Literacy For Peace

Today's the International Literacy Day. And the main theme for this year is "Literacy for Peace". What does it mean? When we have better education, when we can read books and start to build opinions and discern between things we may allow ourselves for a better undestanding of our own acts and atittudes towards many things, especially concerning cultures, families, tensions between countries, between siblings, their problems and solutions. That's why Literacy for PEACE is hope for all around the world. Which book now that I'm glad I'm able to read and write? The book I just recently released on Amazon: "Out of the Blue" yes, literally speaking, for it was out of the blue that I wrote it, and it was all thanks for the first words I learned, of course, in my mother tongue, Portuguese.



I remember the first words I learned in English, my first Workbook when I was around seven in the American School I studied. The colour YELLOW, I love that word, and it was the first thing I remember I had to draw, then, the RED, the words pencil came later. Maybe that's when I decided to be an artist and author, I loved colouring that book, which I still keep after all those years.

Last year I had the pleasure to have donated more than a hundred books of mine (in various languages) to the local library at my birthplace city of Santos in Brazil. But the greatest pleasure of all for me it would be knowing that my books may serve to a lot of people, that many may read from them and learn the interesting things that my books provide too. For I have selected them with much care and throughtout my many travelings and it would be such a pity if they were kept in the shelves and never been picked up if no one can read. That's why I keep teaching people to read and learn at least the languages I know and I still have in mind to teach from my own books as well. Hopefully one day I may reach thousands if not millions of hearts all around the world. That keep being my dream and of utmost importance for me to accomplish.
Happy you may read me. Thanks!


Last year I was invited by the Blog Action Day to write about a very serious issue, water, and the consequences we will have to pay for it if or when there will be no more clean resources on Earth. That's when the story came "Out Of The Blue". I usually don't write in this genre (Sci-Fi) but when I do the pictures come into my mind so clearly as if it is a movie I am seeing, though I rarely know the end. It's an enigma for me. I always think I've got the story straight, that I have it all planned inside my head when, all of a sudden and out of the blue", here it comes an u-turn to change all the concepts and beliefs I had before.

It's a big mystery and surprise for me, really, how things turn out to be in the end, it's not I the author who is writing the story but it's the story that reveals itself for me. They say that Science Fiction is a good way to show the perspective of a reality that could pretty much come to fruition and it adverts or inverts us about things that can eventually happen. And that's so true. What would be of the world if not for the Sci-Fi authors, and I mean since the crazy adventures of Jules Vernes under the sea or out in the space, or even in the Amazon jungle, or the amazing discoveries of Mary Shelley's Doctor Frankenstein. Scientists do prove what the friction between reality and fiction comes from a thin fine line and some had already revealed them to be true.

A mixture of drama and comedy but that surprises by the honest approach. It makes you laugh and cry all at the same time, and how much I love to get that reaction from my fictions. What's your reaction when you read me? Do you keep quiet, in introspection or are you eager to say a word or two? And if so, why you restrain from saying those words? Why keeping quiet and shut and not shout out loud? The main reason may be that Peace come from a place within and the words are simply a gate between two worlds, a meaning which through we may pass knowledge and understanding, leading to a more Universal compassion and Truth.
HAPPY LITERACY DAY!

The Sun still shines

Virgin Mary at San Cristobal Mount seen this sunny Sunday in Santiago, Chile

History, as in life, seems to always be presented by a young role model for the next generation. Such were the cases of many female figures, some of whom became saints, as Joan of Ark. But others were heroines in their own way. Yesterday I saw for the first time "Sophie Scholl-The Final Days" a movie directed by Marc Rothemund and released on late February of 2005 about the last nine days of terror that this twenty-one-year-old German student of Theosophy and philosophy (It helps when we know that her name means "Wisdom's School") had to endure for having a conscience and fighting to keep being sane in a world who many had already lost their minds and heads. She was caught spreading the leaflets of the White Rose, a manifesto about tyrannous acts and crimes against humanity, written by her older brother. To leave in such an early age like a flower which had just blossomed. A leaf left to die... "Die Sonne scheint noch." The Sun still shines. "God, you are my refuge into eternity" were her last words.

And what was the price for her to become an icon for the peace and freedom of speech? She was beheaded and so were her brother and her dearest friends. Such a huge price to pay with your life. Did she care enough about her life? If she didn't she wouldn't be willing to sacrifice her own head to give liberty and try to share the truth she knew with others of her own age. And did it work? If it didn't I wouldn't be writing about it here and now. She died on a cold day of late February of 1943; two years later, Margot died also on late February and followed a few days by her immortal sister Anne Frank. Why do I write immortal? Because they actually never died for those who believe in their right to partake truth, justice and faith as an everlasting flame chanting in their hearts. We are all on the same boat. We will all die eventually. But our conscience, that we can never escape (or erase). For those with a sane mind the light will forever remain. And I write these words earlier rather than late. To keep my life in chain. It makes no sense, but that's free will: to be able to pursue our convictions and yet be attained by our own truth. To jump inside our own hearts and find out that we still have some hope left... a leaf left like a joke(r) to poke(r). Oh, sweet yoke...
YUNOHANA, YU meaning "hot water" NO "of" HANA "flower", here in a Japanese Garden with water lilies or Lotus flowers (The lotus is born under the mud, growing through the water towards the light. This green/growing desired elevation reminds of our own:)


Moi j'ai un jardin rempli de fleurs
Un monde d'amour tout en couleur
Que je fais vivre en mon cœur
Elle s'appelait Anna
rappelle-toi
La plume courait entre ses doigts
Elle écrivait des mots d'amour et de foi
Car elle avait 13 ans Anna
Elle se cachait dans un grenier Anna
Si chaud l'été, l'hiver si froid
A l'horizon de quatre murs et d'un toit
Elle écrivait pourtant Anna
Ces mots là{Refrain}
Elle avait souvent si peur, Anna
En écoutant des bruits de pas
Et quand, ils s'approchaient trop près
Quelques fois, auprès de son grenier, Anna
Chante-moi
C'est par un beau matin d'été je crois
Qu'ils sont venus chercher, Anna
Ils ont laissé juste un cahier, les soldats
Un journal dont les mots, Anna
Sont pour moi.... (Musique de Francis Lopez)


"Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn." Sophie Scholl