1998 was an exciting year in Lisbon. Above all it was a year wherein my wife and me got family and friends from nearly every continent to Lisbon for our wedding and we subsequently commenced building our home. Queen Beatrix and His Royal Heighness Claus - and many other heads of state - also came to visit but that was on the occassion of the World Exhibtion.
At the final day of the Expo 98, waves of people from within Portugal and elsewhere travelled to the exhibition's site to have one final glance of Portugal's glorious and natural role as a host to a refreshing connection with ocean life. "I'll call you when I get there" was the talk amongst Lisbonners, who were well on their way on beating a world record of mobile phone ownership per capita.
Then, much before another wave of spectacular midnight fireworks to get a party going, a social disaster struck the air; the three national mobile phone networks blacked out, leaving a million texting and roaming individuals with no alternative than to cue up in front of dozens of fixed phone booths .
Even worse, all of a sudden the masses were suprisingly confronted with having to verbally agree in the time allowed by a coin of a 100 Escudos and a nervous crowd behind them, where and when to meet in the unfamiliar surroundings of this newly constructed part of Lisbon.
I suspect that somewhere in the crowd a disguished Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg thought by themselves, there must be another way.
And indeed a bit more than a decade later, enormous amounts of people pretty much anywhere in the world manage to get together without ever having exchanged a single conversation, crowding behind a single slogan, claiming to be the representing democratic majority of a population's purpose.
Maybe.
I can also understand Mr Rajoy's reaction via the media and press that a million protesters on a square do not per sé represent a further 30 million at home, school or work, especially in times where news does indeed travel fast anywhere.
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