Rewarding Incompetence

It is quite unbelievable that anybody, especially a supposedly intelligent economist such as Cavaco Silva, might even consider that Pedro Santana Lopes should have his invaluable services to the country recognised by the award of an official honour.

His time as mayor of Figueira da Foz and Lisbon was characterised by public works carried out but not paid for, leaving both cities in a financial mess, then he moved on to be the shortest serving Prime Minister since 1981 years, dismissed because his government was unable to ensure the stability necessary for it to function properly.

Well known for being entitled to a full state pension at 49 since years as a member of parliament count double, his self-interest is beyond doubt, as seen in the last council elections in Lisbon, where he only reluctantly took up his place as an opposition councillor, stating that he would be concentrating on working for Lisbon alongside his professional activities as a lawyer.

All in all, another confirmation that to get on in life competence is far less important than political connections.

Afonso de Albuquerque

The biography of Afonso de Albuquerque by the English historian Elaine Sanceau is impressive for two reasons.

Firstly becasue it tells the story of a larger-than-life figure who had to battle all the time he was in India to dominate a vast area of sea and coast with only a handful of men and ships, beset by political intrigues from within and without. His achievements in conquering costal cities, persuading local warlords that he represented a major international power to obtain their cooperation to build fortresses and charge taxes, while all the time having to contend with disloyal subordinates, jealous of his position and authority, are worthy of such a dedicated work of research and presentation.

Secondly, the extracts of text and facsimilies of original documents reveal the huge amount of painstaking work that must have gone into decoding and cataloging hundreds, if not thousands of documents to produce this definitive biography. That rigour occasionally results in a rather dry read, but our difficulties pale into insignificance if we consider the author's task.

A fascinating biography of a truly great man.

Death is All Around

No I'm not referring to the situation in Haiti, nor the ex-colleague's funeral that I went to yesterday.

Our one year-old golden retriever, which is not that fast and makes as much noise as a tank approaching, manage to catch a pigeon on Wednesday. It must have been old and/or sick to not escape.

Fortunately, we found the dog before he made too much mess and I got to dispose of the bird when I got back from work - wonderful!

Prisoner of the State

I picked this book up at Hong Kong airport - I wasn't expecting to see it there - prior to boarding a 14-hour daytime flight to London. Of course, I didn't manage to read it all on the plane. Cathay Pacific's amazing in-flght entertainment system made sure of that. But it was an interesting window onto the Chinese mentality that I had heard about but never needed to understand.

The book is the secret memoir of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was removed from power for trying to negotiate an end to the student uprising in 1989, rather than taking part in the military crackdown imposed by the hard-liners.

The book shows the cloak and dagger world of politics, influence and personal interests that lies behind any political system, though always covered up in China where, under the one-party system, such posturing and conflict could not be admitted.

Unfortunately, and this is part of that same system and philosophy, the book rambles on about many, many different issues, then revisits some of them in a economic rather than a political context, making the book very hard going.

It is clear that Zhao Ziyang was wronged and improperly treated and that China's economic development suffered in organsational terms as a result, but so many years later, that is water under the bridge.

Overall, a book for academics and enthusiasts. Don't risk picking it up as a curiosity.

I have NOT got H1N1!

Actually, I knew that before I went to the health centre on Wednesday afternoon. I called beforehand to book an appointment with my family doctor, preferably for the same day, as I was coughing up blood! The telephonist suggested I should go to the flu section, for faster treatment.

I was attended to fairly quickly and patiently explained that I had received the annual flu, pneumonia and H1N1 vaccines, but thought that the blood should be seen to. The duty doctor appeared to agree and wrote me a reference letter for a chest x-ray at the hospital.

The hospital was also well organised, but couldn't give me an x-ray without me seeing the duty doctor first. It appears one professional opinion is not enough! So I was taken to the H1N1 quarantine area - one doctor, three patients in front of me. More than an hour later, it was my turn. Finally, a doctor who listens and even asks if there's nothing more he should know. Unfortunately, his initial diagnosis on the admission form was "H1N1".

So we ran the tests - unfortunately they take 2 hours! Nasal swab, throat swab, blood sample. During the 2 hour wait, they even took me to x-ray.

The 2 hours were up. Where's the doctor? "Oh, he also has to do general emergency, and it's rather busy", I was told. When he finally returned, he confirmed that I have not got H1N1, that the blood is not coming from my lungs and prescribed me some antibiotics, as well as giving me some preventive hints for someone of my age - off to the cardiologist for me then! Great doctor!

I reached the health centre at 2 p.m., got home at 10. So much for the fast track!

More Power to the Taxman

Who came up with the idea of giving the Portuguese tax authorities automatic access to bank records for the family members of suspected tax fraudsters? It's unbelievable!

Consider the well publicised IT errors that keep on cropping up: assessments for years where liability has lapsed, tax payments that do not get set off against the respective assessment, inspection staff completely devoid of any reasoning capacity, only worried about meeting their quota of inspections. It's easy for just about anybody to fall foul of such errors.

So if my company is inspected and incorrectly assessed for extra tax, which we claim against, leaving a file open (subject to somebody at the tax office remembering to register the claim), any of my family members can have their bank accounts inspected!

Not even the judiciary has such sweeping powers, but that would likely be inconvenient for a large number of eminent politicians.

So once again the little guy gets squeezed while the country rots from the top down...

Labour Anarchy

The Portuguese Communist Party are currently running a poster campaign that states simply: "We Will Revoke the Labour Law". Are they nuts? Do they have any legal advisors at all?

The Portuguese Labour Law covers contractual rights and obligations of employers and employees, health and safety at work, training requirements and much more. Most employers would be only too glad to see the abolition of clauses that prohibit the dismissal of incompetent, disruptive staff, give the employee total right to refuse to changes in working conditions and disallow monitoring of email and internet use. I, for one, would be more than happy to see it revoked as it hamstrings any hopes of a recovery plan for small- or medium-sized companies in the current crisis.

Of course, the PCP wants to revoke the changes that have been nibbling away at employee rights. Their fight would be more credible if they were more careful with what they say!

Photo Chop Shop

There are a lot of examples of bad Photoshop work around, in fact there are sites dedicated to it. Normally it doesn't bother me but the other day I was browsing through the Oceanico Signature magazine and was appalled by the obvious cut-outs of their star players and unit owners placed in front of sundry landscapes. With different colour temperatures and opposing lighting angles, these stars had obviously not been present when the landscape was photographed.

Then I came across this, on a bus stop. I think Keira Knightley has done herself no favours with this image. She was great as a skinny, flat-chested tomboy in her many film roles. As a girl, it just doesn't work, and the photoshop guys have done her no favours.

But I'm rarely a fan of advertising...

Tough Choice

Many thanks to Miguel Lobo, who persuaded me to go with him to test drive some Porsches this week. It was AWESOME!!!

Among the models driven were:
Cayman S

and

Carrera 4S



Surprisingly, I preferred the Cayman. It feels lighter and more responsive. Maybe I would have preferred the 4S with more time to get used to its brutal power.

I don't suppose I will get many other opportunities, or ever have enough disposable income to buy one, but it was a morning well spent!

100% Turnout

As a responsible, upstanding citizen, I went and voted in last week's local elections. EU citizens can vote in their place of residence, so I can vote in the local council elections, though not in the Portuguese parliamentary elections, only in the UK.

Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by enthisiastic scrutineers and coordinators. Then I found out that foreigners have their own electoral roll, and in my parish I was the only person on that electoral roll! So they had a special list for me, not I think a separate scrutineer, though that could have been the reason for their enthusiasm. Imagine if I had gone and voted early in the morning - he could have had the rest of the day off...

Anyway, my electoral roll had 100% turnout. There can't have been many of those. Fortunately I put my ballots in a common box, otherwise everyone would have known how I voted.

Now I have to go and hassle my other expatriate neighbours. If they are to be entitled to complain about local services (which they do frequently) they should at least get out and vote to improve them.

Green Day

In Lisbon, Monday September 28, 2009


FUCKING BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!

Planning and Politics

Manuel Pinho is the surprised minister, always expressing surprise at what goes on around him and with an extraordinary talent for opening his mouth and inserting his foot.

This weekend we have seen him complaining that the investigation into corruption in the Freeport planning approval process is politically motivated. I didn't hear him complaining when the media guns were pointed at members of the opposition. I was also surprised that he risked talking about anything located south of the river, but we all know he's thick (skinned).

Unfortunately, planning approval is a process so rife with corruption, that any commercial project approved in less than five years must have involved backhanders. But even then, the most important part of any commercial planning approval process is usually that it should bring political benefits to the planners who approve it. That doesn't appear to have been the case at Freeport, where large sums changed hands to allow construction of an Outlet that nobody wants, in the wrong place.

Nevertheless, I'm optimistic for the building industry in this triple election year, where sitting mayors will need to deliver on the promises made four years ago. Of course, they run the risk of being called to account in four or eight years' time, but that's politics!

Leaf Blowers!

Just what I needed, first thing Boxing Day morning - the neighbour's gardener and his damned noise machine (not necessarily this brand).

When I stuck my head out of the window, the guy was apparently using it to blow all the leaves and pine needles off the neighbour's deck, spraying them anywhere else, including into the pool! I suppose it's democratic - in the current economic climate both the gardener and the pool boy need to keep their jobs, so why shouldn't they make work for each other?

Haven't yet understood why these things are so bloody loud though!

New Year

Well, looks like I didn't find time to post anything in December. Too much depressing news to comment on, like the effective collapse of capitalism, where all economic sectors find themselves over-stretched and needing government bail-outs, or the ridiculous Portuguese consitutional crisis!

So here we go with another year - arbitrarily starting on January 1, which has no astronomic significance nor is the anniversary of anybody in particular, but the year has to start somewhere, right? No resolutions, great ambitions or so forth. Just a case of keeping ones head down and waiting for the worst to pass...

CD of the Month (12)

It will be no news that I am a long-time Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler fan, so here's the track that really got me hooked, on late-night radio 30 years ago.

A Filha do Capitão

My third review of a José Rodrigues dos Santos book. I do read other things, but people keep on buying me his work - I've already got the next one waiting to be read.

This story, set at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, was of particular interest to me, taking place in locations that I know and depicting the trench warfare in Flanders in World War One, where my great-grandfather died. It traces the life of a boy born to a poor family, through his seminary education and expulsion, and into the military academy, from where he ended up being posted to Flanders in the Portuguese Expeditionary Force.

There is a great detail of descriptive writing, detailing life in rural Portugal at the end of the 19th century, impressions of a youth's first visit to the grand city of Lisbon, doubts about theological matters, a lot of football, all of which described with JRS's cutomary skill. But, just like the allied forces in Flanders, the writer gets really bogged down in detail when describing in interminable detail the layout of the trenches and their ridiculous names.

Fortunately, that purgatory is relieved by the romantic liaison between the Captain and a French girl, whose life up to that point we have been following in parallel to his, visiting Lille and Paris with wonderful details that fit in perfectly with my memories of both cities.

Not a book for everyone, as it's rather heavy (perhaps even muddy) over large sections, and the title is a bit optimistic, since even two chapters from the end the daughter hasn't surfaced in the narrative, which rather gives the game away. But I enjoyed it!

Market Prices?

Under the Portuguese government's residential housing rescue plan, the government sponsored property fund will buy your house and rent it back to you if you can't meet the bank's instalments.

Sounds like a reasonable measure, until you ask what the price of the house will be. "Market price" Of course the existence of a market price depends on there being a functioning market, which there isn't! So written valuations must be obtained from two Stock Exchange approved valuers. But even that doesn't get around the problem, as the valuers' comparative valuation basis must be "market price".

While they will be in huge demand, they will probably continue to be badly paid by the banks for their expertise. I'm glad I'm not in their shoes. Actually I am a valuer, but I'm not risking registering and assuming that responsibility for the pitiful fees that banks have paid in the past. It's a sad reflection on the risks of doing business, don't you think?

There is a twist in the tail though. Property tax (IMI) is payable based on the tax department's formula-based valuation of your property. So surely, either the fund should buy your house for that valuation, or the tax office should re-base the valuation formula (downwards) to reflect the new reality of market prices, for there to be fiscal justice!

Fallen Out of Use

Entering Philadelphia's City Hall through the southern archway, heading into the central square, you pass a sign indicating the way to a nuclear fallout shelter. I never expected to see that.

Is it still available, operational? I wonder.

The Mayor's a Nutter!

No, I'm not being rude about present or past incumbents of Lisbon, London, Seixal or Marco de Canavezes. It just tickled my sense of humour that Philadelphia's mayor is called Michael Nutter...

Philadelphia

Not a film revew, like so many others. No! At the ripe old age of fortysomething, I've finally visited the US, in fact this post is being written in the airport departure lounge.

As a Brit, I flew in with a sceptical attitude, and have been pleasantly surprised. Downtown Philadelphia is secure, friendly, not overcrowded and has a lot to see. In fact my only complaint is the unseasonably cold weather this week.

The historical part is, in fact, historical. It goes back to the origins of the country and, at Independence Hall, an apparently balanced view is given of the events that led to the Independence of the 13 original states from Britain and France. The Liberty Bell center then moves the original ideas of independence and freedom, through the battles to end slavery, conflicts with the Native Americans and giving the vote to women.

So all in all, a pleasant surprise and a city to be recommended for a few days as a tourist.