Aristides de Sousa Mendes ignored the orders of the facist Portuguese government during WWII, by helping people escape to Portugal. A diplomat in Bordeaux, he gave visas to thousands of Jewish and nonJewish refugees trying to escape the Nazi occupation. When it was discovered, he was fired, disgraced, and died poor dishonored by his country. More than 50 years later, the truth is finally coming to light of the around 30,000 lives he helped save, and the plight that he suffered at the hands of the facist Portuguese government. This screencast is me getting to know this story, which was the topic of the evening for my family here in Brussels.
Tag Archives: portugal
Statehood Doesn’t Pay Bills
Nationalism has long been the cause of alot of pain and broken dreams in the history of the world. Yet nationalism is the force that brings about so many changes in so many places, even in this day and age.
I was working in Portugal several years ago when East Timor formerly declared it’s independence from Indonesia. Needless to say it was a big deal in Lisbon, at some level, as the nation watched a new country set out on the quest for freedom, prosperity… insert lofty goal. And of course, as I watched the ceremony in Dili, I can’t deny a feeling, based on all that I know from world history and the inequality that is the world economy, that East Timor would never really achieve much of a quality of life. For all the beauty and nobility of independence, you could spin the globe, crunch the numbers, and know that the new nation’s odds of a prosperous survival were slim to none.
Now we watch Kosovo. I know, I know, different details, different history, some different problems. But the facts still spell out the same feelings. Independence and freedom from whatever oppression, past or present, that certainly sounds good. No wonder lots of good people out there support the declaration. Yet what chance does it’s people have in this global economy and the political chess game that leaves a majority of the new nation as a bunch of expendable pawns; useful for flag waving news footage, but not worth a serious investment or some serious problem solving strategies. Powerful forces in the world of business and politics might have been salivating at the chance to use the cause and the region for their own goals, but now they can salivate even more as disorganization and internal struggles make it easy to profit.
Now you hear the whispers in different parts of the world get louder; Turkish Cyprus, Abkasia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Palestine, Western Sahara, Aceh… places where the calls for independence grow louder now. And who would dare speak against many of those cases, where people have suffered and hoped for independence for so long.
While I don’t speak against most of these calls, I will add a question to the equation. How will they live? Will there be a way to seriously live without the threat of famine, violence, or some other terrible factor. Do they have some way to stand on their own two feet in a global economy that specializes in picking apart new nations without the luxury of lots of money or some magic resource?
Independence sounds lovely. But when calculating and dreaming of the kind of life people should have, I wish we would factor in what happens once you’ve got that independence. That’s the part that could really help make a better future for all people.
Solar Obstacles
It really doesn’t matter who wins the nobel peace prize, the fact is the type of societies we’ve developed around the planet are not prepared and doing relatively little to truly counter their excessive energy use and polluting. While I realize some parts of the world are better than others at preparing, today I’m thinking of my homestate of New Jersey.
Mom called a few days ago and mentioned how unbearably high the power and heat costs are just to keep our family home going. She and dad still live in the house I grew up in, which happens to be in an area of New Jersey that pays amazingly high property tax, and mind boggling energy costs. Of course these homes are built in such a way that they cost alot to just maintain basic utilities.. the wonders of suburbia.
So mom says she’s interested in solar power for heating and hot water. Which of course reminds us both of grandma and grandpa’s house in Portugal.. located in a tiny village. Even as far back as 1989 I remember that they had solar panels on the roof, which were for hot water. Amazing to consider that my grandparents weren’t even environmental activists, it was just a relatively common practice, almost 20 years ago, to get solar panels to heat water throughout Portugal.
My mother’s fear, of course, like many working citizens throughout the world, is if changing her energy system to solar is affordable? She worries of the costs for solar panels, that they might bring a tremendous financial burden. Word amongst her friends is that its too expensive. Once again note the problem with such street wisdom, it is 2007 and we know enough about the planet to know we should use less energy, and yet in a state as modern and populous as New Jersey… the average person writes off getting solar energy because of the cost? This should not be so.
I’ve begun the process of researching what the steps would be, and even as a relatively smart person, I’m getting confused already. Apparently it takes 60 days, for example, to actually get solar panels that are approved by the state and ready to be used. You would figure, considering the state of the world, that the state or local government would have some kind of tax break or financial assistance to help people go solar. So far it seems, THEY DO. If you can figure out the system and fill out the right forms, and indeed, put up the money for the system… the state of New Jersey will cover 40% of the costs.
Still I’m not convinced about the process if a government, be it national, provincial, or local, is serious about reducing the amount of energy people use and helping citizens use alternative sources. And without the support of government, it will be even more difficult to change the mentality of a population that always comes back to the issue of cost in the form of money. But let’s see what more research can dig up, maybe my mom and dad will be able to go solar sooner rather than later.
International Effort in Greece
Last week I talked about the rainbow families rescue work that Rob was involved in throughout the United States. Today I thought of him as I listened to RFI reporting about how extremely terrible the forest fires in Greece have now become. Photos of the earth published by NASA show just how huge the fires have gotten as the smoke is visible from space.
Amidst all this tragedy and the struggle to combat the fires, I get a strange sort of positive feeling from listening to the news reports. This is because I listen closely to the part about Firefighters coming from all over the world to battle the fires. France sends several hundred firefighters. Spain, Germany, and Italy also send firefighters who specialize in these types of fires. My dear Portugal, which struggles year after year with similar fires, sends re-enforcements. Canada, the United States, Russia, and Israel .. all send firefighters, water dropping planes, and equipment. Even Romania sends an elite unit of firefighters to take part in the battle to control the fires.
Imagine being there… being one of the firefighters standing amongst all those nationalities.. all those languages.. the different uniforms.. all with one common goal. So often in history the story is about some conflict or invasion where a few countries get together to kill another country’s people, or to defend people from being killed by killing other people… variations on that theme. Yet here we get to see what is possible.. the kind of world that CAN exist when nations put all the other issues aside and focus on one – helping each other.
bm216 My Mother’s Tradition of Rebellion and Challenge
My mother went to school at a time in Portugal where you weren’t supposed to question or challenge a very sexist, classist, and politically repressive nation. Yet throughout her education she took on one challenge after another, making it her tradition to fight against the rules and the limits placed upon her. This podcast is about that experience, in her own words, as we sat in our living room in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, last week.
We discuss:
– Girls and School
– Access to schools
– Private and Public schools during the dictatorship
– Class and privledge
– Getting to school
– Gender inequality
– Challenging the norms
– University in Coimbra
– Secret activism against the fascist state
– Pamphlets
– Access to power
– Corruption
Dishwasher Pete on the Late Show
While it may not qualify as citizen reporting, anyone who’s been reading this blog for some time knows about my friend Dishwasher Pete and his first book that is taking the world by storm. Pete will be a guest on an upcoming podcast where we’ll discuss the world of work, and the future of labor.
For now, though, this being my last saturday in Portugal this summer, I present to you a clip of Pete on the David Letterman Show recently. I think he’s the most refreshing guest they’ve had on that show in years, take a look and see for yourself. (beware, clip is long)
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