It's been a while

Ok, as some of you may have noticed, I haven't been updating this blog in a while. As some of you also know, I generally don't update this blog on a daily basis. I usually wait until there is something that is really gnawing at me to the point where I just HAVE to put it here.

However, since I really don't have anything of real importance to talk about, I decided to take a handful of current events here in Portugal to comment on.

---

1) Madeline McCann

This topic has been talked about for the past few months, and it's getting absolutely annoying. I mean, for starters, I'd like to know how both Portuguese and English authorities have been taking this damn long in trying to find out if she's missing, dead and who's behind it.

Now, it seems that the Portuguese Judiciary Police have listed the mother as a suspect. Well gee, no kidding? I mean, about a week after this girl is missing, her and her husband decide to hold press conferences in England, Germany, France and even go to the Vatican City to meet the Pope. Let me repeat: They decided to go TRAVELLING a week after their daughter went missing. Oh yeah, that's not going to draw any suspicions. And OJ Simpson is still looking for the real killer.

To top it off, aside from leaving her and their 2 other daughters in the hotel room while they decide to go to a restaurant, she was sleeping BETWEEN the other 2 girls, and yet, the 2 other girls are still there and there was no signs of breaking an entry nor any real signs of a struggle. So yeah, Mrs. McCann, this isn't looking too good for you.

---

2. Luís Felipe Scolari, José Mourinho and the Tuga follies

Ok, this one is pretty comical. UEFA, after this particular incident:

decided to suspend the coach of the Portuguese national team, Luis Felipe Scolari, for 4 games, which happens to be how many games they have left in the qualifying round for the 2008 European Cup.

Now, fast forward to a couple fo days later, Chelsea supercoach, Jose Mourinho, out of the blue, decided to have an "amicable seperation" with said club. News that was so important, that one of the local Portuguese networks, SIC, decided to cut away from an interview with a local political figure, Pedro Santana Lopes, who was talking about the current social and political situation in Portugal, to go to an update of Mourinho's departure from Chelsea, complete with an "on location" reporter at the Lisbon airport, awaiting Mourinho's arrival (a decision that left Santana Lopes furious once they went back to the interview, causing him to end the interview early).

NOTE: Sorry, this is solely in Portuguese, though I hope some may understand the mannerisms from this video.

I will say one thing about this video, Santana Lopes was right. It's pretty sad that they would cut away from this particular interview just to talk about a sports-related issue. Imagine CNN interviewing George W. Bush and cutting away in the middle of said interview to give an update on Bill Belichick. Pretty sad indeed.

But I digress.

Anywho, a few days after Mourinho's departure, the head of the Portuguese Soccer Federation, Jose Madail, said that he is putting his full trust in Scolari. Essentially, what happened was that Madail was worried that the "Tugas", currently in 3rd place in their qualifying group, which would keep them out of Euro2008, decided to call Mourinho, who wanted to take over. But Madail didn't want to fire Scolari right now so, rather than offer the job outright to Mourinho, he asked him that, if Scolari couldn't qualify the Tugas to Euro2008 and was fired, if he would like to take over then. Mourinho, a man who hates to live in uncertanty, said no, forcing Madail to have to support Scolari from here on out.

So, we have a slap, a termination of employment, a political interview being cut due to sports-related news and a bunch of double-talk.

That's Portuguese soccer for ya.

---

3. We sure have some interesting billboards

Well, this one is a little old, but for those who don't live here, I'll fill you in.

In this ocuntry, our constitution forbids the formation of fascist parties (mainly due to the 1974 revolution), however, this is one party that managed to go around this law by claiming to be "highly conservative, but not fascist" called the National Renovation Party (Partido Nacional Renovador or PNR). This party bases itself on a platform of anti-immigration and a very racist-oriented agenda. Thankfully, said party gets the least amount of votes in each election.

However, earlier this year, they managed to get a license to put up a giant billboard in one of Lisbon's busiest rotary, the Marquês de Pombal rotary, which translated reads "No more immigration" and in smaller letters "Nationalism is the solution" with a plane taking off on the left with "have a nice trip" written next to it and a picture of their leader, José Pinto-Coelho,pictured on the right and "Portugal for the Portuguese" written on the bottom.

This billboard, since then, has been the target of vandalism and defacement, which has led to PNR to keep replacing it. However, one particular group, deicided to have some fun with it.

A comedy group known as Gato Fedorento (translated means "smelly cat") decided to put, right next to this billboard, a billboard of their own, which was pretty much a bizarro version of the original. In their version, they had written "More immigration!" with "The best way to annoy foreigners is to force them to live in Portugal" below it, a plane landing with "Welcome" written next it, the Gato Fedorento crew to the right with the same goatees the leader of PNR has and "With Portuguese alone, we're going nowhere" in the red square and "Nationalism is stupid" in the black square.

Now, why did I mention the last billboard in past tense? Because tthe Nationalists filed a complaint and won due to the fact that the Gato Fedorento crew didn't aquire a license before putting up the billboard, meaning that, while GF's billboard is no longer there, PNR's billboard is still there.

Yup, this is the country I love folks.

---

And that's pretty much it for now. I'll have another post up as soon as I can come up with enough stuff to talk about :)

Sometimes, it's just better to wait

You ever seen a plane at an airport that just looks a little funky? Color schemes just look a little out of place? There's often a very common explaination for that.

Well, most airlines don't buy their planes new. They either buy used or lease them from other airlines to get them cheaper. Well, in both cases, the planes come with the colors (also known as livery) of the old airline it belonged to.

Now, the new airline could paint the entire plane to it's own livery, but painting a plane is a process that can take months, and a plane that's stopped too long is a plane that isn't making money carrying passngers/cargo. So, to circumvent that, airlines will paint one part at a time, and run routine flights in between paint jobs. Think of it as you getting your car repainted, but you paint the hood first, drive it for a month, then pain the hood, drive it for another month, and so on and so forth. During this process, the planes look rather weird and out of place. You see a United plane with Qantas colors, silver American Airline planes with blue Southwest tails, etc...

Well, in one instance, the Colombian national carrier, Avianca, bought some 757's from small, privately owned North American Airlines. So, Avianca, proceeded to start the paint job into their own livery as usual.

...Of course, Avianca forgot just one little detail...



...They forgot about what North American Airlines had painted on their tail.





Sometimes, it's better to lose some cash and not lose your independence at the same time :)

The "joy" of home ownership...

Ah, the "dream" many have of home ownership. As of 2 days ago, I entered this supposed dreamland. Of course, right now it seems more like a nightmare.

Ok, 2 days ago, I closed on my new 2 bedroom apartment overlooking a hillside and some ocean (a great site might I add). An aparment, mind you, I waited a year for and this after months of the realtor saying "just a few more weeks".

Even before I signed the paperwork, I was notified that the complex has no cable tv and no landline phone. Ok, the lack of cable may make some sense (let's keep in mind the island I live on). However, this isn't 1907 folks, this is 2007, and it's absurd that these eggplats didn't get the license to get the phone company to set up the equipment. So essentially I'll be without any decent means of internet at home (well, I could go the moron's route and opt for a wireless provider from one of the cellphone carriers, pay the high monthly fee and with major download restrictions, this for a 12 month committment no less). Ok, that's where this begins. I repeat...BEGINS.

10 minutes after closing: I head up to the apartment and find it in an absolutely deplorable condition. Dirt on the floor, windows dirty, the finishings around the doors were either cracked or moldy, one of the the marble finishing in the main bedroom window was damaged, and, to coup de gras was that my bathroom was in such a condition and such a stench that I couldn't even last 10 seconds in the place without feeling faint. Needless to say, they got a rather long-winded email from me describing, in full detail, all the issues of the place.

Day 1: I get to the apartment and notice that there was neither electricity or running water. Oh yay... The builders were notified by the realtors to clean up the place, which they did in such a meaningless fashion that it would make most 10 year old boys proud. I also spend the day writing checks as if I were Bill friggin Gates. Get a ton of cleaning supplies, a shelf and mirror for my bathroom and some light fixtures. I spend the next part of the day waiting for the electric company to come, who then notice that the Mensa construction company connected the fuse box so well that they didn't connect the main fuse that would supply the electricity. Yeah, I was a bit tired at the end of that day. I also got a call from the applaiance guys, mentioning to me that they would be the next day. Being already half unconcious from the day's work, I simply remember telling them to be there in the afternoon.

Day 2: Yeah, the same applaince guys call me at 9:30am, telling me that they were already in front of the apartment, and here I was wearing pijamas on the other side of the island. Rather than get fully ready then, I figured that they were installing the water heater, so I'd just go up there and then get ready after they finish installing the stuff.

So I get up there and they move all the stuff into the kitchen and start hooking things up. Fridge, check. Oven, no gas yet but hooked up. Dryer, check. As for the water heater, washer and dishwasher....yeah, the Mensa builders did it again. See, rather than have faucets ready to hook these applainces to, they simply plugged those pipes up, and so tightly that it was partially entrenched into the cement. Well, I go down to the hardware store to buy 4 faucets and had to wait another 10 minutes because apparently said hardware store had just been robbed (you can't make this stuff up folks). I get the faucets and head back, only to find that the appliance guys couldn't get the plugs out, and the resident plumber had to be called in, but could only make it by sundown.

Meanwhile, the furniture guys get there and set up the couches and set up the main bedroom. Well, of course something would HAVE to go wrong here. Turns out that the bedroom set I ordered couldn't fit 100% into my bedroom. So one nightstand now sits in my office and I have a very narrow space between the closet and the bed.

Sundown and the plumber FINALLY arrives. He manages to get the plugs out (by way of CHISELING THE WALL!) and installs the faucets and I finally get the water heater to fill up with water. One of the engineers of the complex shows up and, in his best apologetic voice, explains his regret for the stuff that happened in my apartment and, in his hand, was a copy of the email I sent them. Good, they do listen. Things are looking up...

Of course, right there and then, the water heater springs a leak and starts dripping water onto the floor. My NEW water heater no less. Apparently the valve isn't working properly and the appliance guys need to go up there and fix it. AAAAAARGH!

Yup, the "joy" of home ownership. Now, if you replace "joy" with "gut-wrenching and agonizing pain", you might be onto something...

Blast From The Past #2

Ok, I figured to wait a little while longer, but recently I've been on a new kick of watching old Gong Show clips on YouTube.

For those of you who aren't quite familiar with the Gong Show, it was a talent show that aired in the US on NBC from 1976 to 1980, where contestants, both good and bad, would come from all over American to compete for the grand prize: $516.32, apparently a symbolic value since, at the time, that was the take home pay the Screen Actors' Guild would pay for a day's work. If the performer, or performers, were bad after the first 20 seconds, one or more of the 3 judges would hit the gong behind them, ending the act and disqualifying the contestant.

Below is an example of how bad a bad act can be. One phrase best describes this: "DON'T LOOK ETHEL!!!"



The Gong Show grew such a cult-like following that Barris decided to run with it, brining back a few more popular acts more than once. These acts weren't actual contestants but rather fixtures of the show. You had the "Unknown Comic" who would do a stand up routine with a bag over his head, you had "Scarlett and Rhett" who were 2 people portraying the 2 Gone With the Wind characters, and, you had the grandaddy of all reoccurring acts: Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, who was actually one of the stage hands Barris noticed one day dancing and liked his act so he put him on stage. Whenever Gene Gene's "theme song" would start playing (Count Basie's Jumpin' at the Woodside), Barris would start imitating Gene Gene's moves and the audience and judges would start dancing, and the other stage hands would start throwing objectes onto the stage as Gene Gene would contuinue dancing, oblivious to the debris.

Here's a clip of one of his famous entrances



Again, Barris was simply ahead of his time and, to this day, I've yet to see ANYTHING that tops the zanyness and just total creativity that the Gong Show had.

Blast From The Past #1

Yesterday, I came across this pretty cool website called RetroJunk.com. I spent hours on it because it's basically an archive of tons of tv show intros and commercials from back in the day.

In the spirit of such, I decided to start an insert called "Blast From The Past", where I'll yank one of the intros or commercials from this site and air it here, along with a small description of course.

And, to kick things off, we go back to the mid 80's, when the popular fast food franchise, Wendy's, in the spirit of the Cold War, came out with this commericial that's been stuck on my mind ever since. Reason being is that during the live TV shows here in Portugal, the live audience normally looks like they're in a funeral. Nothing but blank faces. Almost immediately me, or even my folks when they watch it, go "Eez Next.......Eeevneengvear!".

Enjoy :)

NOTE: Due to the flash not working effectively, I got another from YouTube.

An issue I've tried not discussing

Well, for the past few months, there has been campaigning in the streets here in Portugal with political parties about, left and right, movements of all kind giving out flyers, holding functions, throwing concerts and giving speeches.

Though this isn't for some normal election. This is for the abortion referendum that was held today. Voters will cast their "Yes" or "No" vote to the following question (more or less translated into English.):

"Do you agree with the voluntary interruption of pregnancy within the first 10 weeks, which would be performed at a certified medical facility?"

Well, aside from the overly political correctness of that question, it's so incredibly vague given the issue at hand.

Ok, for starters, I haven't posted anything in my blog about this because past experiences have taught me that abortion is a debate issue that causes fights, tears friendships apart and can make people become outcasts. The beliefs on both sides are so entrenched that they simply won't listen to the other side, regardless of how good or bad their arguments are. These debates can get so heated that physical violence has happened from it.

For this very reason, I've been trying to see how to post this without provoking. See, I'm against abortion, however, there's a reason why I originally said that the question on the referendum was too vague.

See, in this country, abortion is illegal except for the scenarios of rape, the woman's health is at risk or there is a terminal deformity in the fetus. Said scenarios are also only applied for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Up til this point, I really don't have a problem with abortion since this is the "lesser of the 2 evils" scenario. You look out for the mother's health in this situation.

However, in the current system, any woman caught having a "back-door" abortion can be arrested, tried and imprisoned up to 3 years. This is an extreme I just can't get myself to agree with. In most cases, the women in question come from low-income families, many times have some form of traumatic experiences in the past and feel as if they are under duress to have this abortion. Having said this, the state should not treat her as a common criminal, the same way they shouldn't treat a drug user as a common criminal. There should be infraestructures set up to support women in need and legislation to even help facilitate adoptions and further educate people so that pregnant women no longer feel like abortion is even an option anymore.

Both the "Yes" and "No" movements are against the current system, but the issue lies in how each side wants to resolve it. The "Yes" people simply want to legalize abortions so that said abortions can be done in hospitals. Thus assuring that certain standards are maintained and that the woman's life is no longer at risk. The "No" people believe that the issue is deeper than just legalizing abortions, and that it needs to come in the form of long-term education and better family planning. The system should be able to inform people about all the different forms of contraception and family planning out there as to get people out of the dark. Right now, here in Portugal, there's a blatant lack of information regarding sex education and family planning. They are just starting to get that message across, but it will take some time.

In my opinion, I don't oppose abortion for religious purposes. I simply believe that we don't know when life begins. There has not been one convincing argument that states "Life begins at this point", and by legalizing abortions, we are, in some respect, trying to play the role of God by giving people the right to end what could be a living human being.

For that reason alone, we should not really touch this subject until we have further evidence that could justify one side or the other. And that is why this has been an issue I've tried to avoid for some time now.

MATSUZAKA!

Recently, the newest member of the Boston Red Sox, and one of the cornersotnes of their offseason aquisitions, Japanese starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, already donned the Red Sox uniform, even though Spring Training hadn't even started.

The reason for such was to advertise a Japanese beer. Since in Japan he's viewed with almost God-like status, leave it to the Far-East marketing geniuses to not waste any sleep getting his face on TV as much as possible.

Here's his ad for Asahi Super Dry

10 Great Portuguese

Well, the recent buzz in this country has been a poll conducted by the national television station, RTP, about who are, in the opinions of the viewers, the top 100 Portuguese of all time. Votes were cast over the past 6 months or so, results were tabulated and, this past weekend, results were given to the bottom 90, with the top 10 being cast back into the pool for a 2nd round of voting. They listed those that ended up in the top 10 (with the cell phone number so some schmucks can pay €0.70 to text message the vote in) and, in another few months, after a series of debates and documentaries made by the "defenders" of each candidate, they will then announce the final ranking. Well, I decided to add my devalued 2 cents in the matter by giving, what I think, should be the ranking order for these 10. Here it goes:

10. Alvaro Cunhal (1913-2005) - Founder of the Portuguese Communist Party How this guy actually made it this far into the list is beyond me. People here in Portugal have this outlandish fascination for the late Cunhal, who was a devout Stalinist to the end. Here's a guy who's face is plastered into the minds of the nieve who think he was the true image of the 25th of April Revolution that brought democracy into this country. Lemme repeat, many people here think an old-school Communist actually represented democracy. The same guy who nearly plunged Portugal into a civil war in the "Verão Quente" or "Hot Summer" of 1975 because he was intent on making Portugal into a People's Republic (the irony of that term knows no boundries). You may laugh now.

9. Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) - Poet This guy made a number of, what some here say, "literary classics". His supposed claim to fame? He was able to write in multiple peronalities and used alcohol and anti-depressants to "even things out". In other words, he was a schizophrenic, drug-using booze hound who knew how to write decently. Yeah, there's someone I want to represent all Portuguese. I guess the local loon who pees in the flowers wasn't on this ballot.

8. Sebastião de Melo (aka. The Marquis of Pombal) (1699-1782) - Statesman Was made de facto head of state and put in charge of rebuilding Lisbon after the Earthquake, Tsunami and Fire of 1755. Most of what is the "old" downtown of Lisbon was his work. Of course, he was also a highly brutal and repressive dictator, made such by the "grace" of then King José I. In one particular case, he ordered the execution of the Tavora family (he implicated them in an assassination attempt against the King), without a fair trial, in a fashion that would even make the terrorists in Iraq cringe. I won't get into details as to not offend those easily offended.

7. Afonso Henriques (aka. Afonso I) (1111-1185) - Founder and 1st King of Portugal Well, this one was a given. After all, he was the founder of the country. But, he wasn't really a well-liked individual, which is intertwined with how this country was formed in the first place. Portugal pretty much originated with, to put it in the easiest way possible, a fight with his mother and cousin. His mother was the Queen of Castille and he fought with her in order to get the county of Portugal. He then argued with Pope in order to try and gain independence, which he got under very strict condtions (one of which was that he wasn't allowed to expand westward, only south, which was occupied by the Moors). And thus began the conquest of the 7 Moor castles (which are the same 7 castles that show up on the Portuguese flag today).

6. Vasco da Gama (1468-1524) - Navigator The very first European to find a rout to India. He pretty much started the notion of a "Global Community".

5. Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) - Statesman This was pretty much the guy that pioneered the age of European colonization of the "new world". It was his initiative to start the navigational school in Sagres that attracted, what would end up being, the big names during the age of discoveries. The Sagres school helped innovate navigation and topography.

4. John II (1455-1495) - King Although Prince Henry pioneered the age of discovery, it was King John II that gave his brother Henry the order to start such a venture....at the age of 19 no less. He was a visionary, no doubt about that.

3. Luis de Camões (1525-1580) - Poet Author of the book "Os Lusiadas", known here as the "Bible of Portuguese History", also known as the book every kid in Portuguese schools, from grades 5 through 12 have to endure 4 months out of each year until they are ready to commit suicide. Apparently, the reason why he's "blinking" is that he was once a soldier who fought against the Spanish and lost his right eye in combat. Apparently eyepatches were reserved for pirates in the 16th century.

2. António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) - Minister of Finance/Prime Minister/Dictator I don't think you could get a worse bum rap than this guy. For alot who were born post-1974, they view him as a ruthless tyrant who governed Portugal like a police state and refused to give independence to the African colonies. However, if you were to actually read factual accounts during his time, first as Minister of Finance, then as Prime Minister, you will see that he was someone who completely broke the dictatorial mold. He was modest, highly frugal (to the point where he would go as far as diluting the wine he drank as to "make it last") but most of all, very patriotic. He came in after 1926 after the 1st Republic (established in 1910) all but ruined the country, and through tight economic and social reforms, brought peace and stability to the country. He also managed to successfully keep Portugal out of 2 successive wars (the Spanish civil war and WWII). His downfall was due to 3 very important aspects: 1) He didn't invest more in education, which led to decay, namely from High School and up, 2) His ministers tried so much to make a cult of personality (although against his own wishes, believe it or not) that it led to a power vacum once he died. and 3) His corporative model of governing left too much social control to big corporations which ended up leaving little, if any, social programs for those who did not work for said corporations.

1. Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954) - Diplomat #1 definitely goes to one of the unsung heroes of WWII. Named Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux during the German occupation of France, he risked job, freedom and life in order to help over 30,000 refugees, mainly Jewish, from the gas chambers and ovens of Nazi concentration camps. Doing his best to avoid being caught by German authorities as well as a neutral Portuguese government trying not to provoke Germany, Mendes issued thousands of visas into Portugal to these refugees. Many ended up making Portugal their permanent residence afterward.

And there you have it. Feel free to drop off a comment and give your opinion.