I come from a country with a beautiful word: saudade...
Saudade is a longing for what we lost or what we know will never come but also the joy for what we have and a hope for what will come.
Saudade is also a sadness for being apart from "our loved ones" and at the same time the happiness of having such " loved ones."
At last, saudade has a lot to do with your motherland because it is the sadness of having left it (my country is a country of sailors) together with the joy of knowing we have it with us in our hearts.
So saudade is in itself a mix of contradictions. And being such a strong feeling that my country-fellows and I share proves how contradictory and complicated we are.
But I know we are not the only ones. We exported this feeling to the ends of the earth. In South America and Africa, in Asia and Oceania there are people who know this word and share this feeling... Or this mix of feelings. And we're all happy and sad that we can feel saudade.
In 1983 Margaret Thatcher made what is still nowadays one of my favorite political speeches of all times. One that, unfortunately, was never sufficiently advertised in my own country, Portugal. This is notorious nowadays. However Portugal may be used as an example of a situation that is seen in many other countries, such as France, Italy, Greece, Belgium...
Thatcher reminded the British that the money spent by the state is, in fact, tax payers' money and that the more the state collects, the less the economy has. Even if some of it eventually is invested in the economy... And this happens for two reasons. The main one is that between the moment in which the tax payer gives up his money in favor of the state and the moment the state invests in the economy a lot is lost in red tape, civil service, etc.. The second one is that generally private stakeholders are better at making money grow than the state.
In the day of Lady Thatcher's death, I would like to take a look at the Portuguese situation in light of this idea.
The Portuguese state got into too much debt over too long. To run a huge deficit in the end of every yearly budget became the never disrespected rule instead of the exception. And this was the will of the tax payers / voters: if any politician had had the courage to say that they would slash on public expenditure, that was a politician doomed to failure.
After the 2011 international rescue it seems that few people in Portugal learned the lesson. The government in power since the rescue has failed to really cut expenditure. It is true that some expenditure has been curbed, but that's far from enough. It has, instead, increased taxes in a way that is killing any chances the economy might have to grow again. And if the economy goes down, so does the tax revenue...
The opposition suggests economic stimulus to the economy. However, it fails to explain which money would it use. Again, the taxpayers' money?
Lady Thatcher's ideas and political example are extremely valuable. In this sad day of her death, let us not forget them. RIP
There is one thing that I never shared in this blog: I'm almost a climate refugee.
I was living in Macau for five years and those were five long and painful years due to the inhuman and degrading treatment I received down there. During an average of 8 out of 12 months of the year I would start sweating as soon as I ventured three steps outside home. It had become perfectly normal to see me walking around with my shirt dripping and my hair glued to my face. Face which, by the way, was always as shiny as a turkey in Christmas! If this isn't inhuman and degrading treatment, I don't know what is... For me and for all those who had to bear this sight!
The government of Macau clearly failed to fulfill its positive obligation to build a gigantic greenhouse over the city with super-power ACs working day and night. Only this could provide the city with the necessary protection to human rights of its inhabitants and visitors.
Now, today my climatic traumas were revived. I left home wearing a sleeveless jacket at 7.30 am and still I arrived in the gym sweating almost as much as I used to in Macau. Is this possible in a civilized country under the rule of law?! Is UK not supposed to be the cradle of modern democracy? To whom can I appeal of this approaching inferno? Holyrood? Westminster? Buckingham? Strasbourg?
If there's something Brits love even more than tea with milk and sugar (which is still something I couldn't get used to, for me tea should be drank pure) it's a good, well stratified class system. Historically that has to do with the Normand invasion and having the upper class speak French and the lower Saxon. Until this day they still don't speak the same language...
But now BBC decided to innovate and create a new class system because they considered the old one to be outdated. I think I will understand BBC when I'm able to enjoy tea with milk and sugar...
Now, BBC does not want Brits to feel lost and not know where they belong. As such they provide an online test so that Brits are aware of their place in society. They brilliantly named it the class calculator.
Now, this calculator was extremely useful to me. I didn't know my place in the British society. This might be due to the fact that I'm not British... But now, after a short test with only half a dozen questions I know what I am in this beautiful kingdom:
Emergent service workers - a new, young, urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital
I can't say that I was thrilled at being described as an "emergent" and "relatively poor" (though this last one is true) but I can't hide the fact that I quite enjoy that I have a "high social and cultural capital".
