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Soy vegano desde hace año y medio, y creo que estoy bastante bien informado. Por eso creo que el libro no me ha aportado demasiado, aunque está muy bien documentado con un montón de referencias. Sin duda será muy útil para aquellas personas que estén considerando hacerse vegetarianas o veganas. Y también como libro de consulta cuando necesitamos reforzar algún nutriente o alguna vitamina. Lucía Martínez es una muy buena nutricionista, y creo que como persona es excepcional. Me gustó como acaba el libro: «La opción vegetariana se basa, en general, en una decisión vital meditada y consciente. No en un acatamiento a normas religiosas incuestionables y no en una hipótesis científica egoísta. Y digo egoísta porque los nuevos planteamientos dietéticos únicamente basados en ciencia, con más o menos solvencia, solo tienen en cuenta el beneficio del propio individuo. Si se cree que tal o cual producto es el óptimo carece de importancia el coste medioambiental que se pague para producirlo o para transportarlo desde la otra punta del planeta, y carece también de importancia el hecho de que sea un estilo dietético solo al alcance del privilegiadísimo primer mundo, que no olvidemos que los privilegios de unos pocos se apoyan siempre sobre las espaldas de unos muchos y sobre la destrucción de sus derechos».

Comeza o libro moi ben, cunha especie de descrición do nacemento da autoconsciencia, do despertar da persoa como tal, da diferenciación do seu pensamento e consciencia como individuo e a superación do instinto animal.

Continúa con historias paralelas das que coñecemos, ou dase por sobrentendido, o contexto no que se desenvolven os acontencementos.

Conflúen, ou son tanxentes, as historias e personaxes cara un final que por sabido non deixa de ser terrible, non importa cantas veces o vexas descrito, con formas e detalles diferentes.

La conciencia sumergida en el sueño experimenta una pérdida de sufrimiento igual… al peso… de la muerte… desalojado por la misma…

Ao longo da novela o autor presenta na boca dalgún personaxe reflexión que lida 80 anos despois non deixa de afondar no concepto «está tó inventao», falando da condición humana e en relación á nósa condición social e aos «instintos» dos que fala nese despertar inicial.

Pode que, por libros e historias como esta, os libros de zombis, as películas de superheroes, e toda esa trangallada hiperviolenta non só me parezan pacotilla comparada coa realidade da nósa historia, se non que rozan a falta de respeto polo que teñen de normalización violenta, como escoitar a determinados responsables políticos, normalizando conceptos que non fai moito eran tabú.

en ese momento, [...] se dio cuenta con una claridad deslumbrante de lo lejos que se habían adentrado ya en las profundidades del horror, incluso ellos, incluso los que luchaban contra el fascismo; unos años antes nadie habría podido escuchar esas cosas sentado tranquilamente y fumándose un cigarrillo. Le pareció que aquello comportaba un repugnante y perverso triunfo del fascismo, que, si bien acabaría derrotado, dejaría tras de sí la memoria de lo que un ser humano podía hacerle a otro ser humano, y nadie, nunca, tendría derecho a callar al respecto.

Párrafo dedicado, con tristeza, al común de lo que se consideran redes sociales (en internet).

O libro en si non me entusiasmou. Creo que me costou moito distinguir e caracterizar a todos os personaxes. Formalmente creo que ten moito mérito, pois todo cadra no seu sitio e o recurso de usar a avaricia (inmobiliaria) para situar moito da trama nun bloque de pisos é inxenioso.

Mentras lía non podía deixar de preguntarme se realmente se trataba dun libro de memorias ou dunha novela de ficción contemporánea. Entendín o primeiro cando lin a sinopse, pero enseguida parece todo demasiado elaborado como para ser real, unha confluencia improbable de circunstancias.

Abonda para que o libro sexa marabilla o xeito en que está escrito, unha narración clara de acontecementos confunsos e cheos de aristas, onde os protagonistas non sempre teñen clara a distinción entre a realidade e a imaxinación, esa fronteira entre os creemos que son feitos e o que queremos que sexan os feitos.

Atrapoume desde un inicio, cun prologo fermososo que describe con respeto e amor o que é o seu fogar, unha montaña. Tara críase tanto nun fogar disfuncional (creo que aquí cadra ben o adxectivo) como sentindo e apreciando a natureza que a rodea.

O relato da súa vida está contado desde a idade adulta tal como lembra o acontencido apoiándose nos diarios que foi completando desde moi nena. A súa memoria do pasado entra en conflito a miúdo coa dos outros protagonistas, adoptando formas e significados (interesados?) moi diferentes para todos eles, dependendo do marco moral no que se apoian.

O libro é difícil de ler en moitas dos seus capítulos, con comportamentos de abuso e maltrato, tanto físico como psicolóxico, unha historia de dominación, sumisión e negación da persoa. A partir de certo grao de emancipación da protagonista, cando esta é xa posible, non deixaba de pensar «fuxe, agora que podes, e non mires atrás». Pero disto trata o relato, de poñer nunha báscula a lealdade debida á familia e a autoafirmación como persoa digna de respecto. O conflito de Tara é a confluencia nela desas forzas que no seu caso semellan incompatibles. É doado, visto desde fóra, dicirlle «fuxe». É doado darlle consellos ás outras persoas, máis que tomar acción sobre o que sabemos que nos convén pero non nos atrevemos a facer, polo que sexa.

Con toda a crudeza do contado nunca cae no efectismo da vulgaridade ou do morbo. Hai certas lagoas no relato, aspectos da súa vida sobre os que pasa de perfil simplemente insinuándoos, pero creo que hai que respectar esas omisións. Pode que, chegando ao final do relato este se volva un pouco redundante, non aporta o xeito en que afonda na descrición das posturas que toman os protagonistas, pero entón lembras que eses anos «redundantes» son anos vividos por persoas, anos con posturas enquistadas e de sufrimento que merecen ser descritos, non son capítulos de recheo para facer un libro máis gordo.

Se digo que é «difícil de ler» refírome á historia, non ao xeito en que está escrito que, como digo, é fluído, con palabras acaídas ao contexto e que transmiten emoción (dor, angustia, amor, soidade, desamparo,…).

Fun á biblioteca ebiblio.es a por este libro, se tes oportunidade non deixes de lelo.

( em português → sol2070.in/2025/06/livro-careless-people/ )

In Careless People (2025, 400 pages), Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts the years between 2011 and 2018 when she worked closely with Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook leaders. The book is captivating and fascinating because it gets up close and personal with the kind of people who influence the world so much, showing glimpses of how extremely different they are from most people, in terms of their lack of humanity, as well as some of the company's most shady operations, which we only hear about when their spokespeople appear to deny everything.

The book's success could be one of the comedies of errors recounted in the book itself. The corporation tried to legally ban the circulation of the work. The result: it went straight to the bestseller list on the day of its release.

The narrative begins slowly, with Sarah joining the company. But the revelations become more serious as she gets closer to the leaders. For example, Zuckerberg's obsession with cornering the Chinese market, and all kinds of privacy invasions and espionage he offered the Chinese Communist Party to close a deal.

Coming from New Zealand, with experience in diplomacy, she worked with FB policies in countries outside the US. It is only towards the end that she decides to leave, disgusted by what she repeatedly witnessed and by personal abuse. For most of the book, she tries to convince herself that the corporation could still have a positive effect on the world, admitting her own careerism. In other words, she is no Edward Snowden-type whistleblower; she just wanted the company to make humane decisions, sacrificing profits minimally, but still generating billions for shareholders and a good salary for herself.

Perhaps that is why the title of the book is so neutral: “Careless People”. The author saw no evil conspiracy, only executives who were extremely irresponsible and negligent with anything that did not quickly translate into profits for shareholders. But the consequences of this, as in other companies of this size, are disastrous for people and the world.

Genocide in Myanmar

One example, in the most shocking chapter, is what happened in Myanmar between 2015 and 2017. It was one of the few countries that joined the company's project to help provide internet to the population, as long as the internet was limited to Facebook (brazilian president Dilma Rousseff appears in the book giving Zuckerberg the cold shoulder when he tries to sell the scheme to Brazil). A large part of the population started using FB, which came pre-installed on cell phones, with unlimited minutes, without ever having used the internet on a desktop computer.

The country has a Buddhist majority and an Islamic minority, and has been ruled by a dictatorship since a coup in 1962 (with failed attempts at democratization in recent years). Stimulated by fake news and hatred on Facebook, radical groups began to lynch and rape Muslims, aided or allowed by police and military personnel. The massacre escalated into genocide (recognized by the UN), with more than 6,000 dead and the forced displacement of 700,000 Muslims to Bangladesh.

From the first signs of the catastrophe, the company's leadership had been warned and pressured, but did nothing because the country was not on the priority list — what mattered there were only the millions of new users to fatten the global sum that gives value to the corporation. There was only one person employed to moderate fake news (based in Ireland), and she was sympathetic to the military and opposed to human rights. The official FB app did not work, and people ended up using third-party programs, which did not have the ability to report crimes online. There was even an implementation error in the encoding of Burmese characters, which prevented people outside the country from viewing the content correctly — for example, for someone who understood the language to evaluate it in the US (at the time, automatic translators did not translate Burmese).

The team trying to monitor the situation had to do so unofficially, contacting NGOs, since the company did nothing. Facebook only took action too late, after the ethnic-religious massacre had reached massive proportions, adding to the official list of crimes against humanity.

Hacking human vulnerabilities

Another striking example of this negligence on the part of administrators was when a report in Australia revealed that ad sellers were widely exploiting one of Facebook's capabilities: commercially exploiting moments when teenagers felt “emotionally vulnerable.”

Research has already proven that, at times like these, people spend money more compulsively. The platform detected, for example, when a teenager deleted a selfie (a sign of dissatisfaction with her appearance) and then displayed an advertisement for a cosmetic or weight loss product.

The company was quick to deny and condemn any such practice. Then, people in the sales department began to protest internally, saying that publicly condemning this practice, as if it were something nefarious, was hurting sales. Everyone, in every office of the company around the world, used it. In fact, it was what made the difference in commissions. Salespeople wanted the company to own up to what it was doing so that sales would not be affected.

Abuse

Sarah also reports several instances of abuse she suffered, such as having to participate in online meetings during maternity leave, or constant sexual insinuations from bosses. She details how silence about abuse is part of the toxic culture of the workplace. When she reported her boss's harassment, she ended up being fired.

Reacting publicly to the accusations in the book, executives referred to the author as a troubled and resentful former employee. Denying, as always, any possible illegality or wrongdoing.