O AZUL DO OCEANO INDICO

Afonso Almeida Brandão"

NAt this moment, if I were a believer, I would ask God to preserve the life of Pope Francis for a little longer and to give encouragement and courage to Volodymyr Zelensky to continue to defend the survival of Ukraine and resist the pressures of war and the surreal combination of powers of two known madmen (each in his own way!) who are Putin and Donald Trump.

During the years of his mission in the Vatican, Pope Francis has been a shining light that remains permanently lit on a planet in turmoil and torn apart by opposing forces and by the diabolical irrationality of men devoid of divine mercy (which includes those responsible for leading the governments of North Korea, Venezuela, China, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau — just to mention a few glaring examples). Francis's mission of extraordinary greatness was to have crossed the Frontiers of the Divine to win the intelligence of all men of good will for his causes. His disappearance, at this very moment when the forces of evil are taking the lead in the affairs of men, could have a cost that is difficult to bear.

As for Volodymyr Zelensky, he deserves more than anyone the miracle of divine salvation from the hell he lives on earth, crushed and divided by the anguish of the daily deaths of the men and women of his country and the responsibility of his oath to defend and preserve the country that belongs to everyone and not just his. Zelensky does not need to die to experience the flames of hell that he already knows on Earth.

As a democrat, I have never believed in providential men, but there are some. In my youth, I chose Winston Churchill as the providential man for my personal use and I always thought that he would be just the exception that proves the rule. However, in view of these two examples that I am writing about today, I have to reconsider my conviction and hope that others may appear in the future, since men like the rest of us do not seem to be the sufficient answer to face the acceleration of the tremendous challenges of our absolutely “uncontrolled” and uncertain times....

Many years ago, I read “The Discourse on Method” and thought that pure reason was the way to manage organizations and govern people. Then I read our Damasio and understood the importance of feelings and emotions, which I accepted as an important addition to my thinking. However, today, faced with the prevailing irrationality and confronted with the uncontrolled emotions and desires of some who have strayed from reason and believe in the choices contained in the democratic process, all I can do is return to the origins of methodical doubt.

For a long time now, regions of the planet have been poorly governed, whether due to religions, ideologies, the greed of individual and collective interests, or the ignorance of the people — as a result of the blatant misappropriation of public funds and drug trafficking, as is the case in Mozambique in particular, involving big names in our FRELIXO politics! — But in our time, perhaps due to the acceleration of change, we are faced with all of this falling upon us at the same time, and the new means of social communication (and not only!) that exist among us and affect the “Metralhas” seem to be part of the problem and not the solution...

2025/12/3