Kindness by default

As earthling, living in Portugal, I can´t imagine what Ukraine beings are going through in these hours, or what it must feel for Russian beings, having someone decide in their name to commit such an atrocity, so contrary to human species default to protect, care and blossom. Amidst another much bigger war of infinite greed, we add the greed for more territory, more resources, more terror, more power. Enough should be enough to concentrate on the habitability of the finitude of our Planet. 

Greed is a sickness. It needs help to be treated. If not treated can result in serious crimes: against environment (the biggest of all, given it sustains all life on Earth), against Nature and all living beings (including us), against our societies and the right to live peacefully and respectfully in a House that is much bigger than our homes, our communities, or our countries. 

What is happening is an aberration, an abnormality of the system, a hideous crime against us all. The system must be corrected. We are all encoded to be kind by default (*). We need to remind ourselves that what makes vibrant communities is respect, communion, sharing, and a lot of love for the extra energy to transcend ourselves (and endure in the most difficult of times). 

(*) Be alert for manipulation! We have been manipulated throughout history to believe that greed is our nature. It is not. More about it in Rutger Bregman (2021). Humankind: A Hopeful History.

This is not the Wild West

 

“[I]n Europe the internet has long since ceased to be the wild west. Articles 7 and 8 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights [legal text] safeguard the right to respect for private and family life and the right to protection of personal data. These basic rights do not just exist on paper. As you have seen, they also guide us when legislating. And they have teeth, also in the courts. For example, you need only recall the two Schrems judgments, in which European Court of Justice declared instruments for transferring personal data to third countries to be unlawful. The result is that digital companies must guarantee EU standards are applied when they transfer personal data outside the EU. Failing this, forwarding of the data is prohibited.” Open letter from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

We have the right to privacy and protection of personal information, among other legal rights. Using, selling, trading and all other forms of exploitation of personal data and information is illegal and a crime against our lifes.

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC). 

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf