Tempestade Cerebral

Via Dissecting Leftism, um artigo da BBC no outro lado do mundo (meus destaques):

"As we [the reporter and a young farming couple: Bevan and Caroline] sat round the kitchen table drinking coffee, the conversation turned to the high value New Zealand dollar, which in 2004 has made trading conditions difficult for the country's food exporters.

It was impressive how well informed these young dairy farmers were about the global economy and financial markets, and how developments in the wider world can influence their ability to make a living in remote Karamea.
(...)
Twenty years ago a quiet revolution swept through this country when [farm subsidies] were abolished.

Subsidies were once as significant a proportion of farm income in New Zealand as they are today in the European Union and the United States.

But since 1984, New Zealand's farmers have had to get along without any direct financial support from the government.

«How do you manage?» was my question to Bevan and Caroline.

«How is it you are able to farm without subsidies, when so many subsidised farmers in a country like Britain are struggling?»

That was when I became acutely conscious of the hum of the washing machine.

But seeing their nervous glances to one another as they struggled for an answer, it dawned on me that these young New Zealand farmers were not being evasive; they just could not conceptualise what having subsidies might mean.

They could talk fluently about the impact of international currency movements on their markets. But subsidies?

They did not know and they did not want to know."

E a velha Europa continua subsídio-dependente...