Tag Archive for: expansion

Protest

‘Life is not all about making money’

Tourism accounts for 10% of the global GDP. The World Tourist Organisation (UNWTO) estimates the number of tourists at 1.5 billion this year. Sooner or later every popular tourist attraction will be confronted with protests from local residents.

After anti-tourism protests in Venice, on the Spanish island of Majorca and in Athens, the trendy capital of Greece, locals in Sintra – a World Heritage area on the Portuguese west coast – are calling for solutions to the annual rush of summer visitors, who make everyday life in the picturesque region a misery.

The association of residents QSintra, has launched an initiative this year to show how locals feel. Windows, balconies, cafes and restaurants are adorned with catchy posters, challenging the council to finally do something.

Just as Porto and Lisbon are starting to limit ‘tuk-tuks’ and hop on – hop off buses in their historic centre, Sintra too is calling for action.

Although the association points out that tourism is important, it should not downgrade the landscape, depopulate the area and jeopardize the daily lives of the inhabitants. ‘There are just too many visitors, and too many cars and buses winding their way along the narrow roads.

More than being against, we want to point out solutions’, declares Magdalena Martins, the president of QSintra. Sintra needs a lot of tourism but if we‘re not careful the chicken with the golden egg is being killed.’

The number of inhabitants in the historic centre of Sintra has been steadily decreasing from 3706 in 1991 to 2615 in 2021, whereas the amount of tourists – according to the number of visits at the Tourist Office – has increased to over half a million, while Parks de Sintra last year sold more than 3 million tickets to the various monuments in the area.

Martinho Pimentel, a resident who has lived in town for 24 years, has been noticing the increase in an uncontrolled way. ‘Tourism has had a brutal growth and is not minimally organized to live with residents’, he denounces looking at the many cars passing through his street. ‘Last week my front door was blocked because a car was parked there, I only managed to get into the house four hours later.’

He also notes that the vibration and air pollution caused by the vehicles are such that he is afraid they will cause damage, not only to people but also to historic buildings. ‘Tourism itself is not the problem but quality has fallen because of the uncontrollable increase in the number of tourists’, he sighs.

Enjoy the week            Aproveite a semana               (pic Público/Sapo)








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Language

‘We can say anything, language has no limits’ – Georg Steiner.

Saudade is a unique word in Portuguese that has no direct translation in English. It means something like a melancholic or nostalgic desire for a person, place or event far away, either in space or time.
Esperto is another example. On the ball, brainy, smart, canny, with-it and intuitive, all help to approximate its meaning. In Brazil, the word can also mean someone who traps or fools others into trouble.

The Portuguese language exists more than 800 years and is spoken by over 260 million people (3,7% of the world population). It is – after Mandarin/Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindustani and Arabic  – the sixth most used language in the world.

Official vernacular in the nine CPLP (Portuguese Language Speaking Community) countries – Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome & Principe and East Timor, in use on virtually every continent and predicted to be spoken by over 380 million people in 2050.

Its expansion is closely linked to the history of the Portuguese Discoveries in the 15th century and still today echoes of Portuguese can be heard in the streets of Goa (India), Malacca (Malaysia) and Macau (China).
Although it was Portugal that expanded the language in the past, nowadays Portuguese-speaking countries like Brazil, Angola and Mozambique are mostly responsible for the growing interest in the Portuguese language.

Originating from Latin – from which it evolved into Galician-Portuguese – the language that would become Portuguese, began to be spoken in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula around the 6th century. It was expanded to the South with the Christian reconquest, at the same time influenced by Arabic from which many words derive, such as almofada (pillow), aldeia (village), alface (lettuce), alfândaga (customs) and açafrão (saffron).

The testament of King Afonso II – dated June 17, 1214 – is considered as one of the oldest written documents in Portuguese. It marks the beginning of the period of ancient Portuguese that would last until the publication in 1572 of the first book in modern Portuguese, The Lusiads, Portugal’s national epic by Luis Camões. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared in November last year the 5th of May as ‘World Portuguese Language Day’. Unfortunately, the opening celebration could only take place online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Stay healthy                          Fique saudável            (pic Público/Sapo)





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