Soneto de dois

Tempo de conversas casuais.

Tempos, conversas atrás.

Momento de carinhos ausentes

E olhares de saudades inssonais.

Falo a língua da falta,

E a fala que ecoa a distância

Ensaia a lágrima perdida

Na essência do silêncio

Do tudo o que não me lembrei,

De tudo o que não vivi,

De tanto que não insisti

No sonho de tanto perder

Os olhos em toda ternura

Do tudo o que emana dos teus...

                                                Outono de 2014, NY.

Pedro Lança Gomes

Divergent inequality

For decades, gender inequality is an issue that has been reverberating through societies. This issue can be divided in two big fields. The first one is economic inequality, and the second, social inequality. As women’s behavior varies in according to what culture they are from, maybe the root of this problem could be cultural. In order to examine this possibility, two interviews were performed in Manhattan, New York, asking people how gender inequality occurs in their countries and in which area – business, social relationships, family – it happens more often.

The first interviewed person was Charlotte, a 20 year old American girl that studies art and design. According to her, gender inequality is very often found in North America. She used to go out at night to pubs and parties, and said that she is usually judged because of the clothes she wears. “People think that women dress just to provoke men, and that it is our fault if we are abused or even raped,” she said. It is estimated that the prevalence of women being raped (number of women that experienced rape at least one time in their lifetime) in the USA (United States of America) is between 15 – 20%. Charlotte thinks that this is because of some women behaving associated to the sexist society where we live, and not because of the way some women dress. “Men already see women as sexual objects, and because of some women’s behave, they objectify themselves even more” – she said. This means that if women want to change their image in society, they need to stop accepting and practicing objectifying habits.

While Charlotte was being interviewed, her mother, Mrs. Allen, appeared and took the opportunity to say her opinion. According to her, the biggest problem in American’s gender inequality is the prejudice that women have on each other. “They do not accept women that choose not to live objectifying themselves” – she said. She also said that in her job there is no woman working as managers or in high-level administrative positions. “It is very hard to get a job if you are a woman and have more than one child. If you succeed, you will probably make less money than a man even if doing the same job.” – said Mrs. Allen. A research did with 9,300 Americans showed that working women today earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, and it is being relatively consistent like this since the beginning of 21^st century.

The second interviewed person was Luiza, a 23 year old Brazilian girl that studies Medicine. According to her, gender inequality in Brazil is also very frequent. “In my country, most of the women are always seen as weak and vulnerable” – she said. She related that women make less money than men do, even if working in the same jobs, nevertheless, there are more women working in domestic services for their families them in other jobs. As it is showed by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and statistics), 56% of the women in Brazil are unemployed. Seventy eight percent of the 44% that actually work earn less than five minimum salaries, 18% earns between 5 and 10 minimum salaries and only 4% earn more than 10.

“In families, men have their roles and women theirs. I do not see this as gender inequality, but as gender differences. We are not the same.” – said Luiza. Brazilian is a predominantly Christian country, and it has great influences in the way people think and behave. According to the Holy Bible, men have the duty of providing money and food to their houses and women to be submissive to their husbands. As the USA is also a Christian country, maybe it could be one of the reasons why genders have so close behaving in both countries.

Gender inequality or not, women and men are treated differently in many cultures around the world. Some of these differences could be disastrous, and some of them could help in the balance of social relationships. However, it is unquestionable that women suffer prejudice in many situations, and it is important to identify and change them. There will always be differences between genders, but inequality must be corrected to give to women the rights they deserve as much as men do.  

Diário da Fé

Acordei e, de repente… Lembro-me de alguns sonhos, alguns papéis, algumas lágrimas e só! O mundo é outro e eu o mesmo mundinho de sempre. Sabe, se eu fosse escrever minha vida algum dia, teria poucas páginas: primeiro porque não me lembro de muita coisa, segundo porque me importo com pouco do que lembro. Mas, vez ou outra, talvez uma história valha a pena contar.

Capitulo 1 – Tempo

Sou rocha, e minhas palavras ondas do mar. Algo de alguám perdido nas próprias memórias.

Eram cinco horas da manhã e as coisas voavam aleatórias por entre os dedos. As nuvens dançavam os olhos que faziam círculos no infinito do céu da boca do estômago… E nunca entendi por que raios acordei com as mãos babadas e o queixo dolorido, feito uma criança que tenta engolir a propria cabeça! Sem despertador ou luz, e nenhuma vontade de pedir mais cinco minutos! Os sonhos perdem o significado quando estão sendo realizados.

Era uma madrugada monótona de junho. Não havia nada que a fizesse parecer mais especial. Porém, a garoa era lenta, o vento era triste e o céu, saudoso. Nao é o mundo que muda, somo nós. Era momento de falar o minimo e fazer tudo o que não faria sentido mais tarde! Muito carinho e cuidado, poucas lágrimas, tanto adeus, tanto… que não tinha mais despedidas. 

A força contrária à distância é a esperança, o que alimenta a alma é a fé e o que sustenta os passos é o amor. O maior desses continua sendo o amor. Repetir mentiras para que todos também mintam para si e algo confortante, mas hora ou outra a verdade vem à tona. Dormi, acordei, dormi, sonhei que acordei, e acordei dormindo. Fora tão pouco tempo… parecia só mais um sonho.




Pedro Lança Gomes

All we can say

People are always trying to improve their way of communication. Since the Stone age, millions of years before, our ancestors were already trying to communicate to each other using draws, gestures and guttural sounds. Nowadays, thanks to the development of new technologies, there are many ways of communication, like social websites. Ironically, though tools like this last one were created to facilitate social interactions, they are contributing for a less social society. There are two main reasons for that: Reduced needing of face-to-face contact and the opportunity to hide behind a computer screen while saying an opinion.

An individual rarely needs to deal with another person along his day-to-day activities. That is because even the most simple day-to-day tasks can actually be done by using the internet: paying bills, buying food or even taking classes. It facilitates our lives by saving more time to more important tasks, like working and taking care of the family. On the other hand, It makes the social interaction less personal and less frequent. As people are getting used to this way of living, social skills will become more and more weak, until the day when maybe any social contact will not be necessary for living, creating a new kind of "Stone age".

Most people are afraid to declare in public their opinion about something, to ask questions and to tell people the way they feel. It is always a challenge to face an audience when being proponent is needed, however, these opportunities help people to develop sophisticated ways to express themselves. Asking questions puts people in prove because they need to expose themselves and be humble. Though this might be hard, helps people to construct solid knowledge. Maybe tell someone how we are feeling is the most difficult of these three examples, since some feelings just cannot be expressed only by words. People need a closer interaction, as face-to-face, to understand each other; the closest as possible to say "I love you".

Avoiding direct social interaction, the relationship that once was person-to-person is becoming more like person-to-machine-to-person, or even person-to-machine-to-machine, or person-to-no one-to... exactly, an incomplete sentence.

The new technologies are tremendously helpful. They were developed to help people in many fields of their lives, as in locomotion and communicating. However, they did not came to replace humans abilities but to improve them. The best way to use technology without making people less social is remembering that It is a tool, not part of out bodies, and that we control them, not the opposite. It is easier to understand a touch than the social media's "Stone age" guttural sounds.




Pedro Lança Gomes

Não sei quem és

Passou e, de repente, silêncio. Dos lábios, nem as expressões! Calou tão profundo que talvez jamais recupere as palavras. Como em um poema, despedaçou as horas que contava: Parou no centro. Prendi o ar.

Se não te pertencem a mente e o coração, não cabe em uma vida estar só. O mundo é pequeno demais para um e grande o suficiente para dois. Como em uma sentença, condenou-me a amar.

Ora, que bela sentença a vida nos da! Tivesse ela ao menos o bom senso de explicar por qual alma o tempo deve parar. Já parou de desgosto pelos passos perdidos dados, de loucura pelos vários sorrisos cansados, de preguiça por tantos palpites errados. De tanto amar ao contrario, parou de parar.

Mas parou ao te ver. Parou os dias, parou a chuva, parou a Bahia, parou o carnaval, parou a guerra, parou o Oriente, parou a morte, parou a sorte, parou o presente. Parou o sono, virou o sonho, cresceu o sol, criou o tempo. Uma lagrima, duas, três... Quatro sorrisos.

Preso em palavras está tudo o que poderia ser dito de ti, mas não podem ser faladas, escritas ou cantadas: São elas vividas a cada por do sol ao teu lado, quando a vida vem, mansinha, enfeitar o céu com esperança.

E se os olhos se estranham, é talvez porque não se encontram. Mas o intento é demonstrar, já que a vida não explica mesmo...



Pedro Lança Gomes
(E a noite mais mal dormida de agosto!)

O sabor do sol

Quando as manhãs não são o suficiente,
Quando o tempo devaneia sem sentido,
E até os sorrisos se abrem descontentes,
Os céus não remetem ao dom garrido.

Tido outrora do que se lembrar,
Foi-se o desejo de imaginar,
Como seria uma vida inteira
Buscando no céu as estrelas do mar!

Lama, chuva, pés descalços,
Sonhos, futuro, descasos...
Olhos maiores que o mundo!

Calos, sapatos, enfado,
Angústias, caminhos traçados...
A mente mais longe que tudo!



Pedro Lança Gomes

Soneto da piedade

Logo ele, vida,
Que passou da idade de sonhar,
Que não conta mais as estrelas,
Que perdeu para as ondas do mar.

Logo ele, miserável,
Que abafou os cantos da alma,
Que esconde as cores dos olhos,
Que esqueceu o sabor das favas.

Logo um ser anacrônico,
Logo ser um atônito,
Torna-se então revoltado!

Habituou-se às duras mazelas,
Deixando de lado a dor.
Coitado, jamais esperava ele pelo amor...



Pedro Lança Gomes