Ethical Code for the XXI century: Portugal, what's wrong with you?

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Portugal, what's wrong with you?

As an emigrated portuguese I keep an eye on what goes on back in my country with the Público newspaper RSS feed. A brief summary of the news I've seen pass in the last couple of weeks:

Robbery to the BCE bank branch, police shoots down robbers
Robbery to security van in highway A2 with explosives
Robbery to jewelry and murder of the owner
Robbery to construction site and police shoots son of thief
Robbery to gas station in Cascais using robbed cars with Carjacking
Stolen car causes accident and kills 3 people
Robbery to Post Office in Setubal
Robbery to gas station in Caparica by 2 men in disguise
Robberies to houses in Gaia, thief caught by police
Robbery to gas station in Fogueteiro by 3 armed men
Robbery to the BCP bank branch in Sintra by 2 armed men
German citizen shot in the head in Boliqueime

Today alone I registered 6 of the above occurrences... despair is taking over in times of crisis?

3 comments:

Alex said...: Indeed things do not look like they are going very well...crisis? changing times? who knows, but a quick tour of todays news reveals:

-two man caught while robbing a jewelery in Lisbon
-four man steal a gold transport car in Braga

On the same note, today I received an article by Vasco Pulido Valente where he says that criminality is an effect of the crisis, and it is not new, it is a very old portuguese tradition. I couldn't find the link online...if I do, I'll add it here (It came out in Publico, on the 24th of Aaugust 2008 with the title "A nova criminalidade"); 27 August 2008 at 23:07
bruno said...: It's like people start having no other choice but to go and rob... it doesn't look like professional organized crime, but rather let's go get some change... but lives are being risked and taken...; 28 August 2008 at 12:54
H. Sousa said...: O artigo de VPV no Público só para pagantes. Mas pode-se ler aqui:
http://estradapoeirenta.blogspot.com/2008/08/nova-criminalidade.html
não sei se está completo.

Mas essa «onda» foi, possivelmente, fabricada para justificar negócios. Tanto assim que já não se ouve nada ou o controle pidesco já é tal que abafou tudo.

Abraços; 3 September 2008 at 22:20

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Manifesto

Do not kill. Even in self defence avoid the death of your aggressor. Use Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy responsibly and in cases of manifest health risks and consider the alternatives in other cases. But do not accept as dignified the living of beings in extreme pain and suffering and accept that they might prefer to terminate it.
Respect the other. Don’t inflict bodily painful punishments. Don’t use of physical or psychological violence. Don’t insult. Control your aggressiveness. Don’t accept torture under any pretext. Respect yourself and your body and promote hygiene and health in public spaces.
Protect the helpless. In particular care for your elderly and children and avoid their early institutional commitment and abandoning. Protect the sick and safeguard the indispensable care and treatments with dignity, based on medical criteria, not economical. Preserve dignity and respect in death. Be sympathetic.
Consume responsibly. Work to be self-sufficient. Practice a fair consumption towards those that produce the goods, such that they receive a fair price and adequate and decent working conditions. Consider the environmental and social impact of consumer goods in all their life cycle. Minimize waste.
Respect Nature. Don’t kill animals and plants other than for nutritional or medicinal purposes or for the purpose of controlling plagues and deceases. Protect nearly-extinct species. Respect biodiversity and life in general. Contribute for resetting or transferring of green spaces and consider the impact of your actions in the ecosystems. Prevent exhaustion of forest and water resources.
Respect the Environment. Don’t pollute. Don’t create unnecessary garbage. Recycle. Use water and energy responsibly and efficiently. Consider the environmental sustainability of your actions. Don’t leave as a heritage to future generations a worst environment than the one you found.
Do not oppress. Don’t accept or promote any authoritarian or totalitarian forms of government under any pretext (stability, security, nationalism, etc.). History has proven that they are always harmful to populations. Don’t accept imposition on restrictions of free mobility, association and expression. Don’t cooperate or condone in any acts of segregation or genocide.
Get informed. Demand the practice of independent information. Consider the political and economical association of your sources of information. Demand a free (non-politicised), accessible and quality education system. Promote peaceful utilization of science and technology. Promote the defence of History and facts from manipulation for political or economical purposes. Get informed and form your own opinion and participate of public and political life. Preserve cultural wealth and heritages.
Don’t discriminate. Don’t use gender, colour or ethnics, age, health or physical shortcomings, nationality, political, religious, sexual or other preferences as elements to discriminate, neglect, or marginalize groups or individuals from life in society. Accept difference. Fight prejudice. Integrate and include. Promote access to opportunities in equality. Reward merit but support the weak.
Be fair. Use the laws to solve conflicts and punish acts of wickedness. Demand a fair and balanced distribution of wealth, both locally and globally, avoiding accumulation of extremes. Demand and participate in combating poverty. Don’t defend war as a form of aggression towards other people. Defend and support geographical mobility and integration of populations, in particular those originating from hostile or desolate parts of the planet.

Ethical Code for the XXI century

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Portugal, what's wrong with you?

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