A man without a country

I'm going to tell you Suleimane Camaná's story.
Suleimane was born in Guiné-Bissau twenty five years ago.
His parents got separated when he was seven.
With no right to choose, he remained with his mother who travelled to Senegal.
For many years he lost track of his father.
At the age of nine he was already working doing errands in exchange for bread.
In the years that followed he would do a bit of everything, including carrying goods or work at a car garage, always without having any wages, only food in return (sometimes not even that, instead he felt the lashes of a whip).
His mother remarried when he was twelve and since he didn't like his stepfather, he's started to live on the streets.
His mother would die just a few years later.
One day he heard someone speaking of Europe, "the land of the white, where no one felt hungry".
He's decided then that there was where he wanted to be.
For six years he saved the little money he could demand from a few of his employers until  he finally had enough for that- much desired- boat trip.
Except that the voyage wasn't what he expected as a large part of his travel companions died along the way.
Finally the vessel drops them somewhere around Barcelona and a guide takes them to Switzerland by not very known pats...
Suleimane will remain in Switzerland for the next three years.
However one day he meets a man in France who tells him he has met his father who is now living in Portugal as a Portuguese Citizen.
From then until he gets his father's contact isn't hard.
His father's reassurance that it will be easy to get Portuguese documents with his birth certificate (which his father had kept all these years) raises Suleimsne's hopes to have a better future here in Portugal.
So with nothing but a hand full of dreams Suleimane arrives to his father's house in the north of Portugal.
However on the day after his arrival he is awaken to a much harsher reality.
On their way to take care of Suleimane's legal documents, he and his father are approached by the public security police inspectors who suspect they might be illegal because they are speaking creole...
With no Portuguese legal documents Suleimane is arrested.
The only contact allowed between father and son will be a single phone call in which the son informs the father that he's already in Lisbon.
Desperate to remain in Portugal Suleimane will beat the inspectors as they try to take him to the plane a few days later.
He is beaten back.
Realizing it will not come to anything he rips open his wrist with is teeth (in his mind anything is better than going back to his country even death).
The inspectors will handcuff him, tie his legs and carry him to the plane.
Unfortunately for the Portuguese inspectors, the Guiné authorities do not allow Suleimane back in his country for from their point of view he has no family or job perspectives there,
The twenty five year old is sent back to Portugal (on his way the inspectors try to reach an agreement with Morocco's authorities to leave him there, but they are not up for it).
Portuguese inspectors will try to deport Suleimane once more, yet the attempt will still be unsuccessful.
Living in fear of deportation Suleimane keeps himself locked inside his father's house, too afraid to come out should he find another inspector eager to send him away from the only relative he has, although a tribunal has forbidden his deportation for the time being.
I must say, I am not proud at all of the way Portuguese authorities handled this all case.
Are we humans or are we beasts?
Tell me, is it not better to provide Suleimane with the documents which would allow him to take part of the working class in Portugal and build a life for himself instead of force him to remain inside a house by fear of getting caught?
And don't tell me he will take someone else's job if that happens. These people work on heavy hard jobs and I don't see many Portuguese born citizen's applying for them...
Suleimane thought he had nothing when he had no money nor clothes he could call his own.
Yet we've proved him that he could loose what he didn't think he had, a country, his dignity and his will to live and fight for a better tomorrow.
What does it make of us?
(This happened in May 2013)

"Portugal" e "Feira cabisbaixa" de Alexandre O'Neil

Ó Portugal, se fosses só três sílabas,
Linda vista para o mar,
Minho verde, Algarve de cal,
jerico rapando o espinhaço da terra,
surdo e miudinho,
muinho a braços com o vento
testarudo, mas embolado e, afinal, amigo,
se fosses só o sal, o sol, o sul,
o ladino pardal,
o manso boi coloquial, a rechinante sardinha,
a desancada varina,
o plumitivo ladrilhado de lindos adjetivos,
a muda queixa amendoada
duns olhos pestanítidos
se fosses só a cegarrega do estio, dos estilos,
o ferrugento cão asmático das praias,
o grilo engaiolado, a grila no lábio,
o calendario na parede, o emblema na lapela,
ó Portugal, se fosses só três sílabas
de plastico, que era mais barato!

"Feira cabisbaixa"

doceiras de Amarante, barristas de Barcelos,
rendeiras de Viana, toureiros da Golegã,
não há "papo de anjo" que seja o meu derriço,
galo que cante a cores na minha prateleira,
alvura arrendada para o meu devaneio,
bandarilha que possa enfeitar-me o cachaço,
Portugal; questão que tenho comigo mesmo,
golpe até ao osso, fome sem entretém,
perdigueiro marrado e sem narizes, sem perdizes,
rocim engraxado, feira cabisbaixa,
meu remorso,
meu remorso de todos nós...

The aid...

I've watched an interview with the Russian ambassador in the US saying the Russia is not aiding Syria's government on the conflict, but complying with a contract those two governments had made in 2007...
However, I read yesterday on a Portuguese newspaper that the Russian government was not happy that the EU decided to take off the embargo (partially) on Syria's weapon supplies so that the rebels could be armed, but continuing to deny its supply to the Syria's government.
Apparently Russian's vice foreigner affairs minister said  it was a mistake on EU's part and that Russia supplies weapons to the Syrian government because Assad's regime is the true regime so the supply of weaponry to that government is a stabilizing factor...
Truly, do they think we are all idiots?
Either Russia is fulfilling a contract made before the war on that region or aiding the "true regime".
So what's it going to be?   

Receber sem trabalhar

Durante anos tenho ouvido dizer que a UE pagou aos agricultores para deixarem de produzir.
No entanto não foi bem assim.
Pelos vistos os fundos da UE destinavam-se á modernizaçao e reestruturação da agricultura nomeadamente para cultivo de novos produtos.
Infelizmente muitos destes agricultores acabaram por não investir no sector acabando por ficar com os fundos para outros gastos pessoais (na minha vila foram Land Rovers e afins...).
A falta, ou escassa fiscalização sobre como esses fundos estavam a ser utilizados permitia que alguns dos agricultores se dessem ao luxo de só remexerem a terra sem cultivar nada quando ouviam dizer que uma destas fiscalizações estava em curso no caso de os fiscais irem ao campo o que não acontecia tão frequentamente como devia.
No caso do sector das pescas algo parecido se passou quando surgiram fundos comunitários para destruição e aquisição de novos barcos, pois grande parte dos pescadores acabou por optar ficar com o dinheiro a adquirir nova embarcação.
Dir-me-ão que não compensava usar o dinheiro nesta modernização pois uma grande fatia deste acabaria por ficar nas instituições governamentais através de taxas e impostos (até acredito que o mesmo se tenha passado na agricultura), mas a verdade é que esse dinheiro acabou por não ser utilizado para fim a que se destinava.
Até consigo imaginar as risadas que estas pessoas deram na altura, pavaneando-se pelo sua esperteza enquanto o país diminuia a sua produçao drasticamente.
É esta gula, esta ganância por bens materiais sem mostrar interesse em realmente trabalhar para os conseguir, juntamente com uma péssima gerência política que deixou o país no estado em que está hoje.
Pois não se queixem agora...trabalhem, só assim a situação mudará.

Buddism VS Muslim

There's a 1994 Burmese law which restricts the number of Rohingya muslins' children to two per couple. So far it has been ignored, however Rakhine's regime has decided to bring it to live in two zones near Bangladesh's border in Buthidaung and Maungdaw.
Accordingly to the regime this measure is to contain the increasing growth of the Muslim population in the country for they consider it as threat to their national identity since, to the Burmese people, the Rohingya people are foreigners in their country although the Rohingya have been in Burma since the XIX century (Burmese people consider them illegal immigrants since then).
Maybe the muslins who came from Bangladesh at that time were indeed illegal immigrants, but not now. Now these people are just as Burmese as the rest of the population, the only difference is their religion.
And as far as I know no true religion instigates violence, not Catholic, not Muslim nor Buddhism. In fact, I'm sure Buddha would condemn the violence demonstrated in this part of the region by people who believes in his teachings.
What are they afraid of?
How can a minority which represents only 4% of their population be a threat to their national identity?
A country's identity is build on traditions, struggles and strength. These qualities are part of many people around the world for this is how countries were built.
Someone's faith does not threaten it, what does is the darker side of us, that side which wants to dominate and when it's not able to, envies those who actually made it, which leads to extremism.
See, it's envy and greed, nothing to do with religion...
Do they really think that discriminating people based on their religion is right?
What about these people's human rights?
Or do they not consider them as human beings at all?
So tell me do you really think you have the right to live as you wish while others have to live as you want?

"Alimentos aos pombos"

Pelos vistos surgiu há pouco tempo uma polemica sobre se devemos ou não alimentar os pedintes que povoam as nossas ruas.Não sei o que vocês pensam, no entanto devo dizer-vos que não vejo qualquer mal nisso, de facto até concordo em alimenta-los uma vez que estes alimentos promovem o bem estar de pessoas que vivem em condições de pobreza extrema enquanto que dar-lhes dinheiro quando estendem a mão erá alimentar os seus vicios e não o corpo.
Poder-se-á dizer que existe muito boa gente que se serve deste serviço sem realmente precisar. Comcordo, mas se existem duvidas sobre se determinada pessoa está de facto intitulada a refeições gratuitas, deve ser feita uma averiguação das condições socio-economicas dessa pessoa e não generalizar ao comparar estas pessoas a pombos ou diminuir projectos de solidariedade  como Helena Roseta fez quando disse que " as pessoas oferecem-se para destribuir alimentos como quem alimenta pombos".
Insensivel sim, tanto para quem recebe como para quem de boa vontade abdica de parte do seu tempo pars fornecer essa ajuda.

Music is a powerful instrument.

I've always thought that music was just an art meant to give us pleasure, ever since mankind discovered it thousands of years ago, however it seems it has much more benefits than that.
Have just read this article explaining how our brain responds to it and seemingly both music and emotions share the same part of our brain, this is probably why hearing a melody can make us feel joy or sadness according to the sound, yet apparently it also has positive effects on people with motor or language problems due to the increase of brain mass in the cortex.
It didn't mentioned if the kind of music we hear has any influence on our brain responses, but I believe it does for the way I feel when I'm hearing Mozart's requiem for example is completely different from when I'm hearing any of 30STM albums (and yes, this includes LOVE, LUST,FAITH + DREAMS which has been my faithful company for over a week and I must confess that it has grown on me to the point that "Pyres to Varanasi" became the only theme I don't like, the rest I've learnt to love).
I'm not a nerd in neuroscience so I cannot tell you all the changes music does to your brain, but I can tell you this, music is a powerful instrument.
Through it you can find yourself,  fight, change or even dream, because music represents life itself with moments of calm, fury and glory!