Written in stone?

The world economy is down the pan – and stuck there, as far as the latest Global Risks Network Report is concerned (see page 6) – Obama’s got his back against the wall, and “hope” is out to lunch. But does it really have to be like that? Can we truly not change a thing?

What about that uplifting saying “the future is NOW”? If people could only “wake up”, surely, everything could be possible?

“Aye, there’s the rub” in those immortal words from Shakespeare – and in this beautiful country full of people with wooden heads, waking up seems depressingly unlikely… A breakdown in security services is envisaged by Global Risk assessors. More than a few hard-working citizens here will raise their eyes to heaven and sigh: “Why are we not surprised?”

In a month when Algarve politician Mendes Bota has demanded answers on what police are REALLY doing to tackle rising crime levels in the Algarve, we find gangs of officers targeting working vehicles and fining their owners the equivalent of a month’s wages for piffling infractions of “new” laws which don’t apply anywhere else in Europe!

What, in the grip of the worse financial crisis for years, is the point? Does Portugal really want to look like one of Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters?

Families everywhere are drowning in debt – how can fining the main breadwinner hundreds of euros benefit anyone? Any small boon to state police coffers will surely be outweighed by the disgust the common man holds for “officers of the law”?

An enlightened security force would first advise people of new laws, and warn of the applicable fines. They would give fellow citizens a chance – a chance that would have a positive effect on the future of the country. But no, it’s all about short-term gain, at long-term cost. It’s what is ruining the country on every level – and decimating areas of outstanding natural beauty from north to south. And the craziest part of it all is we, the hard-working, tax-paying, honest, beleaguered people, could make a difference! We simply have to believe it. The future IS now, why stand by and let it get washed down the pan?

This editorial was prompted by a reader’s “run in” with police over a trailer he’d previously been informed was perfectly legal. A new law means that it now requires matriculating. As this reader cannot write in Portuguese, we translated his words for him – and delivered them to the PSP squadron, where officers were expecting him to simply pay-up his 600-euro fine. But he doesn’t have the money – and he explained in his letter why he feels the fine is totally unjustified. Will they listen to his point of view?

What do you think!?