142 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 13.4..2024

Apr 14, 2024 at 11:36 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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We met in the Gallery with a small group and saw

by Hector Garcia (https://www.ted.com/speakers/hector_garcia)

The speaker, a psychologist, says that the urge to make war, is based on the male urge to have as much sex as possible to hand their genes on to the next generation. We humans underestimate the influence these basic, animalistic instincts have on our actions.

Wherever women are in power in a society, there are less aggressive actions happen against neighbours. U. said that Bangladesh has a female prime minister (Sheikh Hasina, and there is less upheaval, in the country.

But the group considered it to be more about domination of a rival group, not about sex, also to gain more resources (water, land, animals).

We talked about the German support for the Ukraine. Their Chancellor is careful not to escalate the tensions with Russia, by sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine. Indians and Nepalis are lured to Russia, and then sent to the front in the Ukraine as cannon fodder. Prison populations are hired to serve in the war, under the premise of a high salary and freedom after a certain time frame. Raping Ukrainian women, seems to be encouraged and a part of the pay.

Part of the Russian assets frozen in the EU will be given to Ukraine to help with the upkeep of the state, for weapons and salaries.

Russian Oligarchs, helped Putin come to power, now they are “suffering” because of his actions which caused sanctions imposed on them.  (Maybe there is a god?)

Gaza: Some members are watching news on Al -Jazeera because they are reporting from the Gaza Strip; other news outlets do now report from this area at all.

Sweden has a lot of problems with the Arab population. The Muslims keep their girls under lock and key, and their sons who have a natural urge to have sex, the attack and rape other women,

We also considered the hardships survivors in the EU had to go through to survive during and after the war. Millions of German women were raped by the Russians. Children who could steal coal from coal trains, would help their families survive. No urge to have sex or dominate at the time, survival comes before procreation.

The speaker has a point, we are more animalistic that we would like to be.

Other stuff:

We shall visit to a modern ophthalmologist practice in Funchal, they will demonstrate and explain their sophisticated latest equipment for the diagnosis of eye problems. Day and time to in May to be set

140 Madeira Consorcio meeting 19.2.2024

Feb 18, 2024 at 12:04 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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We met in the Gallery and saw

Sarah, as she points out, is a lesbian Republican and works as political strategist.

The “tribe” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe) is an important human construction that provides security to its individual members Tribes can also divide a population, e.g. parties are then “us vs. them” which happens in the US at this time (and is coming over to the EU).

The Consocrio is also a tribe but one which does not attract new members ☹

In the beginning (2012) we invited Madeirans to join and they did, but never for long. We found that the Madeirans are not interested in discussions as we have them. We developed ideas to create projects and jobs (https://madeiraconsorcio.com/about/) but we couldn’t find Madeirans to take up the ideas and go through with the projects. Most of them seem to lack the vision.

A tribe can be exclusive (the Masons) but still support the population (Rotary Club). The Republican’ and Democrats’ tribes in the US divide the nation. Sara spoke a lot about Democracy in the video, and we came to the conclusion that the word doesn’t work anymore.

The danger is that with far-right politicians in charge (it may also happen soon in Thuringia, Germany) they can undo the democratic set-up from within and turn state institutions into their tools. Trump knows very well how to do that; he is the Great Divider.

 J. said that the US is no democracy anymore (Anocracy)

He also said that the Ukraine war is not “our” (EU) war. He does not feel that the Ukrainians are fighting for “our” freedom. It should not be our war but the word” war” is also inadequate because it nowadays also results in cyberattacks, fake news and attempted corruption of free elections in other countries. We need another word for it.

U. said that nature, also human nature, is fractal  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal). We tend to split into more and more differences (Big cities have several pigeon raising associations; the same goes for rabbits) and in the end, no 2 snowflakes and no 2 humans are identical. This makes us search for differences and emphasize them, to find security in “our” tribe.

International rules say that country borders must be respected (Venezuela/Guyana, China/Taiwan), otherwise people like Trump and /Putin do what they will.

U. also said that we are not aware that the overpopulation is at the basis of conflicts, If we were only 2 billion people on Earth, we wouldn’t have these problems. (Laugher ensued: what can we do about that?)

The best for us as individuals is not to live forever. We couldn’t find a positive point to close the discussion but we’ll tackle the topic again!

125 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 19.3.2022

Mar 20, 2022 at 5:20 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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João Mota, one of the administrators of the Foundation Cecilia Zino, gave us a presentation of the Foundation’s history and work.

The website is https://fundacaozino.com/, with an English version.

Cecilia Rose Zino created the foundation in 1961, and used an old hotel building owned by the family, to install a children’s hospital in 1961. (The Nélio Mendonca Hospital only opened in 1973.) The hospital played an important role in the last Polio outbreak in 1972 on the island.

After the opening of the N.M. Hospital, the Zino hospital was turned into a residential facility for children from poor families on the island. The Foundation used funds from the stock market to finance the work on a private basis.

The Foundation had plenty of staff; at times, the Home harboured more than 40 children. The service also relied on four Dominican Nuns which supervised the work very efficiently, from 1963 until their retirement in 2020. When a Nun leaves the service, three people have to be hired to replace her because the nuns worked 24/7.

The children who arrive at the Foundation are taken out of the families for various reasons, and given into the care of the Foundation. At this time, the Foundation as 15 children, from the age of 3 to 18. Even if a youngster turns 18, he/she will be assisted in various ways until the age of 26 years. (In Germany, children who turn 18, are on their own.)

The Foundation receives interest from the stock market; it also has rental properties which bring in additional money to cover the costs. In 2018, the costs were at around 600.000€/year. Now, with less children and staff, the cost has been lowered to a manageable amount. Still, the Foundation will be asking for Government support, also in view of the fact that the State intends to send more “problem” cases to the Foundation. They know that the Foundation has excellent staff with good training and a 1:1 ratio between staff and children. (There are six institutions on the island for the support of foster children and orphans.)

We have to keep in mind that these children need a lot of care; the families they come from, have serious problems with alcohol, drugs, violence and sexual exploitation.

The Foundation has new projects:

A new building for the now smaller group of children is to be built in Funchal.

A program to not only help needy children but also to assist their often-troubled families.

Scholarships for youngsters who are going to university and into professional training, until the age of 26.

Culture trips for the Children to visit museums in Lisbon and Porto.

Art Exhibitions: The Foundations offers a space in Rua do Bettencourt for young artists who are looking for promotors, they have interesting exhibitions, the topics always have to do with children and their world.

The Cultural Passport: The Foundation also started a project with the cultural passport, to incentivize children to visit museums and art galleries on the island. (The public museums are already covered by the schools.) The children get a stamp or two for a visit to an art gallery etc. In a lottery, they can then win a trip to Madrid or another city, or win iPads and other electronic devices. The Restock Gallery will be included in this project.

The vegetable plots in the Garden have been replanted, the children simply do not have much time to learn and do gardening work. They have to be taken to the public schools early, return often around 17, then they may have a meeting with a psychologist or speech therapy etc. and on the weekends, they often visit their families.

In the current war situation, the Foundation offered 5-6 beds to the Government for children from the Ukraine but the offer (as was in the case of the Syrian refugees) was not taken up by the state, citing bureaucratic problems.

Our thanks go to MZ and João Mota for the presentation!

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