Columna Semanal de
Leonardo Boff
Según la ideología dominante, todo el mundo quiere vivir mejor y disfrutar de una mejor calidad de vida. De modo general asocia esta calidad de vida al Producto Interior Bruto de cada país. El PIB representa todas las riquezas materiales que produce un país. Entonces, de acuerdo con este criterio, los países mejor situados son Estados Unidos, seguido de Japón, Alemania, Suecia y otros. El PIB es una medida inventada por el capitalismo para estimular la producción creciente de bienes materiales de consumo.
En los últimos años, a la vista del crecimiento de la pobreza y de la urbanización favelizada del mundo y hasta por un sentido de decencia, la ONU introdujo la categoría IDH, el «Índice de Desarrollo Humano». En él se incluyen valores intangibles como salud, educación, igualdad social, cuidado de la naturaleza, equidad de género y otros. Ha enriquecido el sentido de «calidad de vida», que era entendido de forma muy materialista: goza de una buena calidad de vida quien consume más y mejor. Según el IDH, la pequeña Cuba se presenta mejor situada que Estados Unidos aunque con un PIB comparativamente ínfimo.
Por delante de todos los países está Bután, encajonado entre la China y la India, a los pies del Himalaya, muy pobre materialmente, pero que estableció oficialmente el «Índice de Felicidad Interna Bruta». Ésta no se mide por criterios cuantitativos, sino cualitativos, como buen gobierno de las autoridades, distribución equitativa de los excedentes de la agricultura de subsistencia, de la extracción vegetal y de la venta de energía a la India, buena salud y educación y, especialmente, buen nivel de cooperación de todos para garantizar la paz social.
En las tradiciones indígenas de Abya Yala, nombre para nuestro continente indoamericano, en vez de «vivir mejor» se habla de «el buen vivir». Esta categoría entró en las constituciones de Bolivia y Ecuador como el objetivo social a ser perseguido por el Estado y por toda la sociedad.
El «vivir mejor» supone una ética del progreso ilimitado y nos incita a una competición con los otros para crear más y más condiciones para «vivir mejor». Sin embargo, para que algunos puedan «vivir mejor» millones y millones tienen y han tenido que «vivir mal». Es la contradicción capitalista.
Por el contrario, el «buen vivir» apunta a una ética de lo suficiente para toda la comunidad, y no solamente para el individuo. El «buen vivir» supone una visión holística e integradora del ser humano, inmerso en la gran comunidad terrenal, que incluye además de al ser humano, al aire, el agua, los suelos, las montañas, los árboles y los animales; es estar en profunda comunión con la Pachamama (Tierra), con las energías del Universo, y con Dios.
La preocupación central no es acumular. Además, la Madre Tierra nos proporciona todo lo que necesitamos. Con nuestro trabajo suplimos lo que ella por las excesivas agresiones no nos puede dar, o le ayudamos a producir lo suficiente y decente para todos, también para los animales y las plantas. El «buen vivir» es estar en permanente armonía con todo, celebrando los ritos sagrados que continuamente renuevan la conexión cósmica y con Dios.
El «buen vivir» nos convida a no consumir más de lo que el ecosistema puede soportar, a evitar la producción de residuos que no podemos absorber con seguridad y nos incita a reutilizar y reciclar todo lo que hemos usado. Será un consumo reciclable y frugal. Entonces no habrá escasez.
En esta época de búsqueda de nuevos caminos para la humanidad la idea del «buen vivir» tiene mucho que enseñarnos.
Fuente: http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/boff/articulo.php?num=321
Friday, July 10, 2009
But the G8 is not offering a hard commitment
New initiatives for the world's poor at the G8 Summit that ended today July 10, 2009.
Weak leadership by the Italian host, Prime Minister Berlusconi, has resulted in very few concrete new initiatives for the world's poor at the G8 Summit that ended today. Having cut its aid spending by 56% this year, Italy lacked the moral authority or will to address the challenges posed by the economic, climate change and food crises.
These crises threaten to reverse the progress that has been made in reducing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This is a shame because the change in the U.S. administration and President Obama's personal interest in global poverty issues had opened up new possibilities for the G8 to deliver more. We need to work to ensure that next year, when Canada hosts the G8, that our government provides strong leadership on initiatives to help the world’s poor.
A lot of worthy ideas from some G8 leaders didn’t amount to much. There were efforts to get an initiative on child and maternal health, where progress has been slowest in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. There was a push by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a $100 billion fund to help poor countries deal with impacts of climate change and adopt clean energy. Negotiations were in process for new initiatives on child and maternal mortality, access to safe water and sanitation, and education for all. But they did not result in any tangible agreements.
The one positive outcome for the poor was a commitment by the G8 to work towards “a goal of mobilizing $20 billion over three years for sustainable agriculture development."
But the G8 is not offering a hard commitment, but an aspirational promise they hope to achieve with the help of other non-G8 countries. That means they want to meet the target, but don’t fully commit to making it happen. And it falls short of the $30 billion the Food and Agriculture Organization says is needed to deal with the food crisis. Canada will commit $600 million over three years to this effort, by shifting money already budgeted for aid to this purpose.
Some steps were also taken to improve G8 accountability with approval of an accountability framework that will try to better track past G8 commitments and the record of delivering on these promises. A full report using this framework is promised next year at the Canadian G8.
The lack of solid commitments to the poor is partly due to the weak leadership of Italy, the host country of this year’s G8.
We, as Canadians, need to work over the next year to make sure that there is strong leadership on poverty issues when Canada hosts the G8 next year.
Source:
http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/en/blog/weak-leadership-italian-host-means-meagre-results-g8
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKl0o5-UrQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emakepovertyhistory%2Eca%2Fen%2Fblog%2Fweak%2Dleadership%2Ditalian%2Dhost%2Dmeans%2Dmeagre%2Dresults%2Dg8&feature=player_embedded
Weak leadership by the Italian host, Prime Minister Berlusconi, has resulted in very few concrete new initiatives for the world's poor at the G8 Summit that ended today. Having cut its aid spending by 56% this year, Italy lacked the moral authority or will to address the challenges posed by the economic, climate change and food crises.
These crises threaten to reverse the progress that has been made in reducing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This is a shame because the change in the U.S. administration and President Obama's personal interest in global poverty issues had opened up new possibilities for the G8 to deliver more. We need to work to ensure that next year, when Canada hosts the G8, that our government provides strong leadership on initiatives to help the world’s poor.
A lot of worthy ideas from some G8 leaders didn’t amount to much. There were efforts to get an initiative on child and maternal health, where progress has been slowest in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. There was a push by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a $100 billion fund to help poor countries deal with impacts of climate change and adopt clean energy. Negotiations were in process for new initiatives on child and maternal mortality, access to safe water and sanitation, and education for all. But they did not result in any tangible agreements.
The one positive outcome for the poor was a commitment by the G8 to work towards “a goal of mobilizing $20 billion over three years for sustainable agriculture development."
But the G8 is not offering a hard commitment, but an aspirational promise they hope to achieve with the help of other non-G8 countries. That means they want to meet the target, but don’t fully commit to making it happen. And it falls short of the $30 billion the Food and Agriculture Organization says is needed to deal with the food crisis. Canada will commit $600 million over three years to this effort, by shifting money already budgeted for aid to this purpose.
Some steps were also taken to improve G8 accountability with approval of an accountability framework that will try to better track past G8 commitments and the record of delivering on these promises. A full report using this framework is promised next year at the Canadian G8.
The lack of solid commitments to the poor is partly due to the weak leadership of Italy, the host country of this year’s G8.
We, as Canadians, need to work over the next year to make sure that there is strong leadership on poverty issues when Canada hosts the G8 next year.
Source:
http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/en/blog/weak-leadership-italian-host-means-meagre-results-g8
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKl0o5-UrQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emakepovertyhistory%2Eca%2Fen%2Fblog%2Fweak%2Dleadership%2Ditalian%2Dhost%2Dmeans%2Dmeagre%2Dresults%2Dg8&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thomas Moore’s newest book, Writing in the Sand: Jesus & the Soul of the Gospels
Writing in the Sand
by Thomas Moore
Hay House,
ISBN 978-1-4019-2143-3
"Drawing on his background in theology, world religions, art history, psychology and mythology, author and psychotherapist Moore (Care of the Soul) proposes a fresh way of looking at the Christian gospels for those who once loved the texts, but no longer find them challenging. Moore believes the Jesus of the gospels was calling people to be open to life rather than attach themselves to a fixed teaching.
He reframes the wedding feast at Cana — said to be the scene of Christ's first miracle — as "the first lesson in Jesus spirituality: Be human, understand the importance of play and simple sensual pleasures and listen to your family. Then go deeper."
In Moore's reading of the gospels, Jesus himself is earthy and spiritual — a man clearly on the side of moderate sensual delight. Fans of Moore's previous books and readers who share his view that Jesus was not concerned with creating a religion or a plan for self-improvement, but was instead interested in a restructuring of the human imagination, will find plenty to ponder. (May 1)"
Source: http://barque.blogspot.com/2009/04/pubishers-weekly-reviews-writing-in.html
by Thomas Moore
Hay House,
ISBN 978-1-4019-2143-3
"Drawing on his background in theology, world religions, art history, psychology and mythology, author and psychotherapist Moore (Care of the Soul) proposes a fresh way of looking at the Christian gospels for those who once loved the texts, but no longer find them challenging. Moore believes the Jesus of the gospels was calling people to be open to life rather than attach themselves to a fixed teaching.
He reframes the wedding feast at Cana — said to be the scene of Christ's first miracle — as "the first lesson in Jesus spirituality: Be human, understand the importance of play and simple sensual pleasures and listen to your family. Then go deeper."
In Moore's reading of the gospels, Jesus himself is earthy and spiritual — a man clearly on the side of moderate sensual delight. Fans of Moore's previous books and readers who share his view that Jesus was not concerned with creating a religion or a plan for self-improvement, but was instead interested in a restructuring of the human imagination, will find plenty to ponder. (May 1)"
Source: http://barque.blogspot.com/2009/04/pubishers-weekly-reviews-writing-in.html
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Codex Sinaiticus Project
An opening from one of the two bound volumes at The British Library. Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book. [Find out more about Codex Sinaiticus: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/default.aspx.]
The Codex Sinaiticus Project
The Codex Sinaiticus Project is an international collaboration to reunite the entire manuscript in digital form and make it accessible to a global audience for the first time. Drawing on the expertise of leading scholars, conservators and curators, the Project gives everyone the opportunity to connect directly with this famous manuscript.
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