Tag Archives: portugal

Portugal’s Yes

I was on the phone with mom earlier this evening and I asked if she’d heard about the results of the referendum. “NO I haven’t!” she said.

Portugal held a referendum yesterday on the question of abortion. While I was there in December I did see a scattered few billboards in Lisbon urging either a YES to legalize abortion or NO to keep abortion illegal. While I did get to ask a few people about it, i don’t remember much conversation on the topic, but I was definitely watching the results come in last night as Im sure many of my Portuguese friends were.

The result is that the Yes vote got 59% of the vote. A very loud statement that the voting citizenry of the nation were tired of seeing women being incarcerated for seeking abortions or fleeing to other countries in order to get one. Unfortunately less than 50 percent of elligible voters actually turned out, which I believe doesn’t make the referendum fully binding… but it looks like this will provide the necessary push for lawmakers to change the law.

I watched the annoying coverage on CNN last night; its Portugal so you can’t expect more than 2 minutes with 30 seconds of video… cut to commercial for Dubai or some other wealthy play ground apparently Im supposed to consider visiting based on their ads.

The graphic under the brief video read “most of Portugal is catholic.” I read the graphic and kept thinking… GREAT. They should have added a graphic, “Portugal may have citizens who think for themselves and don’t look to the vatican for instructions on how to run a country.” I realize many do look to the vatican, but I still think the graphic and the image that Portuguese are so completely tethered to religion is a somewhat out-dated assumption. Somebody get me the church attendance numbers.

All in all, an interesting milestone in the history of Portugal as the nation evolves and democracy matures. If you accept that this is how a democracy matures; declining voter turn out, struggle with religious traditions… sounds fairly typical.

Stay tuned for a podcast related to this topic in the coming week, as I just realized Women on Waves is in my neck of the woods.

Ruined for Work

Number of copies…. click click… beep beep.

Single sided to double sided… beep beep.

Push Copy button… commence loud life sucking noises.

Have you ever gone back to an old job you used to do and thought… did I ever work here?
That could happen for a number of reasons, not necessarily cause you didn’t like it, but maybe just because… mentally.. you’re past it.. you’re somewhere else.. you travelled forward in time or to another dimension, where somehow, you can barely picture yourself doing this job.

When I go back to Portugal I always go pickup BadHareDay at the Walford P Street school, where we used to both teach. I walk in there and I see a long list of unfamiliar faces. If I get a look its normally a “who are you, what do you want, are you lost?” kind of look. Eventually he comes down the stairs and it is as if, for a brief moment, the year is 2002 again; we go out for lunch. Later I see students I used to teach, I smile, they don’t notice me; I don’t work there anymore.

Lately I’ve been doing some office work for the american exchange program. Normally I’d stay away from the place where I was pretty much pushed out, but the people of that office have always been kind to me, and guiding the new fresh-off-the-plane american students is a wonderfully horrifying experience that I like to think keeps me grounded and lets me know what the kids these days, over there, are into.

But as I stand at that copy machine… click click.. beep beep.. oops.. staple remover.. load paper.. one thought goes through my head and I know everyone can see it, “I don’t work here anymore, and that is a great thing.”

Instead my mind is on my program, and my future guests like Josh flying in from Uganda in a few hours, or the Brazilian topics I’m working on, or the Bangladesh show next week. Then there’s my trip to the balkans this week, I cannot wait. And to top it all off, I see something extra exciting on the horizon… it looks like, yes I think it is… I see @ XOLO!

Just Flew Into Berlin… Ouch

A little over 24 hours ago I was celebrating xmas with family in a tiny town in Portugal.

This morning I awoke warm and happy in Amsterdam.

And now I write to you from somewhere in the heart of Berlin.

As you can imagine.. I can’t think straight at the moment. I’ve focused on small tasks.. like making sure the hot water works here in the most unique and spacious apartment Tim has let me use. (Tim is, of course, the greatest)

I’m here for 23C3… the amazingly circus-like hacker conference that brings hordes of people together for the last days of the year.. right here in Berlin. So that’s where I’ll be all week and I planned some additional days as well since Ive got lots of time on my hands and work I can do from anywhere in wonderfully WIRED Berlin.

There’s lots more to tell, but I need to figure out where my pajamas are and maybe add some layers as this place has a pretty limited heating system.

Prepare yourself.. all week you will be bombarded with reports from Berlin filled with the participation of some very special people.

Old People Make XMAS

Here I sit at my cousins computer… the air is filled with the smell of fried dough, fish soup, sweet rice, port wine, and well.. who knows what else.

At the table tonight, which I just got up from, picture a long table with about 10 people, almost all of which are above the age of 78. In my grandparents case, way above 80. And, as usual, how the stories flow. We reunited 2 brothers and a sister, not to mention a brother-in-law and some old friends. It is, historically speaking, an amazing occurance.. like a solar eclipse, only you can actually stare and enjoy. Ive taken lots of photos and video, not so much to share with the internet, but to share with my children and my childrens children.

And the night is only half over… soon its time to brave the treacherous roads of portugal.. and head to the next dinner party.. which will involve presents and desserts Im guessing.

Happy Festivus.

Goodnight Lisbon

Over dinner, BadHareDay and I discuss everything two friends can discuss.. just like old times. He taught me about the 12 official languages of South Africa, which are extremely difficult to list… and then we got into the upcoming vote on the abortion issue here in Portugal. I’m working on getting photos of the billboards of the YES and NO campaigns.. it is really both fascinating and comical… so stay tuned for that.

But this post is my goodbye to the fair city in 2006. And that was what this evening was all about… stepping out on the town with a good friend, eating dinner at one of the few dirt cheap local holes in the wall, and heading to Ler Devagar (Read Slowly) the finest bookstore that serves wine and tea til all hours of the night. Tonight was the big book sale where prints from 1975 were going for around 1 euro a-piece; good times! Afterwards we walked around the Bairro Alto, which is just like we used to do back in the day. To finish off the evening, a trip down to the municipal market to try and drink some hot cocoa from the all-night Cocao da Ribeira. It turned out to be closed, but again.. it was the thought that counted. Thoughts that take me back to 2002.. when work wasn’t easy or well paid, but I lived the Lisbon life.

It is good to know I can still relive the glory and that even in 2006.. there are still places in Lisbon where I can walk in and the chef comes out to shake my hand, the waitress knows my favorite drink, and the cutey at the bank knows my name by heart. This town may seem a little intimidating at night, and life might not be easy here in Portugal, but there is still plenty to be said for Lisbon as one of the finest cities I’ve ever known.. and loved.

Hard to Defend

Greetings once again from the drivers seat of this car somewhere in Portugal.

Briefly, as my hands are cramping up and I predict the neighbors will call the cops or sic the dogs on me…

I have spent a decent amount of energy doing what some might characterize as defending the president of IRan. Of course its not that i want to defend him exactly, but I disapprove of how the media uses and twists his rather odd and conservative words. Most of all I think the media have done a poor job of reporting about him without using sweeping generalizations that adhere to exactly what the warmongers of America would like to hear: the same ol pitch about him being so dangerous that we must attack and bla bla bla.

But recently with the whole haulocaust deniers convention… I gotta say it was extremely hard to lift a finger to defend the man anymore. Not that i want the war mongers to get there way, but man… you work so hard trying to understand and explain a very ignorant man and poof… he holds one of these conferences.

Finally with the recent election results in Iran I got the ray of hope and clear sign that I was needing to boost the “Iran is not the boogy man campaign”. The reformists made some big gains, which means anyone who says the country is out of control and dangerous, has to face the fact that actually the country has some terrible politicians but it also has some brave and politically able citizens who see things very differently and can take back power using the political mechanisms in place (even if it isnt easy).

Not that Americans are so easily fooled these days, I certainly hope not. But I also like to prepare for the worst, and I know that the worst involves military leaders who love to plot wars and sit back and watch them unfold would love for the reformers to disappear and for the hardliners liners like Ahmedinejad to take over and hold lots of loony conventions. But if you ever needed one, here’s a clear sign…. peace is the solution here and if you respect a country and its citizens, let them make change from within and respect their decisions.. don’t threaten to destroy them.

Time to turn the engine on.. its cold in here.