tagged w/ Portugal
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Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands.)
Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
(See the world's most influential people in the 2009 TIME 100.)
The question is, does the new policy work? At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.
The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."
Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.
The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.
Portugal's case study is of some interest to lawmakers in the U.S., confronted now with the violent overflow of escalating drug gang wars in Mexico. The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html#ixzz1WcNUeNJUPop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not... more
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"The Village" is a charming short video shot in Óbidos, a small village in Portugal. Thanks to tilt-shift trickery, the town appears as an adorable miniature."The Village" is a charming short video shot in Óbidos, a small... more
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The struggle for Real Democracy Now in Portugal started at the same time as in Spain – May15. Almost unknown national and internationally, we took the streets under the slogan “A Rua É Nossa – Democracia Verdadeira Já!” (The Streets are Ours – Real Democracy Now). Two protests took place in Lisboa and Coimbra, followed by popular assemblies, and there was also a popular assembly in Faro. Around 300 people participated.
After that, we were enthusiastic seeing how the movement developed in Spain. After 4 days, on the May19th, people gathered in squares of Lisboa and Porto and decided to occupy Rossio (Lisboa) and Praça da Batalha (Porto). The next day, almost a hundred people gathered in Praça 8 de Maio, Coimbra. After a couple of weeks, also in Barcelos, a village in the North of Portugal, people started to gather and to camp on the weekends.
In Lisboa, Porto and Coimbra, started to happen Popular Assemblies every day. In Lisbon, on the beginning, it was normal for the assemblies to have hundreds of people – for several times, there were assemblies with 500 people. Across the country, we were organizing debates, creative actions and other activities. On the May 29, there was a protest in Lisbon in which almost a thousand people participated, under heavy rain. Then, the movement started to slow down a bit everywhere, and the AcampadaLisboa ended. A week later, the AcampadaCoimbra also ended, followed by the AcampadaPorto.
Anyway, we didn’t stop. We continued to struggle for Real Democracy, and the Popular Assemblies continued, as the debates and other actions. On the 19J, there were protests in Lisboa (almost 500 people), Porto (100 people) and Coimbra (30 people), and a Popular Assembly took place for the first time in Aveiro.
On the July5th there was a debate about the Europact in Coimbra with several teachers of the Faculty of Economy of the University of Coimbra. Around 50 people participated.
Then, there was the International Meeting in Lisbon, which gathered more than 100 people from different nationalities.
And today there was a protest for Democracy on Santarem, a city on the interior of Portugal.
Now, things are much more calm, and the assemblies have much less people than in the beginning. In Porto and Coimbra, activities will probably stop in August, but we are going to work hard to make big protests across the country on 15O. People from different groups are talking in order to build a platform to gather the dozens of groups and the people who want to struggle for Real Democracy.
We may not be many people in each city, but we are thousands across the globe. and we will be much more. We now that, if we unite, we will succed!
REAL DEMOCRACY NOW!
http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/2011/07/real-democracy-now-portugal/The struggle for Real Democracy Now in Portugal started at the same time as in Spain... more
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The recent Portuguese PSD-CDS/PP coalition Government received a heavy burden to be shared with all the Portuguese people. Eventhough the Portuguese people don’t have the complete knowledge needed to answer the main question: “Why?”. But the following question is not easier to answer to: “To Whom?” and “What for?”.
The younger generations are completely doomed to pay for choices they will not understand and benefit for. As well as their parents and grandparents. A whole generation of working people is being sacrificed for… who knows?
The political, economic and social situation in Portugal is being very hard to deal with. For now, we are watching the meetings of the Portuguese Government with the Troika representatives, and being informed of the auterity measures the Portuguese Government is considering in order to pay the debt, to reduce the State expenses, to reinforce economic competitiveness and to reduce unemployment.
The reduction of the Unique Social Tax is being considered as an hypothesis, but along with an increasing VTA one. The food sector will be the one to be affected, mainly the restaurants, snack bars and other food services.
The problem is that this measures will not mean a reduction in the production prices, or an increasing employment, or even an economic boost. On the contrary.
The real business numbers are decreasing day by day and only the multinational organizations will survive. The small local business activities are condemned in a short term period.
But this is not a problem of Portugal. The fact is that all the western world is being transformed from its inside. This is a proper occasion to remember Gustave Le Bon and Gramsci in what concerns to Cultural Power and the relevance of the traditional social Institutions. And the danger of loosing it for “strangers”, at least supposedly.
The United Kingdom is only but one of the many examples we are going to watch through TV and the Internet. And the fact is that nothing of this is spontaneous as history taught us that there is always someone (or organization) which is behind the scene “controlling” the stage.
Someone is going to win – as it has always happenned.
http://politika.ideasoneurope.eu/2011/08/11/new-portuguese-politics-economics-and-the-world/The recent Portuguese PSD-CDS/PP coalition Government received a heavy burden to be... more
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CNN...
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August 9th, 2011
08:00 AM ET
Should bullfighting be banned?
By Stephanie Garlow, GlobalPost
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First Catalonia outlawed bullfighting, which the Economist likened it to a German state banning wurst or a French region condemning berets.
Now Peru's minister of culture has said the sport is "terrible" and that it causes excessive suffering for the animals.
So is bullfighting on the way out? Is it a "tradition of tragedy," as PETA claims, that kills 250,000 bulls annually?
Activists who gathered in Lima last week to protest the mistreatment of bulls would seem to agree. "Bullfighting promotes violence, torture and cruelty to animals for no reason," William Soberon, of the Anti-Bullfighting Front of Peru, told La Republica. "We're not in the colonial era."
Peru's newly appointed minister of culture, Susana Baca, said she felt sorry for the animals and that she cried when she once attended a cockfight. "I've never been to a bullfight but from the little I've seen in the media, I know it's terrible and I had to close my eyes," she said on the program "Buenos Dias, Peru."
But protests against bullfighting are nothing new in Peru. And comments by Baca that she would analyze the practice during her tenure quickly sparked controversy.
Bullfighter Fernando Roca Rey told La Republica that bullfighting should be seen as a cultural event and that "the minister can give her opinion, but that cannot be applied to the whole country." Bullfighting celebrations have been held in Peru since 1766 and the Plaza de Toros de Acho bullring is the oldest in the Americas and second-oldest in the world, reports AFP.
And the Spanish government recently dealt a blow to efforts to outlaw the sport when it ruled that bullfighting is an "artistic discipline and cultural product." The country's Ministry of Culture will now be responsible for the "development and protection" of bullfighting, a move that supporters hope is a step toward protecting the tradition from further regional bans.
Bullfighting is also practiced in Portugal and the south of France and is widespread in Latin America. Mexico City's Plaza Mexico arena is the biggest in the world with seats for up to 55,000.
And while public opinion might be swinging away from bullfighting — a poll last year for El Pais found 60 percent of Spaniards did not enjoy bullfighting — the sport still has big-name supporters. Peruvian novelist and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa campaigned to convince UNESCO to classify bullfighting as part of Spain's national heritage.
And in novelist Ernest Hemingway, the sport found one of its most enduring voices of support. The art of the bullfighting, Hemingway wrote in "Death in the Afternoon," "is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor."
.CNN...
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August 9th, 2011
08:00 AM ET
Should bullfighting be banned?... more
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The NYT reported Tuesday that Moody’s cut its rating on Portugal’s long-term government bonds to Ba2 from Baa1 and said the outlook was negative, suggesting more downgrades might be in store. Even though Portugal negotiated a $116 billion rescue package in May, the ratings agency cited the risk that the country would need a second bailout before it could raise funds in the bond markets again and that private sector lenders would have to share the pain. The new center-right coalition government, led by the Social Democrats and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, have pushed ahead with austerity measures and other reforms pledged by Portugal in return for its bailout. Among such austerity measures, Mr. Passos Coelho’s government said last week that it would need to raise taxes to meet its budget deficit target.
Hopes that Greece’s problems might be brought under control soon were deflated after Standard & Poor’s said Monday that a proposal by French banks to help Greece to meet its medium-term financing needs would constitute a de facto default because banks would be required to roll over loans for a longer term at a lower interest rate. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Tuesday that the opinions of the I.M.F., the European Central Bank and the European Commission should be given more weight than those of the rating agencies, according to The Associated Press. “I trust above all the judgment of those three institutions,” Mrs. Merkel said.
I am not sure that I understand why Moody's or S&P need to be involved at all. If the banks have worked out a deal, then a deal is worked out. If the banks choose to roll over loans, wait longer for them to be paid off, and take less interest, isn't that better then being defaulted on? Isn't it better to help keep a country going, rather than sink it into depression and possibly drag the rest of the world with it? Does everyone have to be so greedy that when the worlds economy is doing poorly that you have to continue to expect interest rates that are unreasonable for the times? It is time that the world's finances be taken back by the people; End this world wide grab for money for nothing; stop extorting countries, and individuals for that matter, in order to gain wealth.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies…If the American people ever allow private bankers to control the issue of currency… The banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive that people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers concurred" Thomas Jefferson
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but by a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men". Woodrow Wiilson
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/business/global/06euro.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hpwThe NYT reported Tuesday that Moody’s cut its rating on Portugal’s... more
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Europa, y en cierto modo también los Estados Unidos, están sufriendo una nueva pandemia: el derrumbamiento del crecimiento y el gran lastre de la deuda.Europa, y en cierto modo también los Estados Unidos, están sufriendo una... more
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The Spanish and other Europeans are currently protesting IMF austerity measures. The Spanish riot police have vicously beat peaceful protesters and much of this is not covered by the mainstream American media.The Spanish and other Europeans are currently protesting IMF austerity measures. The... more
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Podría desde componer una canción a coreografriar un baile sobre los riesgos existentes tanto al alza como a la baja, pero yendo directo al grano: en términos netos, me estoy volviendo negativo.Podría desde componer una canción a coreografriar un baile sobre los... more
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El aumento del riesgo en Europa por la crisis de deuda en los países de la periferia favorece al billete verde estadounidense que se revaloriza frente a la moneda azteca.El aumento del riesgo en Europa por la crisis de deuda en los países de la... more
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El aumento del riesgo en Europa por la crisis de deuda en los países de la periferia favorece al billete verde estadounidense que se revaloriza frente a la moneda azteca.El aumento del riesgo en Europa por la crisis de deuda en los países de la... more
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Tuesday night - it's as good a night as any to get your heart ripped out with some Fado. And this is just the woman who can do it too.Tuesday night - it's as good a night as any to get your heart ripped out with... more
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Según el experto de MetAnálisis, el 'rebote'de la BMV se apoyó en la búsqueda de gangas. La buena señal es que el IPC superó los dos promedios móviles de corto plazo.Según el experto de MetAnálisis, el 'rebote'de la BMV se... more
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Según el analista de MetAnálisis, el Índice de Precios y Cotizaciones reduce la posibilidad de un 'rebote'al alejarse del soporte sicológico de 35.000 puntos.Según el analista de MetAnálisis, el Índice de Precios y... more
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El avance tardío de los índices estadounidenses lleva al Índice de Precios y Cotizaciones a recuperar el importante soporte sicológico de 35.000 puntos.El avance tardío de los índices estadounidenses lleva al Índice... more
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Según el experto de MetAnálisis, la debilidad que muestra el IPC modera la posibilidad de un posible repunte hacia la próxima resistencia en 35.630 puntos.Según el experto de MetAnálisis, la debilidad que muestra el IPC modera... more
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