Lusitanian Mélange

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Portugal, a country with circa de 5 million emigrants, is suddenly adverse to emigration. Ok, not Portugal per se but the Portuguese Left Wing...

Presently, the Lusitanian territory has tens of thousands of unemployed teachers (I’d provide the exact number, however the site of the Teachers’ Union doesn’t offer a specific figure). Every year, countries like Switzerland, Brazil, Timor and Mozambique (to name a few) ask Portugal for teachers, but most of the teachers simply refuse to emigrate.

Passos Coelho, the Lusitanian Premier, last month explained that there will be an increase in unemployment in the Education sector (since more schools are being closed, as a result of the decrease in birth rates) and, as such he suggested that unemployed teachers should seek a job abroad, with emphasis in Portuguese-Speaking countries. Hysterically, the Left Wing reacted accusing Passos Coelho of not offering hope to the Portuguese teachers – again, does hope pay bills? No, but working abroad might. Plus, the Left is failing to see the strategy behind this suggestion.

I recently read an article that calculated a 10.8% unemployment rate for 2011; however the INE (National Statistics Institute, in Portugal) calculated the 2011 unemployment rate at 12,4%, because it used a new methodology in its calculation (e.g.: the change in the questionnaire). The new methodology suggests two things: 1- the numbers calculated under the old methodology, that set the markets & governments on fire, didn’t represent reality but sheer manipulation; 2- the figures reached by the new methodology, that make us all squirm in our sits, do not represent reality but manipulation, once again...

Last week, I saw the Left Wing standing up for the people for the first time ever.

Context: Portugal doesn’t have analogue TV any longer. As of the 1st of January, DTV (digital television) was introduced; meaning that if a household doesn’t have cable TV, it must acquire a DTV decoder if it wants to continue watching television. The DTV campaign, in Portugal, says “If you don’t have DTV, in January; you won’t see TV at all!” So far, the Operation DTV is a complete disaster since people who have already adhered to it are having a hard time watching the telly.
The Left asked the government (and it was fair enough to recall the Socialist Party its role in this mess, when it governed the country) about the cost involved in acquiring DTV (flat TVs, connection compatibility and such). Now, if a household earns less than €500 (+/- $635) the DTV kit will be subsidised, costing only €40 (+/- $50) – still a lot of money; households earning more than €500 will have to pay €77 (+/- $97) – if they have 2 kids, €77 is a huge amount of money. So, I congratulate the Left for a positive opposition work.

Finally, I’d like to suggest Portugal to open itself more to the world. It is an embarrassment not to have the option to read Portuguese sites (or even literature) in other languages – what is Portugal concealing, or what is it afraid of? Governmental web-pages should be translated into other languages (mainly in English) for purposes of National Interest (cultural dissemination, investment, tourism etc). The world wants to know Portugal in its entirety (not Sintra and Algarve only).
For example, I wanted to share with my readers the links containing some of the data discussed here, but I couldn’t because they are written in Portuguese only...

Portugal: wake up and smell the damn coffee, we’re in the 21st century!