O reinado que acontece no amor solidário aos pobres - 1

Citações curtas do livro "Deus em nós: O reinado que acontece no amor solidário aos pobres", por Hugo Assmann e Jung Mo Sung.

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A crítica do consumismo é uma das marcas da esquerda azeda e negativista. Em vez de alegrar-se com uma certa difusão da renda e do poder aquisitivo, os negativistas antimercado despejam o seu moralismo contra o que me dá enorme alegria, ver o povo comprando e fruindo do prazer de comprar. Positivar o prazer em geral e com ele o prazer da compra.

Isso faz parte do sacrificialismo ocidental/cristão, com sua noção de um deus dolorista e antiprazer. Isso evoluiu, pari passu, com o machismo e antifeminismo ocidentais.

O prazer de consumier não é uma invenção do capitalismo. Faz parte da condição humana. O que Hugo Assmann sempre criticou foi o fetiche da mercadoria ditando as relações humanas e sociais. O problema não está no prazer de comprar ou de consumir, mas na classificação do grau da dignidade humana dos indivíduos a partir do critério do padrão de consumo. Aliás, uma das razões da luta em favor dos pobres é para aumentar a capacidade de consumo deles. A 'libertação' não pode significar transformar todcas as pessoas em 'franciscanos' ou monges de vida austera. Esse tipo de vida religiosa, presente nas mais diversas tradições religiosas, deve ser compreendida como uma crítica às sociedades que não reconhecem a humanidade dos pobres, mas não como um ideal de vida para toda a sociedade. Isso seria, como diz Assmann, exaltar um sacrificialismo dolorista.
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Culto, lugar de cura

Mais uma noite, mais uma operação. Tentando transformá-lo em um homem mais depurado, mais feliz, fizeram mais uma incisão. Merda, doutor, temos que parar com esses experimentos. Acalme-se, você não sabe do que está falando, Murdoch. Vai dar tudo certo, vai dar tudo certo.

PowerShell listing web sites

And here is a PowerShell script to list web sites.

 Import-Module WebAdministration

while($true) {
    Write-Host '--- - - - '
   Get-Item IIS:\Sites\* | Select-Object -property Name,State
    Write-Host ' ******** '
    Start-Sleep -s 20  
  }
 

Monjolo - 4

 After the ordeal, families at Núcleo Rural Monjolo were asking the government "why?", "what's the plan?", "how long?", all reasonable questions. After months of questions and no answers and no actions, it became clear that the government wasn't going to do anything. Families insisted to call the media to go there. Most of the time, the media went there and the government answered that they were working to solve all the problems. There was an instance when a local newspaper went there. In the printed story the government falsely reported that they distributed construction material and food to the local residents. Many people report that they just couldn't talk to anyone from the government when they tried to go to the governmental building complex (which, of course, is far away from where they are).
  Since 2008 until today many other removals happened at Cidade Estrutural. They removed more families to Monjolo and to other areas. At Monjolo alone today there are 70 families that were displaced by the government in other areas. This year alone there were at least 2 removal operations. In one, about 1 month ago, of them government employees threatened a family of a single mother with 6 children. They said that if she didn't leave that they would take away her children. She decided to lock herself in her house. The government employees decided to break into her home. They fought. Neighbours came bringing their cellphones with cameras. She still refused to leave and they left. Her neighbour wasn't so lucky. They convinced her to leave.
 Another removal operation happened about 3 months ago at Cidade Estrutural. And that's at Cidade Estrutural alone.
  I didn't mention the removal operations from Brazlândia, that happened one month ago. They were 800 families (yes, 800 families) living under 250 tents that occupied a piece of land far away in the District, and police went there to remove them.

See also:
  Part 1
  Part 2
  Part 3

Monjolo - 3

 And so in 2008, 40 families were removed from their homes and placed at Núcleo Rural Monjolo. It was supposed to be a temporary shelter until the homes back at Cidade Estrutural were ready. There at Núcleo Rural Monjolo there was nothing. No sewage, no work, no transportation, no health, no water, no electrical energy, no school transportation, no toilet. The government put about 2 chemical toilets there. After a month or two they stopped sending people to clean them.

See also:
  Part 1
  Part 2
  Part 4

Monjolo - 2

The removal process was a terrible event. The government brought in the police to force people out of their homes. At times children were alone in their homes, with their mother out to work. They still came and told the children to leave. And they began destroying homes right away with hammers. The government brought in trucks to carry away the dump generated with the home demolitions. Actually, the "move" of furniture and reusable construction materials were often mixed with dump of demolitions. So most people lost their furniture too. Moreover, the government brought in jailed criminals to work on the removal, which was strictly forbidden in the Brasília Sustentável plan. Friends of mine at Monjolo later on spoke to me of seeing "movers" stealing furniture at the date with the help of local residents.
  Joaquim showed to me the 48 hour "notice" that the government "served" them with to leave their homes. It had 2 sentences that didn't say much. It didn't say why they had to leave. It wasn't signed by a judge - and it had to be. It didn't say how long they were to be displaced. It didn't say where they were to go. And of course it didn't mention anything about their rights.
  I heard a man saying that he spent more than R$ 15 000 on his home. Considering the minimum wage is R$ 510, if he earned 2 minimum wages and put 1 minimum wage monthly toward his house, it would have taken him 2 years and a half to build it. That is, the government likely took away at least 2 years and a half of his earnings, not counting the value of the land!
  The government employees also told them (including the children who were home alone)that the sewage work was urgently necessary. That there was a huge storm in the forecast for the following day that was going to wash them away and kill them all. And that they had to leave immediately.
  This was July 2008.
  The original plan was for the government to build a number of houses within Cidade Estrutural prior to the removal, and for these families to move there. The houses were not ready, however. There was another important problem with the houses: they were built next to the garbage dump. When it rains, liquid residue flowed from the garbage dump to the houses, flooding them with smelly waste. Also, the houses were very small. Many families had more than 6 members. Later on in 2010, a local association went to justice against the government, against the move to these houses. An inspection was performed by justice officials and technicians. They determined that no one could live under those conditions, and justice vetoed the houses.
  Still at Estrutural, some of the families were forcibly put on the "social rental" program of the government. However, the government paid their rentals whenever they wanted, that is, once in a while. So often these families were expelled by landlords 3, 4 times. I knew a woman who moved 8 times with the "social rental" program! Today she suffers from severe depression. She - and a number of families - are traumatized with the whole story.
 Back to July 2008, these 40 families were removed to a "temporary" place called Monjolo. They put them under sailcloth.

See also
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4

Monjolo - 1

I have been following the case of the Monjolo neighbourhood. Monjolo - or Núcleo Rural Monjolo - is the name of a poor rural neighbourhood here in Brasília, Brazil.
   Let me try to write down their story.
   The story begins at Cidade Estrutural, another city within the Federal District of Brazil. In July of 2007, TERRACAP, the government branch that looks after land allocation and urban "planning", went to speak to a number of people saying the government was going to build an Olympic Villa and that they had to move. Most of the families survived by picking garbage, recycling garbage, or with small occasional services. Some of the families had enough area for small plantations to grow some vegetables. Most of them was going through the process of getting their land ownership papers. When they moved there, that was "no man's land". On average these families lived there 15 years before the forced removal. (Speaking to people of other neighbourhoods, I learned that here in the Federal District it is common for poor families to apply for land ownership, with lawyers of good faith or pro-bono, but the government doesn't hand out "official" papers, just because they are poor. They end up getting some papers where the land is kind of theirs. )
  After July 2007 a year went by and nothing happened. Until government employees and a local deputy (Eliana Pedrosa, who is a candidate again in 2010) showed up and handed out a notice that these 40 families had 48 hours to leave their homes. The community leader, Ismael, said at the time that in a closed-door meeting with the then Governor Mr. Arruda, the Governor said that these families would have to leave peacefully or by force.
   A little more context. And this context is specially important for folks in North America and Europe. The government of the Federal District got a US$ 115,000,000 (15 million US$) loan from the World Bank to implement a project called "Brasília Sustentável" (Sustainable Brasília). The contract is registered as contract number 7326-BR. This plan contemplated a number of urban changes throughout the District. For the Cidade Estrutural it included the construction of an Olympic Villa, the construction of popular homes for displaced families and sewage. Part of the money was to be used to completely shutdown the local garbage dump. Indeed, Cidade Estrutural began because of the local garbage dump, which attracted families that had nothing and survived eating from the garbage and recycling paper and plastic from the garbage. The money was completely consumed. The garbage dump is there until today. The Olympic Villa is nearly finished. By 2008 the houses were not ready. However, the planned time schedule agreed with the World Bank required the government of the Federal District to remove a number of families for sewage work. If that wasn't done the World Bank would not forward the second part of the loan to the government. So the government rushed to comply with the time table. The government removed 40 families by force from Cidade Estrutural to the Núcleo Rural Monjolo. Núcleo Rural Monjolo had no infrastructure whatsoever.

  To be continued.

Below are some photos at Núcleo Rural Monjolo in 2010.

Meu Deus, meu Deus, por que me abandonaste?

Meu Deus, meu Deus, por que me abandonaste?

Deus não tem um plano B

"Caros irmãos de Jerusalém,
  Shalom da parte do nosso Senhor e Salvador Jesus Cristo. Escrevo para alertá-lo sobre novos ventos de doutrina e para encorajá-lo a permanecer na Verdade. Pois sabemos que alguns lobos andam por aí sob a pele de ovelhas buscando devorar a quem quer que se afaste do rebanho.
  Ora, esses 'cristãos emergentes', por assim dizer, andam desvirtuando a Verdade com uma série de heresias, algumas das quais nem apropriadas são ao judeu. Lembremos do nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, que viveu e morreu judeu. Ele deixou o exemplo ao sempre ir à Sinagoga. Assim, portanto, vós também não deixeis de ir à Sinagoga. Como judeu, Ele não veio abolir a lei, mas cumpri-la. Assim vós também, cuidai para que não deixeis de serem judeus. Alguns cristãos novos estão abandonando a Verdade, chegando até a desprezar as Escrituras Sagradas. Ensinam erroneamente que não é necessário mais haver circuncisão nem seguir a lei. Estes 'cristãos emergentes' por assim dizer estão abandonando as Escrituras, menosprezando a Verdade. Ao invés de influenciar as culturas com o cerne do Judaísmo como foi tão bem ensinado por nosso Senhor Jesus, esses cristãos deixam-se contaminar pelas culturas ao seu redor, abandonando o puro Judaísmo do nosso Senhor Jesus. Pois enquanto devemos até nos adaptar às diferentes culturas ao nosso redor a fim de ganhar mais almas para o Judaísmo, o fundamento da vossa fé judaica, que é o nosso Senhor e Salvador Jesus Cristo, deve permanecer inalterado. Porque Deus não nos chamou para outro caminho. Não abandonem, portanto, a sinagoga. A sinagoga, mesmo imperfeita, é a arca de Noé: enquanto dentro da arca o odor era inconveniente, ela foi a salvação daqueles que creram. Deus não tem um plano B. Cristo não veio nos revelar uma nova Verdade, mas nos lembrar da Verdade ensinada por Deus aos nossos antepassados.
  Maranatha!
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