On the news + Posts to come

I was absolutely convinced we were going to have a bombing here during the Euro 2004 or the Rock in Rio festival. If you've lived in Israel, as I have, and if you've lived here, as I have, it is scarily obvious that we have the most atrocious security. It’d have been a bloody mess, no pun intended. The Madrid bombing had just happened and our then PM, since defected to the European Commission (bcs you know, being elected DOES NOT mean you have an actual responsibility to your country, not even when this very country has plunged into the most appalling economic crisis in years with heaps of help from YOU). Plus, said PM had done his best to put himself Portugal in the terror map the headlines by offering Base das Lages in the Azores for a summit re terrorism. Because we all know that Portugal is a v influential nation and no world leader would dare taking a step without consulting our government first, ESPECIALLY the Troll-that-rules-us-all (I dare say he was thrilled to be here bcs he’d never been to Latin America before. What? What do you mean Portugal is not in…? Oh. Of course. I KNEW that, I meant Spain.). The plan did not work v well, I'm afraid, I saw him on CNN effusively kissing Blair’s ass shaking hands w Blair and the moving caption said “PM Blair meets with Lybia’s President Khaddafi”. For hours. I kid you not.

[And may I just say how impressed I am when leaders from non-English speaking countries INSIST UPON discoursing IN ENGLISH so one can admire their proficiency and cute Portie accent, when every other leader from non-English speaking countries cherishes his own language and uses it? Especially in view of the existence of people we like to call “simultaneous translators”? Sing with me now - IN ENGLISH - “We are the champions, my friends”. REALLY LOUDLY if you will.]

I was very relieved that it was not so. Yet.

Today on the news: a terrorist group was captured in Porto during the Euro 2004. They had been planning an attack on our PM during an inaugural dinner at Alfândega do Porto. The group was comprised of - duh - Arabs, all from different countries. Four Arabs had false documents, seven were repatriated bcs they had no documents (so they were repatriated to...?). Some were known terrorists, listed in the German terrorist index. Our PM skipped dinner and instead spent the evening talking to German and Dutch authorities.

One of the honchos, a man called Nurdin El Fatmi (sp?), belongs to - and this will SURPRISE YOU SO! - the same network as the man responsible for the murder of Theo Van Gogh. This network is seen as “v dangerous”, if you can imagine that, and was discovered in 2002 by the Dutch police.

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Diabetic child. Mother says prayer for son’s health on The Little Shepherds’ Day, May 13.

[Oh, they are 3 kids who were herding sheep way back when and saw the Virgin Mary atop an olive tree in a town called Fátima - no, not a Muslim one - we ain’t got those no more. So a HUGE sanctuary was built and every year pilgrims walk there from all places in Portugal. Once there, you can see women keeping their promises to the Virgin going round and round the HUGE Church on their knees, bleeding from said knees, being held by volunteers so they can fulfil said promises, collapsing along the way.]

Child’s diabetes disappears. It hasn't been medically explained yet. That means Our Lady of Fátima did it. The case is being analysed by The Church (please show some respect NOW) as proof that they are Saints and should therefore be canonised. Right now, they are only Beatos (he who did good deeds or had visions of biblical figures).

Not to belittle anyone’s beliefs but, oof, this country of mine…

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Oh, and that assassination attempt on Mahmoud Abbas yesterday by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades? No, not an assassination attempt AT ALL, say the Palestinians. And I for one believe them. If you’ve been awake for the last few years you will realise that they were only celebrating a wedding in the mourners' tent and things got a bit out of control, as they are wont to. Oh these party boys *chuckles at youth's folly*. That they took time from perfecting the newly developed, newly christened Yasser-1 rocket to join the festivities - I find it sweet.

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Posts I will be writing whenever work kindly allows me to:

- The long-ago promised translation of that interview w the Portie/Ami FBI agent
- Why I despise the Catholic Church and don’t talk to me abt the Pope
- Sex ads on the telly here and why I’m a fascizoid liberal
- New chapters of the Blog Closet [The Bloset] novel (obrigada, A.!)
- Summary of Portuguese Jewish emigration to the States newspaper article
- What makes a human a human?
- The importance of NOT being a Calimero
- What NOT to say to an infertile
- Er, the kibbutz posts. Yes.