São Paulo – The Egyptian Mohamed El Baradei, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and winner of the Nobel Prize in 2005, will participate in lecture cycle Fronteiras do Pensamento (Boundaries of Thinking), due October in the cities of São Paulo and Porto Alegre. Topics will include the Arab Spring in Egypt and eventual nuclear threats posed by countries such as Iran and North Korea.
Organized by a group of culture sector professionals, the Boundaries of Thinking project is backed by major companies such as Braskem, CPFL and Natura. The initiative began six years ago in Porto Alegre, but only one edition was held in São Paulo to date. It features lectures on current issues and future outlooks, given by renowned scholars.
The event will have a different focus each year. In 2012, the theme will be “malaise” in contemporary civilization, an allusion to a text published by Sigmund Freud in the 1930s. “It is a very loose reference (to Freud’s text), in that in our culture there is a pendulum-like relationship between safety and freedom,” said project curator Fernando Schüler.
“In the past 30 years we have seen a time of much optimism toward civilization. We have seen a period of strong economic growth, the consolidation of the European Union. On the other hand, the nuclear threat became more grave, and Islamic fundamentalism made a comeback. There were a series of problems, especially in the developed world, which have led to this malaise,” said Schüler.
Baradei started his career in Egyptian diplomatic service in 1964. In 1980 he became a member of the United Nations (UN). In December 1997 he was appointed director of the IAEA, a position he retained until 2009. In 2005, El Baradei and the IAEA won the Nobel Prize for preventive efforts against the use of nuclear power for military purposes, and to ensure it was used to peaceful ends, as safely as possible.
“He had a long-standing and highly successful stint at the UN’s atomic energy agency,” says Schüler. “The invitation for him to participate had two goals: to discuss the global impasse in the face of the mounting atomic threat, and to discuss Egypt, as he was one of the leaders of the Arab Spring in that country,” he said.
“The atomic threat was in the limelight once with the [Cuban] missile crisis in the 1960s. Now it is back because of Iran and North Korea, which are fundamentalist countries, be it for political or religious reasons. It is a very important topic,” said the curator of Boundaries of Thinking.
“Egypt was a strong topic of ours last year, as we focused on the conversion of Arab North African countries into democracies. You also have the impact of technology, the impact of social networks in the Arab Spring,” said Schüler. “We are watching history being made, and {Baradei’s] is the analysis of a moment by a character who is deeply involved in the process, it is the account of an agent of history,” he said.
Baradei intended to run for presidency in Egypt, but withdrew his candidacy in January to protest against the continuation of a military regime in the country, in spite of the ousting of dictator Hosni Mubarak. The election is scheduled for June.
Aside from Baradei, this edition of Boundaries of Thinking will also feature the Indian economist Amartya Sen, the British filmmaker and artist Peter Greenaway, British architect Cameron Sinclair, US researcher and writer Michael Shermer, Bulgarian philosopher and linguist Tzvetan Todorov, British scientist Susan Greenfield, and the French philosopher and writer Michel Onfray.
In São Paulo, the conference cycle starts in April 23rd with Amartya Sen. Baradei’s lecture will close the event on October 30th. In Porto Alegre, the lectures will begin on April 25th. The Egyptian will be featured on October 31st. Those interested in attending are required to purchase a passport that grants access to all events. It is not possible to buy tickets for separate conferences.
The full program and prices are available at www.fronteiras.com. For further information, call (+55 51) 3019-2326 or (+55 11) 4007-1200.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
