Madam, – Musing over Arthur Beesley’s report on the political and fiscal crisis in Portugal (“As political turmoil deepens rescue plan increasingly likely”, World News, March 26th), I note that the reaction of my Portuguese colleagues to their nation’s dilemma is astonishingly relaxed: the “crise politica” is dismissed as just one in a long line of political squabbles; that the EU and IMF will underwrite Portuguese profligacy is stated openly and without embarrassment; that the future is not to be feared is evidenced every weekend by Lisbon’s jam-packed bars and clubs.
Initially putting this down to stereotypical Mediterranean-style irresponsibility, it later occurred to me that the local perspective should perhaps be considered more closely. Anyone over 45 can remember this country being run by a military dictatorship, wallowing in a standard of living dramatically lower than today’s, and suffering huge losses in appalling colonial wars. Is the dreaded “bailout” really such a disaster in the grand scheme of things? That Portugal’s immediate and medium-term economic situation is a serious one is beyond dispute. That this does not quite amount to the End of Days is equally true. Portugal’s economy will likely shrink by 2 per cent this year – by my calculations that leaves 98 per cent humming along nicely.
Media outlets in general and (given our own experience) Irish ones in particular, would do well to provide this context, if only just occasionally. – Yours, etc,