I can’t believe it, but it’s only 10 days until my birthday comes around again! This year – please pinch me, is it really 2025? – is particularly poignant as my mother left us on January 20, joining my dad fully 13 years later, wherever that may be, and leaving my sister and I orphaned; a very strange feeling.
Changes also in the weather, although the Donald would have you believe otherwise – but more of ‘duckface’ later. April showers my left foot and no Portuguese “Abril, águas mil” either, thank you very much!
In fact, the next person to say “oh, but the country needs it” is going to get a wet slap. ‘Biblical proportions’ doesn’t even come near the February and March downpours; at least it only rained 40 days and 40 nights according to the holy book – it’s been twice that by now and certainly the wettest start to the year since I moved here 28 years ago.
The Algarve, its housing, leisure facilities and gastronomic delights are not made for cold, wet weather, something both residents and visitors, I am sure, would agree upon.
Changes (or not!) also on a national level in politics. New elections have been called by outgoing President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, following a vote of no confidence in the present government, for May 18,at a cost of €25-plus million, barely a year after it was sworn in.
Incumbent Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, 52, became engulfed in sleaze, obfuscated family business dealings with dollops of nepotism, cronyism and jobs for the boys as well as accusations of freemasonry thrown in.
His PSD party leads an already fragile right of centre Democratic Alliance coalition by a narrow two-seat margin, yet the nature of the beast is such that Montenegro may very well be re-elected anyway only to face renewed public enquiries.
The alternatives are equally depressing: PS head Pedro Nuno Santos, 47, successor to articulate former PM António Costa as general secretary, is your typical labour party union lifer with as much charisma as a rusty drain, whilst Chega leader André Ventura, 42, is little more than a populist, xenophobic demagogue prepared to jump on any bandwagon going.
And then there have been big changes globally as well. Israel has been allowed to continue wiping out the indigenous population of Gaza indiscriminately with the new US administration’s blessing, despite a supposed recent cease fire, a concerted military action against non-combatant civilians which can only be equated to ethnic cleansing via genocide – and the world watches on while the constant pleas of a very impotent UN General Secretary António Guterres fall on deaf ears.
However, this ongoing atrocity has now been relegated to a side show as Trump and Putin are publicly carving up the Ukraine under the thinly-veiled pretence of attempting to stop the fighting.
The whole scenario is reminiscent of Hitler marching into the post-World War One demilitarised Rhineland buffer zone, the annexation – ‘Anschluss’ – of Austria and subsequent invasion of Poland – all with the tacit agreement of Stalin.
The ‘unholy trinity’ – Trump, Vice President JD Vance and puppet master Elon Musk – posturing vis-à-vis Canada becoming the 51st state and taking Greenland by any means including force is no more than an ill-conceived re-hash of the long-outdated gunboat diplomacy. The pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power, implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare should terms not be agreeable to the superior force, were first used during 19th-century Western imperialism – and the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ as popularised by President James Monroe during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress in 1823, maintaining that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence. Thus, further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the Americas region would be viewed as a threat to US security.
To me, all of the above smacks of Cold War mutual assured destruction (MAD) and the deliberate premise of madman theory which makes seemingly incredible threats seem credible – well, Trump just repeats and repeats every one of his fabrications. For instance, in an era of mutually assured destruction, threats by a rational leader to escalate a dispute may seem suicidal and thus easily dismissible by adversaries. However, a leader’s suicidal threats may seem credible if the leader is believed to be irrational, ergo Trump.
The unfortunate fact is that we are stuck with the egomaniac and his troupe of yes-men for at least four years – who knows, by the end of that still constitutional time limit, Trump may have succeeded in eroding the last vestiges of democracy and crowned himself emperor – and even his premature removal by fair means or foul will not save the world as the equally maverick Vance will just step into his oversized shoes. What we can do, in the meantime, is voice our collective revulsion and urge our governments to counteract the lunatic’s attempts to rule the world.
If Trump wants to impose import tariffs on Portuguese wines, throw the American air force out of the Azores. FIFA should reallocate all of next year’s World Cup matches due to be held on US soil including the final to co-hosting Canadian and Mexican venues rather than allow 1936 Berlin Olympics-style Trump propaganda showcasing.
And speaking of Olympics, the world should also feel obliged to boycott the 2028 Los Angeles Games, Moscow 1980-style, for the same reasons – now that would be making a statement.
America has shown us its ugly underbelly and I am only glad I am a European living in our Algarvean backwater rather than a perfectly legitimate immigrant to the US, which has always been entirely made up of immigrants, suddenly being branded a ‘criminal gang member’ and face summary deportation ‘en masse’ without legal recourse – ‘make America great again’, indeed.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our contributing writer are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of this organisation, publisher or editor.
