Norman Mailer, Jan. 31, 1923 - Nov. 10, 2007

Norman Mailer was one of those writers that took literature by storm and then went and did the same in the field of journalism, taking it to literary heights. He was there in the 60s when everything happened. He was there with Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote when they all began experimenting a strange mix of literature in journalism, or journalism in literature.
Everybody knows Mailer as the author of The Naked and the Dead (1948) about his experience as a sargeant in the Philippines during WWII. Everybody knows he won, not one, but two Pulitzer Prizes and everybody knows he was a militant activist all throughout his life. He raised his voice against the Vietnam War back in the 60s and in the 80s he was bold enough to say that the Soviet Union was not the Cold War monster everybody thought but a weakening Third World country whose only power was the power of fear.
I, on my part, would like, today, one day after his demise, remember him for his great journalism, a New Journalism (as was baptised by Tom Wolfe) that we now call Literary Journalism. This new journalism that he used in Armies of the Night (1968) and in The Executioner's Song (1979), the first about the Vietnam War, the second about an execution in Utah, is naturally based on in-depth reporting, but it reads like a novel to an extent that we, the readers, no longer can separate fact from fiction. It is real events portrayed under the light of literature.

Mailer deserves his statute, one he won during his long life of controversy, and the one he will get post-mortem. I honour him for the journalist he was. RIP.

When Higher means Lower

Yesterday at the opening ceremony of the academic year at Universidade de Lisboa, the Rector, Dr. António Nóvoa (Dr. in an English meaning), made some serious remarks that I'm forced to admit I totally subscribe.

We all know that education costs money. It's a right all citizens have it's true, but it is a very expensive right. And higher education is obviously the costliest. How can we have a high-skilled professional without investment? And then, of course, society expects that the investment made in an individual can be paid up by the amount of skilled work performed by that same individual.

We also know that as far as things go in Portuguese academia the panorama is not that bright. There is chronic lack of investment (I still remember in my student's years that a certain leftist government had a passion for education, but, as in all passion cases, it vanished away quite quickly into a state of married apathic bliss), universities don't have the means to keep the brightest researchers, cases of brain drain are hugely common in Portugal, and the facilities of universities themselves (some exceptions made) are not at all inviting.

And so this government starts investing massively in protocols with some quite reputed foreign universities. Nothing wrong there. I'm all in favour of protocols and besides we live in a globalised world and we can't be left out on our own (the proudly alone situation doesn't benefit anyone). But I have to agree with the Rector of Clássica. There's no money to invest indoors, but it's ok to invest outdoors before our own problems are, at least minimally, dealt with. Ironic, isn't it?

Enough!

Enough is enough!

I'm here minding my own business and the sirens are on again! They've been like this since the weekend. It's another bloody fire! Today when I was driving to work the news on the radio was: "Seis incêndios ainda lavram...", when I was driving back from work, the news awas again: "Fogos nos distritos de xpto...". I am at home and there go the firefighters again. I'm really pissed off!

One of the marvels of English is that there is a name for this. It is called ARSON! In Portuguese I believe we only have the verbal form: "incendiar" or "deitar fogo a". Well in English, ARSON is to deliberately set property on fire with the intention of destroying it. It's a crime, of course. And those who make it are arsonists. In Portuguese we have the "incendiários" and, if language doesn't fail me, there is also "pirómanos", correct me if I'm wrong. Well, the thing is, when are we going to seriously start thinking that these "incendiários" are really a danger to society? And stop thinking that they are just ignorant lumberjacks wanting easy profit or poor illiterate people of low socioeconomic background that we should feel sorry for?

You destroy the forests, you should get justice for it!

Sorry, I'm really furious and not thinking clearly!

Before the Winter...

I'm always complaining about this country, always pointing the finger at what I think is wrong, always saying we're ruled by a bunch of morons, that I often forget the wonderful things this country has to offer and that make me realise (to my great surprise, trust me) I'm a first class patriot when I'm abroad and missing the light of Lisbon.
Where else would we find a sky like this in November?
This picture was taken a few minutes ago and the sky is so bright and clear, so deep, it makes us want to get lost in it or just spend hours looking at it and daydreaming (if only we could afford that in our busy lives...).
And where else would we baptise this atmospheric phenomenon of having a few sunny days before Winter strikes as "Verão de S. Martinho"? The English call it Indian Summer, but what is that compared to the poetics in "St. Martin's Summer"? And all the allusions to the miracle performed by the saint in sharing his cloak with a shivering beggar? It had to be here!
By this time of the year, Mum used to tell us the story of St. Martin and the beggar and each year it had new colours, a touch of novelty about it. Winter was coming ferocious and cold, but before that there was the Sun it its remaining glory and then all Nature would fall asleep.
Sometimes it is good to remember the cliché that "all good things in life are for free" and that this blessed sky is ours to the envy of the world.

To Mum. In Memoriam.

I could hardly believe it / When I heard the news "yesterday"...

I had to come and write in on the blog!

Yeah, yeah, the intro was taken from an interstelar hit by Michael Bolton (hey, who are you to judge me for liking the man now that he has a nice hair cut?). Music aside, I've been on an abstinence of news for the last month or so and suddenly ("life has new meaning to me" - this is Lionel Richie, ooch it's getting worse!) BANG! I turned in to a news channel at eightish in the evening and there it was this colossal news.

Some smart a... had the amasing idea that cars should have a coloured label indicating that their drivers were: a) red meaning dangerous, b) orange meaning kinda-sorta public menaces or c) green meaning Sunday drivers behaving like choir boys and girls with not a bump in their vehicles. And the smart a... jack said this was "positive discrimination", end of quote.

Just lovely! I guess this is, first and foremost, a question of bad grammar. I mean, you have an adjective plus a noun, right? Now, adjectives qualify nouns, correct? And are meaningless without them, yes? So, if you say "positive", some curious guy's gonna ask: "Positive what"? And you have to answer: "Discrimination"! Get it? It's always... exactly: discrimination. It doesn't work in the USA, how would it work here on the other side of the Atlantic pond?

Second, where would that idea leave me? I was hit once by a tractor in reverse gear at the ultrasonic speed of 3km/h. And the whole ghastly incident, for which I was absolutely guiltless, traumatised the poor tractor driver, who was left crying his lungs out that I should have moved aside (sure, as if I had had the time!). Would I have to carry a red label because I frighten the hell out of tractor drivers? Orange because I'm somewhere in between of turning to be a traffic hazard? Green? And how about yellow? Bimbo blond driving, make way!

Oh, well, thank the Lord for small mercies that this whole ridiculous idea is going nowhere. Allelujah!

Não "degisto" da "ademenistração"!

I think I'm gonna blow up if I don't let this out of my chest! So, just out of therapy, preventing a heart attack (mine in this case) is doing the national health care system a favour by saving a few hundred euros, I'll let some steam off of me.

I thought I had seen it all even if I've actually seen it all! But surprises are exactly that... surprises and keep popping up when you least expect them! Now, how does one explain that "Drs." to be write the absurdities the title gives evidence of? Is it the national school system? Is it the fact that kids have it all so easy that studying means/is nothing? Is it the poor secondary school teachers that, as outcast, downtrodden classes, don't bother anymore? Is it Macdonaldisation of the education? What? I just don't get it! But, hey, I'm just a blond bimbo!

In any case, not "degisting" of something shows determination. And if you want to be an "ademenistrator" you just have to "ademenister".

And such is life in the big city!

Where's the meritocracy?

Há tantos burros mandando

em homens de inteligência

que às vezes fico a pensar

que a burrice é uma ciência!

António Aleixo

Who wrote this was a simple and, obviously, intelligent man. But as so often happens, simple and intelligent men don't go that far in this world. I wonder why is it that the most capable people are always in the shades? And why is it that the world is usually ruled by idiots?

This assumption seems to contradict the very basics of Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. But, on a closer look, probably the truth is that those with less ability (to think, judge and act) are effectively the strongest of our species. It is they that rule! The peaceful-minded, the well-intentioned, the truly intelligent, the generous-hearted, the well-balanced don't have it easy in life. Theirs is a winding path full of obstacles. Everything is just so hard to get and the game so unfair.

Maybe it is because they are so fed up of all the battles thay they prefer to stand still in the shadows and not call attention to themselves. And here is another thing: these tremendous human beings are usually shy. Why is that so? On the contrary, the ignorant hot air balloon sort of human likes the spotlight, the attention and everything else that inflates their voracious egos.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a genuinely meritocratic society? If you honestly did your best and were rewarded for it, wouldn't this be a better place and a fairer world?