"We're not just Monday morning quarterbacking here" said one the Foxnews presentators last Friday night while he and his team were tv news show styling and profiling through the paralising minutes which seemed like hours ahead of the capture of the boy probably guilty of attempting to terrorize Bostoners along with many people in other places.
It was a while since I last spend some time watching American news channels, but this past Friday night I sought to switch from the translated coverage on my local newschannel to get as close to the source as possible.
Once again (as observed in an earlier post "La donna é mobile" in respect of hurricane Sandy) it is impressive to observe how an apparatus of professional and civil human and technological resources is put into action, along with all the less visible back up intelligence.
After such a collective effort, involving pretty much everyone inside a (digital) community, it is only natural the quick conclusion is shared and celebrated. It fascinates me, however, that the celebration drives people into the street to shout out the name of their country. I do not recall observing similar reactions at, for instance, the Madrid or London subway bombings or the Oslo /Utoya attack.
In another previous post ("Peace of mind") ahead of the nobel peace prize awarding, I noted the increasing threat to civilized democratic and generally free societies, coming from apparent but anything but common individuals living amongst us.
Of course at times like these, we are angered and it is only natural that we try to put a face on an enemy hidden amongst us.
Looking forward, I am not sure how relevant it will be for this threatening trend whether such "persons" are self-tutored anti-social internetnerds or brainwashed trainees produced on site by some terrorist group.
All sources need to be dealt with in an as preventive manner possible. Wherever a case is turned into something more, hinting or even insisting national populations stand on two opposite sides of a potential wider conflict, that would appear to be Monday morning quarterbacking and may very well keep the popular tensity more alive than need be. But then again, I have never fully understood American football.
2013-04-24
2013-04-19
Monophonic monopoly
When I started this blog less than a year ago, I promissed myself to stay away from the wishy washy domestic politics that every country suffers from and especially marks the day-to-day in a small country like Portugal.
In early June last year I observed how after financial analists, investors, economists and politicians, historians came up to the media stage to bring their explanations as to what would have gone wrong in western free market economies and the therewith associated public finances.
Now, in Portugal, we see a range of commentators, some more politically driven than others, at more or less patronizing tones, comparing the country's status and political acts or lack thereof with simple family households. All this in response to the paralised non-communication between the country's largest two political parties, both signatories to the foreign financial adjustment programme, one in government, the other eagerly wanting to be. The mudthrowing tone a viewer is confronted with compares to the type of easy scripted frases one can equally find on the next tv channel albeit in the shape of soap series.
So now commentators feel a need to get back to basics and illustrate on national television how when a couple borrows money, both will need to consent to the repayment conditions and if in financial dificulty will need to commit and undertake changes in spending habits.
Duhhh.
This is not about financial and operational restructuring, sustainable welfare, not to mention a search for long term economic growth. What a population is stuck with is the same sad and even scary politically monopolized situation it was confronted with in 2011 when the inability of both these political parties predictably drove the country into having to have to contract a bailout.
Apparently one item both these political parties do agree upon is a roughtly € 130 million the government has reserved for all parties to run their campaigns in 2013, that is the money parties "need" to "communicate" to a population why they are the best positioned to come to govern the country.
I would suggest Portugal exports a majority of political players to Bollywood. Everbody wins.
In early June last year I observed how after financial analists, investors, economists and politicians, historians came up to the media stage to bring their explanations as to what would have gone wrong in western free market economies and the therewith associated public finances.
Now, in Portugal, we see a range of commentators, some more politically driven than others, at more or less patronizing tones, comparing the country's status and political acts or lack thereof with simple family households. All this in response to the paralised non-communication between the country's largest two political parties, both signatories to the foreign financial adjustment programme, one in government, the other eagerly wanting to be. The mudthrowing tone a viewer is confronted with compares to the type of easy scripted frases one can equally find on the next tv channel albeit in the shape of soap series.
So now commentators feel a need to get back to basics and illustrate on national television how when a couple borrows money, both will need to consent to the repayment conditions and if in financial dificulty will need to commit and undertake changes in spending habits.
Duhhh.
This is not about financial and operational restructuring, sustainable welfare, not to mention a search for long term economic growth. What a population is stuck with is the same sad and even scary politically monopolized situation it was confronted with in 2011 when the inability of both these political parties predictably drove the country into having to have to contract a bailout.
Apparently one item both these political parties do agree upon is a roughtly € 130 million the government has reserved for all parties to run their campaigns in 2013, that is the money parties "need" to "communicate" to a population why they are the best positioned to come to govern the country.
I would suggest Portugal exports a majority of political players to Bollywood. Everbody wins.
2013-04-12
The sun will rise in the morning
While the Portuguese government dropped an icecold decree whereby with immediate effect all public spending intentions are to be frozen, causing a heavy rain of purchase orders pouring in from hospitals, schools, the militar and courts nationwide, the general population in Portugal finally has a meteorological promise of the type of enduring sunny warm wheather ahead that we would be used to at this time of year.
So we will have lots of things to talk about and to escape to this weekend.
For most of Portugal, long periods of cloudy grey and wet wheather just do not belong and people will find themselves out of place. For many Portuguese, it is however too familiar ground that a government ruling is reacted upon by waves of complaints against what is nearly (but not entirely)perceived as a dictatorial act by a government, generally by people who have not even read through the details of the decree. Theatrically panicking state employees show up in tv and radio interviews detailing lack of pens, toiletpaper, cleaning material and a whole variety of missing consumables that will serve to explain a fall in the quality of service to the general public in the immediate future and an paralisation of an entire country.
Give me a break.
For what it's worth, the far most item that commonly shows in surveys amongst foreign executives and managers working in Portugal on their views of Portuguese national colleagues is that decisions are frequently postponed and when eventually made, predominantly driven by emotion.
In this is where I find one explanation for the sudden expenditure freeze, or rather an announcement thereto (not to mention a range of other causes). In other words, it is about time that some active measures are taken instead of the contínuos appointment of projects and commissions studying feasibility plans to one day determine the amount of spending that might be avoidable, which eventually would also result in lack of paper but then at ATM's nationwide.
How about that wheather hm ?
So we will have lots of things to talk about and to escape to this weekend.
For most of Portugal, long periods of cloudy grey and wet wheather just do not belong and people will find themselves out of place. For many Portuguese, it is however too familiar ground that a government ruling is reacted upon by waves of complaints against what is nearly (but not entirely)perceived as a dictatorial act by a government, generally by people who have not even read through the details of the decree. Theatrically panicking state employees show up in tv and radio interviews detailing lack of pens, toiletpaper, cleaning material and a whole variety of missing consumables that will serve to explain a fall in the quality of service to the general public in the immediate future and an paralisation of an entire country.
Give me a break.
For what it's worth, the far most item that commonly shows in surveys amongst foreign executives and managers working in Portugal on their views of Portuguese national colleagues is that decisions are frequently postponed and when eventually made, predominantly driven by emotion.
In this is where I find one explanation for the sudden expenditure freeze, or rather an announcement thereto (not to mention a range of other causes). In other words, it is about time that some active measures are taken instead of the contínuos appointment of projects and commissions studying feasibility plans to one day determine the amount of spending that might be avoidable, which eventually would also result in lack of paper but then at ATM's nationwide.
How about that wheather hm ?
2013-04-08
Why tax ?
My father always tought me to remember that "one thing is knowing something, a totally other is explaining it to someone else". Equipped with that essential truth, this Friday, I nervously headed for an early morning presentation with the mission to explain what the profession of a tax consultant entails.
My audience consisted of a curiousity driven crowd of 30 individuals which may very well harbour a future computer wizard, media giant, entrepreneur, a judge or even some sort of politician marking the 21st century, but above all one thing they will all have in common is the genuine Jesuit philisophy large parts of the world are vividly (re-)discovering with the acts and words of a new Sumo Pontifice in Rome.
The crowd in question was the class of my 7 year old son. How inspiring it is to spend some classtime with those that are so much in the centre of matters, albeit unconsciously for the present wrong reasons and unaffected by the corrupted thrives of those that claim decisonmaking power in today's small world.
In the back of my head I sought to store the severe drawback Portugal would see that day on the constitutional test of a struggling goverment's budgetting as well as the wordlwide releases on agressive (offshore) tax planning that had been coming to the surface throughout the week.
It was exciting to see 20 hands in the air upon the question "who knows what taxes are?" and quite a few prompt responses on what happens with the money we pay to a shop owner . Particularly interesting was the pausing silence on the question "so why must we pay taxes?".
Lots of Robin Hoods in the make. There is a future, after all.
My audience consisted of a curiousity driven crowd of 30 individuals which may very well harbour a future computer wizard, media giant, entrepreneur, a judge or even some sort of politician marking the 21st century, but above all one thing they will all have in common is the genuine Jesuit philisophy large parts of the world are vividly (re-)discovering with the acts and words of a new Sumo Pontifice in Rome.
The crowd in question was the class of my 7 year old son. How inspiring it is to spend some classtime with those that are so much in the centre of matters, albeit unconsciously for the present wrong reasons and unaffected by the corrupted thrives of those that claim decisonmaking power in today's small world.
In the back of my head I sought to store the severe drawback Portugal would see that day on the constitutional test of a struggling goverment's budgetting as well as the wordlwide releases on agressive (offshore) tax planning that had been coming to the surface throughout the week.
It was exciting to see 20 hands in the air upon the question "who knows what taxes are?" and quite a few prompt responses on what happens with the money we pay to a shop owner . Particularly interesting was the pausing silence on the question "so why must we pay taxes?".
Lots of Robin Hoods in the make. There is a future, after all.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)