Paul Krugman in lost Wonderland

Paul Krugman in Lisbon

Paul Krugman, north-american, Noble Prize of Economy in 2008, came here to Lisbon to receive the insignia of Honoris Causa, I don't know what the hell that latin word really means but it must mean that he's a very inteligent person and so he was recognized for that with the Hnoris Causa thing.
Krugman talked to the media about all this Euro crisis thing, he said some interesting things like we (Portugal) have few options we're in a trap do our commitment with the Euro..and so with our creditors...the germans of course. Basically we have no light in the end of the tunnel...we're trapped!
Krugman said we only could have options in Berlin, or Frankfurt...this says a lot about who's rulling Europe right now: and it's so obvious!!!
And as days go by the unemployment rates grow in Portugal, Greece, Spain, Italy and so on and Germany is the only one doing fine, really fine...in fact their economy have never been this good since...since...2nd World War! Congratz german folk! How you do that? well...other countries import 60% of german exportations and  now they are indebted and so they have to obbey to all of what germans say 'cause they got the money...basically this is the only explanation in my point of view.
It's ironic how Germany have been growing so much in 10 years of euro, and Portugal didn't grow anything, isn't it? We're a zombie economy!
Krugman said too that quit the Euro wouldn't be an option since our huge debt would increase even more, and there's a lot involved in this: it's the European process too.
Krugamn said a wise thing too he said that experts have been very busy making people understand all kind of sciences like astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry...but not economy which is crazy since economy really affects people's lives....well maybe politicians and bankers doesn't want us to know how they screw up our lives and make huge amounts of money with us...but it's just me saying...
A journalist said that the recession of 1930 ended with the 2nd World War, so should us fear any kind of conflict? Krugman said it was possible....well last year I heard Sarkozy and Merkell warning Europe that "if Euro falls, Europe falls and we can't guarantee another 50 years of peace and prosperity", I think it's more like saying: "do as we say or you'll be screwed!".

But then Krugman said this:

"I know people ask me why do I want lower wages..well, unfortunatelly Portugal has a very large external deficit and will have to improve its cost competitiveness and that means that the wages in Portugal have to lag behind Germany substancially. And that probably means some fall of wages here. So it's not nice but it's what it has to happen".
see and listen  with your own eyes and ears: economia/krugman-agencia-financeira

Excuse me: our external deficit is very large!? What about yours? USA is the 2nd more indebted country in the world, only behind Japan!!! Which is an absurd since USA has almost none public institutions specially of health care..so where do you spend all the money? Oh...army, isn't it? (screwed-up-america).
And who's buying the USA debt are the chineses so...don't you think you could use all your knowledge helping your country instead???
And by the way europeans are kind of tired of USA financial terrorism with rating agencies so it would be cool if they just knock it off and try to solve USA huge, huge problems ok?
moodys-rating-agency-lows-to-junk-level
fitch-downgrades-portugal-to-junk
The explanation for rating agencies to downgrade almost all Europe countries recently (even Germany) is that Europe is doing things wrong and it's enough austery...in that way we all must agree.
Anyway I still not quite understand why China is buying USA huge debt, chineses became the USA banker..what's the point of finance USA economy when they spend rivers of money in army and making wars overseas?
Europe can be living hard times but thanks God Europe is not America, and Obama is right when said about USA that "we are not Portugal", and they can solve their crisis...funny it seems to be much more easier to solve the crisis of a huge country like USA than a small small country like Portugal...does that make any sense? There's not comparison we're 10 million peaceful people here and we definetely can put our economy growing ( if we just say germans to go screw themselves...but that's another question...anyway Obama is right!).

But here's the most incredible thing of all this: so Krugman came with his fellows from MIT to Portugal to study our economy here and just said that this was a "crazy place", so he knows Portugal since 1976...but what sure you don't know is that the minimum and medium wages here are by far much much much more lower than in Germany! You don't have no idea of how lower they are so that makes no sense you suggest us to cut our wages between 20% and 30% compared to german wages...
Let's do your homework research Krugman (that's what you should have done before speaking of things you don't know...even being a Doctor and a Nobel, and even if you're from MIT or Princeton):

This data are from Eurostat (2003):

Minimum wages:

Luxembourg: 1369 euros

Netherlands: 1249 euros

Belgium:  1163 euros

France:   1154 euros

United Kingdom: 1105 euros

Ireland: 1073 euros

USA: 877 euros

Greece: 750 euros

Malta: 535 euros

Spain: 526 euros

Portugal: 485 euros

Slovenia: 451 euros

Hungary: 212 euros

Poland: 201

Czech Republic: 199 euros

About Germany, contrary to other countries, have no stipulated wage by law but their labor is the 3rd most expensive of Europe...and they're not less competetive because of that...in average each worker receives about 50,4 thousand euros per year, that means about 4200 euros per month!!! In average portuguese people receive about 700 or 800 euros per month and now our minimum wage is of 485 euros!!! Got that? WE ALREADY ARE UNDERPAID, WE RECEIVE SUBSTANCIALLY LESS THAN GERMANS, ABOUT 5 to 9 TIMES LESS! And even less than the greeks (about 750 euros of minmum wage), portugueses receive 486 euros.
So if Krugman says we must cut between 20% and 30% our incomes compared to german incomes that would mean that we should win between 840 euros (a 30% cut) and 1260 euros (30% cut)...this way we would win two times or more than we actually win and that would be nice, but Mister Krugman said: cut wages substancially...not rising them!
If we really cut between 20% and 30% the workers wages would stop receiving 800 euros to receive between 160 euros to 240 euros and those who win the minimum wage would receive between 145 euros (20% cut) and 97,2 euros (30% less). DO YOU THINK THAT ANYONE IN THE EURO ZONE CAN LIVE LIKE THAT??? NO! NO WAY!IT'S MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE PAID LIKE IN BANGLADESH AND HAVE A LIFE STANDARD LIKE THE PARISIANS AND THE WEALTHY GERMANS!!!
But if Mr Krugman was talking about the politicians wages, the administrators and directores of public (and semi-public) enterprises wages...then all portuguese people would agree! Cut their wages!
But that's when Mr Krugman says even more: that we must stop the austery measures but isn't reducing this miserable wages the biggest austerity measure ever inflicted?.
But there's more, he keeps going on defending is point of view of reducing the portuguese wages to improve our competitive" but there's no need to be like in China".
So ,to me, what mr Krugman is really saying is: you, portugueses, have to win  miserable salaries and pay to the germans, but there's no need to be so low as the chineses' wages! SO THANK YOU NOBEL! THANK YOU! YOUR PERSPECTIVE REALLY ENLIGHTENED US! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!-.-

Biggest wave ever surfed is portuguese

Well this is an old new (from 8th novembre 2011), but I've been delaying to post it because I wanted to see the documentary first but I already didn't. Anyway I've been a bit busy specially reading stuffs about economy and politics and so I forgot to write this here, but it'a about time.
Months ago I bought a newspaper talking about the Euro Crisis that it was suspected that Germany and France wanted to throw away poor countries (as Poortugal and Greece out of Euro and make a stronger Euro), like a new Berlin Wall. Moving on, I only knew about this thing of the big wave from that newspaper, as I don't use to see news on TV, and nobody talked about this with me (like never) I really didn't pay that much attention. Anyway there wasn't that fuss about this, it was a 2minute new on TV...and I think we should pay more attention to amazing news like this.
This one was a big, big wave! The biggest ever surfed with about 30 metres...the height of a 30 floor flat!!! Can you imagine that?

Who surfed that wave was the north-american surfer Garret McNamara, 44 years old, famous for surfing giant waves (Surfer-rides-biggest-wave-McNamara).
To be honest, I was unaware of the surfing power of the portuguese coast but in fact, Portugal has the only surfing reserve in Europe and the few surfing reserves in the World: there's only Santa Cruz and Malibu, in California USA.
The surf natural reserves were elected by organization Save the Waves that have the purpose of creating world wide surf reserves preserving the environment. There were nominated 126 wave zones from 34 different countries!
Garret McNamara surfed the giant wave in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal by chance when he was just surfing along being filmed for his documentary and the giant wave appeared suddenly...like a gift from mother-Earth, fortunatelly he could surf safe the dangerous wave and he was being filmed (if he wouldn't nobody would believe in such a thing).
I not even was aware that Portugal had giant waves, specially with astonishing 30 metres!!! But there's the scientific explanation: the beach Praia do Norte is under an effect known as "Nazaré Cannon",  that makes possible the generation of waves this big. It's a rare geomorphological accident, the biggest of Europe and one of the biggest of the World, that consists in a tectonic continental fault with about 170 km of length and 5km depth that channels ripple of the Atlantic Ocean to this beach.
This is what Garret said before surfing the wave: "It was amazing!Probably the biggest wave I ever surfed. Very powerful. None of the previous waves I surfed were this big and strong!"
Confronted with the possibility of disappear forever in that moment, Garret, married, with 3 sons, assumes consciously the risk that he's under: "if I had fall into that wave, probably I would have died. the wave was so powerful that could have killed me easily", he expalined. However, this time, he didn't had fear."Everything fell into place. I felt very well", he described.
And what does Garret think during that seconds on the top of that huge mass of water? " I always think positive, or that I'm gonna be ok and I'm gonna make it!".
Garret said: "after surfing that wave I didn't feel full of adrenaline. I was calm and relaxed, it was a zen experience very good. Everything was perfect!". To describe an experience near to suicide with esoteric language it's really needed to be in a very high level of communionwith nature...and that's the essence of surfing!
Portugal is really a small place of Heaven by seaside, you should come here to visit and do surfing...we have the plus of having no sharks in the area :)

"I feel so blessed and honoured to have been invited to explore this canyon and its special town. The waves here [Nazaré, Portugal] are such a mystery", says Garrett (in surfertoday).

Portugal, itself, is a mystery :)

The Invention of Hugo

Yesterday I went to the movie theatre to watch the movie: "The Invention of Hugo" in 3D from Martin Scorsese, a movie that is nomenated for 11 Oscars!
(Yes it only debuted in Portugal in Frebruary...)
The story of the movie is based in the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" from Brian Selznick, and tell us the story of a 12 years old boy named Hugo Cabret that lives secretly in the walls of a train station of Paris, in 1930.
After the death of his father (a watchmaker that taught the kid how to fix the clocks), the young boy goes to live with his drunk uncle who makes him doing his work fixing the clocks of the train station, when his uncle disappears he still doing that in order to undercover his existence and so, avoid to go to an orphanage.
Then the adventure begins when the little boy fixes a mysterious object called automato and tries to discover a secret message.
I loved the movie, I was missing to watch something classic in the movies and Scorse managed a really beautiful way to combined the classic with the tecnology of 3D.
I just think it would be better to have that movie spoke in french and not english since it was in Paris, France and sometimes in the movies they combine english speaking with "monsieur" and "madame".
But that was asking a lot from american movies and american audience that is said to only know how to speak english (and  maybe they are very lazy and don't like reading the legends).
Anyway it was a brillant movie, I'm convinced that cinema needs more magic like that.

movie from Méliès: Le Voyage dans la Lune

For those who already watched the movie maybe can understand this: the movies by Georges Méliès showed in the movie reminded me the "Tonight" song from Smashing Pumpkins (who I saw last year performing :D): I mean it's totally similiar from the mermaids to the moon in shape of a cookie from the movie "le voyage dans la lune" (the trip to the moon).
 Smashing Pumpkins must have inspired in Méliès and made this fantastic song and video clip in his honor:

Gerges Méliès is a character of the movie too and doing researches I found out that he was a pioneer in the cinema combining photo effects in order to create fantastic worlds.
After all this is all it's all about lost dreams.
Happy endings sure only happens in the movies...

Is Demi Moore a vegetarian?

going naked heartless bitch? so just wear your own skin!

I was just watching videos on youtube about famous vegetarians and vegans when I see (in several of that videos) that the actress Demi Moore is said to be a vegetarian! Really? is that true? How can someone be a vegetarian and use real fur? that makes no sense at all!
If she is really a vegetarian so it's just because she is on a diet to mantain her elegancy (yes meat is grease and makes people win weight), the part of using fur anyway I don't know it must have something to do with being cruel and like to show everyone how filthy rich she is.
 So Demi Moore is a cruel bitch that loves wearing fur and don't care about the suffering of animals...in fact she looks like she is proud of wearing murdered animals skinned alive...otherwise she wouldn't wear that!

(I found the most stupid site about Demi Moore and its pro-fur in fashion it's called furinsider! take a look and see that there are a lot of sick persons around the world:
http://www.furinsider.com/demi-moore-divas-we-love-series-fur-fashion/)

Vegetarian

So I am a vegetarin half way to become a vegan. Why? because eating murdered animals that even lived a life full of horrors with no freedom is unethical and disgusting! Meat is murder and animals are friends, not food!
The production of meat is one of the main causes of emissions of green house gases and so, global warming, the production of meat means implies the devastation of large forest area (like what's happening in Amazonia: the soybean plantings are used to feed the animals and only then to feed people...we could feed so much more persons if we just eat the soy instead os making this whole process) and requires lots of water and energy.
Meat is full of crap and chemical substances harmful to health and it is the main cause of several cancers, obesity, cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes.
Concluding: being a vegetarian is good for your health, is good for the animals and is good for the environment.
About 58 billion animals are killed every year by the industry of meat, milk and eggs...this is a mass murder! a blood bath!!
This means that it's about 8 more times the actual global human population on Earth (we are 7 billion humans by now), which means if we all would eat meat we would be partners in the crime of 8 animals per year...but as we all know day by day several people die of hunger and many others are undernourished. Think about this: if we really all eat meat it would be catastrophe for the environment...and by know specially the chineses become admirers of the brazilian meat from cattle raised in Amazonia...
My story of becoming a vegetarian started when I was only 12 years old and I said to my family I wanted to become vegetarian.My parents didn't accept my decision they even beat me up for a while and slap me several times to make me change my mind (how stupid they were!!), and I don't have any shame to tell this I think that who  should have shame is people that eat meat and don't respect vegetarians...so I totally could become vegetarian when I was 15 (they quit beating me and the struggle finally paid off), and now I am 22!
During these 10 years I never got sick (I cannot even remember the last time I got sick), I'm a sportive person and I do swimming and I go to the gym and even lift weights there, I'm a tall person (1,74 m) and I'm not skinny in fact I have an athletic physiognomy so many times people doubt that I am a vegetarian because of that: they think vegetarians don't eat anything and are short and weack...but I do eat a lot, and a lot of different things, the only thing that vegetarians don't eat is any kind of animals (no meat, no fish, no shellfish). Is it too hard to understand? animals are friends not food! For God sake it even gets me shivers when in a regular restaurant the menu is : cow with chips, pork with rice, rabbit with salad, fried pig, grilled chicken, etc. Needless to say too I almost throw up when I pass by smelly food chains like KFC, McDonalds or Burguer King...even the smell makes me sick I don't even go in there to buy ice creams or juices.

McCruelty: I'm hatin eat!

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Well I don't eat animals but do I have something to do with the meat production anyway?
Unfortunatelly maybe!  Well I'm not a total vegan 'cause I eat chocolates sometimes (and the regular good chocolates aren't made of soy milk, actually I never saw vegan chocolates being sold), and some pastry products (made with cow milk), and cheese and eggs sometimes.
About the eggs what I have to say is that I don't like easting eggs and those who my parents buy is from free range chicken, about the eggs used in the pastry products...well that I don't know.
About the milk I drink specially with cereals is soy milk and the butter in my toasts is vegetal butter.
So being a vegetarian is much more easier than a vegan (they don't eat anything from animal sources), we've got more restaurants to go and products to eat but it might not be 100% ethical!
I mean it will be ok to drink cow milk, eat cheese and eggs if those animals weren't produced for the meat industry and live in free in the fields not in tiny dark caves!
I'm doing my best to minimize animal pain and really wish not being feeding the meat industry that mistreat animals so badly.
Being a vegetarian is tough, being a vegan is even more no doubt about that.
To me is inconceivable to eat animals, I think it's murder I just can't. And I'm not really the kind of vegetarian that respects people that eat meat: I have lunch alone at college when people don't eat in the macrobiotic section of the canteen 'cause I really don't feel like smelling the smell of dead animals and see people cutting meat with knives or even gnaw its bones. Also at home I eat alone because of that: I can't be at the same table with people eating meat, I refuse lots of invitations to have diner out (this when I used to receive invitations of course) 'cause they go to places with no vegetarian option...so they want me to go but they didn't found a place where I could actually go!
Fortunatelly in Portugal people eat simple things for breakfast like just cereals and cakes, but when I went to England and Denmark and smelled the smell of meat in the morning...I got really disgusted!
Vegetarians and vegans obtain proteins from vegetable sources like beans, soy, tofu and seitan...and it's nutritious and delicious!There's no need to eat animals!
I just wish slaughter houses and butchers to close and that the animals are treated with respect and love at all the open field farms where it would ethically ok for me to trade milk, eggs and cheese...like it was like years ago in the time of our grandparents.
My biggest wish is the kill to eat would never take place on Earth: humans can decide it, unfortunatelly some beatutiful creatures (like lions, tigers, bears,seals, etc) can't. And this is why I can't see documentaries I always cry 'cause they are always showing the hunting time and I wish lions and tigers to eat and live 'cause but I also wish the gazelles to survive. One of the last wildlife documentaries that I saw I brusted into tears: a gazelle gave birth to a bay gazelle...and the baby as soon as started walking was hunted and eated by a lion: the baby gazelle life was so short and before she could understand even what is like to being alive and know what the world is she just was killed. It was one of the sadness days of my life, I was a child and that scene never left my subconscious. So I love wildlife but can't see the documentaries.
I think that's when I started hating the world 'cause this world is full of blood and it's a massacre for surviving...
God, if he really exists, He must be a sadist: this natural order is a massacre, doesn't make any sense to me.
So if I have the choice to not finance the cruelty that's what I try to do, everyday: you may not have courage to kill the animals but someone killed it for you to eat so you're a partner in crime.
But we all defintely should stop eating meat and end forever with the fur industry and animal testing.
A more human society that cares for animal welfare is possible and we're more and more as time goes by.

activism agaisnt meat industry

MEAT IS MURDER! GO VEG AND SAVE ANIMALS, YOURSELF AND THE PLANET!

Stop the Murder in Syria!

Communication from Care2 petition site:

The Assad regime has killed over 7000 people since March of 2011. Every country on the UN Security Council, with the exception of China and Russia, supports the Syrian people's struggle for freedom and democracy. In the short time that it took for the UN to count the votes, the Assad death squads killed another 200 more people in the city of Homs.

Each year, people from every country around the planet leave billions of dollars/euros/yuan when they travel to China. China needs to know that these tourists have strong global ethical convictions and that they consider these convictions when planning their travels. As well, China also needs to know that these same people care from whom they buy - and if "Made in China" equates to allowing death squads kill more Syrians, then global citizens can put their strong global ethical convictions into play.

There are millions of compassionate, concerned and democratic-loving people both in and outside of China. Let's make China hear us all! Let China know that we do not support the Syrian Assad regime nor can we support the governments that turn a blind eye to the atrocities being committed in the name of the Assad regime! 

Sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/10/stop-the-murder-in-syria/

So sick...

I don't know why anything in my life goes the way it should be, specially when I think that I do all I can do to reach my goals that isn't that difficult to reach...I'm tired of failing in exams and seeing that stupid diploma of my degree even more far to get, there are those subjects I really don't know what to study more and how to study them, 'cause I tried all the different methods. It doesn't even matter if I studied enough or if I'm optimistic...even those exams I really hope to pass and believe I passed turns out I didn't...today I found out another subject I failed again, and I really studied hard for that one...I have those subject for several years. I'm really disappointed with myself and the way my life is going. Nothing is doing right! NOTHING! I thought it was enough pain to lose all my friends last year...I don't know if I can bare another lousy semestre...I'm losing grips and I can't find any more motivation to keep going on with this and dealing with my usual frustration...I just want this to be over and I'm not making any progress.
I'm so disenchated with everything, after all my degree isn't interesting as it shoul be, the name of subjects are interesting but not what they teach us, and even less what appears in exams...teachers are not there to help, and even less the colleagues...I feel so alone and lost right now. The worst thing is when I get home and my parents get mad about me about my school lame performance and say that I'm just playing around making waste their money when I do anything more than study, go to classes, spend all days in libraries without even talk to anyone...even because I have no friends anymore...where do I waste my time? I have no kind of social life and I only spend two mornings for week at gym and swiming pool (this when I get the time and I'm not doing this for a while).
It seems that it doesn't matter how hard I try or if I believe in myself or not, I must have the failure sign printed in my soul...I wish I had luck with this just for once 'cause I'm tired of falling to rise up again...to fall again...I just wish I never went to that college, all I feel is that I'm wasting my time and not learning anything: all those hours I spent studying for nothing, all those lousy books I read for nothing, all those books I bought and were hopeless in the subjects, all those useless social connections I made for nothing...all those time wasted, I just want the final stupid diploma...it was all wasted time I'm almost done I can't give up now, it would be even more wasted time...it would be a painful defeat and I doubt if I could do anything more in life than consume myself in self pitty and eternal frustration.
My rage against college is so big that I avoid everyone from there, I decided I don't want friends from there even because most part of all that people is doing well easily and I'm in this lousy situation...sticking around them  makes me feel even worse about myself...even because they don't spare me to be all the time asking about my lousy situation...does this makes them feel better? I'm about believing it does!
I'm done with this, no matter who I don't want to hang with college people anymore even if it means being alone all the time.
All I can think is that college to me was a waste of time, hope, money and feelings I just wish to put an end to all this...ten more subjects to go...but it's not going!
Tomorrow I'll have a meeting with lecturers to see my exam...if things stay this way I'll probably just cry in front of them I don't even know if I have courage to go there and ask their questions...
I was going to study to next exam (which will be repeated because professor only put the exams from the 1st season on the day of the exam of the 2nd season and people decided to reclaim)..but then I saw another failure and for 3 hours I've done anything less than whimper for my lousy performance...and it's not just at college, it's a social failure, a personal failure...a whole lot of failures.
I wish I could go back in time, I would never went to that college...or I would have quit in the first year...I wish I could erase all those previous 5 years.
I'm sick of making a fool of myself believing life can  get better when it's getting worse all the time and I'm having serious issues about how to deal with such failure.
I don't know what's like to accomplish any goal for a long long time...and I never felt so miserable, I always did great at school before I got in that college I can't recognise myself!

Sick of this life, sick of pretending I'm fine when I'm not, sick people think that I have to justify mysel in front of them for crying, for seem depressed or sad...'cause it's all I am...not a damn simple thing goes right!!! NOTHING! The frustrating part is that I don't know what more should I do...I'm feeling destroyed inside and sick of everyone around...neverthless I feel this stupid  need of unburden.

Exam season

Really there's nothing more frustrating than study boring stuff that have no interest...with a memory card I would spare time.
Most part o my sujects I don't understand a damn thing, but so it looks to be to the lectures sometimes.
Tomorrow I have an exam of meteorology, but it's not cool it's a boring subject with lots of equations, greek letters and values that came from nowhere...concluding I'm studying meteorology but nobody taught me what are really a fog, a thunder, a hurricaine, monsoon, typhoon, snowfall, a heat wave, a cold wave...just for not mention the global climate change and air pollution...what matters never appears in exams...
I always thought I would love this subject but it's awful!
My degree is a RIP OFF!

stop ACTA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, was signed by the European Union and 22 of its member states recently. Eight countries, including the United States, signed this last fall.
Called "SOPA light", it is a global treaty that authorizes the policing of the internet and its users, and ultimately, the censorship of it. This would hurt the freedom of expression, civil and digital rights, fair use rights, and the right to privacy.
Strict penalties would be enforced, even prison sentences, for violating ACTA.
Please sign the petition and tell ACTA supporters to keep the internet free for everyone!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/STOP-ACTA/