• About

Three Worlds One Vision

~ Guyana – Brazil – USA

Three Worlds One Vision

Monthly Archives: February 2015

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

25 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement, Go Fossil Free, Nature & Environment

Global Divestment Day – February 2015
Source: Go Fossil Free Movement

Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement

The fossil fuel divestment movement, now in more than 60 countries, is having exactly the impact we hoped it would. By acting together, we’ve made sure that not a week goes by without a university, local government, faith group, medical association, or heavyweight institution divesting from those companies that are driving the climate crisis.

~ Katie & the Fossil Free team, Go Fossil Free

On Blogging: Finding Inspiration & Much More

22 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in About Me, Relationships, The Writer's Life, United States

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Author’s platform, Blogging, Dr. Gerald Stein, Guyanese Online Blog, John Coyote, Through the Luminary Lens

Very Inspiring Blogger AwardVery Inspiring Blogger Award

 

When one’s day starts with news of terrorist attacks and more war, it’s good to receive unexpected news that makes one smile and warms the heart. I received such news recently from blogger, Dr. Gerald Stein, a retired psychotherapist in Chicago. His candid blog posts on our relationships are well articulated, insightful, and knitted together with engaging humor and honesty. In his latest post, he surprised me with the Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

When I started my blog over three years ago, inspiring others was far from my mind. As a newbie novelist seeking to have my work published, I started my blog as a means of building my author’s platform.

After learning that I was working on a novel set in Guyana, a friend sent me the link to the Guyanese Online Blog as a source of information. The blog, published by Cyril Bryan, went far beyond a resource hub. It connected me with the Guyana Diaspora, strengthening my frayed link with my native land. What’s more, in reblogging my posts, Cyril Bryan has expanded my readership.

Other bloggers inspire us with their life stories and vision of our world. As an Award recipient, I share the Very Inspiring Blogger Award with two such bloggers:

  • Bruce Witzel, Through the Luminary Lens
  • John Castellenas, John Coyote

Bruce Witzel, a carpenter, lives on Vancouver Island, Canada. His self-constructed, off-grid home – powered by clean energy and integrated with a waste disposal system for maintaining a kitchen garden – gives me hope for our sustainable future. His down-to-earth spirituality expands my vision of life.

John Castellenas is a Vietnam veteran who found healing through poetry. The honesty of his prose and poetry touches my soul. His stories of saving himself from alienation and self-hate and finding love speak volumes to our nation engaged in never-ending wars.

In accepting the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, I’m also required to answer seven questions.

  1. Who is your favorite public figure?
    Senator Elizabeth Warren
  1. What do you like most? (I presume this refers to Question 1.)
    I admire Senator Warren’s political courage in defending consumers against the Too-Big-To-Jail financial institutions that decimated middle-class America.
  1. Do you follow trends?
    I follow trends that jeopardize our security and survival: changing job market, criminalization of the poor, militarization of the police force, privatization of prisons, growing income inequality, perpetual wars, and climate change.
  1. What do you do when someone gets angry?
    With strangers, I get out of their way. With bosses, I let them let off steam before I open my mouth. With close relations, I go with the flow.
  1. What have you loved most?
    My sons are my greatest treasure.
  1. Do you have causes?
    I support the following non-profit organizations:
    Feeding America (feeding the hungry)
    Public Citizen (getting Big Business out of politics)
    350.org (saving our planet for future generations)
  1. What quality do you admire most?
    Integrity: much needed to curb inequality and end wars.

Through blogging, I’m reminded that we all share the same humanity.

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, IPCC Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report, Nature & Environment, U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

IPCC Climate Change 2014 - Synthesis ReportIPCC – Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report
Photo Credit: IPCC

Observed changes in the climate system

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.”

~ Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report – Summary for Policymakers
U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Caribbean Energy Security: When? At what cost?

15 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Economy and Finance, Guyana

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Caribbean Energy Security Summit 2015, Goldman Sachs, Oil debt, Oil dependency, PetroCaribe, Small island economies, Venezuela

Caribbean Energy Security Summit - Washington DC, USA - January 2015Caribbean Energy Security Summit – Washington D.C. – USA
January 26-27, 2015
Photo Credit: Caribbean News

 

Global oil prices rise and fall for all kinds of reasons. Credit or blame for the current fall goes to increased shale oil production, led by the United States. Contrary to what one would imagine, for small developing nations like Guyana and other member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that depend on oil imports to fuel their economies, the current low price is cause for concern.

Guyana, together with nine other members of the Caribbean Community, buys oil from Venezuela, South America’s largest oil producer. Under the PetroCaribe preferential payment program, members pay from 40 to 60 percent of the invoice value in cash upfront. The balance can be converted to a 25-year loan with interest rates from 1 to 4 percent. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Nature and the Environment

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Global average temperature anomaly 1850-2014, Global warming trend continues 2014, Nature & Environment, World Meteorological Organization

Global Average Temperature Anomaly 1850-2014Warming Trends Continue in 2014
Photo Credit: World Meteorological Organization

“Fourteen of the fifteen hottest years have all been this century. We expect global warming to continue, given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future.”

~ Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, February 2, 2015

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – Fast-track to where?

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Economy and Finance, United States

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Fast-track authority, International trade, International trade professional, Map of TPP countries, Multilateral free trade agreement, Regional trade block, Rep. Paul Ryan, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Transnational corporations, US Trade Representative Michael Froman

Trans-Pacific Partnership Countries with US Total Trade 2013Map of Trans-Pacific Partnership Countries
Showing Total US Trade in Goods for each Country, 2013
Source: Federation of American Scientists

UPDATE: 1 AUGUST 2015
Trans-Pacific Trade Talks End Without Deal, article by Jim Randle, Voice of America, August 1, 2015.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed multilateral free trade agreement between the United States and eleven other countries in Asia and the Pacific, is currently nearing the final rounds of negotiation. Some members, like Canada and Japan, still have unresolved issues. Accounting for around forty percent of global GDP, the TPP is a Big Deal. Given the lack of exposure in the national media, American businesses and the general population don’t appear to be concerned about what could become the largest regional trade block on the planet.

During his recent testimony before the House and Senate committees, US Trade Representative Michael Froman reported that the TPP is nearing the finish line. “We are not done yet but I feel confident that we are making good progress and we can close out a positive package soon,” he told Senate Finance lawmakers. He urged them to push for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), also known as fast-track.

Armed with fast-track power, the administration can negotiate trade and other policies tied to the agreement. Once done, Congress can approve or reject the terms of the agreement but cannot make a single amendment.

Last Thursday, in a speech to the Washington International Trade Association, Representative Paul Ryan, now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee which oversees trade issues, defended the urgency for Congress to pass fast-track authority.

“Here’s the issue: When the U.S. sits down at the negotiating table, every country at that table has to be able to trust us,” he said. “They have to know that the deal the administration wants is the deal Congress wants—because if our trading partners don’t trust the administration—if they think it will make commitments that Congress will undo later—they won’t make concessions. Why run the risk for no reason?”

Most Republicans are in favor of signing the TPP and granting fast-track authority. Senator Elizabeth Warren and many other Democrats oppose the deal. In a letter dated December 17, 2014, to Ambassador Froman, Senators Warren, Tammy Baldwin, and Edward Markey expressed concern that the TPP “could make it harder for Congress and regulatory agencies to prevent future financial crises. With millions of families still struggling to recover from the last financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, we cannot afford a trade deal that undermines the government’s ability to protect the American economy.”

As a former international trade professional, I support and continue to promote the movement of goods across borders. But, like NAFTA and other modern-day international trade agreements, the multilateral TPP agreement goes far beyond eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers, and setting quotas. The TPP will affect everything in our day to day lives: banking regulations, food safety standards, energy policies, medicine patents, environmental protections, government procurement, and much more.

Passing Trade Promotion Authority will mean fast-track for greater global dominance by transnational corporations and greater inequality for the rest of us. What’s more, it will mean fast-track to climate disruption and ecosystem collapse.

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Independent scientific information, Nature & Environment, Science & Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS/USA)

Cartoon by Kevin CannonPhoto Credit: Cartoon by Kevin Cannon

Everyone deserves access to independent scientific information so they can make smart, informed decisions on issues that affect their health, safety, and environment.
~ Union of Concerned Scientists

“Obscure Life” – Poem by Black Brazilian Poet João da Cruz e Sousa

01 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Poetry

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

“Obscure Life”, “Vida Obscura”, Black Brazilian Poet João da Cruz e Sousa, Black lives matter, Cruz e Sousa, French Symbolist poetry, Racism, US Black History Month

Black Lives MatterPhoto Credit: Black Lives Matter

 

In honor of Black History Month in the United States, my Poetry Corner February 2015 features the poem “Vida Obscura” (Obscure Life) by Brazil’s greatest black poet João da Cruz e Sousa (1861-1898).

Born in the Southern State of Santa Catarina, Cruz e Sousa was the son of freed slaves. (Not until 1888 was slavery totally abolished in Brazil.) When their former slave owners adopted and gave João da Cruz their surname Sousa, it became both a blessing and a curse for the child named after Saint John of the Cross.

After he revealed great intellectual aptitude, they enrolled ten-year-old João de Cruz in the Liceu Provincial where he spent the next five years studying French, English, Latin, Greek, mathematics, and the Natural Sciences.

Exposed to higher education and Brazilian white society, Cruz e Sousa assumed he could enjoy the same dignity and rights of whites. But late nineteenth century Brazilian society was not yet ready for the learned, talented, and multilingual black man who did not know his place. His bold and independent manner was viewed as arrogant. Judging from his poem, “Acrobata da Dor” (Acrobat of Pain), he hid his humiliation from those around him.

He guffaws, laughs, in a tormented laughter,
Like a clown, unhinged, nervous,
He laughs, in an absurd laughter, inflated
With an irony and a violent pain.

Fleeing racial prejudice in his home state, Cruz e Sousa moved to Rio de Janeiro where he worked as the archivist of Rio’s Central Railway Station. At twenty-six years old, already married and father of three, he struggled with financial problems and poor health.

In “O Assinalado” (The Branded), Cruz e Sousa laments his affliction and misfortune but observes that they provide food for the soul.

But this same shackle of affliction,
But this same extreme Misfortune
Makes your pleading soul grow
And blossom into stars of tenderness.

In adopting the new French Symbolist poetry of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) and others, Cruz e Sousa countered the Parnassian poetic style, the dominant style among leading Brazilian poets at that time. Among Brazil’s literary circle, some branded him the “Black Swan;” others the “Black Dante.”

Lack of recognition by his peers drove Cruz e Sousa to strive harder for perfection in his art. In “Alma Solitária” (Solitary Soul), he dispels his melancholy which he likened to an adolescent archangel forgotten in the Valley of Hope.

O Soul sweet and sad and pulsating!
What kitharas weep solitaries
Across distant Regions, visionaries
Of your Dream secret and fascinating!

His battle with tuberculosis took his last profound breath. He was only thirty-six.

You can learn more about Cruz e Sousa’s contribution to Brazil’s poetic tradition and read his poem, “Vida Obscura” (Obscure Life), in its original Portuguese and English versions at my Poetry Corner February 2015.

Subscribe

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011

Categories

  • About Me
  • Anthropogenic Climate Disruption
  • Brazil
  • Economy and Finance
  • Education
  • Family Life
  • Festivals
  • Fiction
  • Guyana
  • Health Issues
  • Human Behavior
  • Immigrants
  • Leisure & Entertainment
  • Nature and the Environment
  • People
  • Philosophy
  • Poetry
  • Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Poets & Writers
  • Recommended Reading
  • Relationships
  • Religion
  • Reviews – The Twisted Circle: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Reviews – Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • Save Our Children
  • Social Injustice
  • Technology
  • The Twisted Circle: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • The Writer's Life
  • Uncategorized
  • Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus
  • United States
  • Urban Violence
  • Website Updates
  • Women Issues
  • Working Life

Blogroll

  • Angela Consolo Mankiewicz
  • Caribbean Book Blog
  • Dan McNay
  • Dr. Gerald Stein
  • Foreign Policy Association
  • Guyanese Online
  • Writer's Digest
  • WritersMarket: Where & How to Sell What You Write

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,853 other subscribers

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Three Worlds One Vision
    • Join 2,853 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Three Worlds One Vision
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...