Guinea Bissau Experience - part 1

Recently, i spent 3 weeks in Guinea Bissau within the context of my youth work in the Portuguese National Youth Council. Since i first started the adventure of creating a pool of trainers and a non formal education training strategy within the council in 2006, i had the vision of expanding our experience to other south European youth councils, but most of all to the Portuguese official speaking African countries youth councils. After, the Africa Europe youth summit in the end of 2007, the political demands were stated and the foundations were set so that we could make one step forward in the Africa Europe youth cooperation field. Last year, we designed the application for EU funding which allow us to start a unique project in 2009 - The cooperation among youth councils from both continents to share experiences with non formal education training strategies and pools of trainers as tools to strengthen the political and grass roots work of the councils.
There are many challenges to be met while working in such context:
1. on one side there is all the history of unbalanced and unfair political and economical relations among actors from both continents;
2. from another perspective, there are the different expectations, perceptions, stereotypes and prejudices that affect the way many Africans see Europe, European Institutions and Europeans, and the contrary as well - the way Europeans see Africa. Most of times, these expectations, perceptions, stereotypes and prejudices do not allows us to fully comprehend the reality once that both Africa and Europe are very diverse continents and any country in each of this continents also encompasses huge social, economical and political diversity when it comes to the peoples;
3. No matter how much i question and how much open i am to look at the realities of Africa and try to understand them, i must recognize that i will always be influenced by my background as a middle class, white, man, graduated in Economics, youth worker, portuguese, european non formal educator, etc... So any attempt to understand things in Guinea Bissau, like in any other place in the world, needs to accept this fact and try to reduce its influence in my capacity to analyze and comprehend realities around there.
It was not an easy task, already starting with basic issues connected with living conditions such as accommodation, food and personal hygiene and health care. In Bissau we are confronted with our European living standards which we have been used to since we were born and which are not necessarily the best ones. The differences are gigantic and pose already a huge challenge for those who have a reduced comfort zone. In Bissau most people do not have easy access to water supply sources, few access to sanitation facilities similar to those we have in Europe. The people have poor hygiene behaviours, and inadequate sanitation in public places including hospitals, health centres and schools. The waste management is done in open air drains and there are pigs, chickens, lambs and the vultures ensure the city is clean!
In the capital, electricity supply is cut off in the end of the afternoon and generators get in action everywhere. Still it is possible to see an amazing sky full of stars every night!
Walking in the night can become dangerous due to the many holes in the roads and sidewalks which can become an unpleasant surprise to the distracted walker. During the day, walking in the streets of Bissau centre is an amazing experience with the hot sun rays falling on your head and shoulders, the soft thin dust getting impregnated in each little pore, the open air improvised shops, the simple friendly eyes of the locals, the appearance of a village in each corner, the colors, the scents... So different and yet so familiar to me. Bissau is full of decrepit old colonial style buildings. A living remembrance of other times - constantly questioning us about what is was? What it could have been? how history could have told another story if other ways of interaction among peoples would have already been in place.
Bissau impacts us by its rawness, savage atmosphere but as well by it's peoples of immense sympathy, openness, solidarity, simplicity, joyfulness, etc, etc. Here we cannot talk about inclusion of nature in the city environment simply because nature doesn't allow us to forget that we are a part of it.
Bissau is a crossroad, an obligatory passage to those who transit from the airport to the countryside, those who lay their eyes on the port on any afternoon sunset and dream with the amazing Bijagós Archipelago or those who try to cross Bissau driving between Senegal and Guinea Conacri which can take couple of days or weeks depending on the weather conditions.
It seems that there is poverty but i stayed with the impression that people don't starve like it sometimes happens in European countries, simply because here nature provides a lot of food supply. There is fish and seafood like i never had before, obliging me to accept that Setúbal (my home town) is not the best place to eat fish in the world like i used to say. There are fruits of which i elect papaya as the best of the best. And there are other dry fruits like cabaceira or veludo which are excellent to make juices but can also be eaten dry. One of them is even a natural anti malaria!
To be continued...

There is no way to peace, peace is the way!

This words of Ghandi are so real and yet so intangible in the middle east. Irrationality as invaded the hearts and minds of people in all parts of the world.

For how many more years must the history of Palestine be made of occupation and deaths?
The Israeli government can find many arguments convincing enough to get support from the majority of population in Israel, but i wonder how people can believe that such a barbarian, criminal and inhuman invasion can actually be the way to peace. Do they realize that such acts, where majority of deaths are women and children, will only provoke more hatred and stimulate more desperate citizens from poor backgrounds with almost none perspective of a future to explode themselves to make a statement?

On the contrary to the Economist where it was mentioned that this could be another 100 years war i believe there is no war in the Middle East simply because there is an occupation of a territory which is supposed to be independent and with their own state and institutions.

The daily counting of deaths which we are forced to assist everyday on television is another terrible dimension of this conflict. Nowadays, conflicts are fought in the field with conventional and non conventional weapons, on the political level with contradictory speeches and actions and on the media level with each side trying to keep appearing in the news for different reasons.

This invasion is also motivated by elections in Israel and what parties in Israel and some factions of Palestinians might believe is the best for the maintenance of their power and status quo.

Things got so messy and complex that it is quite hard for someone sitting in front of the TV in the far extreme west of Europe to actually understand what is really going on in the Middle East since 2nd World War. Some will say it is a religious war, some will say it is an illegal occupation, some will say it is a war or occupation for territory and access to water and other resources, some will defend Israel and some will defend Palestinians and we continue our secure life's working and buying and consuming and working more to consume more...for us it is easy to judge isn't it?

Well, the ends don't justify the means, especially if means involve violating basic human rights denying people the possibility to live with a minimum of dignity. This will only continue to generate hatred and more violence like a snow ball effect.

That is why i understand some palestinian friends which advocate that the only way to peace is one state solution. I just hope there is a sustainable solution and this as to involve both peoples living peacefully and interacting positively with each other and at the moment that seems so far away and there so much lack of political will from both parts and many peoples that makes it hard to find a way...but there is...more than one i am sure...

STOP GAZA INVASION!

Paradox Of Our Times

I came across this text from anonymous writer which i would like to share with you.

"We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
We spend more, but have little;
We buy more and enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less common sense;
More knowledge, but less judgement;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicine, but less wellness.

We spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
Drive too fast, get too angry too quickly,
Stay up too late, get up too tired, Read too seldom,
Watch TV too much, and don't act often enough.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
We've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We've done larger things, but not better things;
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the mind;
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;
We write more, but learn less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait;
We have higher incomes; but lower morals;
More food but less appeasement;
More acquaintances, but fewer friends;
More effort but less success.

We build better computers to hold more information,
Produce more copies than ever, yet have less communication;
We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and upset stomachs;
More kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
More leisure and less fun;

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes;
Tall men and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are days of quick trips, throwaway morality,
One-night stands, and pills that do everything from
Cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window,
And nothing in the stockroom.

Think about it.
From the persians came this pearl of wisdom:

"Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth, "You owe me."
Look what happens with a Love like that!
- It lights the whole Sky." (Hafiz)

NFE, Cooperation and the Africa EU relations

What do these 3 themes have in common, you might start by asking?

They are the coordinates of the project i will start to implement this week in Guinea. The Portuguese National Youth Council proposed a long term cooperation project between South European countries and African Portuguese Speaking countries National Youth Councils to be run along 2009, envisaging the role of non formal education (NFE) and pools of trainers in strengthening the capacity building, participation and youth policy development within the councils, it's members and youth organizations within each country.

The project starts immediately after a 2 days Portuguese Guinea youth meeting, with a 7 days meeting of the councils leaders, in Bissau, Guinea to plan the year, ensuring political commitment to the project aims and objectives and set the pace for sustainable cooperation among Africa and EU youth platforms. This is a strong contribution to the implementation of the Africa Europe youth summit held in Lisbon in December 2007.

The challenge laying ahead of us is quite interesting and demanding. First the need to address cooperation in a truly partnership and dialogue approach which looks at each partner's youth work and current challenges in a specific, differentiated and contextualized way and at same time reflecting on the global scene, it's interdependencies and complexities.

This is a unique opportunity to learn from each other, looking at development issues with different lenses so that Europeans do not engage in a transmission of "European formulas" for African Youth work. Africans must also believe they have the potential and resources to face the challenges ahead of them and they have many things that offer learning opportunities to Europeans. At same time we must not forget the current inequalities resulting from past colonialism and current political and economical unbalanced relations established between these regions of the world. We must also keep in mind the perceptions, stereotypes and prejudices affecting our judgments and opinions about the others in different continents. For instance the temptation to look at Europe or Africa as homogenous regions while for instance the Republic of Moldova has more or less the same minimum wage as Guinea, about 30 euros per month!?!?! Also the perception of each region is based on images from the past such as those that say that Africa is about large families, short life and Europe is about short families and long life.

The possibility to meet in Bissau for 7 days and experience the daily life in one of the poorest African countries will provide amazing learning opportunities to all of us in order to change stereotypes and break prejudices and match perceptions with reality to build more realistic opinions about the others and through that to really contribute to future development of each partners work through this cooperation process.

With this project, we do hope NFE will be more practiced and promoted in each partners country and therefore we use the opportunity that we will be in Bissau to also give a training for trainers in non formal education to guinea youth educators coming from the different regions of the country.

Of course all these projects will bear in mind that each specific context needs specific measures and solutions to their problems and that each community has own resources and potential to put those in practice. Nevertheless, we also firmly believe that NFE as an education for personal and social transformation with it's principles strongly based on truly participative, cooperative, inclusive and experiencial learning processes, is a undeniable tool available for young educators, youth workers and youth political leaders to support the development of young people to become actors/actresses of their own community development in a sustainable way.

Let's put things on the table and start walking the Africa Europe Youth Cooperation path...

Painting on the begining made by Angu Walters from Cameroon.

Cycles

First...
to be...
life...
to feel...
love...
experience...
inhale and exhale...
die every moment...
reborn again and again...
be part of...
share and create...
inspire and expire...
action and inaction...
change and exchange...
...cycles!
SPIRALS!!!





Will 2009 be a year of going deep down in the hole or a year of expanding waves of human transformation towards more peaceful and sustainable communities?
Are the 2008 crisis of oil, food and finances a problem or an opportunity?
Are you engaged in sunday couch surfing the tv or surfing the waves of change, starting with yourself?

Where do you stand?
The last one standing turns out the lights please.
Meanwhile enjoy the end of the year and begining of next one...you never know when will it be the last one.

New trends in Social Transformation - the triple bottom line

I had the opportunity to meet one of the founders of the AVINA foundation, a very interesting organization that promotes sustainable development in Latin America based on values such as honesty, solidarity, harmony, human dignity, modesty and innovation. The foundation was created by Stephan Schmidheiny aiming at creating and implementing a new conception of philanthropy, which combines the objectives of non-profit activities with methods and tools taken from the business world. The idea of partnerships between civil society and entrepreneurs as always left a suspicion on me, mostly due to the feeling that the aims are different since companies want to generate as much profit as possible while, in my view, NGO's provide creativity and innovation for social transformation. Anyway, with Stephan i changed my mind. First and mostly because he represents a kind of entrepreneur who understands that without social development there is no sustainable business. While he was involved in the Earth Summit also called Rio conference in 1992, he mentioned to an Argentinean lawyer who was there also involved in the organization, that in the NGOs tent there was the energy, creativity, innovation and flexibility to change society, in the business summit there was the financial capacity to take over big endeavors and in the political summit things took a lot of time, people went back and forward, lost in rhetoric and rigid agendas but with their will things could be possible - and he asked why not to overcome obstacles and match these different capacities of the different actors in what is called today the triple bottom line.

From that moment onwards, Stephan went on to create AVINA and later the VIVA trust, a structure that manages the grupo nueva profits and channels them to the AVINA foundation. By donating all his assets of the Grupo Nueva to the VIVA trust (VI for Vision and VA for Values), Stephan has created a new approach to social transformation joining two actors who traditionally act according to two different logics: the entrepreneurial (Grupo Nueva) and the social (AVINA). At first sight, these two logics seem to be incompatible. However, they do coincide in several aspects. No doubt, the most important is the objective of both organizations: to contribute to shape a more sustainable society. VIVA promotes the comprehension and mutual respect between these two logics, looking for synergies and strengthening the processes of reciprocal understanding.

What i like most in the work of AVINA is that they invested their resources to identify and strengthen actors for change: leaders with a vision for the future, democratic ethic and potential to generate large scale impacts. AVINA does this in a perspective of collective construction, forming networks of leaders (people who channel their communities aspirations, wether the community is a local fishermen village or a entire region) to create convergence of interests around a shared vision of Society.

O ponto zero - quando a mudança toma conta de nós ou nós tomamos conta da mudança que ocorre em nós ou não:-)

A mudança faz parte das nossas vidas. É inerente à condição humana e ao mundo em equilíbrio dinâmico em que vivemos. A cada milésimo de segundo o nosso cerebro mapeia todo o nosso corpo, cérebro incluido e faz uma imagem da situação de forma a adoptar medidas constantes para manter em nós as condições ideais de sobrevivência (homeostase): a fome, o calor ou frio, o cansaço são tudo sintomas, sensações que nos levam a ajustar as constantes mudanças que vivemos tanto ao nível interno como ao nível externo. António Damásio chega mesmo a por a hipótese de que a nossa consciência advém primariamente deste exercício constante de mapeamento do corpo e da sua mudança constante ao relacionar-se com o mundo externo que nos rodeia.

No entanto, apesar dessa mudança constante imperceptível, existem pontos zero nas nossas vidas: momentos onde tomamos decisões que afectam a nossa vida para sempre, momentos onde o mundo à nossa volta dá uma reviravolta completa apenas e tão só porque nós mesmos/as demos uma volta de 360 graus, mudamos em coisas que não sabemos bem descrever mas mudamos para sempre. Essa mudança pode se dar em inúmeros sentidos e dimensões. No caso das experiências de aprendizagem através das formações de formadores que dou utilizando a Educação Não Formal, a mudança da-se muitas vezes na atenção que passamos a dar a determinadas coisas ou a maneira ligeiramente mais sensível ou diferente como sentimos o mundo à nossa volta. Esta é uma mudança qualitativa, algo excepcional que acontece quando estamos sintonizados com o nosso centro, quando dirigimos e disponibilizamos abertamente os nossos afectos, com aquilo que é mais fundamental em nós, a nossa humanidade, o nosso sentimento de pertença a esta grande família que habita o planeta terra, todos os seres vivos que ao fim de milhões de anos de evolução altamente improvável num Universo infinito, se encontram no espaço e no tempo neste pequeno planeta azul.
Não há nada mais mágico do que sentirmos esta comunhão e acreditarmos que é possível preservar isto, termos consciência que é fundamental lutarmos por isso pois senão tornamo-nos apenas nos autómatos que o sistema de regras e normas e procedimentos e funções que vivemos nos leva a ser.
Podemos ser muito mais... E queremos ser muito mais.

A gente sonha e a obra nasce...

Começou com um encontro de pessoas que queriam aprender. A Laura lembrou-se que não fazia sentido tanta gente a trabalhar em Portugal em prol dos Direitos Humanos e ninguém se conhecer...cada um/a por si, envolvido/a no seu contexto particular, na sua própria cultura pessoal e organizacional de trabalho, consumindo energias lutando por aquilo que acreditam. No entanto, desconhecendo-se, tropeçando na azáfama do dia a dia nas dificuldades de quem corre por gosto e com muita carolice.

Palavra puxa palavra e alguns encontros no meio de muitos desencontros da vida, juntam um grupo de pessoas que acredita e se motiva para estabelecer relações mais próximas e contribuir para aproximar mais gente que luta por um mundo diferente, talvez um pouco mais acolhedor, mais próximo, mais humano.

Assim nasceu a rEDHe - Rede de Educação para os Direitos Humanos em Portugal, algures no espaço e no tempo, simultaneamente em diversos locais de Portugal em diversos momentos de 2007.

Agora avizinha-se o primeiro momento público com a organização do que à pouco tempo era apenas um sonho - o 1º Simpósio de Educação para os Direitos Humanos em Portugal (pelo menos o nosso primeiro:-)). Este decorrerá então no dia 10 de Dezembro em Lisboa na Galeria Zé Dos Bois no Bairro Alto e pretende juntar educadores/as e pessoas ligadas aos Direitos Humanos de forma a reflectir sobre o passado, presente e futuro da EDH em Portugal e ao mesmo tempo celebrar a ratificação da Carta Universal dos Direitos Humanos.

Seja bem vindo quem vier por bem. Enviem email para mim caso estejam interessados/as em participar.

1ª Escola de Desenvolvimento Juvenil CNJ

Desde 2006 que organizo no CNJ (Conselho Nacional de Juventude) duas formações de formadores por ano, procurando com colegas educadores/as, potenciar jovens de todo o país para desenvolver actividades educativas no seio das associações juvenis e instituições a trabalhar com jovens, através da educação não formal. Este ano decidimos dar um passo em frente e organizar a 1ª Escola de Desenvolvimento Juvenil, entre os dias 29 de Novembro e 7 de Dezembro, nas instalações da delegação do IPJ de Castelo Branco, com o objectivo de criar um espaço alargado de aprendizagem, diálogo e cooperação. Esta 1ª edição consiste na organização simultânea, dos dois cursos de formação (Formação de Formadores em Educação Não Formal e Formação de Formadores em Educação para os Direitos Humanos), procurando juntar cerca de 50 jovens oriundos de diversos distritos do pais e regiões autónomas, e das mais variadas associações juvenis, bem como professores/as e técnicos/as do Instituto Português da Juventude.
A Escola procura concentrar as actividades formativas do CNJ num mesmo espaço físico e temporal, no sentido de criar sinergias entre os/as participantes e dessa forma potenciar os impactos que têm sido criados pelas actividades formativas anteriormente realizadas, no reconhecimento, valorização e potenciação da Educação Não Formal em Portugal. A Escola é baseada nesta metodologia de Educação Não Formal pois é uma forma de aprendizagem cooperativa, onde se aprende fazendo, dialogando, experienciando, colaborando e co-operando, uma aprendizagem onde quem aprende toma parte nas decisões sobre o que aprende e é responsável pelos resultados da aprendizagem de toda a gente envolvida.
A organização deste evento em Castelo Branco visa reduzir distancias, descentralizando as nossas actividades de forma a incluir jovens de locais onde a acessibilidade a este tipo de actividades se torna mais difícil. Além disso, encontramos nas entidades locais, nomeadamente na Câmara Municipal e no IPJ regional, um apoio no sentido de podermos concretizar este sonho nesta área interior do pais.
Continuamos assim o que à alguns anos era apenas um sonho: - criar uma rede de jovens educadores/as, abrindo espaços para a criação de oportunidades de trabalho para estes/as jovens de forma a garantir que todo o seu potencial é desenvolvido e aplicado nas associações que trabalham com jovens. Isto permite canalizar energias e criar redes de cooperação para a transformação social, transformando-nos em seres mais humanos no processo. Porque o ser humano é muito mais que um recurso económico, é muito mais que um trabalhador que tem que produzir para alimentar a sociedade capitalista em que vivemos...cada ser humano é um universo em si e devemos todos e todas contribuir para que cada um e cada uma possam SER MAIS!

Ruralize!

In a small little galaxy in the universe outskirts, in a small little solar system in the periphery of that galaxy, a small planet, had a small continent where a small country had a small region with a small village called Alvito. With relativity came the point of view of the observer. Going from Lisbon to Alvito allows discovering different Portugals. Embarking on the forgotten lands of the interior, the rural world so culturally rich in the ancestral relation with nature. Being a city born and raised child, i was always fascinated by the power of the countryside and its resistent peoples. I guess we forgot the mysteries of nature, delivering them to scientists with fancy words. Nature is to be lived. Wondering around Alvito by night, under a bath of stars, i feel blessed by the experience of just being there. I wonder if my children will be able to see this Alentejo. I guess not. What Alentejo can we imagine for the future? What can the people there do to stop desertification? For young people, the current choice to stay is almost not a choice... we must find alternatives. Anyone has an idea?

Poetry is the best way to describe these lands...
and sorry but only portuguese can capture the essence...

Emerge a planície, num tom triste,
do ventre duma terra fecundada,
onde a esperança canta uma alvorada,
a cada homem do sul qu’inda resiste.

Amarro o meu olhar à terra calma,
lonjura dos espaços cor de trigo,
terra raíz, do sonho onde me abrigo,
da saudade que dói e fere a alma.

Ganham-me asas o sonho e a distância,
que vão desde o que sou, à minha infância,
prisioneiro eterno dos seus espaços,

E à planície que um dia me deu vida,
vou pedir que também me dê guarida,
quando voltar de vez para os seus braços.

Orlando Fernandes (Alentejo… e Outros Poemas)

The Glocal Explorers challenge...

43 young people coming from 30 countries, 4 continents, different backgrounds, different languages, different cultures, different people! All these young activists came together for a Training for Trainers which took place within the 9th University of Youth and Development, in CEULAJ in south of Spain in September, to investigate further the meaning of Global Education, the recent educational approach, dimension, concept, process, which in my view envisages the development of people to become conscient, ethical, active global citizens.
In my perspective this global citizenship education means, first to become aware of:
- the interdependence of the world, the local with the global and the global with the local;
- the complexity of being alive and interacting in multiple ways, in multiple and diverse contexts and with multiple and diverse interpretations of what is real (whatever that is);
- the unpredictability of life and the universe. Maybe it sounds to much over our heads but we must accept the fact that there are no eternal laws or truths, maybe except for the thermodynamic law of entropy which actually nowadays, combined with quantum physics leads us to conclude that we live in a universe of probabilities where everything is possible but somethings are more probable than others;
To most people, this awareness brings a lot of distress and frustration since it is difficult to grasp our world and to avoid being overwhelmed with the level of interdependence and complexity and find ways to act accordingly. This happens for several reasons of which i would like to point out the following:
- our education within the formal systems is still very much based on the understanding of the world from a deterministic point of view with clear cause and consequence, sets of monolithic definitions, the view of a world in boxes!
- the degree of specialization we are faced with since school and for the rest of life. The current state of affairs is to look at the world from partial points of view, from the university system of faculties (medicine, economics, mathematics, etc) to the governmental system of ministries (education, health, environment, etc) when it is becoming clearer that to deal with the complex global problems we face nowadays (from the global to the local and vice versa) we must develop more holistic approaches where we embark in the complexity and look at it from different perspectives at the same time.
- the level of tensions between perceived antagonisms and forces understood as opposites. There are many of such tensions which can become a source of conflict or a possibility to create something new...an opportunity! If we start thinking about tensions such as the preservation of our internal world (body and mind) as to preserve life as much as possible and the external environment presenting us with treats and possibilities; the tensions between conservation – Revolution; Progress – Resistance; Reality – Ideas; Globalization – Balcanization; Future – Past and present; Diversity – Unity; Individual – Community; among others. This tensions may paralyze us or motivate us to take action.
The development of social actors is a key aspect of GE and therefore, becoming aware of the interdependence of our local contexts to the global one and vice versa, implies an educational approach where the learners are the main responsible for their learning processes and for the group learning atmosphere, a learning space where learners participate actively and take part in the construction of what and how they participate.
The cooperative learning can support the acting in different levels (local, regional, national, international) according to each one's range of action and the solidarity networks put in action, so that one can learn by doing, constantly changing and addressing the situation.
This kind of education must also allow people to develop their dialogical competences, creativity and imagination so that they can imagine other possible futures based on ethical human values and be creative to find solutions to current problems which can leads us to those possible futures. The transformation of our societies must be based on dialogue and cooperation so that we can really move further to humanize ourselves more.

La Tomatina!

Uff...16 days and 4000 km after my vacations started... i ended up revisiting the famous village of Bunol (40km away from valencia) where every year in the last wednesday of August La Tomatina takes place.

Bunol is a small town of 9,000 residents, located 30 minutes train ride from Valencia. During La Tomatina, it transforms in to a giant party and food fight with 30,000 people creating a natural disaster of all sorts.
I must say i have mixed feelings about this ritual which has grown into the world's biggest food-throwing party. The actual 'battle' falls on the day of the town's patron saint and is the culmination of a week's build-up of festivities, including parades, feasts, fireworks and street parties. The night before the battle, the streets of the medieval centre serve up sizzling dishes with a tomato theme, a scene-setter for that which follows. In the morning, visitors arrive finding shopkeepers in a mad frenzy; boarding and taping every crack and crevice of their stores, making them watertight up to 4 stories high. The morning atmosphere is as if the town levy might break or a hurricane is bearing down on the coast. The merchants have good reason to worry, when the festival ends, the town is flooded in red pulp.

On any other day, a person spotted walking down the street wearing homemade riot gear and dive mask might be out of place, but not during La Tomatina. Some come dressed for guerrilla warfare, others wear white tuxedos. One Australian man, on his bachelor party, wore swim gear and netted stockings with a target on his butt that read, “Spanish men throw like girls!”

Visitors and residents begin to congregate in the town center in the early morning, to compare tomato throwing strategies, people watch, and drink beer. The festival cannot begin until a pole greased with lard is scaled and a pig leg at the top retrieved. Human pyramids form and the greased pole spectacle becomes an event of its own.

By 11 a.m. nervous energy from the crowd spawns water fights and various articles of clothing stripped or ripped off and used as projectiles. Oleeee!!!! Ooleeee!!!!! - Oleeee!!!!! Ooleeeeee!!!!! - rings in a continuous chorus like wave through the streets at intervals rudely interrupted by impatient chants of - To-ma-te!!! To-ma-te!!! To-ma-te!!!!! - as the crowd wishes for the war to begin.

At noon an exploding rocket signals the start of the festival, the crowd resounds with a booming cheer. Large semi trucks begin to motor at a snails pace, down the main street, through the crowd, stopping every few feet to dump piles of tomatoes into the streets. Local mercenaries sitting on top of the trucks bait the crowd with handfuls of ammunition, and then pelt them with the red bombs. Among the few simple rules is one which requires that each tomato should be squished a bit before throwing, so as to avoid injury.

Tomato war erupts in domino fashion as the 1st truck makes its way through, and Bunol bursts into a volcano of chaos and carnage. No one is safe, there is no place to take refuge, and everyone exhibits what could only be described nicely as bad manners. Total strangers begin throwing tomatoes to every direction. In this battle - everyone is a loser - even the news teams camped 5 stories above.

One hour later, after the 6th and last truck has passed, it is hard to believe what occurred. People are physically and emotionally spent, completely dressed in tomato pulp, wading knee-deep in tomato paste looking for survivors. At the end of the event, participants adjourn to the riverside where showers are available to start the clean-up process.

There's plenty of theories on how the legend of La Tomatina come about.

The old man selling cups of local brew on the street corner will tell you it all began when Don Juan, a Spanish villain and notorious womanizer, was pelted with tomatoes in response to his dreadful singing voice and appalling guitar ability.

The little kids trying to make some extra pocket money by looking after your backpack for the night, will swear it was started by a group local rascals raiding a fruit-stand in the town centre and hurling them at each other in a fleeting, moment of madness.

And the local women eagerly selling her souvenir T-shirts will say that over 50 years ago a parade, honoring the town’s patron saint Luis Bertrản, ended in carnage when a local produce cart was crushed spilling thousands of ripe tomatoes onto the streets. In true Spanish-fiesta spirit they were promptly picked up and launched at anyone in sight.

Not talking about the waste of tomatoes, this battle is truly barbarian and savage, putting out all the aggressiveness each one as inside, but then again aren't humans savage, barbarian and aggressive? Sometimes i believe we are still in the stone age of human kind!

Galiza - land of mysteries!

In my first vacations in Portugal in 10 years, i ended up in Galiza visiting Santiago de Compostela and the Land's End - Fisterra! Maybe because Galiza and Portugal are so close to each other they feel like the same but if you investigate a bit deeper you will find out so much more connections and similarities!

Santiago is an amazing city, full of pilgrims coming from all parts of the world and coming from all sorts of directions since there is the Portuguese way, the Spanish, the French and many others. If you decide to go deeper in the origins of the Santiago pilgrimage you will find out that the Christian church and its institutional powers adopted a christian origin (the discovery of Santiago - one of the disciples of Jesus - body in a forest nearby where is today the cathedral) to an ancient cult with pagan origins called the Ara Solis by the Celts - the march to the end of the earth - Cape Finisterre to celebrate the death of the sun!

It is indeed very curious to see that both Portugal and Galiza have been witnessing the arrival of people from all over Europe who, in the search for better living conditions and chasing the sun in its daily travel towards west, "dying" every day behind the hills, arrived to this small corner of Europe where the earth is green, embraced by the immense ocean - a garden planted in front of the Atlantic as Fernando Pessoa once wrote (best portuguese writer for me).

Both Galiza and the north of Portugal are places full of mysticism, legends and superstitions. Places where we can still feel the presence of history and the richness of time told by the stories of old people, building and the land itself. A place full of tellurian energies which impact in human mind in ways still to be explored but for my belief, connected with most of worlds magical places where people became famous for their visions and mystical experiences.

if you go to Santiago, explore the food and the great Coffee Liqueur and go to Fisterra and sit on the granitic rocks on the top of the hill behind the lighthouse.

The aesthetic illiteracy

I am reading a very interesting document written by the famous creator of Theatre of the Oppressed and nominee to the peace nobel price this year, Augusto Boal. My adaptation goes like this.

We always lament that in poor countries, and among the poor of the rich countries, the number of citizens who cannot read or write is so high - illiteracy is a severe weapon of oppression once that it reduces the possibilities of people to be included and participate fully in the construction of our societies, they become resources, tools to be explored or, worse, marginals and criminals who present a risk to societies so much based on productivity.

Even more lamentable is the fact that they also don't know how to see or listen (instead they just look and hear). This is equal or worse sort of illiteracy - the aesthetic blind deafness. If the first forbids reading and writing, the last alienates the citizen from Art and the sensitive thought (the eyes look and the ears hear but who sees and listens is the brain), and forces him/her to obey imperative messages of Media and Power, without judging, refuting or even understanding them!

The Aesthetic Illiteracy is a dangerous weapon that oppresses Citizenship once that it allows the subliminal Brain Invasion! It's a sort of domestication of our natural creative sensitive thought which allows us to imagine and construct new ways from new ideas.

That is why we must be careful with the purpose and consequently with the way we educate people, once that education gives us the possibility to pass the knowledge, skills and attitudes which are part of the social heritage which all of us must learn to live in this world, the things we must learn so that then we can forget. Pedagogy gives us the possibility to think in new ways, to open doors and to explore the unknown, the possibilities to create new ideas and transform society.

Is Coca a drug?

It seems that the United States' major concerns with plant life is one of the trigger issues throughout South America, especially in some Andean countries.

Specifically, Coca eradication campaigns have been carried out by the US government on foreign soil like Bolivia and Colombia, inciting or encouraging everything from angry protest to armed revolt. The frustrating part of the US policy is that the drug problem continues growing at home, while foreign opposition to US policy also continues to grow.

The leaves of the coca plant are the base ingredient for cocaine and it is needed hundreds of pounds of coca leafs to make any measurable amount of cocaine. The leaves themselves are not narcotics per se, though they do wonders with the control of hunger, sleep, dust inhalation, altitude sickness and headaches. When i was in Potosi (highest city in the world according to some, with a mine that is working since the 16th century) i heard that miners can work in extreme conditions for 24 hours straight with no food thanks to chewing coca leaves all day - and i am inclined to believe it is actually true. That mine in Potosi mountain as sponsored the growth of Europe in the past 400 years and still today around 10000 miners work there and hundreds die per year due to intoxication from exposure to toxic gases used in the extraction of iron and other metals.

Since coca leaves are used to make drugs, the US wants them banned worldwide. The problem is that the Andean South America countries use them in all sorts of rituals and religions (like the quechua or aymara religion), and have cultivated them for thousands of years. They are also used to make tea (mate), some of which is packaged and sold commercially. These uses are not a huge concern to the US, but there also happens to be one more product that uses coca leaves, which makes full eradication utterly impossible: Coca Cola.

YEAH! Bolivia actually supplies Coca Cola with lots of those little illegal suckers weekly. They are used in making the syrup that, when mixed with carbonated water, makes Coke taste so good. How did Coke get the rights to import and use an illegal pharmaceutical product? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here are some links on exactly what you just read, though many more are out there on the internets:

http://www.american.edu/TED/coca.htm
coca trade and environment, some US laws against coca growing from the 90´s.

http://www.american.edu/TED/bolcoca.htm
all about bolivian coca growing. note about coca cola´s purchase of coca leaves still. Us pushes Bolivia to put coca eradication into law in 1988.

http://www.therisenrealm.com/cocacola_recipe.html
coca cola recipe. Note - "F.E. Coco" means fluid extract of coca (the plant that produces cocaine), however the recipe does not go into details as to how this extract was prepared. Another Coca-Cola formula in the possession of Frank Robinson's great-grandson, indicates that 10 pounds of coca leaf are required to flavor 36 gallons of syrup. It is also believed that the coca plant with lower cocaine levels was used to produce the extract. This is based on some writings that indicate some coca plants were too bitter.

SOME CHALLENGES WORKING WITH INTERCULTURAL LEARNING

In the last decade, intercultural learning (ICL) and intercultural competences (Grosch & Leenan, 1998) have become fashionable terms in the world of education and politics even though their exact meanings continue to be the source of much debate and disagreement. I believe that intercultural learning has avoided definition because it is seen by some as a learning objective, by others as a learning process, and by yet others as a particular form of communication. For me ICL is a life long learning objective, as well as a personal and social transformation process which builds upon dialogue and communication.

Much of the work i have seen around Europe related with ICL suggests that intercultural learning is over-emphasizing foreignness and the differences between cultures and therefore risks leading to a reinforcement of stereotypes and ethnocentrism among learners. Just think about activities within youth exchanges like the intercultural night and see how they contribute to produce these stereotypes and prejudices (see article by colleague Laimonas in last Coyote magazin).

Like Bennet, in his developmental model of intercultural sensitivity, i also believe that the limited nature of an understanding of culture where difference is recognized, but nevertheless minimized in order to highlight the "universality" of human behavior is not a proper approach to ICL. Bennett says the belief that "deep down we all are the same" is not an adequate response to cultural difference. Although characteristics of cultures may have much in common at times, he sees this as not being relevant to the real issues of intercultural communication.

The usage of the term ICL by people, organizations and ultimately, politicians as transformed a powerful idea into a light concept and most of all a light practice of ICL. With the approach to focus on the positive aspects of ICL, and on what makes us similar more than on what makes us different, many times discrimination and racism have been approached, while underestimating the deepness and roots of those attitudes and beliefs and reducing the possibilities to transform them in constructive relations among people. That is why much of the focus has been put on the word Tolerance (allow existence; accept or endure; word connected with pain also) instead of Respect (feeling of admiration; due regard to feelings, wishes, rights or traditions of others).

In political terms for instance, even though the ICL concept is in the mouth of most European leaders, they still keep on promoting and using the nationalistic, dominant class culture to pressure other inhabitants to adopt their culture as the national model and to differentiate the country from other European countries. Same goes for politicians on the regional level in cases like Basque country or Catalonia and Spain or in Bavaria and other parts of Germany, among others.

When someone passes through an ICL experience, s(he) is transformed in the process of contact with the other, once that s(he) will be in a "third place", already a bit distant from his/her own culture and the culture of the other. Like Kramsch suggests, i believe that learners need to locate themselves in a place which "grows in the interstices between the cultures the learner grew up with and new cultures he or she is being introduced to". This description of Kramsch highlights two important aspects of intercultural learning. Firstly, it underlines the learners' newly achieved distance from both the home and target cultures, and secondly, it refers to the multiplicity of cultural identities which belong to all of us, thereby rejecting the fallacy of "one nation = one culture."

Culture is something dynamic, is everything that is produced by a group of people in a specific time and place. Culture is also multidimensional in the sense that we belong to different groups and we have multiple identities and also multiple cultures.

When a baby is born, his/her senses are bombed with chaotic stimulus from the exterior. Slowly, the baby starts to organize this sensations according to identified repetitions and with the pleasure or pain associated with them. later the baby starts to go from individual to group when makes generalizations and realizes that is mother is not just that person in front of him but also a woman like other women and mothers. Here the symbolic knowledge starts to develop. During these periods of growth the child learns through culture what is good and what is bad, what is associated with pleasure and with pain, etc. To de-construct stereotypes and prejudices and confront our own discriminatory and racist attitudes we must go deep into ourselves and transform us developing ethical attitudes towards difference and diversity of life in general and humanity in particular.

The importance of sound...

Last week i went to probably the best portuguese World Music Festival called Festival Musicas do Mundo de Sines. Once again it showed how much music is a universal language.
As i listen to the very different styles and musical melting pots i kept on thinking about some parallels with Intercultural learning. it is quite obvious that the kind of music we like is conditioned by the cultures we are exposed to. I keep on remembering the first time i listen to Tom Waits or to Hermeto Pascoal, it sounded harsh and sometimes very annoying. Then after careful listening for 2 or 3 times i became a huge fan of these master musicians. Just like when we meet a very different person from another culture quite different from ours (and here i could be talking about an homosexual or a chinese girl from Tianjin) and we feel how difficult it is to understand and communicate with them, and then after some effort from both sides all becomes "natural", we become friends and our world enlarges immensely.
I might not like all the groups i listened in Sines (coast town 60km south of my home town Setúbal) but i listened to them and tried to understand what was it all about. In the end of the day, we might not be best friends with all the people we meet but at least we keep an open channel of communication and there lays a whole range of learning opportunities for us and maybe makes the cosmopolitan world we live in a little bit more human no?
I usually use music in my educational work once that it provides that extra element that can relax or engage people in the work they are doing. A friend of mine cooperates with a school in Lisbon where one teacher uses classical music in her classes! Of course i try to use a diversity of music once that i work in international contexts and i also try to give space for others to present their music. Different music has different effects in different people and like any other thing, it is not connected, in most cases, with cultural backgrounds but with personal characteristics and life stories.
In my case as with other trainers friend of mine, more than cultural differences or different approaches to a topic within a team doing a training course, it is the different rhythms between trainers that sometimes makes it more or less difficult to cope with. It is rare and special to find colleagues who have similar working rhythm both in terms of preparations but specially while conducting sessions - each one of us as his/her own rhythm of asking questions and providing space for participants to explore the different aspects of a topic or a debriefing over some exercise done with the group.
Recently, i meet with fellow trainers of the youth field around Europe to discuss the future of training for trainers on European Level and there was a proposal of having teams of trainers applying to implement a training instead of having individual applicants and then the hiring institutions makes its selection looking for the best combination of experiences, competences, sex and geographical base. This proposal looks, sounds and even feels quite interesting and could indeed provide opportunity for the creation of great teams and great course. Nevertheless, i believe that somethings will be lost: - the constant trainers challenge to adapt to other musics and other rhythms will be put aside and finally trainers will stop having intercultural experiences taking place within the teams at the same time they are promoting those experiences within the group of participants. Finally i believe both the trainers and participants will loose an opportunity to develop further through listening and feeling totally different kinds of music and rhythms.
Give the beat, the beat give give
Put put the rhythm in your body!

About love...

Albert Einstein once said that “Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” having said that, even his relativity theory didn't managed to explain why people mutually in love feel light like they could fly away and the ones with no corresponded love feel miserably heavy and stuck to the ground.
Unless we reached nirvana and became totally connected with everything in the Universe, we need to feed love like we need to feed a flower with water. Love needs caring and affection and also mutual respect. In the love recipe, there are those pillars and then there are the spices - fantasy and innovation! Anyway you must find the right quantities to make the perfect recipe and that is a life long learning - at least for me:-)

The conflict between Me and We in a group learning process

Few days ago, when coming back from Cyprus, I ended up talking with a friend about a recent experience she had in an exchange where one participant behaviour had compromised the entire group process. Basically and making some shortcuts, the story was about an environment international youth exchange with several partners from different countries. Among those partners was an organization that works with young people with serious psychological problems that took to this exchange two young people with special personal conditions.

The problems started to arise in the first days with Italians leaving due to lack of preparations of participants to leave in natural self sustainable conditions and continued to raise with the intimidation of one of the 2 participants with special personal conditions once that this person was pressing the other participants and leaders in a violent way (language and aggressive behaviour) to ensure the entire group would live up his way in the nature. After several incidents involving psychological and physical aggression that the team of leaders never managed to solve, the exchange was over and the group never managed to have a constructive and safe environment for people to learn.
This example left me thinking about how, we as educators deal with the conflictuous balance between individual needs and the group learning process. Most of us dealing with Non Formal Education, implement and promote the practice of this methodology through the enhancement of group dynamics that allow individuals to feel safe and comfortable within the group so that their learning process can benefit from an open and supportive interaction among them. Nevertheless, the individual needs for personal time and space, for their own process, for expressing their values, beliefs and attitudes, to satisfy their expectations and to be in the role they would like to be in the group are quite often disturbed by the group process as a whole. Each member of the group as its own personal characteristics and own personal history which makes him/her unique and it is the role of educators to make sure each one finds his/her space to contribute to the group process and to achieve some learning outcomes of the educational experience. It is also the role of the educator to call the group’s attention when the group exercises pressure over the individuals. This often happens when for instance, in the free afternoon of the activity members of the group put pressure on the individuals to be all together going somewhere when maybe it is more beneficial for some participants to be alone and screen out of the group process and of the topic and have some time for themselves.
The facilitation and management of this group process involves some competences from our side:
1) Creating spaces for everybody to express him/herself properly and in different ways;
2) Not privileging some participants in favour of others just because their personality and attitudes are more similar with our own personality style;
3) Giving similar attention to the each participant in the informal times or at least being available for each one to approach us individually;
4) Presenting a diversity of methods which can satisfy each individual learning and thinking styles even though stimulating participants to develop themselves outside this personal borders to try new ways of thinking and learning;
5) Looking at conflicts arising among the group as learning opportunities and not just as problems.
Looking back to my friend’s story I do believe there are situations that are not possible to tackle in a constructive way for both the group and the individual and therefore, in some cases is better for the individual to go away from the activity. Unfortunately, in some moments such hard decisions are necessary so that at least we can ensure that part of the group can benefit from the whole experience. Not doing so might jeopardize the learning of the others for the sake of being inclusive with one individual that was not prepared for a constructive socialization with other peers from different countries and different personalities and habits. We should always try to attain basic values such as respect, nonviolence, dialogue and equality.
Personally I do believe it is fundamental to have an open conversation among partners in the advanced planning visit about participants’ specificities and to ensure that each participant is ready to take the challenge of participating in an international exchange and to benefit from that experience. I don’t believe we can ensure a positive learning experience just with preparations but for sure some preparations and knowing the participants before hand helps leaders to assess their participation and learning potential and helps in organizing the programme adapted to the participants needs. However, the needs of one participant cannot overcome the needs of the others and in the mentioned case, that was exactly what was happening once that what was supposed to be an interactive learning experience exchanging approaches to live in the nature in a sustainable way became a frightening experience for most participants due to the inflexibility and violent forcing behaviour of one individual so that others oblige with his vision of what should be sustainable life in the nature. Of course this was only possible due to the permeability and over-flexibility of his group leader who wanted to force the entire group to accept his ways just because of his prior background and personal specificities.
As a sort of conclusion of something which I believe is a learning by doing process which never ends, I do believe we, people who facilitate learning processes, must give our best to deal with these sort of situations, recognizing that there are limits to our responsibilities in the learning processes of each group of individuals. We are not in control of their background experiences and life stories and we are not responsible for what they bring with them to the educational experience. The best we can do is to ensure the implementation of a programme that favours the creation of a friendly, comfortable, supportive and open atmosphere for group learning, allowing participants to take responsibility of their and the groups learning by giving them some control over the learning process. Finally, we can also use the conflicts arising from the meeting of different people with different opinions, values, beliefs, needs, ideas, attitudes and behaviours as an opportunity for learning even if sometimes it demands from us a difficult decision such as sending someone back home earlier than expected.
What do you think?

The Cyprus issue and the power of people!

Returning to Portugal after 2 weeks in Cyprus where I coordinated the Training for Trainers to Promote Intercultural Learning through Non-formal Education for the Cypriot National Youth Council, I couldn’t stop thinking about the awkward situation of this strategic island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

Yesterday, the 20th of July was the day that, back in 1974, the Turkish army entered into the north of Cyprus, splitting the island in two parts, the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. The day was celebrated differently by both sides once that for the North Republic the day is called the as the Peace and Freedom Day while the Cyprus Republic call it the Invasion day.
However, to understand the occupation of the north of the Island by the Turks we must go back to 1960 when Cyprus became independent from Great Britain and a constitution was created with Great Britain and Turkey as it’s Guarantors. The 14 years after were not free of tensions and conflicts that ended up in the coup d’état made on the 15th of July 1974, when some Greek Cypriots supported by the Greek Military Junta took out the ruling President Archbishop Makarios with the aim to unite Cyprus with Greece. This movement provided the possibility for Turkish Army to intervene to secure the 1960 constitution, occupying 37% of the Island and bringing huge numbers of Anatolian settlers to the North side of the Island.
Like any other war, both sides have their own responsibilities in what happened before, during and after these unfortunate events. The ones who lost most were the Greek and Turkish Cypriots who lived already in the Island once that huge parts of both communities had to flee to the other side leaving their homes and former lives behind them to start a new life in an Island divided by a green line with constant presence of UN forces since then until now. Still today there are ghost villages in both sides left abandoned since their former inhabitants had to run away for their lives.
Even now, 5 years after opening the borders and 4 years after Cyprus Republic became full member of the EU, the majority of both communities live separate and keep on building prejudices about the others.
I happen to know several people from both sides who try to overcome these differences among communities, defending the possibility and rights of both peoples to live together peacefully and interact between them in a constructively way to establish one country as it was in 1960 with both communities assuming their Cypriot citizenship.
Not wanting to overlook the major challenges of such political agreement, which seems to have good chances to happen with the current leadership of both sides, it seems to me a great step when young people from both communities start to engage in dialogue and find out they have so much in common and all those images they had from each other and from history were fruit of political propaganda to ensure the splitting of the Island and it’s peoples.
I do hope these friends manage to overcome all the social (prejudices and fear among people, misuse of religion for further separation of communities etc), economical (huge difference in living standards between poor north and rich south) and political obstacles (questions of power division, redistribution of lands, influence from Greece, Turkey and other actors such as the British, etc), in order to rediscover and recreate their history. This involves rewriting common history books (a project which friends are already working upon) but most of all involves people getting together and being open to the other and realizing their common wish to overcome prejudices and living together in a constructive interaction among them with friendly relations and even creating families together. After all this is the island of Aphrodite the goddess of Love!
if you wanna know more about the conflict have a look at this website.

À procura do duobioritmo...

Observo-te na distância confortável de quem não se faz notar
sabendo-me sensível ao sentir dos teus poros.
És a inconsequência da minha insegurança
O pulsar ritmico da minha natureza
e o coração a palpitar...
Tento descobrir em que ritmo nos encontramos
se no nosso ritmo se na minha arritmia...
Desconversamos a conversar
cruzando olhares, ilusões e mistério
verdades inconfessáveis, segredos por revelar.
E eu arrisco com temores infundados
perdido de mim procuro-me em ti
procuro em vão...
A sincronicidade é coisa rara nesta cidade!

Tributo à Ilha de Faro - parte II

Caminhava pela areia fina e humida, pés banhados em espuma dos dias quentes de Junho com Gilberto Gil cantarolando secretamente dentro do seu ouvido "A terra onde o mar não bate não bate o meu coração" (o seu coração sempre esteve dividido entre o mistério sonhador do mar e a firmeza, explosão e força das montanhas mesmo que nunca tivesse querido viver longe do oceano). A sua solidão embatia nas ondas ruidosas desse Atlântico fruto da separação de Pangeia, enquanto sonhava com os filhos e filhas do Amor porvir. Nessa praia da Peninsula do Ancão (segundo dizem os científicos) despojou-se de toda a civilização ostracizadora da sua natureza criadora e pura. Com a cidade pelas costas conseguiu ver com clareza tamanha beleza... era a gaivota marota a rodopiar no ar, o caranguejo marujo a ladear a praia, o choco maloco que insistia em ser actor e mudar de "disfarce" a toda a hora, os flamingos laringos cor de camarão exemplos maiores de que somos aquilo que comemos, os bivalves e as aves brincando no areal de perder de vista ao pôr do sol que se apressava a iluminar outros lugares. Ali a noite revelava-se um momento de fogueiras e de mergulhos no mar onde as algas dão luz e revelam como tudo é energia a fluir tal como a sua própria respiração.

Naquele lugar não havia pressas, tudo andava a noutro ritmo e ele sabia que essa paz sublime que sempre o fazia suspirar, era uma dádiva momentânea pois a luta entre a terra e o mar estará sempre ali para relembrar que o ser humano é pequeno como um grão de areia no espaço e a vida é o fluir momento a momento como as ondas do mar - podia ficar agarrado à resistência da terra ou abraçar a fluidez do mar...lembrou-se que alguém lhe dissera um dia que a liberdade residia em aceitar o destino, ou não...
Deitado ali na areia, ele esquecia o ontem, o amanhã, abandonado a esse momento em que não havia fronteira entre o ser e tudo...

Reaching the sky...looking for new points of view!

We have all asked the same questions over and over again: where we came from? What is the purpose of life? Is there life after death?Where the Universe came from and so forth...
These questions are part of life and are in line with our natural curiosity for everything. Quite often, to my surprise, people do not express curiosity for other issues than those directly affecting their lives. This is even more terrible when our societies promote specialization and therefore demand from people to look to life from a unique perspective, leading to a quite limited view of life and of the world. The educational systems do not help in this once that most of them refrain students from asking questions and developing their natural curiosity over life and the world around us.
I used to admire friends who knew quite well what they wanted to be and do in the future. I had such vision until 17 years old. Soon after leaving Setúbal to go to study Economics in Faro, i lost this clear vision which left me a bit anxious over a period of time. Since i was 18, my future became a dark black hole sun, open to all possibilities and with very few certainties. It took me some time but i realized a number of things which might be obvious to you:-)
1. life is a mistery
2. each one of us is the center of a whole universe which is ours
3. every happening, every situation can be looked upon and understood in different perspectives according to different people - everything depends on the observer!!!
4. we enrich ourselves by communicating with each other these different views
5. to live is to experience as many different possibilities as we can - to test ones limits and become better humans even though many people would answer that to live is to enjoy
6. We might never know what is beyond death but we for sure know we are alive and every single breath is a gift and a possibility to experience something beautiful
7. The other thing we can be certain of is that we will die one day and we most probably don't know when it will happen.
Often, people's search for enjoyment is made in a egoistic, superficial and frivolous way, looking to the world around them as a set of resources available to achieve their desires, in many cases transmitted by the current individualistic set of values promoted in societies by those who gain more with lifestyles based on consumption.
Even though i do not seize to admire human achievements in history and nowadays, i feel that the biggest most wonderful, amazing, overwhelming experience we can find in life is the experience of connection - that feeling of being in deep contact with other human beings, living creatures, with nature and all its beauty.
Here comes the act of reaching the sky...the possibility to climb a mountain and see the world from a different perspective. The possibility to meet the mountain challenge, overcome it's obstacles and our inner fears, to be fully connected with ourselves and the environment around us...the attempt to go beyond our wildest imagination...to transcend our limits...there were i found often my true self and understood the significance of life and my purpose in it! If you pass by Portugal, don't miss the opportunity to pass by Sintra (the moon mountain near Lisbon) and experiment a bit of climbing in Penedo da Amizade.
I wish you to rent your sunday couch and try something new...maybe you will find something more about yourself...

"A prática de Educação Não Formal na Formação de Formadores do CNJ"

No contexto global de transformações sociais, culturais, politicas e económicas profundas e vertiginosas, urge reconhecer que o desenvolvimento local sustentável implica cidadãos e cidadãs capazes de tomar decisões e assumir responsabilidades individuais e colectivas pelos seus actos e impactos que estes geram. Os/as jovens e o associativismo juvenil têm aqui um papel preponderante como agentes de mudança, no sentido em que buscam através da acção melhorar de facto as condições de vida dos/as jovens e das comunidades onde estes/as se inserem. Para estarmos conscientes do grau de interdependência a que as nossas comunidades estão sujeitas e do que isso requer em termos das nossas responsabilidades como cidadãos/cidadãs é necessário, primeiro que tudo, uma aprendizagem baseada em valores humanos e numa ética humana.

A área de formação de formadores do CNJ tem como objectivo, desenvolver educadores/as que tenham práticas educativas que visam a mudança, em oposição a outras práticas que buscam a adaptação dos/as jovens a estruturas que alimentam um sistema exclusivo, desigual, injusto e por isso muitas vezes desumano, compreendemos ser necessário gerar um processo educativo que criativamente permita que os/as participantes se apoderem das temáticas, tornando-se protagonistas e transformando-se a si próprios/as como agentes de ENF.
Sensibilizar para o trabalho com a educação não formal é um processo educativo holístico, uma vez que implica educar para a cidadania, na cidadania e pela cidadania. Repare-se podemos substituir a palavra cidadania por direitos humanos, diversidade, aprendizagem intercultural, inclusão paz, desenvolvimento sustentável ou igualdade de género e continuará a fazer sentido. Isto porque, na nossa perspectiva, educando não formalmente para qualquer destes temas tem que ser feito desta forma coerente entre princípios e práticas e, de certa maneira transcendê-la pois isto implica estarmos comprometidos/as activamente na aprendizagem dos/as jovens abdicando de poder para que eles/as possam ficar “empoderados” e com auto-estima forte o suficiente para assumirem o seu papel como protagonistas concretizadores dos seus sonhos na construção de um mundo mais justo, partilhado em conjunto, com igualdade de oportunidades e respeito pela humanidade de todos/as e pela vida em geral.
Pensar a educação não formal, implica olhar de uma outra posição, quebrar esquemas de senso comum, questionar valores com os quais construímos a nossa subjectividade, no fundo, desaprender para podermos ser e concretizar o nosso potencial. Por esta razão, desenvolvemos acções de formação que são experiências de vida partilhada durante uma semana, onde procuramos que participantes-formadores/as sejam capazes de sair dos seus lugares comuns de forma a analisar a realidade de outros pontos de vista possíveis.
A educação não formal tem a qualidade de implicar os diferentes actores/actrizes da relação educativa, num processo de aprendizagem onde é requerido o comprometimento de todos/as na construção do conhecimento e das capacidades, por meio de métodos participativos, cooperativos e experienciais que respeitem os diferentes estilos e formas de aprender e de pensar.
Este processo educativo parte da identificação das necessidades e da análise participativa da realidade e por isso, começamos os primeiros dias com construção do grupo e analise do contexto juvenil português, da situação do associativismo, do papel da formação neste contexto e do mapeamento da situação individual de cada formador/a em termos de competências adquiridas e por adquirir.
De seguida, o processo requer um papel protagonista da pessoa no seu próprio processo de aprendizagem (o aprender a aprender também está aqui lateralmente presente) através do desafio de aprender através da experiência. Por essa razão, após os primeiros dias propomo-nos facilitar a construção de oficinas dos/as participantes para os/as participantes (a equipa de formadores/as torna-se participante também), como forma de promover um espaço onde os/as participantes-formadores/as entram em dialogo, experimentam, observam, entram em contacto e sentem para que aprendam através do intercâmbio.
Isto supõe uma avaliação constante e revisão das diferentes dimensões do processo de aprendizagem como um instrumento para melhorar a própria prática educativa. Por essa razão, criamos diariamente um espaço de reflexão onde os/as participantes e um membro da equipa se reunem em pequenos grupos constantes ao longo da semana. No final de cada dia a equipa de formadores/as reune-se extensivamente para avaliar o dia e rever o plano para o dia seguinte. No último dia, em particular, lançamo-nos na avaliação para transcender a experiência em grupo e concentrarmo-nos na incorporação das competências adquiridas e na sua transferência para a dimensão diária de cada participante.
Finalmente, trabalhar com ENF requer, como já foi dito, um compromisso de todos/as actores/actrizes da relação educativa. A forma como o trabalho de equipa e do grupo em geral se desenvolve é um elemento central na construção da experiência. Por isso, em jeito de conclusão, a filosofia da formação de formadores/as do CNJ pode ser resumida a uma experiência intercultural (no sentido lato de cultura pois os/as participantes provêm de diferentes organizações e diferentes contextos geográficos, culturais, sócio-económicos e políticos) de educação-aprendizagem onde os/as participantes-formadores/as aprendem uns/umas com os/as outros/as e com a equipa de formadores/as, assim como a equipa aprende com os/as participantes-formadores/as.

Tributo à ilha de Faro - parte I

Tudo o que queria era poder banhar-me para todo o sempre nesse mar salgado ao qual chamam Oceano Atlântico boiar longe bem lá longe no meio do mar deixar-me levar pela maré até me esquecer de que lado a terra está esta terra que está e não está rumando ao sabor dos caprichos da natureza ilha flutuante filha da guerra entre a terra e o mar onde o homem mostra o melhor e o pior de si e tudo por nada...por um breve poder ter...nada!
Que mais pode um homem querer?
Não chega já este espaço natural donde se pode olhar o espaço sideral e sentirmo-nos pequeninos, insignificantes e contudo cheios de significado maravilhados por podermos contemplá-lo fazer amor debaixo dele sussurrarmos shhh bem baixinho como só amantes sabem fazer segredos embalados pelas ondas do mar naturais rajadas de propulsor a jacto sons longinquos de quimeras antigas... deixo-me embalar enche-me de sonhos este mar e no silêncio do seu madrugar, sei bem quem sou e o porquê de aqui estar.
Obrigado...bem hajas que bom é poder te disfrutar...

The Law of Attraction... an ancient wisdom or a new age fashion?

Almost everybody heard about the best seller book, "the Secret", the biggest selling book in 2007 in Portugal. The book was written by several authors associated with the New Thought movement and conveys a materialistic message of the Law of Attraction which promises book readers and movie viewers, the satisfaction of all their desires if they practice exercises which tune them up in the law of attraction premises. The law of attraction says that "a person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, and beliefs cause a change in the physical world that attracts positive or negative experiences that correspond to the aforementioned thoughts, with or without the person taking action to attain such experiences". This process has been described as "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your experience".

One of the reasons i don't believe in coincidences is because i always felt that this law of attraction was part of my life path and i know my deeds have taken me in a certain direction with certain impacts in mine and others lives. When i felt more connected with my inner driving forces, usually the external surrounding me was presenting me with elements and things connected with those inner forces. I could have called them coincidences, but then again, i would reduce an amazing significant experience with very low probabilities of happening into a mere coincidence with no significance to my personal life experience!

This isn't a new story: this idea is impregnated in the Buddhists law of Karma and in Hinduism thought and practice. I even dare to say that this is also present in most esoteric manifestations of Christianity and Islamic Sufism.
It is even present in Quantum physics, especially in the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg which states that the observer affect any experience while watching it. That is the reason why we cannot calculate the speed and position of and electron for instance, once that when we make and experiment with electrons we affect their direction and/or speed in an unpredictable way. That is why quantum physics is the physics of possibilities and probabilities.

I do believe this idea of universal attraction as some challenging difficulties:
1. It can promote more individualism and egocentrism if one does not accompany it's practice with human and community values such as solidarity, respect, fairness, equality and others.
2. Within a highly unequal and unfair world like to one we live, one might tend to think that it is each ones responsibility to be in the situation he/she is and therefore, the poor or disadvantaged people are in that situation because they are not able to do better.
For the latter issue, i do believe we must work with oppressed groups to provide spaces where they can become aware of their socio historical context and to develop their self confidence and competences to become full actors of that context so that they can change their situation and through that to liberate the oppressors. One example of this could be a worker who accepts a lot of unfair treatment, working conditions and payments, due to his/her fear of loosing the job and not being able to find another one (a common situation nowadays) and after a process of self confidence and deep belief one can do better, he/she would be free of that employer oppression and therefore look for better working conditions. In the end of the day, if we all live with this kind of belief in ourselves and we live more freely with that belief, there wouldn't be any employer oppressing people simply because there wouldn't be any people available to be oppressed.

One way or the other we all tend to develop oppressed and oppressor relations and therefore we must use the law of attraction in a very conscient and responsible way.

Therefore, be positive with yourself and with others and your life will have a positive change for sure!

New tools to tell old stories...

Usually i tend to look very critically to statistics, maybe because i studied economics and know how much they can be manipulated maybe because the number usually hide the inequalities within the group under study. However, i recently came across a great presentation of a Swedish man called Hans Rosling at the famous Ted conferences in the united states which introduced me to a very usefull software to present graphically the development paths of countries around the world since the 20th century. Check out the software which was bough recently by google and is available online for free at http://www.gapminder.org/.

About many key world indicators i also advice you to look to UN data website.

I have been dealing with issues connected with the Millennium Development Goals in the last few years and i tend to look critically to it's political usage, by politicians and corporations, to show voters that they are concerned with the inequalities of the world, especially in those basic human needs to live in dignity, once that the political speeches are not accompanied by the necessary reforms and policies which would lead to real effects on under developed countries peoples lifes. On the other hand, i also share the critics with friends who express how much the international cooperation and development agenda have been mainly reduced to MDG, leaving some other important cooperation spheres and demands out. On the other hand, i cannot also stop looking critically at the amounts of money spend on campaigns around Europe to promote the MDG, with little effect in terms of peoples and governments real changes that can allow us to achieve the goals in the time-frame stipulated.
As for needed changes, i do not only believe that Politicians must change the way of doing politics to be more coherent. Corporations and companies need to stop doing business as usual and start being more socially responsible and citizens need to be more conscient and aware of world inequalities and interdependencies and change their life styles of extreme consumerism and be more human and collective in the way we live out togetherness.

Africa Europe cooperation - making a new story!

Once upon a time there was Mama Africa, the one who gave birth to huge human migrations across European continent... with a quantum leap we jump into 15th century and Portuguese travels across African continent, a travel for social, cultural and economical purposes which ended up binding the world in a never ending interdependent complex and fast changing world. In those times the world was huge because the lands were small, now the world is small because land is big, the size of a parabolic antenna! Long after slavery was abolished and imperialist colonization was abandoned, a shameful story of European and United States development at the cost of human exploitation and natural resources exploration continued to set the pace of intercontinental relations. Nowadays, Europeans view of Africa is shaped by disasters, diseases, poverty, HIV, wars and genocides, the only news arriving to us channeled by the available media, while Africans views of Europe are filled with the dreams of a promised developed land where all basic needs are satisfied, where citizens have high living standards, where human dignity is respected. And our perception of the world is based on this simplistic views given by media channels controlled by corporations and lobbies of interest. The same ones who insist on pressuring governments in Europe and Africa to ensure they continue to raise their profit margins through false promises of development, most of the times in the short term and leading to long term exploitation and deepening the dependency level of African people.
Let's face it, a majority of European citizens live with high standards at the expenses of Africans and other people of under developed parts of the world: their cheap labour and as consequence, cheap raw materials, allow corporations based in the developed world to have huge profit margins from the added value of transforming raw materials into consumable products which we buy relatively cheap. And they do this creating factories in those countries where no laws protect the environment and where they can ensure low taxes or even none with promises of creation of high numbers of new jobs and therefore contributing to the development of those countries. This neo-colonization as been taking place for some decades and it is not hard to look at numbers and see that in general, Africa is not improving the living conditions of their people.
I could talk here for hours also about the food and medical aid which benefits also the developed markets in terms of using the overproduction which would reduce the prices of goods or about the selling of weapons or the human trafficking market. This are all stories far away from European daily reality.
I do want to talk about two things:
1 - Many Development NGO's went to Africa with predefined answers to African problems and in many cases giving "fish" while they should be teaching people to "fish". Nowadays, we must ask if there is fish to fish when we teach people how to fish? For me, cooperation is about learning with each other. It is also about respecting the cultural heritage of the African peoples in the sense that in most cases they do have the answers to most challenges they face in terms of geographical context but they do not have the means to put them in practice in a sustainable and lasting way which can support their development. This takes me to the second question related with learning with each other in a equal basis dialogue.
2 - Why so many Europeans feel unhappy and look at African sense of community and humanity felt by many people traveling throughout the continent and expressed in banto language by the concept of Ubuntu which gave the name to my blog? Maybe because we in Europe, are living in a society based on consumption and materialistic values which increases peoples feeling of individualism and competition among each other. Please have a look at the following video about the story of stuff and think a bit about what world you want your children to live in...
As for the future, it depends on us... government leaders compromised last December in Lisbon with an ambitious action plan and some interesting instruments and mechanisms of cooperation as you can see in the Africa Europe youth summit webpage.
So let's demand from our governments to put in practice their political commitments, lets engage in dialogue and cooperation, lets discover the world of ubuntu inside of us.
May the ubuntu spirit be with us...

Emotional learning - the future - part 1

Damasio research shows that feeling is the key to being human - without it no thinking is possible. The brain is so structured that it is impossible to make a completely rational decision, since everything that we think and do is determined by feeling. Rationality comes later as a rationalization of the decision. That's why so many refuse to be confused by the facts when making their decisions.
If this is the case, it makes no sense for people to learn about facts and ideas without, in the process, learning about their feelings.
From Damasio point of view "There may be a connecting trail, in anatomical and functional terms, from reason to feelings to body. It is as if we are possessed by a passion for reason, a drive that originates in the brain core, permeates other levels of the nervous system, and emerges as either feelings or nonconscious biases to guide decision making."
Damasio recognizes that feelings arise equally from negative and positive emotions, but strongly argues that the ability to interpret life in a manner that leads to positive feelings is both healthier and more productive. It follows, then, that educational activities should be designed to support people in learning about emotions, how to manage them and how to foster positive emotions. Very few, rare and valuable educational providers have explored this, but unfortunately most schools remain factories for jamming stuff into children's heads without any particular regard for its value or usefulness, except in terms of labor market.
This leads to a population that is underdeveloped intellectually, uninvolved in social issues, and largely incompetent to meet most of the challenges of modern life in general, especially the complexity, interdependence and unpredictability of our world. Mostly because, since students have no feeling for what is being thought, they forget most of what they learned -- which seemed to them irrelevant anyway, and probably was.

On the other hand, some of my previous experience show that many people learn a lot about themselves and about others when they get out of the comfortable zones and get into stretching or crisis zones. It is in crisis moments that one can find out his/her own best and worst characteristics.
The question that runs in my brain is - how to create "safe" trustful and supportive learning environments, and at same time, implement meaningful emotional learning experiences which can cause stress, anxiety and a certain degree of frustration?
Other important questions are:
Where are the limits of educators and learners actions working with emotions?
To what extent do educators have the right to experiment or put learners in negative emotional situations?
Should we as educators make everybody happy all the time?

A final remark from my side - as more and more talks take place among educators about quality in education, the more i believe that quality in education is about providing conditions for people to learn and be happy, developing their competences to seek their dreams in cooperation with others.
What about you what you think?

What is the connection between emotions and consciousness?

The legacy of René Descartes' notorious dualism of mind and body extends far beyond academia into everyday thinking, such as in expressions like "These athletes are prepared both mentally and physically," and "There's nothing wrong with your body--it's all in your mind." Emotions on the other hand, were seen for long time as a primitive instrument of survival, incompatible with rationalism views of reason and intellect as higher capacities of human beings. This preconceptions as well as the belief that it wouldn't be possible to objectively study the human consciousness as led to very few research made in these field. Lately, some neuroscience researchers have been bringing new insights on how conscience is happening in physical terms and what role do emotions and feelings perform, not only for survival but as basis for the phenomena of conscience. From the Descartes famous quote "I think therefore i am" i propose a new one "I feel therefore i am".
Let's find out some interesting things...
Our brain is an organ for homeostasis - a centre which collects and collates feedback on body states and acts to maintain constant conditions in our internal environment - it's main aim is to regulate life - constantly monitor the body conditions and ensure they remain adequate to maintain life. The Portuguese researcher António Damásio - one of the world's leading neuroscientists - defends the idea that human consciousness is based on a brain mechanism called "somatic marker". The somatic marker mechanism is the way in which a cognitive representation of the external world (perceptions of the external world which cause nerve activation patterns) interact with cognitive representations of the internal world (our body conditions) - in other words is where perceptions interact with emotions. By 'emotion', Damasio does not mean a psychological state; instead he uses the term to refer to internal changes in body state (chemical, visceral, muscular) and also the accompanying changes in the nervous system. Emotions are thus not conscious when they are triggered.
It is useful to differentiate emotions and feelings. An emotion in essence is a behavior, a collection of manifestations that can be seen in our face and our body. Feelings are private since they take place inside of us and no one can see them. One can be seen by all and the other can only be seen by us. Emotions came first and they originate feelings which then originate more emotions. A feeling that remains present for some time becomes a mood.

Many animals display awareness of external sensory stimuli (eg. monkeys may be aware of specific aspects of the visual environment they see, as demonstrated in innumerable experiments). But what is unusual about humans is that we are also aware of our bodies, our ‘selves’, and this inner-directed attention forms the root of consciousness. This theory implies that the sense of "self" comes from the brain constant monitoring of our organism and its representation of our organism being changed by the objects encountered throughout life. For instance, when we meet someone, many changes take place in our bodies - our face changes, our neck changes position, our heart might beat faster or slower, etc. When our brain maps our relation with the person and the way it changed our organism we have the basis for the core self. Damasio distinguishes three different kinds of self that we possess. First, there is the proto-self, which is an interconnected and temporarily coherent collection of neural patterns representing the state of the organism, moment by moment, at multiple levels of the brain. The proto-self is unconscious, once that it is just the feeling of "being there" without any sense of who you are that is doing the "being". Next we have the core self, which is produced whenever an external object of any kind modifies the proto-self. This is the one which is knowing that you exist in recognizable surroundings with others to relate to. The core self does not change much throughout our lifetime, and we are conscious of it. Hence we can speak of core consciousness. What I found particularly interesting about this notion is that the core consciousness is supposed to continually regenerated in a series of pulses, which seemingly blend together to give a continuous 'stream of consciousnes'. Damasio connects his conception of core consciousness with the view expressed by a variety of earlier thinkers: Locke, Brentano, Kant, Freud, and William James. Finally, there is the autobiographical self, which is based on memory and also on anticipations of the future, develops gradually throughout life and means that you value and keep track of your previous experiences. The autobiographical self permits the existence of a much richer form of consciousness, which Damasio calls extended consciousness. That's what enables you to make an impact on the world, leaving the stamp of your point of view, skill or creativity on the awareness of those around you.
We are living organisms that interact with other objects and living beings and have the possibility to react to the outside world. The very notion of consciousness is about the relation between you (the organism) and something that you know. As William James said - "you cannot be conscious of nothing". We are conscious of our body, feelings or an object in the external world and this comes from our brain mapping the relation between our organism as it is portrayed in our brain and the object as portrayed in our brain.

Damasio proved that the mechanism that supports and powers the kind of consciousness you and I share was evolved over long periods of time. Our consciousness develops from the time of conception. You experience first what is called the proto-self -- just the feeling of "being there" without any sense of who you are that is doing the "being." Next comes the core-self, which is knowing that you exist in recognizable surroundings with others to relate to. After that you become aware of an autobiographical self, which means that you value and keep track of your previous experiences. The last thing to develop is the extended consciousness.

Inside our brain, it's like we are all constantly watching a movie of our live's (past, present and anticipated moments). The interesting thing is that in the middle of that movie, we are constructing fresh knowledge about the fact that we relate to the objects and the movie is ours. It is like in cinema watching the movie but with the difference that in the middle of the movie, we find out that we are inside the movie and we can change the story.
An interesting aspect of this is that we can consciously influence the expression of emotions and its impact in the longer term in our mood and temper, both for personal health and for the benefit of social relations. This shows how wise people have been in the past, since it is part of common sense that if we laugh or smile a lot we tend to be happier and therefore healthier persons, while if we make facial expressions connected with negative emotions like anger or hate, we will feel more sad and will be more sick. Of course this relation is dynamic and its intensity depends on each individual.
In Damasio theory, emotions and feelings come first, then language and labels come afterwards, but they interact back with emotions and feelings in a circular way. It is curious to see that cross culturally the fundamental emotions are expressed quite similarly world wide but yet the way each person is allowed to expressed those emotions is culturally controlled. For instance in some cultures loud, raucous laughter with exaggerated movements and expressions is considered "unfeminine".
In this open system, we do not control totally emotions and feelings, but we do regulate them to a certain extent and this helps us in everyday life in order to develop social intelligence strategies that ensure our co-existence. Our capacity of being aware of the roots of our emotions (why those changes in our body take place) allows us for instance, to feel empathy for others - the capacity to perceive what others are feeling. It also allows us to constantly adopt appropriate emotional mechanisms when meeting other persons in different situations. Nevertheless, social learning of stereotypes and prejudices affect the image our brain creates, of the relation between ourselves as portrayed by our brain and the other as portrayed by our brain (constructed with stereotypes and prejudices) and therefore can trigger unappropriated emotions for specific situations based on wrong learned assumptions.
From this findings we can think how emotion and memory perform fundamental roles in decision-making and communication, and how they are central to our most fundamental socio-cultural endeavors.

Damasio wrote several interesting books such as "the mistake of Descartes" and another called "In the search of Espinosa" where he links many theories of the famous philosopher which are in line with current research.
In next article i will explore the significance of this findings for learning and education.

Utopia or the power of dreams...

"Utopia is there in the Horizon. I get two steps near, she gets two steps away. I walk 10 steps and the horizon runs away 10 steps. I will never reach it no matter how much i walk. What then is Utopia for? It's meant for that: so that i don't stop walking". This sentence is of Eduardo Galeano, one of my discoveries last year in South America. He wrote one of the most extensive descriptions of the unfair historical relations between Latin America and Iberia and then USA and England - The open veins of Latin America.
He also said that we are what we do, but we are mainly what we do to change what we are.
As an educator i would give it maybe another perspective: To unveil our human essence, we must learn to forget the ways we have been thought to see the world and ourselves and then, together we can find new and unimagined ways to be and to do to transform the world and ourselves in the process.
Utopia like dreams, point the directions we might want to take in our life paths.

Life is too beautiful
In all its biodiversity
In all the magic of mysteries
left unveiled
only to be felt
only to be lived
in ways that new words
are needed to describe.

Where do you stand politically?

Have you ever though where would you stand in the left and right political views? Have you ever considered you might have authoritarian or libertarian tendencies? Well, just try out the political compass test and find out where you stand. Some questions might provoke your deepest beliefs...or not!:-) Anyway, even if in the end of the day these are just boxes, some of the questions put in the test are fundamental questions in terms of what society you want to be part of and how you believe it can be constructed. Therefore i invite you to take the test... you might even wanna redo it in one year and see the differences.

The school which i always dreamed of without imagining it could exist

This is the title of the book written by Rubem Alves (famous Brazilian Pedagogue) about a little school in Vila das Aves (north of Portugal) called Escola da Ponte.
Since i am a curious and critical Educator, i couldn't resist visiting the school a couple of months ago while heading to Santiago de Compostela do give a training course on Theatre of the Oppressed to local educators and social animators.
When i first read the book of Rubem Alves in Maktostas (a local bar in Faro), i couldn't stop dropping some tears of emotion. It is an unbelievable feeling to find out that others are putting in practice so many things we believe in and that a better world is being constructed while i write this text, by so many unknown people just like you and me! And so near, in my little Portugal, my small country which for so long i though was the centre of the Universe:-)
There aren't enough words to describe Escola da Ponte when one has as reference the traditional schools most of us frequented during our early stages of life. I can only tell you what i saw. When i arrived to the school, i was first surprised when two young students of 6 and 9 years old came to show me the school and explain me how it works, instead of having one of the teachers!?! Imagine a school where students are not divided in classes. There is one big class room where students are moving around freely totally concentrated on their tasks and it is difficult to recognize who are the teachers since there is no one talking in front of the group and no one obviously supervising students work!?!? Second surprise.
Here students decided together with teachers what they learn and students organize their weekly work so that they research on their own and in groups according to interests and they consult teachers in last case. Students have a board where they write their name when they already know something and another where they write their name when they need help in something. From this base, many relations of solidarity and support are built among students once that all are responsible for all to learn. This cooperative learning approach is fundamental for the development of many social competences and its value based on community and the importance and uniqueness of each individual with his/her own learning rhythm. There is also two computers where students can go at any moment and write in one what they don't like in school and in the other what they like.
In the beginning of each year students organize elections for the chairs of the school assembly which takes place every Friday. In this assembly, run by students, teachers and students and whoever wants to assist, define the students rights and responsibilities for the year, discuss on the school problems and find together possible solutions and reflect on most important matters of school work.
If one of the students break one of the rules defined in the students rights and responsibility charters, there is a support commission also with students to take care of this "transgressions". Usually, their first approach is to request the student who broke the rule to think for 3 days on his/her actions and to write a text about it?!?!
In this school there are responsibility groups with teachers and students divided in groups responsible for different things such as the newspaper or the playground.
In this school of liberty, all autonomous students decided when they are prepared for evaluation. Evaluation is done both by self assessment and feedback from colleagues and teachers and even parents.
In this school there is no director, only a project coordinator which is also a teacher - all teachers are responsible for all students and for the school in a horizontal decision making process, even though each teacher is tutor of a group of 9 to 11 students.
In this school, all are equal but all are treated as individuals, all are enjoying school and learning!
This is a school of citizenship, in citizenship and through citizenship.
I recently found out that this school practice was inspired by the Modern School Movement and by several other people like Paulo Freire, Frenet, Edgar Morin, Tolstoi, Dewey, Goldstine, Montessori among others.
I was also happy to know that Modern School movement is developed in Portugal and more than 2000 teachers are using its methodology in many Portuguese schools. There is hope in the future as long as our children are educated to be free human beings able to co-construct a more just and inclusive world for all.

Caminhante...

No final de mais uma semana marcante, deixo-vos um poema que me marcou nos últimos anos...
"Caminhante, são teus rastos
o caminho, e nada mais.;
caminhante, não há caminho,
faz-se caminho ao andar.
Ao andar faz-se o caminho,
e ao olhar-se para trás
vê-se a senda que jamais
se há-de voltar a pisar.
Caminhante, não há caminho,
somente sulcos no mar."
Escrito por António Machado

Encontro "Os Jovens e a Política" com o Presidente da República

Ontem, decorreu no Palácio de Belém o encontro "Os Jovens e a Política" onde a convite do Presidente da República estiveram presentes 31 jovens representantes das maiores organizações juvenis Portuguesas para discutir os resultados de um estudo realizado pela Universidade Católica a pedido do Presidente sobre a participação política dos jovens em Portugal. Eu estive presente como facilitador de um dos três grupos de trabalho.
Penso que este encontro foi importante como primeiro passo para a criação de espaços de diálogo onde os principais vectores do chamado triângulo mágico das políticas de juventude - jovens lideres e trabalhadores juvenis, pesquisadores académicos especialistas em questões juvenis e decisores políticos - possam contribuir para a reflexão e construção de mais e melhores políticas de juventude.
Para que Portugal possa de facto dar um salto quantitativo e qualitativo em termos de participação juvenil nas grandes questões políticas e, por conseguinte, sociais, culturais e económicas, será necessário que se organizem conferências, seminários, grupos de trabalho e encontros regulares em geral, onde os lideres e trabalhadores das associações juvenis e associações a trabalhar com jovens (principais agentes de educação não formal e escolas de cidadania), em conjunto com os/as grandes estudiosos académicos das questões juvenis (Ensino Formal e Observatório de Juventude) e com os decisores políticos (Presidente da República, Governo, Autarquias e Institutos), dêem respostas concretas aos grandes desafios que a juventude Portuguesa enfrenta. Dessa forma, os jovens passam a ser parte da solução e não parte do problema, os estudiosos académicos terão contacto directo com os jovens que trabalham activamente no terreno e que por isso têm uma perspectiva directa da realidade juvenil, e os políticos que podem assim tomar decisões mais coerentes e consensuais.
Este tipo de iniciativas só pode reforçar o diálogo estruturado entre Políticos e Sociedade Civil e dar um contributo para que a juventude encontre mais espaços de participação e partilha de poder.

Reflectindo sobre a participação dos jovens não quero deixar de mencionar o seguinte:
1. Muitos jovens participam activamente na sociedade de uma forma política mesmo que não considerem as suas acções como tal, devido tanto ao grande descrédito e preconceito com a política dos partidos como à tendência antiquada de separar participação cívica de participação política. No escorrer da nossa contemporaneidade, inúmeras formas novas de participação vieram apresentar-se como complementos e alternativas ao modo tradicional de participação politica através do voto e do envolvimento em partidos políticos - associações, cooperativas, redes, movimentos, manifestações, expressões culturais, projectos, acções pontuais, consumo crítico, blogs, etc.
2. Uma parte significativa dos jovens enfrenta obstáculos estruturais à participação política efectiva na sociedade, especialmente no que diz respeito às condições minímas de vida necessárias para a sua emancipação, para que a participação possa ocorrer. Questões como a garantia de acesso a direitos fundamentais como o emprego, a habitação, a saúde, a mobilidade e o acesso à informação são essenciais para que essa emancipação aconteça o mais cedo possível. A pobreza, a falta de escolaridade, o desemprego, a periferia e os guetos, a discriminação e os preconceitos, bem como a falta de acesso à informação, fazem parte da realidade de muitos jovens portugueses, que partem de uma situação desfavorecida, cheia de obstáculos e dificuldades básicas, e que dessa forma, se vêem impedidos de realizar os seus sonhos e de contribuir para a construção de uma sociedade portuguesa mais humana, inclusiva, justa e equitativa.
3. A adicionar a estes obstáculos, temos também um sistema educativo deficiente uma vez que não prepara os jovens para uma cidadania activa, crítica, criativa e informada. Para que isso suceda, temos que mudar alguns paradigmas do ensino actual nomeadamente:
- Para prepararmos cidadãos e cidadãs para o exercício pleno dos seus direitos e deveres em Democracia, temos que educar para a Cidadania, na Cidadania e pela Cidadania. Isto quer dizer que as propostas educativas têm que considerar os alunos como individuos pensantes que podem ser responsáveis pela sua aprendizagem, já que se espera que ela decorra ao longo da vida. Para isso é necessário ouvi-los, estimular a sua curiosidade e questionamento sobre o mundo e aceitar negociar com eles o próprio funcionamento das escolas e dos seus processos educativos. Isto terá que ser feito em simultaneo com o envolvimento dos pais na vida e decisões das escolas;
- A educação têm que enfrentar a pós modernidade e preparar os jovens para viver num mundo complexo e interdependente de forma a que estejam preparados para aceitar e gerir a imprevisibilidade e complexidade da vida, observando e agindo nela de uma forma critica. Temos que implementar uma educação global nas escolas que permita aos jovens lidar com os desafios globais que a nossa sociedade enfrenta. Essa educação tem que ser holística na medida em que abrange as diversas dimensões do ser: físico, mental (racional e emocional) e social;
- A educação têm que se assumir como subjectiva, fruto de opções políticas que devem ser baseadas em valores éticos e humanos, nomeadamente os direitos humanos, inclusão, solidariedade, não violência, igualdade de oportunidades, respeito, ecologia, cooperação, responsabilidade, colectividade, etc;
- A educação tem que passar de uma perspectiva competitiva e individual para a visão ubuntu, ou seja, uma visão comunitária onde a aprendizagem pela cooperação leva à construção de conhecimentos novos em conjunto, desenvolvendo dessa forma competências sociais e grupais que reforcem os laços que nos unem permitindo o desenvolvimento de sociedades mais dialógicas, pacíficas e humanas;
- A educação deve abordar questões de poder e de relação entre as classes sociais como parte da leitura do mundo e capacitação para lidar com as tensões existentes entre grupos e classes sociais de uma forma inclusiva, dialogante e não violenta (não só nas suas formas físicas mas também psicologicas e sociais);
- Um eixo fundamental destas mudanças é a formação e desenvolvimento ao longo da vida das competências dos professores. É necessário estimular os professores a aprender ao longo da vida com os alunos e com os colegas professores e ajudá-los a realizarem-se na sua profissão.
4. A questão da participação também está intimamente ligada com as questões de poder atrás mencionadas e por isso urge construir uma democracia mais participativa que reduza os problemas vividos nestes últimos 34 anos de democracia representativa e que partilhe poder pelos vários estratos e grupos sociais.
Existe em Portugal uma escola Pública assim - A Escola da Ponte, um verdadeiro exemplo do que pode ser uma escola de cidadania (existe à 30 anos!).
Será importante também ouvir o que estudiosos como Boaventura de Sousa Santos ou pedagogos como John Dewey e Henri Wallon, ou teólogos e filosofos como Leonardo Boff ou Rubem Alves tem dito sobre educação para que a escola assuma um papel humanista e criador.
Penso que temos que continuar a trabalhar numa pedagogia da esperança (ver a biblioteca virtual do Paulo Freire) que parte da visão crítica do mundo actual e avança pela acção rumo a um futuro de possibilidades limitadas apenas pela nossa imaginação, capacidade de sonhar e de concretizar em conjunto um mundo melhor para nós e para as gerações vindouras.

Community of Practices - from individuals to colective Knowledge construction!

While meeting with fellow colleagues of the European Youth Forum pool of trainers last weekend in Rijeka, Croatia, i thought once more on the value and importance of developing Pools of trainers as communities of practices in opposition to the traditional view of pools as mere lists of trainers called upon whenever organizations find it necessary.

I understand Communities of Practices as a groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do, and who interact regularly in order to learn how to do it better.
To develop trainers pools as communities of practices, organizations must provide spaces for members to meet just like we made in Rijeka. Such meetings are extremely important as ways of developing social capital, nurturing new knowledge, stimulating innovation, or sharing existing tacit knowledge within an organization, especially in this case where Youth Forum is an organization of organizations. In this sense, the Pool of Trainers must be a space of knowledge management contributing to the Youth Forum organizational development.
From this perspective, the role of the Bureau and Secretariat of the Youth Forum is not to manage knowledge directly, but to enable us practitioners to do so. We have a special connection with each other because we share actual experiences. We understand each other's stories, difficulties and insights. This allows us to learn from each other and build on each other's expertise. This self management nature doesn't mean we know everything and therefore, we must be in dialogue with: the Bureau and Secretariat in the organization, other communities of practice, and experts outside the organization. In this way, the cooperation with the CoE Pool of Trainers makes all the sense. The following paradox expresses the tension between internal and external views:
• No community can fully manage the learning of another, but no community can fully manage its own learning.
This is both a relief and a challenge. It is a relief because the responsibility for managing knowledge is one that can be shared. It is a challenge because it is not easy to create an environment that is conducive to and enabling of practitioners acting as knowledge managers.
For the Pool to be the base for Knowledge strategy within the Youth Forum it is necessary to keep in mind the three fundamental characteristics of communities:
a) Domain: the area of knowledge that brings us together, gives us our identity, and defines the key issues that we need to address. A community of practice is not just a personal network: it is about something. Therefore, our identity is defined not just by a task, as it would be for a team, but by an "area" of knowledge that needs to be explored and developed, in our case, Non Formal Education and training activities within the European Youth Sector.
b) Community: Us, the group of people for whom the domain is relevant, the quality of the relationships among us, and the definition of the boundary between the inside and the outside. A community of practice is not just a Web site or a library; it involves people who interact and who develop relationships that enable them to address problems and share knowledge.
c) Practice: the body of knowledge, methods, tools, stories, cases, documents, which we must share and develop together. A community of practice is not merely a community of interest. It brings together practitioners who are involved in doing something. Over time, we accumulate practical knowledge in the non formal educational field, which makes a difference to our ability to act individually and collectively.
Cultivating communities of practice requires paying attention to all three elements, since domain provides a common focus; community builds relationships that enable collective learning; and practice anchors the learning in what we do. Therefore, the combination of domain, community, and practice is what enables communities of practice to manage knowledge and this is a strategic activity.

The development of communities of practice is a bottom-up process as well as a top-down one.

In these meetings we continue forming our community of trainers, while in between it is important to support our mutual engagement in a process of practice development - few
things energize a community of practitioners more than getting into the challenge of the practice. Some of the key questions at this stage are: How to recognize and reward trainers efforts? How to help us organize our resources and make them easily accessible? How to understand, appreciate, and accelerate the effects of community activities on performance?
Involving practitioners in knowledge management is also important for returning knowledge from the field. The work of an organization produces two kinds of results: work results and knowledge results. The different areas of the Youth Forum must apply the work results to serving Member Organizations. The pool of trainers, for their part, need to manage the knowledge results from the work we do and feed this knowledge back into the organization. Thus the management of knowledge assets closes the loop-connecting strategy and performance through a full "knowledge wheel." Again, the three elements of communities of practice, in reverse order, provide the structure to describe the second half of this process. Engaging in this dual process of producing and harvesting knowledge gives us a unique perspective on the strategic value of knowledge. This strategic role of the Pool of Trainers highlights the needs for Bureau and Secretariat support so that the strategic musings of trainers can find a voice in the organization. Key issues are: How to involve the Pool of Trainers in a two-way strategic conversation with the organization? How to translate the insights we gain from managing our knowledge into strategic directions that the Youth Forum can pursue?
Knowledge is power and one may well wonder why anyone would want to share it. But hoarding knowledge is not necessarily the best way to benefit from its power. In a knowledge based society, reputation is a crucial asset, and sharing knowledge is therefore also a source of power, providing that one's community serves as a platform to build a reputation. Such reputation building depends on both peer and organizational recognition coming from the Youth Forum trainers development of practice in the youth training field.
This reflection was based on Community of Practices theory developed by Etienne Wenger. If you want to investigate more take a look at the first website about Communities of Practice.

To live and to learn

A long obscure educational past lies behind us, one where teachers used to give students the right answers to some predefined questions that someone somewhere decided that would be the main questions whose answers would provide a successful future... that used to be the case in a deterministic world... one which does not exist anymore!
We are in the age of post modernism where nothing is granted and there is no ultimate truths anymore! In this age, complexity and speed combine together for an ever more interdependent world.
One world that, according to quantum physics, is a world of possibilities and probabilities!
In this context, we can be whoever we want and we can imagine and we can build whatever world we want and dream of, everything is possible!
Education and learning are fundamental aspects of this life long process of being better and making a better world in the process and not just tools to address market needs. They are the tools that can facilitate or put obstacles to the human and society development process. From the many obstacles that formal education still presents to students, one of the most problematic is the lack of encouragement to questioning and to stimulate curiosity.
Isn't curiosity about us, life and everything and the questioning that comes from that search, the most important step for learning?
If that is the case then we must develop educational processes that stimulate curiosity, questioning and the ability to continuously be astonished. And we must encourage students to find the answers to those questions and to cooperate with each other, learn from the diversity of points of view and develop learning to learn competences (one of the 8 key competences defined by the European Commission). And from that my friends, we can stimulate self directed learning and therefore strengthen life long learning.
Because life is learning... don't forget to breathe while you do it!

About dialogue and conversation!

Within my numerous researches i found a very interesting article about Dialogue and conversation on http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-dialog.htm

In this article great thinkers present their points of view on this topic.

'Dialogue', Freire says, 'is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world'. Here we explore this idea - and its roots.

Conversation and dialogue are not simply the means that informal educators use, but are also what educators should seek to cultivate in local life. They may be illustration: artist's models approached as relationships to enter rather than simply as methods. We focus on the thinking of four people in particular:

Paulo Freire - with whom the notion of dialogue has been linked as an educational form;

Hans-Georg Gadamer - the philosopher who uses the metaphor of conversation to think about how we may come to understand the subject matter at issue; and

Jürgen Habermas - the social theorist who argues for the need for ‘ideal speech situations’ in fostering both understanding and a humane collective life.'[A] humane collective life’, he said (1985: 82), ‘depends on vulnerable forms of innovation-bearing, reciprocal and unforcedly egalitarian everyday communication'.

David Bohm - the eminent physicist and friend of Krishnamurti, whose example and practical proposals for dialogue have met a response from a number of different areas - but particularly those, like Peter Senge, who are concerned with organizational development.

Martin Buber has also made a significant contribution to the appreciation of encounter and dialogue in education.

Do you truly engage in dialogue and conversation or you just talk?

Blog of my 2007 South America Trip

For those who haven't followed my trip to south america last year, here is the link to the trip blog!

Enjoy, there are some good tips on how to get to Machu Pichu very cheap:-)

à espera?!?!

As pessoas esperam por tudo e por nada...
esperam que a chuva pare
esperam que o calor passe
esperam que os saldos cheguem
esperam que os salários subam, que o desemprego baixe, que os políticos façam aquilo que não sabem e que os patrões comecem a reconhecer o seu trabalho.
esperam que deus acuda, ou até mesmo o diabo, ou talvez que o D, Sebastião volte num dia de nevoeiro...
Esperam que as coisas mudem por estes lados sem fazer nada por isso!
Ai Portugal, quanto tempo mais tens que esperar?
Eu esperava poder esperar mas já me cansei disso à muito tempo.
Esperava muita coisa, até mesmo o mundo mudar...
...agora apenas procuro mudar o que sou e ser um pouco mais...pleno.
em parte por isso esperava-te a ti...
mas não consegui encontrar-te!
Agora apenas vivo cada dia como se fosse o último...tentando ser um pouco mais humano.

Temazcal!

Yesterday i experimented the mexican ritual ceremony Temazcal in the house of crazy friend Poc.

From pre-Hispanic heritage, Mexicans have recovered a ritual ceremony that was celebrated among indigenous cultures as a therapeutic cleansing. The word temazcal comes from the Nahuatl word temazcalli ("house of heat").

Volcanic rock is heated until red-hot and is placed in the center of an igloo-type construction, where the group reunites. After the initial ceremony, the conch shell is sounded, signaling the beginning of the temazcal bath. The group gets comfortable inside the temazcal and the stones are called for. The door is closed, sealing off all light and sealing in the heat. Herbs are thrown on the stones to create a curative vapor, heating the temazcal to even higher temperatures. The body may reach a temperature of 104°F (40° C) during the temazcal.

The swim in the cold lake waters, under the most amazing stars deep blue sky, after staying more than 1 hour inside the earth "utero", chanting and getting rid of physical and spiritual concerns was a reborn experience.

So here is the new me:-)

back to blog...

Something awoke inside of me...
something good...
i feel the need to write once again...
i'll be back:-)

YEU International Youth Convention 2006 - Greece

In the turn of generations, YEU CELEBRATED THE CULTURAL DIVERSITY in Greece during the Convention that is held annually in the summer. At the same time we were celebrating YEU 20th Birthday. About 57 young people from 21 different countries from all around Europe and North Africa meet for 18 days spent in Athens, Inofita and Variko Litohorou (near Olympus Mountain) to experience intercultural learning and to discuss diversity, human rights and youth participation. It was an amazing experience in very diverse places of Greece which gave me a taste of history, traditions and people most of all.

1ª Formação de Formadores em Educação Não Formal

De 22 a 29 de Julho, coordenei a primeira Formação de Formadores em Educação Não Formal que decorreu em Portugal em simultaneo com o Curso África Europa do Centro Norte Sul, na pousada da Juventude de Almada no Pragal. Esta formação foi proposta por mim no âmbito da criação da 1ª Bolsa de Formador@s em Educação Não Formal que estou responsável por criar para o Conselho Nacional de Juventude até meados de Setembro com o mandato de 1 ano. Esta formação apresentava alguns desafios, nomeadamente ser pioneira em Portugal e alcançar os objectivos para que os membros do CNJ valorizassem o projecto de criação da bolsa para além de quaisquer dúvidas para além de que a equipa tinha toda a atenção virada para o processo d@s participantes e sua maior ou menor resistência a uma abordagem educativa que ainda está a dar os primeiros passos para o reconhecimento social que merece no seio da nossa sociedade. Tivemos cerca de 21 participantes oriundos de 15 distritos de Portugal e de outras tantas associações, desde Associações Académicas a Associações Interculturais com experiência internacional e outras associações de âmbito mais local. A equipa constituída por mim, pela Tanie, pelo Zé e pelo Bruno deu o seu melhor para que a formação fosse a melhor experiência possível para cada participante. O processo foi fantástico com a resposta e entrega d@s participantes a alimentarem a nossa motivação para fazer mais e melhor. Houve uma desistência de uma participante que me fez pôr em causa se é possível ou não facilitar a aprednizagem de toda a gente. Será que pessoas fechadas para qualquer tipo de aprendizagem dentro de grupos, ou seja cooperativa e do estilo experiêncial como nós fazemos, podem ser estimuladas a aprender se não estão disponíveis. E se sim, então como fazê-lo? Onde estão os limites da minha responsabilidade como facilitador de aprendizagens? Enfim, obrigado a ti por me dares a oportunidade de reflectir sobre o teu processo e como eu respondi a ele e como posso melhorar nessa abordagem. Para além deste precalço posso dizer que dos 21 participantes, 10 estão na Bolsa de Formador@s e alguns já puseram projectos em práctica como foi o caso das duas pessoas da Associação Académica da Universidade do Minho que iniciaram um projecto para contribuir para a diminuição do abandono e o insucesso escolar. Este projecto baseia-se no entendimento de que uma integração bem sucedida do estudante na Universidade, à luz dos desafios colocados pelo Processo de Bolonha, encontra-se correlacionada com o desenvolvimento de competências transversais no quadro de uma educação não formal. Assim, formaram um grupo de 20 multiplicadores para assegurar a utilização de metodologias que permitirão atingir uma melhor qualidade do acolhimento dos 2000 novos alunos que chegarão brevemente à Universidade do Minho. Enfim, tudo indica que estão a ser criadas condições para que a Educação Não Formal possa ganhar mais espaço na sociedade portuguesa como forma de desenvolvimento da participação activa d@s jovens.

YEU Training on Organizational Management and Networking

From 8 to 16 of July, i was in Almada youth centre near Trafaria to give a training on Organizational Management and Networking for YEU members coming from 13 countries such as Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Albania, Italy, Lithuania, Belarus, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Serbia. Everything went on good and hopefully YEU MO’s will improve their work via these wonderful participants who gave as much as they could... Almost! hehehe...
A big sarava to all and a hug to my special friends there, you know who you are? :-)

2nd YEU Governing Board meeting – Poznan, Poland

UAU!
YEU Polish group hosted us in wonderful Poznan in the end of June for few great days.
What a great company (thanks Natchka for funtastik hosting and stop saying sorryJ), great atmosphere, World Cup games with Portugal beating England and we singing Uraina to Berto heheheh.
Good fun…
I feel home in Poland…
if it wasn’t for the cold winter and not so hot summer and maybe the lack of Ocean, who knows? If…
Jincuia bartzo (I am sure it isn’t like this hehehe)

Russian experience…

From 10 to 18 of June i went on na adventure to the middle of Russian Federation Ural Federal District. More precisely to a place near Res, 1,5 hours from Ekaterinburg, the capital of one of the regions (the district is almost the size of Western Europe all together, from Portugal to Poland maybe). I went there to work on a Long Term Training Course to develop the role of young people and youth organisations in promoting youth participation in society within the Urals Federal District.
It was my second project in Russia after the experience last year in Moscow doing a Training for Trainers in youth work in Russian Federation and I was totally excited by this opportunity to work in a LTTC (duration of 1 year almost) and to immerse myself deeply in the countryside of Russia working with young leaders who are doing youth work in their cities and villages. The experience was amazing. To work in such a team with Jean Philippe, Denis, Ludmilla and Dina as well as with Jelena and the 3 interpreters was great. But most of all to work with so many different people with different cultures and backgrounds and to try to construct all together a common vision of youth work respecting the values of non formal education, putting in question their and my practice working with youngsters. To discuss Civil Society, Youth Participation and Democracy with them through Image Theatre was a very intensive and interesting experience. I can’t stop to be amazed by the power of the images that come out of this technique. In the , participants came out with projects they are now implementing. In November I will visit my friends from Tyoumen region and also from Ekaterinburg and see their projects in action. Through the SWOT analyses I hope to help them to reflect on their practice and improve their work. I look forward to this experience. The only things I do not miss honestly are the mosquitoes and the food there. Anyway, in November I will fight with the weather which can also be a major challenge. Lets see white Russia through my own eyes and keep on breaking my stereotypes and their stereotypes about each other.
Nasdorowie

Visit to the Island of Man

I was in the beginning of May in the Island of Man in the Irish sea between Ireland, Scotland and England. Went to visit a special place with special people. I got the opportunity to see the oldest motorbikes road race – the TT race. Crazy people driving faster than one can see in a circuit of 60 kms around the Island (average speed of more than 160km in a normal road). Anyway what impressed me most were the green hills and the blues sea sighs in the day we went on a biking tour.
According to the legend, the giant Finn McCoil from the Irish island was fighting with another giant from England when he throw a huge piece of rock taken from what is today a lake in Ireland and sent it in the direction of the other giant. Finn McCoil failed the target and the huge rock felt in the sea creating guess what? The Island of Man of course! I love these Celtic old legends. Those days will stay in my memories for ever. Thank you

No final de Maio virei avô!!!

No final de Maio virei avô!!!
A minha filhota Hamas deu à luz a 6 lind@s gat@s. Grande Filha, grande Mãe!
Adoro-te porque és felina
Adoro-te porque és linda
Adoro-te porque me tratas como um gato grandeJ

Formação de Teatro do Oprimido com Armindo do CTO de Sto André – Estado de S. Paulo

Graças à boa vontade da Humana Global e da amiga Anabela, alguns e algumas representantes dos ATOA puderam participar numa oficina de TO em Coimbra com o Armindo do Brasil. Foi uma óptima oportunidade de por em práctica os conhecimentos já adquiridos e fortalecer algumas técnicas já que o Armindo tem uma qualidade proveniente de um saber de experiência feito do trabalho com jovens favelados de Sto André que me alimentou o desejo de trabalhar mais e mais com as técnicas do TO. A apresentação na rua no ultimo dia foi épica pois foi a primeira vez que curinguei na rua, batismo arrancado a ferro e fogo pois tivemos um público diverso que constituiu um verdadeiro desafio. A cena que apresentámos em frente a uma capela num dos largos da baixa de Coimbra ao final da tarde, passava-se nas urgências do Hospital onde diversos clientes tentavam desesperadamente ser atendidos naquela encruzilhada de sofrimento humano enquanto uma “tia” passava à frente da fila para ser atentdida rapidamente. Ora a determinada altura um bebâdo que passava naquele largo entra em cena e todos nós continuámos a cena de fórum mesmo com ele no meio!? Acho até que ele de facto aumentou o realismo daquela imagem. Foi difícil levar pessoas ao “palco” improvisado mas a cena deu algumas discussões interessantes. Até tivemos um membro do público a fugir assim que falei em entrar em cena hehehe. Foi uma experiência muito enriquecedora para mim e que me deu mas vontade de aprofundar a práctica pensando agora realizar um trabalho mais permanente com grupos que permita outra instrospecção das técnicas e uma intervenção mais profunda com comunidades e grupos oprimidos. Armindo e pessoal da Humana estão sempre na boa com o pessoal dos ATOA!!!
Sarava