How Exercise Can Keep the Brain Fit

How Exercise Can Keep the Brain Fit

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Digital Vision/Getty Images

For those of us hoping to keep our brains fit and healthy well into middle age and beyond, the latest science offers some reassurance. Activity appears to be critical, though scientists have yet to prove that exercise can ward off serious problems like Alzheimer’s disease. But what about the more mundane, creeping memory loss that begins about the time our 30s recede, when car keys and people’s names evaporate? It’s not Alzheimer’s, but it’s worrying. Can activity ameliorate its slow advance — and maintain vocabulary retrieval skills, so that the word “ameliorate” leaps to mind when needed?

Obligingly, a number of important new studies have just been published that address those very questions. In perhaps the most encouraging of these, Canadian researchers measured the energy expenditure and cognitive functioning of a large group of elderly adults over the course of two to five years. Most of the volunteers did not exercise, per se, and almost none worked out vigorously. Their activities generally consisted of “walking around the block, cooking, gardening, cleaning and that sort of thing,” said Laura Middleton, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and lead author of the study, which was published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine.

But even so, the effects of this modest activity on the brain were remarkable, Dr. Middleton said. While the wholly sedentary volunteers, and there were many of these, scored significantly worse over the years on tests of cognitive function, the most active group showed little decline. About 90 percent of those with the greatest daily energy expenditure could think and remember just about as well, year after year.

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“Our results indicate that vigorous exercise isn’t necessary” to protect your mind, Dr. Middleton said. “I think that’s exciting. It might inspire people who would be intimidated about the idea of quote-unquote exercising to just get up and move.”

The same message emerged from another study published last week in the same journal. In it, women, most in their 70s, with vascular disease or multiple risk factors for developing that condition completed cognitive tests and surveys of their activities over a period of five years. Again, they were not spry. There were no marathon runners among them. The most active walked. But there was “a decreasing rate of cognitive decline” among the active group, the authors wrote. Their ability to remember and think did still diminish, but not as rapidly as among the sedentary.

“If an inactive 70-year-old is heading toward dementia at 50 miles per hour, by the time she’s 75 or 76, she’s speeding there at 75 miles per hour,” said Jae H. Kang, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study. “But the active 76-year-olds in our study moved toward dementia at more like 50 miles per hour.” Walking and other light activity had bought them, essentially, five years of better brainpower.

“If we can push out the onset of dementia by 5, 10 or more years, that changes the dynamics of aging,” said Dr. Eric Larson, the vice president of research at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle and author of an editorial accompanying the two studies.

“None of us wants to lose our minds,” he said. So the growing body of science linking activity and improved mental functioning “is a wake-up call. We have to find ways to get everybody moving.”

Which makes one additional new study about exercise and the brain, published this month in Neurobiology of Aging, particularly appealing. For those among us, and they are many, who can’t get excited about going for walks or brisk gardening, scientists from the Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of British Columbia and other institutions have shown, for the first time, that light-duty weight training changes how well older women think and how blood flows within their brains. After 12 months of lifting weights twice a week, the women performed significantly better on tests of mental processing ability than a control group of women who completed a balance and toning program, while functional M.R.I. scans showed that portions of the brain that control such thinking were considerably more active in the weight trainers.

“We’re not trying to show that lifting weights is better than aerobic-style activity” for staving off cognitive decline, said Teresa Liu-Ambrose, an assistant professor at the university and study leader. “But it does appear to be a viable option, and if people enjoy it, as our participants did, and stick with it,” then more of us might be able, potentially, to ameliorate mental decline well into late life.

Extraído hoje do NYTimes-Health

O Livro Não Morrreu, Está Apenas a Mudar de Forma

The book is not dead, it's just shape-shifting

Writers, booksellers and publishers are already exploiting the wizardry in the latest IT revolution

Novelist and poet Vita Sackville-West circa 1925. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

Now that the Great Panic of 2000-2010, the world of print's freak-out at the threat of digital, is subsiding, at least in the world of books, we can begin to discern the shape of the future and enumerate the potentially positive aspects of this historic paradigm shift.

Make no mistake: as in every previous IT revolution, there will be (already is) a creative dividend. For instance, the print boom of 1590-1610 liberated Shakespeare and his successors, from Jonson to Donne, and sponsored an explosion of ephemeral publications, the inky compost that would nurture the best of the Jacobeans. Similarly, in Edwardian London, new media shaped the careers of Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, and countless others. Heart of Darkness was first published as a magazine serial.

I've no doubt that, with the benefit of hindsight, literary historians will note that the first decade of the 21st century witnessed some equally profound shape-shifting in several familiar genres.

Take biography, for example. Life-writing has traditionally focused on the exploration of the single, outstanding individual. Such books, written in the shadow of Boswell's Life of Johnson, will always be a staple of most publishers' lists, although not as automatically as heretofore. George Eliot would not object. Biographers, she said, are "a disease of English literature".

Lately, however, a new kind of biography has been slouching into view. There is, in fact, a mini-boom in multiple lives, books that explore the adventitious connections between assorted near-contemporaries. A distinguished example is Michael Holroyd's A Book of Secrets, an enthralling study of the passionate interactions among Virginia Woolf, Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West. In an arresting manoeuvre, Holroyd actually puts himself (the "elusive biographer") into his narrative.

So does the Australian biographer Evelyn Juers, whose exceptional House of Exile takes the lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann (and their wives) and develops a quasi-fictional narrative that links Woolf (again), Bertold Brecht and Walter Benjamin.

Both Holroyd and Juers are doing something radical and innovative that redefines their chosen genre. Further down the food-chain, I note that Tim Jeal has returned to some old territory in his forthcoming study of Livingstone and Stanley, Explorers of the Nile.

In good new fiction, for which a fundamental originality must be the prerequisite, there will always be innovations. Here, too, new print technology has had a role. Perhaps the biggest change in contemporary storytelling has been the rise of the manga novel. The Observer has played its part in this, as sponsor of an annual prize for a graphic short story. Is it fanciful to see the episodic structure of David Nicholl's bestseller One Day as unconsciously reflecting the influence of manga, or possibly television ?

And then there is the new vogue for sci-fi, a genre recently said to be defunct. When you find a writer of Salman Rushdie's stature choosing to explore the potential of the genre you have the distinct possibility of a memorable crossover.

Actually, there's hardly a mainstream genre (fiction, history, children's books, poetry) that's not undergoing significant change, attributable to the liberation of the new technology, from ebook to Kindle: poets developing apps, JK Rowling linking Harry Potter to cyberspace, would-be novelists launching their work as ebooks.

As omnivores, contemporary readers have become adept at switching from high to low culture at the click of a mouse, moving from codex to ebook to audio. This is the shape of the future: a bonanza of print on many platforms. All that remains to be settled – the $64,000 question – is: what should be the economic terms of trade? How do we reconcile the gospel of "free" with an obligation to reward the artist?

It's too soon to evaluate the significance of all this. Sailors on the high seas are the last people to give a reliable forecast, even when they have the most intimate experience of the weather. The book world has been through a perfect storm of economic, technological and cultural change. It will be the creative community that enjoys the benefits. How that happens is probably the most fascinating question facing writers, booksellers and publishers today.

Is that really your title? You Cnut be serious...

Do book titles matter? Opinions vary and there's no doubt that titles absorb a lot of pre-publication anxiety. Still, we are bound to ask: would The Great Gatsby be the 20th-century American classic if, as Fitzgerald suggested, it had been titled "Trimalchio in West Egg" or "The High-Bouncing Lover"? There have certainly been some narrow escapes. Gone With the Wind began as "Baa Baa Black Sheep". One word titles (Shame; Money; Disgrace; Ulysses) often do well. But lesser writers, such as historians, should tread carefully. MK Lawson is about to publish a biography of a famous Angblo‑Danish monarch that might benefit from a rethink. His title? Cnut: England's Viking King. Somehow, I don't see WH Smith putting that one in the front window.

Mao takes top prize – but not without a fight

The Samuel Johnson, usually the most benign of literary prizes, blew the vuvuzela of controversy twice over last Thursday. Chaired by the serene and bonhomous figure of Ben ("Operation Mincemeat") Macintyre, the panel awarded its glittering trophy to a blistering account of the Great Leap Forward – Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter (Bloomsbury) – barely a chopstick's throw from the Chinese embassy on Portland Place. Not content with teasing the paranoia of the People's Republic, Macintyre merrily reported this result as the upshot of "a terrible fight" between his fellow judges. Sadly for the gossips, the panel wore Chinese smiles, and gave nothing away, at least while the cameras of the BBC's Culture Show were rolling.

Extraído hoje de The Guardian

Animais no topo da cadeia alimentar são essenciais para equilíbrio dos ecossistemas

Estudo revela alguns dos efeitos negativos da eliminação da “aristocracia ecológica”

2011-07-20

"Eliminação dos grandes predadores terá efeitos significativos no futuro dos ecossistemas", diz a investigadora Ellen Pikitch

Um estudo realizado à primeira vez à escala mundial sobre o impacto do declínio os grandes predadores e dos animais herbívoros, revela que o declínio destas populações que se encontram no topo da cadeia alimentar provoca mudança negativas em todos os ecossistemas terrestres e marinhos.

Os investigadores envolvidos no estudo agora publicado na «Science» admitem que na observação dos ecossistemas há uma tendência para se olhar “de baixo para cima”. Os cientistas e os gestores de recursos “centram-se apenas numa pequena parte de uma equação que é mais complexa”, afirma o professor de Ecologia e Evolução da Universidade da Califórnia em Santa Cruz, James Estes, co-autor do estudo.

A investigação demonstra que os maiores consumidores na cadeia alimentar são factores de enorme influência na estrutura, função e biodiversidade dos ecossistemas. O topo da pirâmide é formado por felinos, lobos, bisontes, baleias, tubarões, animais grandes e que não se podem estudar facilmente em laboratório, não sendo por isso fácil medir os efeitos da sua eliminação nos ecossistemas.

A degradação, que está documentada em investigações anteriores, revela uma série de efeitos em cascata nos ecossistemas de todo o mundo, agravados principalmente por factores como as práticas de uso da terra, as mudanças climáticas, a perda de habitat e a contaminação causada pelo homem.

Este estudo recolhe alguns dos efeitos negativos da eliminação desta “aristocracia ecológica”. A diminuição da população de leões e leopardos na África subsariana, por exemplo, provocou um aumento da população de babuínos, uma das suas presas de eleição. Este facto fez aumentar a transmissão de parasitas intestinais dos babuínos para os humanos.

A caça industrial de baleias que ocorreu durante o século passado fez com que houvesse uma grande perda de grandes baleias consumidoras de plâncton. Sabe-se agora que estas exerciam um papel fundamental na captura de carbono na profundidade dos oceanos através da decomposição das fezes.

O resultado foi a transferência de 105 milhões de toneladas de carbono para a atmosfera, carbono esse que poderia ter sido absorvido pelas baleias.

“Temos de admitir que a eliminação dos grandes predadores e herbívoros do topo da cadeia alimentar terá efeitos significativos no futuro dos ecossistemas”, confirma Ellen Pikitch, directora do Instituto de Ciências para a Conservação dos Oceanos da Universidade de Stony Brook, organização que promoveu a investigação. Os esforços futuros “para gerir e conservar a natureza têm de incluir estes animais”, conclui.

Artigo: Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth

Extraído hoje de Ciência Hoje

Four Reasons Why You Don't Really Need a Tablet PC

By Al Sacco, CIO    Jun 13, 2011 9:30 pm

Tablet PCs are the in thing right now. In fact, you'd be hard put to walk into any sort of electronics store today and not be bombarded with displays for the latest and greatest tablet. But are tablets all they're cracked up to be? Or has Apple and its uber popular iPad duped consumers into tablet envy, and its competitors into a mad scramble to develop their own "iPad rivals?"

I've spent my fair share of time with many of the most popular tablets on the market today, including the iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Motorola's Xoom, and I've come to a clear conclusion: The hype exceeds the reality.

I'm not saying that tablets aren't well suited for some select industry segments or specific types of user. They are. Nor am I trying to imply that tablets will never evolve into truly valuable business tools. In some cases, I think they will.

For an "average" tablet user that has no specific business-related purpose for employing such a device, the sheen on the popular form factor is rapidly wearing thin. When that happens, all you're left with beneath that shiny exterior is just another boring old piece of hardware. Here's why.

1) Tablets Really Aren't Particularly Portable
 

My number one issue with tablet PCs: They really aren't as portable as we're led to believe. In other words, I need to carry some sort of awkward case or bag to carry my tablet; I can't just put it in my pocket and forget it, like a smartphone. Sure, I could tote my tablet in hand, like a book, but that's even more awkward, and it makes me more likely to forget the thing somewhere after I set it down. Or even worse, accidentally drop and/or break it. The way I see it, if I have to carry a bag, I may as well just take my laptop with me, since it's not all that much bigger than the average tablet, and it has significantly fewer usage constraints.

Smaller, 7-inch tablets are much more portable than the iPad or other popular tablets like the Motorola Xoom or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. For example, I can fit my BlackBerry PlayBook in my back pocket--yes, my jeans have big pockets--and this alone makes it one of my favorite tablets. But I still can't sit down somewhere with a seven-inch tablet like the PlayBook or the smaller Galaxy Tab without pulling the thing out and resting it somewhere for all to see.

I've been using various tablets for quite some time now, and at first I would grab one as I headed out to the bar or to dinner, simply because I wanted to spend more time with it, show it to interested friends or read on a large display. But now that the novelty has worn off, I rarely reach for my tablets when going out, because the value I get from my smartphone's portability simply outweighs any advantages of having a better browser and larger screen size. In fact, I carry at least two smartphones in a pocket at a time, and I never have to remove them if I don't want to.

2) Tablet is Just One More Piece of Hardware to Carry

I've mostly come to think of my tablet PC as just an extra piece of hardware I have to lug along with me; the tablet has not replaced any single gadget for me; I still use my laptop and desktop PCs as often as I did before I started using tablets, and the same thing applies to my various smartphones.

That's not to say that tablets don't do some things better than laptops, desktop computers and smartphones. For example, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is great to use while lounging on the couch and surfing the Web, while listening to some music; it's much more flexible than a laptop in that you can hold it pretty much anyway you want while hopping from website to website. And that larger display makes surfing on a tablet a much more positive experience than surfing on a smartphone's tiny display.

But if I had to pick one device to use while on the go, it would still be my smartphone, because it's so much more portable, and in addition to being able to comfortably place phone calls it does just about everything else that a tablet can do, just with a smaller display.

If I had to select just one gadget to work on while seated somewhere for an extended period of time, I'd pick my laptop because of the larger, easier-to-use keyboard, bigger display and better selection of applications.

That largely leaves my tablet in the lurch...outside of Web surfing on the couch. But, after spending time with a variety of tablets, it's clear to me that I don't really NEED another piece or hardware that makes browsing on my couch more comfortable. The laptop works just fine for me. Again, I know tablets can be particularly well suited for some specific work environments, but not so much for the average user over time.

3) Tablet Browser Limitations
 

Despite many tablet-makers' claims to the contrary, the current array of modern tablet PCs still do not offer true desktop-PC-like Web browsing, and as such, I'd rather use my laptop computer for leisurely Web surfing. If I need to look something up or check out a Website while on the go, it makes more sense to use one of my many smartphones for the task, again, they're much more portable and the majority of them offer a similar mobile Web browsing experience to tablets.

Everyone knows the iPad doesn't do Flash. The lack of Flash support alone makes the iPad a less suitable browsing alternative to my laptop, especially when you consider the fact that comparable tablets, including the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the BlackBerry PlayBook, offer full Flash support.

But even tablets that support Flash still have limitations since many popular sites identify their browsers as mobile browsers or don't fully support the specific mobile operating systems. For example, even though both the BlackBerry Tablet OS's Webkit browser and the Android 3.1 Chrome browser fully support Flash and they should be able to seamlessly play Hulu.com videos, that site has blocked playback on BlackBerry and Android tablets.

So while I can watch Hulu.com videos on my laptop to my heart's content, I cannot watch the movies or clips on any of my tablets. The same thing goes for Netflix.com streaming media. And without Hulu or Netflix, my online media experience is vastly diminished. Sure, there are Netflix apps for the iPad and some Android devices that enable Netflix streaming--though they don't appear to be compatible with any of my Android devices, tablets and smartphones, or at least it's not available via the Android Market. And such an app could be in the works for the PlayBook and/or other tablets. But these are just two examples of how tablet browsers simply do not currently offer the same browser experience as a laptop or desktop PC.

 

4) Tablets (Mostly) Aren't Built to Last

M experience with tablets tells me that they're not particularly durable, and they could break during everyday use. Apple's iPad, the epitome of the modern tablet, is practically a work of art; it's shiny, sleek and stunning, and that's just the hardware. The iPad's software is even better looking.

But the iPad is very fragile.

I can practically feel all of you iPad lovers rolling your eyes right now as you read this, but it's true. Your precious iPad's display will shatter if you drop it on its edge just right, just once. The same can be said about many of the most popular tablets right now; it's not just an iPad thing. Even the BlackBerry PlayBook, certainly one of the more durable tablets on the market right now, has a display that will shatter if dropped a couple of times.

The reason for this: All tablets, practically by definition, are partially composed of a thin slab of glass or delicate glass-like substance. And glass breaks easily. Sure, smartphones and laptops can break, too. But the average laptop is built to take some degree of abuse--and it closes when not in use, to protect that display--as is the average smartphone, except perhaps, for handhelds that were built to look good first and foremost, and for which function is a secondary concern--again, I'm looking at you, Apple.

Every tablet has a different build quality, and a number of well-built cases exist to help protect your tablet, whatever the make and model. But the fact is that modern tablets are extremely susceptible to damage, and that doesn't really make them worthy tools for on the go work or play.

Slideshow: Drop-Proof Your iPad 2
 

Why Tablets Aren't for Everyone: Conclusions
 

Bottom line: Though unquestionably fun to use and valuable in some specific situations and environments, tablets are still just a luxury item for most people; nobody really needs them, because they don't truly offer anything that some form of smartphone/laptop combination doesn't offer.

In the future, I believe tablets will definitely find a home in some industries, such as healthcare, field-service work and for general on-the-go inventory management, etc. But I really don't see your average field-service worker toting an iPad or PlayBook around, as much as they might like to. Tablets are just too unwieldy for folks who aren't already toting a bag or other carrying solution. And they aren't as cheap as smartphones, which can offer much of the same functionality.

Tablet PCs, and the iPad in particular, are getting so much hype on TV, in your favorite magazines and in films, etc., right now, it's easy to forget that though they aren't new, they've certainly become newly popular. Apple seems to have successfully convinced the masses that iPads are near-necessities, but I'm still skeptical.

As the tablet market matures, some of the concerns mentioned in this post will no doubt be addressed to some degree. But I honestly don't see tablets "replacing" laptops or smartphones in the foreseeable future. And that's just fine with me.

Extracted today from PCWORLD.

Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net

Cabo Verde clama por editar Arnaldo França 22 Junho 2011

Retratos

Arnaldo França é “o primeiro nome em que se pensa quando se quer garantias de conhecimento, de cientificidade e de seriedade”, escreveu um dia Corsino Fortes, poeta e presidente da Associação de Escritores de Cabo Verde, referindo-se à prosa ensaística do decano das letras e dos ensaistas cabo-verdianos já a caminhar para os seus 86 anos. Mas França é muito mais do que ensaista. A sua obra poética é também de enorme qualidade, pelo que “importa reunir em livro toda essa produção para que possamos estudar mais e melhor a obra do Dr. Arnaldo França”, considera Joaquim Morais, para quem o Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro está “pronta a assumir a parte que lhe cabe nessa empreitada”. Falta apenas o acordo do autor que, humilde e exigente como é do seu timbre, não reconhece importância dos seus escritos.

Conta Manuel Brito Semedo numa crónica que publicou na edição de Abril/2011 da revista “Pré-Textos” que um dia, em 2007, cruzou-se com a escritora Fátima Bettencourt e esta questionou-o sobre um determinado tema da literatura cabo-verdiana. Não tendo certeza sobre a informação, Brito Semedo respondeu: “Isto só consultando o Dr. França, mas ele não está…”, ao que a Fátima Bettencourt retrucou: “Mas o Dr. França não pode ausentar-se por muito tempo sem nos avisar!”. Um episódio que não deixa de ser sintomático sobre o prestígio de que goza Arnaldo França entre os intelectuais cabo-verdianos, apesar de no seu currículo constar até hoje apenas uma obra publicada, Notas sobre poesia e ficção cabo-verdianas (1962).

É que a produção dita “avulsa” do poeta, ensaista, pesquisador e pensador, que está publicada em diversas revistas, antologias e colectâneas, é significativa e de qualidade, concorda a comunidade literária cabo-verdiana. Tanto em poesia como em prosa ensaística, ela “perpassa toda a história da literatura cabo-verdiana, na perspectiva de alguém que a conhece ‘por dentro’. É só ver a sua colaboração em revistas e jornais nacionais e estrangeiros, para se aquilatar da grandeza da sua obra”, avalia o presidente do Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro.

Tal como outrora fizeram Eugénio Tavares, Pedro Cardoso, Baltasar Lopes, Félix Monteiro e António Carreira, Arnaldo França (nascido na cidade da Praia, em 1925), “tem vindo a estudar e a pensar a cultura cabo-verdiana em todos os seus aspectos, ampliando o nosso conhecimento sobre a cabo-verdianidade. É uma verdadeira enciclopédia viva sobre o saber cabo-verdiano”, diz Joaquim Morais, cuja opinião é corroborada por Simone Caputo num artigo publicado na Pré-Textos.

Para a professora e pesquisadora da Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil, os ensaios de Arnaldo França sobre António Aurélio Gonçalves, Januário Leite, Guilherme Dantas, Jorge Barbosa, Luís Loff de Vasconcelos, Arménio Vieira, Teixeira de Sousa, Germano Almeida, só para citar alguns exemplos, “tornam antológica” a sua participação “para a sedimentação do sistema literário cabo-verdiano”.

Arnaldo França é figura incontornável da literatura, com trabalhos que vão da tradução ao ensaio a estudos vários. Assim, já traduziu para a língua cabo-verdiana poetas portugueses como Fernando Pessoa, Luís de Camões, como já passou para a língua portuguesa versos crioulos, nomeadamente de Corsino Fortes. É também autor de estudos únicos como aquele sobre “A mulher na obra de António Aurélio Gonçalves” (apresentado por ocasião do Simpósio Internacional sobre a Geração da Claridade, em 2006, na Praia) ou a biografia de Baltasar Lopes da Silva publicada na colectânea de escritos filológicos e ensaios do escritor e seu antigo professor no Liceu Gil Eanes.

De alto gabarito é também a poesia de Arnaldo França. Uma produção poética de cunho simultaneamente nacional e universalista, segundo especialistas. No volume organizado por Manuel Ferreira “No reino de Caliban: antologia panorâmica da poesia africana de expressão portuguesa”, as suas criações poéticas “para além das ondas que banham o arquipélago, estendem-se à universalidade da poesia”, escreve Simone Caputo. Já Isabel Lobo explica que Arnaldo França encarna a mentalidade cabo-verdiana “com a precisão de que o nacional é também universal, universalismo com uma dimensão que abrange todos os sentimentos, capta os movimentos do mundo e os transforma em poemas que encantam, comovem e consolam”.

Já Vera Duarte destaca que França, que foi editor da emblemática revista Raízes, “tem sabido recuperar das cinzas do passado obras valiosíssimas e, quiçá, referenciais da escrita cabo-verdiana que, de outro modo, ficarariam condenadas, talvez, ao eterno esquecimento e não poderiam ocupar o lugar e papel que lhes cabe na afirmação da nossa identidade cultural”. Entre essas obras estão O Escravo, de José Evaristo d’Almeida, “romance belíssimo que só terá chegado a muitos através de reedição organizada e prefaciada por Arnaldo França”.

Não restam dúvidas que a obra de Arnaldo França é de grande envergadura e merece ser compilada e editada para benefício tanto das actuais como das futuras gerações. Joaquim Morais conta que já tentou por diversas vezes convencer Arnaldo França a dar o seu aval para esta iniciativa que o IBNL quer que tenha o seu selo, pois “o papel de uma Biblioteca Nacional é recriar o panteão dos homens da Cultura, em particular daqueles que se destacam nas artes e nas letras”. Contudo, em nenhuma das suas tentativas Morais foi bem sucedido.

Esta preferência de Arnaldo França por estar “mais nos bastidores do que na ânsia de um protagonismo”, nas palavras de Simone Caputo, entende-a Vera Duarte como fruto da “extrema exigência de perfeição em relação à sua própria escrita, ou mesmo por humildade”. Só recentemente, durante a homenagem que o IBNL lhe fez no Dia Mundial do Livro e do Professor Cabo-Verdiano, Arnaldo França prometeu pensar no convite de Morais. “Creio que ele ficou muito sensibilizado com a homenagem, a que muitos amigos e admiradores fizeram questão de assistir. Talvez seja desta vez que ele vai dizer sim”, comenta um esperançado presidente do Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro. Sim, por favor, clama Cabo Verde.

Teresa Sofia Fortes

Extraído do Jornal A Semana online