Dear Editor,
We have lived in the Algarve for about a year now and we are really enjoying the country and its lovely people. Portugal is really a place where you can take the big step to find a new home and give up your old one. But there is one very important aspect that alerts me: The safety of my family.
Firstly it is the traffic: I have seen more than five car accidents happen (in one year!) and we were involved in one ourselves, provoked by reckless driving. I have never seen so many drunk or drugged drivers before as I have seen here so far.
The traffic situation in Portugal cannot be waved away, it is utterly dangerous and life threatening.
Secondly, let me please line up the violent acts that happened in our close circle of friends – it is very different if you read about crime and violence in a newspaper or if these things really happen in your absolute surrounding. We have lived in big cities and capitals of Germany, England and South Africa, where the papers are full of bad stories, but not that close to one’s own surrounding.
Firstly, my neighbour and her daughter got attacked by a drugged person in Faro, who wanted to steal the 55 year old’s handbag and shoved her into the road, leaving her bleeding all over her face.
Secondly, a friend’s car got broken into on Faro island. Then a German student friend got mugged with a knife in Faro, which then got topped by an Italian friend who got robbed at gunpoint by some young, supposedly Portuguese, men in Faro.
A friend from Germany left a club in Faro’s “crime street” to find himself being beaten up by five people.
With these occurrences just happening within three months, it is safe to say for me that it is absolutely unsafe to walk in Faro at night! Portuguese friends from Faro confirmed that they do not go out much anymore at night because of that.
Also our Portuguese friends tell us that they do not report these occurrences to the police because they are sure that the police would not help. So for the group preparing the crime statistics, I would like to give my estimation that about 80% of violence and crime will be unreported.
Portuguese people tell me of the old days under Salazar where the GNR was very brutal against the criminals and there was very little crime in Portugal. Nowadays criminals, drug addicts and aggressive youngsters have a lot of incentives to behave freely because the underpaid police is toothless, not willing to help, the legal steps are very slow and punishments low – so it is very unlikely that a violent act will be reported, dealt with and punished, an invitation to continue and push the borders even further.
My personal wish would also be that there should be short television commercials before prime time communicating this and also teaching the people about violence, safe road driving (keeping distances between cars, no drugs and alcohol, speeding, when not to overtake, driving with lights etc.), domestic violence, preventing and dealing with consumer debt and of course about animal abuse.
Why can’t the government use this vehicle to teach the people how to behave to achieve a safer and happier Portugal?
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD
