JORGE RODRIGUES SIMÃO

Even the best of us get tricked from time to time.

Someone comes along and impresses us with magic.

Later we discover it wasn’t magic, just illusions.

Sometimes the issue isn’t that people were trying to trick us.

We tricked ourselves.

We saw what we wanted to see, regardless of what reality was.

Then, when reality started to creep in, we told ourselves if we held our breath and didn’t feel our feelings and hoped long and hard enough, reality would change.

We don’t have to get mad at ourselves when we get tricked, even if we’ve fooled ourselves.

We need to see and acknowledge the truth and become aware of what reality is.

Don’t let your embarrassment over finding yourself in a bad situation clouds your view of yourself.

Sometimes all we need to do is acknowledge the truth, including the truth about how we feel.

In a few days or a few months, the solution will become clear.

When all the illusions drop away, that’s when the real magic begins.

You’ll be guided along your path.

PERSPECTIVAS - A questão do desenvolvimento sustentável - HojeMacau -12.12.2019

“It's widely recognized that there is no peace without development and no development without peace; it is also true that there is no peace and sustainable development without respect for human rights.”

Antonio Guterres

A “Agenda 2030 para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável” e os dezassete “Objectivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS)” são ambiciosos e definem prioridades e aspirações globais para 2030. Os ODS procuram "acabar com a pobreza extrema em todas as suas formas e criar os alicerces de uma prosperidade sustentável para todos. O seu sucesso depende fortemente da acção e colaboração de todos os actores, incluindo governos a nível nacional e sub-nacional, além da sociedade civil e do sector privado. O caminho para alcançar a Agenda 2030 é obstruído por desafios assustadores e obstáculos, incluindo mudanças climáticas, fragilidade e conflitos, pandemias e muitos outros.

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.