Iberian Nations

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Endovelico
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Iberian Nations

Post by Endovelico »

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The conservative party in power in Spain collapses, the socialists don't profit from that, and it is the radical left Izquierda Unida which gains most support. The same situation as in so many other southern European countries, which will eventually lead to a completely different situation in (southern) Europe. Looking forward to it...
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Endovelico »

In honour of the Catalan people I'm posting here, in Catalan, the declaration in respect of Catalonia as a sovereign subject, which was today approved by the Catalan Parliament by 85 to 41 votes. The way is now open for the Catalan people to decide of its own future as a sovereign nation.
Declaració de sobirania i el dret a decidir del poble de Catalunya

"D'acord amb la voluntat majoritària expressada democràticament per part del poble de Catalunya, el Parlament de Catalunya acorda iniciar el procés per fer efectiu l'exercici del dret a decidir per tal que els ciutadans i les ciutadanes de Catalunya puguin decidir el seu futur polític col·lectiu, d'acord amb els principis següents:

"- Sobirania. El poble de Catalunya té, per raons de legitimitat democràtica, caràcter de subjecte polític i jurídic sobirà.

"- Legitimitat democràtica. El procés de l'exercici del dret a decidir serà escrupolosament democràtic, garantint especialment la pluralitat d'opcions i el respecte a totes elles, a través de la deliberació i diàleg en el si de la societat catalana, amb l'objectiu que el pronunciament que en resulti sigui l'expressió majoritària de la voluntat popular, que en serà el garant fonamental del dret a decidir.

"- Transparència. Es facilitaran totes les eines necessàries perquè el conjunt de la població i la societat civil catalana tingui tota la informació i el coneixement precís per a l'exercici del dret a decidir i es promogui la seva participació en el procés.

"- Diàleg. Es dialogarà i es negociarà amb l'Estat espanyol, les institucions europees i el conjunt de la comunitat internacional.

"- Cohesió social. Es garantirà la cohesió social i territorial del país i la voluntat expressada en múltiples ocasions per la societat catalana de mantenir Catalunya com un sol poble.

"- Europeisme. Es defensaran i promouran els principis fundacionals de la Unió Europea, particularment els drets fonamentals dels ciutadans, la democràcia, el compromís amb l'estat del benestar, la solidaritat entre els diferents pobles d'Europa i l'aposta pel progrés econòmic, social i cultural.

"- Legalitat. S'utilitzaran tots els marcs legals existents per fer efectiu l'enfortiment democràtic i l'exercici del dret a decidir.

"- Paper principal del Parlament. El Parlament en tant que la institució que representa el poble de Catalunya té un paper principal en aquest procés i per tant s'hauran d'acordar i concretar els mecanismes i les dinàmiques de treball que garanteixin aquest principi.

"- Participació. El Parlament de Catalunya i el Go¬vern de la Generalitat han de fer partícips actius en tot aquest procés el món local, i el màxim de forces polítiques, agents econòmics i socials, i entitats culturals i cíviques del nostre país, i concretar els mecanismes que garanteixin aquest principi.

"El Parlament de Catalunya encoratja al conjunt de ciutadans i ciutadanes a ser actius i protagonistes d'aquest procés democràtic de l'exercici del dret a decidir del poble de Catalunya."

La resolució és precedida d'un preàmbul en què es fa un repàs històric del procés de la construcció política i institucional de Catalunya.

"Preàmbul

"El poble de Catalunya, al llarg de la seva història, ha manifestat democràticament la voluntat d'autogovernar-se, amb l'objectiu de millorar el progrés, el benestar i la igualtat d'oportunitats de tota la ciutadania, i per reforçar la cultura pròpia i la seva identitat col·lectiva.

"L'autogovern de Catalunya es fonamenta també en els drets històrics del poble català, en les seves institucions seculars i en la tradició jurídica catalana. El parlamentarisme català té els seus fonaments en l'Edat Mitjana, amb les assemblees de Pau i Treva i de la Cort Comtal.

"Al segle XIV es crea la Diputació del General o Generalitat, que va adquirint més autonomia fins actuar, durant els segles XVI i XVII, com a govern del Principat de Catalunya. La caiguda de Barcelona el 1714, arran de la Guerra de Successió, comportà que Felip V abolís amb el Decret de Nova Planta el dret públic català i les institucions d'autogovern.

"Aquest itinerari històric ha estat compartit amb altres territoris, fet que ha configurat un espai comú lingüístic, cultural, social i econòmic, amb vocació de reforçar-lo i promoure'l des del reconeixement mutu.

"Durant tot el segle XX la voluntat d'autogovernar-se de les catalanes i els catalans ha estat una constant. La creació de la Mancomunitat de Catalunya el 1914 suposà un primer pas en la recuperació de l'autogovern, que fou abolida per la dictadura de Primo de Rivera. Amb la proclamació de la Segona República espanyola es constituí un govern català el 1931 amb el nom de Generalitat de Catalunya, que es dotà d'un Estatut d'Autonomia.

"La Generalitat fou de nou abolida el 1939 pel general Franco, que instaurà un règim dictatorial fins al 1975. La dictadura va comptar amb una resistència activa del poble i el Govern de Catalunya. Una de les fites de la lluita per la llibertat és la creació de l'Assemblea de Catalunya l'any 1971, prèvia a la recuperació de la Generalitat, amb caràcter provisional, amb el retorn el 1977 del seu president a l'exili. En la transició democràtica, i en el context del nou sistema autonomista definit per la Constitució espanyola de 1978, el poble de Catalunya aprovà mitjançant referèndum l'Estatut d'Autonomia de Catalunya el
1979, i celebrà les primeres eleccions al Parlament de Catalunya el 1980.

"En els darrers anys, en la via de l'aprofundiment democràtic, una majoria de les forces polítiques i socials catalanes han impulsat mesures de transformació del marc polític i jurídic. La més recent, concretada en el procés de reforma de
l'Estatut d'Autonomia de Catalunya iniciat pel Parlament l'any 2005. Les dificultats i negatives per part de les institucions de l'Estat Espanyol, entre les quals cal destacar la Sentència del Tribunal Constitucional 31/2010, comporten una negativa radical a l'evolució democràtica de les voluntats col·lectives del poble català dins de l'Estat Espanyol i crea les bases per una involució en
l'autogovern, que avui s'expressa amb total claredat en els aspectes polítics, competencials, financers, socials, culturals i lingüístics.

"De diverses formes, el poble de Catalunya ha expressat la voluntat de superar l'actual situació de bloqueig en el si de l'Estat Espanyol. Les manifestacions massives del 10 de juliol de 2010 sota el lema «Som una Nació, nosaltres decidim» i la de
l'11de setembre de 2012 sota el lema «Catalunya nou Estat d'Europa» són expressió del rebuig de la ciutadania envers la manca de respecte a les decisions del poble de Catalunya.

"Amb data 27 de setembre de 2012, mitjançant la resolució 742/IX, el Parlament de Catalunya constatà la necessitat que el poble de Catalunya pogués determinar lliurament i democràticament el seu futur col·lectiu mitjançant una consulta. Les darreres eleccions al Parlament de Catalunya del 25 de novembre de 2012 han expressat i confirmat aquesta voluntat de forma clara i inequívoca.

"Per tal de portar a terme aquest procés, el Parlament de Catalunya, reunit en la primera sessió de la X legislatura, i en representació de la voluntat de la ciutadania de Catalunya expressada democràticament a les darreres eleccions, formula la següent: Declaració de sobirania i el dret a decidir del poble de Catalunya."


http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20 ... lunya.html

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Azrael
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Azrael »

The liberal, federalist Union, Progress and Democracy party seems to be polling well, too.
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Typhoon
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Portugal

Post by Typhoon »

NPR | The Fake Economist Who Conned A Nation

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As an ex-presidential consultant, a former adviser to the World Bank, a financial researcher for the United Nations and a professor in the US, Artur Baptista da Silva's outspoken attacks on Portugal's austerity cuts made the bespectacled 61-year-old one of the country's leading media pundits last year.

The only problem was that Mr Baptista da Silva is none of the above. He turned out to be a convicted forger with fake credentials and, following his spectacular hoodwinking of Portuguese society, he could soon face fraud charges. ...

Mr Baptista da Silva's comeuppance began when the UN confirmed to a Portuguese TV station last month that he did not work for the organisation, not even as a volunteer, as he later alleged. Further media investigations uncovered his prison record and fake university titles...
Still, as an experienced forger, he could probably teach the academic - bureaucratic crowd more than a thing or two about real world economics . . .

Endo, are you familiar with this fellow? I'm sure that you were not taken in by him :wink:
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Endovelico
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Re: Portugal

Post by Endovelico »

There is already a thread for the Iberian Nations, one of which is obviously Portugal. Starting a new thread just for Portugal seems thus unnecessary, as there aren't that many subjects of interest for that country alone. As far as I am concerned, I will stick to the Iberian Nations thread whenever there is something worth reporting from this part of the world.
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World Class Portuguese Hero Aristides de Sousa Mendes

Post by monster_gardener »

Thank You VERY Much for the Thread, Typhoon.

So many Depraved Sinful Egotistical Chaos Monkeys Near Killer Apes.......

Including me......... :roll:

Will try to counter balance with mention of a heroic Portuguese gentleman.......

Aristides de Sousa Mendes....

A man who lived up to the good reputation of his ancient Greek name bearer, Astrides the Just of Athens.........

And paid a high price for doing it.........
Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, GCC, OL (July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954; Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐɾiʃˈtiðɨʒ ðɨ ˈsowzɐ ˈmẽdɨʃ]) was a Portuguese diplomat. He ignored and defied the orders of his own government for the safety of war refugees fleeing from invading German military forces in the early years of World War II. Between June 16 and June 23, 1940, he frantically issued Portuguese visas free of charge, to over 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazi terror, 12,000 of whom were Jews.
The consul was still in Bordeaux at the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of France by the Nazi army of Adolf Hitler. Salazar managed to maintain Portugal's neutrality in the war. On November 11, 1939, he issued orders that consuls were not to issue Portuguese visas to "foreigners of indefinite or contested nationality; the stateless; or Jews expelled from their countries of origin". This order was followed only six months later by one stating that "under no circumstances" were visas to be issued without prior case-by-case approval from Lisbon. Similar policies against Jewish immigration were adopted much earlier by the United States and the United Kingdom[citation needed].

The Jewish Virtual Library biography of Sousa Mendes records the consul's response as follows:

"Within days of the new orders, Sousa Mendes was taken to task for having granted a visa to a Viennese refugee, Professor Arnold Wizrntzer. Called to task by his superiors, Sousa Mendes answered: "He informed me that, were he unable to leave France that very day, he would be interned in a concentration [read, detention] camp, leaving his wife and minor son stranded. I considered it a duty of elementary humanity to prevent such an extremity."[1]

Thus it was in a deliberate act of disobedience that Sousa Mendes issued an estimated 30,000 visas to Jews and other persecuted minorities: political dissidents, army officers from occupied countries, and priests and nuns. These visas were not all to individuals, but sometimes to families; in at least one case, the visa covered a family of nine people.[2] Sousa Mendes was inspired to this act in part through his friendship with Rabbi Chaim (Haim) Kruger,[3] who had fled to France from Antwerp.

The earliest of these visas were issued in the months between the 1939 and mid-1940 decrees, a period during which he attempted to protect his family by sending all but two sons home to Portugal and sending constant telegrams to Lisbon with coded requests for approval of the visas, in order to preserve his post while obeying his conscience. The majority of the visas, however, were issued after a harrowing three-day crisis of conscience in mid-June 1940, shortly after Franco changed the status of Spain from "neutral" to "non-belligerent",[1] which suggested time was running out for Portugal to follow its neighbor. The consul offered a visa to his friend the rabbi, who responded, "I can't accept a visa for us and leave my people behind."[4] The distraught consul took to his bed in confusion from June 14 to the 16th. From his crisis, Sousa Mendes emerged on June 17, 1940, determined to obey what he called a "divine power" and grant visas to everyone in need, at whatever cost to himself.
June 17-July 8: the French-Portuguese exodus

Working feverishly with Rabbi Kruger, the two remaining Sousa Mendes sons and their mother, and a few refugees, the consul formed an assembly line that processed visas all through that day and well into the night. They made whatever changes were necessary to the usual procedure: the consul signing with just his surname, not registering the visas or collecting fees, and stamping visas on pieces of paper. The sense of urgency was heightened even more when Marshal Philippe Pétain announced that day that France would sign a peace agreement with Germany. The assembly line kept working all through the following day. A delegate of the House of Habsburg, after having to wait his turn in the seemingly endless line, left with 19 visas for the imperial family of the Archduke, who later returned in person to obtain an additional stack of visas for Austrian refugees.

On into June 19, the assembly line marched on through stacks and stacks of visas, even as the city was bombed by German planes. At this point, Sousa Mendes rushed to the consulate at Bayonne, near the Spanish border where his visas were being honored for the crowds rushing out of the country. Finding that consulate overwhelmed, he took over responsibility from his subordinate there, Consul Machado, and set up a second assembly line to process thousands more exit documents. (Machado reported this behavior to Portugal's ambassador to Spain, Pedro Teotónio Pereira, whose maternal grandfather was German, who favored Germany and worried that accepting those unacceptable to Hitler would ruin Portugal's relationship with Franco; Teotónio Pereira promptly set out for the French border.)

Sousa Mendes continued on to Hendaye to assist there, thus narrowly missing two cablegrams from Lisbon sent June 22 to Bordeaux and Bayonne ordering him to stop even as France's armistice with Germany became official. In an article for a religious magazine in 1996, his son John Paul de Abranches told the story:

"As his diplomatic car reached the French border town of Hendaye, my father encountered a large group of stranded refugees for whom he had previously issued visas. Those people had been turned away because the Portuguese government had phoned the guards, commanding, 'Do not honor Mendes's signature on visas.'"
"Ordering his driver to slow down, Father waved the group to follow him to a border checkpoint that had no telephones. In the official black limousine with its diplomatic license tags, Father led those refugees across the border toward freedom."[4]

Sousa Mendes traveled to the border at Irun on June 23, where he personally raised the gate to allow disputed passages into Spain to occur. It was at this point that Ambassador Teotónio Pereira arrived at Irun, declared Sousa Mendes mentally incompetent and invalidated all further visas.[5] An Associated Press story the next day reported that some 10,000 persons attempting to cross over into Spain were excluded because authorities no longer granted recognition to their visas.[1]

As Sousa Mendes continued the flow of visas, Salazar sent a telegram on June 24 recalling him to Portugal, an order he received upon returning to Bordeaux on June 26 but followed only slowly, not arriving in Portugal until July 8. Along the way he issued Portuguese passports to refugees now trapped in occupied France, saving them by preventing their deportation to concentration camps.[1]
Dishonor and disgrace

He saved an enormous number of lives, but lost his career. In 1941, Salazar lost political trust in Sousa Mendes and stripped the diplomat to his title, subsequently ordering that no one in Portugal show him any charity.[6] He also found he could not resume his law career, as he was blocked from registration, and he was forced to surrender his foreign-issue driver's license.[4] Just before the war's end in 1945, he suffered a stroke that left him at least partially paralyzed. In his later years, the formerly much-honored diplomat was abandoned by most of his colleagues and friends and at times was blamed by some of his close relatives.[7] Aided by a local Jewish refugee agency — which had begun to feed the family and pay their rent upon discovering the situation — the children moved to other countries in search of opportunities they were now denied in Portugal, though all accounts by them indicate they never blamed their father or regretted his decision. His wife, Angelina, died in 1948. Stripped of his pension, he died in poverty on April 3, 1954, still in disgrace with his government.

This ill-treatment by his government for acts considered heroic in other countries was not unique to Sousa Mendes. Others similarly dishonored include Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania; Carl Lutz, the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary; and Paul Grüninger, chief of police in the Swiss canton of Sankt-Gallen (Saint-Gall). Ironically, the actions that caused Salazar to dismiss his diplomatic representative brought considerable praise to him and to Portugal, seen internationally as a haven of hospitality for refugee Jews; for example, the magazine Life praised Salazar as "the greatest Portuguese since Henry the Navigator" (July 29, 1940).[1][4][7]
Posthumous honors
Aristides de Sousa Mendes plaza in Vienna

Family members seeking to clear his name sought to have his story published in magazines and began to contact Jewish visa recipients living in New York. In 1966 Sousa Mendes was honored at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust as one of the "Righteous Among The Nations," one of the first steps in the long journey. In 1986, inspired by the election of a civilian president in Portugal, his son John Paul Abranches began to circulate a petition to the Portuguese president within his adopted country, the United States. He and his wife Joan worked with Robert Jacobvitz, an executive at the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay (Oakland, CA), to start and run the "International Committee to Commemorate Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes." They were able to gain the support of various political actors, including: Colette Avital, the Israeli Ambassador to Portugal who liaised with the Portuguese government;[8] and two members of the California delegation of the United States House of Representatives, Portuguese-American Rep. Tony Coelho and Rep. Henry Waxman, who had a family member saved by Sousa Mendes' signature, who introduced a resolution in Congress to recognize his humanitarian action (passed in 1987).

Also in 1987, the Portuguese Republic began to rehabilitate Sousa Mendes' memory and granted a posthumous Order of Liberty medal, one of that country's highest honors, although the consul's diplomatic honors still were not restored. On March 18, 1988 the Portuguese parliament officially dismissed all charges, restoring him to the diplomatic corps by unanimous vote and honoring him with a standing ovation. He was promoted to the rank of Ambassador[9] He also was issued the Cross of Merit for his actions in Bordeaux. In December of that year, the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, Edward Rowell presented copies of the congressional resolution from the previous year to Pedro Nuno de Sousa Mendes, one of the sons who had helped in the assembly line at Bordeaux, and to President Mário Soares at the Palácio de Belém. In 1994 former President Soares dedicated a bust of Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, along with a commemorative plaque at 14 quai Louis-XVIII, the address at which the consulate at Bordeaux had been housed.[10]

In 1995, a commemorative stamp was issued in Portugal.[2]

In 2004, the 50th anniversary of Sousa Mendes' death, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee organized more than 80 commemorations around the world. Religious, cultural and educational activities took place in 30 countries in the five continents.[11]

A great homage was done in memory of Aristides Sousa Mendes at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 11 May and 10 November 2005, in a benefit performance on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of UNESCO and the fortieth anniversary of Portugal's admittance. The baritone Jorge Chaminé gave a recital at the Great Hall. The French writer Jean Lacouture wrote that "in more than 50 years as a listener all over the world, I never heard such an incredible performance. What a marvellous homage to this great man!"

The mansion that Sousa Mendes had to abandon and sell in the poverty of his final years was left for decades to rot and decay, and at one time was to be razed and replaced by a hotel. However, with reparations funds given by the Portuguese government to Sousa Mendes' heirs in 2000, the family decided to create the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Foundation (Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in Portuguese). With assistance from government officials, the foundation purchased the family home in order to develop a museum in his honor.[12] The house was classified as a Portuguese National Monument on February 3, 2005. The two events at UNESCO raised a 6,000 euro donation for the foundation; even so, the foundation's president said in 2006 that the organization was finding it difficult to raise sufficient additional funds for the renovation.[13]

On 14 January 2007, he was voted into the top ten of the poll show Os Grandes Portugueses (English: The Greatest Portuguese), on 25 March 2007, the day of the results revelation, he was voted into third place, behind deceased communist leader Álvaro Cunhal (runner-up) and deceased dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (winner).

In February 2008, Portuguese Parliamentary Speaker Jaime Gama led a session which launched a virtual Museum, on the World-Wide Web; it offers access to photographs and other documents chronicling Mendes' life. The site includes content in Portuguese, but translations into other languages are planned.[9]
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Endovelico »

Latest opinion poll in Spain:

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The government PP party is collapsing, the socialists are stagnant, and the radical leftist IU plus the social liberal UPyD, together, poll more than any of the two traditional parties. A trend which should be reinforced in the coming months and may lead to early elections this year.
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Re: Portugal

Post by Typhoon »

Lisbon, Portugal at night from space:

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[Credit: ISS astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield]
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Spanish Public Debt

Post by Endovelico »

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With the present neo-liberal government in Spain public debt has reached its highest level since 1910. So much for "socialists" being responsible for debt...
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Ibrahim »

Some useful graphs there, but one is missing. Someone recently told be that the Spanish economy has declined proportionally with the reduction in the number of bullfights staged every year. The necessary corrective action is clear, Hemingway would agree.
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by noddy »

another important correllation is to be found in this graph http://www.google.com.au/trends/explore ... ss%20women

it quite clearly shows that as searching for boobs went down the people worrying about the debt levels in spain went up.
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Endovelico
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How to kick a minister out...

Post by Endovelico »

It is in Portuguese, but I guess you will all understand what is happening: a minister of the Portuguese government tried to make a speech, in a Lisbon university,about the future of the media in Portugal, and the students prevented him from speaking and forced him to flee. This has been happening in the last few days and it is likely that from now on no member of the government will be able to utter a single word in public. This will go on until they resign and allow for fresh elections to be held.

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How to walk away or kick back

Post by monster_gardener »

Endovelico wrote:It is in Portuguese, but I guess you will all understand what is happening: a minister of the Portuguese government tried to make a speech, in a Lisbon university,about the future of the media in Portugal, and the students prevented him from speaking and forced him to flee. This has been happening in the last few days and it is likely that from now on no member of the government will be able to utter a single word in public. This will go on until they resign and allow for fresh elections to be held.

KtW1yGr9G2A
Thank You Very Much for your post, Endo....

Wonder what the minister was going to say.........?

And if he would have been willing to take questions......

If so.........

As said before, even David Spengler Goldman says that the Portuguese government was fiscally responsible and should be shown fiscal mercy by the Eurocrats like Merkel.......

Just got caught in the blast radius of the financial implosion........

Is Spengler wrong?

Is Portugal as corrupt as PIIGS like Greece and Spain?
a minister of the Portuguese government tried to make a speech, in a Lisbon university,about the future of the media in Portugal, and the students prevented him from speaking and forced him to flee.
May not speak well of what the next government in Portugal may be like.......

If I was a minister, I might consider leaving Portugal to the Punks ;) ......... :|

Or recommending big cuts in the subsidies to the university....... :twisted:

Maybe that is what he was up to......... :shock:
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Revolutionary Song - Grândola Vila Morena

Post by Endovelico »

A new (old) revolutionary song seems to be taking over the resistance against the oligarchic rule in Portugal (and other countries).

The original version

_KFZwGy1eJ4

On the streets

GmqUwkZqnjk

Spain joins in

rIZiTQIj9JY

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Azrael
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the assassination of Sá Carneiro and da Costa

Post by Azrael »

In recent news, one former bodyguard has come forward and claimed that there was a payment made for sabotaging the plane which resulted in the Prime Minister's death. In Portuguese law, after 25 years have passed and no one has been found guilty of the crime in question, the person involved can come forward without any repercussions. On 8 April 2012, José Esteves received from Fernando Farinha Simões an 18 page confession which asserts that the CIA and Oliver North were behind the plot to place the bomb on the plane. Because Adelino Amaro da Costa was about to denounce the covert CIA drug and gun trade that was secretly passing through Portugal he was targeted and so was Sá Carneiro because he was anti-US. The covert operation lasted for years with Oliver North's involvement.
this references the confession

Possible connection to 1980 October Surprise
Nevertheless, several individuals—most notably former Iranian President Abulhassan Banisadr, former Naval intelligence officer and National Security Council member Gary Sick; and former Reagan/Bush campaign and White House staffer Barbara Honegger—have stood by the allegation. There have been allegations that the plane crash that killed the Portuguese Prime Minister, Francisco de Sá Carneiro, in 1980 was in fact an assassination of the Defence Minister, Adelino Amaro da Costa, who had said that he had documents concerning the October surprise conspiracy theory and was planning on taking them to the United Nations General Assembly.
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Endovelico »

Thank you, Azrael.

We hear plenty of rumours about the Camarate incident/conspiracy, but I was not aware of the documents you linked with, which, as far as I know, have not been released in Portugal. I'm going to do some research on that.
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Azrael »

You're very welcome, Endovelico.
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Heracleum Persicum »

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Folks, it took me a few years to find the best Jamon in Spain .. this 2nd year I buy Jamon from : El Mayorazgo de Jabugo S.L


Highly recommended



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Endovelico
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Endovelico »

Heracleum Persicum wrote:.



Folks, it took me a few years to find the best Jamon in Spain .. this 2nd year I buy Jamon from : El Mayorazgo de Jabugo S.L


Highly recommended.
Pork???... :shock: :shock: :shock:
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YMix
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Re: Portugal

Post by YMix »

'This Is Working': Portugal, 12 Years after Decriminalizing Drugs

By Wiebke Hollersen

Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is a misdemeanor on par with illegal parking. Experts are pleased with the results.

Before he got involved in the global war on drugs, João Goulão was a family physician with his own practice in Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast. Arriving in his small office in Lisbon, the 58-year-old tosses his jacket aside, leaving his shirt collar crooked. He looks a little tired from the many trips he's taken lately -- the world wants to know exactly how the experiment in Portugal is going. Goulão is no longer able to accept all the invitations he receives. He adds his latest piece of mail to the mountain of papers on his desk.

From this office, where the air conditioning stopped working this morning, Goulão keeps watch over one of the world's largest experiments in drug policy.

One gram of heroin, two grams of cocaine, 25 grams of marijuana leaves or five grams of hashish: These are the drug quantities one can legally purchase and possess in Portugal, carrying them through the streets of Lisbon in a pants pocket, say, without fear of repercussion. MDMA -- the active ingredient in ecstasy -- and amphetamines -- including speed and meth -- can also be possessed in amounts up to one gram. That's roughly enough of each of these drugs to last 10 days.

These are the amounts listed in a table appended to Portugal's Law 30/2000. Goulão participated in creating this law, which has put his country at the forefront of experimental approaches to drug control. Portugal paved a new path when it decided to decriminalize drugs of all kinds.

"We figured perhaps this way we would be better able get things under control," Goulão explains. "Criminalization certainly wasn't working all that well."

Much the Same as a Parking Violation

As part of its war on drugs, Portugal has stopped prosecuting users. The substances listed in the Law 30/2000 table are still illegal in Portugal -- "Otherwise we would have gotten into trouble with the UN," Goulão explains -- but using these drugs is nothing more than a misdemeanor, much the same as a parking violation.

Why set the limits on these drugs at 10 days' worth of use, though?

"Well, it's a limit, which by its nature is arbitrary," Goulão says. Now the head of Portugal's national anti-drug program and an important figure in Portuguese health policy, he still talks like an easygoing family doctor. Arrayed on Goulão's windowsill are photographs, including one of him with Richard Branson, the British billionaire and hot air balloon operator. Another shows Goulão with the king of Spain. Both these men have received personal briefings on Portugal's new drug program from Goulão.

"At the point when we designed the law, we had hardly any data to draw on," Goulão relates. "We weren't the least bit certain this would work."

The question at stake: How can a government keep its citizens from taking dangerous drugs? One way is to crack down on those who provide the drugs -- the cartels, the middle men and the street dealers. Another approach is to focus on the customers -- arresting them, trying them and imprisoning them. Legal prosecution -- as both a control mechanism and a deterrent -- is the chosen approach for most governments.

Giving Up on the Idea of a Drug-Free World

"It's important that we prevent people from buying drugs, and taking drugs, using every method at our disposal," says Manuel Pinto Coelho, 64, the last great opponent of Goulão's experiment. Pinto Coelho wants his country to return to normalcy, in the form of the tough war on drugs that much of the rest of the world conducts.

Pinto Coelho is a doctor too. He has run rehab centers and written books about addiction. Now he's at odds with former colleagues and with "the system," as he says.

His greatest concern is that his country has given up on the idea of a drug-free world. How, Pinto Coelho asks, is it possible to keep young people away from drugs, when everyone knows exactly how many pills can legally be carried around? He still believes deterrents are the best form of prevention and that cold turkey withdrawal is the best treatment method. He is also fighting the extensive methadone program Portugal began as part of its drug policy reform, which now provides tens of thousands of heroin addicts with this substitute drug.

These days, Pinto Coelho earns his living running diet clinics, but he spends his evenings writing letters and drafting presentations on his country's "absurd drug experiment." He travels to symposiums to warn the rest of the world of its dangers. At home in Portugal, his critical perspective has made him an outsider, but he says he's been well received abroad. As if offering proof, he shows a fact sheet issued by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, a brief and skeptically worded report on the Portuguese experiment.

The Freedom that Overwhelmed the Country

When João Goulão wants to explain why it is Portugal in particular that came up with the idea to stop prosecuting drug users, he starts with the country's Carnation Revolution.

In 1974, Portugal broke free from nearly 50 years of military dictatorship, a political shift symbolized by the carnations soldiers stuck in the muzzles of their rifles."Suddenly, the drugs were there," Goulão says, as Portuguese returning from the country's overseas colonies brought marijuana with them. Goulão, too, says he smoked pot back then. He was in his early twenties and "drugs promised us freedom."

But it was a freedom that soon overwhelmed the country. When Goulão established his doctor's practice in Faro, he soon found himself approached by parents whose children were no longer just smoking joints, but had moved on to heroin. Sometimes the children came to him as well, and Goulão had no idea how to treat them. When the first state-run rehab clinic opened in Lisbon, Goulão attended a training course there.

At that point, he says, the heroin epidemic was just beginning.

In the 1980s, cheap heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan began flooding Europe. Portugal was not the only country affected, but Goulão says his nation was hit particularly hard, because people here had little idea how to handle drugs. "We were naïve," he says.

The number of people taking illegal drugs in Portugal was low compared with other countries, but of those who did consume drugs, an unusually high number of them fell into the category that specialists in this field refer to as "problem drug users."

From the pile of papers on his desk, Goulão unearths a copy of a speech he recently gave in Paris. Flipping through it, he finds the figure he's looking for: 100,000. This is the number of severely drug-addicted people in Portugal at the height of the epidemic, in the mid-1990s. Portugal's total population at the time was just under 10 million. The number of drug addicts who became infected with HIV was also considerably higher than in most other countries.

A drug slum formed in Lisbon, at the edge of a neighborhood known as Casal Ventoso. Here junkies slept in shacks or in the garbage, in extremely poor conditions. "They shot up on the street, and they died on the street," Goulão says. Anyone in Portugal could observe this phenomenon -- on TV, in newspaper pictures or even from the nearby highway.

These were the conditions in the country at the point when the Portuguese government convened an anti-drug commission composed of 11 experts, including Goulão. Most of the members of the commission were not politicians.

"Drug users aren't criminals, they're sick," Goulão says. Not everyone agrees -- Pinto Coelho, for example. But the anti-drug commission quickly agreed on this position, which formed the basis for Portugal's experiment in dealing with drug users without dealing in deterrents. Goulão repeats that statement often, as do members of his staff within the anti-drug program, as well as doctors at state-run drug clinics. More surprising is that a Lisbon police commissioner, whose officers spend their days searching for drugs, says it too.

The logical extension of this statement is that people who are not criminals should not be treated as criminals. They should not be arrested, put on trial or thrown in jail. The punishment for drug possession in Portugal prior to decriminalization was up to a year in prison.

The Portuguese experiment has been in action since Law 30/2000 went into effect nearly 12 years ago, and Goulão's staff is currently calculating how much money the country's judicial system has saved, in its courts and prisons, now that it no longer has to process individuals the police catch with a few grams of drugs.

"The police still search people for drugs," Goulão points out. Hashish, cocaine, ecstasy -- Portuguese police still seize and destroy all these substances.

Before doing so, though, they first weigh the drugs and consult the official table with the list of 10-day limits. Anyone possessing drugs in excess of these amounts is treated as a dealer and charged in court. Anyone with less than the limit is told to report to a body known as a "warning commission on drug addiction" within the next 72 hours.

The Second Time Brings Consequences

In Lisbon, for example, the local drug addiction commission is housed on the first floor of an unremarkable office building. The idea is that no one should feel uncomfortable about being seen here. A 19-year-old in a white polo shirt waits in one room. Police caught him over the weekend with about a gram of hashish. A social worker has already questioned him for half an hour and learned that he attended vocational training at an agricultural school, lives with his parents and smokes pot now and then. This was the first time he was caught in possession of drugs.

"Social user, no risk factors present," the social worker notes.

Next, a psychologist and a lawyer speak to the young man. They want to know if he's aware of the dangers of cannabis.

"Yeah, yeah, from school," he says. "We had a class on prevention."

As long as he isn't caught again within the next three months, his case will be closed. "We won't inform anyone that you were here and this won't go on your record," the lawyer explains. "But if it happens a second time, there are serious consequences."

But later, asked to explain these consequences in more detail, nothing comes to her mind that sounds particularly serious. A couple days of community service, perhaps. The commission can also impose fines, but the lawyer says it doesn't like to do so for teenagers. The fines are likewise not intended for people the commission determines to be addicts -- they're already paying to maintain their habit. "Our most important duty is to invite people to participate in rehab," she explains. Lisbon police send around 1,500 people to the commission each year, which averages out to less than five a day. Seventy percent of these cases concern marijuana. Those who fail to turn up receive a couple of reminders, but coercion is not an intended part of this system.

Decriminalization, Not Legalization

Warnings, reminders and invitations to rehab -- it seems Portugal's war on drugs is a gentle one. "Humanistic and pragmatic" is how João Goulão describes the new program. It is based on decriminalization, which should not be confused with legalization. Portugal considered that path too, but ultimately decided not to take things quite that far.

When Portugal's parliament was debating the proposed Law 30/2000, representatives of right-wing parties declared that planes would start arriving in the country daily, full of people looking for an easy opportunity to pump themselves full of drugs. Our entire country will become a drug-ridden slum, these parties said. The left-wing parties in parliament held a majority, though.

Goulão sits in his office and pages through charts, tables and graphs that are just some of the great quantity of data his team has collected over the years.

The data show, among other things, that the number of adults in Portugal who have at some point taken illegal drugs is rising. At the same time, though, the number of teenagers who have at some point taken illegal drugs is falling. The number of drug addicts who have undergone rehab has also increased dramatically, while the number of drug addicts who have become infected with HIV has fallen significantly. What, though, do these numbers mean? With what exactly can they be compared? There isn't a great deal of data from before the experiment began. And, for example, the number of adults who have tried illegal drugs at some point in their lives is increasing in most other countries throughout Europe as well.

Running Out of Money

"We haven't found some miracle cure," Goulão says. Still, taking stock after nearly 12 years, his conclusion is, "Decriminalization hasn't made the problem worse."

At the moment, Goulão's greatest concern is the Portuguese government's austerity policies in the wake of the euro crisis. Decriminalization is pointless, he says, without being accompanied by prevention programs, drug clinics and social work conducted directly on the streets. Before the euro crisis, Portugal spent €75 million ($98 million) annually on its anti-drug programs. So far, Goulão has only seen a couple million cut from his programs, but if the crisis in the country grows worse, at some point there may no longer be enough money.

It is simply by chance that the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has its headquarters in Lisbon. Frank Zobel works here, analyzing various approaches to combating drugs, and he says he can observe "the greatest innovation in this field" right outside his office door.

No drug policy, Zobel says, can genuinely prevent people from taking drugs -- at least, he is not familiar with any model that works this way. As for Portugal, Zobel says, "This is working. Drug consumption has not increased severely. There is no mass chaos. For me as an evaluator, that's a very good outcome."
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Endovelico
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Re: Portugal

Post by Endovelico »

Yes. It seems that sometimes humans can learn from "PIGS"... Is there a lesson in it?...
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monster_gardener
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Location: Trolla. Land of upside down trees and tomatos........

Let's have some good Tawny Port.........

Post by monster_gardener »

Endovelico wrote:Yes. It seems that sometimes humans can learn from "PIGS"... Is there a lesson in it?...
Thank you VERY Much for your post, Endo.
It seems that sometimes humans can learn from "PIIGS"...
Spelling corrected ;) but yes.........

Especially from Portugal who I again mention that David "Spengler" Goldman said was frugal and hard working with a reasonable budget & should have been shown more consideration by the European Bankers......... Or as I call them the swinish ;) Euroz ;) Banksters........

Not enough time to list all right now but again congrats on the Portuguese drug program.........

Seems to be working better than what we are doing in Uz...........
For the love of G_d, consider you & I may be mistaken.
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Heracleum Persicum
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Re: Iberian Nations

Post by Heracleum Persicum »

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Viva " Republic of Espania "


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"This monarchy was imposed on us by the dictatorship, therefore we consider it to be illegal,'' .. "Also, we consider it anachronistic to have a non-elected head of state; it's not democratic."

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Alexis
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Portugal’s elder statesman calls for 'Argentine-style' defau

Post by Alexis »

:shock:

I'm impressed...

Portugal’s elder statesman calls for 'Argentine-style' default
Mario Soares, who steered the country to democracy after the Salazar dictatorship, said all political forces should unite to “bring down the government” and repudiate the austerity policies of the EU-IMF Troika.
“Portugal will never be able to pay its debts, however much it impoverishes itself. If you can’t pay, the only solution is not to pay. When Argentina was in crisis it didn’t pay. Did anything happen? No, nothing happened," he told Antena 1.
(...)
“In their eagerness to do the bidding of Senhora Merkel, they have sold everything and ruined this country. In two years this government has destroyed Portugal,” he said.
I don't know which country will be the first to choose that policy.

But to hear the man who I understand is the most respected elder statesman of the country call for that solution is... really impressive.
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Heracleum Persicum
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Re: Portugal’s elder statesman calls for 'Argentine-style' d

Post by Heracleum Persicum »

Alexis wrote::shock:

I'm impressed...

Portugal’s elder statesman calls for 'Argentine-style' default
Mario Soares, who steered the country to democracy after the Salazar dictatorship, said all political forces should unite to “bring down the government” and repudiate the austerity policies of the EU-IMF Troika.
“Portugal will never be able to pay its debts, however much it impoverishes itself. If you can’t pay, the only solution is not to pay. When Argentina was in crisis it didn’t pay. Did anything happen? No, nothing happened," he told Antena 1.
(...)
“In their eagerness to do the bidding of Senhora Merkel, they have sold everything and ruined this country. In two years this government has destroyed Portugal,” he said.
I don't know which country will be the first to choose that policy.

But to hear the man who I understand is the most respected elder statesman of the country call for that solution is... really impressive.

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One must admit, those who lend Portugal so much money, they carry the main burden (stupidity) of all this .. Portugal same Portugal always has been, economics well knows, meaning those lenders should have known Portugal can never pay them back .. that thing is equivalent to American Wall Street giving out billion of dollars "no Doc" mortgages (to homeless people)

In that sense, I would agree with Mario Soares .. in reality this will happen no matter what .. Germans will pay, as usual .. that is the price Germans pay for not having wars in Europe

Poor Angela


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