Covers environment, transportation, urban and regional planning, economic and social issues with a focus on Finland and Portugal.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Shall the Nordic Region be a GMO-free zone in the future?

"The Nordic Region should be declared free of genetically modified organisms and the Nordic countries should join other European states like Austria, Greece and Poland, which have already declared themselves GMO-free zones," according to a proposal by the Lef-Socialist Green Group (VSG) on the Nordic Council.

"Research suggests that the use of genetically modified products has a negative impact on health,"(...) "It would provide a boost to sustainable development and underpin the positive environmental and health image the Nordic Region aims to project," says the Group. Full article [www.norden.org]

Read more

April 19-20 2007 at the European Parliament in Brussels, in the 3rd International Conference on GMO-Free Regions, Biodiversity and Rural Development, more than 230 regions, over 4200 municipalities and other local entities and tens of thousands of farmers and food producers in Europe have declared themselves "GMO-free" expressing their commitment not to allow the use of genetically modified organisms in the agriculture and food in their territories. gmo-free-regions.org

In May 2008 will be organized a global festival and congress of Diversity , during the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and their Protocol on Biosafety in Bonn, Germany. "Planet Diversity" will celebrate natural and agricultural biodiversity, the cultural diversity of food and agriculture. Its primary goal is to discuss how farmers, consumers, food producers and their communities can cooperate to enrich and defend this diversity. planet-diversity.org

Map of the European GMO-Free Regions / gmo-free-regions.org

GMO-free Regions by Country:

European Union
Finland
Sweden
Denmark
Iceland
Portugal

allvoices

Monday, February 11, 2008

98 % of Nokia is ownership of American funds

In the last film of Aki Kaurismäki, "Lights in the Dusk" - third part of a trilogy begun by “Drifting Clouds” (Kauas pilvet karkaavat, 1996) and “The Man Without a Past” (Mies vailla menneisyyttä, 2002), the first about unemployment and the second about homelessness - the actor Janne Hyytiäinen plays the role of Koistinen, a lonely night watchman, who meets an attractive woman (Maria Järvenhelmi in her role). Being deceived by a group of criminals, he loses his freedom, job and his dream of becoming a small enterpreuner , being convicted of a crime he did not commit.
Koistinen is a common man, who tries to improve his position in a world with scarce opportunities, but who sees the most powerful denying him this wish.

Read more
Last November, in an interview with the Portuguese newspaper JN - which you can read entire through this link (in portuguese) - the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki answered to some questions: [9]

How to define the character of Koistinen? Many critics called him " looser" or "poor devil". But isn’t he, principally, a naive and decent man who believes in a good world?

And it’s hard to be (laughter). He’s a fighter, it’s difficult to beat him. He wants to do something useful and good in his life, improve his condition. It’s like a character of Buster Keaton, in this aspect. The more he’s beaten , the more strength he has to get up. But he has no luck.
In the same interview, he answers to a question related to the multinational Nokia:
Your films have a realistic framework, but on the other hand they contradict it. No cars, modern technology ... Do you consider yourself a “realistic" cineast?

As for the cars, I’m the last romantic. The modern cars are very ugly, I hate them, I can´t show them. Even if I wanted to.

And the technology? You were born in the country of Nokia, but there are no mobile phones in your films.

98 percent of Nokia is ownership of american pension funds. I don’t like the modern times. I like the 50’s, the design of that time. And now, also the 60’s. And if live some more years, the decade of 70, despite having been the most ugly of them all.

Indeed, Nokia is a multinational with an overwhelming majority of non-Finnish shareholders, distributed by various nationalities. The most representative are the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Switzerland.

The relocations are not a problem of competition between different countries or between workers of different nationalities. They are a problem of relationship between the working class and the major holders of the transnational capital. The tactic used was always the same: divide to reign within borders, now through them. And explore today to exclude tomorrow.

I wish that the new heroes, products of the unemployment caused by the capitalist globalisation, could forget the past, overcome the present and win the future, with the precious touch of a friendly hand.

This post is the third part of the full article "Koistinen"

References:

[9] Entrevista com Aki Kaurismäki, "Não gosto destes tempos", dn.sapo.pt

allvoices

The current capitalist system

1. Concept of social class [5]

The capitalist system is based on two institutions, whose integrity is crucial for its survival:

The private property - the social power of private property is exercised impersonally by market forces on the capital market, and personally in administrative privileges in companies.
The labour market - under-pinned by the power of the ruling class aiming to create unemployment and thus subverting the opposition to his “kingdom” through deflation, loss of confidence among investors, economic cycles of consecutive growth/slowdown.

Read more
Currently, there is strong argumentation against the importance of the concept of social class, considering that the mode of consumption is much more significant than the means of income or that there is a different form of social identification, largely cultural and religious, which can lead to identity conflicts, much observed in industrialized societies.

However there still exist quite important arguments in favour of the concept of social class, considering that it may contribute to the development of the individual's identity. It still exists a so called upper-class, isolate itself from other classes and almost impossible to penetrate; emerges a new "super-class", an "elite" of professionals and managers, who receive high salaries and and share ownership; the working class continues to have class conscience, continuing to believe in possible conflicts of interest.


Another prospect believes that any conception of class based on models of power is very limited, since the quality of life cannot be expressed in purely economic terms or property, but in terms of individual freedom, health and social respect .

Therefore, the concept of "class" is very complex, resulting from a combination of several factors: class; "status"; party / social activism; way of social, cultural and religious identification; access to information and media power. In addition to this, the social compositions are variable from country to country, with no rigid boundaries within each of these compositions.

So I think the future, particularly in the industrially advanced countries, may be of societies composed of multiple layers, each one with its own system of values. I believe that the concept of class based on labour, may disappear in societies that have achieved a large degree of industrialization, due to technological developments verified in the production process.

But the colossal disaster is reflected in the millions of shattered lives excluded from the system, the most vulnerable, the exploited of the exploited, living situations of extreme poverty, victims of human traffic, drugs addiction, epidemics, abandonment and social marginality, military conflicts, racial discrimination, etc. Unless creating conditions for freeing the human beings subject to these life conditions, no society will be truly free or have social peace.

Even so, the concept of class in its economic aspect – the position of a person in a market determines its position in the class - remains an important analysis tool to find a solution to the increasing inequality of income between the world population as a result of the neoliberal policies. It should be used alongside a vision covering cultural and ethical values, adverse to the logic of capital accumulation and exacerbated consumerism as factors of social promotion, in an deconstruction attempt of the existing social-economic model.

Therefore, today and from an economic point of view, a generic model representative of a developed Western society, could be a five class model: a dominant social class or “upper class”, consisting mainly by the major owners of the means of production; a middle class divided into 2 parts - upper middle class and lower middle class; a working class; a lower class, characterised by repeated cycles of unemployment and the fall below the poverty line from time to time, when employment opportunities are scarce. A large share is composed by the lower middle class and the working class - more than 60% of the workforce – both with undefined borders.

Intellectuals and technical cadres are a social group transversal all classes. In general it has been accentuated the exploitation to which they are subject, with a clear deterioration of their economic and labour situation, increasingly excluded from top business decisions.

2. The limitations of reformism [7]

A share corresponding to the income of property has exponentially increased. The famous “trickle down” economic theory claims that the foreign and local investment, combined with large tax benefits to companies, naturally causes a redistribution of wealth from the economically dominant class to the other classes i. e., higher standards of living for the poor will develop gradually and not at the overt expense of the more affluent. [8]

Such policies are leading to a growing social polarization and to a growing instability and insecurity between the so called middle class - the rich becoming richer, the poor becoming poorer.

The current capitalist system, in full phase of the neoliberal globalization, is transforming the work into mere commodity. It is dehumanizing the work, whether manual or intellectual.

However, the normal mechanisms and game rules of the two markets initially described - the capital market and the labour market - could generate a political resource allocation, which could lead to "the corporate management yields up more and more of its prerogatives to the mobilized collective will of the workforce". Here an opportunity might arise for the big challenge - "the labour “de-commodification” , and the enmeshment of the investment function in a net of direct and indirect social controls". This could be the key to a progressive and cumulative transition to social justice and job security.

Maybe what we lack to do is to plan the change. To achieve the objectives of basic social justice and job security, it will be necessary to design these changes and implement them. The difference between revolution and reform lies in their capacity to mobilize the working class.

According to the reformist limitations thesis, a movement of workers which organizes around a reformist program can never represent a challenge to capitalism. However, opposite view arguments that unless the dominant political element of a reformist labor movement can be diverted from its program and its internal cohesion thereby destroyed, the challenge will be inevitable.

Furthermore, the way a party keep its political “faith” (going beyond mere welfarism) can save it from disintegration and marginalization, sustaining the unity of the movement. If the party moves away from the reformist path (as currently happens in most cases) the movement will replace it as representative political front or as the privileged interlocutor of the organised working class.

The compatibility between reformism and capitalism will thus be measured by the relationship between the policies of labour organisations and the vital institutions of capital.

This post is the second part of the full article "Koistinen"

References:

[5] Wikipedia article: Social class
[6] Rhizome News: Historical Resource Roundup: Radical Software, rhizome.org
[7] Winton Higgins and Nixon Apple, Journal Theory and Society, How limited is reformism?
[8] David Truskof, Trickle down economics perpetuates war

allvoices

The Global Business

1. "Mainstream media" vision

Recently, Nokia, world largest manufacturer of mobile phones, announced that it would close its plant in Bochum (Germany) by the middle of this year in a cut that could reach up to 2300 jobs, and the transfer of the production to more competitive places in Europe.

Read more
"We are transferring the production to existing plants, mainly in Romania, whose unit will open in the second quarter", said the spokesman of the company, Arja Suominen, stating that it had already begun the selection. [1]

In Europe, Nokia has factories in countries like Finland, Hungary and the United Kingdom, being a new factory in Romania in process of building, investment of around 60 million euros. It also has factories located in Brazil, Mexico, India and China. Last December, the company decided to move some of its production lines from Finland to South Korea.

According to Bloomberg, a German trade union considered this attitude "inhumane" and "socially unacceptable".

Also the Nokia Siemens Networks stated its intention to cut 9 thousand jobs, 15 percent of its total work force, by the end of 2010 (2290 from of Germany).

However, more recently, Nokia presented the financial results of the fourth quarter of 2007 with an increase of 44% net profit, totalizing US $ 2.6 billion. The long-term goal, to reach 40% of mobile phones market share, was also achieved in the period.

From October to December 2007 the net sales grew up 34%, to 15.7 billion euros. The company announced that altogether it sold more than 133 million of mobile phones, an increase of 27% compared with the same period of 2006.


* End of the synthesis of some information disseminated by the corporate media *

2. Vision defocused from the individual

The distances become irrelevant; the technology division tends to disappear globally; the productivity is globally harmonised; a global management develops; the nationality of the companies gradually loses importance; emerges a new middle class in Central Europe, Asia and Latin America; increases the competition between the systems of values of the industrialized countries vs. Asia and Central Europe; in the West heterogeneous societies coexist with different systems of values and concepts of social class; in Western Europe emerges rejection of the concept of professional mobility; China , India and Russia become technological powers. [3]

These trends are subjective factors taken into account by multinationals,when they plan the location of their production units on the world map, in order to obtain competitive advantages and financial profitability over the long term. In the case of Nokia, it wants to overcome their direct competitors, Samsung and Motorola, without reducing its profit margins.

This is the entrepreneurial vision of an management unit in a global economic system. A distant vision, defocused, “cold”, incomplete. But this is not the social reality of unemployment, a sum of thousands of avoidable individual tragedies, coexisting with a frantic capital accumulation, which no longer flows from the top (closed in itself) to the social basis. Today is Germany, tomorrow will be another selected country.

3. Vision focused on the individual

The exercise proposed in the following is suitable for the correction of social “myopia”. It’s about visualizing an extraordinary artwork of Chris Jordan, having the hope, like him, that "the images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books". Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan[4]

It’s necessary that the decision makers see their investment models in different scales, including the human scale. The statistics are necessary approximations of reality, but represent intrinsically an abstraction that may deviate us from the social and human reality , transforming human beings into digits.

This post is the first part of the full article "Koistinen"

References:

[1] Nokia fecha fábrica na Alemanha e corta 2300 postos de trabalho, www.negocios.pt
[2] Nokia's Kallasvuo apologises to Germans, www.hs.fi
[3] IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, www.imd.ch
[4] Chris Jordan, Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait, www.chrisjordan.com

Update:
Nokia Opens Factory in Romania
JUCU, Romania (AP) — Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. opened a factory in Romania on Monday as part of a program to shift production to low-cost locations in ...

allvoices

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Koistinen


1. Nokia

1.1 "Mainstream media" vision

Recently, Nokia, world largest manufacturer of mobile phones, announced that it would close its plant in Bochum (Germany) by the middle of this year in a cut that could reach up to 2300 jobs, and the transfer of the production to more competitive places in Europe.

Read more
"We are transferring the production to existing plants, mainly in Romania, whose unit will open in the second quarter", said the spokesman of the company, Arja Suominen, stating that it had already begun the selection. [1]

In Europe, Nokia has factories in countries like Finland, Hungary and the United Kingdom, being a new factory in Romania in process of building, investment of around 60 million euros. It also has factories located in Brazil, Mexico, India and China. Last December, the company decided to move some of its production lines from Finland to South Korea.

According to Bloomberg, a German trade union considered this attitude "inhumane" and "socially unacceptable".

Also the Nokia Siemens Networks stated its intention to cut 9 thousand jobs, 15 percent of its total work force, by the end of 2010 (2290 from of Germany).

However, more recently Nokia presented the financial results of the fourth quarter of 2007 with an increase of 44% net profit, totalizing US $ 2.6 billion. The long-term goal, to reach 40% of mobile phones market share, was also achieved in the period.

From October to December 2007 the net sales grew up 34%, to 15.7 billion euros. The company announced that altogether it sold more than 133 million of mobile phones, an increase of 27% compared with the same period of 2006.


* End of the synthesis of some information disseminated by the corporate media *

2.1 Vision defocused from the individual

The distances become irrelevant; the technology division tends to disappear globally; the productivity is globally harmonised; a global management develops; the nationality of the companies gradually loses importance; emerges a new middle class in Central Europe, Asia and Latin America; increases the competition between the systems of values of the industrialized countries vs. Asia and Central Europe; in the West heterogeneous societies coexist with different systems of values and concepts of social class; in Western Europe emerges rejection of the concept of professional mobility; China , India and Russia become technological powers. [3]

These trends are subjective factors taken into account by multinationals when they plan the location of their production units on the world map, in order to obtain competitive advantages and financial profitability over the long term. In the case of Nokia, it wants to overcome their direct competitors, Samsung and Motorola, without reducing its profit margins.

This is the entrepreneurial vision of an management unit in a global economic system. A distant vision, defocused, “cold”, incomplete. But this is not the social reality of unemployment, a sum of thousands of avoidable individual tragedies, coexisting with a frantic capital accumulation, which no longer flows from the top (closed in itself) to the social basis. Today is Germany, tomorrow will be another selected country.

3.1 Vision focused on the individual

The exercise proposed in the following is suitable for the correction of social “myopia”. It’s about visualizing an extraordinary artwork of Chris Jordan, having the hope, like him, that "the images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books". Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan[4]

It’s necessary that the decision makers see their investment models in different scales, including the human scale. The statistics are necessary approximations of reality, but represent intrinsically an abstraction that may deviate us from the social and human reality , transforming human beings into digits.

2. The current capitalist system


2.1 Concept of social class [5]

The capitalist system is based on two institutions, whose integrity is crucial for its survival:

The private property - the social power of private property is exercised impersonally by market forces on the capital market, and personally in administrative privileges in companies.
The labour market - under-pinned by the power of the ruling class aiming to create unemployment and thus subverting the opposition to his “kingdom” through deflation, loss of confidence among investors, economic cycles of consecutive growth/slowdown.

Currently, there is strong argumentation against the importance of the concept of social class, considering that the mode of consumption is much more significant than the means of income or that there is a different form of social identification, largely cultural and religious, which can lead to identity conflicts, much observed in industrialized societies.

However there still exist quite important arguments in favour of the concept of social class, considering that it may contribute to the development of the individual's identity. It still exists a so called upper-class, isolate itself from other classes and almost impossible to penetrate; emerges a new "super-class", an "elite" of professionals and managers, who receive high salaries and and share ownership; the working class still has class conscience, continuing to believe in possible conflicts of interest.


Another prospect believes that any conception of class based on models of power is very limited, since the quality of life cannot be expressed in purely economic terms or property, but in terms of individual freedom, health and social respect .

Therefore, the concept of "class" is very complex, resulting from a combination of several factors: class; "status"; party / social activism; way of social, cultural and religious identification; access to information and media power. In addition to this, the social compositions are variable from country to country, with no rigid boundaries within each of these compositions.

So I think the future, particularly in the industrially advanced countries, may be of societies composed of multiple layers, each one with its own system of values. I believe that the concept of class based on labour, may disappear in societies that have achieved a large degree of industrialization, due to technological developments verified in the production process.

But the colossal disaster is reflected in the millions of shattered lives excluded from the system, the most vulnerable, the exploited of the exploited, living situations of extreme poverty, victims of human traffic, drugs addiction, epidemics, abandonment and social marginality, military conflicts, racial discrimination, etc. Unless creating conditions for freeing the human beings subject to these life conditions, no society will be truly free or have social peace.

Even so, the concept of class in its economic aspect – the position of an individual in a market determines its position in the class - remains an important analysis tool to find a solution to the increasing inequality of income between the world population as a result of the neoliberal policies. It should be used alongside a vision covering cultural and ethical values, adverse to the logic of capital accumulation and exacerbated consumerism as factors of social promotion, in an deconstruction attempt of the existing social-economic model.

Therefore, today and from an economic point of view, a generic model representative of a developed Western society, could be a five class model: a dominant social class or “upper class”, consisting mainly by the major owners of the means of production; a middle class divided into 2 parts - upper middle class and lower middle class; a working class; a lower class, characterised by repeated cycles of unemployment and the fall below the poverty line from time to time, when employment opportunities are scarce. A large share is composed by the lower middle class and the working class - more than 60% of the workforce – both with undefined borders.

Intellectuals and technical cadres are a social group transversal all classes. In general it has been accentuated the exploitation to which they are subject, with a clear deterioration of their economic and labour situation, increasingly excluded from top business decisions.

2.2 The limitations of reformism [7]

A share corresponding to the income of property has exponentially increased. The famous “trickle down” economic theory claims that the foreign and local investment, combined with large tax benefits to companies, naturally causes a redistribution of wealth from the economically dominant class to the other classes i. e., higher standards of living for the poor will develop gradually and not at the overt expense of the more affluent. [8]

Such policies are leading to a growing social polarization and to a growing instability and insecurity between the so called middle class - the rich becoming richer, the poor becoming poorer.

The current capitalist system, in full phase of the neoliberal globalization, is transforming the work into mere commodity. It is dehumanizing the work, whether manual or intellectual.

However, the normal mechanisms and game rules of the two markets initially described - the capital market and the labour market - could generate a political resource allocation, which could lead to "the corporate management yields up more and more of its prerogatives to the mobilized collective will of the workforce". Here an opportunity might arise for the big challenge - "the labour “de-commodification” , and the enmeshment of the investment function in a net of direct and indirect social controls". This could be the key to a progressive and cumulative transition to social justice and job security.

Maybe what we lack to do is to plan the change. To achieve the objectives of basic social justice and job security, it will be necessary to design these changes and implement them. The difference between revolution and reform lies in their capacity to mobilize the working class.

According to the reformist limitations thesis, a movement of workers which organizes around a reformist program can never represent a challenge to capitalism. However, opposite view arguments that unless the dominant political element of a reformist labor movement can be diverted from its program and its internal cohesion thereby destroyed, the challenge will be inevitable.

Furthermore, the way a party keep its political “faith” (going beyond mere welfarism) can save it from disintegration and marginalization, sustaining the unity of the movement. If the party moves away from the reformist path (as currently happens in most cases) the movement will replace it as representative political front or as the privileged interlocutor of the organised working class.

The compatibility between reformism and capitalism will thus be measured by the relationship between the policies of labour organisations and the vital institutions of capital.

3. Lights in the Dusk (Finnish: Laitakaupungin valot)


In the last film of Aki Kaurismäki, "Lights in the Dusk" - third part of a trilogy begun by “Drifting Clouds” (Kauas pilvet karkaavat, 1996) and “The Man Without a Past” (Mies vailla menneisyyttä, 2002), the first about unemployment and the second about homelessness - the actor Janne Hyytiäinen plays the role of Koistinen, a lonely night watchman, who meets an attractive woman (Maria Järvenhelmi in her role). Being deceived by a group of criminals, he loses his freedom, job and his dream of becoming a small enterpreuner , being convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Koistinen is a common man, who tries to improve his position in a world with scarce opportunities, but who sees the most powerful denying him this wish.

Last November, in an interview with the Portuguese newspaper JN - which you can read entire through this link - the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki answered to some questions: [9]

How to define the character of Koistinen? Many critics called him " looser" or "poor devil". But isn’t he, principally, a naive and decent man who believes in a good world?

And it’s hard to be (laughter). He’s a fighter, it’s difficult to beat him. He wants to do something useful and good in his life, improve his condition. It’s like a character of Buster Keaton, in this aspect. The more he’s beaten , the more strength he has to get up. But he has no luck.
In the same interview, he answers to a question related to the multinational Nokia:
Your films have a realistic framework, but on the other hand they contradict it. No cars, modern technology ... Do you consider yourself a “realistic" cineast?

As for the cars, I’m the last romantic. The modern cars are very ugly, I hate them, I can´t show them. Even if I wanted to.

And the technology? You were born in the country of Nokia, but there are no mobile phones in your films.

98 percent of Nokia is ownership of american pension funds. I don’t like the modern times. I like the 50’s, the design of that time. And now, also the 60’s. And if live some more years, the decade of 70, despitehaving been the most ugly of them all.

Indeed, Nokia is a multinational with an overwhelming majority of non-Finnish shareholders, distributed by various nationalities. The most representative are the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Switzerland.

The relocations are not a problem of competition between different countries or between workers of different nationalities. They are a problem of relationship between the working class and the major holders of the transnational capital. The tactic used was always the same: divide to reign within borders, now through them. And explore today to exclude tomorrow.

I wish that the new heroes, products of the unemployment caused by the capitalist globalisation, could forget the past, overcome the present and win the future, with the precious touch of a friendly hand.

References:

[1] Nokia fecha fábrica na Alemanha e corta 2300 postos de trabalho, www.negocios.pt
[2] Nokia's Kallasvuo apologises to Germans, www.hs.fi
[3] IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, www.imd.ch
[4] Chris Jordan, Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait, www.chrisjordan.com
[5] Wikipedia article: Social class
[6] Rhizome News: Historical Resource Roundup: Radical Software, rhizome.org
[7] Winton Higgins and Nixon Apple, Journal Theory and Society, How limited is reformism?
[8] David Truskof, Trickle down economics perpetuates war
[9] Entrevista com Aki Kaurismäki, "Não gosto destes tempos", dn.sapo.pt

Note: this article is a translation from the original article in Portuguese, "Koistinen"

allvoices

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Koistinen (3/3)

Luzes no Crepúsculo

No último filme de Aki Kaurismäki, “Luzes no Crepúsculo” - terceira parte de uma trilogia iniciada por “Nuvens passageiras” e um “Homem sem passado”, sendo o primeiro filme sobre o desemprego e segundo sobre os desalojados - o actor Janne Hyytiäinen desempenha o papel de Koistinen , um guarda-nocturno que se vê seduzido por uma atraente mulher (Maria Järvenhelmi no seu papel). Sendo enganado por um grupo de criminosos, acaba por perder a liberdade, o emprego e também o sonho de se tornar um pequeno empresário no seu ramo, ao ser condenado por um crime que não cometeu.

Continue a ler

Koistinen representa o homem comum, que tenta melhorar a sua posição social num mundo sem oportunidades, mas que vê os mais poderosos negaram-lhe esse desejo, empurrando-o para a marginalidade.

Em Novembro passado, numa entrevista concedida ao jornal português Diário de Notícias - que poderão ler na íntegra via este link - o cineasta finlandês Aki Kaurismäki respondeu da seguinte forma a duas questões que lhe foram colocadas:
Uma personagem como a do guarda-nocturno Koistinen tem de ser credível, mas também tem de representar o homem comum, ser simbólica. Pensou nisso quando a concebeu, ou não liga a essas coisas?

Eu concebo sempre uma ilusão de personagem a que o actor dá carne e osso. Tudo isso depende muito do actor, mais do que da personagem. Cito Buñuel: "Os meus filmes não têm simbolismos." Mas o Buñuel estava a mentir. Quanto a mim, não sei. Mas prefiro ter uma personagem que seja credível. E isso é com o actor. Escolho-os muito pelo rostos, pelo que conseguem mostrar do seu íntimo nos rostos.

Como definiria a personagem de Koistinen? Muitos críticos chamaram-lhe "desgraçado" ou "pobre diabo". Mas não é, principalmente, um homem ingénuo e decente que acredita num mundo bom?

E custa sê-lo (risos). Ele é um lutador, é difícil derrubá-lo. Quer fazer algo de útil e de bom na vida, melhorar a sua condição. É como uma personagem de Buster Keaton, nesse sentido. Quanto mais apanha, mais força tem ao levantar-se. Mas não tem sorte nenhuma.
A certa parte da entrevista é-lhe posta uma questão relacionada com a multinacional Nokia:
Os seus filmes têm um enquadramento realista, mas por outro lado contradizem- no. Não há carros, tecnologia moderna... Considera-se um cineasta "realista"?

No que respeita a carros, sou o último romântico. Os carros modernos são muito feios, detesto-os, não posso mostrá-los. Nem que quisesse.

E a tecnologia? Nasceu no país da Nokia, mas não há telemóveis nos seus filmes.

A Nokia é, a 98 por cento, propriedade de fundos de pensões americanos. Não gosto dos tempos modernos. Gosto dos anos 50, do design desse tempo. E agora, também dos anos 60. E se viver mais uns anos, a década de 70, apesar de ter sido a mais feia de todas.
De facto, a Nokia é uma multinacional com uma maioria esmagadora de accionistas não-finlandeses, distribuídos por várias nacionalidades. Dentro das mais representativas estão os EUA, a Alemanha, o Reino Unido, a França e a Suíça.

As deslocalizações não são um problema de competição entre diferentes países ou entre trabalhadores de diferentes nacionalidades. São um problema de relação entre a classe trabalhadora e os grandes detentores do capital transnacional. A táctica utilizada sempre foi a mesma: dividir para reinar, dentro de fronteiras, agora através delas.

Que os novos heróis, produto do desemprego provocado pela globalização capitalista, consigam esquecer o passado, ultrapassar o presente e conquistar o futuro, com a mão solidária dos que nunca os deixarão cair.

Koistinen (1/3)
Koistinen (2/3)

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Monday, February 4, 2008

Koistinen (2/3)

Image by Edward Burtynsky / www.edwardburtynsky.com
O actual sistema capitalista

1. Conceito de classe social

O sistema capitalista baseia-se em duas instituições, cuja integridade é crucial para a sua sobrevivência:
A propriedade privada - o poder social da propriedade privada é exercido impessoalmente pelas forças do mercado de capitais e pessoalmente em privilégios de administração nas empresas.
O mercado de trabalho - é pressionado pelo poder da classe dominante, com o objectivo de criar desemprego e desta maneira subverter a oposição ao seu reino, através da deflação, perdas de confiança dos investidores, ciclos económicos consecutivos de crescimento/abrandamento.

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Actualmente, existe forte argumentação contrária à importância do conceito de classe social, considerando que, hoje, o modo de consumo é muito mais significativo que o rendimento obtido ou que existe uma diferente forma de identificação social, mais cultural ou religiosa, que pode levar a um conflito de identidade muito observado nas sociedades mais industrializadas.

Contudo, continua a existir bastante argumentação favorável à importância do conceito de classe social, considerando que esta poderá contribuir para o desenvolvimento da identidade individual. Continua a existir uma designada classe alta, muito fechada e quase impossível de penetrar; emerge uma nova “super-classe”, uma “elite” de profissionais e gestores que auferem salários elevados e que detêm participações accionistas; a classe trabalhadora continua a possuir consciência de classe, continuando a acreditar que poderão surgir conflitos de interesse (contrariando assim a tese consumista).

Numa perspectiva diversa, o sociólogo alemão Max Weber considera que o poder pode tomar uma variedade de formas. O poder pessoal pode mostrar-se na ordem social sob a forma de “status”, na ordem económica através da sua classe e na ordem política por meio do partido. Classe, “status” e partido constituem os três aspectos da distribuição de poder no interior duma comunidade.

Uma outra perspectiva considera que, qualquer concepção de classe baseada em modelos de poder é muito limitada, uma vez que a qualidade de vida não pode ser expressa em termos meramente económicos ou de propriedade, mas sim em termos de liberdade individual, saúde e respeito social.

Já numa visão centrada na sociedade da informação, o poder não é medido em termos de propriedade, trabalho ou capital, mas pelo acesso à informação e aos meios para a disseminar.

Portanto, o conceito de “classe” é muito complexo, resultando de uma combinação de vários factores: classe; “status”; partido/activismo social; forma de identificação social, cultural, religiosa; acesso à informação e poder mediático. Acresce a isto, o facto das composições sociais serem variáveis de país para país, não havendo fronteiras rígidas no interior de cada uma dessas composições.

Pelo que me parece que o futuro, principalmente nos países industrialmente avançados, poderá ser o de sociedades compostas de múltiplas camadas, cada qual como o seu próprio sistema de valores. Creio que o conceito de classe, assente no factor trabalho, terá tendência a esvaziar-se em sociedades que já atingiram um grande grau de industrialização, devido à evolução tecnológica verificada no processo produtivo.

Mas a colossal vergonha reflecte-se nos milhões que são afastados do sistema, os mais vulneráveis, os explorados dos explorados, a viver situações de extrema pobreza, vítimas do  tráfico de seres humanos, da toxicodependência, das epidemias, da marginalidade e do abandono social, dos conflitos militares, da discriminação racial, etc. Enquanto não forem criadas condições para libertar os seres humanos sujeitos a estas condições de vida, nenhuma sociedade será verdadeiramente livre ou terá a paz social.

Mesmo assim , o conceito de classe na sua vertente económica – a posição dum indivíduo num mercado determina a sua posição de classe e o modo como esse individuo está colocado tem influência directa nas suas oportunidades – continua a ser um relevante instrumento de análise no sentido de encontrar uma saída para o aumento das desigualdades de rendimentos entre a população mundial, consequência das políticas neoliberais. Deveria ser utilizado a par duma visão que abrangesse valores culturais e éticos avessos à lógica de acumulação de capital e de consumismo exacerbado como factores de promoção social, numa tentativa de desconstrução do injusto modelo económico-social existente.

Sendo assim, nos dias de hoje e numa perspectiva económica, um modelo genérico representativo duma sociedade ocidental desenvolvida poderia ser composto por 5 classes: uma classe social dominante, constituída fundamentalmente pelos grandes proprietários dos meios de produção ; uma classe média dividida em 2 partes - classe média alta e média baixa; uma classe trabalhadora; uma classe baixa. A grande “fatia” seria preenchida pela classe média baixa e pela designada classe trabalhadora – mais de 60 % da população activa – ambas com fronteiras bastante indefinidas.

Intelectuais e quadros técnicos são um grupo social transversal a todas as classes. Dum modo geral tem-se acentuado a exploração a que estão sujeitos, com uma degradação evidente da sua situação económica e laboral, cada vez mais excluídos das decisões empresariais de topo.

2. As limitações do reformismo


A fatia correspondente aos rendimentos da propriedade têm aumentando exponencialmente. A tão badalada teoria económica “trickle down” sustenta que o investimento estrangeiro e local, conjugado com grandes benefícios fiscais às empresas, causa naturalmente uma redistribuição de riqueza da classe economicamente dominante para as outras classes.

Este tipo de políticas estão a conduzir a uma polarização social cada vez maior e a uma instabilidade e insegurança crescente na chamada classe média - os ricos cada vez mais ricos, os pobres cada vez mais pobres.

O actual sistema capitalista, em plena fase da globalização neoliberal, está transformar o trabalho em mera mercadoria. Está a desumanizar o trabalho, quer manual quer intelectual.

No entanto, os mecanismos normais e as regras de jogo dos dois mercados descritos inicialmente - mercado de capitais e mercado de trabalho - poderão gerar uma alocação de recursos políticos, que poderá obrigar a gestão corporativa a fazer cedências à vontade colectiva da força de trabalho. Aqui poderia surgir uma oportunidade para o grande desafio - a “desmercantilização” do trabalho, ao enredar a função investimento numa teia de controles sociais indirectos, o que poderia ser a chave para uma progressiva e cumulativa transição para a justiça social e para a segurança no trabalho.

Talvez o que falte fazer é planear a mudança. Para atingir os objectivos de justiça social e segurança no trabalho será necessário projectar estas mudanças e implementá-las. A diferença entre revolução e reforma reside na sua relativa capacidade de mobilização da classe trabalhadora.

De acordo com a tese das limitações do reformismo, um movimento de trabalhadores que se organize em redor dum programa reformista nunca representará um desafio ao capitalismo. No entanto tese oposta sustenta que, a menos que o elemento político dominante dum movimento de trabalhadores reformista seja desviado do seu programa e a sua coesão interna destruída, o desafio será inevitável.

Por outro lado, o modo como um partido consegue manter a “fé” política ( e ir para além do mero assistencialismo) poderá salva-lo da desintegração e da marginalidade ao suster a unidade do movimento. Se o partido se afasta da via reformista (como sucede actualmente na maioria dos casos), o movimento passa a substituí-lo como frente política representante ou como interlocutor privilegiado da classe trabalhadora organizada.

A compatibilidade entre reformismo e capitalismo será então medida pela relação entre as políticas das organizações dos trabalhadores e as instituições vitais do capital.

Referências:
Journal Theory and Society, How limited is reformism?

Wikipedia article: “Social class”
Koistinen (1/3)
Koistinen (3/3)

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Saturday, February 2, 2008

Mökkikunta: Blog of the Month of the Ovi Magazine

Mökkikunta was considered Blog of the Month by the Ovi Magazine.

Thanks Asa, Thanos and the whole Ovi Team!

I´m really happy for that!

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Friday, February 1, 2008

Koistinen (1/3)

image by Zohar Manor-Abel

Nokia

1. Visão “interMédia “


Recentemente, a Nokia, maior fabricante mundial de telemóveis, anunciou que em meados deste ano iria encerrar a sua fábrica em Bochum, na Alemanha,, num corte que poderia chegar a 2300 empregos, sendo a produção transferida para locais mais competitivos na Europa.

"Estamos transferindo a produção para fábricas existentes, principalmente na Roménia, cuja unidade irá inaugurar no segundo trimestre", afirmou o porta-voz da empresa, Arja Suominen, informando que já se tinha iniciado a selecção.

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Na Europa, a Nokia possuí fábricas em países como a Finlândia, Hungria e Reino Unido, estando em fase de construção uma nova fábrica na Roménia, num investimento que ronda os 60 milhões de euros. Tem também fábricas localizadas no Brasil, México, Índia e China. Em Dezembro passado, a empresa decidiu transferir alguma das suas linhas de produção da Finlândia para a Coreia do Sul.

De acordo com a Bloomberg, um sindicato alemão considerou esta atitude "desumana" e "socialmente inaceitável"

Também a Nokia Siemens Networks afirmou a sua pretensão de cortar 9 mil empregos, 15 por cento de sua força total de trabalho, até o final de 2010, sendo 2,29 mil funcionários da Alemanha.

Entretanto, mais recentemente, a Nokia apresentou os resultados financeiros do quarto trimestre de 2007 com um aumento de 44% do lucro líquido, que totalizou US$ 2,6 biliões. A meta de longo prazo, chegar a 40% de participação no mercado de telemóveis, também foi alcançada no período.

As vendas líquidas cresceram, entre Outubro e Dezembro de 2007, de 34%, para 15,7 biliões de euros. No total, a empresa anunciou que vendeu mais de 133 milhões de telemóveis, um crescimento de 27% em comparação com o mesmo período de 2006.


*Fim da síntese da informação disseminada pelos media tradicionais*

2. Visão desfocada do indivíduo

As distâncias tornam-se irrelevantes; a divisão tecnológica tende a desaparecer globalmente; harmoniza-se a produtividade a nível global; desenvolve-se uma gestão global; a nacionalidade das empresas perde progressivamente importância; emerge uma nova classe média na Europa Central, Ásia e América Latina; aumenta a competição entre os sistemas de valores dos países industrializados vs Ásia e Europa Central; no Ocidente coexistem sociedades heterógeneas com diferentes sistemas de valores e noções de classe social; na Europa Ocidental transparece uma certa rejeição do conceito de mobilidade profissional; China, Índia e Rússia tornam-se potências tecnológicas. IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook

Estas tendências são factores subjectivos tidos em conta pelas multinacionais, quando estas planeiam a localização das suas unidades produtivas no mapa mundial, tendo como objectivo obter vantagens competitivas e rentabilidade financeira a longo prazo. No caso da Nokia, esta quer ultrapassar os seus concorrentes directos, Samsung e Motorola, sem diminuir as suas margens de lucro.

É esta a visão empresarial duma unidade de gestão num sistema económico global. Uma visão distante, desfocada, fria, incompleta. Mas não é esta a realidade social do desemprego, um somatório de milhares de tragédias individuais evitáveis, coexistindo ao lado duma frenética acumulação de capital, que já não escorre do topo - fechado em si mesmo - para a base social. Hoje é na Alemanha, amanhã será noutro país seleccionado.

3. Visão focada no indivíduo

O exercício seguidamente proposto é adequado à correcção de “miopia” social. Trata-se de visualizar um extraordinário trabalho artístico de Chris Jordan, tendo a esperança, tal como ele, que as imagens que representam as quantidades tenham um efeito diferente do que os números têm, tal como os vemos normalmente nos livros:
Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan

É preciso que avaliadores e decisores de investimentos visualizem os seus modelos a diversas escalas e à escala humana. As estatísticas são necessárias aproximações da realidade, mas representam intrinsecamente uma abstracção que nos pode afastar da realidade social e humana, ao transformar seres humanos em dígitos.

nota: No último filme de Aki Kaurismäki, “Luzes no Crepúsculo”, terceira parte de uma trilogia sobre a crise económica e o desemprego, o actor Janne Hyytiäinen desempenha o papel de Koistinen.

Koistinen (2/3)

Koistinen (3/3)


Publicado em www.newropeans-magazine.org

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Globalização e Descentralização

A descentralização do Estado é uma forma de redistribuição do poder político, do topo para as bases - da Administração central para o nível intermédio de poder regional e para o nível de poder local.

Significa devolver o poder ao povo, oferecendo mais oportunidades de intervenção democrática e uma maior proximidade entre o representante e o eleitor. O factor proximidade é vital para o sistema democrático e contribuí para a humanização das relações de poder.

Por meio duma gestão económica global, distante e "fria", a globalização capitalista conduz à desumanização e à transformação do trabalho humano em mera mercadoria.

Embora indirectamente relacionado com a temática da descentralização/regionalização, é em redor do tema da globalização económica e algumas das suas consequências, que se desenvolverão os próximos três “posts”.

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