JORGE RODRIGUES SIMÃO

PERSPECTIVAS - A natividade de Jesus - HojeMacau - 19.12.2019

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”

Calvin Coolidge

O Natal já não é o que costumava ser pois perdeu o seu significado religioso em muitas partes do mundo ocidental e tornou-se o auge de uma época de gastos excessivos, de comer demasiado e de exultações sem controlo. O novo Natal espelha o seu antecessor pagão, que celebrava o solstício de inverno. O Natal é a festa preferida das crianças durante o ano, e para os adultos é um tempo para se entregarem às doces lembranças dos velhos tempos. Existem três versões da peça de teatro Natividade.

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.