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Bled by emigration, abandoned Portuguese villages lose hope of surviving

The villages of Agracoes and Povoa de Agracoes in northern Portugal look little alike – one is a run-down cluster of dilapidated old stone houses, the other has a cosier feel, with a flowerbedecked wayside shrine and chapel.

But the one thing they have in common is the “slow agony” of abandonment, as some villagers say.

The steady drip-drip of emigration has brought down their numbers from more than 50 residents to fewer than a dozen each. These remaining villagers share the same glum acceptance that, after they have gone, their villages will die out too.

It is the same desolate picture in scores of other backwater settlements in Portugal’s interior, north to south.

There are no shops. A grocery truck comes once a week and elderly residents taxi pool to see a doctor miles away.

“This place will get overgrown with woods for wildfires to burn, that’s what will happen... My daughters won’t come to live here, so my land will disappear”, said Antonio Goncalves Fontes, at 62 one of the youngest residents of Agracoes, where mountain waters gurgle next to crumbling stone houses.

He and his wife Maria grow chestnuts, vegetables and have a small flock of sheep and five donkeys.

Mass emigration to wealthier countries like France and Switzerland, high unemployment and poorly-paid local jobs, combined with falling birth rates, have caused some parishes like Loivos, which encompasses Agracoes, to lose about three-quarters of the population in the past few decades.

The remote Trans-Mountain region of western Europe’s poorest country, near the Spanish border, is one of the worst affected. As the population has dwindled, schools and medical outposts have been shut down, causing a vicious circle of ever greater abandonment.

Letters

Children and Guns

Published: May 7, 2013

To the Editor: Re "Girl's Death by Gunshot Is Rejected as Symbol" (news article, May 6):

1 find it abhorrent that the people of Burkesville, Ky., are not willing to learn a lesson from the tragic shooting of a 2-year-old girl by her 5-year-old brother. 1 am not judging their lifestyle of introducing guns to children at a young age, but I do feel that it's irresponsible not to practice basic safety with anything potentially lethal - guns, knives, fire and so on. How can anyone justify leaving guns lying around, unlocked and possibly loaded, in a home with two young children? 1 wish the family of the victim comfort during this difficult time, but to dismiss this as a simple accident leaves open the potential for many more such "accidents" to occur. 1 hope this doesn't have to happen several more times for legislators to realize that something needs to be changed.

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Amazon deforestation, once reduced, comes back

Forest loss is detrimental to the earth’s climate. The clearing of woodlands and the fires that accompany it generate one-tenth of all global warming emissions, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, making the loss of forests one of the biggest single contributors to climate change.

Only about 15 percent of the world’s forest cover remains intact, according to the World Resources Institute. The rest has been cleared, degraded or is in fragments, eliminating ecosystems and dislocating indigenous communities, scientists say.

Behind the rise in deforestation is a strategy by multinational food companies to source their agricultural commodities from ever more remote areas around the world. These areas tend to be where legal protections of forests are weakest.

Synopsis

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores” — self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

Vik Muniz é um artista plástico brasileiro radicado em Nova York.

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THE REAL TAMBOURINE MAN

Tagore, not Dylan: The first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize for literature was actually Indian

There’s been a great deal of excitement over Bob Dylan winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature.
It’s rare for artists who have achieved widespread, mainstream popularity to win the coveted prize. And although Nobels often go to Americans, the last literature prize to go to one was Toni Morrison in 1993. Furthermore, according to The New York Times, “It is the first time the honor has gone to a musician.”
But as Bob Dylan might sing, “The Times, they are mistaken.”
A Bengali literary giant, who probably wrote more songs than him, preceded Dylan’s win by over a century. Rabindranath Tagore, a wildly talented Indian poet, painter, and musician, took the prize in 1913.

The first musician (and first non-European) to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Tagore possessed an artistry—and lasting influence—that mirrored Dylan’s.

In Barros’s paragraph, there is a lot of emphasis on liquidity, that is, the state of being liquid. For example, tear, water, river. Read the sentences below:

I - There are lots of water lilies on the surface of river and lakes.

II - The village is famous for its spectacular waterfalls.

III - Can you tell me where the water fountain is? I am thirsty.

IV - According to authorities, the water supply for the summer will be normal.

Susan Calvin had been born in the year 1982, they said, which made her seventy five now. Everyone knew that. Appropriately enough, U. S. Robot and Mechanical Men, Inc. was seventy-five also, since it had been in the year of Dr. Calvin’s birth that Lawrence Robertson had first taken out incorporation papers for what eventually became the strangest industrial giant in man’s history. Well, everyone knew that, too. (…)

She went back to her desk and sat down. She didn’t need expression on her face to look sad, somehow.

“How old are you?” she wanted to know.

“Thirty-two,” I said.

“Then you don’t remember a world without robots.

There was a time when humanity faced the universe alone and without a friend. Now he has creatures to help him; stronger creatures than himself, more faithful, more useful, and absolutely devoted to him. Mankind is no longer alone. Have you ever thought of it that way?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t. May I quote you?”

“You may. To you, a robot is a robot. Gears and metal; electricity and positrons. Mind and iron! Human-made! If necessary, human-destroyed! But you haven’t worked with them, so you don’t know them. They’re a cleaner, better breed than we are.”

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The Economist explains

Michel Temer’s plans for Brazil

May 12th 2016, 23:53 BY J.P.

ON MAY 12th Michel Temer became the third Brazilian vice-president in 30 years to be thrust into the top job, after the Senate voted to commence the impeachment trial of the president, Dilma Rousseff. As she steps aside for up to 180 days while senators consider her fate, she leaves behind a mess. The country's economy may shrivel by 7.5% in 2015-16. Inflation and unemployment hover around 10%; so, as a proportion of GDP, does the budget deficit. The political system is a shambles, with Congress home to an unwieldy 25 political parties. What can—and should—Mr Temer do about it all? (…)

If his proposed cabinet is anything to go by, Mr Temer plans to replace Ms Rousseff’s confidence-stifling interventionism with market-friendlier policies. He appears commendably keen to chip away at Brazil’s bloated state. He has named a respected former Central Bank governor, Henrique Meirelles, as his finance minister and created a new super-ministry whose task is to spur private investment in Brazil’s shoddy infrastructure. The number of ministries is to be slashed from 32 to something like 23, to show that the government, not just citizens, can make sacrifices. In principle, all this is welcome. In practice, Mr Temer may face an uphill struggle. To begin mending the economy, Mr Meirelles needs most urgently to tackle the vast budget deficit. Congressmen, never exactly keen on spending cuts and tax rises, may resist the necessary belt-tightening, especially in the run-up to October’s important local elections. And Mr Temer’s caretaker administration—which supporters of Ms Rousseff’s left-wing Workers’ Party regard as coupmongering usurpers—lacks the voter legitimacy for more radical structural reforms, such as to Brazil’s overgenerous public pensions, rigid labour laws, byzantine taxes or graft-prone electoral system. That will still be the case if and when he is handed the keys to the Alvorada.

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