Last Sunday, Portugal did not have a match to play in the World Cup.Nobody had told him.
Just WHAT had they told him?
There are too many aspects of this circus that I am growing sick & tired of.
'Footballisation of the Nation' is the phrase I thought up to describe what I observed in the 6 months before a ball was even kicked in theEuro 2004.
It has nothing much to do with balls being kicked at all.
The country goes on sliding down every positive economic & social indicator that tells us how it compares with the EU partners. It goes on climbing up every negative indicator.
As long as 'A Selecção de Todos Nós' is involved in the European or World football indicators, then please forget all of those nasty things from EUs/OECDs/UNs, wave a flag, wear a scarf (even if it's 33º) and Sing, Povo, Sing!!!
Future? What do you want to be when you grow up? Just like Mum & Dad? Yep, good. Resposta certa..............
8 comments:
I begged you not to get me started on that... It's sad and nauseating and it has absolutely nothing to do with patriotism. Just watch how eagerly everyone snatches up any excuse not to work, without giving a rat's ass for ths country's productivity. How much easier is to turn a week into a looong holiday and wrap yourself in a flag.
I think you're right,
BUT
let me point out that statistics say that winning the footbal world cup makes de gross product (PIB) of a country rise by 7,5% - that could be handy :-)
So let's all sit oon our behinds and hope we win the cup - that's a really practical and realistic approach to attaining wealth. I'd rather rely on Euromilhões, but, to be on the safe side, I'll get back to work now. (I know that game's on, but i'm funny that way)
Oh, yes, I like it, an extrangeiro generating some intra-luso argy-bargy, as the Brits call such discordance! João P, can you come back with a GDP statistic for hosting Euro 2004, reaching the final and losing it? And is that 7.5% for a month? A week? Or across a whole year? Anyway, as we all know, the Prime Minister took advantage of the distraction to slip out of the back door, in through the EC front door and set off Portugal's biggest political crisis in almost 30 years. The result, far from a huge stride forward in GDP, optimism, self-confidence & productivity, was a government headed by an opportunistic incompetent named Sacana Lopes. Sorry, with the prevalent attitudes, the mediocrity of the educat.results, the eternal paternalism, corruption, the tendency to blame others lie kids and the need to be led like kids, rather than try enterprise & initiative and encourage dynamism & creativity to produce & sell goods 6 services at competitive prices, I am here to tell you that football alone is not going to save the country from what is coming ever nearer to it...[I have edited out my own following empirical example on the grounds of discretion]. But I will give you an interesting reference, available in pdf online at www.adcapita.com. Survey & report compiled by them & Cranfield School of Business (UK) in 2002; title 'Can Portuguese Managers Compete?', the pertinent questions were put to senior foreign managers based here, plus a control group of Portug. managers to get their self-perceptions. It is easy to read, conforms to my experiences & those of foreign senior executives I've known (Dutch, German, Belgian, Brit) who've had to be based here. Interesting, sad & damning. I'd urge anyone seriously preoccupied to read it, instead of going to Helsinki to learn the Finnish secret. Portugal olé! Win the Mundial & be even more like Brazil!(Phew, Ana, I must be in a some bad kind of mood, no?)
Well that makes two of us, Swiss Tony. I actually really enjoyed football until the game began being played always outside the field, mixed with politics, crime and whatnot. The 10 new stadiums for 2004 did it for me. And the way the Portuguese squad plays is exactly that, Portuguese: are we ahead? Oh, let's give it a rest then, we're stars anyway. Oh no, we lost? It was the referee, the grass, the pressure, those meanies from Greece that don't play beautifuly like we do. On day we will win and our PIB will skyrocket and we'll all be rich, and we have the tallest Christmas tree in Europe, so there.
Hee-hee-hee! Is this view politically correct here Ana? I've said it before, we are like two peas in the same pod (without upside down 'i'). I was raised to love football by my dad. He'd played to England schoolboy level, then there was a war that blew that career avenue. But I inherited the gene & the passion, same club but anything that was like an art form. Back in the days when there was no footie on TV, except the cup final and we learned to play with a tennis ball and no replica shirts advertising everything from toothpadte to tampons. I adored it, my club and playing endlessly, anywhere for anyone who wanted me. Had opportunity to trial for local 1st div club (not the one that had & still has my heart), but my short-sightedness blew that career avenue! Anyway, I was not cut out for it. But one of school-mates went and turned into a big star & and long-time England interational, then a TV expert and today is something big inthe English federation and has been knighted by the Queen,so he is Sir T.B. Then came TV, hooligans, came money, commercialism, and much more TV, so that today it is everywhere, any time and it's SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEFORE. Why? How? I preferred it when it stopped in May & almost nothing more happened for 3 months so that we were desperate & hungry for it when it started again in August. It has gone mad. Here it is truly mad, a dictatorship at the same time as a mediocrity that is constantly sold as being "um espectáculo", "uma festa de futebol" etc. How can it be when more people go to see the selecção training than go to real games? I mean, brand-new stadiums in places that don't even have a club? What is that? I honestly think that it is the most deceitful mentira, the whole footie bizz, in Portugal today. It is crap 6 it's bankrupt.
now, let's draw the line and move on to something more worthwhile, shall we? A beautiful Midsummer Night, perchance to dream.....Nope, no good, it didn't work! I think I'm going back to the stars..........Beam me up, Scottie! I'm getting tired of this persona. A-ha! A great word-ID word again: MOGEZ. It's for all you cat-lovers out there!
LOL
Stew, The GDP (thanks for the correct term) grouth of 7,5% is yearly, of course.
About Euro 2004, I think its easy to demonstrate Portugal won economicaly if one considers the total amount of taxes paid, and the continued effect on economy along the years. Of course that's not enough to cover Santana's playing around as pm (with or without euro he would be be shiting around anyway).
... back to study now ;-)
Have a better-mooded evening S!
I know, J, I'm bad. Maybe it's the time of year or maybe it's the time of man. I just don't know who/where/what/why/how I am, but life is for learning (with grateful thanks to Joni mitchell for helping me to that).
I'm going to tell you a secret: I have always detested economics -both as a thing in itself (has no people in it, so theorising is kind of easy, isn't it?) and as an academic subject. So, i run away to Portugal and little by little, surprise, surprise, I find my professional life absolutely dominated by the damn thing!!
So perhaps that is partly why I'm so down these days. From time to time, I get aglimpse through a thick glass window of where I belong, but I can't possibly break that glass. "Where I belong" is no longer mine. Started with my beloved Joni and must end with the help of Joe Strummer & The Clash: "I'm hearing music from another time". Do well, man & do good! And call again soon (you know my feelings about the cows already! Now, toiros, that's another matter.....) A-ha! A footballistic Word ID word:HWMMFC, or Happy Wanderers Moaning Minnies Football Club. Come On, you Minnies!
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