Commitment to Freedom

Commitment to Freedom

Urbanization has spread to the entire planet: the majority of the world’s population now lives in urban areas versus only 14% in 1900. This is not necessarily bad news: in fact, the city, say many analysts, can become a privileged place in the fight against climate change; the streamlining of the systems of transportation, water sanitation, energy distribution provide evidences of this fact. The experimental construction of "green buildings" that produce the energy they consume is another step forward. The city is also a place where information flows, a place of inventions, of collective discussion, and, as such, it can generate a number of innovative measures.

Actually, when it comes to the relationship between city and global...

Read more: Local Democracy and Climate Change

Commitment to Freedom

I just finished watching the CNN report on how the stock markets went after the rejection of the US plan to save the “world from an economic crisis”. Let’s say that I do not blame either Mr. Bernanke (head of the Federal Reserve or central bank of the US) or Mr. Paulson (treasury secretary) for their failure in achieving a consensus over the plan, but there has been a problem to communicate what the real consequences of the crisis are and how does the plan really work as well.I mention the note in CNN, as the journalist talking about India used a sentence which tries to disguise her lack of knowledge on the topic: “It’s like every day there was a death person in the family” she said, with regards to the last couple of daily...

Read more: A longer mindset for a short crisis

Commitment to Freedom

Forty-five years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and announced to the world that he had a dream. His dream was not some sleep induced imagining, but the vision of a free world that he knew would become a reality if the people continued to stand up for each other as they were standing up with him at that moment.

The great leaders in history have been dreamers, their dreams embodying the hopes they wanted to make reality. When they succeeded, the world took a giant step forward. When they failed or others with evil dreams prevailed, the world fell back.

I dream. Nearly everyone dreams, but our dreams don’t shake up the world, because we know that our dreams are just visions of our imagination...

Read more: Voting for dreams

Commitment to Freedom

For me, winning one of the Life Sustainability Award is not only a surprising encouragement, but also a precious chance to promote our ideas.

More than 10 years ago, I left my former job as a journalist reporting environmental news and went back to my hometown to serve in the social movement against the construction of the Southern Coast Industrial Area. Then I moved from the movements of environmental protection to that of the community college. Also in recent years, I joined the community college in an agricultural village and took part in the Sand Protection Act which is related to the development of the agricultural villages and coastal changes. Through all these years, now I think I should pay more attention to the way of...

Read more: Maintaining the link between Agriculture and Environmental Protection

Commitment to Freedom

I left the road and went into the wood. The path was large and smooth. I had been told that it would lead me to a circular wall of stones, the remains of a common house or a sacred ground built by one the people who had anonymously ventured into the island. Not much was left of the little colony that had settled there around four thousand years ago. A few weapons and fragments of pottery had been excavated, and were now exhibited elsewhere, in a little-known museum. Most of the findings had probably been kept by the locals. In the wood, there was no signpost - you just had to follow the path till you bumped into this circular wall made of heavy and reddish stones. Turning on the left, I found the opening, a very large stone adorning its...

Read more: Culture, Sustainable Development and China

Commitment to Freedom

Brazil is a recent democracy and it was only in October of 1989 that it held its first universal and direct elections to elect its President since a military coup in March 1964, overthrew Joao Goulart’s democratic and progressive government. In 1988 a Constitutional Assembly was established to draft the Brazilian Constitution.[/dropcap]

The constitution’s preamble lays clear the intention of elevating Brazil to the level of a true democratic nation, founded on the principles of freedom, safety, equality, and guaranteeing the enjoyment of collective and individual rights, repressed during the military dictatorship. The Brazilian constitution contains 250 articles and since its promulgation on the 5th of October 1988, has already...

Read more: An Overview of Human Rights in Brazil

Commitment to Freedom

During the last month the economic crisis has deepened its roots: the economy in the US fell 0.3% in the third quarter, the general indexes of stock markets have fallen all around the world from the developed countries to the emerging markets, consumer confidence is hitting record lows and articles about the financial crisis and the end of this period of capitalism are abundant. Critics on how the incentives system has deteriorated the world wealth distribution in favor of bankers and managers are leading the political debates in several countries.

The crisis exists and it is imperative to have a close look on how governments react locally and in concert with multilateral institutions. But this is also the right moment to check our...

Read more: Inside the classroom walls (2)