them  clears that, although, that abuses were committed, pressure and threats in a clear and unacceptable attempt against the freedom of expression, guaranteed by the Constitution.

  1. When asked Julia Duailibi, sheriff delegado Moysés Eduardo Ferreira asked the reason why she wrote that "phallacy". VEJA reporter, than asked the sheriff what was the purpose of her inquiry hence he has came to the conclusion that the information published on the magazine were "phallacies". (..)
  1. Although the VEJA journalist was being inquired as witness with no relation with the money photos from the dossier, sheriff Moysés Eduardo Ferreira asked her on the previous report, signed by her. The sheriff demanded her to reveal who gave  her the CD with the photos. The reporter avoided to reveal her sources.

  1. During the inquiry of Julia Duailibi, sheriff Moysés Eduardo Ferreira asked her on what he believed was an operation orchestraded by VEJA to "fabricate" news against the Federal Police. He said the report was conceived by magazine editors  and he wanted to know who was editor responsable to create the expression "abafa operation".
Adding: the reporters weere been called as witnesses but  sheriff Moyses impeded them to consult with ther lawyer....

The odd facts are potetializaed by the raising ideological hostility to the independent means of communication, by the aggression by the militanst paid by the government against reporters on the duty of their jobs and , in special, by the lazyness that these facts were carried by the authorities. When the press is targeted by a political force the alert sign must be turned on by means that the spark could be extinguished before become a fire. Never is too late to remember :"Worse than to be submetted by the dictatorship of the few is to be submetted by a dictatorship of the majority".
http://vejaonline.abril.com.br/notitia/servlet/newstorm.ns.presentation.NavigationServlet?publicationCode=1&pageCode=1&textCode=121030&date=currentDate
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