JORGE RODRIGUES SIMÃO

I was walking through the mall when I saw a photo booth at one of the kiosks. 

A large green screen hung as a backdrop and the photographer had her subjects stand in front of it in various poses.

After taking the photo, she used a computer to paste it into a scene.

You might then look like an alligator wrestler, a snowboarder, a hapless adventurer getting run over by his own jeep.

What you see is not always what you get.

People are not always what they seem.

It’s easy for others to paint an inaccurate picture either to impress or manipulate us into doing what they want us to do.

Understand that while many, even most, of the people in your life will be honest, there will be those who will paint a false picture.

They will claim to have an experience that you don’t; they will claim to know the secret of how to live your life; they will claim to be something they’re not.

They will try to use their self-exalted position to control and manipulate you.

Be aware of people who would manipulate you by pasting themselves into a false background or the scene.

Don’t just take things at face value.

Take your time, as much time as you need, to see what the real background is.

Most of us get misled from time to time. Sometimes people con us.

Other times we trick ourselves. Let go of naïveté.

PERSPECTIVAS - O esqueciado ambiente anterior - HojeMacau - 06. 12.2019

“The quality of housing conditions plays a decisive role in the health status of the residents, because many health problems are either directly or indirectly related to the building itself, the construction materials that were used, and the equipment or the size or structure of the individual dwellings.”

The World Health Organization

As pessoas podem passar maior tempo dentro de casa, quotidianamente, em particular nas áreas urbanas. A influente localização corresponde a 50-60 por cento, o trabalho ou a escola em ambientes fechados a cerca de 30 por cento e outros ambientes fechados, como os transportes e os edifícios públicos a 5 por cento, o que equivale a mais de 90 por cento. A Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) considera a manutenção de um bom ambiente interno como um factor importante para a saúde. Segundo a OMS, três milhões e oitocentas mil mortes são atribuídas anualmente à poluição do ar doméstico. Globalmente, mais de três mil milhões de pessoas dependem de fontes de energia poluidoras para cozinhar; assim, 50 por cento das mortes por pneumonia entre crianças menores de cinco anos são devidas à poluição do ar doméstico.

In the 1980s, Shakti Gawain wrote a best-seller, Creative Visualization. She talked about the powerful impact of using your mind to imagine yourself in some activity before actually doing it in reality.

Visualization has been a self-help tool that’s been around even longer than that. Many people in all walks of life, from therapists to sports professionals, agree that seeing yourself doing it beforehand is the best way to do it well.

We can use the tool of visualization to help create matter out of spiritual energy, simply by spending quiet time during our meditation focusing on what we want, seeing ourselves having it, doing it, touching it, and feeling it. 

A visualization is an important tool. It’s a gift when we can see ourselves doing something and then having that activity manifested in reality.

Visualization only works if you use it. Make it a regular practice in your life. 

Visualize yourself living with one of your dreams. 

Visualize yourself doing something you’re nervous about doing. Take a few moments and run through the entire scenario in your head, until you can see yourself doing that thing calmly, clearly, and successfully with all obstacles cleared from your path

PERSPECTIVAS - A democracia e o desenvolvimento económico - HojeMacau - 28.11.2019

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

Winston Churchill

A democracia é o sistema que funciona melhor? A democracia é mais eficaz, do ponto de vista económico? Há quem responda corajosamente com um retumbante sim. A evidência mostra que ao longo dos séculos, e em muitos países, a democracia tem promovido o crescimento de forma mais eficaz e consistente do que qualquer outro sistema político. Será possível acreditar? Tal raciocínio omite completamente o facto de que o crescimento veio de mãos dadas com o avanço tecnológico, e que a tecnologia é um subproduto não da democracia, mas de uma espécie de lógica e racionalidade forjada pelos gregos clássicos, que de facto deram origem ao "espírito científico" e, como resultado, ao prodigioso desenvolvimento da tecnologia que, sem igual, ocorreu nos últimos dois séculos no mundo ocidental.