A perspective by citizens A team of investigators from Lisbon’s social sciences institute presented a study, entitled «A Qualidade da Democracia em Portugal: a Perspectiva dos Cidadãos» (The quality of democracy in Portugal: a perspective by citizens). It’s an exercise that […] » At this time of year we often see travelling circuses pitch up in Algarve towns. Roadside posters encourage children, and occasionally schools take their pupils along as a special treat. But this year, there’ll be some other much more shocking posters […] » If this crisis has served for anything, at least one can say it has stirred charitable feelings of social solidarity in an unprecedented fashion for contemporary Portuguese society. Right now, there are endless welfare campaigns, of all shapes and […] » It’s the latest thing in “guerilla” marketing and it has arrived in the Algarve: “pop-up” shops! These outlets arrive, set up their wares in some of the best shopping centres, open their doors to consumers - attracted by a world of novelties and […] »Paysandisia archon As the Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) continues to cut a swathe through the region’s majestic palm trees, another pest has been identified in the Western Algarve which has already claimed its first victims. Worryingly, its preferred […] » Everyone’s up in arms over the Government’s latest austerity measures but, looking at them from a different perspective, they really aren’t that bad at all. In fact, the Government’s plan is very well worked out - right to the last detail! Let’s […] » What a week! In an outstanding show of people-power, a determined little group of working parents - Portuguese, Brazilian, Italian, German and English - have managed to save a rural village primary school from the austerity axe for one more year. […] » A little while ago on TV there was a rather silly commercial - advertising the services of an insurance company - featuring a man who parks his car and gets out, only to see his vehicle squashed flat by a space satellite that falls, seconds later, […] » You’ve probably already noticed that everything costs, at the very least, one euro. It’s a kind of standard price established for the most banal (but everyday) things. Five rolls for the morning? One euro. A simple drink at any summer event? One euro. […] » Ah, where would the Algarve be without its August festivals? Happily these events live on just as they were initially imagined – without any kind of innovation tarnishing the essence of their origins… The idea is wonderfully simple – for a number […] » Have you noticed how the summer’s changed? In the old days, July and August were the “silly months”. The weeks for trivia in the news. At its worst we saw fat politicians slopping along the beach in their flip-flops, or harrassed firemen rushing […] » They’re in style, particularly among the young – and there’s something for all tastes and pockets. Decorating one’s body with tattoos is commonplace these days, and accessible to everyone. But is it safe? DECO, the Portuguese consumer protection […] » If the road you live in still boasts all its manhole covers, watch them carefully! One of these days they could simply vanish – leaving behind ominously gaping holes. It’s sounds bizarre, but it’s absolutely true. In the dead of night people are […] » So you didn’t think there were Portuguese who’d cycle naked for a good cause? Last Sunday, dozens of Portuguese joined forces in Lisbon to take part in the first World Naked Bike Ride ever to be organised in Portugal. Of course, public nudity is […] » It seems that the Portuguese are less and less enamoured with their “legitimate” relationships. Since arriving in Portugal last April, the «Secondlove» website has just grown and grown. In only a month, more than 8.000 people signed on to it.
Now, […] » Anyone who follows national news with any attention will notice the sad and sorry connection between recent horrors involving young teenagers in violence and knife attacks. The cases all share the same grey, almost “dehumanized” backdrops. […] »http://eopovopa.wordpress.com Trying to keep up with the electoral campaign is no easy task – not even for the most interested and motivated of citizens. Debates are tepid, dull and poorly-founded. We see daily images of politicians dispensing kisses and hugs at fairs, and all […] » First of all, we should apologise to all our readers for only raising this issue now. But it has taken this long to be certain of the devilish conspiracy mounted to hush the whole affair up. Let’s begin with the facts. In the early hours of 15th […] » In the middle of the 80s, a self-taught fruit grower had a novel idea. After retiring, he decided to spend his newfound spare time planting out some family land, on the outskirts of Olhão, with something completely different – tropical fruits. […] » We’re living through times of desperate almost tragi-comedy. Recently, talking informally with the president of the Cáritas Diocesiana do Algarve church charity, we discovered just how terrible the region’s social dilemmas have become – and the man […] » While we can still afford to pay cable TV installments, it’s fun sometimes to watch a programme or two – like the ones that features people in survival contests.
With little more than a penknife in their back pockets, they face all kinds of hostile […] » It’s 7.15pm on Saturday 12th February 2011, in Trier. I arrive just in time at my seat in the second row. Almost all 600 seats in the theatre of this oldest city in Germany are filled. The audience is a mature one. The night before there’d been opera, […] » We’re getting worried… In fact, we get worried by ads that our readers submit quite often. The stories behind every classified reflect the state of the country in general. For example, over the last 64 weeks, we’ve noticed that more and more people […] » Holy relic? Example of industrial heritage? What is that thing that’s rotting away at the door of the regional delegation of Faro’s IPJ (the Portuguese youth institute)? It’s been there so long, no-one notices it anymore. It has become invisible. […] »Projecto Farol The Portuguese are great ones for missing things from the past. Great for being dissatisfied with the present and pessimistic over the future. These are some of the conclusions of a new study «As escolhas dos Portugueses e o projecto Farol» that […] » |  It was a difficult year, but even so, the balance is positive. In 2011, we printed 50 editions and published a total of 86.997 classified advertisements (an average of 1740 per week). Compared to 2010, with the same number of editions, we published […] »Hunting in the Algarve A delight in killing, disrespect for nature, rubbish, noise pollution – all in the name of tradition? Is hunting in Portugal an outmoded pastime? This edition, Luso-German lawyer Alexander Rathenau, from Lagos, shoots from both barrels in a no-holds-barred […] »Geocaching Esparagosas – the geocaching legend from Odiáxere, near Lagos, tells us a little more about a possible new “niche” market for Algarve tourism: Like I suppose most people I got involved through knowing other enthusiastic geocachers. Equipment, mainly […] »Crowdfunding Suppose you have an idea for a new project – it could be a business, an expedition, an offer of equipment to the community: there are practically no limits, as long as it’s something concrete, and do-able. In almost every initiative, or dream even, […] »Hotel Golfinho, Lagos The other day, by chance on the outskirts of Lagos, we came across some curious tourists, bums upended, with their heads through a hole in a fence behind which loomed a hideous building. In a way, it’s a fairly typical Algarvian eyesore: one with […] »«The Origins of Savings Behavior» There’s an old bit of folk wisdom that says we come into the world with our virtues already pre-defined, and our defects, too. A more modern explanation is that 30% of what we amount to is ruled by our genes and 70% by behavior acquired as we travel […] » We’re living in fertile times for unusual ideas. A new sect is growing in the small town of Uppsala, 70 km or so from the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Known as «Missionary Kopimistsamfundet» its gospel is the free copying of anything and everything […] » Once, on a particularly uncomfortable bus ride, I remember hearing a driver say it would be very easy to get ride of traffic jams and traffic snarl-ups: all that was needed was a rule to say that at certain times of day only vehicles that were fully […] » Failed States or Failing States are those that are seen to have gone fundamentally wrong – particularly when it comes to humanity. Some of these nations are the incarnation of anarchy, like Somalia - which occupies first place in the 2011 index for […] » There’s a traditional Portuguese saying that basically mirrors our English one of “every cloud has a silver lining”. Literally, it says: “some bad things come for a good reason” – and in this case, the long, seemingly never‑ending crisis, has given […] » At this time of crisis, Portugal has displayed a lot of poverty. Not simply material and financial, but poverty of spirit, too. The latest official idiocy is the suspension of short-wave emissions by RTP International – a public broadcasting service […] » The other day, Erich Fromm walked into a hospital casualty unit with tonsilitis. He was in terrible pain – but the first question he was asked was did he have any cash on him? The multibanco machine was out of order… Fromm therefore took the only […] » Those latter‑day postcards “from the Algarve” - featuring voluptuous young ladies topless on beaches - were very popular, but these days even the most risqué versions that dispense with cozies entirely (though naturism hasn’t really caught on here) […] » Today at 3pm at Monchique’s Caixa Agrícola we have Round Two in the fight that is looking more and more like David versus Goliath. In the “green” corner is David - the entire community, backed by their municipal authority, local businesses and environmental […] » Most people missed the fact that last Sunday 5th June was World Environment Day - created by the UN in 1972 to make governments aware of the consequences of unbridled pollution. It was also the date chosen to reveal something particularly interesting […] » This is the latest “shock, horror” in Portuguese day-to-day life: there are thousands of drivers on the road now driving on licences that are no longer valid – but with absolutely no idea that anything’s wrong. This is all because a new law was introduced […] »ADAPO In the past, we’ve repeatedly publicised the many problems of “more or less formal”, “more or less organised” groups and bodies that try to help animals. But in spite of all the appeals – and the goodwill of many unsung citizens who try and reduce […] »Meet two professional paupers Many Portuguese are worried. They blame the crisis and think (even more) misery is on the way. But, in the end, penury has become the new philosophy for life: a way towards a happy existence. It already has a number of followers spread across Europe. […] » “Rejection and unpleasantness”. These were the words used in a press release that we received recently from the PSD/ Algarve.
The release began by proclaiming that the “Socialist Party was playing with the unemployment of Portuguese families”. […] » The other day, on entering a building somewhere in Faro where, by chance, a regional branch of a public department is still in business, I caught sight of something quite extraordinary: an old piece of paper, yellow from years of humidity, that announced […] » Near Sintra, an old lady lay dead in her own home for nine years. She was last seen in August 2002. In the intervening period, the tax department put her home up for public auction, and sold it, along with her body still inside… And who’s to blame? […] » “Non-political, lay and peaceful”. This is the slogan for the protest demonstration that’s being called for through Facebook for 12th March, in Lisbon. The idea is to bring together a whole generation of Portuguese born post-April 1974 (the time […] »Enter “PAN” Last 13th January, the Constitutional Tribunal gave the go-ahead for the creation of a new political party: PAN, standing for the “Partido pelos Animais e pela Natureza” (party for animals and nature). The move comes more than a year after a 9.260-strong […] »Serena Wylde When villa owner Serena Wylde made a complaint to the Ordem dos Advogados – the official regulatory body for the Portuguese legal profession – she had no idea what she was letting herself in for. Six years down the line she’s spent over 20.000 euros […] » |
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