Everybody knows that corruption is rife in Portugal. Now the President of the Lawyers Association has gone on the record to say so, to be promptly called by the Attorney General to clarify his statement.
Fortunately Jose Socrates has cleared the air by stating categorically that the members of his government are not involved. So it must only be all other parties, prior governments and levels of the State structure that are corrupt (I dare not use the word "bent"). That's a relief!
While wandering round the "Mata dos Medos" above Fonte de Telha beach, looking for photo opportunities, I found numerous locations where, seemingly, a group of people get together to drink whisky and smoke cigars, leaving carnations and a dish/ashtray at the scene. This was one of three, apparently recent locations about 10 metres apart beside a path.
I found many more, so it is not a one-off activity. Very strange, I thought.
It is wonderful that my native tongue is that which is misspoken by more people worldwide than any other.
This week received a proposal for professional services, in Portuguese, which included a timetable for carrying out the work labelled "timming", and passed posters advertising a "tunning" meeting. This notwithstanding a rule in Portuguese that double consonants are only used with the letters "r" and "s".
Both errors are unacceptable. Coming from a professional firm that boasts that the staff involved in the project will have significant international experience, specifically in the UK, I can only conclude that the Partner did not read the proposal that he signed off on, since the word "timming" does not exist.
On the other hand, "tunning" is a word, derived from tunn, an archaic liquid measure. Probably not relevant to the car modification scene. The organisers of a tuning event, should really know better! One thing I think I'm sure of though: if their timming is off, their tunning won't work!
The BCP farce has also emphasised a sinister side to Portuguese politics. With the Government putting forward a Board of Directors for the bank, it is easy to conclude that such a move represents the privatisation of the second largest Portuguese bank, second only to the State's "official" bank, the CGD. But that, in itself, is not the sinister part.
The sinister part is the argument among major political parties as to who, from each party, should be appointed to the Board of BCP. Does either party have members qualified to fill such a post - apparently not! Never mind. It is in "the national interest" to ensure that all political parties are duly represented. What a load of bull****! The national interest lies in ensuring that the Board is competent.
As the State is not a BCP shareholder, what has the government got to do with the matter? Apparently the politicians do not understand the difference between Government (the elected representatives at one particular time) and State (the structure set up to run the country, irrespective of who is in government) - the majority are only in politics to make a quick buck anyway.
Fortunately an alternative list of candidates has emerged. It will be a shame for Santos Ferreira to have resigned from the CGD and end up without a job, but that's politics!
Once again the genius who runs the Bank of Portugal (BoP) leaves us amazed. After many, many years of supervising BCP, he reaches the conclusion that no former Board Directors (Administradores) of BCP may run for office in the new administration! However, no details are released of formal action being taken against any of them, for breach of statutory duty, negligence, fraud, tax evasion....
Hang on a minute. If the BoP has such sweeping powers to disqualify directors, what took it so long? If not, as appears obvious, where is due process?
Once again, he had descended from his ivory tower, issued inane statements and retreated, leaving everyone to wonder what is really going on. How did the BoP inspection teams fail to analyse the loan write-offs to related parties? What does the BoP really do, other than pay fat salaries to its staff? I said he should go two years ago. How much longer must we wait?
The inhabitants of Sintra appear to have won a significant victory. The unsightly overhead high-tension electric cables will now be buried as they cross the council.
Unfortunately, this will likely turn out to be a poisoned victory. Studies done in larger countries, with more money to spend on medical research, show clear correlation between proximity to high-tension overhead wires and childhood leucemia and other diseases. Of course the pylons are unsightly, but at least in plain view and a reasonable distance from the ground.
The strength of electric fields depends on proximity to the cable that carries the current. So burying the cable two or three metres below the surface of roads, passing homes, schools and other public buildings hardly seems to be an intelligent alternative, at least from a public health standpoint. Of course, by the time the health problems come to light, none of the Directors of REN nor the politicians that achieved this victory will be in office, so who cares...
EDP is going to give us all new electricity meters that communicate their readings to a central computer, thus eliminating the need for costly and unreliable human readings!
Actually, they are going to sell us the meters, which we will pay for over the next twenty years.
It's a good job there is competition in the Portuguese electricity sector, otherwise this cavalier behaviour may lead us to deduce the the company is abusing its monopoly position!
I've just finished reading another of my presents from last Christmas - only 3 more to go!
Following on from O Codex 632, José Rodrigues dos Santos sends Tomás Noronha off to Tehran and Lhasa this time, in search of the answer to "God's Formula", written by Albert Einstein as his proof of God's existence.
Unfortunately, this novel doesn't work for me as well as Codex 632, partly because I find the proof rather self-fulfilling and partly because, having a reasonable knowledge of physics, I got tired of the repetition of theoretical explanations: first one of the characters explains the theory to Tomás, then he goes off and confirms his understanding with another. I could have got as much out of a book 100 pages shorter, but I'm sure many readers wouldn't.
Not a book that I will take time to re-read, but as JRS and his team produce books faster than I have time to read them, I expect I'll be a fan for some time yet.
I have posted before about the mismatch between graduates and the skills that their employers need. So I was rather pleased that learned research from Accenture backs up my comments, showing that countries with high R&D spending and investment on training in science and technology makes countries more competitive.
This was presented to students and teaching staff at my post-graduate course award ceremony last night. I'm glad to have got through that experience with a rather better grade than my original degree. Don't know if I'll be going back for the Masters though. Enough of hard (academic) work for now.
J.S. Bach Violin Concertos / Gidon Kremer / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (1983)
This CD of the Bach Violin Concertos was one of my early acquisitions back in 1984, when CDs were a novelty. It reflects the "best practice" of the time, which didn't run to period instruments, more to chamber orchestras of modern instruments, such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Nowadays they don't do things that way, but I think this recording is quite acceptable.
My only gripe is having Gidon Kremer playing both violin solos on the Double Concerto for two violins - they tend to merge into each other rather than standing out as two separate virtuosi, as you might expect.
Anyway, it's a long standing favourite of mine.
