ABOUT US, PORTUGUESE
Though we were a formidable empire, we are now a small country, ten times bigger than Luxembourg. We specialize in dreaming, and we pretend we still have the universe at our feet when we go out to the Café.
The Café is the ontological meeting place where every day every portuguese worth his salt corrects the fallible Universe. We like to be there, joking about our rulers and politicians - a constant circus - and cracking jokes about ourselves. We target ourselves. We practice auto-shooting.
We also specialized in a baroque way of thinking, so, never ask a linear question, a straight question, to a portuguese. Though we have some infamous architects, with a world recognition, like Siza who loves straight lines and monolith volumes (We think he was the designer of the Caaba, in Mecca, that old black cube), we don´t like them. But we allow them to be there scheming. Like that we can have a fresh supply of maledicence. Our answers take time, and usually they have a tendency to reproduce one of the many forms of the labyrinth.
Catholicism in our country is strange. It had a strong hold on everyone´s mind. There is still a place of pilgrimage for old women of all sexes and ages called Fatima. There are also a lot of old churches everywhere, and some very beautiful indeed. Now, the truth is that although priests are supposed to reamain chaste and live in celibacy, most of us descend from a village priest, or a powerful bishop. (Difference between them being that the modest priest had 2 or 3 children, the powerful bishop, some 20 or more) Now, catholicism is like those old cars we keep in the garage, and ride it once in a year.
There also a lot of new sects. It's even amazing the capacity we have to welcome even the most far fetched sects. Recently we had the sect of the Blue Martians of the Second Advent. They were not precisely gentle lunatics. Like the Hare Krishnas they were a lot of time out in the streets, dancing and saying mantras, with their faces painted in blue. They practiced agressive advertising, like scientologists. They had one utopia: to conquer the government of Lisbon, our wonderful capital. They still want to have a Martian ruling the town. They probably will. Because they have gone underground. And we love secrecy, impossible agendas, idealisms of every kind.
People like the recently elected Sarkozi, the French president, with their appeals to hard work are aliens to us. Though, here, every politician speaks about improving productivity, and working harder, everyone knows that that is colateral speech. Basically, we like to be idle. Northern and puritan values as hard work, organization, schedules and such are contrary to our mediterranean take it easy, we'll see it later, tomorrow we'll fix that.
We find work to be such an oddity that when a portuguese is working 3 or 4 others are observing him.
Our relationship with time is odd, too. Tomorrow, to the despair of germans and method oriented people, though someday eventually comes, is wayward. As we freely and nonchalantly mix past with present, and future with past, we can say that our past is our future. So tomorrow takes place yesterday. Present time is honorary. As a dreaming people for us the now is just oniric. Some say we are still people from Atlantis waiting for the good news that it has re-emerged.
We also specialized in a baroque way of thinking, so, never ask a linear question, a straight question, to a portuguese. Though we have some infamous architects, with a world recognition, like Siza who loves straight lines and monolith volumes (We think he was the designer of the Caaba, in Mecca, that old black cube), we don´t like them. But we allow them to be there scheming. Like that we can have a fresh supply of maledicence. Our answers take time, and usually they have a tendency to reproduce one of the many forms of the labyrinth.
Catholicism in our country is strange. It had a strong hold on everyone´s mind. There is still a place of pilgrimage for old women of all sexes and ages called Fatima. There are also a lot of old churches everywhere, and some very beautiful indeed. Now, the truth is that although priests are supposed to reamain chaste and live in celibacy, most of us descend from a village priest, or a powerful bishop. (Difference between them being that the modest priest had 2 or 3 children, the powerful bishop, some 20 or more) Now, catholicism is like those old cars we keep in the garage, and ride it once in a year.
There also a lot of new sects. It's even amazing the capacity we have to welcome even the most far fetched sects. Recently we had the sect of the Blue Martians of the Second Advent. They were not precisely gentle lunatics. Like the Hare Krishnas they were a lot of time out in the streets, dancing and saying mantras, with their faces painted in blue. They practiced agressive advertising, like scientologists. They had one utopia: to conquer the government of Lisbon, our wonderful capital. They still want to have a Martian ruling the town. They probably will. Because they have gone underground. And we love secrecy, impossible agendas, idealisms of every kind.
People like the recently elected Sarkozi, the French president, with their appeals to hard work are aliens to us. Though, here, every politician speaks about improving productivity, and working harder, everyone knows that that is colateral speech. Basically, we like to be idle. Northern and puritan values as hard work, organization, schedules and such are contrary to our mediterranean take it easy, we'll see it later, tomorrow we'll fix that.
We find work to be such an oddity that when a portuguese is working 3 or 4 others are observing him.
Our relationship with time is odd, too. Tomorrow, to the despair of germans and method oriented people, though someday eventually comes, is wayward. As we freely and nonchalantly mix past with present, and future with past, we can say that our past is our future. So tomorrow takes place yesterday. Present time is honorary. As a dreaming people for us the now is just oniric. Some say we are still people from Atlantis waiting for the good news that it has re-emerged.
posted by Miguel Drummond de Castro | 12:22
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