news!

[Renata Betti]

People,

 

I have been bad in writing to you all, I'm sorry... but it's for a good reason!

 

I've been working a LOT and finally my Nokia article was published! It's in Portuguese, of course, but as I was talking to Kunal, I think it might get published in an Indian newspaper... so, if it really happens, it will be translated to English. If you want to see it (at least the pictures), the link is: http://veja.abril.com.br/291008/p_126.shtml 

 

I also got a really unexpected present related to Finland. In the same edition of the magazine, the note of the editor-in-chief was about me and another reporter that went to Venezuela. We both had our articles published together: one was about the biggest cellphone company in the world, from an extremely wealthy country, and the other was about the universities of Chavez, from a country really poor. The big boss thought this contrast was good and decided to write about us! You can check it out on: http://veja.abril.com.br/291008/cartaleitor.shtml (I think Kunal took the picture of me at the Parliament!). The translation of this was made by Nokia's marketing department in Brazil and it's copied on the bottom of the email.

 

Well, I think this it it. Ohhhhh, Maite, I tried to call you to say happy birthday, did you see? I'm so sorry for not writing or anything... but I do wish all the best to you!

 

How are you guys??? Hope everyone is really well and all! I miss you!

 

Take care, beijos,

Renata

 

Letter to the Reader

 

DIFFERENT PLANETS

This edition of VEJA brings two articles that make you wonder about two quite different realities: the Venezuelan universities controlled by Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, and the world's largest manufacturer of cellular devices, the Finnish Nokia.

 

In Venezuela, Camila Pereira, the assistant editor visited the "Bolivarian universities", created by Chavez with a purpose of becoming undeniably brain washing machines. There, students are taught lessons on hatred to "barbaric capitalism", becoming graduated from the university to serve on Chavez's regime.

 

On the other hand, teachers need to accurately follow the Venezuelan Government's ideological textbook. Otherwise, they will lose their jobs. "The ideology is openly assumed by teachers and board of directors of all universities", says Camila. They are proud to disclose to the classroom a retrograde vision of the world.

 

It is an old political system which purpose is to hamper individual freedom and confine students to the intellectual obscurantism. Without a doubt, it is a regressive system even to a country where education already suffers from historical precariousness.

 

In Finland, another VEJA reporter became acquainted with the final product of a perfect education. At Nokia's laboratories, in the city of Espoo, Renata Betti wanted to find out how the world's largest manufacturer of cellular devices prepares itself for the shock of the future – and it is not related to the Stock Market.  

 

We are talking about the race for technological innovation which daily results into devices with additional resources, much smaller and less expensive.

 

At the company's headquarters, Renata talked with scientists that are under pressure from competition and that also have the fascination of producing knowledge and to advance.

 

Within this environment, where competitiveness prevails, the love for innovation brutally contrasts with the betting on retrograde teachings of Chavez's universities. They are two very diverse worlds that reporters could come to envision being in two different planets.

 

(Picture)

FROM OBSCURITY TO SCIENCE – Camila (at left), in one of Chavez's universities in Venezuela, and Renata, in Finland: two opposing bets.