Tuesday 29 October 2019

I. Portuguese articles written for "Democracy and Environment in Institutions”

 

ERASMUS+ KA2 PROJECT  
SCHOOL EDUCATION No. 2018-1-PT01-KA229-047365
Sustainability for Democracy, 
Democracy for Sustainability

ESJS-Mafra students interact with journalist Soraia Ramos’s life experiences 

Reporter for 14 years, was invited to talk with students from Escola Secundária José Saramago - Mafra (ESJS - Mafra), on November 12th, about Human Rights violation events she witnessed, along with other experiences in several countries.


This lecture, which is related to the Erasmus+ Partnership Project with European Schools - Sustainability for Democracy, Democracy for Sustainability”, ended up turning into a conversation, in which everyone “travelled” around the world, through the description of the reporter’s experiences. It was very interesting and enriching, since Soraia herself gave contemporary examples of non-compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, even 69 years after its agreement (10/12/1948).

Jorge Rocha, current Philosophy teacher at ESJS-Mafra and Soraia Ramos’s friend, contributed to the presentation, mentioning the journalist’s work in Bangladesh. Soraia photographed a group of displaced people, without any proper life conditions, surrounding a muddy water pond - an indecent violation of various articles from the UDHR. With this example, we may conclude that goods considered essential in the Western World, such as personal hygiene items, are seen as almost superfluous in unstable populations.

Soraia Ramos also lived within war scenarios on Eastern Ukraine, Europe. She was surrounded not only by fully armed men, but also by lost people involved in the war that were there to help her in spite of all the dangers they had to face. She claimed it was the most shocking work trip she performed. According to Figure 1, this case made Soraia the first female reporter and Portuguese reporter, as well, to execute war coverage.

Next, Soraia Ramos “took” the students with her to Syria. She narrated the civic obligation of wearing a burka, of which she had to comply as a woman. The same happened in Morocco, where she always carried a scarf to prevent any prosecution. Soraia added that, while being in another country, regardless of the time they’re spending there, everyone should act respectfully towards its laws and civic duties and responsibilities, if we don’t want to take risks. In Syria, no one has the permission to talk directly with women and they are forbidden to express themselves in public: an affront to Article 19 of the UDHR.

By suggestion of a Venezuelan student, the journalist “transported” the audience to her experiencein the Caracas airport. The security guards distrusted Soraia Ramos, only for the fact that she carried a single medium-sized backpack with everything she would need along a transatlantic journey. 

Fig.1 
PowerPoint slide illustrating Soraia Ramos’ mission in the Eastern Ukraine War.


Thereafter, she was forced to give her backpack to a full inspection. In addition to this impasse, the journalist also remembers seeing many people running to the supermarkets, early in the morning, in order to be the first to buy as many goods as they could, to sell them at a higher price. In Venezuela it’s already considered a job (being a bachaquero), since that’s the only revenue those people have. Venezuela was experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis, and the Portuguese community there was significant. 
Within Latin America, we followed with Paraguay. The reporter landed at the airport, with all the official documents needed to identify a European and Portuguese citizen, but the security guards didn’t trust her identity. This is because, in Paraguay, there is a well-known business of falsifying documents, as stated by the journalist. 
Finally, Brazil, which is an example of the greatest asymmetries and social inequalities, as well as disrespect for Human Rights - which may be aggravated with the victory of Jair Bolsonaro for president. 
In conclusion, the students and teachers who attended this lecture retained great benefits from this initiative and are genuinely grateful to the journalist Soraia Ramos for her great availability.

Marta Mendes Afonso 

Student nr. 18 of class 11SE3, ESJS-Mafra 

________________________________________________________________



On December 5th, 2018 a speech on the role of the military institutions was given by Colonel Nuno Lemos Pires in the auditorium of Escola Secundária José Saramago, in Mafra.
I will write a critical analysis on this speech, but before I would like to make a brief summary of some of the aspects covered.

The institutions mentioned in this speech were the military institutions, which in democratic countries have the role of assuring not only the respect of every individual’s rights, but also of guaranteeing inclusion and administering violence. However, in unstructured countries they sometimes wind up being the cause of oppression and may lead to armed conflicts. War might be considered a permanent situation, which has been a fact throughout History. There have always been wars, for various reasons, except during a short period of time. When wars first appeared, they strove for the acquisition of profit. However, across History they have suffered a huge evolution, more pronounced during the Roman Empire and Napoleonic Wars, having acquired new purposes and pretexts. One of these pretexts dwells on the misinterpretation (due to the lack of contextualization of a particular passage) of Scriptures, such as the Bible, the Torah and the Koran, leading to the so called “just wars”.
Following the exposition of the facts mentioned above, war was broken down to three factors: natural phenomenon (biological aggressiveness/instincts of violence), social phenomenon (due to flawed systems) and rational actions (based on different ideologies). Therefore, as war is a permanent situation, which is deeply ingrained in us as living beings, how can it be halted? This question was enlightened by the Colonel. War, along with other similar conflicts, is countered by the respect of the universal values stated in the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, by the acceptance of imperfection and the use of reason.
At last, a summary was made on the current situation and the future trends. In today’s society, a new type of conflict emerges, the “new wars”, which are fights of ideals, won by fear and of illegal financing. In the future there tends to be an increase in population, a decrease of resources, climate changes, decay of power and development of new technologies.Over the course of this speech, Colonel Nuno Lemos Pires exhibited the fundamental characteristics of a powerful speaker, since he was able to project his voice, in order to reach the whole auditorium, without resorting to the use of a microphone, grasping the attention of the audience and keeping it until the very last minute. I find that the information explained was of extreme relevance, and, due to the content and the shocking images, which portray not only our present but also our future, it was possible for each of the attendants to capture the message transmitted.Finally, I believe that the message spread should be shared with as many people as possible, because it is mandatory to raise awareness to the consequences that some current situations will have in a near future. 

Margarida Santos, student nr. 18 of class 11CT6 

Marta Cabeça, student nr. 19 of class 11LH5

_________________________________________________________________________________


















No comments:

Post a Comment