Highway to Hell

São Paulo has a widely spread bad reputation due to its overwhelming traffic. Not only on the streets and avenues which cross the city, but also on the highways which get to and leave the city. Among the worst, if not the worst, when it comes to traffic issues, is Raposo Tavares (SP270).

Certainly, many of these problems started due to the disorganised growth of the cities next to this motorway and the large amount of leisure places, industries and residential areas on both sides of it, which attracts a great number of cars to this tortuous path. The difficulties in accessing and exiting Raposo are numberless. Few, and sometimes, confusing road signs, depressions on the ground on the accesses/exits - causing an abrupt, and sometimes, too late, deceleration of the vehicle - and sparse roundabouts are just some of these difficulties.

It is noticeable, though, that measures are being taken to correct these issues. An extra lane is being created, some roundabouts are being built, repairs on the holes throughout its course, pedestrians bridges are under construction and several other improvements which, hopefully, will make a difference.

The question that lies is the following: in a highway whose flow of automobiles is the second biggest among the ten others that get to São Paulo (71,5% in 2007 and still growing according to “Circuito” magazine). In which so far an overly defective administration has been presented and is undergoing a real estate and industrial boom, will the changes be sufficient?

The drivers who need to undergo this torture daily are well aware of the money issues due to the crisis and to the enormous amount of economic capital necessary to repair the 24 kilometres (from the 10^th to the 34^th) which are the government's responsibility. Why not sharing this responsibility with the industries which are on the highway's sides, then? It is mainly due to them the share of 25,3% of the amount of trucks which get to the city through this via. These companies have so many benefits, such as lower taxes and many others. Why not charging them a tax to repair works or giving them the responsibility to work together and look after the kilometres they are located?

The government could stablish a temporary fee to the users of these crowded lanes. After all, it's easy to complain and curse and not take any responsibility for the troubles that affect SP270. The inhabitants and drivers are also widely responsible for the gobsmacking traffic jams that happen everyday. Who is driving the cars? If everybody keeps on blaming the others for these issues, these will forever grow up to a point where it will be better walking than driving. Does it not ring a bell? Too bad it's hell's bell.

Homo Homini Lupus

It was once said: homo homini lupus - man is a wolf to man. We destroy everything we create, we blur the reality just to live a façade and we find bliss in sheer ignorance. The environmental crisis we now live is the quintessential ignorance in a blind, deaf and mute society.

One could say that such an issue is trivial when compared to famine, terrorism or the economic crisis, among the several problems humanity is facing. All of them lead to severe consequences, that is unquestionable. However, are they as bad as the tragedies caused by the climate crisis we are now finding ourselves in?

Famine inexorably strikes undeveloped countries and poor areas around the globe. Whether due to a matter of bad administration or simply a general tendency to ignore problems this issue is still given more attention from the media as a whole than environment. Moreover, the solution to this is far less radical than the one needed to solve all the problems caused by our environmental unawareness.

Terrorism sets fear even on the heart of the bravest. One attack is enough to prove how fragile mankind is. It is also another fruit of a blind society, which refuses to claim guilt on anything it has caused. Yet, terrorist attacks have decreased since the WTC event, for this has touched deep on the world's proudest nation's wound, causing immediate retaliation and thus, being increasingly reduced throughout the years.

When it comes to the economic crisis, this is not the first nor the last we will face. Economists learn with one mistake to make another. Nonetheless, this kind of crisis has always been overcome, and it will likely be once more.

This leaves us, then, with one final problem which has silently gone global. It has always been in front of our faces and yet, again we turned a blind eye to what we should have not. Forgetting about the environment is forgetting about our very own existence. It is the same as playing with a loaded gun. The truth, however, is that the gun has already been fired. The damages are uncountable and our lives are at stake.

None can say when exactly it is going to hit our city or neighbourhood, and yet, directly or indirectly, everybody is already being affected. Whether it is famine, terrorism, economic crisis or environmental crisis it is high time mankind takes a decisive step toward the solution to these urgent matters, otherwise the price for our blissful ignorance, for not protecting ourselves, will be too high to be paid.

Progress vs. Technology

Progress. The very definition of being human. Or would it be ambition? On the everlasting quest for progress the boundaries between the beneficial advances of technology and stark greed seem to be increasingly in conflict. Always craving for immortality, striving so hard to look like gods and even harder to be God, humans often forget that progress cannot be a consequence of lust for vanity. It is true, however, that beneficial consequences can come from this twisted reasoning, even though they should be the reasons themselves.

The pursuit of immortality is as old as mankind. From elixirs to cryonics the dream of living forever has always lurked in our minds. This desperate longing for never dying has caused a huge alteration in our society in a way that, frequently, researches related to this outpace the ones related to real problems like finding cures to certain illnesses, for instance.

This quest brings about an immediate consequence. Why live forever if one cannot be beautiful forever? This question is as history-changing as wars. Standards of beauty dictate our lives from the very beginning. Imposing rules on our behaviour, way of living, cultures, on history itself. People are hardly satisfied with their appearance, mainly due to the massive bombarding of 'be pretty or you are worthless' ads on the media (which is nothing else than humans making other humans think of themselves as 'bad products'). It starts with wanting to change ourselves and now even the ones to come have to suffer from our meaningless vanity. Funds are wasted on 'designing' babies, which could be used in giving babies a proper raising or in any other more useful scientific endeavour.

It often starts as a noble idea. But as soon as the researches begin there will be a twisted-minded person waiting to blur the original goal and turn it into another by-product of greed. Reaching a point which makes people believe they can be God themselves. Take the human cloning for example. It started as a way of cloning human body parts to try replacing members lost in accidents, in birth, etc. and it turned into a foolish idea of copying humans. It is interesting how, when it comes to beauty, mankind seems to long to be the same, to be part of a whole, but when it comes to logical thinking, they just care about the individual.

Technology surely brings several benefits to the society, this is unquestionable. The problem is and it will always be mankind. Progress turns into ambition, righteousness into greed, care into vanity. If so much money was not wasted into tending to these void dreams, it is very possible that many problems could have already been solved. If we want to change, let it be our minds not our bodies.

Life Achievements

Birth, school, college, work, starting a family, retirement, death. If you ask people what would be the natural order of things in life, the vast majority would most certainly present you this list.

Coincidentally, or not, excluding birth and death, the other five would also be the list of achievements in life one would like to make. Although they sound logical and great goals to be attained, are they really the most important deeds one should look for in life?

If you ask me which achievements I would like to make in the next ten years I wouldn't list those five, for they would merely be consequences of the real achievements: becoming more mature, more responsible, more concerned about the world around me - and I'm talking about the big picture here: environment, politics, society, etc. Doing more for the others than for me. In fact, ten years from now I would only be satisfied if I could look back and say: “Man, I really made the difference!”

One could say that this is easier said than done. Indeed it is! Would it be an achievement otherwise? The very concept of this word involves working very hard, pulling out all the stops, persistence and, most importantly, knowing you are not doing that only for yourself; that the 'yourself' part will come as a consequence, not as the reason.

How then, would I try to succeed in doing this? By reflecting and always pondering before setting a goal. If I have to choose a job shall I choose the one that pays the most or the one where I could improve the lives of other people? Should I think first in my satisfaction in doing that job or should satisfaction be a consequence of helping people see life through a better perspective? If I want to have a family should it be because I want company or because I have something to offer them so that, then, I can have something in return?

When I stop to think about those things it becomes clear to me what I want to be doing ten years from now: being human. I don't want to be a result of predetermined and imposed values. I want to make the difference. It seems, however, that nowadays, making the difference is remembering the most basic concept of all: we are humans and we are on the same boat. If we want to actually achieve something in life it is high time we start acting and thinking as a society and forget once and for all this individualism that haunts our thinking. If we keep on believing that our actions don't cause any kind of consequences to the whole I'm not quite sure if I want to see how things will be ten years from now.