É jornalista, colunista, "editor" da versão inglesa e "director and chief" da versão portuguesa do jornal Russo "Pravda" (que quer dizer "Verdade").
Neste artigo de opinião escreve sobre Portugal. Sobre a nossa crise. A nossa identidade. E sobre o nosso futuro.
Se eu concordo com ele?
Demais.
"Portugal - Crisis, what crisis?
After Prime Minister José Sócrates presented his resignation to President Anibal Silva on Wednesday, the Portuguese mass media indicates a new legislative election at the end of May. However, this is not the only option open to the President. After decades of mismanagement, reality slams Portugal square in the face. What happens now?
If you build a house of cardboard on the sand and without solid foundations, then throw away the few stones anchoring the structure to the ground, it is natural that it will collapse with the first gust of wind, the first drops of rain, the slightest pressure from within. Quite how Portugal's cardboard house survived the 37 years since the 1974 Revolution is maybe a comment on the resilience of this people who seem to perform miracles getting things done with last-minute panic measures. In Portuguese it is called "desenrascar" (get out of trouble, somehow). This time, however, not even Houdini would escape.
Today, reality strikes Portugal and the Portuguese square in the face. Quite whose fault it is, is patently obvious: for a start, those political forces in positions of control since 1974 (namely the PSD - Social Democrats and PS - Socialist Party, both centre-right these days, sometimes in coalition with CDS-PP - Christian Democrats - Conservatives) and principally, the team of then Prime Minister and now President, Aníbal Silva, through whose hands billions and billions poured and who demonstrated neither the capacity nor the vision to invest that money adequately to make sure Portugal rose to the challenge.
Whether or not it was entirely his fault is another question. Was Portugal really prepared to enter the European Community back in 1986? Was Portugal really prepared to enter the Eurozone in 1999? Was Portugal ready to face the challenges imposed by the Convergence Criteria in the ensuing years? Does the EU actually work?
Over the years, successive Portuguese Governments received rivers of money which, it is now patently obvious, was abominably badly managed. EU membership saw the cities receive a facelift and in a few years bridged the decades which had separated Portugal from the rest of Europe. Thirty years ago, the Portuguese would describe themselves as "fifty years behind". Today, Lisbon is a modern capital city with as many modern facilities, or more, than its peers.
But the same Governments sold Portuguese industry down the river, destroyed Portuguese agriculture and lost fishing rights. Portugal, with one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the world, has not taken advantage of its resources, mainly because they have been sold off... or simply lost. It is therefore hardly surprising that the young people of today feel there are no jobs to go to.
They are right. They have been destroyed. (...)"
Continuem a ler aqui.
No comments:
Post a Comment