The difference between rich & poor countries is...

...in rich countries there is a considerable part of the population making an effort not to eat so much, while in poor countries there is a considerable part of the population making an effort not to eat so little.

Speeding on the highway

António Costa (mayor of Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal) and Paulo Portas (head of the CDS party), were caught speeding at 160Km/h. The justification was that they were in a “mission of service”, but the mission was to go to a football game.

Portugal vs. Sweden work schedule

I read this in a blog about a portuguese guy that lived in Sweden:

“In Sweden, if you don’t leave work at 5 p.m. your colleagues ask if you are working extra hours.

In Portugal, if you leave work at 5 p.m. your colleagues ask you if you are working part-time.”

Comrades, ease up on the vodka!

It appears Moscow has intentions of put out Stalin posters in the city. The man was one of the responsible people for the genocide of millions of people, either by famine or through imprisonment in the Gulags, and now they are using posters to remind people (i.e. propaganda) of the great “war heroes”. 

The Christmas list

There is an ongoing scandal in Portugal called “Face Oculta” about which the list of “gifts” given at Christmas by one of the defendants went public. I’m translating part of the list bellow, and let you take your own conclusions.

Now, just to provide a reference for the prices in the table above, 5€ is enough to buy you a Big Mac in Portugal.

Censorship in modern day Portugal

Recently, a renowned Portuguese journalist, Mário Crespo, saw his weekly chronicle being removed from the newspaper where it supposedly should be published. In that chronicle, he expressed his thoughts on a conversation that the prime minister had about him while having lunch at a restaurant. According to him, the prime minister expressed how some journalists had already been “put away” from their jobs because of some undesired comments and he mentioned Mário Crespo as “a problem which had to be solved”. Fortunately, Mário Crespo is an old school journalist, the kind that has the guts to fight for his rights, leading to a wide discussion about freedom of speech in the country. The prime minister is even being metaphorically referred to as “the octopuss” because of the accusations on him using his tentacles to control the Portuguese media.

The prime minister has a problem with people criticizing him, no news there. The public has become aware of many scandals regarding his personal and political life, from his questionable University diploma, to the teacher that was fired for saying some undesirable comments on whether or not the prime minister is really an engineer. There is an huge mistrust for politicians in Portugal, as sooner or later we hear about some irregular activity executed by them before, or during, their political careers. It is really hard to hope for a politician whom has a real interest on the well being of a people, without being corrupted for external or selfish interests.

Guessing mathematics

Today, while speaking to an university student in the area of business management, i asked her if she knew how to calculate the area of a 8x8 square. After much thinking, i got the answer from her:

-65?!

-No.

-66?

-No.

-67?

-No. Are you going to keep counting? Because you are not getting anywhere closer to the correct answer.