We had to sell and no one in Europe wanted to buy
June 13, 2014 3:36 AM   Subscribe

"Maybe Angola will colonise us now," says Vasco Lourenço, the head of Associação 25 de Abril, an organisation that is trying to preserve the spirit of the 1974 revolution. Forty years ago he was one of the young army officers who took up arms to end the Salazar dictatorship and colonial wars.
While Portugal is still in the throws of recession, Angola is booming and investing heavily in its old colonial ruler. Now Portugal is struggling with the effects of this investment and the implications it brings with it.
posted by MartinWisse (17 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I suppose Portugal has always been a small country with a big country's colonial empire.
posted by Segundus at 3:47 AM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


Vigorous hybrid culture is the way of the future. I hope we embrace it rather than feel "ashamed" of it as the author stated some Portuguese feel.
posted by digitalprimate at 3:55 AM on June 13, 2014


"In exchange Lisbon agreed to radical austerity measures, leaving the population poorer and sapping the welfare state."

There's your problem right there. Europe decided that the struggling periphery needed to be punished, and it's done so very thoroughly.
posted by zompist at 4:11 AM on June 13, 2014 [5 favorites]


"While Portugal is still in the throws of recession...."

THROES! The word you're looking for is THROES!

#crankythismorning
posted by magstheaxe at 5:33 AM on June 13, 2014 [25 favorites]


I suppose Portugal has always been a small country with a big country's colonial empire.

The Portuguese never managed to create domestic prosperity the way the Dutch, French or English were able to with their empires. Portugal's chief export seems to be its people, which seed Portuguese culture everywhere.

Last weekend, we were stuck for a half hour in Fall River while a parade went by - we went into a chinese restaurant, and when we came out, a parade had spontaneously formed from a nearby Portuguese Heritage festival, much to the amusement of the cops. Marching musicians and ox-carts and people in 18th century costume and little girls with baskets handing out candy and wedges of giant sweet-rolls and old guys with huge pitchers and stacks of plastic cups. They were giving out home-made fortified wine to the grownups - this stuff would melt your eyebrows off, and they weren't stingy with it - and fresh milk from a local dairy to the kids.

These were mostly people who's great-great's came over at the turn of the 20th century to escape crippling poverty, but there were also brown and black women in fancy peasant dresses, and one lady who was in green-and-yellow head to foot with a yellow leather jacket with Brazil's flag on the back waving a little Portuguese flag.

I wonder if in Angola they have the same romantic notions of being part of Portuguese culture - sort of how the US sees Ireland, Scotland or England.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:43 AM on June 13, 2014 [6 favorites]




"While Portugal is still in the throws of recession...."

THROES! The word you're looking for is THROES!

Actually, since it is all still ongoing, and also sort of violent, historically speaking, could the word be used in a wrestling kind of modality?

Just kidding, it hit my eye like a fishhook, too.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:22 AM on June 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


One of the effects of this intermingling is cuisine. If you do go to Lisbon, try the Portuguese food, yes, and of course the wine. But what many tourists miss out on is that the African food (Angolan, Mozambique) and the Goan food is just...amazing. There's a hole-in-the-wall Goan place I often eat at in Lisbon, that I'd hand a Michelin star to if it was up to me.
posted by vacapinta at 6:42 AM on June 13, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'd like a new throe rug...

I guess it's hard for a colonial power to really embrace a full partnership with their colonies.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:44 AM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


Portugal should of seen this coming.
posted by Sphinx at 6:48 AM on June 13, 2014


Curious to read this about Angola; is Brasil also a big investor in Portugal? The article is largely about people "investing" in Portugal to get visas, perhaps more wealthy people are looking to leave Angola than Brasil?

I'm also reminded of this Ask Metafilter question about Portugese localization, particularly vacapinta's comment "If your website can only choose one Portuguese, it should be Brazilian, not European. Even my European Portuguese wife agrees with this."
posted by Nelson at 7:11 AM on June 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Portugal should of seen this coming.

Now that's just cruel. Their's no way people aren't going to notice that.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:30 AM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


Nelson: "The article is largely about people "investing" in Portugal to get visas, perhaps more wealthy people are looking to leave Angola than Brasil?"

Actually, the main customers for Portugal's "Golden Visas" are Chinese.
posted by chavenet at 7:52 AM on June 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


THROES! The word you're looking for is THROES!

Sorry, I hope it didn't make you throe up.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:08 AM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


The article makes it sound like Angola is a fully-functioning country instead of a dystopic Third World shithole with the occasional gated community for petro-tycoons poking out like gleaming turds.

With nothing much to buy in Angola and a need to get the money out, I'm sure Portugal looks attractive for these oligarchs, who are about as Angolan as the owner of an offshore Cayman Islands account identifies as "Caribbean."
posted by KokuRyu at 8:36 AM on June 13, 2014 [5 favorites]


So it's Brasil-Leste?
posted by Apocryphon at 9:52 AM on June 13, 2014


The article makes it sound like Angola is a fully-functioning country instead of a dystopic Third World shithole with the occasional gated community for petro-tycoons poking out like gleaming turds.

This is so true. After I did a two week job for a Luanda bank, they offered me 20 times my salary to stay and work for them, and I refused. No regrets.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 10:20 AM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


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