Recently, I watched two documentaries, Rustin and The Best Night, Pop, that caught my attention because of their continued focus on the March on Washington. It was at this event that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic "I have a dream" speech. This focus on a dream brought together the greatest music stars on a night in January, 1985, to record the song "We Are the World", which was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian to support famine relief in Ethiopia. Before starting the recording Quincy wrote the message: Check your EGO at the door.
I have approached the subject of ego because Brazilian publications often suffer from the ego of advisors and reviewers, which can lead to authors behaving the same way. This eliminates possibilities for new magazines.
Years ago, REM was denied funding on the grounds that it had too many associate editors (EA). The CNPq consultants forgot that EAs have different functions (teachers, researchers, editors and reviewers, etc.), and that their time would be very short for dedication to a great number of articles. It is worth remembering that REM is perhaps the only scientific technical magazine on mining in Brazil, mining being an activity responsible for a large share of our exports.
REM overcame its ego when it stopped being a local publication and expanded its circulation to all of Brazil and then abroad. Even if there are criticisms, it is worth taking advantage of Henrique Gorceix's pages. When asked what he intended to do to silence those who we criticized the School he had founded, he replied: I would like to bring intelligent and well-intentioned people to make them see the real task we perform here, but, as far as I know, most of these critics do not have these qualities.
We have room to bring more intelligent people to our team, not to silence criticism, but to focus, even more, on disseminating science, and it is not necessary to remember that intelligent people, as Quincy Jones wrote, always leave their EGO at the entrance.
References
- DEQUECH, D. Isto dantes em Ouro Preto: crônicas. Belo Horizonte, 1984. 303 p. Films:
- RUSTIN. Direção: George C. Wolfe. United States, Netflix, 2023.
- THE GREATEST NIGHT in pop. Direção: Bao Nguyen. United States.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
19 Apr 2024 -
Date of issue
Apr-Jun 2024
