Firing off a few rounds......stand clear

• A new year and, in this country, alot of fears. Namely of the economic variety. But yet, I don't see why people are so shocked. I mentioned, in a rather elaborate(and maybe not the most PC manner), in my last blog post that we only have ourselves to blame for this. Years of overspending and living far beyond our own expectations was a recipe for disaster. And we make matters worse with our extreme political apathy, voting in people who clearly don't serve the people but rather themselves, and then blaming some fictitious entities for the representatives we put in office rather than looking into a mirror.

  Earlier this year, I took a weekend trip to Lisbon and one of the stops I made was to the Colombo Shopping Center, once regarded as the largest mall in Europe some time ago. I was hard pressed to believe that we were in a financial crisis since the mall was PACKED, and people were making lines in some of these stores. Money was definitely being circulated....alot of it. Kids with expensive cell phones, wearing designer clothing, or getting new computers. Or people buying new LCD TVs. You name it, it was being sold and not in small quantities, and worse yet, with ALOT of credit and little to no cash.

  What I find funny is that alot of people here accuse Americans of being consumerist. And maybe they are right. Portuguese aren't consumerist like Americans......they're even more consumerist.

• More and more, I've come to a grim reality. We Portuguese don't make too many moves in terms of progress and success because we dislike progress and success. In fact, we think it's damn near criminal that anyone or any group should be successful. We demand the spotlight for ourselves while doing nothing and get angry when those who worked for the spotlight actually get it.

  Think I'm kidding? Talk to some of the locals about businesses doing well here or nationally and you probably wouldn't need a whole hand to count the people who speak well of said businesses. Most will do the exact opposite. If it's Sonae, then it's accusations that Belmiro de Azevedo is a cheapskate(even though he is one of the largest private employers in the nation and Belmiro started this operation literally with nothing). If a restaurant is doing well, then rumors of bad food start flying. If a dealership is doing well, then it's talk of bad service. After a while, you just want to lash out at these naysayers.

  A while back, there was a NY Times article about how Portugal was in the forefront in renewable energy. This was thanks largely to the policies put forth by the current prime minister, José Socrates. While I usually hold alot of disdain towards him(mainly due to a few very suspicious dealings with a TV station and a mall), credit to where credit's due. This was no small feat. However, there are those, many of those, who look past that and say that these measures were horrible and that this is only to profit the national electric company. Yes, people even criticised something that was receiving international recognition(something that is a big rarity these days for Portugal)

  Hell, even when money isn't involved, people still dislike seeing progress. I know of cases where groups and associations were run effeciently and carried a great deal of legitimacy and success thanks to the tireless, and in many cases, thankless effort and hard work from those in charge who, in exchange, received nothing, only to be attacked and berated all because of petty jealousy of others who want all of the credit attained but none of the work that was involved to attin it. Worse yet, those who do the berating, when given the chance to back their words up and take charge, do nothing but prove their own ineptitude.

  So, nowadays, when I hear some people with their tavern talk wonder why we don't advance more as a country, I don't bother saying anything anymore, I just laugh.

• Finally, on a lighter note. It's that time of the year, the NFL playoffs. And I've definitely enjoyed seeing the Patriots play this season. They've been playing their best football since the 2001-04 period. Yes, I know they broke a ton of records in 2007, when Brady was throwing what seemed like a million TDs to Randy Moss, but even then, I just didn't feel that said team was really "all there". It was alot of flash but not really that much substance, and was worsened with a defense that was starting to show their age and subsequent lack of speed.

  This year's team seems to have figured it out: a return to the team concept, where everyone gives an important contribution, guided by a quarterback who seems to be incredibly flawless behind an offensive line that is always well-coached, a head coach who stresses extreme humility to his players, and a corps of youth and veterans who are all focused on the team rather than themselves, and last but not least, a defense that seems to step in and make plays when it matters. While they won't kill you with a 50 yard pass or rip a 70 yard run, they'll gnaw away with the short gains, add a few solid runs up the middle, keep moving the chains and then a pass to a TE to put points on the board in the end.

  Even if they don't win it all, hell, even if they don't win their first playoff game, it's been nothing short of great seeing this team perform and I as a fan look forward for the next few years with this group of players.