The media covering the drought

I have a friend who works for a major tv broadcasting company here. He's a journalist, and writes for the nightly news. He knew i'm a GEAS volunteer, and after GEAS released their report about the drought in Sao Paulo, he asked me if he could interview me about it. I agreed.
He's coming over to the office tomorrow. I hope and can give him a precise picture of what we're doing at Superstruct.

By the way, the GEAS report caused a buzz in the news today. The Sao Paulo state governor said that he wasn't aware that the drought crisis was that big. Yeah, but we know it is, Mr. Governor.

I'll try to post the interview in first hand here. Stay tuned.
:)

Lil' Devils Ruined our Garden

I live in a condominium, an apartment building, with 19 other families. Almost all of us have kids...little kids, teenagers, some young adults. But the kids from the apartment 22 are true devils.
3 little devils, who already broke some windows when they were playing ball at the playground, they mistreated some cats and yesterday they ruined our garden.
I say our garden because the garden is collective, it belongs to everyone in the building. We all pay for it, and those of us who are into gardening - myself, for example - take care of the garden; but everyone in the condo is allowed to grab veggies from our garden, even if they don't collaborate with the expenses.

The bell rang, and a neighbor -- who's also a good friend of mine -- had a desperate look in his face. Right away i thought that somebody was dead, or that something really really bad had happened.

-- The devils! The effing devils ruined the garden. I'm gonna kill them, i will, i swear to god that i'm gonna kill the little bastards.
-- Woot!? Wa...wait.....what do you mean "they ruined the garden"? What happened??
-- You sure you wanna hear?
-- Crap, shoot!
-- Someone forgot a hoe down there. The bastards saw it, and decided they were gonna play in the garden. It's a mess...no, no...it's more than a mess. It's pure mud, man, you gotta see it for yourself, c'mon.

They neighbor grabbed me by my sleeves and threw me into the elevator. He was sweating like a pig, and i must admit: his face was hilarious! I held onto my shoes not to histerically laugh that moment. Haha.
When we got to the ground i could feel the smell of fresh earth. We got out of the lobby and then i saw the worst scene ever: our garden; ruined.
I lost my breath right away, and then i understood the neighbor's despair.

What are we gonna do now? The garden was like our secondary food source, but we relied on it when our monthly money was almost over. In fact, some families were feeding themselves exclusively from the garden.

The little devils broke our food chain. I'm gonna break their video-game. I will, i swear.

Rave Party!

Hacker Social Collaboration Forum

ConNEXT

Vedic Ecology

Space Based Solar Power

Terra Perma

Places Worth Caring about

Rooftop Kitchen

GEAS Volunteer Coordination in Europe (all cells)

Community Currency

Nomadic Markup Language

H2O Bubble

Supermarket Squatters

Eco Cities

Understanding the Superthreats

Panda - The Pandemic Surveillance System

ReDsnet Project

My girlfriend hacked my refrigerator

Finding the most powerful solutions

The New Crop

Official Response to the Malaysian Hack

Dude, where's my water?

I often say that, specially when i find out that it's Wednesday, around 2AM.
You're probably asking why, right? Yeah, why?
Because rain decided not to fall upon Sao Paulo anymore! The city is almost 160 days without a single tiny raindrop. This caused a cascade effect, over many aspects of the city's life.
The air is heavier than ever. Without rain, the atmposphere never gets cleaned, and we - residents - are the victims of the over-dusty air. We inhale pure poison, and each day even more people are buying gas-masks to be able to breathe.
Another thing...without rain, trees are dying, and we're not even able to water the trees ourselves. because we need to save the water to our personal needs. Unfortunately, the city is losing it's green cover. Okay, the green cover wasn't big, after all.
Our streets are nastier than ever -- without rain the sidewalks become a sandy place to walk on. This isn't good at all, because our shoes get dirty quicker than before, and how do we clean it without water? It's not possible. Well, someone might send them to a dry-laundry, but it's expensive as hell, and most of us would rather buy galons of drinkable water than spend money cleaning shoes. (Some people spit on their shoes to clean 'em up; i wouldn't say that, but i had to, sorry.)
I'm not gonna say anything about our toilets, not at all. I don't want you to puke. Let's skip that part, right? :)

The worst thing is the water rationing. Each day of the week, an area of Sao Paulo don't receive water, except for the central area, where the rich people live. Go figure, huh?
I decided to write about the water because today i had to take a ultra-high-quick shower. I forgot it was my day to live in the desert.
What shall we do? Cry, to replenish our reservatories?
I love this city. but i hate it at the same time. I'm gonna tell you more about Sao Paulo in some other posts.
Gotta go now, or i'll find the terrible traffic jam. At 5:30 AM, yeah.

Manuel gets a job

After a few days, Manuel found himself at home. The kids and the dog loved him, but my wife didn't. Actually, she got pretty uncomfortable having a total stranger suddenly living under the same roof as her, in her house, in her home, among her family. She told me Manuel had to leave, or she would, and she would take the kids with her.
I sat down and started wondering how the hell i was going to find Manuel a new home. He couldn't go back to the streets, that wasn't a fair option, right? So, i decided to have a little talk with Manuel.
He was in the living room, laid back on the couch, watching a movie and eating peanuts.

- Sorry Manuel, can i interrupt you for a few minutes?
- Yeah, sure.
- Great...Manuel, what's your profession?
- Oh, it's a bit complicated, my friend. In my hometown i used to teach kids. I did that for free, because i believe we should help our community in any possible way. But that's not my real profession. I don't have a specific profession, actually...i run some errands; i fix roofs, i paint houses, i can be a plumber -- a good plumber, if i might say so.
- Would you like to work for us at the office?
- Of course i would! When should i start?

We weren't in need of someone at the staff, but this was the only way i could get Manuel a new home, a job, and keep my wife. What was i supposed to do? I wasn't kicking him out, not a chance. Since i had some "decision power" at the office, i could convince the boss to accept Manuel as a new staff member. I really didn't know what he would be useful for, but i decided to give him a chance.

- Tomorrow sounds good?
- Sounds excellent. What will i do?
- Ehm... you're gonna work for us as a General Assistant.
- Great!
- So, wanna talk about your salary?
- No, no...you pay me what you think is fair, i don't care. Plus, i think i owe you for feeding and sheltering me.
- Oh, don't mention it. Okay, that's that. We're done. -- i smiled at him.

I went to my bedroom wondering why the heck i was doing all that for a total stranger. But he wasn't a total stranger anymore, he was a friend already.

Manuel finds a home

Sao Paulo has a lot of homeless people, especially downtown. Until 2012, all of the homeless were brazilians, and this scenario started changing when the civil war in Bolivia started.
The brazilian government estimates that around 500.000 bolivians came to Brazil as civil war refugees, and a big slice of these people decided to come to Sao Paulo, illuded by the city's figure, very similar to what happened to brazilian northeasterners, who also came to Sao Paulo looking for better oportunities, during the 1960's.

The next day i went to the office thinking about Manuel. In a matter of fact, i couldn't stop thinking about him since we met, and i didn't even know why.
I already had plans for him. I felt like i had to help that man in any possible way. I put myself in his position: what if my family suddenly didn't exist anymore? What if my hometown suddenly became a hostile place? What if i find myself in a strange place, hopeless, helpless and jobless? I would expect an angel to save me, nothing else. I would've spent days and days and days crying, blaming fate.

I jumped outta the bus as usual, walked a few blocks and i saw Manuel standing in the same spot as he was standing the day before. I walked towards him.
- Good morning fella.
- Good morning, how are you doing Jorge?
- I'm fine, very fine. How about ya?
- Good too. Didn't sleep too well today, it was too hot. I sweated all night long. And some bolivian kids shouted until 3AM. Hell, true hell.
- Haha. Manuel, i need to tell you something. I was gonna bring you some clothes today, in a nice bag, but i haven't brought it, sorry.
- Oh, okay. No problems.
- Know why?
- Because you forgot?
- No, i didn't. I deliberately decided not to bring the clothes. I want to invite you to stay in my house for some time.
- Woot!?
- You heard. I'm inviting you to go to my house, settle down yourself there for some time, until we find you a job and a place of your own. What do you say?
- I don't say anything man. I can't accept it.
- C'mon Manuel, don't be so stubborn. Can you swallow your pride only today? I really wanna help you. I don't know, i just feel like i need to do it, plus, i wanna do it.
- Don't you have a wife, kids, dog, cat, whatever?
- I do, and i already told my wife i was bringing a permanent guest.
I lied. I didn't tell her.
- What did she say?
- She said you're very welcome, and i asked her to make a special dinner for us tonight.
She would probably order it.
- I'm not gonna say no. Your kids yell at night? Do you have kids, by the way?
- I do, two kids. A boy and a girl. Well, sometimes they cry through the whole night, but i think you know howto deal with that, since you were a father too, right?
At this moment a tear started running through his face, and i realized i shouldn't have said that.
- Oh, sorry Manuel, sorry. I didn't meant.
- It's okay. So, when do we go? I really could do with a shower.
- Wanna go now? I can call the day off, i think my boss won't mind.
- Really?
His eyes sparkled.
- Yes, sure. I mean...i hope so. Hang on, imma call the office.
I called to my boss and told him what the situation was. The tone of his voice wasn't too friendly, but he agreed on giving me a day off.
- We're cool Manuel. Shall we go?

We faced 3 hours stuck in the traffic, but we finally got home. The apartment was empty; my wife was at work, and my kids were in the daycare.

- Welcome home Manuel. This is your new home. Don't feel threatened, embarassed, or whatever. Come're, imma show you your room.
The apartment had a spare room, planned to be a maid's room. Since we didn't have a maid, the room was available. It wasn't empty though...it was full of useless old stuff which should have been thrown away a long ago, but we were always too lazy to do that.
After 2 hours cleaning up the room, Manuel had a new bedroom. And he could finally clean himself.
- Jorge, can i take a shower? I feel dusty, sticky...
- Of course you can. Let me get you a towel.
I went to the drawer and grabbed him a fluffy towel.
- Here's your towel Manuel. Today i'll let you have a long bath, but don't get used to it. We have a policy here stating that all our bathes takes no longer than 5 minutes.
- Sure thing.

And old article about government's plans to avoid the climate changes and deforestation

Today i found an old pendrive of mine. I totally forgot i had it.
I plugged it into the old USB port, and i got surprised by what was in there. It's dated as 2008, September 25th, and i don't even know why i saved it. I think it was God's will that i stumble upon it now, exactly 11 years later, check it out:

Goverment's plan includes goal of reducing to zero the forest cover until 2015.
On this date, a balance between deforestation and planting would be reached.
The goal belongs to the Climate Change National Plan.

The ministers Sérgio Rezende (Science and Technology) and Carlos Minc (Environment), and the secretary for Climate Changes and Environmental Quality, Suzana Kahn, presented on this thursday (25) a preview version of the Climate Change National Plan, which aims to reduce the gases emission that cause the Greenhouse Effect.

The plan foresees that Brazil would reach the balance between the deforestation and the planting by the year of 2015, and therefore would no longer lose forest cover. “From this date, Brazil will be planting more than cutting. We'll have both illegal and legal deforestation decreasing, and an increasing tree-planting rate”, said Minc, in Brasília.

Amazon

To the amazonic region, the plan has a series of integrated policies to reduce forest incension and illegal deforestation, control of leeching and replacement of the illegal wood extractivism with management plans. The objectives also include the advance of a practicable agroreform to Amazon, and the implementation of conservation units and indian lands in prioritaries areas as elements of a sustainable development for the region.

According to the Ministery of Environment, the plan assures that Brazil compromise itself for the first time with decreasing deforestation average-rates on all biomes, measurable each 4 years, until reaching zero illegal deforestation, goal to which there isn't, however, a predicted date.

Public Consultation

Before being sent to presidential sanction, the plan stays, since monday, available for 30 days to public consultation. It doesn't determine mandatory goals for greenhouse-effect-gases emission. All measures to be adopted will be voluntaries, for the government and for the productive sector as well.

“Having a goal is easy, the hardest thing is convincing the sectors, having budget. We can always set a bolder goal, but we have to keep real to what we want from each sector. It's like they say: 'we've got to reach an agreement with the Russians', with the sectors which will have to adopt policies to reduce the emissions.”, compaired Minc, according to information from Agencia Brasil.

General Goals

To reduce the emission of greenhouse-effect gases, the plan also lists programs of energetic efficiency, encouragement of renewable-sources energy and a bigger use of biofuel. Among the actions to increase the energetic efficiency, the plan cites incentives to change the refrigerators that are still using CFC.

The plan explains, without further details, that Petrobras (brazilian oil agency, site in english) will avoid the emission of more than 20 million tons of CO2 until 2012, says Agencia Brasil. Another advance that the government expects to reach voluntarily from the productive sector is the replacement of mineral coal with reforested-wood coal in the siderurgic sector.

There's no prediction of the total cost on the implementation of the policies listed on the plan. The origin of the economic resources to its execution should be detailed on the second version.

Originally published on Globo Amazõnia.

Blackout

Sao Paulo got blackened out tonight. People got stuck on the subway and on the elevators, traffic in the whole city jammed, among other things.

It's been said that after GEAS released their report, the number of sucides in the world peaked. I'm afraid the blackout tonight have affected the suicides; a blackout after a report dooming the humanity isn't pleasing.
My kids doesn't even know what the GEAS is, but i'm already trying to figure out a way to explain to them.
I confess it shocked me knowing that humanity is in its deadline. No more Dance Monkeys, Dance -- an amazing analysis of our race, by the way; no more rapes; no more World Cups; no more pollution; no more car crash; no more candy bars; no more cellphones; no more helicopters; no more pasta; no more idiot blog posts when you desperately need to write and then you start flushing what's in your head, writing using a language that's not your native language, [edit] and a few minutes later you realize you malformed a sentence, and then you sit in front of the computer and your fingers seems to merge with the keyboard; don't know if that's good or bad though. [/edit]
Humanity really is weird, and i am too.

I wonder how the nightmare i had and our path fits in
the map (click to enlarge):

Map extracted from IFTF Library.

I had a nightmare last night

Last night i had the most frightening dream in ages.
I was walking down the street, going somewhere i can't remember. All of a sudden, a huge and dusty cloud of sand covered the whole city, and the city was wrapped with a deadly silence.
No one was around. It was just me and the street.
And i stood there, paralyzed, fearing something bigger than me, when a huge³ nuclear computer began to appear in the horizon.
"OMG,OMG,OMG!!! Sâo Paulo became the geekland?!"
The machine created eyes, and then a mouth popped up, and the machine started speaking to me: "Run. Run as fast as you can. I'll begin the countdown in 5 minutes. Deep in your heart you know where you need to go, just go!"

I started running, and i realized i left my wife and the kids home, so i tried to go back and grab'em along, but i couldn't run anymore. I tried, i swear i did, but i didn't move an inch!
And so i saw a cliff, and a sign with some letters on it. I don't know what the letters were, but somehow they seemed familiar.

I woke up sweating, desperately gasping for hope. I calmed down, sipped on some coffee and decided to write this down.

Credit cards are gone

Several years ago we used credit cards to make our payments. I remember the badges: Visa, Mastercard, AmericanExpress, among others. Our kids don't even know what a credit card is, this is unbelievable.
I like technology, i really do. I like the fact that you don't even have to take your cellphone out of your pocket to check out of a drugstore, for example. Everything is made via bluetooth: the system connects to your cellphone, check your OpenID, and then it makes the necessary tasks on your account. If you're not carrying your phone, you can simply say your password, and the voice recognition system takes charge of everything else.

All of this was supposed to be good, to make our lives easier, but it isn't, it doesn't. From today on, my favorite supermarket is accepting cash only. The manager said they can't trust the online system anymore, since all sorts of connections have leaks, and therefore aren't secure anymore.
I wonder if the 2012 stock market crash was caused by one of these leaks. No explanation has been given until now.

That's why i always kept my money under the matress. I never trusted the system, and i never will.

Blog Action Day

11 years ago they took part.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Sao Paulo - a Beta World City

According to GaWC, São Paulo is a Beta World City, which means the city is huge. That's not breaking news though.
Just like any other big city in the world nowadays, São Paulo - hereby referred to as SP - suffers due to the overcrowding. Citizens are chased daily by a monster called "traffic". But, what did we do in the past 10 years to minimize this issue? Did we give enough attention to the public transportation? I don't think so.



12 years ago the subway was already overcrowded. We used to brag about it, and i personally bragged a few times. Okay,a lot of times. Then, i decided to take part, to make some kind of difference. So, i bought a bicycle.
I hoped the City Hall would build more cicleways in the years to come, as more people would abandon cars and the public transportation, and would become more fond of sustainable-non-polluting transportation.
People didn't adopt this form of transport, and the City Hall didn't build the desired cycleways, and evertything stays the same.
The city grew even more, more people came to the city, more cars were bought, which means more CO² to the atmosphere, which means less oxygen, which means less health, which means i'm pretty disappointed.
I remember when getting from one point to another would take less than 3 hours during the rush-hours. Now, it rarely takes less than 5 hours if you're going by car.
Thank god i own a bicycle. Thank god my kids knows how to ride bicycles.

By the way, a few days ago a friend sent me a pic of her, doing her dishes. She said the air was so heavy in her area, she had to wear her mask inside her house. I wonder what my grandkids will wear in their time.

Foreword

Before anything else, i'd like to introduce myself.
My full name is Jorge Augusto Guberte. I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in December 23rd, 1983. I'm almost 35 years old now.
I have 2 kids. My son is 8 years old, and my daughter is 3. I've been married for exactly 9 years.
Before my kids were born my mother used to say: "Don't have kids, please! I'll not take care of them for you. Plus, they'll grow up in a twisted environment, especially here in the city".

That's exactly why we're moving outta town. We can't take it here anymore. Seeing your kids wearing gas-masks so they can breath when going to school isn't quite pleasing. Wearing a gas-mask yourself isn't pleasing either, but we have too.
The air here is polluted, and by polluted i mean "almost non-breathable". The city has been overwhelmed by cars for such a long time. Can you imagine that? Years and years the atmosphere has been infected by a wicked smoke. During the sunrises, every single morning, we can see a green halo on the horizon, due to pollution. It is very beautiful, but it is totally unhealthy.
Plus, the rivers here can't be called rivers anymore. They're like sewers...no, no, they ARE sewers, but the government insists on calling them "rivers".

I just went to the kitchen to get some coffee. They sell coffee at the supermarket, but not like 10 years ago, when we could make coffee at home. The coffee now comes ready, and you only need to put inside the microwave, hit the "coffee" button, wait for the beeps, and there you go. A smokey and flavourish coffee. Isn't that nice?! Life is much easier now.
But hey, we wouldn't be able to make coffee at home anyway, since the water coming in is undrinkable. I don't know what happened, but it happened.

By the way, i'll post some data regarding to the population here. Seems to me that the city's population shrunk lately. The government makes up this kind of data, so i can have a hard time finding it, but i have some reliable sources.

See you next time i get a decent internet connection, friendly reader. Things are starting to get pretty bad here. High bills, crappy services.
I'll definitely move from here. I just don't know where to.