CROATIA CHECKMATED ENGLAND

The lads in checkered shirts showed England who's their daddy! Sorry, couldn't let this golden opportunity to scorn go by... :D
No teams from across the channel to yodel next summer in the Alps of European football... and as England supporters leave the stadium, the hills are alive with the sound of Mourinho's name... but the Portugueezer will not play to that tune, am afraid.
Bye, bye Mourinho? Bye, bye England. You won't be missed.

EURO2004 the "vilain" was Ricardo

WC2006 Ronaldo was Public Enemy Nr.1

EURO2008 Qualifier disgrace and shame escape-goat is Steve McClaren - just face it, you lot just ran out of excuses.

On the brightside, the usual binge drinking and bottle throwing will stay where it belongs, inside the pubs, and the Euro cup showing live, on the telly…

BTW, Portugal sucked as well, but they are in the finals. Shame about Scotland, though.

Wonder #7 Up for Grabs

There's so many competition for the last available wonder that more than 7 wonders would be necessary to honor all of them. Alas, it's not possible. I make the rules here and I say they are just 7 wonders, so that's what it is. Not because we can't trivialize these things, but because I feel like it. Read Mour's lips.

So, last but not least, the 7th and final wonder will be submitted to voting among the 2 or 3 lonesome visitors that crowd this insignificant blog.
If anyone is reading this, you can find the poll to the right of it. Take your pick - remember, you could influence or even decide which shall be the 7th wonder of Bloguistan!
Do your civic duty. The nominees are (you may add your own in the commentary box):

1. Portuguese Wine
2. Portuguese tradicional Cusine (from bread to desserts)
3. Portuguese Guitar
4. Portuguese History
5. Portuguese do it better

BTW, if you are not Portuguese, what do you associate the country with? (first thing that comes to your mind?)
I tried to find something from Portugal recognizable in the all wide world, but in my quick survey I came to the conclusion that it all comes down to the 2 F's: football and food. I'd say the most famous Portuguese personality in the world is either Mourinho (not surprisingly, the face behind a Portuguese cork campaign) or Ronaldo, followed at some distance by Vasco da Gama.
Very little, for a country with such a decisive roll in the world history... I blame the dismal Republic for that.

Wonder #6 - Olive Oil

According to Dr. Luciano da Silva, MD, and also the innumerable medals won by Portuguese Olive oil at different international competitions (1st medal going back to the 1889 Paris Wolrd Exhibit), the Portuguese golden grease is the best in the world.

The explanation is simple – olives in the trees are exposed to more sunlight in Portugal than in most other places in the olive-growing world. Same with the wine and other products, although here soils and other factors may also have a say in their quality.

I confess I didn’t like olive oil when I first tried it. The acidity or eventual heartburn usually puts people off. As with many people, this is a taste you acquire, just like with beer or whisky. Only Olive oil is much healthier, being quite beneficial in unclogging your "pipes", as this is one of the few "fats" that is actually good for you.

Now I can’t live without it. In fact, I like my food swimming in it.

Hard to believe that something that grows on such a raquitic looking tree, can be so good and useful...you can also use it to cook, deep fry, as an unguent, a snack, an aphrodisiac, or as fuel for a torch, if you run out of electricity… amazing fruit!

GUIDE TO PORTUGAL III & Wonder #5

Recently, someone from The Netherlands asked me for a suggestion, as where she could go to spend a week in Portugal, alone, and not necessarily near the beach, as she's taking her holiday in March.
She also wanted to know what is the best time for Sardinhas, the famous mouthwhatering Portuguese grilled Sardines. A wonder in its own, in the line of Portugal's 7 Wonders.

Well, it is possible that many other people - unfortunate to have never snifed a sardine and who are eager to pay the exhorbitant prices charged in some restaurants - may share the same query and appetite; so, in that case, keep reading.

That time of the year, Sintra is a sure bet. Not far from Lisbon, it has many interesting natural and cultural places to visit, since that time of the year the weather may not be good enough for the beach. Then there is always the local food... don't forget to take some treats of the local pastry with you, to make the Sintra experience last!

As for Sardines, the best time of the year is from May to July, according to experts, but you may enjoy them till August just as well. "Any month without "r", as we say here. :D

There is much much more than just the Algarve. Here are other sugestions:

http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/tours/ptindex.html
http://www.acores.com/english.html
http://www.madeiraislands.trav.....mp;p_sub=1

I am sure you will find Portuguese people to be quite friendly and welcoming (not insolent, like in Bloguistan).
Enjoy your stay!

Mourinho For President

After putting up with Abramovich's interference way too long, Mour is free and up for grabs.

I bet right now many top managers are feeling less comfortable in their shoes, thinking that if they slip up a bit, the Club's owner is going to be dialing Mour's number... and they're all hitching to...

Let's see how many trophies Ab. will win, now that he can have it is way.
One thing is certain, the Russian has been quite ungrateful to the man who has won for Chelsea one of every trophy there was to win in England, in 4 years; the man who has made Chelsea a winning machine for nearly three years in a row, something that Chelsea, and many others teams, can't find in their past pedigree... and it's unlikely they will repeat that in the future...

The players, the fans and even the press will miss him. Only the adversaries will be glad to see him go.
I for one, and I think I speak for at least 50% of the Portuguese population, we wish him all the best, and best for us would be to see him managing the Portugal national team.
If only Ab. had asked to swap Mour for Scolari...

CALLING ALL UNITS...

I never though I would have to defend and praise the "pigs" (not that I'm a con, just don't like to get tickets or driving related fines)... but recently I have had to come to the rescue of a much vilified police force, that has nothing to do with parking tickets or clamping cars.

The PJ really are the good guys in the story. They are the ones we turn to, when no one else can help.

They are fallible, they are less than perfect, they have fewer resources to work than other police forces in Europe, and they probably have some bad seeds in the core. "Toss the proverbial stone".

Having said that, Portugal is one of Western Europe's safest countries and the Portuguese police has a good reputation among their European counterparts. All this can be checked. Please do.

We are used to do a lot with very few, as our former global empire attests.

Eventually, all came to nothing; we have but memories of the times of yore - however! one thing all Portuguese did not loose is their PRIDE, and no way you can't take that away from us. Ask C Ronaldo. He may be booed and jeered, but you can't break him and in the end he comes on top.

All the unfair accusations against the PJ are coming from people leaning towards the "suspects", dishonestly ignoring the joint investigation with the Scotland Yard, the tests done in the Birmingham labs, the dogs and whatnot.

These critics are the same people who excommunicate others for jumping ahead to conclusions and who scream out loud "the parents are presumed innocent". Well, the same goes for the Police. And the Portuguese law system, that is indeed, quite foreign to you.

Get this once and for all - if the PJ has or not concrete evidence, they would never come out and say it before the investigation is through! I have my theories as why this case is "leaking" more than usual, but I will not speculate about it.

I know it's hard, many people are sharpening their knives already, but wait for the end of the investigation to see which you can lynch: the Police or the culprits (if any).

One thing, is certain though - don't think that you, no matter who you are, don't think you have the exclusive of feeling for Madeleine, because we all do, including the men and women, parents or not, that are part of the Anglo-Portuguese Police. And anyone who truly wants to find the truth about Madeleine, has to side with the investigation and support it to the end. We are all suspects; no one is above suspicion, in the eays of the law.

The amount of pressure, criticism, speculation and media hype would probably be almost unbearable for one of us. Imagine having a constant shrill over your head all the time, people knocking your work constantly without having even the faintest idea of who you are or what you are doing… and still, you are there to help...

So, to cut short what could be a longer post, stand in equity and support the official investigation, because those professionals, always under fire, have shown to have huge,

massive B A L L S, taking the investigation where the evidence was leading them, no matter what the pressure and backlash might have been.

I hope they will be given some leeway, for the sake of the investigation.

Ludicrous McCann Media

Here we go again. Infamous accusations, smear, slurs and even insults, all served in a big bowl of speculation a la SKY NEWS...
This people have no code of conduct to go by at all? What has happened to impartiality, unbiased and rigorous information, etc?

Blind faith is quite medieval, so is the British media approach to this case. Why people choose sides when what is in question is evidence submitted to a Brit Lab, which seems to point to Madeleine being dead?
It is perhaps the harsh reality. Denial is understandable from the family, but the biased, deliberate smear campaign of the Brit media against the PJ, is what is Ludicrous. If the PJ are to be proven right, I'm sure then kudos and the glory of solving the case will go to the British cops present in the Algarve, that only take the scene when something positive occurs.

The public opinion is being manipulated. There is a lot of misinformation.
One clear example is the supposed "deal" offered by the PJ to Kate. Forget what you saw in the movies or TV - under Portuguese law, the police has no power to offer any deals, so it's highly unlikely that they would even go there. One word of advice: try to get as much independent information from reliable foreign press agencies, because you can't get that from the likes of Skate&Gerry News, the public family TV.
As someone watching from abroad, it seems like I am hearing about two different cases, so different is the coverage from Sky News, compared to Spanish or Portuguese TV...

Of course, the usual resistance to learn other languages may be a hindrance to understand what really is going on. There seems to be only one side of the story being released in the UK media, and that is the emotional quasi-hysterical nationalist one.
The PJ is not answering the provocations from the relatives and the media, but if this keeps up like until now, I hope they sue.

Yes, the word is "Ludicrous" indeed. Furthermore, it's absolutely sickening to see how people in the UK, including the media, find it easier to come to terms with "a cover up or planted evidence" by the naughty Portuguese Police, than to understand that speculation aside, the couple is being questioned, as they should, after the forensic evidence has been return from the UK LABS... immagine what it would be like, if the results had come back from Portuguese labs... it isn't that we do not have capable forensic labs in the country as suggested; it was actually a very wise move, to publicly further the involvment of British elements in the investigations. Now mine the credibility of that...

Will the same Brits that question every little move by the Police, with the same mistrust they would only have against foreigners, be that strange looking food, or driving on the right side of the road, will the same people question the results out of the British Labs? If the results say it's Madeleine’s blood and that she is dead, then is it ludicrous to suspect of anyone that has been around the misfortunate little girl, at the time?

Ludicrous is the way some people and the British media has been questioning everything as this SOBERAN COUNTRY is nothing more than a colony... Talk about slurs and campaigns... the British tabloids have the mint of all that rubbish, bordering defamation on a number of occasions and I hope they will soon be prosecuted.

You may not like how the results of the investigation, but the McCann have created a Media monster, and it's not fair to press for the "results" you'd like, if they may point in a different direction. Sooner or later, people may have to face the harsh reality that the little girl is dead... and we all feel for her.

Finally, there seems to be some people more eager to believe in conspiracy theories such as "PJ cover up and planted evidence to frame the McCann", than in what seems to be the body of evidence collected by the Brit and Portuguese agents investigating the case together.
For those who seem to be fond of conspiracy theories, get a load of this one:
Gerry McCann's brother and Gordon Brown, good old Scottish lads, seem to have been buddies in school...
Imagine what being friends with the prime minister could do for your family...
Anyone believes what they want... or in other words, people believe more easily that which meets their inclination and expectations.

UPDATE Saturday 8, 14.15h

I salute the change of tone in some Sky News reporters, that just now admited they should pay more attention to what they'd been calling a "smear campaign" by the Portuguese press, was in fact "a reflection of the Police investigations" - funny enough, that's almost the exact words I used a few weeks ago, here (under nnrico) - here's the quote:

" The Portuguese press merely reflected the change of course in the investigations, puting aside the victimization of the parents, whom, like it or not, are partly responsible for what happened." End quote.

#4 "Wolves"

The wolf is a wonderful animal, a survivor, and one of the few species that mate for life; but this is not about the endangered kind, but about another frail group of mammals - the Portuguese Rugby team.

For the first time, a Portuguese national side will be present in a rugby World Cup event, in the finals, as one of the contenders - although they have NO chance at all... simply because they are the ONLY semi-professional rugby team to make it to the competition, ever!

Yes, that's right, they are not professional rugby players, their lives are not just about rugby - yet, they qualified and they are going to go versus the likes of Scotland, Italy or, get this, New Zealand's All Blacks...
Of course, they have no hopes of winning a match. It would be like Luxembourg or San Marino, with due respect, after qualifying to the FIFA World Cup, to beat Italy or Brazil.

These "wolves" as their fondly known in Portugal, due to their relentless spirit and courage, will attempt to score as many points as possible against the "giants" of the sport, while trying not to loose for more than a two-digit score...
However, they are ambitious enough to try a victory against the more accessible team of Romania, although even this will be unlikely... but small numbers of Portuguese men have already proven to be able to surpass bigger odds - after all, a fistful of Portuguese soldiers and sailors established one of the more extensive and durable empires of the world.

Whatever happens next to the "wolves", they will not be crying but howling of joy at the moon in France's Rugby World Cup 2007...

"Hysteria Lane" is nothing compared to this...

Wait and see what happens, just like people normally do, in other cases.

I guess that's pretty much the view of people around the world; only in the UK people seem to be taking it so personally, and the media are definately responsible for the hysteria, no doubt about that.

According to English tabloids, the Portuguese press "smears" and print "unfounded claims"; while the brilliant UK media is the paladin of truth and wholesome journalism, as we can see by their own dodgy style... pitiful and biased. The Portuguese press claim they have an inside "source" - they may have or not, butat least they try to do their own investigation, and no one is pressuring them nor throwing money at them, to side with one side of the story...

Discounted the obvious bias and the intentional MCs campaign to discredit the police work and the investigation, what is more revolting is that the UK media has been acting as the main vehicle for all the slurs, the pressure and the persecution, which borders xenophobia...It's unheard of, I think the word is acctually "LUDICROUS"!

All the fuss surrounding this case is indeed adding insult to injury in respect to parents of other missing children...

On the upside, though, all the fuss and hatred about the PJ work in Praia da Luz is not hurting the Tourism as it's claimed by the PJ detractors, but is in fact helping -Let me put it this way: "There's no such thing as bad publicity"...

Praia da Luz is now world famous, and even after the McCann left, many people still flock there in a sort of "macabre" peregrination to see the church, the resort, etc where everything took place...

The news teams alone sold out every room available in and about the area...

Besides, Portugal is much more than just Algarve, and thanks to all the publicity, even Americans now know that Portugal is not a Hispanic country in South America...

Also, many people have pledge to come next year to Portugal, on account of the beautiful scenery divulged on Tv and as a reaction to the vicious attacks the country unfairly received from the UK media and MCs supporters. After all, to believe in the parents own version, it could have happened anywhere in the world, since they stated the 3 very small children were left alone, to chance, and the door opened...

Anyway, the more the spin, the more people cry "wolf", the worst it looks for the MCs; it's quite sad when people resort to insults instead of arguments. Innocent or not, they are fast becoming the least favorite couple of the year. And how they are helping...

The Media that Bit the McCann

It is sadly interesting to see how too much speculation has led people to such misinformation...
To suggest that the McCanns have suffered any type of "aggression" by the Portuguese media or the general public, is a clear evidence that the tabloids have done their job "right"; and to find people that actually believe such bull, it's not only pitiful, but revolting....

The McCanns have been having nothing but public displays of sympathy from the Portuguese people since their ordeal started. The Portuguese press does NOT have a campaign against the couple, unlike the british media - bordering defamation - against the Police, and previously against C.Ronaldo, in what seems to be the "silly season's Portuguese bashing open season"...

The Portuguese press merely reflected the change of course in the investigations, puting aside the victimization of the parents, whom, like it or not, are partly responsible for what happened. For the UK tabloids, it's just more easy to find escaping-goats that are foreign - provided they’re not Iranian, as we had the chance to see recently, and you don't want to aggravate this people...

Claims that the UK Police would have opened and closed the case in a snap, are just hilarious and refuted by blunders like Jean C. de Menezes and many, many other cases that fortunately Portugal does not have to deal with.
By the way, the British Police is involved in the McCann investigations as well... but once again, it's more easy to blame foreigners...
Who has ever heard of a "public investigation"? I don't se how all the fuss can help the little girl...

Lastly, if this had happened in the UK to Portuguese "McCannos", you can bet your cuppa of tea they would not have any special attention from the police, the media or anyone else, nor the chance to be ungrateful and say people were turning on them - because the media would not focus on some foreign-speaking couple staying in a country were crimes like this happen quite frequently.
Some Brtis are even of the opinion that people in Britan would instead start screaming about how much the investigation is costing the state, how neglectful this couple was and how arrogant they were, bla, bla, bla...
Let's leave it alone, leave it with the police, and wait for the outcome of the investigation, before we start assigning blame or shame.