In the political landscape of the blind ...

Out of the five continents on this planet, I would dare say that the European one houses the population which is most involved in state politics, even if ever rising numbers of people consciously opt to disengage from anything to do with politicians.

This will have to do with literacy, transparency, democracy, infrastructure but also, or perhaps above all, with geography and history.  Simply a lot of people per square kilometer inevitably debating where one person's freedom ends and another's commences and there with in a constant quest for some form of civilized arbitrage.

The reason we acknowledge with a reasonable peace of mind why present Germany's leading politicians have the influence they do is because today Europe finds itself in a fairly unique mix of modernity and tradition wherein - for the first time in history - a generally informed civilian society is visibly outpacing it's national governors.  

It does not really matter whether we are revolted, annoyed or indifferent with what politicians say or even undertake.  We have become accustomed to enormous amounts of EU top meetings, some more urgent than others, and no one is really objecting the fact that whomever represents more private economic activity or individuals, whichever their national origins, has a higher claim in the decision making especially if we evaluate the very relative significance in a wider world.

The times wherein military uniformed personalities would manage to head or lead large populations into some sort of common belief or hatred appear to have long gone.  I recall a German columnist writing more than a year ago that the only reasons why Europe had not entered into another war were due to that (1) countries do not have the necessary finance and (2) even if they would have, political leaders would not be able to find a sufficient number of young men interested or willing to pick up an uniform and arms and start shooting on their neighbors.

Angela Merkel may very well classify as the most (politically) powerful woman in the world today. And ?  That would probably say more of the population that allow her to act as representative in international gatherings than the personality itself, notwithstanding the typical skills necessary to function within a profession, but then again, as already mentioned, we ordinary civilians tend to be looking in other directions to secure the interests of our immediate surroundings and I will atribute Mutti the benefit of the doubt that has been her intention all along (see a previous post on mastering morality).

Chasing the facts

The common Portuguese word for municipality is autárquia.  The term would come from ancient Greek implying a certain "self-rule" away from any form of central government (and consequently hinting a corresponding level of self-sufficiency).

It's a word that comes up a lot in Portugal thesedays ahead of 29 September when municipal elections will be held and the general population gets to choose whom will hold the public office for their neighbourhood, city or village, all the way up to the presidente.  Unfortunately, any connection with self-rule is unfetchable.

Officially there is a pre-campaign period followed by a campaign period and I am yet to meet someone able to explain the difference.   For several months already political heads show up on billboards, distracting traffic and ironically covering the publicity of struggling retail entrepreneurs votes are asked from, alongside poor catch frases on some promising future.

How sad is it to observe anxious lifelong politicians pondering which tie not to where as they are temporarily forced to stroll through streets and must meet and greet their potential electorate in a poor attempt to get ahead of any threat of losing their job.  This in a country wherein any citizen is well aware that any potential measure of significance is subject to consent by shadowing creditors under a financial and structural reform programme, which has deprived many muncipalities from any (financial) room to manouevre.  Apparently many people feel the upcoming general elections in Germany are of more relevance to their future that those in their immediate surroundings. 

In absence of any ability to introduce substance in locally desired or needed developments, most of the campaigning and debating in the weeks ahead will feature the usual national disputes between the political parties that have been holding the country hostage in contemporary history.

There are some refreshing signs, the foremost being the efforts of Movimento Branco to combat politicians to overcome a law designed to restrict the number of mandates any elected politician can pursue.  Another positive sign is the growing number of non-partisan candidates, generally distinguishing themselves by genuinity and plain honesty, although some are the mere result of the usual inner-party conflicts. 

In an attempt to detect a potential collective sense of modernity, what is also worth mentioning is that the spending of taxpayers' money on this campainging is estimated to be about a fifth of what it was at the previous municipal elections which for an optimist like me could be a sign that politicians are putting their mouth where the money is.

Internationally, there has been a visibly growing number of analists that - build on the philosophies of scholars in political science throughout the past two centuries marked by industrializing and relative civilizing progression -  the return of city states would indeed be the ideal form of a region or municipality to govern itself into prosperity.

From a more pessimistic perspective, perhaps this is an example where enduring signs of Portugal's (imposed) hardshift can be found.  Where, under "normal" circumstances local governments should be (positioned to) gradually increase their autonomy to a more direct and productive benefit of involved populations, while a national government restrains to matters of nationwide interest, the present state of the nation shows the opposite trend.

Although it is still early to think of a post-credit crunch scenario, it is this type of regression that will prolongue a crisis a population is caught in and very possibly widen the gaps with counterparts it would so very much like to see going the other way.

Enlight me, pretty please

It has become a tradition that  throughout the month of August my family retreats just across the border and I drive the 400 km back and forth to the office.  The silence in Portugal's capital and on its motorways dramatically contrasts with the equally traditional vast amount of forest fires I see along the way and on the news, every summer.

Evening news headlines villages normally never heard of, detailing the exact number of firemen, airborn vehicles and the origins of firebrigades on site and updating the number of arrests of suspected incendiators, as if to any common citizen like me those data would be sufficient to gain some perspective on what has exactly been happening.  We get to see desperate civilians with tree-branches, shovels and garden hoses and interviews with firebrigade chiefs too often in too clean uniforms in their moment of fame and ocasional politicians forced to break away from their summer holidays publicly affirming total governmental support.

This particular August sees extra drama with the loss of life in combat by 8 firefighters, portrayed as experienced by fellow combatents even though most of them hardly turned 20 years of age.

It is an equal annual tradition that gradually a debate heats up on the cause and effect of so many wildfires wherein various local authorities point to various central authorities who in turn tend to be courteously evasive if they are in government at present on whether we are all doing a proper job in firefighting and prevention and cry out policy failure if they sit in opposition chairs.  Basic data such as the amount of acres held by the state, the number of fines raised against negligent land owners, the effectively imprisonments of incendiators then become a matter of opinion rather than fact.

The central government has now secured the settlement of firebrigades's gasoline bills and with immediate effect any civil servant who is on call as voluntary fire fighter will no longer need to file for an authorised absence of their normal day job.  That should get things going.  One potentially meaningful measure that has finally set foot is the involvement of military surveillance and I am still awaiting some nationwide video demonstrating how soldiers can shoot terrorist pyromaniacs in their foot from a long distance without a warning, but instead the mayor of Lisbon chose to call upon firefighters to organize a commemorating imitation of the great Chiado fire 25 years ago.

The villagers I meet in and around our holiday retreat, many of them farmers for life, convincently point out how this level of forest fires is a phenomenon of the last 30 years only, and are fairly clear that the principal cause is the abandoning of land previously used for agricultural purposes.

What surprises me is that in none of the media reported political tuned debates I have heard a single person of authority or otherwise pinpointing this, not to mention an economic viable connection with Portugal's comparative advantages in agriculture, wine and many other crops and live stock produce so uniquely mixable with tourism, especially relevant in present times wherein I can even appreciate that environmental sustainability is less of a priority for the time being.

Whilst summer heat evaporates and private and political life returns to business as usual, unfortunately I cannot avoid drawing a straight line with so many other inconclusive nationwide issues which appear to keep on returning in a scaringly similar form than before the last debate, election, state budget, academic year, court case or summer.  Too many people expressing opinions on what someone else should be doing or have done but little, very little, genuine constructive action and all together we hide behind the inevitability of some supranatural disaster.

So unless Portugal turns accessibly flat and forestless and next summer will be extremely humid but without winds, I can already see what August 2014 will look like.  Until then let's discuss second bailouts ..........