…And darkness covered the horizon… (part 2)

(there’s a treat in the end)

It’s now time to make some questionable comment about home… please enjoy.

Educating Portugal

General thoughts about Strikes

1. It’s a right and whatever happens it should always be a right,but there has also to be preserved the right not to strike, whatever happens;
2. It’s an union weapon  tool to use in the mist of negotiations with the employers, but not the only one;
3. There should be a carefully planed strategy to every strike.

Strikes in education.

Recently there’s been a war between our government and the professors unions, on the battlefield of education land, both sides fight wearing a banner for “a sustainable  public education”

The problem

Every strike is scheduled to have the biggest impact it possibly can, so to grab government by the balls, and this creates a shock of the system where supply rapidly falls and rises, demand  is fixed so it doesn’t adjust, this is putting it simple.
So in the realm of education, this normally means students don’t have classes, losing a days work, that is easily recoverable. But this time, strikes are to be during the exams season. This shocks not only a day on the lives of students, teachers, government and society in general, but a whole year, and with little gains from it.

The Risk

Every strike is a battle of minds as much as a battle of arguments, whoever gathers  the most public support ultimately wins the battle.
So in a scenario where the shock is as big as this one is to be… you better not lose…
How not to lose—Government

• Whatever happens stand your grown, do not encore in any strategy where it ultimately  result in body bags.
• Hire people to break the strike, and have minimal  services working.

How not to lose—Unions:

• Do not circumscribe the strike to just a day, with such a big risk of alienating everyone that's not directly involved, you have to make the government to come outright and say they fold;
• Make sure that no kid that’s suppose to be in school dies, and if it happens you better work you fucking ass of to make sure you’re not blamed for it.

The Battle itself…

Is Going to end nowhere, the unions won’t win anything significant, and government will argue that as long as Troika is supervising them they can’t do anything more to satisfy the people, and it is all the previous socialist government fault

Appendix

student- teacher ratio:
http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=educ_iste&lang=en

All that is hate fell on to him… part 1

Sorry this one will be a big one. I’m looking to turn a page and restart writing, ending this blockage I have in front of me. And for that I'm doing 2 things:

1st- I’m “unbricking” this wall in front of me by addressing every thing I need to break free

2nd- I’m going to leave this retreat  I'm living in and re-engaging life.

So let’s start:

All that is hate fell on to him…

 

Brazil

Brazil is hosting the next FIFA world cup, and right now is home to the confederations cup.  So every news agency in the world has an eager ear on the outcome of this preview of the “Prova Rainha”.

There was an expectation to see samba in every corner of Brazil and  great collections of models like body flapping around every camera. but that’s not happening… instead we’re treated to something resembling a new age civil war.

In the last few years Brazil has had an average GDP growth, while the rest of developed and developing world has gotten by with recession and marginal growths at best , so everyone thought that Brazil will soon became part of the most developed countries.

But then…

“After becoming president in 2011, Dilma Rousseff sought to stimulate growth by hiking public spending and the minimum wage, and forcing state-run banks to lend more. The resulting inflation was tackled not by raising interest rates but by cutting sales taxes and holding down the price of items with a big impact on the inflation index, including food, petrol and bus fares. Until recently voters reacted favourably, though the economy did not.” in Economist

Increasing government spending in an slowly growing economy is like giving cheetah food to a bunny rabbit, it will do whatever it does faster, but then cutting taxes is just like picking up the bunny rabbit and tossing him into the cheetah’s cage… it isn’t pretty.

But that’s not all, because this Keynesian madness is not over until you figure out where has the money been spent, because it wasn’t spent to enrich the country’s education, healthcare or justice system, but it has instead been wasted with individual spending. In the sense give the money to the people and let them spend it as they see fit.

It would be less expensive to just burn the money.

 

USA the big brother

(FUCK HEY!!)

Next time you turn on your computer just remember that if your watching porn, Obama will be watching you watching it.

(part 2 coming soon)