4 ms·

It's so typically Portuguese to look at good news and somehow see it as bad news. I'm Portuguese, and I too suffer from this syndrome at times. Not this time.

It's so typically Portuguese to look at good news and somehow see it as bad news. I'm Portuguese, and I too suffer from this syndrome at times. Not this time. Glad to see Portugal is on the right track.

vmsp 3y ago
You missed the point. Us not polluting is, obviously, great news. What we had to do to get to get here is the bad news. We chose to invest cash we don't have in fixing a problem we don't (really) cause and to which we don't (really) have a solution for. This, while 1/4 of the population earns minimum wage. My conclusion still stands.
- dottjt 3y ago
  Not to invalidate what you're saying, but surely every country has it's problems? While the problems you sight are significant, if this has been the case for a while, would they have been resolved if all the money had not been invested into renewables? It sounds like culturally, those problems would still exist today i.e. due to corruption, but at least you have the renewables in place, as opposed to not have them. I feel like you're looking for an ideal version that doesn't exist in reality.
Gys 3y ago
I am not Portuguese but live here for some years now. It surprises me often how happy Portuguese can be with minor details that work while there are so many much more serious problems. For example: some years ago several people mentioned the roads of Portugal were the best of Europe. I had a hard time believing because many local roads were worse than I remember from most countries. After the 3rd person or so I started wondering and looked it up. Turned out this was only for highways, which Portugal has only a few and build with EU money. Plus Portugal was actually only second, the Dutch highways were the best. Something I suspect at that time was not really frontpage news in the Netherlands. Until today many local roads are very bad.
- renewedrebecca 3y ago
  I live in Ohio, but spent a couple of weeks in Portugal last year, including in some remote areas... Your roads on the whole are better than ours, by a long shot.

vmsp 3y ago

You missed the point. Us not polluting is, obviously, great news. What we had to do to get to get here is the bad news. We chose to invest cash we don't have in fixing a problem we don't (really) cause and to which we don't (really) have a solution for. This, while 1/4 of the population earns minimum wage. My conclusion still stands.

dottjt 3y ago
Not to invalidate what you're saying, but surely every country has it's problems? While the problems you sight are significant, if this has been the case for a while, would they have been resolved if all the money had not been invested into renewables? It sounds like culturally, those problems would still exist today i.e. due to corruption, but at least you have the renewables in place, as opposed to not have them. I feel like you're looking for an ideal version that doesn't exist in reality.

Gys 3y ago

I am not Portuguese but live here for some years now. It surprises me often how happy Portuguese can be with minor details that work while there are so many much more serious problems. For example: some years ago several people mentioned the roads of Portugal were the best of Europe. I had a hard time believing because many local roads were worse than I remember from most countries. After the 3rd person or so I started wondering and looked it up. Turned out this was only for highways, which Portugal has only a few and build with EU money. Plus Portugal was actually only second, the Dutch highways were the best. Something I suspect at that time was not really frontpage news in the Netherlands. Until today many local roads are very bad.

renewedrebecca 3y ago
I live in Ohio, but spent a couple of weeks in Portugal last year, including in some remote areas... Your roads on the whole are better than ours, by a long shot.