K FAKTOR

Nearly 35 years after winning independence from Portugal, Angola is being populated by its former colonizer once again -- this time by professionals and scores of workers laid off amid the economic slump.

Portugal has been hard hit by the global downturn. Unemployment in the second quarter was 9.2% and the economy is expected to shrink by 3.7% this year. Temporary and seasonal construction work in other European Union countries -- a mainstay for Portuguese laborers -- have been drying up. As workers from across Europe return to Portugal, a country of 10.6 million, they struggle to find jobs.

Portugal's former colony, meanwhile, has emerged in recent years as one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Angola's gross domestic product has grown well over 10% annually since 2004, and topped 20% in 2007, bolstered by oil production and mining. Even with the drop in oil prices in 2008, GDP grew 14.8% for the year.

Filomeno Vieira Lopes, an economist and member of the Angolan opposition party Front for Democracy, said three factors have contributed to economic growth. "First, there was the rise in petrol prices and the rise in production; second, the interest from China; and now, all the rebuilding after the war," he said.

While Angola is luring unemployed and underemployed Portuguese, it has many internal problems, including an unemployment rate of its own that has reached 40%, increasing inflation and widespread poverty. This reality has created a "certain a level of animosity," toward foreigners, who are seen as taking jobs from Angolans, said Mr. Vieira Lopes.

But for Justino Pinto de Andrade, a professor of economics at the Catholic University of Luanda, having foreigners -- particularly those who have come to work on rebuilding projects -- pour into his country is something positive, and temporary. Local companies were paralyzed for years during the wars, he said, putting the country's workers at a disadvantage in terms of training.

"Angola has to be constructed," said the professor. "Borders are disintegrating. They don't make sense in this globalized world. We need qualified people -- not just people with advanced school degrees, but people who are qualified in all senses of the word."

BUT CHANGE DID COME!

How this happened

Watch/read here his victory speech, where he says, as if singing with Otis:

(*) First posted 05/11/08

- Mais de um bilhão de pessoas no mundo vive com menos de um dólar por dia;
- Cada dia, morrem, por causa da fome, 24 mil pessoas. 10% das crianças, em países em desenvolvimento, morrem antes de completar cinco anos...
- um terço da população é mal alimentado e outro terço está faminto.
- Que a cada dia 275 mil pessoas começam a passar fome ao redor do mundo. O Brasil é o 9º pais com o maior número de pessoas com fome...
- Atualmente, cerca de 1,2 bilhão de pessoas se encontra no estado de alta pobreza devido às condições climáticas de suas regiões.

Você Sabia?
- Mais de um bilhão de crianças, a metade dos menores do mundo, é castigado pela pobreza, as guerras e a Aids;
- Todos os dias, o HIV/AIDS mata 6.000 pessoas e infecta outras 8.200 .
- Todos os anos, seis milhões de crianças morrem de má nutrição antes de completar cinco anos.
- Cerca de 90 mil crianças e adolescentes são órfãos no Brasil, à espera de uma adoção.
- a escassez de água já atinge 2 bilhões de pessoas. Esse número pode dobrar em 20 anos...

Você Sabia?
- Cerca de 100 milhões de pessoas estão sem teto;
- No Brasil, são 33,9 milhões de pessoas sem casa. Só nas áreas urbanas, são 24 milhões que não possuem habitação adequada ou não têm onde morar.
- Que vinte e cinco milhões de pessoas são dependentes de drogas no mundo;
- Que os indígenas continuam a ser vítimas de assassinatos, violência, discriminação, expulsões forçadas e outras violações de direitos humanos.

Você Sabia?
- Mais de 2,6 bilhões de pessoas não têm saneamento básico e mais de um bilhão continua a usar fontes de água imprópria para o consumo.
- Cinco milhões de pessoas, na sua maioria crianças, morrem todos os anos de doenças relacionadas à qualidade da água.
- No mundo inteiro, 114 milhões de crianças não recebem instrução sequer ao nível básico e 584 milhões de mulheres são analfabetas.

Você Sabia?
- Que é gasto 40 vezes mais dinheiro com cosméticos do que com doações...
- é gasto 10 vezes mais dinheiro com armas do que com educação básica;
- O Brasil é campeão mundial de desmatamento. Em segundo lugar está a Indonésia: 18,7 km2 por ano e, em terceiro, segue o Sudão, com 5,9 km2.
- O país perdeu um campo de futebol a cada dez minutos na Amazônia, nos últimos 20 anos.

..Agora você já sabe.

E vai ficar aí parado? Tome uma atitude.

Milhões de Pessoas em Pobreza Extrema Precisam da sua Ajuda!
Seja Voluntário você Também!

Planeta Voluntários
www.planetavoluntarios.com.br
Porque ajudar faz bem!

FERNANDO MOURAO ao JA

(…)
Aqui em Angola ou se dá o salto para altíssima tecnologia, principalmente para as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação ou seremos sempre importadores das ideias dos outros. Ficar só como receptor não dá. O Brasil rompeu com essa ideia depois da II Guerra Mundial, a Índia hoje tem tecnologia altamente sofisticada, o Paquistão também, a China está a lutar por isso. Que se produza matérias-primas alimentares é bom e é preciso, mas, do ponto de vista tecnológico, isso não serve para subir degraus. Ou partimos para tecnologias de ponta ou estamos sempre a importar técnicos especializados para fazer aquilo que não sabemos.
(…)
Acho que temos de apostar no ensino e na tecnologia. Mas num ensino que não seja uma reposição deste ensino tradicional do tempo colonial. Temos de ir para um ensino altamente qualificado e formar quadros.Sou professor de Direito e vejo muitos alunos com códigos na mão e eu digo-lhes: podem deitar fora o código. Eles ficam admirados. Entendo que o necessário é eles terem a racionalidade para entenderem o que está no código e, principalmente hoje, nas convenções internacionais.
(…)
Formação de quadros e reforma do ensino. O actual quadro do ensino em Angola é um quadro europeu do século passado, mas de europeu continental. Angola tem vizinhos que falam francês e inglês. Eu apostaria muito mais numa aproximação aos anglo-saxónicos. É preciso criar universidades bilingues pelas regiões do país e, de uma vez por todas, pôr os angolanos a falarem inglês, que é, cada vez mais, a língua universal. Enquanto os angolanos falarem só português e a língua materna ou, os que estão no Norte, um pouco de francês, estão sempre fora do comércio mundial. Hoje, quem está no comércio mundial é a Sonangol, mas não se pode ver o futuro de Angola só a partir do petróleo. O petróleo possibilitou a renovação das Forças Armadas, a reabilitação dos aeroportos, das estradas, mas se não se desenvolver uma classe média produtiva de pequenos e médios industriais eficientes e produtores, o país não vai para diante.
(…)
Temos de ultrapassar esta fase e passarmos a ser produtores. Para isso, o país precisa de quadros. Enquanto tiver um ensino tradicional, em que o jovem sai da universidade e não sabe nada, como é que vai conseguir criar?
(…)
O ensino técnico tem de arrancar juntamente com o ensino universitário. Mas que ensino universitário? De alunos que ficam por aí a papaguear códigos? Ou que vão ser preparados através de métodos de ensino racionais para que possam pensar?
(…)
Ou se aposta com coragem na formação de quadros ou não teremos desenvolvimento. Vejo Angola como uma nação em crescimento, que saiu do inchaço para um certo crescimento. Só lhe falta dar um empurrãozinho, que é a aposta no ensino. A saída para este país está na formação de quadros. Agora, há a mania de falar em desenvolvimento, mas muitos não sabem o que é isso. Só hoje já ouvi falar mais de 50 vezes sobre desenvolvimento sustentado, mas metade das pessoas não sabe o que é.
(…)
Se o país tiver boa formação de economistas, não apenas de econometristas. Acho que a matemática, as línguas e a filosofia deviam ser disciplinas obrigatórias para as pessoas abrirem o pensamento, saberem pensar.
(…)
Já chega de culpar os outros. Cada um de nós é que tem de sair do buraco. É preciso consciência e optar por um ensino racional, modelo anglo-saxónico. De contrário estaremos a formar papagaios.

[Aqui]


N.B.: Voltarei, tao logo quanto possivel, a esta entrevista, com alguns comentarios, nomeadamente as observacoes do Professor Mourão sobre os planos integrativos da SADC

Doris Lessing was on the headlines earlier this year for saying, at the Hay book festival, such interesting things as (and they sound as if I am hearing myself...):

- "I have not noticed that women, when they get to be prime ministers are particularly peaceful. (…) On the contrary, some of the worst crimes have been committed by women. (…) We like to think we are motherly and kind and that we are not going to go to war, but it's not true, is it?"

- “What use are men? (…) An haphazard species who always have to be looked after and die much too easy."

- "There's something abrasive in me because I have often made people very cross. (…) But as a writer it is important not to care what other people think and the profession must honour that. (…) We are free... I can say what I think. We are lucky, privileged, so why not make use of it?"

Yesterday and today Lessing came back to the headlines as the 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I was particularly drawn to her writing by her novel ‘The Grass is Singing’ about the relationship between the wife of a white farmer with a black servant in colonial Zimbabwe, where she lived her earlier life. The Nobel Academy described Lessing as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".


Former US Vice-President, Al Gore, was on the headlines earlier this week as the subject of an “inconvenient judgment” by a British High Court judge who branded his Oscar and Emmy award-winning film on climate change, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, something like “not fit for purpose” as didactic material to be used in this country's schools.

The judge stated that the film contains "nine scientific errors, some of which arisen in the context of alarmism and exaggeration” and determined that it must be accompanied by new guidance notes and appropriate scientific caveats to balance what he termed Gore’s “one-sided views”, before it can be shown in UK Schools.

Today Gore came back again to the headlines for sharing this year's Nobel Peace Prize with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to the Nobel judges, “his strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change.”

Gore follows Wangari Maathai (winner in 2004) as the second environmental campaigner to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which is usually reserved for those who bravely oppose war and conflict.

(I can't wait to hear about the Nobel for Economics on Monday...)

*First published 12/10/07

I have been so immersed in my ongoing research on China-Africa economic relations since January, including a brief stint as Research Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, during the first half of this year, that I totally missed all the furore made around Dambisa Moyo’s book "Dead Aid" on the (in)effectiveness of aid to eradicate poverty in Africa.

This has been a recurring theme in this blog since I started it. However, my critique of the aid industry always fell short of calling for a total halt to it and… of writing a book on the subject! As put in her dubbed "Anti-Bono (another recurring subjet in this blog) interview" for the New York Times Magazine, “you are perhaps the first African to request in book form that all development aid be halted within five years.”

The Economist follows the same thread: “(…) Yet the intellectual arguments about aid are still conducted largely within a small circle of Western white men. So it is good to welcome a new voice to the debate, and a black African woman too, Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist at Goldman Sachs. It is remarkable that so few voices have been raised in Africa, supposedly the main beneficiary of the world’s largesse, about how the aid money should be spent, or even whether it should be received at all.”

It then goes on to argue that “unfortunately, Ms Moyo’s contribution ends there, for “Dead Aid” does not move the debate along much. Yes, she has joined the chorus of disapproval—and that in itself might surprise a few diehards who think that Africans should just be grateful for the aid and shut up. But her arguments are scarcely original and her plodding prose makes her the least stylish of the critics. Moreover, she overstates her case, almost to the point of caricature. There is almost nobody left, even in the aid lobby, who seriously thinks that bilateral (government-to-government) aid is the sole answer to world poverty, as she suggests. “Trade not aid” is only one of several newish mantras among aidniks that seem to have passed her by.”

A review of reviews by The Complete Review on "Dead Aid" concludes: “No consensus -- and the global financial-world meltdown makes for bad timing for the argument.”

I couldn’t find the time to read the book yet, so it was with great pleasure and gratefulness that, while gradually catching up with ‘all the fuss about it’ (which inluded Moyo's nomination by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world), I came across what is certainly one of the most meaningful reviews made of it. Meaningful on various counts: it was one of the first among the many published so far; it was written by a Zambian; it was made by an economist; it was by my good friend Cho. And, above all, it was a thorough, insightful, thought-provoking and analytically-sound review too. Moreover, it was enriched by the interesting debate it generated among his readers. I am sorry that I missed it at the time, but having read it in the last few days I can only strongly recommend it to my readers as well. Here’s the gist of it:

"The central argument of Dead Aid is that aid is the fundamental cause of poverty and therefore eliminating aid is critical to spur growth in ailing African states. Aid is the disease that we must treat to bring us back to full economic health. A bold and daring statement built around the central belief that aid distorts incentives among policymakers and society at large. It makes governments less accountable to their citizens and has led to civil wars, rampant corruption (electoral and otherwise) and has been central to an undercurrent of irresponsibility culminating in increased and self-reinforcing poverty since independence from colonialism. None of these arguments are new of course, but Dambisa is probably the first economist to boldly claim that aid causes poverty.

If aid is the disease that causes endless bleeding, to stop the bleeding you simply need to stop aid, the only challenge therefore is how to do it. The Dead Aid solution is a five year exit strategy built around the idea of incentivising poor countries to access finance on international markets, supported by the tripod of microfinance, trade/FDI and remittances. In the Dead Aid world there’s a stash of money out there on the international financial markets that is just waiting to be tapped by any African country willing to invest in a credit rating. If African countries can enter these markets and borrow, it would provide the right incentives to spark good governance since the international markets would be more willing to “punish” bad behaviour compared to those that provide aid at infinitum. In other words, borrowing through international financial markets is a sort of "self commitment mechanism" to good governance, and with that comes better long term prosperity. It is certainly likely to be slightly more expensive than “easy money” that concessional loans and grants bring, but by rejecting these overtures nation states will find themselves on a better path to prosperity. The trouble is that African governments have limited incentives to do this on their own, though some have made progress in this direction, so they need to be compelled through the Dead Aid proposal of terminating aid completely within a five year period.

(…)

I am afraid to say, and with deep sorrow, that the Dead Aid proposal falls far short in many areas, with at least four worth highlighting.

First, there’s a general lack of clear analytical rigour evidenced by elementary confusion in key areas : correlation/causality issues; definitional problems; poor evidence on policy counterfactuals; incomplete and unbalanced citation of evidence; and, perhaps more worryingly lack of general familiarity with refined areas of existing literature.

Secondly, the treatment of aid in a homogeneous and aggregate way is particularly problematic. Dead Aid defines aid as the “sum total of concessional loans and grants”, but excludes “emergency aid” e.g. help for Darfur or the Asian Tsunami. There’s no distinction within Dead Aid between budget support, infrastructure aid, person to person aid, heath related aid, grants or concessional loans for discretionary spending. It is all discussed under one umbrella and handed the same fate.

Thirdly, Dead Aid is characterised by a plethora of inconsistent arguments. A key example that stands out is the emotive issue of Chinese investment. Dambisa dedicates a whole chapter explaining why the “Chinese are our friends”, largely arguing from their historical involvement in Africa and their renewed commitment to trade and FDI. However, against a backdrop of Dead Aid’s “anti-dependency” rhetoric , the chant for China appears odd. Let us be clear, China is not only bringing FDI to Africa but it has also brought concessional loans and long term dependency. Zambia’s external debt has now risen to about $2bn since the HIPC completion point, a significant part of that is through new agreements with the Chinese government and Chinese businesses. A closer look at Angola reveals the same truth. Not only is China investing heavily in that country but in exchange it is tying Angola and other countries to China for a long time reducing their options to renege in the future. That is not necessarily bad, but if the central worry is that dependency leads to ineffective governments with poor incentives we should be honest enough to consider the possibility that China’s closeness to many African governments (which are not all democratic) may have similar negative impacts as aid.

Fourth and finally, the solutions proposed by Dead Aid are ineffective. This is not surprising because without a clear definition of the problem, it is inevitable that the solutions would not work. But even if one was to accept Dead Aid’s basic premise that aid is bad, its solutions come far short. It’s quite obvious to any ordinary analyst that in order to assess whether any proposals would present an overall improvement beyond the status quo, we need to define what happens in the counterfactual carefully and then judge that against proposed policy initiatives.

(…)

In short on both theory and practice, Dead Aid falls far short of what is expected of a book advocating such a radical proposal of “turning off the aid tap”. If there’s any consolation in this assessment, it is that Dead Aid will hopefully not find any intellectual traction. The analytical consensus remains that aid is important and the challenge is how to make it smarter, better and ultimately beneficial to the poor. This question has never been more urgent given the limited aid resources around. Dambisa is certainly right about one thing, now is the time to examine these issues and we can certainly do better than the present!"

@ Kongo Blues

Tenho vindo a seguir com atencao a preocupante situacao que se vive nos ultimos dias entre Angola e a RDC.

Sendo embora animadoras as ultimas noticias dando conta do inicio de conversacoes entre as duas partes e de uma ordem de Kabila no sentido da suspensao da expulsao de Angolanos residentes no seu pais, conviria que de ambos os lados nao se perdessem de vista os efeitos catastroficos (sendo a eclosao de um conflito regional uma possibilidade a nao colocar de todo de parte...) que um agravamento da situacao actual, ou a adopcao de apenas medidas precarias e temporarias, pode ter para a regiao.

Sendo ambos os paises membros da SADC, conviria, em particular, que tivessem em mente nos seus esforcos negociais o Tratado da organizacao e especialmente o articulado dos seus Protocolos sobre a "Facilitacao do Movimento de Pessoas" e sobre "Cooperacao Politica, Defesa e Seguranca" de que sao signatarios.

Continuemos a torcer para que tudo acabe rapidamente e em bem...

Voltando a vaca fria… Ou seja, a esta ‘refeicao’ que ja’ se vai tornando um tanto espaçada (mas, convenhamos que ha’ pratos, e.g. sopa tipo gazpacho, que se comem melhor frios)…

Passemos entao ao primeiro prato principal.

Aqui ha’ uns oito anos, em Luanda, numa casa a beira-mar, alguem, por ironia tambem ‘usador de oculos’, saiu-se com esta (e nao, nao foi durante nem depois de uma funjada...): “eles consideram-se intelectuais so’ porque usam oculos!” Quem o disse, a quem, porque e a quem se referia, ou em casa de quem o fez, sao condimentos que tornariam esta ‘refeicao’ imensamente mais saborosa, mas que prefiro deixar discretamente na cozinha… Direi apenas que quem o afirmou poderia perfeitamente estar a referir-se a umas quaisquer “elas”…

E isto leva-me ao acima anunciado prato principal: a(s) definicao(coes) de “intelectual”.

Tratando-se este de um veiculo de comunicacao interactiva online, nada mais apropriado do que usar como fonte preferencial de referencia aquela que ja se tornou uma especie de 'biblia' do internauta: a Wikipedia. Nao apenas pela sua ja’ razoavelmente estabelecida autoridade como uma fonte o mais expurgada possivel (mesmo devido a forma como e’ construida) de biases politico-ideologicos ou tendenciosismos e/ou facciosismos pessoais, particulares, ou de grupo (especialmente quando se trata de temas de particular acuidade do ponto de vista academico-cientifico), mas tambem, e sobretudo, porque todos os leitores a podem consultar de forma livre, directa e imediata – colocando-nos a todos, democraticamente, ao mesmo nivel de informacao.

Decidi, neste caso, trazer para aqui as definicoes constantes, respectivamente, das versoes em Portugues e em Ingles da Wikipedia, por duas ordens de razoes: i) salientar, a partida, as nuances existentes nas definicoes do termo, senao estritamente em termos epistemologicos (e convira' nao confundir aqui epistemologia com etimologia, pois que a tal confusao podemos ser facil e inadvertidamente levados por alguns, “doutorada/os em letras” incluida/os…), seguramente em termos da enfase dada a um determinado angulo do objecto definido; ii) chamar a atencao para as diferencas – tanto em termos de conteudo analitico e perspectivas historico-geograficas e de genero, como de diversidade e abrangencia dos pontos de vista apresentados, extensao da bibliografia utilizada e cruzamento de referencias e fontes – existentes entre as duas versoes. Em todo o caso, limitar-me-ei aqui e agora a apresentacao e um pouco da evolucao historica do conceito, deixando o seu aprofundamento e problematizacao, bem como outros conceitos relativos, para os pratos que se seguem.

Aqui ficam:

A. Em Portugues

Um intelectual é uma pessoa que usa o seu "intelecto" para estudar, reflectir ou especular acerca de idéias, de modo que este uso do seu intelecto possua uma relevância social e coletiva. A definição do intelectual é realizada, principalmente, por outros intelectuais e acadêmicos. Estes definem o termo segundo seus próprios posicionamentos intelectuais, fato este que complexifica a definição. Autores como Bobbio, Lévy e Demo, citados na Bibliografia, concordam com um aspecto em comum: o intelectual é definido pelo meio social no qual vive e/ou no qual estabelece sua trajetória social.

(...)

Um dos principais espaços de atuação do intelectual é a Universidade. A ciência seria parte da ideologia do intelectual, assim como a dedicação à prática científica e o desejo do exercício de um cargo no ensino superior enquanto modo de distinção social. No caso brasileiro, bem como em alguns outros países, o intelectual procura as instituições superiores de ensino para apoio e para organização; partindo da sociedade, a esta retorna com propostas embasadas no conhecimento técnico-científico adquirido através dos estudos. Esta prática é claramente perceptível, por exemplo:

• na ação de pensadores da educação no Brasil, como Anísio Teixeira, Francisco Capanema, Manuel Lourenço Filho;
• na inserção de pesquisadores na vida política, como Fernando Henrique Cardoso e Darcy Ribeiro;
• na elaboração do programa de energia nuclear, onde os aspectos técnico-científicos envolvidos no processo de beneficiamento e utilização do urânio não se restringiam a espectos energéticos, mas também políticos, morais, econômicos, antropológicos, etc.

(…)

Devido à ação reflexiva, o intelectual é portador de uma autoridade científica quando se expressa. Como apresentado acima em relação à Universidade, o intelectual estabelece relações com a sociedade através de seu status de intelectual.

B. Em Ingles

An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason") is a person who uses his or her intelligence and analytical thinking, either in a professional capacity, or for personal reasons.

"Intellectual" can be used to mean, broadly, one of three classifications of human beings:

1. An individual who is deeply involved in abstract erudite ideas and theories.
2. An individual whose profession solely involves the dissemination and/or production of ideas, as opposed to producing products (e.g. a steel worker) or services (e.g. an electrician). For example, lawyers, management consultants, educators, politicians, and scientists.
3. An individual of notable expertise in culture and the arts, expertise which allows them some cultural authority, which they then use to speak in public on other matters.

The English term "intellectual" conveys the general notion of a literate thinker. In its earlier uses, such as John Middleton Murry's The Evolution of an Intellectual (1920), there was little in the way of connotation of public rather than literary activity.

(…)

The term "man of letters" implied a distinction between those who could read and write, and those who could not. The distinction had great weight when literacy was not widespread. "Men of letters" were also termed literati (from the Latin), as a group; this phrase may also refer to 'citizens' of the Republic of Letters. Literati survives as a term of abuse and is used in journalism.
(…)

By the late eighteenth century, literacy was becoming more widespread in countries such as the United Kingdom. The concept of a "man of letters" shifted to a more specialised meaning, as a man who made his living by writing about literature - usually not creative writers as such, but rather essayists, journalists and critics. This kind of activity was gradually replaced in the twentieth century by a more academic approach, and the term "man of letters" fell into disuse, to be replaced by the more generic and gender-neutral term "intellectual."

(…)

One can notice a sharpening of terms, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Just as the coinage scientist would come to mean a professional, the man of letters would more often be assumed to be a professional writer, perhaps having the breadth of a journalist or essayist, but not necessarily with the engagement of the intellectual.

(…)

The public intellectual is assumed to be a communicator and participant in public debates, accessible in mass media. Such a person communicates information and perspectives on a variety of societal issues, not just a specialist area. The role visibly overlaps with that of a journalist, therefore, so that the question is, what makes a "public" intellectual distinctive? This matter is linked to media as well as to the intellectual life.

Public intellectuals are primarily concerned with ideas and knowledge. Their social role means that they respond and react to society's issues and problems. They can provide a voice for others who may not have the skills, time or opportunity. They should be prepared to listen to a multitude of differing opinions and beliefs, and to construct their own conclusions taking these into account.

Intellectuals also involve themselves with issues not specifically related to their area of expertise. Intellectuals may ‘rise above the partial preoccupation of one’s own profession [...] and engage with the global issues of truth, judgement and taste of the time’. The contemporary scene offers many different forms of media such as an Internet blog, a lecture or forum, television and radio, and print.

The role, effectiveness and behaviour of public intellectuals have been debated since the phenomenon acquired a name. The debate is framed differently in different countries, and the very possibility of their place has been questioned. Although some intellectuals may and attempt to gain acceptance and recognition in contemporary society, according to Edward Said this has been virtually impossible: the

...real or “true” intellectual is therefore always an outsider, living in self-imposed exile and on the margins of society.’