Abril

Without wanting to crowd on the beautiful post that Lady V wrote today, I have to proclaim my joy and happiness to be celebrating 34 years after the revolution that ended dictatorship and a bloody colonial war in my country. Portugal does not have many reasons to be a happy country. We have everything to go wrong: we're poor, we're unemployed, we drop out of school, we are afflicted by child labour, we survive on EU money, we have no productivity, we have no money, we owe all our houses and holidays to the bank, we have low education standards, we have mediocre politicians that can hardly spell, we have fires every summer, we are melancholic, people think we're Spanish, we are said to be lazy. I could go on, but I won't. Because it can still be nice to live here. We have a glorious sun. Lisbon is a splendour. We have smart people that are being driven to make a living in foreign countries but who could come back given the right incentives. And although the Portuguese are still obsessed with authority and how to be respectful towards authority (our language is all about that: everybody is a doctor and a mister and Your Excelency in Portugal), got damn it, we made a great revolution on 25th April 1974 without shedding a drop of blood. We did something for ourselves apart from the Discoveries and I am hoping we can do it again.

Now please go read Lady V's post which is much more interesting, specially to someone who is not Portuguese.