Quando o tempo se perde
e o momento e ocasião passam
despercebidos na hesitação
do tormentoso constrangimento,
um vazio, um nada, se criam
em minh'alma desabrida e fugidia.

Lamento por uma Europa bâltica

Corpos desnudos e embebidos
em enebriante enlevo sacro
no mais puro ocre sangue partilhado
em momento perdido e jamais tido.

Na perda e no lamento
de um perene afastamento
em clamoroso capricho imposto
pela imperecível geografia
da fenícia divinamente arrebatada.

Revivifico em mim uma Dido máscula,
as suas privações e os seus lamentos.
Vírgilio a cantou, eu os padeço.
Perder é morrer, em pensamento.

Santo Tirso/ Porto

Controvésias de Helenismo multicultural e ideologizado 

As Tim Whitmarsh, professor of ancient literatures at the University of Oxford says: "What if what we think of as the classical world has been falsely invented as European, for reasons serving the cause of 19th-century imperialism? Should the Greek and Roman worlds, albeit in different ways, be seen rather as part of the Iraqi-Syrian-Palestinian-Egyptian complex? If so, what would that mean for ideas about European identity today?"

(...)

In a controversial three-volume book, Black Athena (1989), the late author Martin Bernal also sought to place the origins of Greece in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, which in turn was a riposte to the 19th century racist view – what Whitmarsh calls the "massive cultural deception" – that the Greeks owed their brilliance to Aryan origins in central Europe.

(...)

From a less political perspective, other scholars suggest caution, too:Greg Woolf, professor of ancient history at the University of St Andrews, warns against taking the notion of a happy ancient multiculturalism too far. The ancient Greeks, he says, "were in the business of creating an autonomous civilisation. There were cultural conflicts, and separateness, and limits to transferability. We don't have a Greek version of Gilgamesh, or Babylonian versions of Homer".

(...)

He (Tim Whitmarsh) adds: "There is a strongly political dimension to the kind of claim I am making, and you would probably find that most people who were pushing for a very hybridised vision of the Greek world would … be naturally more left-leaning and have their own idealised view of the ancient world as a place of opportunity and hybridisation.

(...)

Recent scholarship, though, might emphasise Herodotus's own culturally hybrid origins in Asia Minor: he was raised in Halicarnassus, on the Carian coast of modern Turkey – a city that during the Persian wars was part of the Persian Achaemenid empire, ruled by Queen Artemisia, herself half Halicarnassian and half Cretan. Whitmarsh says: "Halicarnassus was a bilingual Greek and Carian city that had been under Persian occupation. It's not inherently implausible that he had a much more informed sense of the world than we have previously given him credit for. It comes down to networks. If you see Herodotus as occupying a single point from which Greek culture is 'beamed out', that's a less interesting way of thinking of him than as a kind of nodal point between multiple different traditions and cultures. Herodotus's The Histories is a predominantly Greek-voiced text, but that doesn't mean that we should quieten all the other voices that can be detected within it."

(...)

Another culturally hybrid work is the Alexander Romance, a story that recasts the Macedonian conqueror as secretly Egyptian, so the story of his annexation of Egypt becomes one not of conquest but of the return of pharaonic rule. Whitmarsh says the story reflects a Demotic Egyptianliterary forebear. "It is forged in a very distinctive culture in which there are Greeks and Egyptians working together. And it tells the story of Alexander the Great in Egyptian-friendly terms. The interesting thing about this text is that, other than the Bible, it's the biggest seller in antiquity – it goes into 26 languages in antiquity alone, and eventually into [the ancient Iranian language of] Pahlavi, French, Armenian, Bulgarian, Old English." (It is also mentioned in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). Whitmarsh adds: "It is a world away from the model of Greek culture as continuous, organic, hermetically sealed from outside influence."

The Guardian

Servir honrada e generosamente Portugal

Com Miguel Poiares Maduro como Ministro Adjunto do Primeiro-Ministro e Pedro Lomba como Secretário de Estado Adjunto do Ministro Adjunto, o escol intelectual da nação entra para o núcleo central do governação. Espera-se o melhor deste ministério coordenador.

Os grandes não fogem às responsabilidades, batem-se por elas. 

É um bom presságio. Que outros se lhe sigam.

http://www.publico.pt/politica/noticia/pedro-lomba-e-cardoso-da-costa-no-ministerio-do-desenvolvimento-regional-1591141

A História contrafactual das origens da decadência europeia e americanização ocidental

A História é cíclica e repete-se. 

"Na rua, os nazis e os comunistas tanto se combateram como se aliaram no afã de derrubar a República de Weimar. Em português, temos uma expressão para isto que diz tudo: os extremos tocam-se."

Foi na Cartuxa de Évora, não na de Parma ou na Grande Cartuxa alpina, que o renascimento espiritual tomou a forma de pétreo e sublime Renascimento material, à maneira de Filippo Terzi.

A vergonha dos desditosos números e o  fatídico retorno do manipulador-mor.

"Durante a entrevista, o ex-primeiro-ministro comparou dois períodos: o primeiro entre 2008 e 2010 (onde a dívida cresceu 20 pontos percentuais) e um segundo, entre 2010 e 2012, em que o endividamento público cresceu 30 pontos percentuais).

Os números estão certos, mas há um facto que Sócrates não sublinhou: em 2011, o PS foi governo até ao final de Maio. Ou seja, no segundo período (entre 2010 e 2012) a dívida ainda era gerida pelo Governo Sócrates."

"Nesses seis anos, a dívida em percentagem do PIB subiu de 61,7% (final de 2005) para 108,1% do PIB (final de 2011). Hoje está pior: no final de Fevereiro, Portugal ultrapassou pela primeira vez os 200 mil milhões em dívida (e esta já representa 122,4% do PIB). Nas contas do Governo Passos pesam sobretudo os 63,9 mil milhões de euros emprestados pela troika no âmbito do programa de assistência financeira. "

http://www.dinheirovivo.pt/Economia/Artigo/CIECO128212.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t1EAZ7GXUI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/economia/politica/detalhe/factos_e_numeros_ditos_por_socrates_sao_verdadeiros_ou_falsos.html

Catolicismo galático e universal

"The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders gathering in Rome this week.

For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for claiming that other worlds exist.

Among other things, extremely alien-looking aliens would be hard to fit with the idea that God “made man in his own image”.

Furthermore, Jesus Christ’s role as saviour would be confused: would other worlds have their own, tentacled Christ-figures, or would Earth’s Christ be universal?However, just as the Church eventually made accommodations after Copernicus and Galileo showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, and when it belatedly accepted the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution, Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible’s teachings.

Father Jose Funes, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican Observatory and one of the organisers of the conference, said: "As a multiplicity of creatures exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God.

"This does not conflict with our faith, because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God."

Not everyone agrees. Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and author of The Goldilocks Enigma, told The Washington Post that the threat to Christianity is "being downplayed" by Church leaders. He said: "I think the discovery of a second genesis would be of enormous spiritual significance.

"The real threat would come from the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, because if there are beings elsewhere in the universe, then Christians, they're in this horrible bind.

"They believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other planets."

The Academy conference will include presentations from scientists – by no means all of them Christians – on the discovery of planets outside our solar system, the geological record of early life on Earth, how life might have started on Earth, and whether “alien” life of a different biochemistry to our own might exist here without our knowing, among many other things."

Daily Telegraph 

A Boa Igreja

"Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said while the Church had been hostile to Darwin's theory in the past, the idea of evolution could be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.

Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, added that 4th century theologian St Augustine had "never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish" and forms of life had been transformed "slowly over time". Aquinas made similar observations in the Middle Ages.

Ahead of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the Vatican is also set to play down the idea of Intelligent Design, which argues a "higher power" must be responsible for the complexities of life.

The conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University will discuss Intelligent Design to an extent, but only as a "cultural phenomenon" rather than a scientific or theological issue.

Monsignor Ravasi said Darwin's theories had never been formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, pointing to comments more than 50 years ago, when Pope Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific approach to the development of humans.

Marc Leclerc, who teaches natural philosophy at the Gregorian University, said the "time has come for a rigorous and objective valuation" of Darwin by the Church as the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth approaches.

Professor Leclerc argues that too many of Darwin's opponents, primarily Creationists, mistakenly claim his theories are "totally incompatible with a religious vision of reality".

Earlier this week, prominent scientists and leading religious figures wrote to The Daily Telegraph to call for an end to the fighting over Darwin's legacy.

They argued that militant atheists are turning people away from evolution by using it to attack religion while they also urge believers in creationism to acknowledge the overwhelming body of evidence that now exists to support Darwin's theory.

The Church of England is seeking to bring Darwin back into the fold with a page on its website paying tribute to his "forgotten" work in his local parish, showing science and religion need not be at odds."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4588289/The-Vatican-claims-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-is-compatible-with-Christianity.html

A superna ironia teológica de Francisco, Bispo de Roma.

"A divisa do papa, "Miserando atque eligendo" (olhou-o com misericórdia e escolheu-o), é extraída de uma homilia de São Beda Venerável, que comentava o episódio bíblico da vocação de São Mateus."

"Jesus viu um homem chamado Mateus, sentado no posto de cobrança, e disse-lhe: Segue-Me. Viu-o não tanto com os olhos do corpo, como com o seu olhar interior, cheio de misericórdia. Jesus viu um publicano (cobrador de impostos) e compadeceu-Se dele; escolheu o e disse-lhe: Segue-Me, isto é, imita-Me. Disse para O seguir não tanto com os seus passos como no modo de viver. Porque, quem diz que permanece em Cristo, deve também proceder como Ele procedeu."

S. Beda Venerável (séc. XIII)

http://www.snpcultura.org/brasao_papa_francisco_simbolos_significados.html

Timothy D. Walker: Doctors, Folk Medicine and the Inquisition.  The Repression of Magical Healing in Portugal during the Enlightenment.  (Brill: Leiden-Boston, 2005).  ISBN 90 04 14345 9

Timothy Coates
History Department, The College of Charleston

Looking at the title of this work, the reader would be forgiven if he or she thought that this was another study of the Inquisition in Portugal.  It is not. This is a highly original work that blends sources from the Inquisition and medical history (as well as many others, particularly intellectual history) to examine the stark contradiction of professionally-trained medical doctors during the Portuguese Enlightenment using the repressive apparatus of the Inquisition to eliminate their rustic and (largely) unlettered competition: folk-healers.

After a discussion of the role played by folk healers in early modern Portuguese society (chapters one and two), Professor Walker then examines the intricate details of how medical knowledge was transmitted from abroad to doctors in Portugal and how they diffused this knowledge among their colleagues throughout the country  (chapter three).  He then outlines the pivotal importance of the interlocking intellectual interests (particularly as they relate to the practice of medicine) of Inquisitor-General D. Nuno da Cunha de Ataíde e Mello (held office from 1707-1750) and King D. João V, who nominated D. Nuno and who ruled from 1706-1750 (chapter four).  He then brings this argument to its logical end in chapter five, where he clearly shows the interconnections among the medical profession, the Holy Office, and the Royal Court. The second part of the book focuses on the details of this all-out attack on folk healers: an overview of the policy (chapter six); examples of folk-healers brought before the Holy Office, with commentary (chapter seven); the nature of their punishments (chapter eight); an analysis of what these folk-healers did and from where they originated (chapter nine); and finally a very brief conclusion (chapter ten).  The work is also filled with illustrations and a glossary that nicely compliment the text.

Professor Walker’s argument is that a relative handful of professionally trained medical doctors were able to infiltrate the Inquisition as familiars and consultants to both increase their own social status as well as assist in that institution’s drive to end folk healing in eighteenth century Portugal.  Folk healing was a threat to both the medical establishment as well as the Inquisition.  For the former, folk healing represented not only competition but also unenlightened and ineffective attempts to heal the sick.  For the latter, folk healers were highly suspicious quacks, misled at best and possibly in league with the Devil.  It makes sense that these two powerful bodies would work in tandem to reach a mutually desired goal.
   
This work is thoroughly enjoyable and well researched. Walker has used documentation from numerous archives in Lisbon, Évora and London.   In many ways this work interlocks a number of very divergent themes and their respective literatures: namely, folk-healing and early modern popular culture, intellectual history of the Enlightenment, early modern medical history; and inquisitorial history. As a result, it should not come as a surprise that Walker’s bibliography (pp. 408-420) is wide-ranging and extensive.

Folk-healers, while a threat to the power of the church and the monopoly envisioned by the professional medical establishment, were an important part of the social fabric of medieval and early modern Portugal.  Walker shows this quite clearly.  The Inquisition did not consider most of them to be a serious threat, as is reflected in the sites and duration of their punishments.  The vast majority of first time offenders were sentenced to terms of three years of less of exile within Portugal, many to Castro Marim (extreme SE Algarve).  Again, all of this is very clearly outlined in this work.  Of all convicts and sinners sent to Castro Marim, those convicted of folk healing and witchcraft (frequently indistinguishable sins since the source of power was unclear) were the largest segment (22%).  Other frequent sins were providing false testimony (20%) and blasphemy (15%).¹ This very clearly shows that folk-healers were part of a wider range of minor sinners (largely) banished to sites within Portugal. Major sinners and convicts, such as those guilty of murder, heresy, or sodomy would have faced much more serious and long-term sentences to sites overseas.

Walker’s research has led him to describe some of the outstanding characteristics of this group of folk healers.  Those accused of folk healing and other magical sins were 41% male and 59% female (p. 343); age was apparently not a factor since those arrested "represented the entire spectrum of age groups" (p. 351).  Women arrested for healing were largely married (45%) or widowed (28%) when their marital status was known (pp. 359-360), while a significant percentage of men in the same group were single (42%) (p. 360).  About half of those accused of folk healing were outsiders to the community (pp. 376-380).
    
This is a dense work that cannot and should not be read quickly.  It is obviously the result of many years of research and writing.  Walker very carefully builds his argument in layers and is very convincing.  His work will be of immediate interest to historians of any of the four thematic areas listed above, as well as many others. The work has much to say about social control in Portugal, as noted above.

As Walker points out in his conclusion, the Holy Office did not end the rustic ways of folk healers in Portugal.  In fact, by the end of the eighteenth century, the combination of the Pombaline reforms at the University of Coimbra (restructuring the medical curriculum, which gave the elite medical establishment many of the Enlightenment reforms it had been seeking) while simultaneously curbing the power of the Holy Office meant the end of this cozy medical-inquisitorial relationship (pp. 395-397).  Since the professional medical establishment obtained the changes and control it had long sought, it no longer needed the Inquisition.  The Holy Office "experienced a marked decline in its prestige and power" (p. 396).  Folk healers were largely beyond its interest and only a total of eight cases were brought to trials after 1771, the last in 1802 (pp. 395-396).  Walker then points out that folk healers became more visible in Portuguese society (even placing advertisements in the newspaper) and continue to be part of the social scene in modern Portugal  to this day (p. 400).

If this work has not yet been translated into a Portuguese edition, it should be. Readers in Portugal and Brazil would enjoy it and would find Walker’s study to be invaluable.  The details of how folk-healers attempted to cure the ill (i.e. specifically what they did and why) and what role they played in medieval and early modern Portuguese society would make an excellent follow-up study for Professor Walker or others who care to build upon this fascinating, insightful, and original study. 

Note

¹Geraldo Pieroni and Timothy Coates, De couto do pecado à vila do sal. Castro Marim [1550-1850] Lisboa: Sá da Costa Editora, 2002. p. 30.  Professor Walker was kind enough to share his research with us in this work.

Source: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/html/issue9/html/tcoates_main.html

Nesta entrevista, apesar de interessantes serem algumas das ideias defendidas pelo autor de Libido Dominandi, Sexual Liberation and Political Control, como quando alerta para o risco de limitação das liberdades individuais consequente à banalização explícita da sexualidade e dos instintos sexuais que a pornografia e excessiva promiscuidade acarretam, estas são diminuídas pelas teorias conspirativas político-judaicas, extremado conservadorismo moralizante compartilhado e Catolicismo cristalizado no passado que o autor professa.

Entrevista a Ronald Weber, autor de The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe, agora traduzido.
"Aterrem em Portugal: Como se interessou pela história dos refugiados e outros que passaram por Portugal para entrar ou sair da Europa?

Ronald Weber: Fui professor convidado de cultura americana na Universidade de Coimbra em 1968-69.

Foi nessa altura que ouvi as primeiras histórias sobre pilotos alemães que vinham a Portugal para descansar e se divertirem.

Mas foi só em 2006, quando publiquei “NEWS OF PARIS: AMERICAN JOURNALISTS IN THE CITY OF LIGHT BETWEEN THE WARS” (Notícias de Paris: Jornalistas americanos na cidade Luz entre guerras – não há edição portuguesa) que recordei essas primeiras histórias quando descobri que muitos desses jornalistas e outros fugiram da Europa através de Lisboa depois da queda da França em 1940.

Decidi então que o meu livro seguinte seria sobre Lisboa como a grande porta de emergência durante a II Guerra Mundial.  

Aterrem em Portugal: Apesar de fisicamente ocuparem o mesmo espaço descreve dois países diferentes no seu livro. Um dos portugueses e outro dos restantes. Como foi isso possível? 

Ronald Weber: Aos refugiados e aos outros que chegavam a Portugal era pedido pelo regime de Salazar para que seguissem o mais depressa possível para outros países dispostos a recebê-los. 

Em resultado disso os recém chegados tinham pouco contacto tiveram com portugueses exceptuando os que trabalhavam nos hotéis, nos restaurantes, agentes de companhias de navegação ou de aviação e polícias. 

Para além disso os refugiados foram reunidos em Lisboa e noutras pequenas cidades, como as Caldas da Rainha ou a Ericeira, onde eram autorizados a ficar pelas autoridades enquanto esperavam por um novo país de residência. 

Portugueses noutros pontos do país teriam pouca ou nenhuma noção dos milhares de pessoas que escapavam através do país. 

Mas é preciso ter atenção a uma coisa. Eu estudei aqueles que iam e vinham através do país e o ponto de vista deles. Foi a história deles que tentei contar. 

 Uma outra coisa é a história do que pensaram e sentiram os portugueses com a chegada destas pessoas. Para chegar a essa história era preciso estudar material português na forma de cartas, diários, memórias, novelas etc… 

Aterrem em Portugal: Chegar a Portugal não era – para a maioria dos refugiados – o fim da linha ou fim do medo? 

Ronald Weber: Chegar a Portugal foi o fim da linha para muito poucos (Calouste Gulbenkian foi um dos poucos) pois o país não permitia a criação de uma colónia permanente de refugiados. 

Muitos ficaram com uma enorme sensação de liberdade quando chegaram ao país, mas houve sempre a sensação de que a Alemanha poderia acabar com a neutralidade portuguesa sempre que quisessem. 

Houve sempre histórias dos alemães a raptarem quem quisessem nas ruas Lisboa, especialmente judeus antinazis. 

Os recém-chegados compreendiam desde o princípio que uma liberdade plena só seria conseguida se deixassem Lisboa para trás. 

Aterrem em Portugal: Tem um capítulo dedicado às luzes de Lisboa. Isso era realmente uma coisa que fascinava os refugiados? 

Ronald Weber: As luzes brilhantes de Lisboa deslumbravam os recém-chegados de uma Europa em Blackout. Não parecia possível que o pequeno Portugal conseguisse viver como se a guerra não existisse. Não era menos deslumbrante, especialmente no princípio da guerra, a abundância de comida depois dos cortes e do racionamento que muitos refugiados tinham vivido na europa. 

Aterrem em Portugal: Houve alguma história que o tivesse fascinado mais que as outras? 

Ronald Weber: Sabia que Lisboa tinha sido um centro activo de espionagem durante a Guerra, mas nunca imaginei a verdadeira extensão dessa actividade – incluindo grane número de portugueses utilizados em pequenas tarefas como vigilantes ou informadores . 

Julgo que uma verdadeira história de Lisboa como centro da actividade de espionagem ainda está por escrever. 

Tive uma outra surpresa com as actividades dos grupos de auxílio (Judeus, Unitários etc…) que mudaram os seus centros de operações para Lisboa durante guerra e fizeram esforços heróicos para ajudar os refugiados com fundos, habitação e aconselhamento." 

Através de Carlos Guerreiro.

http://aterrememportugal.blogspot.pt/2012/05/algumas-perguntas-ronald-weber.html

A música secular da capital portuguesa, em Madrid, com Fernando Guimarães e a Cappella Mediterranea.

A perfeição, 

por Bruckner e Karajan.