Dear Chancellor,
I am taking the
liberty to address this open letter to you in anticipation of your visit
to my country, Portugal, on the 12th of November.
I am sure your
staff has prepared you well for this trip, but I would like to take
this opportunity to express my views as a citizen of my country and as a
citizen of our European project.
Many of my compatriots are
eager to demonstrate against you and your position with respect to our
debt and our financial position as a country. I can understand their
anger, their frustration, and their desire for justice or even
vengeance. I am asking for your help. I am asking you to walk, just for a
day, in the shoes of a swelling number of my compatriots whose needs I
am describing below.
We are all very well aware that Portugal
has overspent well beyond its means to pay. And that Portugal has
grossly misused funds that were available to us for very noble and
worthy purposes.
But I would like to let you know that this
Portugal I just mentioned is not the Portugal to which I belong. The
Portugal I belong to, with many other of my loyal compatriots, has not
spent over its ability to pay, and when this Portugal I belong to has
borrowed, it has always paid with interest, in full and on time.
But even so, the Portugal that I belong to has been grossly ignored and has now been asked to pay the debt of
the few who scandalously and wrongfully gained from all of the above
misdeeds, and who are now spreading the debt to anyone in sight. But
mostly the poor among us, making them even poorer.
And so, this
Portugal that I belong to, instead of having hope in the future, looking
forward to a new era, and becoming a strong and valuable partner in the
European consortium, is walking around angry, demotivated and in
mourning as the country is plundered, destroyed and reduced to cinders.
Examples
of this destruction is now seen in the soup kitchens that grow in
numbers and feed more and more people every day. These same soup
kitchens now have waiting lists that grow longer every day.
This
same Portugal has, over the more recent past, reduced its purchases at
the supermarket. It used to buy meat, but reduced these purchases to
pork. But even these have already been reduced to poultry. And many are
now only eating sausages, if that much. This is visible in the most
recent statistics.
In this same Portugal, where taxes are
reaching a scandalous imbalance, the rich are getting richer, the poor
are getting poorer and those in between are finding more and more in
common with the poor. In this Portugal I am describing to you, more and
children are getting to school without eating breakfast. More and more
people, mostly the older people, are returning home from the pharmacy with only part of the prescription because they cannot afford to pay for all of the medication they need.
But,
in this same Portugal, the rich, the governing elites and the corrupt
influence peddlers are getting richer by the day, and more hated as the
days go by. In the meantime, the superfluous official expenditures and
benefits are being preserved. While government employees are being let
go in the most important functions to society, such as education and the
health services. There are many examples of Health Centers without
bandages, syringes or surgical gloves.
There is more crime, more
shoplifting, more violence, more distrust, among citizens and with
respect to the institutions. There is less investment, less innovation,
less entrepreneurship. More and more enterprises are declaring
bankruptcy. And many individuals too. Every day that goes by our
capacity to function as a peer within the European Community is being
reduced. I would say, destroyed. The rupture in the social fabric is
becoming scary to us all.
With all this there is less and less
capability to pay for our past sins and misdeeds. There is a very strong
mistrust in our government leaders.
I am not sure what has
transpired at your level about my country. I have a strong feeling it is
not the whole truth or even the truth. I have a strong belief that we
are not headed in the right direction and that your office has not been
well informed by the offices of my country.
There is a
generalized feeling of revolt against the "Troika". But I think it is a
derivative of our aversion to the measures and attitudes of our
government who is seen as a team of puppets with no political savvy and
negotiating skills.
There is a strong feeling among my Portuguese compatriots that Portugal should not pay its debt.
But whether that is right or just, I do fear that Portugal, the way it
is going, will not be able to pay its debt, regardless of whether it is
right or just.
I would like to add, as a closing remark, that I do know I am not alone in my feelings, beliefs and convictions.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
