by Zé Barbosa, on May 24th, 2010 Isn’t this awesome? I am married and this is my third post with this (not that much) nice title: Marriage Sucks! Nevertheless, I have been invited for a wedding of a friend of mine, which will take place soon, and this made me think that I could try a remake of my previous posts about marriage, which you can read if you click here and here.
Let us start with my own country, Portugal, and how Portuguese deal with marriage, that great social institution created to assure Humankind preservation and lots of commercial profits. In 2001, a number of 58,390 weddings took place over here (around 5.7 weddings per 1,000 inhabitants), against the 19,044 divorces (around 1.8 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants). Since 1992 (up to date), number of weddings have decreased (23.7%), number of divorces have increased (54.6%). Divorces happen more often when the couple has fewer or no kids at all.
Why do people marry? For the same reason we use fork and knife to eat our meals: we have been told to do it to achieve a harmonious social integration. The fact is that people still get married… a lot! If they do, despite everything, it can be because marriage is like chocolate: might hurt your health but tastes good. Marriage may hurt you, right, we all know that. But, does marriage taste good? What part of it? Although, on one hand, we can understand why number of marriages are decreasing (economical crisis may justify that) in our country, why are divorces increasing if, as I heard, running a divorce is not that much unexpensive?
Infidelity! Or, should I say adultery? Adultery is a moral crime, isn’t it? It can be much worse than that, in some countries (), lighter in other. No matter what the rules are, I wonder if adultery is considered as such even if there is no sex in between? Or, there is only adultery if the adulterers perform sexual intercourse? What if there is no sexual intercourse but only some gentle strokes or kisses? What if, it is only platonic? What if… We do love “what ifs”, don’t we? All sins get much lighter if we add lots of “what ifs” or “maybe nots”! What I do not agree with is the fact that people use “infidelity” as synonym of “adultery”. No way! I might be practicing infidelity without being an adulterer. If I am an adulterer, I cannot see where that will necessarily drives me to infidelity. You might complement my words here with the ones from Rufus Wainwright, in my post here… Don’t ask me why! I am pretty sure you will guess out how those words might complement mine.
This time I have not an as much hardened attitude before marriage as I had when I wrote my first post (2007, read it here). I have decided, lately, to remove marriage from my list of serious matters. This time I feel stupid when I read my own posts, written a couple of years ago, where I wrote too much about too little. I even do not feel like wanting to talk about same-sex marriage. It is silly, isn’t it? Marriage makes no sense when applied to homosexuality but nobody cares about that, actually. Nobody is caring anymore about concepts, definitions, ideologies, beliefs and similar (apparently boring) stuff. Awesome is the fact of this little ultra conservative country called Portugal has recently approved same-sex marriage and is being now discussing adoption by homosexual couples! Awesome is the fact that Portuguese politicians sweating conservativeness and traditionalism through every pore of their body, publically mention same-sex marriage with expressions of (fake) new-modernism and convenient disdain for those who, sometimes based on well sustained arguments, are against. The gods might be crazy, I guess…
I will not write anymore about marriage nor will take any time to discuss it. I have realized lately I already have too little time in life to waste it with non-senses. Although being married and having no (declared) intention of leaving that status, I live very well with myself even being part of a non-sense. Everyone has the right of supporting respective life on a couple of non-senses, everyone has the right of being a non-sense him or herself as well. So, let Catholics get married and divorced, married and divorced again, and again, all many times they wish because, being the divorce not at all recognized or validated by Catholic Church, getting divorced cannot be worse than Catholic priests (and bishops) practicing pedophilia, can it?
Do gods get married? I guess not! They wouldn’t be entitled for a position of god if they would let themselves to go that much down to the level of simple mortals like we, the mortals, are.
May the gods be with my friends, He and She, who have had the great idea of inviting me to their wedding…
by Zé Barbosa, on May 20th, 2010 Let’s start from the beginning: a “spring” is a metal elastic device that returns to its shape or position when pushed, pulled or pressed. The word “arse” refers to ass, buttocks (British Slang) or someone who is stupid or repulsive (British Slang). Altogether, “Springs In Arses” is a deep sociologic study about those arses wearing a spring in their arses!
I have noticed that my posts are very often a bunch of words, organized to form phrases which are supposed to transmit an idea, a thought, a wish, a frustration, whatsoever… Unfortunately, not rarely, that does not happen, I mean, even I get (myself) lost when reading my own posts! Superb, isn’t it? But no, this time, in this post, I will be mathematical as much as an arse like me can be and I will do a tremendous effort to be clean, tidy, linear, basic, clear, accessible and, above all, will try to turn occasional readers to faithful ones. So, this post is about my professional vision of what is going on regarding the management styles of Portuguese managers I have the pleasure to know. It is not my intention to use here more than my proficient ability for generating bullshit in form of text (yep, this figure of style has attracted me lately, just like honey usually attracts bears!).
Portuguese companies are very much “bossy management” oriented. Bossy management is a very 3rd-world style of managing a company. Portugal still has lots of residual signs of 3rd-worldism. We owe that to the colonial style of managing life (and lives) we have generated on ourselves since the very first day we decided to discover the world (Portuguese Discoveries). Colonial style is usually based on slavery or any other way of exercising power over someone from who we do not expect more than servility. Servility is normally associated to lack or total absence of self-driven attitude. Servile people usually call “comfort” to their servility. Some, call it “harmony”. Other, call it “team work”. There are those not calling it anything because they just assume themselves as servile people which is good enough for them. Wow, “courage” above all…
The profile of a “bossy” manager is simple:
- arrogant
- conceited, proud, uppish, vain, presumptuous, pretentious and/or vainglorious (just pick the one you like most)
- owner of a large variety of relevant life values: money, more money and even more money!
- canny, clear, astute, acute, discerning, sagacious, penetrating, penetrative, perspicacious, sharp, shrewd and/or keen (just pick the one you like most)
- very often becomes a benefaction practitioner
- unconditional fan of modern management conceptions and high technologies (for instance a titanium spring in their subordinate’s ass)
- show-off lover
- takes fear and panic as a sign of unlimited respect
- loves to be designated by CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
- has always an “intelligent” joke (or two) to include in official speeches (being very little tolerant to subordinates not smiling or laughing on his jokes)
- takes “delegation” as a synonym of “you may lick my ass if you do what you are told to”
The profile of a servile subordinate does not need to be presented here. We all know it very well, don’t we? Generally, we all are servile in our jobs. It is a matter of survival, isn’t it? What we all are not is lovers of springs in our arses. Many of the mid/high chief-officers I know, just love it (nothing to do with sexual orientation, believe me). They say that is mandatory to assure harmony, teamwork and efficiency towards the corporation’s success. They are then able to jump up at the simplest wish of their “bossy” boss. They feel they are very well equipped to respond fast to a simple sneeze of their “bossy” boss. In some corporations, a sneeze from the “bossy” boss is like an order, which requires an immediate creation of an action plan followed by lots of staff meetings. Then, much chitchat about things nobody really knows anything about (but about what everybody talks much) takes place with a body and face expression of infinitive knowledge and wisdom. Guys, you know what? It works, it really works, believe me.
In the climax of a cellphone era, being in a meeting with those mid/high chief-officers, meeting which is supposed to be important otherwise should never be happening, listening to the ringing of one (or more) of their company cell-phones, seeing them reading on the respective display their “bossy” boss’ name and jumping up right after at a super-sonic speed, is the ultimate life experience one must go through at least once in life. These guys with a spring in their arses, are great. They are well paid, prerogatives are enough (they would be happy anyway just for the fact they are allowed to breathe the same air of their “bossy” boss), they have no right to think by themselves which is great for saving their brain from premature wearing out, their spring is a company’s offer and is replaced every two to three years and, finally, they are smartass enough to get their own staff convinced about the same values and beliefs. All’s well that ends well.
This post is dedicated to Mr. RGAL, a new acquaintance in my life, who loved quite a lot this story of mine about “Springs In Arses” and, after that, is still trying to understand what type of jackass I am.
May the gods be with him…
by Zé Barbosa, on May 16th, 2010 Speaking of Mr. Edvale (again) and my son (14 yo), I definitely have got surrendered to Muse (band), a rock group from Teignmouth (Devon), UK, from what I already took a very beautiful rock ballad with the intention of sharing it with my readers, through this blog, which you can listen to here.
‘Why surrendered?’, you may ask. Because everything fits when we speak about this band: music, sound, art, lyrics, melody, rythm, color, simplicity and beauty. Muse’s primary genres are progressive rock, glam rock, space rock, and alternative rock, but they also integrate parts of electronica, indie, rock opera, classical, hard rock, metal and occasionally R&B. Have a look (and a listen) here below.
May the muses be with you…
by Zé Barbosa, on May 15th, 2010 I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what I’m saying, I don’t know why I’m watching all these white people dancing. I don’t know where I’m going, but I do know that I’m walking. Where? I don’t know. Just away from this love affair. I can’t say that I’m cruisin’, not that I don’t like cruisin’. Just that I’m bruisin from you. I can’t say that I’m waltzin’, not that I don’t like waltzing. Would rather be waltzin’ with you. So I guess that I’m going, I guess that I am walking. Where? I don’t know. Just away from this love affair.
- by Rufus Wainwright, in “All I Want”, © 2005
by Zé Barbosa, on May 11th, 2010 As of the writing of this post, Pope Benedict XVI must be taking a walk outside, somewhere between Lisbon, Fátima and Porto, in Portugal. For some reason I really do not know what (or why), the Ten Commandments came up to my mind triggered by this visit which, in this case, is simultaneously religious and political (the order of these factors does not seem to be relevant, for me). Are the lunatics already in my head? Anyway, I have decided to place here one version of the Ten Commandments as they are known by (some) Catholics, together with one or two comments which surely will be a big contribution to self-development of my readers. Despite this, please be aware of: nothing serious, adult, educational, prophylactic, orientative, theological or scientific will get out of here. Bypass this post if you are too sensitive to bullshit in form of text.
1 – One
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Holy shit! This is a hell of a commandment. I have currently in this blog tens of posts ending with my favorite phrase “may the gods be with you” (check out the lower case I am using for “gods”, will you?). I do not recall this part, during Sunday school, of Catholics venerating a “jealous God”. Shame on me…
2 – Two
“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”
Noooo… Has anybody read this one? In Portugal (and I am pretty sure, everywhere), the name of God is used by muggers, murderers, pedophiles, robbers, rapers, shoplifters, smugglers, terrorists, thiefs, vandals, burglars, hijackers, hooligans, kidnappers, blackmailers, lawyers, politicians and other nice people. You see? “Oh my God”, “Oh Lord”, “For God sake”, etc, etc.
3 – Three
“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.”
Oh! Can’t say much about this. I just work five days per week, Saturday is usually a great day and I hate Sundays. Furthermore, I never was a slave. To be exploited in my job, does it count?
4 – Four
“Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Fully agree. May they rest in peace because they were great people. Besides, they have generated and raised this great piece of art, which happens to be me!
5 – Five
“You shall not kill / You shall not murder”
There are not many people reading this, are there? I believe we, human beings, kill animals and murder people but, anyhow, we do kill and murder as easy as we drink water or change our shirt when is wet by sweat!
6 – Six
“Neither shall you commit adultery.”
Wow! My favorite. I intend to attempt on this one before I die and I already have warned my wife. She didn’t like the idea, I should say, but adultery is really something…
7 – Seven
“Neither shall you steal.”
I won’t. I get nervous, I start sweating, I am no longer able to talk normally only for thinking about the idea of stealing something. No, not me! I bypass this one, ok?
8 – Eight
“Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Well, guys, this world is a dog! If it has to be, let it be. The guy will do it against me anyway if he has the chance to. So, it’s a matter of surviving, isn’t it?
9 – Nine
“Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.”
First time, I have read “cover” instead of “covet”! I and my dirty thoughts…. It’s not a good idea to do it with our neighbor. It’s too close and there is always the possibility of him to be karate black belt. Fortunately, I will not be tempted in the next times because all my neighbors (male) have married for pure love, I mean, no attractive female neighbors have been around…
10 – Ten
“Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
No way. I love to be poor.
You know what? May the gods be with you…
And with the pope!
by Zé Barbosa, on May 9th, 2010 … it is what I am seeking but not finding. The perfect combination of wisdom and beauty is pure utopia. It would be great to have nearby someone much capable of not letting you get into the conclusion that you are a loser surrounded by losers. Those who are able of running frequent introspection exercises (actually, I don’t know many!) for watching themselves and reply to the question “where am I going to?”, easily will understand me if I say that winners will turn to be losers if they let themselves spending too much time among these, as much as losers will probably turn to be winners if they succeed to be kept among these, as well. Environment is implacable, isn’t it?
When we are young (let us say, for instance, teenagers) we are totally sure we own the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. When we are old we may get totally sure we simply do not know what truth is and probably we will rather go best without knowing it. We may get into the conclusion, then, that probably there is not a TRUTH but millions of little truths instead. When we are young we prefer faster to better, don’t we? When we are young, we know that “elder” is the opposite of “faster”. Yet, when we are young, we desperately want to get older and still… faster!!! In a desperate effort for being a good father, I usually tell my children (a couple of them) “do not ever wish to be older, learn to enjoy your actual state, instead”. This is because when we are older, we usually regret to have wanted to be older when it was more sensate to be what we were: young!
How can one know if already achieved the wisdom state? No idea… Wisdom is as much relative as beauty or flavor. Nevertheless, there is a standard pattern, isn’t that so? For instance, many men in the world agree to define Michelle Pfeiffer as a beautiful woman, don’t they? I do! Likewise, many people in the world agree to define chicken as a good thing to be eaten. There is a pattern, indeed. The level of wisdom is higher when we meet ourselves to be very close to death. Depressing, isn’t it? Somewhat de-motivating, I would dare to say…
Lately, I am being like an airplane crossing a turbulent air space: many things are now depending on me, the pilot. Good news are: I am pretty sure I will land safe. Bad news are: why did nobody ask me first if I was in a favorable mood to be crossing a hostile air space? I am an old man, damn it!
Whispers Of Wisdom it is what I am seeking but not finding. Nevertheless, this time I do not want gods to be with me, or you…
May all the devils get together to be with us, then…
by Zé Barbosa, on March 25th, 2010 All of a sudden I have felt a tremendous desire of coming here, to my laptop Toshiba, Satellite Pro P300-1F1, and say something about Shakespeare. Not the silly English writer, William Shakespeare, but only the little cafe where sometimes I go to face, one on one, my own capacity to deal with my limited capacities.
Shakespeare Bar is a bar (what a fucking redundancy, isn’t it?) where once in a while I go to spend some time with my fellow Mr. AM to see how far can a man resist to alcohol and consequent conversations about everything and nothing. You may visit it but you’ll see there’s really nothing there it could be a good reason to place it, for instance, in a Michelin tourism guide. But if, anyway, you would like to go there, these are the GPS coordinates which can help you to not get lost in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal: N41.41023º-W8.51768º.
The owner, it’s just a lady I really love to stare at, deeply in her eyes. It’s really impressive the ability you are enabled with when you are under the effect of alcohol. Above all, it’s really impressive the ability you are enabled with when you are under the effect of a tremendous frustration for a couple of decades you see as a lost time or, at least, not that much profitable time to contribute to your own happiness.
Mr. AM is a kind of revelation to me. I wonder how much of myself he is able to absorb, but the doubt (I should say the “curiosity”), consumes me like hell. How far can a man go in a way he can mix together a professional and a personal relationship? Theories about what you should or should not be relating to your co-workers are numerous and exceeding the number of mothers in this world. Mr. AM is that human being I am keeping in my mind as an expression of someone looking for something. He has been patient enough with my wanderings (roaming, it’s what gave the name to this blog) and it seems he is trying to drink something from them. Is he?
Ms. JU is really something! I’m impressed with the fact she is able to be there and be selling, patiently. I wonder if I could, in fact, drive my own bar as I have dreamed lately. Will I be able to become a kind of Ms. JU? Will I? I wonder, as well, what drives that woman to be available for all those (I guess not that many) men, young and less young, searching something I just define as the spirit we need to achieve our own balance. Does she know what balance is any of her clients looking for? Are they looking for a family kind peace? Can she give them that? Does it really matter?
Ms. Referee “The Hottie”, is another character of my little story, here and today about Shakespeare. She represents all preconceptions one might have about love and attraction, sex and platonic relationships. It’s really great the way I let myself going through these absolutely free deviations about social standard behaviors. Just thoughts, not at all understood and reinforced by the normal standard oriented citizens.
This is a tribute to Mr. AM and Ms. JU. This is a reminder of those “once in a month or two” moments I have spent in Shakespeare Bar, a corner elected to be my place of refuge. Believe me, just a simple corner I already have seen painted of several different colors.
May the gods be with Mr.AM, a “shopfloor” man, Ms. JU and the Jameson Irish Whiskey portions she so generously serves…
by Zé Barbosa, on March 8th, 2010 Last Saturday I took part of a family reunion for the baptism of one of my nieces, daughter of my wife’s brother. I do not remember when was the last time, before this, I was in a Catholic church for any kind of ceremony and this fact made me to use this opportunity to pay attention to the ceremony itself.
The Catholic baptism is like a registration in a specific club, in this case the Catholic one, which will be the social group to what a child will belong at least till the date when that child will be able to negate its parent’s choice. Yes, baptism is (normally) a parent’s choice because, in Portugal, children receive baptism in the first couple of months after birth. Football club lovers very often do the same: their children are registered as associates not much after birth. This is faith!
The script of a baptism ceremony has not changed that much. After a while I got familiar again with all that blah, blah, blah (my memory still works, you know!) and I immediately got into the conclusion that Catholic Church runs slow, very slow. I then saw myself lost in thoughts about religiosity of mankind and in pros and cons for a life totally dedicated to God, just like priests apparently do. All the typical text written for a baptism may drive you to a collision with irrationality if you think it too much! So, you better don’t… This is faith!
The career of a Catholic human being starts with baptism (first anointment, first sacrament), followed by Catechism (Sunday school), First Holy Communion, more Catechism, Confirmation or Chrismation or second Holy Communion, more Catechism and Sunday masses (or whatever day), some extra activities like Scouting, groups of transcendental introspection, music or theatre groups, civic activities like supporting old people and then (aiming the species continuity) marriage. After marriage, children will come. After children, baptism will come again. The last step will be the last anointment which takes place when your soul is still together with your body right before its departure to a nice place very close to God, where it will stay happy ever after. This is faith!
A Catholic baptism is a commitment. It cannot be taken by the child, surely not, but for some reason the parents and godparents are present, holding the child and a huge candle, respectively. Godparents’ mission is very similar to the one assumed by USA, related to the rest of the World, long time ago: make sure everybody accomplishes respective goals while living in peace forever and ever. This is faith!
A Catholic baptism is comparable to a stain-remover spray. Human beings all are born as sinners: we carry the Capital Sin, first committed by Adam and Eve, since the very first moment we are conceived. But God is merciful and gave us Baptism through what we are able to reset our sins counter to zero. The water used for the ceremony has no detergents or corrosive substances. It is, instead, a holy water which is supposed to be enough to clean us up until we commit sin again. This is faith!
May the gods be with us…
by Zé Barbosa, on February 26th, 2010 This time the idea is to proclaim to the world the immeasurable joy I felt yesterday with the clear and unequivocal victory of Sporting Clube de Portugal, from Lisboa, over Everton F.C., from Liverpool, UK. Not because I am a Sporting supporter (you know, I love F.C. Porto) but mainly because the team they beat is an English (from England) one
Sporting C.P. 3 – 0 Everton F.C.
Congratulations SCP! Bye bye Everton…
by Zé Barbosa, on February 24th, 2010 Porto, February 17th – I took my 14 years old son to the cathedral of my hometown’s sport club: “O Estádio do Dragão”. My favorite football team, F.C. Porto, was playing against Arsenal F.C., from London, UK, the first round of eighth-final for the UEFA Champions League. I had promised to my son, some time ago, I would take him to a football match in the “Dragon Stadium” and, I thought, there it is my chance: a football game with our favorite team against a team representing the creators of football.
My son has been educated loving FCPorto because I was educated, since I was 4 years old, loving FCPorto and also because it is good to educate children loving a champion team! We all wish to be champions, don’t we? So, there was I surrounded by blue-and-white colors, with my blue-and-white scarf worn around my neck, and for some reason, before the match started, I found myself trying to explain to myself why I don’t like English people. I really mean English, from England. Not British, not Scottish, not Walsh, not Irish.
First of all it is very necessary to understand the difference between United Kingdom and Great Britain. Although being an impossible mission, I will try anyhow. Literally, UK stands for “United Kingdom” which is a kingdom… united. “Kingdom” refers to a political regime: monarchy. “United” refers to parts which, for some reason, decided to share something. Now, UK is composed by England (the cruel colonizers), Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are supposed to be united but in fact Northern Ireland and Scotland have been kindly invited, by the power of weapons and lots of cruelty, to “get united” to England. Wales is no more than a vacation colony for the royal house members and other British high-society people. Regarding the designation “Great Britain”, this is just the name given to the archipelago also including Republic Of Ireland.
What do I know about UK? A lot of things I would prefer to know nothing about. There is a long historical connection between Portugal and England with very little profits for Portugal, of course. A clear proof of that is the recent “police case” involving a little English girl called Madeleine McCann who was spending holidays in Algarve, Portugal, together with her parents and has disappeared from home while her parents where getting drunk in a local pub… The case seemed to be pretty difficult to resolve but our British “friends” didn’t think so: our Police has been offended, our Justice has been offended, our media have been offended and, at a certain point, I was pretty close to be sure that UK would send Army, Navy and RAF to invade Portugal. All this to undercover a total lack of responsibility of an English couple of (bad) parents.
Some years ago I spent a couple of weeks in two British towns: Manchester and Edinburgh. Scots are very nice people. Yes, they are. English are a crap. Yes, they are. Manchester was an old and dirty town, with no urbanization planning at all, plenty of socially segregated Indians and “cold fishes”. Restaurants had a poor service, food was bad (English cuisine does not exist at all!), hotels staff were rude, taxi service was a mess as much as traffic in general. Is it better today? I have no idea but I do not want to have, anyhow. Meanwhile, I have met several people from England, from Scotland and from Republic of Ireland. Guys, they do not seem to be made of the same material, believe me.
England is the father (or mother) of Apartheid. India is a tremendous example what can English be capable of. They have been there from 15th to 20th century and after they left only the chaos has remained. South Africa (from 18th century), is still, in all aspects, a barrel of gunpowder. United States (the new world) need to thank France and Spain for the help they received to get rid of UK (see United States Declaration of Independence, 1776). However, North-Americans have not yet got rid of a couple of contagious English diseases. What can the world learn about colonization and decolonization through England history? That they are racists? That they are xenophobic? Or, are they an altruistic people thinking only of helping the poors of the world? Every time I think about England I think about leeches. I wonder why…
Port Wine is an English creation. A large British community has lived in Portugal for centuries and a couple of them have found a way to use the northern ills of Portugal to produce a special wine which is today world-wide famous. That is why most of Port Wine brands are in English language. The big Port Wine producers have used for decades the cheap labor of simple and humble people in Portugal working hard to survive. Working conditions were very close to slavery and all profits from wine production were transferred to England, only. The lords of the Port Wine always have behaved as kings in their own kingdom as Portugal have been always very permissive to these sanguinary and snob beings coming from a cold archipelago in the middle of a cold northern sea.
English people do not mix together with foreigners! Everywhere they go they create their own British communities, very much tight blockade. They are only very much opened to other peoples from English speaking countries: USA, Australia and New-Zealand. British hardly have a peaceful relationship with other cultures and they never try to speak other languages. When I was in Britain some years ago, I remember how Scots were very much patient with my “international” English language (a little bit less bad than it is today). I remember most of them have tried to empathize with me and get me integrated in their environment. But those were the Braveheart descendents who hate to be designated as… English. I also remember that English, the guys from England, have shown (they still have) no patience at all with my poor English language. The best I got from these silly monarchists was a couple of them trying to communicate with me using a ridiculous spoken… Spanish language!
Have you ever seen a beautiful English woman? Yes, but it is not easy, is it? For some reason, the rate of gays in England is so high. Or is it because they have got that weird ancient Greek habit of marrying to women but get sex with men? English women are self-convinced. “So what?”, you could ask as English people it is generally like so, but I am just trying to include some more substance to introduce another issue here: family. First of all, I still insist on the premise that a child should not be forced to live with homosexual parents because that is not the normal social pattern (and I hope it won’t ever be!). Secondly, experts in Sociology use to say that weather contributes quite a lot to form a specific social behavior of populations. As the British weather is awful, people should stay together at home longer and like so reinforce the family laces. As a matter of fact, that is not true because British men spend one third of their lives working, one third sleeping and the other third in pubs drinking pints of that awful British beer (mainly the dark one). Our old “allies”, England, usually attack violently what they call Portugal’s 3rd-worldism in many aspects like, for instance, child labor exploitation. I wonder why..
| Parameter |
UK |
Portugal |
Units |
in |
| Population |
60 769 000 |
10 623 000 |
1 |
2007 |
| Life Expectancy at Birth |
79.0 |
78.2 |
years |
2009 |
| Infant Mortality |
4.9 |
4.8 |
deaths/1000 live births |
2009 |
| Total Adult Literacy Rate |
99 |
95 |
% |
2009 |
| Divorce |
42 |
26 |
% |
2002 |
| Best country to be a mother? |
No |
No |
Y/N |
2009 |
| Suicide Rate |
6.8 |
6.5 |
% |
2006 |
| Rapes |
13 395 |
433 |
1/year |
2002 |
| Kidnappings |
3 261 |
432 |
1/year |
2002 |
| Domestic Violence |
0.67 |
0.15 |
% |
2006 |
| Sexual offences against women |
1.9 |
0.5 |
% |
2009 |
| Assaults |
5.4 |
0.9 |
% |
2009 |
| Total Crimes |
6 523 706 |
218 360 |
1/year |
2002 |
| Victimisation rate |
21.0 |
10.4 |
% |
2009 |
I am still trying hard to understand what is UK doing in European Community! Usually they are very much against everything, they are not much appreciated by all other members, they seem to exist to serve USA interests, not ours, they have refused to be part of the Eurozone and I believe they will keep out only for selfish economical reasons, they drive left while everybody drives right, they still use the same units of measurement they used in medieval England while others have evolved to the International System of Units (SI) and they still insist on “fish ‘n’ chips” as the best meal for human beings while all other members have long since found beef, pork, vegetables, fruits and so on. Actually, UK should be only another state of USA, another star in the US flag.
What good can come from England? Not good wind, nor good marriage. Stuff like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Dire Straits, Coldplay and Muse is the good we still can get from that land of carrots. The match in London will be very difficult for FCPorto because usually UEFA’s referees have something against Portuguese teams and, even worse, this season my favorite football team it is really down. I guess Arsenal will step forward but I would really love if it were not like so.
May the gods be with FCPorto…
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Revamping This Due to integration of a photo-blog and a net-radio, this website is being revamped, mainly its audio/video content. For this reason, some of the links to video-clips and audio songs might result on message errors pointing to missing media. We apologize for this. We're trying to be as fast as devil steals good people's souls...
2011-Dec
The Webmaster Book Of The Day
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Portuguese Homestyle Cooking
— by Ana Patuleia Ortins, in 2008-09-30
Everyone loves Mediterranean food. But how many of us are familiar with genuine Portuguese cooking, a melange of Mediterranean, mountain, and Atlantic coast influences? The...
See book cover!
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