Leitura: What World Should Expect from Obama & Dilma: The End of Poverty Through Education

2011 - March 2011

Written by Cristovam Buarque

Sunday, 20 March 2011 16:25

0diggsdigg Since the end of the Cold War, presidents have no longer been defenders of ideas and strategic positions in international geopolitics.  Globalization has reduced the national leaders to local agendas, above all to commercial agendas. Globalization has still not produced the global statespeople that the world needs.  World leaders must perceive the need to go beyond commerce, stop seeing the borders of their countries as a customs and immigration problem and understand their role in the architecture of the future world. President Barack Obama and President Dilma Rousseff are among the few leaders in the position to see the world as global statespeople, and not merely as leaders of their countries.  Both have a biography committed to values and principles, with banners of struggle. They have ideas about and sensitivity to worldwide problems.  In addition, as a black man and as a woman, they share a biopolitical genesis different from their predecessors.  This gives them new sensibilities and positions in relation to the future. President Obama's visit to Brazil and his dialogue with President Dilma, therefore, give us the hope that the meeting will produce something historical and will not merely be another friendly diplomatic gesture. In the first place, we should perceive their mutual greatness if we remember that it is the first time that a U.S. president has come to Brazil before his Brazilian colleague visited the United States. But to leave their mark on history the two presidents must transform the Encounter into a Summit Meeting of two global statespeople, defining a common agenda for world problems. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism should be among the principal concerns of this agenda, and commercial matters cannot be forgotten, but international problems should come first. The two presidents need to place at least three other topics on the agenda:  the struggle against poverty, recalling President Dilma's statement that "a rich world is a world without poverty"; the subordination of the economy to ecological equilibrium; and the defense of human rights. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, already in the spirit of Cold War statesmanship, launched the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe. President John F. Kennedy, still in the spirit of the Cold War, launched the Food for Peace program and several support programs for the economic development of each underdeveloped country. Presidents Obama and Dilma must go much further than this, adapting to the demands of the 21st-century globalized world, a world demanding policies that no longer come unilaterally from the USA and are no longer merely concerned with each country's economic development. Together they must launch the ideas for an anti-poverty Global Social Plan, above all for overcoming poverty through education, with the worldwide adoption of programs like the Bolsa Escola and the support of quality schooling for all the world's children.  And they should present a Letter to be submitted to the Chiefs of State at the "Rio + 20" Meeting in 2012. Dilma and Obama have shown their concerns for the environment, especially for the search for alternative energy sources, and together they could carry this discussion to the world.  They should sign an alliance updating the concept of the auto-determination of the world's peoples to recognize the world as a condominium of countries with mutual responsibilities:  to human rights; against terrorism; to impeding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and to permitting the use of the technical advance for the service of all humanity. Dilma and Obama represent strong countries and share the personal qualities needed to transform a meeting of two presidents into a summit meeting of two global statespersons.  Brazil, the United States and the world, we today and the future generations - all of us hope that they will take advantage of the opportunity that history, their personal biographies and the merit of each of them will offer us. Cristovam Buarque is a professor at the University of Brasília and a PDT senator for the Federal District.  He is the vice president of the Brazilian Senate Foreign Relations Commission. You can visit his website at www.cristovam.org.br/portal2/, follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SEN_CRISTOVAM in Portuguese and http://twitter.com/cbbrazilianview in English and write to him at cristovam@senado.gov.br.  New translations of his works of fiction The Subterranean Gods and Astricia are now available on Amazon.com. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome (LinJerome@cs.com). Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Comments (8) Subscribe to this comment's feed Gerald Celente - The First Great War of the 21st Century written by Ricardo C. Amaral, April 05, 2011 Here is what I posted today on Brazzil Magazine, the Elite Trader Economics Forum, and on other places on the web: Ricardo: Ederson, if you read my articles going back to 2002 then you would know that I was against the United States attacking Iraq even before the United States made that terrible mistake. And since 2002 I wrote many times over the years that Afghanistan is where former superpowers go to die a slow death. Since before the US attacked Iraq I said on my articles it was all about pillaging the oil and the natural resources of these countries. I grew up in Brazil and as a young man I came to the United States and during all that time I was told that the Soviet Union was a "Rogue Nation" and an "Evil Empire." But somewhere along the way the United States changed in a drastic way - and today we can say that the United States has turned itself into the "Rogue Nation" that everybody has to worry about. The reality is: Something went drastically wrong with the United States, and that old good country of the past it does not exist anymore - today we have only the wreckage of the old country and a country in decline in every way. Barack Obama was elected because people wanted "CHANGE" - He changed nothing, and he just became a member of the old club that had been wrecking this country for a long time. A lot people that I know are really pissed with the government of the United States and all these scoundrels of Wall Street. Most American politicians (with very few exceptions) are not worth even the food that they eat. Gerald Celente -The First Great War of the 21st Century – April 3, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUX-1BI_pvQ . +0 Bretton Woods Conference of 2011 = (Panic time) written by Ricardo C. Amaral, April 09, 2011 Ricardo: Today when I was reading an article published on the Financial Times (UK) “Speculators send Brazil's real soaring to new heights” - I was shaking my head and wondering why they can't grasp in Brazil that China and the United States is playing a different game than Brazil. In this game Brazil has become the “Patsy” - as a result of QE1, QE2, and very soon QE3 and so forth where the United States is exporting inflation to Brazil, and the speculators are pushing the real up with the carry trade between the real vs. the US dollar and the yuan. The FT article said: “Brazil's currency has surged over the past two weeks, breaking one of market's most important resistance levels, as speculators have seized on an apparent shift in government policy.” ***** In the last 2 years the real appreciated against the US dollar by 45 percent – and now the speculators are going to take Brazil for a ride. Today Brazil has become the “Patsy” and Brazil it's in the business of exporting jobs out of Brazil and undermining the foundations of the Brazilian economy. This foreign exchange policy of the Brazilian government is creating a major problem for the Brazilian economy, because is increasing the cost of doing business in Brazil and products made in Brazil is becoming very expensive, and they are also putting the tourism industry out of business in Brazil. Brazil is becoming a very expensive place for people from other countries to go for vacation. It is an “economic war” and Brazil in retaliation is shooting blanks. China and the United States are not going to change their game until the entire house of cards collapse, but in the meantime I wonder what is necessary for the Brazilian government to wake up and start playing in the same game that the US and China are playing. Maybe the real exchange rate has to appreciate another 50 percent and Brazil has to export another 200,000 or 300,000 thousand manufacturing jobs out of Brazil, and have a real crisis in the tourism industry in Brazil, and inflation to go back to the levels that most Brazilians would prefer to forget – the level of the old bad days. People started to grasp that the US economy and financial system is collapsing just like the Soviet Union – and the only reason they did not have a massive meltdown is because of the status of the US dollar as the main global reserve currency. Now even Soros Soros is coming out and saying that the US dollar is no longer the main global reserve currency. George Soros said: “US dollar is no longer the main reserve currency”... George Soros Says China's Inflation Is `Serious Concern' – April 8, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ajJmAF2aU ***** Soros Holds Bretton Woods II – April 8, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbPgMv0tDNA ***** Ricardo: As I have been saying for a long time the US dollar as the main reserve currency has reached the end of the line. This weekend 400 economists and central bankers have assembled in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to explore the way in which economic thinking needs to respond to the financial crisis, at a conference organised by the Geroge Soros-funded Institute of New Economic Thinking. Bretton Woods Conference of 2011 = (Panic time) . +1 Here is what Guido Mantega next move should be to fight and defend the Brazilian economy on this “Economic” and “Currency War” written by Ricardo C. Amaral, April 09, 2011 Ricardo: Here is what Guido Mantega next move should be to fight and defend the Brazilian economy on this “Economic” and “Currency War.” Finance Minister Guido Mantega should announce ASAP a 40 percent devaluation of the Real, and adopt a fixed rate currency system pegged to a basket of currencies including the US dollar and the Chinese yuan – a program designed to stop the “Hot Money” from going into the Brazilian market to blow all kinds of bubbles in Brazil, and also get under control the constant currency destabilizing effect that serve as a torpedo to destroy the foundations of the Brazilian economy. This strategy is designed to protect Brazilian manufacturers, the tourism industry in Brazil, and to keep the “Hot Money” from blowing more speculative bubbles inside the Brazilian economy. There's nothing wrong with this strategy, since the 2 countries with the 2 largest economies in the world are not playing a fair game in the international monetary arena, and Brazil should start playing the game according to their rules. . +0 Ricardo Amaral written by João da Silva, April 16, 2011 Finance Minister Guido Mantega should announce ASAP a 40 percent devaluation of the Real, and adopt a fixed rate currency system pegged to a basket of currencies including the US dollar and the Chinese yuan – a program designed to stop the “Hot Money” from going into the Brazilian market to blow all kinds of bubbles in Brazil, and also get under control the constant currency destabilizing effect that serve as a torpedo to destroy the foundations of the Brazilian economy. That aint going to happen, Ricardo. Who is in charge of the BC now was trained at U of Illinois and he is warning everybody that the SELIC rate is going to go up. I am looking forward to reading and hearing if Prez.Rousseff´s trip to PRC was a success or fracas. +1 Bretton Woods Conference of April 2011 written by Ricardo C. Amaral, April 17, 2011 Ricardo: From April 8 to April 11, 2011, during that entire weekend 400 world leading economists and central bankers have assembled in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to explore the way in which economic thinking needs to respond to the financial crisis, at a conference organized by the Geroge Soros-funded Institute of New Economic Thinking. The last time they had a similar conference it was in 1944. It took me hours to compile this information and place it on one location – on this thread you can see the web link to most lectures, speeches and discussions that took place in the Bretton Woods Conference of April 2011. I did watch 50 percent of these videos, and I recommend people to watch the following videos: James Boughton reviews the history of Bretton Woods on INET's Annual Conference – April 9, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...2461F7A653 James Boughton from the International Monetary Fund speaks on INET's Bretton Woods Conference on April 8, 2011. (19 min.) Gordon Brown at INET's Bretton Woods Conference 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70RfPGNhA8 Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gives the keynote speech at INET's Bretton Woods Conference on April 9, 2011. He is introduced by Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. (54 min.) The Architecture of Asia: Panel on INET's Brettton Woods Conference (Part 1 of 7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLh-90u2Q3c Joseph Stiglitz is a Professor at Columbia University and a speaker at INET's Conference at Bretton Woods on April 10, 2011 Part 1 of 7 = 26 min. Adair Lord Turner's keynote at INET's Bretton Woods Conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7UdI41Pu4 Adair Lord Turner, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, gives keynote address at INET's Bretton Woods Conference on April 9, 2011. He is introduced by Robert Johnson, the Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking. (1hr. 29 min.) Here is the location where you find the web links to the entire conference: Bretton Woods Conference of April 2011 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/...did=218613 . -1 ... written by Vietnam Visa, April 23, 2011 In the first place, we should perceive their mutual greatness if we remember that it is the first time that a U.S. president has come to Brazil before his Brazilian colleague visited the United States. +1 purple wedding invitations written by purple wedding invitations, April 25, 2011 Although the crowned black wedding invitations have yet to formally accept, and the King of Thailand is said to be too ill to attend, a senior source within the Foreign Office described it as a high proportion of crowned heads for a wedding that is not being treated as a state wedding. US President Barack Obama and his pink wedding invitations Michelle are understood not to have received a wedding invitation, although they have been invited to Buckingham Palace for a state visit in May in what is being seen as a ‘sweetener’.The invitations are on thick white card measuring 8in by 6in, bevelled, gilded and stamped with red wedding invitations in gold which has then been burnished. +0 Poverty written by Ryan O'Shea, April 29, 2011 Barack Obama should be doing more to stop poverty. There are so many people out their who do not have a place live or anything to eat and we have people out their who are billionares. The people out there who have a lot of money and they are not putting it to good use then they are killing thousands of people each day. They should be out their donating clothes, money, and their time to the people who have nothing. If I had money I would put it to good use. You might not realize it but their are people who only make 2.50 per day or less. We need to stand together and make the world become a better place!      SOURCE: http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/230-march-2011/10469-what-world-should-expect-from-obama-a-dilma-the-end-of-poverty-through-education.html