Groundfarce (2)

I have complained before about baggage reclaim at Lisbon airport. Now the situation appears a little clearer:

• ANA airports is a State-owned company that has to get as fat as possible before its privatisation.
• As such it has no performance objectives (just like PT and EDP before their sale, and Galp to this day).
• ANA put its handling out to contract, choosing the cheapest proposal regardless of any evaluation of quality of service.
• The winning bid, by Groundforce, is based on exploiting its workforce to the maximum.
• The workers have finally grown tired of the conditions offered by Groundforce and have gone on strike.

ANA washes its hands of the matter, saying proudly that despite the strike no flights have been cancelled. Groundforce explains that operations have not been significantly hit by the strike.

Of course operations have not been significantly hit. With an average baggage delivery time of 45 minutes without a strike, what's an extra 15-30 minutes to your long-suffering passenger? And what about the other statistic aired this weekend: "Within Europe, TAP is second only to British Airways in the number of lost bags." I hope that's a percentage measure, not an absolute figure. Imagine if TAP managed to lose as many bags as BA, which is immeasureably larger! Of course, the lost bags are TAP's fault, not ANA or Groundforce. I think not.

State-owned monopolies. Don't you just love them? Looks like we'll have to suffer. At least we can make a quick buck on the shares when the privatisation goes through.

Nestled Away

I have frequently criticised marketing campaigns for their stupidity. Now for a first - criticising a major brand for failing to advertise.

As a family, we tend to eat too many ice creams in the summer - bought by the box to keep in the freezer. My current favourite is Nestlé Brownies, which puts Magnums in the shade. So where's the publicity? How do they expect to sell a product if nobody knows it exists?

Hidden away on the Nestlé website is a very unattractive description of the product. But that is consistent with the unattractive presentation of the whole site! To get to that page, you have to guess whether the product is food (alimentação) or impulsive (impulso). Is ice cream ever bought for its food value? If you're "impulsive", you reach a different product page, with no picture of the product.

Anyway, it's very good. Buy it: Nestlé Brownies

Exibição Desleixada

Leixões 1 - Benfica 1

Oops!

Who's to Blame?

According to SIC news last night, the Sunday Times published a survey where 70% of people surveyed in the UK believe that the McCanns are to blame for Madeleine's abduction. While I can't find any reference to such a poll in the on-line editions of the Sunday papers, I couldn't agree more with that conclusion.

Leaving children of that age alone is illegal in Portugal and the UK, but everyone seems to have forgotten that, with the extremist UK press concentrating on the incompetence of the Portuguese authorities and the Portuguese press understandably on the defensive.

The only reason that I doubt the parents active involvement in the disappearance is their decision to stay all this time in the Algarve. If they had anything to hide, they would have left the apartment to be occupied by other tourists, who would obscure any evidence that may be recovered.

Most press reports only serve to reinforce my suspicion that they were involved. And ever since someone landed on my blog using the Google search "Madeleine McCann scam", it seems I'm not alone (Those words appear in the blog, but not in the same post). Let's hope the story is over soon, though I expect the worst.

English Nationality

It's typical of the Brits to complicate matters for historical reasons, and quite usual in other countries such as Spain, but the difference between England, Britain and the United Kingdom a constant source of aggravation for an expatriate such as me.

For instance, the SEF (immigration authorities) know the difference, as do the notaries. But the Portuguese National Elections Council only allow "English" when you register to vote. Can't see many Scots registering if they find that out!

Even Miguel Portas, Portuguese Euro-MP for the Bloco da Esquerda, didn't know the difference when interviewed prior to the last elections for the European parliament. He blamed the English for blocking a particular resolution. Despite his ignorance, he got elected anyway - that's the advantage of the crony system for defining lists of candidates.

The other night, the Portuguese version of Trivial Pursuit Family Edition came up with "What was the nationality of the writer William Golding?" Answer: "English". My younger son duly informed me that my answer "British" was not worth a piece of pie!

Interestingly, the Portuguese Wikipedia article on William Golding refers to him as an English writer, while the English article states "Nationality: British "! I give up!

The Simpsons Movie

What are holidays for, if not to take the kids to the movies. They chose The Simpsons Movie, which they loved, I hated.

It was all rather serious stuff, with its conservationist message, shortage of slapstick humour and unfamiliar characters. For instance, Homer didn't once say "Doh!". Nor did Bart come out with "Cowabunga" or "Eat My Shorts". None of the usual supporting characters were involved, except soppy Ned Flanders. Bart's lines in detention were "I will not make illegal copies of this movie". Yawn.

There were a few laughs, admittedly, but none worth reporting here. My recommendation: Watch the trailers and cinema channel reviews. Then you'll get to see all the funny stuff without trawling through the rest. Or better still, go to something else.

Unfair Practice

Once again, TV Cabo appears to be abusing its near monopoly position.

Eurosport is showing the Shanghai classic snooker tournament - hardly a mainstream Portuguese sport. During the interval between frames, Eurosport showed just enough adverts. Then a flash of snooker and a new, low-definition logo saying "Eurosport - publicidade". Then a long advert for Sport TV, the logo again, and back to the snooker mid-frame.

Who are the TV Cabo directors trying to kid? It was an amateurish stunt, surely without Eurosport's knowledge, pulled by someone who thinks they are untouchable. Totally unacceptable, in my view, but TV Cabo is the only TV supplier available to me...

No surprise then that one of Henrique Grenadeiro's dirty tricks during the PT takeover battle was to strip TV Cabo out of PTM. No point handing such power over to Sonae, is there.

0-0, End of First Part

When the BCP General Meeting was announced some weeks back, I voted in the Jornal de Negócios on-line poll, suggesting that nobody's cause would win at the meeting. It wasn't a very popular choice. So I'd just like to say "Ha ha" to all the hawks and doves out there.

Admittedly, there will eventually be a winner. And with Paulo Teixeira Pinto in retreat even before the meeting started, it's not difficult to guess who will win. But yesterday only brought one casualty - the poor misguided IT manager whose system couldn't cope with registering all those shareholders.

And so the saga continues, leaving the second largest bank in Portugal paralysed when it comes to dealing with its larger customers. Fortunately the Board are not worried about profitability for now, with the record results announced for the first half. But it's not much fun being on the outside, waiting for the storm to blow over.