A country called Portugal
The theme “country” was treated by poets, writers and essayists. What was and what will be Portugal is debated. It expresses the pain and disenchantment of what the country is and the nostalgia for what it could be. The desire to intervene to change Portugal is stated.
To the question “which country will Portugal be in 2020, how will other countries look at us”, José Mariano Gago replied, in 2000: “What will it be, I don’t know. But I would like it to be seen as a normal country. A normal country is one that It can be exceptional, it can have exceptional people, exceptional productions. Precisely because it is normal, that is, because it surpassed the old, atavistic ones that limited the possibility of sharing progress with its citizens and with others.”
“Normal country” could be the title of this column. I chose “Possible Country”, the title of a book by Ruy Belo, published in 1973, which reveals the malaise of a poet who feels that he has paid a high price for being born in Portugal, in a space and time that “destroys and murder and the censorship and the censorship settles in the conscience itself”. Censorship, servitude and fear “subordinate the country without eyes and without mouth”, “where the people in vain demand bowed what their raised forehead belongs to”.
However, Ruy Belo’s pessimism and negativity have a bright counterpoint in his nonconformity and the courage of hope for the future:
The future portugal is a country
where the pure bird is possible
and on the black bed of the asphalt of
[road[road[estrada[estrada
how deep to draw children
[umgiz[aggiz][umgiz[agiz
this childhood fish that comes in
[flood[flood[enxurrada[enxurrada
and it seems to me that it is called shad
but draw them what they draw
this is the way of my country
and call them what they call you
Portugal will be there and I will be happy (…)
With the same thing in the future, writing the obstacles, the prejudices, the impediments about the myths in the future are foreseen in our day to day of democracy, others built already in the future. Censorship no longer exists, but temptations to silence those who think differently are everywhere, through insult. We have instituted social rights, but unacceptable inequalities and feelings of exclusion persist. We live in a democratic rule of law where fear does not fit, but the lack of courage often leads to freedom.
I assume, before the readers, the commitment to contribute weekly to the public debate about the country with information and arguments. In this column I will give my contribution to think about the possible country, hoping that it will become a normal country.
*University professor