A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

Why Studying at a Portuguese
University is a Great Idea
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
Another Way to Strengthen
Portuguese-American Relations
Allan J. Katz
A Step toward Doing Business
in Portuguese
Rui Boavista Marques
Portugal: A Place to Live
and a Place to Learn
Luís Patrão
A Groundbreaking Program
António Rendas
Fall | Winter 2011 53 06
SPECIAL
9/11
A decade later

2
Luso-American Foundation
BoArd oF TrusTees:
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Allan J. Katz (Ambassador of the US in Portugal)
Jorge Figueiredo Dias
Jorge Torgal
Luís Braga da Cruz
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Michael de Mello
Vasco Pereira da Costa
Vasco Graça Moura
execuTive counciL:
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues (President)
Charles Allen Buchanan, Jr
Mário Mesquita
GenerAL secreTAry: José Sá Carneiro
direcTors: Fátima Fonseca, Paulo Zagalo
e Melo, Miguel Vaz
depuTy direcTors: Rui Vallêra
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parallel
direcTor: Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
cHieF ediTor: Sara Pina
coordinATor: Paula Vicente
conTriBuTors To THis ediTion: Allan J. Katz, Álvaro
Rosendo, Ana Curtinhal, Ana Maria Silva, Ana
Marques Gastão, António Rendas, Carla Maia
de Almeida, Carla Martins, Carlos Leone, Clara
Pinto Caldeira, Claudia Colla, Catarina Martins,
Cátia Soares, Charles Buchanan, E. Mujal‑Leon,
Eduardo Pereira Correia, Fábio Rodrigues, Isabel
Marques da Silva, Isabel Nery, Isabel Carreto,
João Miranda, José Carlos Carvalho, Luís Patrão,
Kathleen Gomes, Manuel Silva Pereira, Maria de
Lurdes Rodrigues, Marina Almeida, Marta Rocha,
Mónica Carvalho, Patrícia Fonseca, Paula Vicente,
Pedro Faro, Raquel Duque, Raquel Ubach
Trindade, Rui Boavista Marques, Rui Ochôa, Sara
Pina, Sandra Pereira, Susana Almeida Ribeiro,
Susana Brito, Susana Neves, Vanessa Rodrigues
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dear reader
The tenth anniversary of the September 11 th tragedy sparked a wave of
commemorative events in the US that were witnessed by some of the
journalists on FLAD’s 2011 José Rodrigues Miguéis scholarship program
in the States. In Lisbon, 9/11 was marked by a Foundation-sponsored conference
series. Both the conferences and the book are discussed in this issue.
One of the Foundation’s main drives in the last few months has been the Study
in Portugal Program, an initiative undertaken by FLAD in partnership with the
Council of Portuguese University Chancellors, the Portuguese Agency for Investment
and Foreign Trade, the Portuguese Tourist Board, and the Fulbright Commission.
The main aim of the program is to highlight Portugal as a study destination for
prospective students from the US. Of the 140 thousand American students who
leave the US to study, nearly half choose Europe as an educational destination.
Portugal is anxious to make it to the top of these students’ wish list and a number
of articles in this edition of Parallel detail the rationale behind the drive to make
Portuguese universities more popular among prospective students.
In the coming year FLAD will be organizing the 3 rd Roosevelt Azorean Forum.
Next year’s event will focus on the historical, strategic, and scientific importance
of the ocean. The international gathering is scheduled to take place from the
27 th -29 th of April in Horta in the Azores at a venue with a stunning view of Pico
island, the site of Portugal’s highest mountain, depicted here by the Californiabased
painter Lucina Ellis, a Portuguese descendant. sArA pinA
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

contents
OFERTA
DO EDITOR
04 | Editorial by
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
The role of remembrance
in building the future
08 | September 11 th in America’s
collective memory
by Kathleen Gomes
12 | A decade of global terrorism
by Patrícia Fonseca
44-49 | study in portugal
44 | Why studying in Portugal
is a great idea
by Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
46 | Another way to strengthen
Portuguese‑American relations
by Allan J. Katz
47 | A step toward doing business
in Portuguese
by Rui Boavista Marques
[poLiTics]
9/11
A decade later
32 | Transatlantic Trends 2011
Asia gains ground in US public
opinion
by Ana Maria Silva
COMPLIMENTARY
COPY
48 | A place to live and a place
to learn
by Luís Patrão
49 | A groundbreaking program
by António Rendas
[socieTy]
Cover
“Study in Portugal”
Campaign by
www.ideia.pt
Why Studying at a Portuguese
University is a Great Idea
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
Another Way to Strengthen
Portuguese-American Relations
Allan J. Katz
A Step toward Doing Business
in Portuguese
Rui Boavista Marques
Portugal: A Place to Live
and a Place to Learn
Luís Patrão
A Groundbreaking Program
António Rendas
14-27 | conference series
9/11 ten years later
50 | No risk, no glory
an interview with Paul Jerde
52 | Losing in order to win
an interview with Michael Fernandez
Fall | Winter 2011 53 06
9/11
A decade later
53 | Opportunities rather than money
an interview with Mario Calderini
by Sara Pina
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 3
SPECIAL

4
ediToriAL
The role of remembrance
in building the future
mAriA de Lurdes rodriGues
On the occasion of the 10 th anniversary of the
9/11 tragedy, FLAD joined the vast worldwide
movement to spark remembrance of the events
that occurred that day, and the wave of discussion
and reflection in which participants over
the globe remembered and celebrated the values
of freedom, reason, and universalism. These
values are the fundamental premises of democracy
and were threatened – not only by the
9/11 attacks themselves – but by interpretations
‘ “study in portugal” [...] The object is to
bring more students to portugal to take
advantage of the very best this country
and its universities have to offer.
’
of the attacks as a manifestation of a clash of
civilizations. That is why promoting remembrance
of 9/11 is indispensable to understanding
the tragic events that occurred on that day
and strengthening our grasp of the causes
underlying the events and their consequences.
It is also indispensible in allowing us to move
forward to build a future that is based on shared
choices, instead of resigning to the fate that
others have mapped out for us.
The results of yet another edition of Transatlantic
Trends Survey show that citizens on both sides of
the Atlantic share a common vision of the pressing
issues of our time and converging opinions
that may well allow us to build a common
future. These shared US-European perceptions
on subjects such as the role of the US in leading
transatlantic relations, the evolution and construction
of the European Union, the dynamics
of the economic and financial crisis that has
swept the world, and relations with emerging
economies such as China and Brazil, show us
that both sides share a common platform for
understanding and values and ambitions that
will allow them to interact democratically
despite the natural political and ideological differences
that exist between
them.
Last but not least our magazine
discusses a new FLAD
program we have dubbed
“Study in Portugal.” This
project aims to support
Portuguese universities in
their efforts to create better
awareness of the institutions
themselves and their programs
among US students
and their families. The object
is to bring more students to
Portugal to take advantage of
the very best this country
and its universities have to offer. The international
projection of college-level programs has
become a challenge for all universities throughout
the world but especially those in the US and
Europe. But in the worldwide bid for more study
abroad students, Portugal has unique advantages.
It belongs to the Community of
Portuguese-Speaking Countries, which places it
in a special position when it comes to access
to countries such as Angola, Cape Verde,
Mozambique and Brazil. The task is now to
bring the US and Portugal closer together by
demonstrating that the country itself and the
Portuguese language are a gateway to the world
– a portal that can eventually lead to countless
career opportunities.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

A trail of war and debt
“The ten years following the 9/11 attacks have left a trail of
war and debt. A study by the Watson Institute estimates that by
last June, the Afghan and Iraqi Wars had cost nearly 225 thousand
lives, which included 6 thousand US service personnel and 1200
allies. The US Congress estimates that the War on Terror, carried
out by George W. Bush, ran up a tab of between 3.6 and 4.4
billion dollars. The cost of secret service operations, responsible
for the death this year of Osama bin Laden, has increased by
250%, with close to 30 thousand people working in wiretapping
in the US alone.”
[ Diário económico, September 7, Lionel Barber ]
Being a Muslim
in the US
“Being a Muslim in the United States those days didn’t mean
you were under suspicion. The greatest obstacle was ignorance.
Then 9/11 happened. […] No other community has suffered the
consequences of September 11th as much as the Muslims, who
began to be subject to questioning and were prevented from
traveling solely based on their appearance. […] The legacy of 9/11
has sparked different reactions among the Muslim community in
the United States, which is estimated at 2.4 million.”
[ Público, September 7, Kathleen Gomes ]
Works of art destroyed
“A significant number of artworks […] were lost forever when
the World Trade Center collapsed with the 9/11 terrorist attacks
in New York, ten years ago to the day on Sunday. […] There is
still no certainty about how many artworks and historical documents
were lost because of the attack. Records tell of letters and
40 thousand photo negatives of President John F. Kennedy.
The World Trade Center housed the headquarters of over 400
companies and at least 21 document libraries, which were all
destroyed. In the Ferdinand Gallozzi Library alone there was a
collection of documents dealing with US trade since 1840.”
[ Lusa, September 9 ]
9/11
A decade later
press revieW
by Ana maria silva*
Reality trumps fiction
Reality trumped fiction on September 11th , when the most
truth-defying attacks of all occurred; and in the ten years that
have followed, we have seen fiction attempt to trump that reality,
leading us to reflect on how much the world has changed.
American writers like Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and John
Updike and Britain’s Ian McEwan and Portugal’s Pedro Guilherme-
Moreira are just a few of the authors who have written about
the hyper-reality of 9/11, when a terrorist strike targeting the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the
Pentagon in Washington provoked the highest number of civil
casualties in history.”
[ Lusa, September 10 ]
In America
and Afghanistan
The US – namely Washington, DC and New York City – were
on red alert after receiving ‘specific, credible, but unconfirmed
intelligence’ that Al-Qaeda was preparing another strike. […]
‘Every September 11th , the Afghans are reminded of an event
that they took no part in, an event that served as the pretext for
American colonialist designs to shed the blood of millions of
innocent, poverty-stricken Afghans,’ the Taliban stated.”
[ Diário de Notícias, September 11, Susana Salvador ]
The world has changed
It is practically undeniable that the world has changed since
September 11th , 2001. Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers
in New York has gone on to shape ideals, opinions, and the
decade that ensued and is coming to a close this weekend. The
attacks pushed the US into two wars, a financial crisis the country
had never experienced before; and one can go so far as to
say that the US does not wield the same hegemonic power it
did until 2001.”
[ Jornal i, September 10, Joana Azevedo Viana ]
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 5

6
A safer world
“Ten years after the 9/11, the world is ‘safer’ and the United
States ‘stronger,’ affirmed Allen J. Katz, US Ambassador to
Portugal today as he met with journalists on the tenth anniversary
of the terrorist attacks, which will be on Sunday. The
diplomat added that he thought ‘the world is currently a safer
place.’”
[ Lusa, September 6 ]
Collective catharsis
“We’re being cautious and there are people holding maps.
There’s a police contingent, roadblocks, x-ray machines in New
York’s main subway stations, streets blocked off, soldiers with
weapons, inspections of garbage cans. There are sirens, horns
honking, fast footsteps, tourists and locals surrounding
Manhattan’s new business center. […] Today is ‘charity day’
read the signs behind Ground Zero, where the 9/11 Memorial
is opening its doors for the first time in a private ceremony
[…].
It’s a tribute with onomastics from all over the world: 2,983
names geometrically engraved in bronze – and there are 1,100
that remain to be identified. […] That’s why September 11th is a collective catharsis: today we are all New Yorkers.”
[ Diário de Notícias, September 11, Vanessa Rodrigues
– in the US on a FLAD José rodrigues Miguéis fellowship ]
Revisionist strategy
“The world didn’t change on 9/11, 2001. It changed in 1989
and 1991, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion
of the Soviet Union. […] America, however, changed on
September 11th , 2001. It changed its perspective on security
and its foreign policy. […] We have seen deep-seated changes
in American foreign policy, with the passing of a conservative
strategy […] and the advent of a revisionist one.”
[ Público, September 11, Tiago Moreira de Sá ]
9/11
A decade later
Bush and Obama
“Together George W. Bush and Barack Obama today marked the
end of a decade since the 9/11 attacks […] The former chief
executive and current President of the US strolled around the
memorial to the victims of the attacks with a mournful air.[…]
Together in an unprecedented appearance in New York, were the
man who sent US troops into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
and the man who vowed to get them out. […]”
[ Diário de Notícias, September 12, Patrícia Viegas ]
Birth of a generation
“The US administration claims that the 9/11 attacks marked
the ‘birth of a generation.’ The US believes that it has come out
stronger and more united than ever after the terrorist attacks
that struck New York and Washington on September 11 th , 2001.
[…] ‘I can say, without fear of contradiction or of being accused
of exaggeration, that the 9/11 generation is among the greatest
our nation has ever produced. And it was born right here on
9/11,’ Joe Biden said.”
[ Diário económico, September 12, Pedro Duarte ]
Ceremony at
the Pentagon
“Close to 1,600 people, including a hundreds survivors of the
attack, were at the ceremony, where a huge American flag was
placed on the façade of the building where the plane hit.”
“The 10th anniversary of 9/11 was observed in many ways
throughout the world. In Lisbon, President Cavaco Silva made
a statement stressing “the need for international cooperation
in dealing with terrorism.”
[ Público, September 12, Marco Vaza – in the US on a FLAD José
rodrigues Miguéis fellowship ]
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

Three iconic sites
“On the 10th anniversary of September 11th , 2001, as the
nation reflected on its losses, thousands of families gathered
at the new World Trade Center rising in Lower Manhattan, at
the Pentagon, and on a field of wildflowers in Pennsylvania to
commemorate nearly 3,000 killed on that infamous morning
when jetliners were turned into missiles and a new age of
terrorism was born.
The day’s centerpiece unfolded at ground zero, where more
than 10,000 members of the victims’ families […], gathered in
a parklike setting of swamp white oaks and emerald lawns – a
strangely futuristic plaza with precisely spaced trees rising from
a five-acre granite floor, surrounded by a gouged wasteland of
unfinished skyscrapers and silent construction cranes.”
[ New York Times, September 11, Robert McFadden ]
The superpower
has run its course
“It’s hard to tell if the world changes in a split second or if
the great moments in history are merely the results of a long,
in-depth process that – for the most part – unfolds invisibly.
It is difficult to determine whether 9/11 transformed the United
States or if it was the catalyst for an inevitable decline that was
already underway. In any case, the last ten years have proved that
the US has run its course as a superpower. It is not only straining
to assure its lone position as the universal guardian of the
values it defends; but it is also losing ground in the contest with
other nations in this new era, which is no longer an exclusively
American century.”
[ el País, September 11, Antonio Caño ]
Acts of simplicity
and remembrance
“Simplicity, unity, and devotion. The 10th anniversary of the
September 11th attacks were marked by countless commemorations,
as the American people and their leader, Barack Obama, honored
the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in New York
City, Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September
11th , 2001. […] The silence was surreal, as the workmen in the
morning ground their machines to a halt and the traffic was
blocked in downtown Manhattan. Barack Obama ran his fingers
across the names of the victims engraved in stone before greeting
the victims’ families and dignitaries. Then he took the lectern and
read Psalm 46 that states, ‘God is our refuge and strength.’”
[ Le Monde Monde (Agence France Press and Reuters), September 11 ]
9/11
A decade later
Tribute at Ground Zero
“The names of the Sept. 11 dead, some called out by children
barely old enough to remember their fallen mothers and
fathers, echoed across ground zero Sunday in a haunting but
hopeful tribute on the 10th anniversary of the terror attack.
[…]
Weeping relatives of the victims streamed into a newly-opened
memorial and placed pictures and flowers beside names etched
in bronze. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, bowed
their heads and touched the inscriptions.”
[ Washington Post (Associated Press), September 12 ]
Ten years of war
“America grieves, reflects.[…] America paused Sunday to
remember what was lost and how it has changed forever a
decade after four hijacked jetliners felled New York City’s Twin
Towers, split open the Pentagon, and bore into the ground in
a quiet Pennsylvania meadow.
The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks provided
a moment to take stock of 10 years of war and worry,
while at the same time paying tribute to honorable deeds performed
not only in the earliest moments of the attack, but in
the years since as well.”
[ The Wall Street Journal, September 12, Michael Howard Saul ]
The 9/11 Memorial
“Some people wept. Some embraced. Others silently stared into
the dark pools where the Twin Towers once stood as the 9/11
Memorial at Ground Zero opened its gates to the public.
About 7,000 people had tickets to visit the Memorial as it debuted
on Monday, and another 400,000 have signed up online to
visit in the coming months.”
[ Chicago Tribune (Associated Press), September 13, Samantha
Gross and Verena Dobnick ]
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 7
*LPM

SANDRA PEREIRA
Brent Glass is Director of the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of American History
in Washington, DC. He is also a member
of the Flight 93 Memorial Advisory
Commission whose goal was to construct
a memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
at the site where the aircraft hijacked by
terrorists on 9/11 plummeted to earth.
8
9/11
A decade later
september 11 th
in America’s collective memory
From the Holocaust to 9/11: why do we need memorials to remember tragedies?
And is there such a thing as too much remembrance?
By KATHLeen Gomes
PhOTOGRAPhy By sAndrA pereirA AND vAnessA rodriGues
Like the memorial to the World Trade
Center victims in New York, the Flight 93
Memorial was inaugurated on Sept. 11 th ,
2011, ten years after the disaster.
Memorials combine the way we wish to
be remembered in the future with people’s
need to be consoled in the present. They
“tell more about ourselves and our own
times than they do about the events that
we are supposedly commemorating,” affirmed
Glass in this interview conducted in
Washington.
[Parallel] Whether it’s the Columbine massacre
or 9/11, the building of memorials seems to be
a growing industry in the United States. Why?
The elements of the memorial are positioned to distinguish between those that symbolize the victims inside the pentagon building and those that represent the
victims on the plane. Those in which you can read the victim’s name and simultaneously see the pentagon building memorialize those who died in the pentagon.
Those facing in the opposite direction, where the sky acts as a backdrop to the name, pay tribute to the people who perished aboard AA Flight 77.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

[Brent Glass] Remembering is a very human
attribute. In fact it’s what defines us in
many ways as human beings. As human
beings, when we lose our memory it’s a
catastrophic event. For a society, it’s equally
important to have a collective memory. And
one way we do that is through memorialization
– where we want to capture or
recognize and honor an event or people
for their accomplishments or for their
experience. It can take a variety of forms:
it can be a landscape, it can be a statue, it
can be something more abstract.
Have you ever visited Ground Zero in
New York? There’s a fire station across the
street that got tired of waiting for the
memorial to be built so they put up their
own memorial. And it’s very representational,
it’s very narrative: you see the firemen
running into a building, and you see the
towers on fire. I was there on a day when
a father and son were standing next to me,
and the little boy was probably 8 or 9, so
he wasn’t born when 9/11 happened. The
father was explaining what the memorial
is about, and the boy kept asking: “Why
were they doing this? Why did the planes
fly into the buildings? Why did these people
take over the planes? Why weren’t they
happy with the US?”
The kid kept asking these “why” questions.
And it made me realize that that’s what we
have to do with our museums and our interpretative
centers – is answer the “why”
questions. And that’s what memorials don’t
necessarily do. They don’t have that obligation.
They’re really in that moment of just
remembering the loss that occurred. They’re
part of the healing process.
[P] Memorials are different from historical facts.
They are more sentimental than history itself.
[BG] Yes. Some of the worst memorials,
I think, are the ones that try to tell a
story. Some of the Holocaust memorials
around the country, around the world,
are quite evocative without a whole long
narrative about what happened. Some
failed because they try to be encyclopedic
and tell that story.
The message is not objective, necessarily. In
fact, by definition, it’s subjective because it’s
being sponsored by either the state or by a
group of people who want to remember
individuals or an event in a particular way.
[P] What is the memorial planned for the World
Trade Center site supposed to commemorate?
[BG] I think the primary interest has been
to make sure it’s a memorial to the people
who died.
At the Flight 93 memorial, you have 40
names, of the passengers and crew who
9/11
A decade later
“Hidden constellations” is the way designer michael Arad describes the concept behind the memorial
at Ground Zero in which the names are clustered according to relationships of kinship and friendship.
‘ remembering is a very human
attribute. in fact it’s what defines
us in many ways as human beings.
As human beings, when we lose our
memory it’s a catastrophic event.
For a society, it’s equally important
to have a collective memory.
’
died on that flight, not the 4 hijackers
who also died on the flight; their names
will not be listed on the memorial.
That’s an interesting problem in memorialization:
what do you do with the
names of the people who were the terrorists?
How do you account for the tragedy
if you don’t mention who they are?
It’s like going to Ford’s Theatre here in
Washington and not mentioning John
Wilkes Booth. But I think that in a memorial
it is appropriate not to list these individuals
because you’re not honoring them;
you’re honoring the victims. But in a
museum you would perhaps list the names
of the 19 hijackers in some form.
[P] Aren’t these memorials also about victimhood
or even martyrdom? Because they also have a
death toll purpose.
[BG] It’s an interesting question because
at the Flight 93 memorial they use the
word “heroes.” Because
the passengers, at least
many of them, resisted
and tried to disrupt the
plans of the hijackers;
maybe they tried to capture
the plane back – we
don’t know exactly what
went on in those 30
minutes of what must
have been pure mayhem
and pure terror.
But the New York story
is more complicated. You
have passengers, you have
office workers, you have responders.
You’ve got people who did survive and
who did get out of the towers safely and
avoided injury. You’ve got survivors, you’ve
got responders, you’ve got responders
who died, you’ve got responders who
didn’t die, you’ve got people who died
without even knowing what hit them. So,
you have people who lost their lives on
different levels, not all at once, not all
performing the same function.
The World War II Memorial here in
Washington is clearly a memorial to the
people who were soldiers – who went
into battle knowing they were at risk of
dying, fully conscious of fighting for their
country. Here it’s a little different. You have
people who died not knowing in many
cases what the cause was or why they were
dying.
For all they knew, it was an accident: a
plane accidentally flew into their tower,
at least the first one.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 9
VANESSA RODRIGUES

SANDRA PEREIRA
I guess it’s a different type of death. I
think it’s legitimate to ask: why do they
need a memorial? Some believe that you
10
9/11
A decade later
will feel a sense of healing if you honor
your loved one this way, so the families
take quite an active role in this. Almost
‘ Aren’t memorials less about the dramatic events
they’re supposed to evoke than about
our contemporary sensibilities and needs?
’
The pentagon memorial is composed of 184 units: one per victim, each one displaying a name.
passengers, flight crew, and people in the building died when American Airlines flight 77
slammed into the pentagon at 9:37 a.m. on september 11 th , 2001.
immediately after the Civil War, even
before the war ended, some of the veterans
went back to the battlefields and
started to make plans for memorials to be
put up. At Gettysburg there are more than
1300 memorials.
[P] Until very recently Berlin, bombed during
World War II, didn’t have memorials. They seemed
superfluous in a city where you could still find
the ruins of destruction. But in the last decade,
a Holocaust museum and memorial have opened
up in Berlin.
Aren’t memorials less about the dramatic events
they’re supposed to evoke than about our contemporary
sensibilities and needs?
[BG] I think so. When I was in Portugal,
I gave a lecture about “Public Memory
in the US” at four different universities.
One student raised her hand and asked:
“Don’t you think there’s too much
remembering of the Holocaust now?
Don’t you think it’s enough?” She was
maybe 20, 25. I said: it really depends
on what country you’re in, what the current
feeling is, and the impact of the
Holocaust on your country or community.
I don’t know if you can ever remember
too much, or whether the past
becomes too much of a burden and prevents
you from moving forward. But I
agree that it tells more about ourselves
and our own times than it does about
the events that we’re supposedly commemorating.
[P] The issue with the 9/11 memorial is also
its scale. It will exceed other memorials dedicated
to millions of victims, even though it represents
less than 3000 people. What do you make
of that?
[BG] Well, it’s in New York, which makes
everything big. It has to be on a scale that
New Yorkers feel is part of their identity.
It’s the biggest city in the country, a world
capital. And there’s the moral question of
building a memorial or doing anything on
a site where death has occurred and probably
the remains of people are still there.
I know that’s an issue in Pennsylvania.
[P] For many relatives of the victims that’s their
burial ground.
[BG] Right. Even though human remains
have been found and identified, I think
they have only identified maybe a third
of the people who died in New York. I
know there’s still a controversy about the
vault where the human remains are kept
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

‘ i don’t know if you can ever
remember too much, or whether
the past becomes too much of
a burden and prevents you from
moving forward. But i agree that
it tells more about ourselves and
our own times than it does about
the events that we’re supposedly
commemorating.
’
on site. There’s an inscription that’s on the
wall outside that vault where the human
remains are being kept. Some of the relatives
have said: “We don’t want anything
on that wall because we don’t want to
turn the vault into part of an exhibit or
part of a tour where people will take pictures
of the inscription.”
At the Flight 93 Memorial Commission
we have four meetings a year. And at each
meeting a handful of family members
come, and there are a lot of tears, and
there’s still a lot of emotion. The shock
has worn off, but it’s been like a prolonged
grieving process. I don’t think it
will ever end. But I think in September it
will reach a point where they will feel
their mission has been fulfilled. The 10 th
anniversary is going to be a sort of feeling
like: “Ok, we’ve done our share to remember
our family members.”
[P] When you talk to New Yorkers, you don’t get
a sense that the memorial is important for them,
personally. To them, the rebuilding of the World
Trade Center, the fact that towers have started to
come up again on the site is a more powerful
symbol than the actual memorial. The memorial
seems to be much more about appeasing the
victims’ families.
[BG] Yes, everyone is being very deferential
to the family members because the
event is so immediate. And I often ask
the questions at Flight 93 site, which has
a much smaller population to deal with:
“Who constitutes a family member? How
do you qualify or not as a family member?
Do you have to be a blood relative?
How distant – a second cousin, an aunt,
or an uncle?” So that’s another political
issue: Who speaks for these people? It’s
easy if it’s a son or daughter, a husband
or wife, but it gets a little more difficult
9/11
A decade later
when the relationship is
someone more remote.
Yeah, I think that’s the primary
audience.
In the case of New York,
you’ve got nearly 3,000
deaths that have occurred,
so you’re not going to get
a consensus. Even in
Shanksville we didn’t have
a total consensus about the
design of the memorial.
The crash occurred at a former
coal mine site, and
although the landscape had
been restored, it was still
sort of bowl-shaped. And
the bowl has a 10, 20%
incline, so the designer of the winning
design used that to recommend a semicircle
of trees. I think it’s 40 trees for
Brent Glass in Portugal
“A Guardian of Memory” is how Brent Glass can be described.
A firm believer that “the way in which we remember history
also reveals much about our own times,” during his first visit
to Portugal, Glass shared his vision of history and museum
expertise with curators and government officials in Lisbon,
Porto, Coimbra, Madeira and the Azores. As a public historian,
Glass’ deals with both remembrance and oblivion, and stresses
that planning, partnerships, outreach and feedback are
essential tools for today’s museums.
each victim, so 1600 trees altogether are
going to be placed in this semi-circle.
But he named his memorial “A Crescent
of Embrace.” And someone jumped on
that and said: “Ah-ha, this is a tribute to
Islam.” Because it was red maples, in the
fall, when the leaves turn, they would be
red. So from the air, if you were flying
over, it would look like a red crescent.
And there was some controversy about
that, and that led one of the family members
to say, “I won’t support this.” The
families had been very close together and
they took this very hard because they
wanted everybody to approve it.
[P] What was the outcome of that discussion?
[BG] The designer made it more of a
circle and extended both ends of the
crescent.
seven thousand ticket-holders were allowed to visit the Ground Zero memorial on sept. 11 th , 2011.
more than 400 thousand purchased tickets to see it in the upcoming months.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 11
D.R.
VANESSA RODRIGUES

1 September 11 th , 2001
(NYC, Washington DC,
Pennsylvania)
Twin Towers – 2,752 fatalities
Pentagon – 169 fatalities
Flight 93- 44 fatalities
2 October 26 th , 2001
(Washington DC)
George W. Bush signs the controversial
Patriot Act, an acronym for “Uniting
and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept
and Obstruct Terrorism.” The Act
curtails many civil rights in the name
of fighting terror
3 October 7 th , 2001
(Afghanistan)
Afghanistan is invaded without
UN approval, marking the start
of a US-sponsored war against
global terror
4 2002 (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
The first prisoners from Afghanistan
are brought to the detention facility
in Guantanamo. Other detention
sites in unknown locations
around the world – some run
by the CIA – are used to interrogate
suspects
12
1
1
4
2
poLicy
9/11
A decade later
A decade of global terrorism
Ten years ago, two planes hit the Twin Towers
and the world shook.
From that morning on, nothing was the same.
Highlighted in yellow are the attacks
attributed to Al-Qaeda.
TEXT Patrícia Fonseca INFOGRAPH Álvaro Rosendo
5 2002 (Algeria)
The Salafist Group for Preaching
and Combat decides to join forces
with bin Laden’s organization and,
as of 2007, is called the Al-Qaeda
of the Islamic Maghreb
6 April 11 th , 2002 (Tunisia)
A truck bomb is detonated outside
the Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba,
killing 21, 14 of whom were German
citizens
7 October 12 th , 2002
(Bali, Indonesia)
A truck bomb and a suicide bomber
sow chaos in Bali killing 202,
164 of whom are foreign tourists.
The attack is blamed on radical
Islamists tied to Al-Qaeda
8 November 28 th , 2002
(Kenya)
A suicide bomb goes off in a Mombasa
hotel where a group of Israelis are staying.
18 people are killed
11
18
14
5
9 March 20 th , 2003 (Iraq)
American planes start bombing
Baghdad while British forces
occupy the south, controlled
by Saddam Hussein.
Iraq, Iran, and North Korea
had been dubbed “The Axis of Evil”
by Bush for possessing
weapons of mass destruction
10 May 12 th , 2003
(Saudi Arabia)
A three-pronged attack kills 35
in a Riyadh residential zone
11 May 16 th , 2003 (Morocco)
Four suicide bombers kill 33 people
in Casablanca
12 November 15th and 20th , 2001
(Turkey)
Four car bombs parked near two
synagogues, the British consulate,
and Britain’s HSBC bank, kill 63,
including the consul general
of Great Britain
23
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
6

15 22
9 13
10
16
19
3
26
poLicy
A Revolution on Board
The September 11 th attacks radically changed airline security throughout the world
Sept. 2001 Passengers have to
show up three hours before their
scheduled international flights.
Swiss knives are forbidden,
and even lighters and nail-clippers
are seen as potentially dangerous
weapons
12
21
8
24
13 2004 (Iraq)
A shocking series of photos is published
showing American service men and
women torturing the inmates of Abu
Ghraib Prison
14 March 11 th , 2004
(Madrid, Spain)
Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for
coordinated attacks on suburban trains on
the outskirts of Madrid that kill 191 people
15 October 8 th , 2004 (Egypt)
Three attacks at tourist sites on the Sinai
Peninsula kill 34 people
16 December 6 th , 2004
(Saudi Arabia)
Terrorists attack the US Consulate
in Jeddah killing 9
17 February 14th , 2005
(The Philippines)
Three attacks carried out on the same day
in Manila, General Santos, and Davao
leave 12 dead and more than 120 wounded
Dec. 2001 A passenger
intending to blow the plane
up en route, manages to board
a flight from Paris to Miami
with explosives in his shoes;
all passenger footwear is now
x-ray scanned
Source TSA - Transportation Security Administration (USA); EASA/European Aviation Safety Agency
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
25
9/11
A decade later
No knives Shoes off Black list No Liquids
18 July 7 th , 2005
(London)
Al-Qaeda is responsible for the detonation
of three bombs in the London
underground causing 52 fatalities
19 July 23 rd , 2005 (Egypt)
Suicide bombers attack tourist
spots in Sharm el-Sheikh causing
68 deaths
20 October 1 st , 2005
(Bali, Indonesia )
Over 23 people are killed by suicide
bombers in Bali
21 November 9 th , 2005
(Jordan)
Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for a triple
suicide strike against hotels in Amman
that takes 60 lives
22 April 24 th , 2006 (Egypt)
Three terrorists attack a beach resort
in Dahab on the Red Sea, leaving
20 dead
Sept. 2004 The US analyzes
all passengers’ biometric data
and compiles a “no-fly list”
with thousands of names
of people suspected of having
terrorist ties (which generates
countless misunderstandings)
Nov. 2006 A frustrated
attempt to use a liquid
mixture as an on-board
bomb leads to an almost
total ban on liquids
in passenger hand
luggage
7
20
17
23 December 11 th , 2007
(Algeria)
Algiers is rocked by two suicide
bombings claimed by the Maghreb
Al-Qaeda. Among the 62 fatalities
are 17 UN employees
24 September 17 th , 2008 (Yemen)
Car bombs kill 16 in the US Embassy
in Sanaa
25 September 20 th , 2008
(Pakistan)
A truck bomb explodes near the Islamabad
Marriott killing 60
26 May 1 st , 2011 (Pakistan)
Osama Bin Laden is killed
in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Special
Forces. Documentation found at his
compound shows that new attacks
were planned in the US on the 10 th
anniversary of the attack on the
Twin Towers.
13

As FLAD administrator Mário Mesquita
explained, in partnering with the US
Embassy in Lisbon and the Literary Guild
to hold this series of events, FLAD aimed
to “acknowledge the date with reflection
and discussion on some of the major
issues that have arisen from the terrorist
strike that so brutally marked the start of
the 21 st century.”
Once known as the “land of the free,”
the US later shouldered the role of “land
of the powerful,” after the implosion of
the Soviet Union in 1991 solidified this
as the country’s strategic approach. On
September 11 th , and for the first time in
its history, the US was caught unawares,
with an attack on its mainland carried
out by a foreign agent. The strike irrevocably
destroyed the country’s perception
of itself as an unassailable fortress and,
as Mário Mesquita pointed out in the first
conference of the series, “The large-scale
strikes on the United States displayed
evidence of greater sophistication, meticulous
strategy, and a vile and contemptuous
type of planning.”
But it wasn’t only a relentless attack on
US territory. Conveying a sinister message,
the extremist group chose the heart of
the United States as the brunt of its
wrath, a symbol of the free world and
an emblem of the Western way of life
– New York City. Yet what made the
attacks even more brutal and inhumane,
as Mário Mesquita stated, was the fact
that “it wasn’t mere symbols that were
at stake on that day, but innocent human
beings.”
14
9/11
A decade later
A look at 9/11 ten years later
Ten years after the Al-Qaeda attacks on the US, we now have a clearer picture
of the events. In an attempt to examine the repercussions of 9/11 – not only
in America but also in the rest of the world – the Luso-American Foundation
sponsored a series of five conferences entitled “Ten Years after September 11 th ,”
headed up by journalist Sara Pina.
By mArTA rocHA*
is THe WorLd Any diFFerenT?
In the first conference, Allan J. Katz, US
Ambassador to Portugal, and Portugal’s
ambassador to France Francisco Seixas da
Costa, who was serving as the Portuguese
ambassador to the United Nations in 2001,
asserted that we can distinguish
between a pre-9/11
world and a post-9/11
world. The US Ambassador
called September 11 th “the
type of moment that every
nation has; it is a seminal
moment. It is a time after
which everything is different.”
In the first analysis,
in his view, the attacks
acted as a wake-up call for
Americans, and produced
a growing awareness that
“there is no place left in
the world that people who
are determined to disrupt cannot create tremendous
problems.”
Francisco Seixas da Costa first analyzed
the international scenario that was the
backdrop to the attacks, stating that, “The
act had taken place because there were
contexts within the international scene in
which the United States was viewed, by
large sectors of the Arab world and others,
as being in agreement with Israel’s policy
on Palestinian territories and Palestinian
rights,” which in turn explains why “these
terrorist acts were greeted by applause by
the man on the street in certain places of
the Arab world.”
Ambassador Seixas da Costa also stressed
that “Al-Qaeda and September 11 th were
engendered in a weird cultural brew,
cooked up in kitchens where the everpresent
ingredient was anti-Israeli haranguing:
the only real ingredient binding the
tentative stew that unifies the Arab world.”
‘ on september 11th , and for the first
time in its history, the us was caught
unawares, with an attack on its
mainland carried out by a foreign
agent. The strike irrevocably
destroyed the country’s perception
of itself as an unassailable
fortress.
’
After discussing the geographical locations
in which terrorist attacks have been carried
out, he considered it crucial to add “that
September 11 th was a positive test of the
unity of strategic principles on which the
transatlantic world is based,” since “right
from the beginning, the mood internationally
was very widespread and sympathetic
with regard to combating terrorism.”
THe concepT oF THe WAr
on Terror
In the second conference, Mitchell Cohen,
American politologist and former editor
of Dissent magazine, and Nuno Severiano
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA
Teixeira, professor of political science and
international relations at the Universidade
Nova de Lisboa and former Portuguese
minister of the interior and defense, discussed
the new strategic concept spearheaded
by George W. Bush, the Global War
on Terrorism, and its impact on US policy
since 9/11, as well as the different government
approaches to combating terrorism.
They examined how today security is being
perceived as a global phenomenon requiring
well-coordinated measures, strategies,
and policies among the world’s players.
They also discussed the nature of today’s
terrorism, whose main dissimilarity with
terrorism of the traditional ilk is that it
makes civilians its principle target.
Mitchell Cohen analyzed the Global War
on Terror, a new concept implemented by
George W. Bush that consisted of combating
“terrorist groups of global reach and
their helpers.” However, he adds, “reality
has a way of overwhelming definitions.”
Nuno Severiano Teixeira mentioned that
9/11
A decade later
Lisbon’s Literary Guild was the venue for a series of talks on the 10 years that have ensued since 9/11. The main hall was filled to capacity
with the general public and students from portuguese universities.
9/11 had reinforced his perception that
“security, or the nature of security had
changed and was now absolutely global.”
In his talk he gave special attention to the
issue of security vs. freedom and the
unavoidably conflictual relationship
between the two concepts saying that,
“transnational terrorism has raised issues
between two fundamental values of democratic
societies- – freedom and security
(...) The way in which freedom relates to
security has changed since 9/11 because,
to guarantee our safety, which is a fundamental
right of all citizens, to some extent
we had to (...) make compromises, and
rework some of the rights, guarantees, and
freedoms that were also an integral part
of our democratic society.”
AFGHAnisTAn And irAq
The third conference featured Carlos
Gaspar from the Portuguese Institute for
International Relations, General Loureiro
dos Santos, and François Lafond from
the German Marshall Fund. The thrust
of the discussion was the present and
future of Afghanistan and Iraq. The
speakers focused on the important role
the two countries play in international
politics, as one of the most important
items on the worldwide political agenda
for achieving order and stability. They
also explored changes that have occurred
and their impact on the governance of
the two countries. The speakers analyzed
America’s justification for the military
strategies it adopted, and for the invasion
of Afghanistan and Iraq. François
Lafond also discussed how difficult it
was for democratic countries to develop
and use democratic strategies in their
attempts to halt terrorism.
Carlos Gaspar stated that the United
States “has focused on a somewhat secondary
issue and been caught up in two
peripheral wars – in Afghanistan and
Iraq.” It has been “an atypical era in US
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 15

RUI OChÔA
foreign policy – an era that can be summarized
in two words and an acronym:
GWOT (Global War on Terrorism),
Afghanistan, and Iraq.” On the subject
of the Iraq conflict, Gaspar affirmed,
“the Iraq invasion sparked the worst
crisis in NATO history, and the hardships
of the Atlantic Alliance’s mission in
Afghanistan exacerbated tensions among
the allies in the following years.”
Gen. Loureiro dos Santos dealt basically
with the progress of the two wars
that followed 9/11, mentioning the
“remarkable” military strategies designed
by the Bush administration in both Mid-
East theatres of war. The invasion of
Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda was hiding
out, was an immediate response to the
attacks and was sanctioned by the UN
and NATO, which for the first time
“declared that article 5 of the
Organization’s founding treaty – the
Washington Treaty – was applicable to
this situation.”
One of the main observations of
François Lafond of the German Marshall
Fund dealt with how resilient democracies
are, and how hard it is for “democracies
to find the right solutions to
terrorism while still acting democratically.”
This of course begs the question
of how you “react to people who are
using undemocratic tools if you wish to
continue acting in democratic fashion.”
16
9/11
A decade later
“making dialogue, reflection, and logical thought prevail over irrationality and violence,”
was how maria de Lurdes rodrigues (second from the right) characterized the event. FLAd’s president
is flanked by American journalist Walter dean on the left and portuguese journalist Adelino Gomes
on the right. on the left is sara pina, coordinator of the conference series.
civiLiZATions, ideoLoGies
And reLiGions
The next conference dealt with how religion
and fundamentalist ideology tie in
with the genesis of the 9/11 attacks. Rev.
Kevin Madigan, the Catholic pastor of St.
Peter’s Church near Ground Zero; António
Dias Farinha, professor of Arab and Islamic
Studies; and Esther Mucznik, vice-president
of the Jewish Community of Lisbon
also discussed how religious belief affects
political issues and the role faith plays in
Western societies and in the Arab and
Islamic world.
Father António Rego, who chaired the
conference, adverted the audience to the
fact that “Ten years after September 11 th ,
the crushing heft of images and emotions
still weigh heavily on us,” which is why
“it is still hard to make sense of the event
and reflect serenely on the role civilization,
ideology, and religion play.”
Kevin Madigan observed that the attack
on the Twin Towers for the terrorists “was
not just an attack on a symbol of American
power, but also the smashing of a false
idol, this blasphemous representation of
a Mecca of commerce.” In a first-hand
account of the events of September 11 th ,
2001, Father Madigan related that after
the initial shockwave that reverberated
through the streets, he and others started
“looking for the wounded and the dying
in order to be of some assistance.”
‘ it is hard for democracies
to find the right solutions
to terrorism while still
acting democratically.
This of course begs the
question of how you react
to people who are using
undemocratic tools if you
wish to continue acting
in democratic fashion.
’
François Lafond, German Marshall Fund
António Dias Farinha pointed out that
9/11 demands “an analysis of Al-Qaeda
ideology and a deeper understanding of
the precepts that earned it widespread
acceptance in so many different places and
countries, and that led it to plan a number
of attacks.” He also cautioned that it is
essential that we do not overgeneralize
the Arab world, thinking of it as one huge
breeding ground for radical fundamentalists
with a penchant for carrying out
atrocities like the one perpetrated by bin
Laden’s followers.
Esther Mucznik believes that “ the
Muslim world has been 9/11’s and bin
Laden’s main victim,” because “the terrorism
has also dramatically eroded the
image of the Muslim world, causing it to
become the frequent target of fear and
rejection.”
in THe puBLic opinion
And in THe mediA
The last conference of the series included
talks by Abderrahim Foukara, bureau chief
at Al Jazeera in Washington; Wally Dean
from the Committee of Concerned
Journalists; and reporter and professor
Adelino Gomes, all of whom discussed
the impact 9/11 had on public opinion.
FLAD President Maria de Lurdes
Rodrigues chaired the session, reiterating
the Foundation’s hope that the con-
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA
ference series on the September 11 th
attacks had contributed to “making dialogue,
reflection and logical thought
prevail over irrationality and violence.”
Abderrahim Foukara hit a sensitive
chord when he said he was not sure if
he agreed with the frequently stated
claim “that the 9/11 attacks have
changed the world irrevocably,” seeing
that “many of the world’s problems
remain the same; that’s if they haven’t
gotten even worse.”
Wally Dean stated that.“Journalism has
changed dramatically in the last decade
(…) But the change, I believe, is due to
other, much stronger forces, and would
have occurred whether the
attacks of 9/11 had happened
or not.”
Adelino Gomes gave an
overview of the extensive
9/11 media coverage
in Portugal. The daily
paper Público kept 9/11
on its front page
from September 12 to
December 30, while the
weekly news magazine
visão “put it on the cover
week after week – for
three straight months –
14 weeks.” The daily
9/11
A decade later
paper Correio da Manhã “came out with a
special 16-page special color edition
right on the 11 th . Even the sports paper
record contained an editorial pointing
out the need for a “more just world
where wealth might be distributed better”
so that “despair” could be avoided.
TV coverage was so intense that
Portuguese National TV “prolonged
its lunchtime news program to such
an extent that it lasted until the
7 p.m. news – 7 hours, 59 minutes and
52 seconds.”
*Undergraduate senior in the Communications Sciences Program
at the Universidade Nova and FLAD communications intern
‘ Al-qaeda and september 11th were engendered in a weird cultural
brew, cooked up in kitchens where
the ever-present ingredient was antiisraeli
haranguing: the only real
ingredient binding the tentative stew
that unifies the Arab world.
’
seixas da costa, Ambassador
during the talk “september 11 th : is the World Any different?” in the first row, the first two audience
members are Ambassador António monteiro and Literary Guild president José macedo e cunha.
9/11 Ten years Later
– The Book
The talks given during the lecture series
will soon come out in a book printed by
Almedina publishers. here is a preview of
the contents:
9/11 Ten yeArs LATer:
is THe WorLd Any diFFerenT?
• Mário Mesquita
Fundamentalist Archaism
and Technological Modernity
• Allan J. Katz
A Different World
• Francisco Seixas da Costa
September 11th in Contemporary History
THe WAr AGAinsT Terrorism
• Mitchell Cohen
The War on Terror
• Nuno Severiano Teixeira
Transnational Terrorism
AFGHAnisTAn And irAq
• Carlos Gaspar
Ten Years Later
• José Loureiro dos Santos
The United States and the Wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq
• François Lafond
Democracy and Terrorism
civiLiZATions, ideoLoGies,
And reLiGions
• António Rego
Common Strains in the Search
for the Transcendent
• António Dias Farinha
The Modern Political Development of Islam
• Esther Mucznik
9/11 and the “Clash of Civilizations”
• Kevin Madigan
A Voice from the Street
9/11 in THe puBLic opinion
And in THe mediA
• Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
Making Dialogue Prevail
• Abderrahim Foukara
Believing in the Existence of a Common
Civilizational Heritage
• Adelino Gomes
September 11th Revisited
• Walter C. Dean
Did 9/11 Change American Journalism?
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 17

When US Ambassador to Portugal Allan
Katz shared his opinion of the moment
that changed the course of US history, he
could never have imagined that little more
than a month later, September 11 th would
make the front pages again with the killing
of Bin Laden.
In Katz’s opinion, neither Al-Qaeda –
nor much less its leader – were the biggest
problems the Obama administration
was grappling with that day. Ten years is
a long time; and, as the ambassador
pointed out, other pressing realities were
besetting the world.
It was the thread that ran through the
presentations that the Luso-American
Foundation sponsored at Lisbon’s Literary
Guild on April 12 of 2011 in the first of
a cycle of six conferences marking the
10 th anniversary of the attack on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But if the world is a different place, it’s
all because of the day in 2001 that took
America by surprise. “We innocently
believed that an event like this couldn’t
happen to us,” recalled the ambassador,
who views the attacks as a rude wake-up
call as far as global security is concerned.
“Today, there is no place left in the world
that is safe from people determined to
cause harm.”
For Katz, it was a jarring wake-up call
that led leaders to take a tortuous and –
above all – misguided road. “Before, we
used to go to the airport and we didn’t
have to take off our shoes.” But now,
everything is changed. “America has
become “concerned with security in ways
that are not in keeping with the kind of
society that we used to enjoy.”
However, the ambassador believes that
18
9/11
A decade later
[ as told by Portuguese students of Journalism ]
All the lectures commemorating the 10 th anniversary of 9/11 were attended by students from a variety of portuguese universities
who sent in their accounts of the event. The best articles are featured on the next few pages.
A different world
“This was a day for the United States after which everything was different.”
By FáBio rodriGues AND João mirAndA*
the course the US has taken has had its
greatest impact on the international front.
The invasion of Afghanistan may have
been “the only possible answer;” but the
War in Iraq was posited on the flawed
intelligence provided by the Republican
administration. In Katz’s opinion, “If the
Democrats had been in power, the Iraq
War wouldn’t have happened, because
Obama would have sought a multilateral
solution.”
‘ “We innocently believed that
an event like this couldn’t happen
to us,” recalled the ambassador,
who views the attacks as a rude
wake-up call as far as global
security is concerned. “Today,
there is no place left in the
world that is safe from people
determined to cause harm.”
’
During the debate, Seixas da Costa, at
the time Portuguese representative to the
UN General Assembly and currently the
country’s ambassador to France, took the
idea a step further. For Seixas da Costa,
“the American administration had adopted
a conservative, aggressive posture,” that
was a complete break from the plan the
West had previously established. Though
events of September 11 th managed to
bring Moscow and Washington closer
together after 44 years of Cold War (Putin
agreed to the presence of American ships
in Russian waters) – they also fragmented
European support. “The European Union
was watchful, and there was still a lack of
efficiency insofar as relations between
Europe and the Arab countries were concerned,
owing to the failure of the
Barcelona Process,” the first serious
attempt to create an institutional link
between the European Union and the Arab
countries.
Seixas da Costa also believed
that the repercussions have
eventually detracted from the
symbolic weight of the attacks
on the World Trade Center. In a
certain way, “the trauma of
September 11 th has been countered
by the huge number of
Iraqi deaths and the human
rights violations.” Moreover, the
consequences of the conflict
have been contradictory: “Iran
has emerged out of the vacuum
in Iraq,” the Portuguese ambassador
asserted.
For Seixas da Costa, Iran and
Saudi Arabia are at the core of
what now should be the international
discussion on the Arab world.
As Portugal’s current ambassador in Paris
aptly commented, “No-one today breathes
a word about the dictatorship in Saudi
Arabia because of the oil.”
Allan Katz, however, is more optimistic
about the Muslim world. The events now
taking place in the Maghreb countries
and in Egypt and Syria are an issue of
human values: “What we’re talking about
is countries that have chosen democracy,”
Katz says. Even so, he does caution about
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA ‘
the possibility of an increase in radical
movements in the area since, after all,
“America is primarily concerned with the
issue of security.” Both Seixas da Costa
and Allan Katz agree that the actions of
9/11
A decade later
these radical movements are posited on
support for the Palestinian cause, aggression
against Israel, and – in the long run
– American complacency.
One must not think, however, that the
For Katz, America has become “concerned with security
in ways that are not in keeping with the kind of society
that we used to enjoy.”
’
Muslim faith on its own is responsible
for Arab extremism. Katz made this point
very clear. “The problem of the mosque
to be built around Ground Zero has
become an unfortunate issue. It wasn’t
the Muslim world that provoked the
attack,” the American Ambassador asserts
while adding, “We believe in religious
freedom and we’re tolerant, but not in
all situations.”
*Students of Communication and Journalism at Coimbra
University
For seixas da costa (currently portugal’s ambassador to France and in 2001, portuguese ambassador to the u.n.) “the repercussions of 9/11 have undermined the
symbolic weight of the World Trade center attacks.” To the left of seixas da costa: FLAd Administrator mário mesquita and us Ambassador to portugal Allan J. Katz.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 19

Mitchell Cohen, a political scientist and former co-editor of the quarterly Dissent,
and Nuno Severiano Teixeira, Portugal’s minister of the interior on 9/11 were asked
to examine “the war on terror” ten years after the tragedy. Chaired by Mário Mesquita,
member of FLAD’s executive Council, the session was moderated by Abigail Dressel,
representing the US embassy in Portugal.
Tuesday, September 11 th , 2001. That week
thousands of Portuguese students had
gone back to school and the country was
bracing itself for another nail-biting
match between the Benfica and Porto
soccer teams in Benfica’s old stomping
ground, the Estádio da Luz. The third
season of “Big Brother” had begun on
TV, and just a few months earlier, the
Hintze Ribeiro Bridge in northern
Portugal had collapsed, killing 59 and
sending António Guterres’ government
into a tailspin. In August, a plane departing
from Canada ran out of fuel and
made an emergency landing in Lajes, and
the country was about to bid farewell to
the old escudo and adopt the euro, the
single currency of the European Union.
‘ Terrorism is not an end in itself,
but a means to achieving another aim,
which is not always clear. (…) moreover,
combating the means does not
necessarily solve the problem posed
by the terrorists’ final objectives.
’
2001 – A Space odyssey, Kenneth Clarke’s
emblematic work and the 1968 movie
of the same name, had forecast that this
would be the year of tourist excursions
into outer space. Wikipedia made its
debut, as did the first Harry Potter movie,
20
9/11
A decade later
[ as told by Portuguese students of Journalism ]
A new concept of terrorism
By cáTiA soAres AND JoAnA isABeL cArreTo*
and Windows XP. In January, George W.
Bush had become 43 rd president of the
United States, after a disputed election
that saw most of the popular votes going
to Al Gore. The word “recession” was
being bandied about in the news. The
world was changing.
In New York City, the day broke with
clear skies. It was just another working
day; but for the US and the rest of the
world, nothing would ever be the same.
Four planes, two towers, the Pentagon,
more than three thousand deaths. The
numbers reveal nothing about the horror
of the images produced by the world’s
biggest terrorist attack – an event reminiscent
of the special effects you see in
Hollywood movies. The impact was not
only in the incalculable
loss of life, but
in the symbolism of
the act. In just a few
short hours, the economic,
political, and
military icons of the
world’s most powerful
nation were
attacked, and seen to
be vulnerable.
Even before the day
had ended, the strikes
had been attributed
to the Islamist terrorist organization,
Al-Qaeda, whose figurehead was its elusive
leader, Osama bin Laden. Bush
declared a “war on terror,” a widespread,
still ill-defined battle against a transnational
enemy.
A decade later, everything has changed.
There is a before and an after that is
marked in blood by the date of the fatal
strikes- 9/11/2001. The leader of Al-Qaeda
may be dead, but there is no end in sight
to the war against terrorism.
Since it came out of the blue, bin Laden’s
death to some extent threw a wrench into
the works. The Al-Qaeda leader and the
organization he created were to become
the key topics of the debate.
Mitchell Cohen said that the concept of
terrorism, like the concept of democracy,
is used indiscriminately nowadays. What
distinguishes it from other forms of violence
(such as war or crime) is that any
common citizen can become the target.
Nuno Severiano Teixeira added that 21 st
century terrorism aims to “maximize the
capacity to cause suffering.” The tremendous
impact of terrorist actions makes
them symbolic, and assures that they are
reported by the media worldwide, thus
creating an atmosphere of terror.
The issue can be viewed in the context
of means and ends. Terrorism is not an
end in itself, but a means to achieving
another aim, which is not always clear.
How far the terrorists are willing to go
and how far we can legitimately go to stop
them are issues that governments, countries,
and common citizens have not agreed
upon. Moreover, combating the means
does not necessarily solve the problem
posed by the terrorists’ final objectives.
Nuno Severiano Teixeira believes that
9/11 has changed both security and terrorism
by globalizing them. What the new
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA
concept of terrorism brings with it is not
only the willingness to kill, but a willingness
to die on the part of those who have
given their lives to a cause, and will gladly
take thousands of innocent victims along
with them. Portugal’s former minister discussed
what a shock the attacks had been
for him and indeed for everyone. At first,
when he had heard about the strike, he
considered finishing lunch before honoring
the prime minister’s request to go
immediately to the presidential palace at
Belém. Only after seeing the images on
TV, did he realize the impact the event
would have on the world.
Teixeira added that terrorism, which is an
age-old strategy in the history of humankind,
is now carried out by networks, using
a wide range of means and random targets.
Essential values have been called into question,
which has made it necessary to coordinate
domestic with external security. In
the name of these values, a number of freedoms
have been forfeited in the attempt to
halt a faceless enemy.
For Teixeira, the recent killing of bin
Laden is essentially symbolic, since the
9/11
A decade later
horizontal structure of Al-Qaeda will allow
it to continue functioning autonomously.
Mitchell Cohen agreed, while stating that
the leaders left to fill the vacuum do not
have bin Laden’s charisma. Now that he
is dead, Cohen adds, he will be deemed
a martyr, and a used as a symbol to inspire
future followers.
The American political essayist also
warns of possible reprisals by Al-Qaeda,
which has vowed to avenge its leader’s
death. But he also acknowledges that we
are unlikely to know what the future
holds in store: “They (the terrorists) don’t
care what I’m saying,” he wryly answered
one of the participants in the debate,
which was attended by students in
Communications and Political Science
from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
But what conceptual model is to be used
in dealing with terrorism: should it be
considered a criminal act to be dealt with
by the justice system or should a strategic
model based on warfare be used? Since the
war on terror will inevitably continue, such
issues must be examined and discussed.
Cohen also remarked that President
political science professor mitchell cohen (left) and nuno severiano Teixeira, professor at universidade nova,
exchange ideas at the conference on the War on Terrorism.
Obama’s approach has distinguished
between Al-Qaeda and the Arab and
Islamic world to which he “extended his
hand” in the now-famous speech he gave
in Cairo. And the American President’s
popularity soared during the days following
the execution of bin Laden.
However, the US political theorist also
believes that domestic issues and the nature
of the response to any retaliation can cloud
the path to Obama’s reelection. Recent
events and the way the administration deals
with this new brand of global, network
terrorism may end up being what determines
Barack Obama’s political future.
Bin Laden may be dead, but Al-Qaeda is
not. The most recognizable face behind
the war on terror has disappeared, but
what form this shapeless, dark war -
whose end is nowhere in sight – will take
is now the main issue. A decade after 9/11
the questions still outweigh the answers.
And in New York, the barren ground left
by the two towers is still as visible as on
that fateful September morning.
* Freshmen in Communications Science, at the Faculty of
Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 21

“September 11 th : Afghanistan and Iraq”
was the topic of the discussion at the
Literary Guild in Lisbon, in which the
future of the two countries was discussed
in the light of the fighting still taking
place there.
One of the speakers, retired General José
Loureiro dos Santos, characterized the two
successive wars as “a direct result of the
September 11 th attacks,” and then discussed
the different phases of how the
two conflicts unfolded.
The first phase began with the launch
of the war in Afghanistan, which was
sanctioned by NATO (involving article 5
of the Washington Treaty), with 14 out
of the 19 NATO allies sending armed
troops. Though acknowledging America’s
right to counter-attack after the strike
on the US, the General admits that, “The
will – and possibly the ability – weren’t
there to mold the occupied country into
something that conformed to the will
and desires of the United States.”
America also felt there was no need to
send in more troops, since the affair has
been resolved, and the Afghan army was
already undergoing training. In 2003,
the US invaded Iraq, claiming motives
that later proved to be non-existent: the
presence of weapons of mass destruction
and alleged Iraqi ties to Al-Qaeda. The
US’ main idea was to take up a more
central position in the zone, thereby
controlling the price of oil. The invasion
ended up lacking political support, since
it did not have serious NATO backing.
22
9/11
A decade later
[ as told by Portuguese students of Journalism ]
Afghanistan and iraq:
a global war on terrorism
The conference “September 11 th : Afghanistan and Iraq”
showed how an American affair turned into a global war.
By rAqueL uBAcH TrindAde*
Three weeks later, Iraq’s regime toppled,
and the insurrections began.
The second phase began with the dispersion
of the Taliban, primarily to Pakistan,
and the establishment of a post-invasion
political order. General Loureiro dos
Santos stated that, “American forces got
distracted by Iraq,” leaving no more forces
to send to Afghanistan. The result was
a return of the Taliban, who set a policy
in motion to repossess territories and
carry out terrorist strikes. Meanwhile, in
Iraq, the newly-empowered Shiite militias
gained formidable strength and, as
Loureiro dos Santos explained, “The Iraqi
security structure was totally ‘Shiite-ized’
‘ General José Loureiro dos santos,
characterized the two successive wars
as “a direct result of the september
11th attacks”.
’
with members of the militia.” The situation
changed radically; yet President Bush
had no way of reinforcing troops.
The third and fourth phases involved US
withdrawal from the occupied countries
and the end of the war. Both conflicts
naturally weakened the US both militarily
and economically. As dos Santos stated,
“Currently, the US is spending 10 billion
dollars a month on the wars.” At the end
of his talk, he added that the solution to
the Afghan debacle necessarily involves
Pakistan.
Carlos Gaspar, from the Portuguese
Institute of International Relations (IPRI),
centered his talk on four words: the Global
war on terrorism. This was at the heart of the
American policy that “during the last ten
years has focused on somewhat secondary
issues.” The country has paid dearly for
its policy choice, which led to a transatlantic
crisis and a legitimacy crisis, with
allied democracies opposing American
policy, all of which left the field open for
the emergence of
new international
powers.
Citing Philip H.
Gordon, Gaspar
said that America’s
ensuing intervent
i o n s a f t e r
September 11 th
could be described
as “the right war
and the wrong
war.” The right war
would be its response to the attacks on
the American targets: the war against
Al-Qaeda terrorism. The wrong war was
the Iraqi conflict: a move to democratize
the Middle East.
These somewhat atypical years ended
with the election of Barack Obama in
2008. Gaspar states that “Obama’s foreign
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA ‘
The political demise of Al-qaeda
and its separation from the Taliban
leaves the way open for direct
negotiations between the us
and the Taliban.
’
policy is aimed at undoing everything his
predecessor did.” Again citing Philip H.
Gordon, Gaspar said that the withdrawal
would have to take place one step at a
time: first Iraq, then Afghanistan.
The death of bin Laden has enabled a
three-pronged negotiation process to take
9/11
A decade later
place with Pakistan and
Iran in talks with India
(which has significant
relations with the US and
Iran), and then with China
(Pakistan’s main ally). The
political demise of
Al-Qaeda and its separation
from the Taliban
leaves the way open for
direct negotiations
between the US and the
Taliban.
“It is always difficult
for democracies to find democratic solutions
for combating terrorism, which does
not act democratically, “stated François
Lafond, the third speaker of the day.
LaFond stressed that what we are dealing
with is neither a struggle between blocs,
nor the attempt to conquer territories, but
the implementation of the capitalist system.
The responsibility for fighting terrorism
does not belong to one country
alone. He added that Sarkozy supports
Obama, and follows the same line as the
US president in the fight against international
terrorism.
Moderating the debate was FLAD deputy
director Rui Vallera, who opened the floor
to discussion after the talks, where issues
were raised concerning the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. Former FLAD president
Rui Machete, who chaired the session,
capped off the debate saying that he was
looking forward to the other upcoming
conferences in the series. Both this session
and the talks that followed certainly shed
light on a global question that only now
is slowly moving toward resolution.
*Student in the undergraduate program in Social and Cultural
Communications at the Catholic University of Portugal.
(from left to right) carlos Gaspar of the portuguese institute for international relations, Gen. Loureiro dos santos, former FLAd president rui machete,
François Lafond of the German marshall Fund, and rui vallêra from FLAd discuss the situation in Afghanistan and iraq.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 23

RUI OChÔA
FLAD’s deputy director Miguel Vaz kicked
off the session entitled “September 11 th :
Civilizations, Ideologies, and Religions.”
With the dim light of the rainy day coming
through the room’s large windows,
the speakers discussed the role fundamentalism
and religion played in the attacks
on the Twin Towers. The venue was a small
room, surrounded by heavy cabinets
24
9/11
A decade later
[ as told by Portuguese students of Journalism ]
God does not meddle in religion
By AnA curTinHAL*
topped by busts of Eça de Queiroz and
Camilo Castelo Branco.
In the first address of the day, Esther
Mucznik, vice president of the Jewish
Community of Lisbon and founder of the
Portuguese Association for Jewish Studies,
stated that “the 21 st century began on
September 11 th , 2001,” such was the
importance of the date. Mucznik dis-
cussed the instrumentalization of religion,
the growth of fundamentalist
forces, and religious extremism in which
politics and religion – indistinguishable
from each other – eventually lead to violence.
Indeed “The Muslim world has
been 9/11’s and bin Laden’s main victim,”
since the extremist faction is not
representative of all Arab or Muslim
Kevin madigan, pastor of st. peter’s at Ground Zero who narrowly escaped death on 9/11, shares his moving account of the events with the audience.
(from left to right) FLAd Administrator miguel vaz; esther mucznik, vice president of Lisbon’s Jewish community; canon António rego;
Father madigan; and António dias Farinha, professor of Arab and islamic studies.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

peoples. Moreover, Islam is compatible
with democracy, the speaker asserted,
citing Turkey, which has been successful
owing to the separation between the
political sphere and religious practice.
Turkey was also mentioned by Prof.
António Dias Farinha, director of the
Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at
the University of Lisbon. In his fascinating
historical overview of Islamic history, the
speaker discussed the factors that led up
to the attacks of September 11 th .
Pastor of St. Peter’s Church at Ground
9/11
A decade later
“The muslim world was 9/11’s main victim, since the extremist faction does not represent the people as a whole,”
was one of the opinions voiced during the lecture.
‘ islam is compatible with democracy, the speaker
asserted, citing Turkey, which has been successful
owing to the separation between the political sphere
and religious practice.
’
esther mucznik, vice president of Lisbon’s Jewish community
Zero, Father Kevin Madigan, moved the
audience with a wrenching account of his
experiences on that tragic day. Recalling
several incidents, he told of how a Jewish
physician had asked forgiveness for tearing
up some of the altar cloths to use as tourniquets;
the people who streamed out of
their houses to aid the wounded and give
them water; and the “financial spreadsheets
and family photos” that flew through the
air after the blast and fluttered down over
the streets. Father Madigan suggested we
look at the events in a different light, since
he had discovered that in many of its architectural
details, the World Trade Center had
been designed to imitate sites in Mecca.
He suggested that one of the possible motivations
had been “the smashing of a false
idol, this blasphemous representation of a
Mecca of commerce.” The priest ended by
stressing the kindness displayed by New
Yorkers who that day “found strength in
each other.”
The next-to-the-last speech struck a
positive chord – the hopeful prospect of
peace and understanding – with Father
António Rego asking “whether the distance
that separates us serves any purpose.”
Rego also ended on a light note
with a joke about a man who asked God
what the true religion was. The Supreme
Being answered, “I don’t know. I don’t
meddle in religion.”
*Student in the undergraduate program in Communication and
Cultural Sciences at Lusófona University.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 25
RUI OChÔA

The first speaker was Adelino Gomes,
who gave a brief outline of how the
media has handled the myriad challenges
the world has faced since September
11 th . Gomes, a journalist himself, com-
mented that in the media, “the beginning
and end of this ten-year cycle has been
marked by two symbolic milestones: the
images on our TV screens throughout the
whole of that fateful Tuesday, September
11, and the social networks, particularly
the 140 characters in the tweets sent out
by an anonymous citizen of Abbotabad,
in which the world learned of the strike
that took out bin Laden.”
According to Gomes, the traditional
26
FLAD President Maria de Lurdes rodrigues began the last of five conferences
on September 11 th , stressing that the debate series had been a way
for the Foundation to “affirm its desire and its will to foster dialogue, reflection,
and logical thinking over senseless violence, while favoring ideas and rationality
in political debate, thereby promoting democracy.”
‘ The traditional media are going
through “a dramatic crisis” not only
owing to the attraction of the internet
and breakthrough technology, but
because a number of newspapers and
journalists have lost their credibility.
’
Adelino Gomes
9/11
A decade later
[ as told by Portuguese students of Journalism ]
september 11 th as seen by the press
By cATArinA mArTins*
media are going through “a dramatic
crisis” not only owing to the attraction
of the Internet and breakthrough technology,
but because a number of newspapers
and journalists have lost their
credibility. Despite the
trend, and commenting
on the Portuguese
media, Gomes praised
the way a few print
media outlets covered
the events of
September 11 th , 2001.
According to the
speaker, Portuguese
publications like the
newspaper Público and
the magazine visão rallied
a major portion
of their resources and
manpower to offer the
public a wide range of
viewpoints on the
events of the day.
Adelino Gomes perceived
the same “journalistic
drive” in the coverage of the
revolts throughout the Arab world earlier
this year. But, he hastens to add, “after the
fall of Ben Ali, Mubarak’s resignation, and
since Khadafi halted the advance of rebel
forces, we have stopped having eyes and
ears in the field.”
At this moment the buzzword is the
“next journalism,” and Adelino Gomes
thinks it is essential for “users to have a
critical perspective,” so that the potential
of the Internet as a transformative force
in journalism can be properly exploited.
Users must have the wherewithal to
demand “journalism that provides information
that has been examined, researched,
organized, corroborated, analyzed, and
presented in a credible manner.”
sepTemBer 11 TH cHAnGed AmericA,
BuT noT AmericAn JournALism
“But did the attacks or the reaction to
them change the processes or content of
the news media in any meaningful way,?”
asked Wally Dean, American journalist and
director of the Committee of Concerned
Journalists. His answer was to the point:
“not much.”
Dean pointed out that the public often
likens the impact of the 2001 terrorist
attacks to that of Pearl Harbor or the
Kennedy assassination. The Japanese strike
on the US base in the Pacific rallied
American families around the radio set.
Kennedy’s death left the country glued to
the TV, and turned legendary CBS anchor
Walter Cronkite into the most trusted man
in America. Yet the tragedy of September
11 th has not sparked any similarly significant
change in the way news is covered.
“More powerful forces, including deeply
ingrained opinions about the audience
and the disruptive effects of new technologies,
have simply been too strong.
9/11 may have changed America. But it
did little to change American journalism,”
Dean observes.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

RUI OChÔA
A sHAred civiLiZATionAL HeriTAGe
Abderrahim Foukara, Aljazeera’s
Washington, DC bureau chief, claimed that
he was not entirely convinced that
September 11 th had changed the world
irrevocably. Encouraged by recent events
in the Muslim world, the Moroccan
reporter reminded his listeners that the
region is going through a unique period
in its history: a period in which both
Arabs and non-Arabs are fighting for freedom
and dignity: values – he stated – that
Americans understand well.
As Foukara stated, “The mostly peaceful
and extremely creative manner in which
millions of Egyptians have recently tried
to claim back their political destiny and
how millions of Americans received and
celebrated that message cannot be glossed
over as nothing more than a comma in
the long text of history.”
9/11
A decade later
The Aljazeera reporter believed that in
spite of September 11 th and the furor
over its causes and consequences, “we,
as human beings, have a rare historic
opportunity here to pause, reflect on
the future, and go back to believing in
the existence of a common civilizational
heritage, even at a time when the
sound of gunfire and explosions lure us
in the opposite direction.”
The visiting journalist from Morocco
then expressed his happiness over being
in Portugal, and stated that he was convinced
that the people in the Middle
East and North Africa who were spearheading
the “Arab Spring” would turn
their attentions to the way Portugal and
Spain had made their transitions to
democracy.
*Freshman in Journalism at the Lisbon Polytechnic Institute.
‘ encouraged by recent
events in the muslim
world, the moroccan
reporter [Abderrahim
Foukara] reminded his
listeners that the region
is going through a unique
period in its history:
a period in which both
Arabs and non-Arabs
are fighting for freedom
and dignity: values – he
stated – that Americans
understand well.
’
during the conference series, a photo exhibit was held of new york’s most iconic structures, loaned by the us embassy in Lisbon.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 27

RUI OChÔA
exhibition: “Transitions: Honoring
the past, moving Ahead”
Works from FLAd’s art collection point the way toward the post-9/11 future
28
9/11
A decade later
Inaugurated on September 11 th , 2011, the exhibition
“Transitions: Honoring the Past, Moving Ahead” marked the passage of 10 years
since the 9/11 tragedy.
By AnA mAriA siLvA*
The opening ceremony of the exhibition held by FLAd in cooperation with the us embassy.
(from left to right) FLAd president maria de Lurdes rodrigues; Allan Katz, us Ambassador to portugal; portuguese Foreign minister paulo portas;
and Luís santos Ferro, administrator of the Arpad szenes-vieira da silva Foundation.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

“Today we are marking the 10 th anniversary
of the September 11 th tragedy.
But with the inauguration of the exhibition
“Transitions: Honoring the Past,
Moving Ahead” we are not only honoring
the victims of terrorism, but resolutely
looking toward the future in the
hope that the coming decade will be as
vibrant and full of hope as the works
you see displayed here today.”
With these words, US Ambassador
Allan Katz inaugurated the exhibition
“Transitions: Honoring the Past, Moving
Ahead,” an initiative the US Embassy
sponsored in conjunction with the
Luso-American Foundation and the
Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation
(FASVS).
With the purpose of commemorating
the 10 th anniversary of 9/11, the show
exclusively featured works from the
FLAD art collection and included works
by Portuguese artists Álvaro Lapa,
Fernando Calhau, Joaquim Bravo, and
José Pedro Croft and American sculptor
Joel Shapiro.
With remembrance and transition as
its central themes, the show invited
viewers to reflect on the transformations
that the world has undergone since
September 11 th , 2001: how people have
changed in the way they view the world
and their future. Billed as a tribute to
the past, the exhibition encouraged
viewers to adopt a new way of looking
at the future – an idea posed by FLAD’s
president Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
when she told the audience, “Encouraging
remembrance today is indispensable if
we are to promote understanding of the
tragic events we are recalling here. It is
what we need to do if we are to move
forward and build a future that is more
than just our fate.”
Given the motives behind the initiative
and its highly symbolic nature, the
opening session was also attended by
Paulo Portas, the Portuguese foreign
minister; Álvaro Pereira, the minister of
the economy, and a number of other
dignitaries who spoke about the relevance
of the tribute and the impact that
9/11 has had on world governance.
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues also asserted
that today’s tribute was “a way of
celebrating the values of freedom and
universalism in the construction of a
common world.” Luís dos Santos Ferro,
administrator of the FASVS, highlighted
the symbolic nature of the exhibition
and the date it honored. “We are celebrating
life and creation, against death,
9/11
A decade later
(from left to right) João silvério, curator of the FLAd art collection;
Allan Katz, us Ambassador to portugal; and FLAd program officer paula vicente.
‘ With remembrance and transition as its central
themes, the show invited viewers to reflect on the
transformations that the world has undergone since
september 11th , 2001: how people have changed
in the way they view the world and their future.
’
violence, and destruction,” Ferro stated.
“The regenerative nature of art as
opposed to the inert ashes of disaster.
Comradeship and tolerance in an environment
of freedom, instead of fanaticism
and oppression. (…) The works
chosen from the Luso-American
Foundation collection confer upon this
mournful date a bit of the clear, restorative,
morning light that art bears.”
Featured were a wide range of works
from the FLAD art collection by Joaquim
Bravo, Fernando Calhau, José Pedro
Croft, Álvaro Lapa, and Joel Shapiro.
The works were selected by João
Silvério, curator of the Luso-American
Foundation’s collection and commissioner
of the exhibition.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 29
* LPM
RUI OChÔA

30
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Why can't we cross the line?
Although Portugal and the US are historical allies, with an unshakable friendship
that is displayed in ever-widening and increasingly diversified cooperation,
we must realize we are a far cry from having reached our vast cooperative potential
when it comes to public law enforcement policy.
Over the last decade, the core issue in
the United States has been defense and
homeland security. The public authorities
wish to maintain the nation’s status
as a “protective state,” since they have
seen their powers diminished, and since
there are few alternatives left for affirmation
as a guarantor of the public
good, where security is one of the strongest
institutional pillars.
By rAqueL duque* AND eduArdo pereirA correiA**
Security, as a common good, is brought
to the public’s attention and guaranteed
by means of a set of social conventions
called “security measures.” Although
there have been several changes in the
security paradigm since the Peace of
Westphalia, security policies cannot currently
be considered repressive measures,
but a system that has been
integrated and optimized over the years,
involving complex instruments of prevention,
justice, and social inclusion.
Therefore, if we admit that public order
is based on peace and tranquility, in line
with justice and the laws that govern
the rule of law, then we arrive at the
concept of public safety / security.
In 1974, Portugal affirmed before the
rest of the world that it was a state
undergoing democratic consolidation.
new concepts such as community policing and problem-oriented policing have been utilized to guarantee rapid first response.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
D.R.

Yet many years would pass before a truly
democratic spirit would be implemented
within the country’s bureaucratic
structure and its law enforcement institutions.
When it joined the European
Economic Community in 1986, the need
arose for the country to adapt its security
forces to current conditions, in
accordance with the heightened demands
and security requirements of the EEC.
However, only in the 1990s did Portugal
adopt security policies that truly changed
law enforcement realities, with decisive
organizational changes to what we today
call our security force.
Portugal’s law enforcement model was
strongly influenced by the French dual
system which had a Police Nationale and a
Gendarmerie Nationale, which interacted on
a permanent basis with other law enforcement
bodies. Portugal established a civil
security force (the PSP – the Public
Security Police) and
one of a military
nature (the GNR –
National Republican
Guard). Although the
topic has been wide-
ly discussed, it is
generally thought
that this dual system,
which is based on
the principle of
complementarity, can
also produce a negative
result: that of
competition and
duplication of functions,
an outcome
opposite from the
one desired.
Underlying the dual system was the
belief, held for many years, that a single
police force could acquire excessive powers
and hamper the normal functioning
of democratic institutions. However, to
cite just one example, Austria kept the
dual system until 2005, with a complex
police network. The system inevitably
displayed myriad and abundant dysfunctions
until, to a large degree, the country
adopted changes based on the American
model, calling for a more concentrated
approach to law enforcement.
In Portugal, there has been some
restructuring of security forces, namely
an upgrading of security strategies. It is
safe to say that law enforcement policy
in Portugal has evolved along two lines:
territorial policing (Welsh influence),
and community policing (other Englishspeaking
countries). However, function-
poLicy
ality issues such as the complexity of
the computer systems required, incompatibility
among the communications
systems, nationwide duplication of noncomplementary
security and investigative
forces, continue to pose difficulties
when it comes to the interaction of the
two law-enforcement bodies in Portugal
(PSP and GNR).
The organization of police institutions
underwent various restructuring efforts,
primarily in the field of officer training
and the training of police officials.
However, our reality still contrasts
sharply with that of the US, where periodic
rounds of selecting applicants are
rare, and a provenly effective hiring
policy is used whereby hirees are taken
from open, almost-ongoing programs
(e.g. LAPD Hiring), and where the age
cut-off is much later for non-police personnel
than in Portugal.
‘ While portugal was facing the
understandable difficulties arising
out of the revolutionary process of
democratization, the us was putting
into practice the results of studies
dealing with security policy.
’
While Portugal was facing the understandable
difficulties arising out of the
revolutionary process of democratization,
the US was putting into practice
the results of studies dealing with security
policy. To overcome certain limitations,
new concepts arose such as
community policing and problem-oriented
policing, to cater to the need for
rapid response, while a law enforcement
approach aimed at dealing with social
and community issues – instead of only
criminal activity – was being enacted.
Methods of investigation were diversified
in an attempt to correct recurring
problems; and most importantly, the
active participation of the community
was solicited in ongoing assessment initiatives
to evaluate police performance.
Since the 1980s, several countries such
as the US, Canada, Australia, and some
of the Scandinavian countries have come
out with programs that have become an
integral part of public law enforcement
policies. These initiatives have been
applied to a wide range of problems
involving crime and disruptions in the
public order, and have led to the transformation
of organizations. These programs
center on problem-solving, the
importance of ongoing assessment, the
creation of workable solutions, and the
need to dovetail national strategies with
those of other countries.
The US uses a dynamic model of assessment
to rigorously create and evaluate
effective responses (SARA – Scanning,
Analysis, Response, and Assessment). The
model uses a complex system of identifying
the consequences of a problem
for the community and the police,
determining how frequently the problem
occurs, understanding the events
and conditions that precede and accompany
the problem, identifying relevant
data to be collected, carrying out an
assessment, and building qualitative and
quantitative databases of specific objectives.
The SARA model has so far been
ignored by the police statistics bureaucracy
of Southern Europe. This significant
rebuff cannot be explained away as
a situationist political or governmental
problem; it is a structural issue involving
the dynamics of influence and international
cooperation.
Although Portugal and the US are historical
allies, with an unshakable friendship
that is displayed in ever-widening
and increasingly diversified cooperation,
we must realize we are a far cry from
having reached our vast cooperative
potential when it comes to public law
enforcement policy. It is important for
us to cross the imaginary line that separates
us, stepping up discussion and
cooperation, based on the Cooperation
and Defense Agreement the US and
Portugal signed in 1995, which still
stands as the institutional framework of
our mutual relationship. Portugal must
strengthen its ties with the other side of
the Atlantic, adopting reinvigorated security
policies that can efficiently respond
to the challenges and threats faced by
domestic security today. Yet with all the
facts on the table, the question remains:
Why can’t we cross the line?
* Politologist and researcher at the Political observatory
of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
** Politologist and professor at the Higher Institute of
Police Sciences and Domestic Security
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 31

This year’s release of the results of
Transatlantic Trends corresponded with commemorations
of the 10 th anniversary of
9/11, a topic included in the survey.
Since 2002, the survey has included a
series of questions about terrorism and
world governance in order to obtain a
better perspective of national defense and
the fight against terrorism.
This year’s survey outcomes were not
especially controversial, however,
Portugal’s responses in terms of numbers
do shed light on some interesting issues
(see insert). What is most noteworthy
about the results of this year are a number
of strong positions, taken by certain
countries, which had not previously been
this evident in other global and comparative
contexts.
AmericA’s LeAdersHip
The results of the 2011 international
survey, which is carried out in Turkey, 12
member states of the European Union,
and the United States, show that 54% of
the respondents from the EU want the
US to play a strong leadership role in
major global issues. The strongest support
for America’s global role came from the
Americans themselves, with 85% of those
queried clearly responding that they
wanted their country to have a leadership
position. And, in line with the results
from 2010, America’s popularity remains
high on both sides of the Atlantic. In the
EU, 72% of those questioned view the
US favorably, as do 83% of Americans
themselves, and only 30% of the Turkish
respondents.
32
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Transatlantic Trends 2011
Asia gains ground
in us public opinion
The Luso-American Foundation recently came out with the results of the 2011
Transatlantic Trends survey, a multi-nation poll that reveals how europeans
and Americans view the world. The initiative, led by the German Marshall Fund,
covers 24 countries and has its finger on the pulse of public opinion when it comes
to the most pressing issues in today’s world.
By AnA mAriA siLvA*
The US led by President Barack Obama
continues to enjoy the support of the
EU, seeing that 73% of those interviewed
approve of the way the US president has
handled the fight against international
terrorism. This figure is complemented
by the 68% approval rate from the pool
of Americans questioned, which is a
considerable increase in relation to
2009. However, it is evident that there
is a great divide between the two sides
of the Atlantic when it comes to the
issue of whether war is necessary to
obtain justice, a concept 75% of the
Americans agree with as opposed to
33% of the Europeans.
cHinA’s imAGe on THe rise
AmonG AmericAn youTH
The US is now displaying a new viewpoint
with regard to the world scene:
51% of those polled responded that Asia
(particularly China and Japan) had been
more relevant to their national interests
than Europe. Albeit just slightly more
than a majority, this figure signals a
turn-about in American public opinion
which in turn may spark changes in
attitude or alterations in the strategic
importance of the EU to the US.
It should be stressed, however, that this
favorable bent in relation to Asia was
noted primarily among American youth:
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

close to three out of five Americans (59%)
aged 18 to 24 have a favorable opinion
of China, a figure that is considerably
lower among the other age groups (33%
of 45 to 54 year-olds and 37% of 55 to
64 year-olds). Age disparities are even
more evident when it comes to issues of
US national interest, where 66% of the
young people polled (18 to 24 age group)
recognized Asian countries such as China,
Japan, and South Korea as more important
than the EU countries (17%) in terms of
US national interests.
Still, Europeans show a greater tendency
to believe that China is more of
an economic opportunity than a threat
– contrary to the opinion held in the US,
where 63% of those questioned view
China as an economic threat and where
there is a greater propensity to view the
Asian giant as a military threat than in
Europe.
nATo is sTiLL essenTiAL
For TrAnsATLAnTic securiTy
On security issues, Americans and
Europeans have converging opinions:
62% of those interviewed in the US and
the EU feel that NATO is indispensable,
and 66% believe that the troops in
Afghanistan should either be reduced or
withdrawn totally.
Notably, this year, for the first time,
Americans have displayed considerable pessimism
about the prospect of stability in
Afghanistan (56% are pessimistic). Sixtysix
percent of Europeans are pessimistic,
a figure that has remained constant for a
few years.
poLicy
economic crisis:
reducTion in spendinG
And THe impAcT oF THe euro
Opinions on the economic crisis on both
sides of the Atlantic converge. With the austerity
measures underway in a number of
countries, close to 50% of Europeans polled
prefer to see cuts in spending, as do 61%
of Americans who prefer reductions in
spending over other austerity options.
At this point, it is worth noting that
67% of the Europeans questioned believe
that being an EU member is “good for
the economy,” while only 40% of those
polled in the Euro Zone believe that adoption
of the single currency was good for
their country’s economy. The spill-over
from these results is reflected in the fact
that 56% of those queried in the EU do
not approve of the way the economy is
being handled in their countries.
The results of the poll are clear when it
comes to the effects of the crisis: 82% of
Americans say that they have been personally
affected by the economic crisis, a 7%
rise over last year. The figure is lower in
the EU where 61% stated that their status
has remained stable since last year.
The Transatlantic Trends Survey, which annually
taps into public opinion worldwide,
has enabled experts to determine behavioral
patterns and predict trends in strategy
regarding the current political,
economic, and social scene in the world
today. And although, as Craig Kennedy of
the German Marshall Fund asserted in a
communiqué regarding the 2011 poll,
“There is an awareness on both sides of
the Atlantic that the US and the EU share
common, fundamental values,” the results
point to “a potential in-depth change in
transatlantic relations.”
*LPM
Portuguese public opinion supports Obama
Close to a thousand Portuguese were polled
in the international survey, which was
conducted with FLAD backing. The Portuguese
results show that in a number of instances,
Portuguese responses are in line with those
culled in the rest of Europe.
There are issues, however, where Portugal
came out either higher or lower in
relation to the country’s poll partners in
the rest of the EU. When it comes to
Obama’s approval rating in managing
international policy, Portugal came out
higher than all the other countries polled.
Eighty‑two percent of Portuguese approve
of the American president’s handing of
international affairs. Noteworthy as well
is Portugal’s response to Turkey’s joining
the EU, in which 56% of Portuguese
respondents answered that the idea was
neither good nor bad – the highest
percentage registered among all the
countries polled and a figure that is in
line with the 52% among Portuguese
respondents who have a favorable
opinion of Turkey (an 11‑point increase
from 2010).
With regard to new, emerging world powers,
Portugal came out clearly favorable in its
opinion of Brazil (85% favorability – the
highest of all the countries polled). Opinions
of China and India in Portugal yielded 37%
and 26%, respectively when it came to
unfavorable opinions of these emerging
economic powers, figures lower than those
registered for 2010.
As far as the economy is concerned, 80%
of Portuguese think that the Portuguese
government should reduce spending in
order to reduce the deficit, which once
again, is the lowest percentage in this
category among all the countries polled.
Only 6% are of the opinion that the
government ought to increase spending, and
10% that the country should increase
defense spending, although Portugal
maintains the lowest percentage of support
for defense spending – on a par with that
of Spain and Slovakia.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 33

ChRIS GRAEME
In the nationwide political arena, Dean
again gained the spotlight as a fundraiser
for President Obama, promoting the innovative
use of the Internet and Facebook
as campaign tools. He believes that the
Obama administration’s seemingly shaky
stance on defense and security has now
become a reelection trump card because
of the strike that killed the head of
Al-Qaeda.
[Parallel] Do you think the Democratic Party is
prepared and organized to get President Obama
re-elected?
34
poLicy
Howard dean
The president is the best campaign
manager in the us
“Bin Laden’s death helped obama,” stated Howard Dean,
a prominent member of the Democratic Party, who left the medical profession to become
governor of vermont. As governor, he implemented an innovative healthcare program
and balanced the state’s budget.
By sArA pinA AND cHArLes BucHAnAn*
[Howard Dean] I think they’re very well
prepared. As you know, we have a
Democratic president, and it is the president
who takes over the party organization.
In this case, the President is the best
campaign manager in the US today, and
he is going be running the reelection network.
So I think we are in very good shape
in terms of the mechanics of winning an
election.
[P] How about the elements of the strategy?
[HD] We are going be dealing with jobs
and job creation. That’s what the American
FLAd's charles Buchanan on the left with Howard dean at the luncheon venue of the American club of Lisbon.
people want to hear about. Frankly, I
think the American people have been
scared by some of the experiments that
they’ve seen in the Tea Party. They expected
and voted for someone who’d turn
the budget around, but they won’t accept
attacks on working Americans, and you’ve
seen that all across the country, in Ohio,
Florida, and a lot of states, Pennsylvania
is another one.
‘ The election is going
to be won among
independents.
’
[P] So, would you say that the Tea Party will help
the Democratic Party take votes away from the
Republicans?
[HD] They’re an advantage to the
Republicans because they all mobilize
the vote. But they scare the independents,
and that’s where the election is
going to be won, among the independents.
[P] How will The 50 State Organization that you
created help the Democrats win in conservative
states?
[HD] That will all depend on what the
President wants to do. But basically, when
I was in the Democratic National
Committee, we had a strategy for every
single state. We put money into every
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

ChRIS GRAEME
single state, to make sure that they were
up-to-date, and had trained people on the
ground. And I think that it helped expand
the number of states in which the
Democrats could compete.
[P] What about the power of the Internet?
[HD] The Internet works for both sides.
The Republicans have been doing a good
job duplicating what we’ll be doing on
the Internet, just as I duplicated some
things that the Republicans were doing
well in 2004 when I became chairman.
So both sides will use the Internet.
[P] But you instituted intensive use of the Internet.
Why did you choose this method?
[HD] We learned from the young people
who were doing it. Our ability to organize
a campaign logically based on the Internet,
was a result of our observing what young
people were doing, and how they consulted
the Internet.
[P] The country’s youth and the ethnic minorities
are very powerful (according to Obama). Don’t
you think it will be a huge challenge to mobilize
them again?
[HD] That is the challenge! The President
won because he had a huge outpouring,
particularly among the young people, and
that has to be duplicated. And it’s not
going to be easy.
[P] Portugal is in crisis because of its budget. You
balanced Vermont’s state budget without increasing
income taxes. What tips would you give our
country?
poLicy
[HD] I think Prime Minister Sócrates
began to address the problem long
before some of the other countries. Early
president obama won because of a huge wave of support,
which Howard dean hopes is repeated.
‘ The crisis: there was
some very, very bad
behavior on the part
of international banks.
on they made changes in the retirement
age; they made changes in public wages,
so Portugal is in much better shape than
Ireland and Greece for example.
Nevertheless, it’s a very small country,
and of course, it is going to get buffeted.
Portugal will have to do what all
those other places have to do: cut down.
But you can’t cut too much or too fast,
because then you hurt the economy
rather than help it. But there’s no question
that in the West – both in Europe
and US – there has been excessive spending;
and, of course, there was some very,
very bad behavior on the part of international
banks. We’re not talking about
Portuguese banks, we’re talking about
big multinational banks. Some of these
problems have nothing to do with
Portugal. They have to do with big multinational
banks speculating and betting
on the stock markets. And then there’s
the rating companies of course…
*with André Sebastião
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 35
ChRIS GRAEME
’
DR

Paraded before our eyes is humanity’s best
and worst: the colonization of America and
the period of slavery; the country’s independence
and the decimation of the native
population; its scientific and technological
achievements and the atom bomb. Since
the US emerged as one of the world’s
mightiest powers, it has been at the forefront
of modern history’s main events.
The exhibition – which has a wealth of
artifacts and outsized collection pieces
such as combat vehicles and a chunk of
the Berlin Wall – is divided into four
“movements.”
The first of these recounts the history
of “European America,” i.e. the era (1620-
1783) when Europeans crossed the
Atlantic en route to that huge, unknown
and uncharted continent 20 times the size
of Western Europe. Most of them left from
England, France, and Spain. Yet there were
Portuguese who left for America too,
South America. It is estimated that between
1600 and 1760, close to a million
Portuguese left for Brazil.
Gradually, the European powers conquered
the vast continent with the British ending
up with the lion’s share of the settlement
mosaic. On the ideological front, European
philosophers viewed this “brave new world”
as a testing ground for their ideas. The same
ideas were to take hold in the Old Continent
as well, spawning the French Revolution
(1789). “Although Locke and Montesquieu
dictated- so to speak – the Constitution to
the Americans, Jefferson helped the French
write their own Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen,” the exhibition
catalogue asserts.
By the end of this first “movement,” the
United States had gained its independence.
36
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America: it’s also our history
It’s a love story in four acts. As with all love stories, there has been passion, failed
encounters, misunderstanding, scuffles, and outbreaks of fury, but most of all, intense
mutual influence. That’s how the relationship between the US and europe has gone,
and how it is portrayed in the exhibition America – It’s Also Our History,
an initiative of the Belgian presidency of the european Union.
By susAnA ALmeidA riBeiro
PhOTOGRAPhy By TemporA
With the 4 th of July, 1776, America had
entered a new era dubbed “American
America.” Act Two, which covers 1783 to
1917, deals with the saga of those Europeans
who left their hunger-plagued, socially
static continent – where a cobbler could
never aspire to becoming a member of the
upper class – to figuratively embrace the
Statue of Liberty, an 1886 gift of France to
the American people. “Thus, a continentsized
nation is born,” the catalogue states.
As the colonists settled throughout
America’s vast territory, the Native
American population was decimated.
When the first settlers arrived in what is
now the United States, it is estimated that
there were between 4 and 12 million
Native Americans living there. By the year
1900, there were a mere 250 thousand.
The Third Movement begins with the First
World War. It is the epoch of “American
Europe,” when the Americans returned to
Europe for the first time during the Great
War, then again During World War II, to
help the Europeans break free from the
stranglehold of dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the US was setting the Old
Continent ablaze with its intoxicating jazz
rhythms and the glamour of Hollywood’s
star system. Even during the direst throes
of the Great Depression, the US managed to
make its mark in almost every field. The
country became a safe haven for some of
the greatest minds of our time such as Albert
in Brussels: An exhibition on the united states in three movements.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

poLicy
The period of 1989 to today marks the last movement in this extraordinarily evocative exhibition.
Einstein and Claude Lèvi-Strauss. After
Hitler’s defeat and the bombs over Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, the United States would
emerge, once and for all, as the greatest
power in the world, a power that would
continue to grow and become the nemesis
of its arch-rival, the Soviet Union.
Mirroring Germany, the world was divided
into two blocs: East and West. We have
now come to the Cold War era (symbolically
portrayed in the exhibition by a chess
table), and Post-War America. The US is
now a prosperous nation with wealthy
suburbs, TVs and electrical appliances, a car
in every garage, and a juke box in every
diner. It’s the golden age of rock n’roll,
Elvis, and later Saturday Night Fever, and things
that go better with Coke. A decade later,
Madonna, Michael Jackson, microwaves,
video games, eT, and the fall of the Berlin
Wall would take the world by storm.
It was no longer a bi-polar world. As it
fell, the Iron Curtain buried the hammer
and sickle. The period of 1989 until today
marks the last “movement” of this extraordinary
exhibition in which both Europe and
America affirm their positions and attempt
to redefine their relationship. The US is now
enjoying its status as the world’s overarching
superpower, a nation with military, economic,
and cultural primacy in a post-September
11 th world, but one that has begun
to spy a new economic rival on the horizon:
China. Europe, on the other hand, continues
on its path towards reunification and union,
while still licking the wounds it sustained
during the Balkan War.
Today the United States and Europe are
both partners and allies. At the beginning,
their destinies were intertwined. They still
are. The proof is the grave financial crisis,
which started on the other side of the
Atlantic, and generated waves that crossed
the Pond, producing effects that are still
visible …especially in Portugal.
The exhibition ends as the settlers’ great
adventure began: with the sea. The last
hall of the show has literally been turned
into a beach to mark the Atlantic nature
of the relationship between Europe and
the US. It is a relationship that, like the
‘ The period of 1989 until today
marks the last “movement”
of this extraordinary exhibition
in which both europe and
America affirm their positions
and attempt to redefine
their relationship.
’
tides, has ebbed and flowed over the centuries,
a relationship of mutual influences,
of rivalry, affection, and age-old
fascination.
mirroring Germany, the world was divided into two blocs: east and West.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 37

RUI OChÔA
At a small, intimate session presided over
by Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues and moderated
by Mário Mesquita, historian José
Medeiros Ferreira of the University of Lisbon
unveiled FLAD’s newest publication, Parallel
republics: Portugal and the United States of America.
The book features presentations by
Portuguese and American historians who
participated in a colloquium of the same
name that FLAD held to commemorate the
centennial of the Portuguese Republic.
Harvard University’s Alexander Keyssar,
António Reis from the New University of
Lisbon, Horst Mewes from the University
38
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We need to talk about
the republic without just dealing
with the religious issue
The relationship between church and state has been one of the central issues when
analyzing Portugal’s 1 st republic. But, in the opinion of historian José Medeiros Ferreira,
analysts should also examine the impact the institutionalization of an intentionally
secular state has had on society. “We need to talk about the republic without just
focusing on the religious issue,” he said, challenging his listeners at the launching
of Parallel Republics: Portugal and the United States of America.
By cArLA mArTins
of Colorado, Fernando Catroga, professor
at Coimbra University, and José Esteves
Pereira from the New University of Lisbon,
rose to the “innovative challenge” and took
the “calculated risk” – in the worlds of
Mário Mesquita in the book’s introduction
– of carrying out a comparative analysis of
the Portuguese and American Revolutions.
The relations between church and state
in the transition to republicanism was the
focus of the first part of Ferreira’s observations.
As the historian pointed out, America
rejected the Cromwellian experience and
embraced a set of ethics inspired by the
“We need to talk about the republic without placing the religious issue at the center of the debate,”
affirmed José medeiros Ferreira, who is flanked by FLAd Administrator mario mesquita and
the president of the Foundation’s executive council, maria de Lurdes rodrigues.
republican period of Roman civilization.
The other pertinent influence was, of
course, the principle of tolerance outlined
by John Locke, a principle that was meant
to act as a beacon to the secularization of
the political sphere in relation to the religious.
The drafters of the American constitution
had indeed taken deep “draughts”
from the fountain of the Enlightenment.
As António Reis states, “ I like to say that
the Portuguese republicans were the children
of positivism and grandchildren of
the Enlightenment, while the founders of
the American Republic were first-generation
offspring of the Enlightenment.”
100 yeArs LATer:
A more recepTive cHurcH
The United States was the first country to
set up a modern republic and the first
system separating church from state,
which was “very important because it
contradicted the idea that there had to be
a state religion.”
“The process had its peculiarities,” Mário
Mesquita observed at the book presentation.
In the US, secularization was carried
out “within a deist framework, though
one that called upon a God devoid of any
content that might form a link to a concrete
religion.” As Fernando Catroga
observed, “While all laicity is secularization,
not all secularization is (or was)
laicity or especially a laicism.”
Portugal’s law separating church and state
was different from that of the US and
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

France. The period of the constitutional
monarchy had demonstrated a degree of
openness, with article 6 of the Constitutional
Charter allowing foreigners to practice
other religions as long as their places of
worship did not resemble temples. The
1910 Revolution, however, introduced the
concept of the secular state and laicism, in
effect putting an end to the confessional
state and instituting religious freedom by
means of the law separating church and
state.
In Portugal, the anti-clericalism of the
republicans clashed with a Catholic Church
– still shaken by the annexation of the
Pontificate States and by the laicism of the
3 rd French Republic – but dogmatic nonetheless
and obdurate to republican ideals
and institutions to a degree that later on,
many Portuguese Catholics refused to take
part in republican institutions (though this
was not the way Salazar saw it).
“After April 25, 1974 we find not only
political protagonists who had learned the
lessons of the 1 st Republic, but a Catholic
Church that is totally different, a result of
Vatican II, more receptive to understanding
democratic principles and the separation of
church and state.” As Prof. Medeiros Ferreira
reminded the audience, Pope Benedict XVI
praised the separation of church and state
when he visited Portugal.
‘ The united states was the first country
to set up a modern republic and the
first system separating church from
state, which was “very important
because it contradicted the idea that
there had to be a state religion.”
’
A FronTrunner,
LiKe THe 25 TH oF ApriL
Yet even though the topic is important in
the birth of the Portuguese Republic – it
was, in modern terms a “divisive issue
– Medeiros Ferreira believes we must “discuss
the Republic without placing the
religious issue at the center of the debate.”
In Ferreira’s opinion, there are factors
involved that have received little attention
because historiographers and analysts have
fixated on the relations between church
and state and on the political instability
of the times. “These two issues have totally
monopolized the analytical agenda
when it comes to the 1 st Republic.”
poLicy
“in reality, the portuguese republic would carry on – by itself – until 1917, on a continent that
was markedly monarchic and even imperial,” stated medeiros Ferreira.
“It would also be worthwhile to focus
on other issues that have gotten buried,”
Ferreira observes, such as “the pioneering
nature of the Portuguese Republican
Revolution in the context of Europe.” He
explains his outlook in
these terms: “We always
like to say that the 25 th of
April Revolution was the
precursor to the demise of
the other dictatorships in
Europe and South America.
This is true; but the
Republic was also pioneering
in that it fostered the
dissemination of republican
regimes in post-World
War I Europe” at a time
when only France and
Switzerland were republics.
“But even so, it is safe to say that the
Portuguese Republic did not come about
by induction or because of external forces.”
Ferreira stresses that “in reality, the
Portuguese Republic would carry on – by
itself – until 1917, on a continent that was
markedly monarchic and even imperial.”
The second point the professor stresses
is the modernization program of the
Republic. “Once the Republic is in place
we witness the growth of the functions of
a liberal state. It’s the state operating on the
ground.” New public services spring up
such as the civil registry, public education,
compulsory military service and a new
philosophy centered on participation.
Thirdly, Medeiros Ferreira stresses the singularity
of the Portuguese Republican Party
which was different and unique in that it
favored electoral tactics over insurrectional
tactics. “No party at the time (and I’m
talking in European terms) took power like
the PRP did, with weapons, by force.” It
wasn’t exactly a Bolshevist party but it
wasn’t a classical parliamentary party either
like the parties of the 3 rd Republic. It was
an electoralist party of the masses… but
insurrectional at the same time.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 39
RUI OChÔA

MARTA ROChA
[Marta Rocha] How did your book come about
and why did you choose to concentrate on the
years 1974 to 1976?
[Tiago Moreira de Sá] The idea came to mind
when I was still working on the previous
book I co-authored with Dr. Bernardino
40
poLicy
Angola:
America’s “inverted vietnam”
The United States and the Decolonization of Angola,
Tiago Moreira e Sá’s latest book, examines the US perspective of the power struggle
in Angola after it became independent in 1974.
By mArTA rocHA
Gomes, Carlucci vs. Kissinger: os estados Unidos e
a revolução Portuguesa (Carlucci vs. Kissinger: The
US and the Portuguese revolution). I realized that
it wasn’t possible to deal with the whole
issue of the Portuguese revolution in a
single book, so I decided that later on I
would examine the decolonization process
– particularly Angola, the jewel in the
crown of Portugal’s colonial empire. I
broached it from the American perspective,
not only because it’s my particular
area of research, but because the US has
Tiago moreira de sá signing copies of his book at the launching of the united states and the decolonization of Angola.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

a document disclosure policy that gives
you access to a huge number of primary
sources. Basically, the book starts with
Portugal’s April 25 th , 1974 Revolution and
ends – as far as material about Angola is
concerned – in February/March of 1976,
when the Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (Portuguese acronym
MPLA) won the first stage of the Angolan
conflict.
[MR] Why did the Cold War spread to the periphery
of the international system – specifically
Angola – during the period of Détente?
[TMS] The Cold War had already spread
to the periphery way before. Here we
have it spreading to Southern Africa. In
the case of Africa, in the first stages, the
Cold War spread to the Congo during
the Congolese civil war from 1960 to
65, where the US came out victorious.
Then, at the end of 1974, it spread to
Southern Africa- Angola, which begs the
question: why at a time of bi-polar
Détente? The reason was twofold. In the
case of the United States, it has to do
with what I call in the book the “inverted
Vietnam” effect, meaning that the US
intervened in Angola not because Angola
per se held such great geopolitical interest
for the US, but because the Ford
administration – particularly Henry
Kissinger, secretary of state at the time
– came to the conclusion that after losing
in Vietnam they had to beat the
Soviets in what they considered to be
the periphery of the international system
to show the world that though they
lost in Vietnam, they still had the
strength and the will to beat the Soviets
in the so-called Third World.
[MR] The US decided not to intervene in Angola
for a long time. At your book launching,
poLicy
‘ Zaire was the us’s main informant with regard
to Angola. in other words, the vision the us
had of the Angolan conflict was, to a great degree,
the vision mobutu transmitted.
’
Ambassador António Monteiro stated that, to
some extent, Mobutu had “conducted American
policy.”
[TMS] For a long time the US in fact did
not intervene in Angola. What we have
is four phases in American policy. The
first is a phase of virtual indifference,
until January of 1975. It’s almost as if
Angola didn’t even exist for Secretary of
State Kissinger. Then in August of 1975
the US started receiving intelligence that
the Soviets were supporting the MPLA
with weapons and money; and then there
was the pressure from Zaire – Mobutu
– regarding the issue. In the third phase
the US finally adopted an offensive strategy.
This phase started in July of 1975
with the approval for a covert program
for Angola called Operation IA Feature,
in which the US gave massive support to
the National Front for the Liberation of
Angola (Portuguese acronym FNLA) and
the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA). Finally
there was the last phase, which in real
terms started in November of 1975,
which was the American defeat. The role
of Zaire was extremely important. Zaire
had a tremendous influence on America’s
Angola policy, not because Mobutu spearheaded
America’s policy in Angola, but
because Zaire was the US’s main informant
with regard to Angola. In other
words, the vision the US had of the
Angolan conflict was, to a great degree,
the vision Mobutu transmitted. Secondly,
since the US publicly wanted to avoid the
appearance of being involved in Angola
– and that’s why it was a covert program
– what they did was channel the program
through Zaire. The money went through
Zaire, the weapons that were earmarked
went via Zaire, all with the concern of
making it look as if the arms were Zairese
and not American.
[MR] Operation IA Feature marked a turnabout
in America’s Angola policy. What exactly did it
involve?
[TMS] Essentially it involved three types
of measures: first, financial support of 32
million dollars for the FNLA and UNITA.
Some say the amount was even greater.
Second, weapons concessions to the FNLA
and UNITA via Zaire – a large amount of
heavy weaponry. The third measure
involved the recruitment of mercenaries
from Portugal, the UK, France, and a few
African countries. Plus, despite the instructions
that the US government gave the CIA,
which had the responsibility of running
the covert program, – that there weren’t
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 41

42
poLicy
‘ The FnLA was – to use their expression – a “puppet
of mobutu’s.” so the mpLA was the movement
in the best position to guarantee the viability
of an Angolan state after independence. it was also
the one most in line with portuguese interests.
’
to be any American military or leaders
involved in the Angolan conflict – the CIA
would disobey the order and send paramilitary
forces into the theater. This fact
has been corroborated in the memoires
of John Stockwell, who was CIA chief of
the US-led Angola Task Force.
[MR] The US only acknowledged very late that
the Soviets’ activities were incompatible with
Détente.
[TMS] That’s true. And it’s a key factor. In
my opinion, they only did it in November
of 1975. The conclusion I’ve reached is
that the US was convinced – until very
late – that they were going to win, that
the FNLA was going to win. It was only
when they realized that the FNLA was losing
that they brought up the Soviets
action’s incompatibility with Détente.
Oddly, until quite late, the Soviets were
willing to negotiate, even though they
were on the offensive. We can’t forget that
Détente was also one of Brezhnev’s priorities.
When the US brought up the
incompatibility issue, the USSR, throughout
part of December, even suspended the
Soviet airlift of Cuban soldiers into Angola.
It was only when the Tunney Amendment
passed – when the Soviets realized that
the US no longer had the means to back
the FNLA and UNITA – that they resumed
the airlift and thereafter, refused to negotiate
Angola with the United States.
porTuGuese inTervenTion
And meLo AnTunes’ supporT
[MR] What about Portugal? What were diplomatic
relations like among the United States,
Portugal, and Angola?
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

[TMS] As a player, Portugal was relevant.
The notion that Portugal had no relevance
as a player is fallacious. Once the
superpowers came onto the stage, all the
other actors were left very little room
to maneuver, which does not necessarily
mean that they had no relevance as
actors. As far as Portugal is concerned,
there were three or four issues involving
Angola that were very important. First,
according to American information
we have, the lions’
share of the weapons belonging
to the Portuguese armed
forces was left to the MPLA.
Kissinger even tried to blackmail
the Portuguese government
– and “blackmail” was
his term, not mine – saying
that the Portuguese government
should either guarantee
that no weapons are left
to the MPLA or the US would
cease all the aid it was lending
to airlift Portuguese
colonists in Angola to
Portugal. We also have to
realize that Portugal was
deeply divided. There were
a number of policies and a
number of centers of power.
The second issue, which is
also really important but
hard to corroborate because
of the lack of reliable primary
sources, is the issue of
the famous Battle of Luanda
in July of ’75, when the FNLA tried to
reenter Luanda after it had been expelled
by the MPLA. According to information
particularly from the American Secret
Service – information denied by the
Portuguese officers I spoke to – there
were Portuguese troops fighting beside
the MPLA to keep the FNLA out of
Luanda. The third issue has to do with
poLicy
Portugal’s negotiating efforts at two particular
points in time: during the Alvor
Agreement in January, 1975 and when
the MPLA and UNITA were attempting to
forge an alliance against the FNLA in
August of ’75. In both cases, the superpowers,
particularly the superpower I
deal with in my book – the United States
– would try its best to destroy these
diplomatic efforts – and succeed.
‘ As a player, portugal was relevant.
The notion that portugal had no
relevance as a player is fallacious.
once the superpowers came onto the
stage, all the other actors were left
very little room to maneuver, which
does not necessarily mean that they
had no relevance as actors.
’
[MR] Even the US considered the MPLA the
only representative movement in Angola, the
only one that truly represented the Angolan
people.
[TMS] North American operatives in
Angola who understood the reality of
Angola did. The ones who weren’t in
Angola – like Kissinger – did not exactly
share that view. They knew very little,
but the ones who were there, the operatives
on the ground, believed exactly
that. The FNLA was – to use their expression
– a “puppet of Mobutu’s.” So the
MPLA was the movement in the best
position to guarantee the viability of an
Angolan state after independence. It was
also the one most in line with Portuguese
interests. Then there were other issues.
There was the group in Angola represented
by Admiral Rosa Coutinho.
In my opinion, there were other
motives – even ideological and
geopolitical ones – but even so,
he always favored the Soviet
Union. In my book I reveal – I
think for the first time – that at
one point, Melo Antunes began to
support Jonas Savimbi and UNITA,
though in the context of a project
to forge an alliance between the
MPLA and UNITA. The idea was to
achieve an independent Angola
governed by an MPLA/UNITA alliance,
in which the MPLA predominated,
since it was by far the
strongest movement, but offsetting
the MPLA and Agostinho
Neto’s power with UNITA and
Jonas Savimbi. On the other hand,
the idea was to lessen the MPLA’s
dependence – or what was construed
to be its dependence – on
the USSR, by helping it to establish
other diplomatic channels with,
for example, Algeria and Yugoslavia.
Melo Antunes tried to convince
the Americans to maintain at least a
threshold of good relations with the
MPLA, or even support the MPLA, to
reduce its dependence on Moscow. In
the book I also reveal, for the first time,
that Agostinho Neto “did not close the
door” on good relations with the United
States; actually, his stance was quite the
opposite.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 43

By mAriA de Lurdes
rodriGues*
44
Why studying at
a Portuguese university
is a great idea
Nowadays one of the criteria to assess how international
a university has become is to see how
many foreign students and teachers take part in the
activities it carries out.
In this respect, Portuguese universities have progressed
a lot: first, because the country has participated
in the Erasmus Program for over 20 years, and
second, because direct measures have been taken to
back research exchange programs and international
cooperation. As far as the international projection of
Portuguese science is concerned, the results have
been remarkable: 48% of Portugal’s scientific output
is done in collaboration with foreign institutions.
However, when it comes to the internationalization
of education at the college level, the numbers show
that only 5% of the students attending Portuguese
universities are foreigners. It is clear that there is
huge potential for growth here.
Portugal’s college-level infrastructure is top quality,
and has the capacity to take in many more
students than it currently does. The increase in
national enrollment has depended greatly on the
improvement in students’ high school performance
and a reduction in the number of drop-outs, as
well as the system’s capacity to attract adults wishing
to complete their high school and middle
school education. Yet the socio-demographic characteristics
of both of these segments – though for
different reasons – will only translate into limited
growth in enrollment at the college level.
One possible, unlimited source of increased
enrollment is other Portuguese-speaking countries
and countries of the Portuguese Diaspora such as
the United States. Neighboring Spain annually
attracts more than 20,000 students for its study
abroad programs. The same goes for the other
countries in Europe. The cooperative ties they have
established with US universities to promote summer
courses, study abroad programs, and student
and teacher exchange initiatives have enabled these
other European universities to attract thousands
of foreign students who add immeasurably to their
international profile. And although Portugal can
WWW.IDEIA.PT
boast of having hosted countless students from
the Erasmus Program, it has currently only been
able to attract 150 students per year from the
United States.
Looking at it from the other side of the Atlantic, it
would be easy to see why our country and its system
of higher education offer a number of competitive
advantages over other European schools. And these
advantages can be publicized in more vigorous campaigns
to promote Portuguese universities abroad.
The first lies in the quality and innovative nature
of Portuguese schools: the quality of the installations,
the scientific research being done there, and
the various resources that give students access to a
broad range of knowledge and information. All
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

these resources have placed many of our
institutions high on the ladder of international
rankings. In addition, the indicators
show that Portugal is one of the
European countries that has made the
greatest strides in terms of innovation in
the last few years.
Second is the cost of tuition and the
standard of living. In our country, the
financial outlay parents make to put their
kids through college is very different from
the financial burden the average American
family must shoulder to put them through
a program of the same quality. This gives
Portugal a huge advantage, and makes our
universities a truly attractive option.
Third, Portugal is an integral part of
Europe. Under the Bologna Process, our
certificates and diplomas are automatically
recognized throughout Europe, allowing
graduates to go elsewhere in the EU for
other degree or non-degree programs. This
by itself brings untold benefits.
Finally, there’s the opportunity to learn
Portuguese, a language that opens doors
to Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking
African countries, and to the possibility
for career enrichment.
These compelling arguments are what
led FLAD to inaugurate a program to pro-
mote Portuguese universities in the US.
Our main idea is to attract American students
of Portuguese heritage. Aside from
FLAD, the initiative, which we call the
Study In Portugal Program, has received
the sponsorship of the Portuguese Tourist
Board, the Council of University
Chancellors, the Fulbright Commission,
and the Portuguese Agency for Investment
and Foreign Trade, who have all signed
a cooperation protocol to launch further
initiatives to promote our country as a
student destination.
* President of FLAD’s executive Council
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 45
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By ALLAn J. KATZ*
46
Another way to strengthen
Portuguese‑American
relations
As US Ambassador to Portugal, I have often had the
pleasure of meeting Portuguese students and academics
who have studied in the United States. These
people – through joint research, personal ties, and
exchange programs involving teachers and students
– have helped to further strengthen the already strong
ties between our two countries. I am hopeful that
new initiatives like the one backed by the Fulbright
Commission, the Luso-American Foundation, the
Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade
(AICEP), the Portuguese Tourist Board, and the Council
of University Chancellors will lead to an increase in
the number of American students in Portugal. Recent
data show that a total of 260,327 Americans studied
abroad in the 2008-2009 academic year. This figure
continues to mark a decade of unprecedented growth
in the number of American students receiving college
credits from their experience abroad. If we look at
the last two decades, we see that the participation of
American students in study abroad programs has
more than tripled.
In that same academic year, 240 Americans chose
Portugal as a study destination, which represents
a 61% increase over the previous year. Once again,
these numbers show that academic ties between
the United States and Portugal are on the rise; and
naturally, I am very pleased that growing numbers
of students from the United States are deciding to
study in this country.
As honorary president of the Fulbright Commission
in Portugal, I have had the privilege of witnessing
first-hand the close cooperation that exists between
the American government and the government of
Portugal through the Fulbright Program, which supports
academic exchange between our two countries.
Particularly in the last few years, the Fulbright
Commission has increased the number of grants for
placing American students in Portuguese universities
as English-speaking teaching assistants, and for MA
and PhD research done by Americans in Portugal.
A recent partnership between Fulbright and the
Luso-American Foundation has also laid the groundwork
for increasing the number of American
research fellows in the near future.
The Fulbright initiatives are part of a wider goal
of the US government and American institutions
to expose increasing numbers of students to the
study abroad experience, either by participating in
summer programs, carrying out research, or by
attending degree programs where they will develop
the valuable skills to cooperate with partners
from other countries in a multicultural atmosphere
fraught with global challenges.
Now is the time to seize the opportunity of
recruiting even more American students for
Portuguese universities and research centers, which
have all the conditions available to host these students
in the best way possible.
The Fulbright Commission believes that by supporting
the Study In Portugal Program, which is
directed at promoting Portuguese institutions of
higher education in the US, it will contribute to
increasing the number of students choosing
Portugal as an educational destination.
The Fulbright Commission is glad to take part in
the Program’s activities, in particular the initiative
slated for 2012 in which representatives from a
group of Portuguese universities will be participating
in the NAFSA (Association of International
Educators) annual conference and exhibition. As a
pioneering institution worldwide in international
education and exchange programs, NAFSA annually
holds a conference that brings in thousands of
professionals from around the globe to promote
programs involving their countries. The event is an
ideal place to show the representatives from US
schools and international educational professionals
how much Portuguese universities and research
facilities have to offer American students.
STUDY IN PorTUGAL is a way of bringing the United
States and Portugal even closer together. That is why
I am proud that the Fulbright Commission has lent
its support to this invaluable program, in collaboration
with our other distinguished partners.
* US Ambassador to Portugal. Honorary president of the Fulbright
Commission.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

By rui BoAvisTA
mArques*
‘ The bilateral relationship
between portugal and the united
states is not only one of the
oldest bonds for both countries,
but it is also a link marked
by achievement.
’
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A step toward doing
business in Portuguese
A country’s image is actually a complex puzzle made
up of a number of components that are as real and
valid as the sovereign debt, the country’s brand recognition,
its global and regional market share, its
tourist potential, its art and culture, plus myriad
additional factors.
Yet in the case of Portugal, the language makes up
a large piece of the puzzle
as well. It not only links
the nation with its history,
but with its current
partners and its future.
Focusing on the
Portuguese language as an
assert to the international
business world (and other
areas as well) has been a
plan especially dear to
our heart at AICEP (the
Portuguese Agency for
Investment and Foreign
Trade), which is why it
has been gratifying to
learn that the number of
students of Portuguese
in the US has grown by
two digit figures.
We have been witness
to how important
American/Portuguese
student exchange programs
have become at
every academic level, as
the result of partnerships
between the Portuguese
government and four of
the most distinguished
institutions for applied
science in the US: the
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Carnegie-
Mellon University, the
University of Texas at
Austin and Harvard
Medical School.
Another type of exchange program that has warranted
AICEP support is the INOV-CONTACTO
Program, which every year sends 550 young people
to do internships at corporations throughout the
world. In 2010, 65 young hopefuls had the opportunity
of completing internship programs in the
United States.
The bilateral relationship between Portugal and the
United States is not only one of the oldest bonds
for both countries, but it is also a link marked by
achievement. Indicative of the success of the link is
the fact that the Portuguese company Efacec has
brought dozens of trainees over from the US to train
in the company’s state-of-the-art technology at its
headquarters in Lisbon.
Also relevant is the fact that Portugal’s credibility
as a US direct investment destination has been
on the rise, as the following cases show. In May,
Xerox’s Global Delivery Center was inaugurated
in Lisbon, the first non-USA based Microsoft R&D
Center for Speech Recognition was set up as were
the Microsoft Language Development Center for
Brazil and Portugal, IBM’s BPO Center, and five
CISCO skill-building centers. All involved either
outsourcing operations or the development of new
software applications, which goes to show the
level of competitiveness and the undeniable quality
of the work being done in Portugal.
The time has now come for us to invest in
increasing the number of American students who
come to study in Portugal. The positive impact
such a study abroad initiative stands to have on
the global projection of the Portuguese economy
is highly significant. AICEP is gratified to see that
several partners have joined the Study in Portugal
drive and it is committed to the initiative’s success,
mainly through stepped up, more engaging
participation in NAFSA 2012.
Having more Americans learning Portuguese in
Portugal is one of the best ways of promoting the
concept of “Doing Business in the Portuguese
Language,” which in turn acknowledges that Portugal
has strong ties with all the continents, and a potential
that has just begun to be tapped.
*Coordinating Director for North America, AICeP Portugal Global, New York
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 47

By Luís pATrão*
48
Portugal:
A place to live
and a place to learn
‘ The study in portugal program gives us a
unique opportunity to promote portugal both
as a tourist destination and as a place that
hopefully more and more American students
and researchers will choose to achieve their
academic goals.
’
RUI OChÔA
When young people select a country to study
abroad, their choice is not solely based on academic
criteria. In addition to quality education, it
is often the lure and attractiveness of the country
itself that influence their decision.
Several factors enter into the equation: the climate,
the country’s history and heritage, its natural beauty
and lifestyle, the people, how safe it is, and the recreational
and cultural events that are available. What
students are choosing is a place to live, not just a
place to study.
In this respect, Portugal has a lot to offer and is
in a position to compete with any other international
study destination. Especially when it comes
to students from the US, Portugal can provide a
host of different and unique experiences to enhance
the top-quality academic programs that Portuguese
universities offer.
The decision to target this new, young and demanding
public brings with it additional responsibility
and the need to form a clear vision of the future. It
is an additional responsibility because it means the
country will have to tailor its services to meet the
needs and interests of this new type of consumer. It
involves looking ahead because these young people
stand to act – not only as a driving force within
our country – but as spokespersons par excellence
in promoting Portugal abroad.
Their ability to spread the word and promote
Portugal and its outstanding features as a tourist
destination to their families and communities back
home will contribute immeasurably to our achieving
more and better influxes of tourists in the future.
But investing in Portugal as a study destination
also means creating emotional ties. The students
who come here are all potential consumers, who
will likely want to return from time to time to
show family and friends the places where they spent
some of the happiest times of their lives.
The Study in Portugal Program gives us a unique
opportunity to promote Portugal both as a tourist
destination and as a place that hopefully more and
more American students and researchers will
choose to achieve their academic goals.
* President of the Portuguese Tourist Board
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

By AnTónio rendAs*
A groundbreaking program
‘ Academic exchange programs of varying duration
and with a number of different objectives,
designed to step up the flow of professors,
scholars and researchers, definitely spell progress,
broaden horizons, cut across borders, and have
led to the criss-crossing of cultural identities, and
opportunities to share values and experiences.
’
Portugal has a network of 16 public universities
that offer educational opportunities at every level
of higher education, including post-doctoral and
research programs in every field of science. The
country has responded to the need to internationalize
and, as a consequence, Portugal’s universities
have a wide range of programs and curricula in
the various fields of science and at every degree
level, which are taught in English in order to cater
to the international learner.
The country is particularly well-suited for the
study of a broad selection of subjects such as history,
marine biology and oceanography, economics
and law, comparative literature, medicine,
engineering, architecture, and a host of other topics.
International experience plays an extremely
important role in the exchange of learning and
knowledge among institutions, while acting as a
significant contribution to the growth of universities
themselves. This is precisely why the Study
in Portugal Program, which was set in motion by
a protocol signed by the Council of Portuguese
University Chancellors (Portuguese acronym
CRUP), the Luso-American Foundation, the
Portuguese Tourist Board, AICEP- Portugal’s Agency
for Investment and Foreign Trade, and the Fulbright
Commission, will likely become a valuable contribution
to making American universities and
research centers more aware of the activities of
their Portuguese counterparts.
This groundbreaking program will be a concrete
step forward in publicizing Portuguese institutions
of higher learning in the United States. Another of
the initiative’s important targets is to spark an
increase in the number of US students choosing
Portugal as a study destination. That is why a number
of strategic partnerships between Portuguese
universities and prestigious schools in the United
Sates have increasingly been forged over the last
few years. Academic exchange programs of varying
duration and with a number of different objectives,
designed to step up the flow of professors, scholars
and researchers, definitely spell progress, broaden
horizons, cut across borders, and have led to
the criss-crossing of cultural identities, and opportunities
to share values and experiences.
The Council of Portuguese University Chancellors,
established in 1979, has invested its efforts in academic
exchange and post-graduate education in the
partnerships it has formed with leading institutions
around the world. Promoting mobility among scholars
ultimately means sharing knowledge and broadening
people’s outlook on multilateral cooperation
among nations. But it especially means highlighting
the value of education, scientific research, and the
growth and scope of universities.
* President of the Council of Portuguese University Chancellors
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 49
RUI OChÔA

[Parallel] Some people think that entrepreneurship
can’t be taught. Either you have it or you don’t.
So how can you teach it?
[Paul Jerde] Can you teach someone to
be an entrepreneur, and can you teach
entrepreneurship? I differentiate, I distinguish
between the two. I don’t believe
you can teach someone to be an entrepreneur.
That comes from inside. But I
strongly believe you can teach the skills
and the knowledge, and the methodologies
for critical thinking, so that
people can recognize challenges and
identify opportunities, and then act on
their ideas. That’s what entrepreneurship
education is all about.
[P] What are the personal characteristics that
enable people to become successful entrepreneurs?
[PJ] There are several things. For someone
to actually take the step and say, “I’m
going to start something new” is always
a very personal action. But as I tell our
students, some people can do that, they’re
good at it. Others can’t. And those people
need others to help them. They need
entrepreneurial people on their team to
help them build whatever they have in
mind. And these have to be people with
complementary skills. They have to be
people who are not only experts in
finance, or marketing, or operations, or
strategy, or management, but individuals
who can manage within very challenging
environments. Half of all environments are
under-capitalized and change rapidly. So,
people have to be very flexible, accept the
change, and be able to move in a very
ambiguous environment. For me, that’s
the skillset of someone who can be an
entrepreneur, or act within an entrepreneurial
environment.
50
socieTy
no risk, no glory
entrepreneurship can and should be taught. And Paul Jerde has made teaching it his
livelihood at the University of Colorado and at the aptly-named Unreasonable Institute,
where overstepping the boundaries of reason is par for the course. In this interview with
FLAD administrators Charles Buchanan and Mário Mesquita, the American professor
discusses what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
TEXT AND PhOTOGRAPhy By sArA pinA
“For someone to actually take the step and say, ‘i’m going to start something new’ is always
a very personal action,” affirms entrepreneurship expert paul Jerde.
[P] Can one be an entrepreneur without taking
risks?
[PJ] I don’t think so. But surprisingly,
there should be a lot more discussion
about this in the US. Interestingly, the
moment someone looks at an entrepreneurial
idea, the thing that he or she
does is try to reduce risks. So they do
accept risk, but after that, all their efforts
are directed toward reducing them. And
this means technology risk, market risk,
leadership risk … all of the risks that
businesses are exposed to. Entrepreneurs
are always relentlessly trying to reduce
risk. But they do take a risk when they
first get started.
[P] Can you share a story involving student
entrepreneurship with us?
[PJ] I’ll tell you my favorite story. A young
woman named Sara Shude was an undergraduate
student in our entrepreneurship
program about five years ago. She identified
an idea, and it dealt with the fact that
universities struggle to be effective in
communicating with the parents of their
students.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

They publish materials, but they don’t do
a very good job of communicating. So, she
identified this area and said, “What if I
were to become the publisher of the material
you want to publish, and I will put out
a publication called University Parents?”
The idea was so successful that she took
it beyond the universities. I think today
she has about a 160 contracts with universities.
And she did it with very little
capital.
[P] How do you conciliate entrepreneurship with
sustainability?
[PJ] The way we got there is by having
several years of being acknowledged as a
leading entrepreneurship education program.
So we we really needed to think
about the direction the future is moving
in. What we discovered was that increasingly,
consumers were changing the way
they did business in order to become
more sustainable. And as entrepreneurs
always do, we looked at fundamental
changes. When corporations change direction
– even slightly – it creates opportunities
for entrepreneurs, because the large
companies will need new solutions.
[P] Are there differences in teaching Portuguese
and Americans to take risks?
[PJ] I think there are many differences. As
I think of Portugal’s history, it’s one of the
most risk-oriented, entrepreneurial cases
of how to take advantage of new opportunities.
It’s in the water; it’s in your DNA
here in Portugal. It seems to be an anomaly
to me, actually, as I learn more about
the country.
I would say several things are very different,
and I’m not an economist, and I’m
not a government politician, so I’m
observing some of this from a distance.
Because most entrepreneurs tend to be
very apolitical. We’re on the ground creating
businesses. And we have an environ-
socieTy
ment that enables us to adapt, that
changes when you go into regulated
industries. So energy, and many other
things increasingly help you innovate, and
the answers you find are becoming more
important for coming generations in the
US. So it is all very dynamic.
What are the differences then? The first
thing I always say is that one should never
think of the US as lockstep. There are areas
in the US that are very entrepreneurial.
We happened to be in one of those areas,
so it was part of our culture. However,
there are many areas of the US that are
not entrepreneurial at all.
But the similarities happen at the state
level. We all know what California has
done. You must have leadership with a
plan, a leadership that sets the stage so
that businesses can operate with confidence.
This makes all the difference in the
world. We have that in Colorado. So the
differences are that we can’t do it at the
federal level. I think Portugal has a chance
to be much more effective in setting
policies at the federal level.
[P] Do you have to be out of your mind or have
a screw loose to be a leader? Or be emotional
and impulsive? And what about the Unreasonable
Institute?
[PJ] Absolutely, yeah. [laughs]. Human
nature tends to resist change. There’s a
defining characteristic in entrepreneurs,
it’s that they seek; they live within the
threshold of the unreasonable. I know I
do. I believe that if you are not changing,
you are falling behind, because the world
is changing. It’s changing (tapping on the
table) every single second. Anybody who
wants to maintain the status quo is falling
behind, because the world is moving fast.
There’s always a better way; there’s always
a different way; always a new opportunity.
There’s always a change that can be
identified, embraced, and somehow taken
advantage of.
Entrepreneurs take risks that most people
won’t take, and then immediately set to
work on reducing those risks. They don’t
like to live in a constant state of risk, but
they have the skills. And this brings us to
education. If you can teach someone to
understand how to evaluate a risk and
what things need to be considered to
reduce that risk, then you can put them
in a position where they can feel comfortable
and say, “This is a reasonable risk to
take, I guess. I’m not being unreasonable
in taking it, because there’s a reasonable
chance I can overcome the remaining
risks. And if I can do that, then I will learn
from it.”
*with André Sebastião
About the center
for entrepreneurship
education in portugal
The Center for Entrepreneurship Education
in Portugal (CEEP) is a not‑for‑profit asso‑
ciation of individuals, educational organi‑
zations, companies, government entities
and civil society organizations. The mis‑
sion of CEEP is to help in the development
and implementation of national programs
in entrepreneurship education and training
through research projects, education,
training, and public policy development.
CEEP was created in 2010 through agree‑
ments with various national entities
including: Universidade de Lisboa,
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Centro
Regional do Porto, Universidade do
Algarve and ISCTE‑Audax – Centro de
Investigação e Apoio ao Empreendedorismo
e Empresas Familiares.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 51

[Parallel] What is innovation?
[Michael Fernandez] My perspective is that
innovation means coming up with new
ideas. And doing that isn’t very easy,
because everyone is very comfortable
with what they’re doing. Being innovative
is really a mindset. So to be innovative
is to take some risk, risk failure,
and then also to be able to potentially
risk how other people perceive you.
[P] If innovation is a mindset, how can it be
learned?
[MF] I firmly believe that you can’t teach
somebody to be an entrepreneur. But
part of it is actually helping that person
to realize they can take the risk, and the
first thing they might say is, “Hey, these
perceptions that I keep getting are not
letting me fail. And I’m able to make
decisions even though people disagree
with me.”
The next part is to teach them a set of
different skills. The first one is to understand
their own self-image, in fact their
decisions in life. If you perceive that
you can’t do something, or in your
mind you talk to yourself negatively,
then you sort of limit your ability.
[P] What is different about starting a new business
in Europe and starting one in America?
[MF] In that respect, the US is the diametrical
opposite of Europe, or at least
in San Francisco it is. In San Francisco
you can’t say that failure is considered a
good thing, but it is very accepted.
Although it’s still not easy to come out
of it, and it takes a process to realize
“I did this and I failed,” when you do
fail, people are still more comfortable
about it. In Europe there’s this idea that
people don’t fail.
52
socieTy
Losing in order to win
Michael Fernandez runs a company out of San Francisco – JMF & Co – that helps people
and companies invest in innovative new areas. He is also the founder of one of America’s
largest not-for-profit organizations, Little Kids rock, which promotes music education
in schools throughout the US. In this interview with Parallel, Fernandez explains that
to win, you often have to start off by losing, which is why Californians take more risks.
By sArA pinA AND cLAudiA coLLA*
michael Fernandez asserts that “The us is the diametrical opposite of europe” when it comes
to starting a new business.
SARA PINA
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

As far as entrepreneurship is concerned,
it is accepted by investors that
you learn the most if you reflect on why
you were at fault. This is the extreme
opposite of Europe, and it is Europe’s
biggest challenge.
It’s Europe’s biggest challenge because
I think that for Europe’s market to be
innovative, or try new things, there must
be some appetite for risk, and some
appetite for failure. It can’t be that if
you try something and fail, your life is
over. Even more so because the chances
of being successful on your first attempt
are so remote. Sometimes the greatest
stories are the ones in which people fail
many times.
‘ in europe there’s this
idea that people
don’t fail.
’
[P] Would you say Americans are more innovative
than Europeans?
[MF] I think that Americans are willing
to take risks that allow them to be more
innovative. I don’t think they are any
smarter or any more creative, or any
more innovative. I think there’s a culture
allowing them to take risks, a culture
that says it’s okay to leave and start
somethig new.
[P] How about Little Kids Rock?
[MF] Little Kids Rock is a non-profit
company that we started in late 1999-
2000. There was a school teacher who
had an actual music school program.
Then she and I partnered up. She knew
how to teach kids to play music, and I
knew how to bring people together. We
brought in the accounting skills, managing
skills, legal skills, and formed a
board, and then together we started to
raise money. We started with only 25
kids in the US, and now we reach over
a hundred thousand kids. We have over
a thousand schools in the country, in
20 different states.
*with André Sebastião
socieTy
opportunities rather
than money
Professor of Strategy and Innovation
Management at the Polytechnic Institute of
Turin in Italy, and a member of the board
of Italy’s National Agency for Innovation,
Mario Calderini believes that governments
must not focus exclusively on funding
research to spark innovation.
[Parallel] How can public policies enable countries
to become more innovative?
[Mario Calderini] National policy should
stop giving direct money and finance
to companies, and be more directed
toward creating new business opportunities
and new markets, using public
demand. We should give customers and
market opportunities to companies,
rather than money. It’s something that
makes a company take more risks, and
become more innovative. If you give
them money, they become lazy.
[P] You said that too often, innovation is generated
from the top down. Can you explain
this?
[MC] If the model were big companies
with big research labs, or big universities
doing a lot of research, then the
innovation would just come out of these
research activities. But nowadays, I think
that the end-users/customers are very
important sources of innovation. A lot
of innovations that we have, for example,
in the car industry and in the sports
industry, come from customers not from
research. They come from the demand.
So I believe that we should consider
research just one of the many sources
of innovation; and why neglect all the
others?
[P] Is Italy investing too much in universities
and research?
[MC] I would say that research money
shouldn’t be given to companies that
do not do research. We could probably
make better use of this money by giving
it to universities and a few companies
that really do research.
By sArA pinA*
The problem is that we have 77 universities,
but probably only ten of them
are able to generate state-of-the-art
knowledge and new businesses. The
choice is very clear. You either concentrate
your funding on those ten universities,
or you spread the money
throughout the 77 universities. If you
spread the money around, you have a
more socially-oriented model of education
and research, and every university
would be able to do a little bit of
research. But nobody will ever reach the
critical mass needed to produce a high
degree of knowledge.
[P] Is it important to learn entreperneurship
when you’re little? In primary or secondary
school?
[MC] Well, my personal view is that you
shouldn’t start too early with entrepreneurship.
You need to create young students
with very flexible mindsets; and
they need to be passionate about subjects
like engineering and science. The
important thing is for the educational
system to help them be more openminded
rather than entrepreneurial. The
entrepreneurship comes later.
[P] Wouldn’t you say that the educational system
in Europe goes somewhat against this kind
of open mindset?
[MC] I absolutely agree. In general, if
you take European undergraduate students,
and then fund them to do PhDs
or post-graduate programs in the US,
they perform very well, because their
educational background is very good.
But of course the downside is that if
they have been taught very strictly and
are from very rigid programs, they’re
often not used to being flexible. If you
take an English student or – even moreso
– an American student, they’ll probably
spend less time studying out of
books and more time enjoying themselves
and becoming creative. So there
are upsides and downsides.
*with André Sebastião
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 53

54
socieTy
interview with Anita catlin
“palliative care can be a midwife
to the dying process”
“This is Anita Catlin. We invited her here to speak but we do not believe anything
she says.” This is how American researcher Anita Catlin was introduced in 1996
to an audience of doctors from a large perinatal unit in a major US hospital.
On that occasion, Catlin, a doctor of
maternal-infant nursing and specialist in
perinatal ethics, had been invited to talk
about end of life in newborn infants, a
subject that was more or less taboo among
health professionals in the field. “People
did not want to talk about it. They did not
believe there was any other way to treat
a newborn, even a newborn who was
dying.” Anita Catlin was in Portugal
recently to give a course to doctoral students
of bioethics at the Universidade Católica
Portuguesa [Portuguese Catholic University],
where she talked to us about her work.
In the early 1990s, Catlin became interested
in the rights of mothers and children
when she observed that when
pregnant mothers were treated, the focus
was more on the fetus than on the pregnant
mother. She tells the story of a
Native American woman who developed
gestational diabetes and was seen at the
health care unit where she worked. The
woman was advised to begin taking insulin,
which she refused to do. Unable to
convince her to take insulin, the doctors
threatened to report her to the authorities
for abuse of her future child. “No one
bothered to ask the woman what insulin
meant to her. Was she afraid of the injection?
Did she know someone who died
because of insulin? They were so focused
on the fetus and on the needs of the
fetus, that it seemed to me they did not
think about the mother.”
In addition to mothers’ and children’s
rights, Catlin also began to study the
ethics of neonatal palliative care. She
was one of the pioneers in the field
in her country. In fact, in the US in the
By mónicA cArvALHo*
mid-1990s, debates on neonatal palliative
care were not exactly embraced by
the medical community. “I had some
doctors very angry because I was saying
we must look at the context of the family.
What will happen to this family and
this child if we continue to use high
technology – ventilator, artificial nutrition
– if it does not change the child’s
prognosis? If what we’re doing is not
changing the condition of the child,
then why are we doing it?”
For Catlin, technology
is typically called
into play very extensively
without giving
due thought to the
ethics of its use. She
gives the example of
artificial nutrition
through feeding tubes.
In the beginning, this
t e c h n i q u e w a s
designed for patients
who were recovering
from lesions caused by
ingesting poison or
those who had esophageal cancer.
Currently it is being used in any patient
who does not have an appetite. She goes
on to explain: “In my country, many
times you put in a feeding tube and you
begin to feed the patient artificially – and
you can keep the body alive for a very
long time. But you do not change the
underlying prognosis in any way. People
in bioethics worry about these things.
Just because we know how to do something,
does that mean we should do it?
Is the benefit greater than the burden?”
deATH in HeALTH cAre
Catlin points out that the difficulty in
dealing with death in pediatric and neonatal
units is largely due to the education
and training that health care professionals
receive, particularly in the case of physicians.
She says that in the neonatal nursing
textbooks used in nursing schools there
is usually a chapter on end of life. However,
the same cannot be said for medical textbooks,
even though children often die in
neonatal and pediatric intensive care units.
‘ There is nothing in the book to teach
a physician how to withdraw care,
how to withhold technology, or how
to make a dignified end of life.
not one word.
’
“If you open any book used to train physicians
– and I know all these books, they
are used in Portugal as well – the word
‘dying’ is not in the book. There is nothing
in the book to teach a physician how
to withdraw care, how to withhold technology,
or how to make a dignified end
of life. Not one word.”
She goes on to say, however, that this is
changing, in Portugal as well, where she
believes significant changes are being
made. An example of this is Hospital de São
João in Oporto, which is in the process of
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

the first of its kind in the country. Despite
this important step, it is disturbing to see
in Portugal that there are still so many
cases of children living in the Azores, in
the interior of the country, or in Angola
who are transferred to central hospitals in
the hope of a cure or an improvement in
their status. Many of these children have
a poor prognosis and end up dying far
from their communities and sometimes
far from their families as well. Catlin says:
“I think if you do good palliative care,
and if you begin offering hospice [care],
maybe this won’t happen so much.”
THinK Less ABouT euTHAnAsiA
Although euthanasia is not allowed in the
US, in the states of Oregon, Washington,
DR creating a pediatric palliative care unit,
socieTy
and Montana assisted suicide – Physician
Aid-in-Dying (PAD) – is possible. In assisted
suicide, the doctor, at the patient’s
request, prescribes medications that the
patient can use to end his/her life.
However, of those who ask their doctors
to prescribe this medication, most do not
actually take it. Therefore, Catlin concludes
that assisted suicide appears to have
more to do with having control over one’s
own destiny, “control over how they
would die.”
Catlin believes that people think less
about euthanasia or assisted suicide when
they can treat the uncomfortable symptoms
of death and have a good end of life.
Her belief is based on the increased use
of palliative care in the state of Oregon
since assisted suicide became legal. A reaction,
according to her.
Anita catlin, who was in portugal to lecture on palliative care.
According to the researcher, palliative care
involves a massive team effort, where each
health professional plays a role. For those
who study or work in the area, providing
palliative care relies on people coming
together and working well together, so
that everyone can feel good about their
own work. “I once heard someone say:
palliative care is like being a midwife. You
know, the midwife and the team bring a
person into life. There’s the midwife and
the doctor, the social worker, the nutritionist,
and the pharmacist – many people
are involved in bringing a person into life.
I think that palliative care can also be a
midwife – to the dying process.”.
* Psychologist and Journalist. Doctor of Communication and
Culture. researcher at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Institute of Bioethics.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 55

When Donald Richard Finberg asked his
secretary Luisa Gomes to “tome assento,”
which is intentionally fractured Portuguese
for “take a seat,” he was not only displaying
his courteousness, but his penchant
for humor. Gomes, currently the head of
FLAD’s administrative services, recalls the
first president of the Foundation’s
Executive Council vividly: “He was very
competent, self-assured, and organized.
He was also very stubborn and to-thepoint;
a man with no skeletons in the
closet. And he appreciated it when people
acted the same way toward him.” Gomes’
three short sentences basically summarize
the opinion of many others who were
close to the diplomat, who died on April
25 th in McLean, Virginia.
The personality, upbringing, and experience
of the man – born on November 23,
1931 in Baltimore – contributed in heaping
doses to molding a free-spirited, fiercely
independent person who was highly
principled. A Princeton graduate in public
administration and public relations, Finberg
joined the Agency for International
Development, part of the US State
Department, in 1960. As the member of
an agency to promote economic cooperation
with developing countries, Finberg
was posted to Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru
until finally obtaining a position with the
US Embassy in Portugal, where he remained
until 1985. With the rank of minister-
56
proFiLe
donald Finberg: FLAd’s first president
An independent spirit
with a sense of purpose
“Finberg had all the qualities I associate with the United States: simplicity, merit,
and solidarity,” stated a former employee of the US embassy, who worked closely
with FLAD’s first president. Diplomat and administrator Donald Finberg carried out
his professional activities according to the highest ethical standards, which left
an indelible mark on the Luso-American Foundation. His sense of fellowship,
humor, and courteousness also left a lasting impression on friends and co-workers,
who miss him and remember him fondly.
By isABeL mArques dA siLvA
Former portuguese president mário soares (left) with donald Finberg in the 80s.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
DR

counselor, he retired from the diplomatic
corps, returning to Lisbon shortly after to
set up the Luso-American Development
Foundation and act as the first president of
its Executive Council. He came to lay the
groundwork for an institution that would
signal a new brand of cooperation in a
country that had been marked by Europe’s
longest-lasting dictatorship. Charles
Buchanan, still an administrator at FLAD,
worked closely with Finberg and remains
an unconditional admirer of the former
president’s sense of purpose. “He had a lot
of conviction in his ideas and was very
persistent,” Buchanan recalls. “That’s
because he was hard-working and based
all of his decisions on painstaking work.
Some people thought he was a workaholic,
because he didn’t rest until he had
completed a task or the research he was
doing. He consulted with the experts quite
a lot, and visited dozens of institutions in
an effort to design the best plan for the
Foundation, and to come up with the best
system for managing it.”
To those who were closest to him, his
integrity and precision always stood out.
José Luís Almeida Pinheiro, an advisor who
worked with Finberg at the US Embassy in
Lisbon and helped design the Foundation’s
organizational structure, remembered that
“He would go unwaveringly ahead, say
what he had to say, and follow his established
criteria. It was his belief that the
allocation of positions of power in Portugal
was based on cronyism and party affiliation,
which boggled his mind. Finberg was
a true pedagogue in the way he applied
ethics to how you plan a project. Issues
like there not being conflict of interest and
effective management of public funds were
sacred to him. He used to say that Portugal
was more in need of a meritocracy than a
democracy, and he translated that idea into
the project he laid out for FLAD.”
Em 1986, Portugal had little more than a
decade of experience with democracy and
was just embarking on the adventure of
being a member of the European Community.
But the country was still seriously behind
in terms of the skills that were needed to
develop into a more open, competitive society.
Education, science, technology, regional
development, and support for civil society
and the private sector had become the priorities.
Finberg wanted the more than 100
million dollar endowment to be used very
scrupulously within the space of 10 years
to accelerate the process. But the Foundation
ended up gaining a perpetual status. Though
his ideas on FLAD’s longevity were not borne
out, the functional concept he was instru-
proFiLe
mental in designing
took root. Fernando
Durão, FLAD director of
education at the time
recalls, “He placed a lot
of importance on evaluating
the results. He
designed a lot of very
clear timetables and
made a point of informing
the media of the
projects that were
already underway, and the results of what
had already been done.”
António Correia de Campos, FLAD director
of science and technology at the time,
also fondly remembers “the polished diplomat,
well-versed in European culture, a
person of honor, with a broad vision of
life and the world; very intelligent and
‘ Finberg was a true pedagogue in the
way he applied ethics to how you
plan a project. issues like there not
being conflict of interest and effective
management of public funds were
sacred to him.
democratic, and a man of enormous integrity.”
Like his counterpart from FLAD’s
education department, Campos, currently
a Socialist deputy in the European
Parliament, stresses the crucial role Finberg
played in designing the mechanisms that
gave FLAD’s activities such credibility. “He
believed in cutting down on red tape and
donald Finberg, who laid the foundations for an institution (FLAd) that would signal
a new brand of cooperation.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 57
’ José
Luís Almeida pinheiro, consultant
DR

independent peer evaluation. He designed
a small paper, kind of a brochure that
contained all the information on grant
applications; then, after a first weeding
out, the applications would go to the
experts who would write a report of no
more than 20 pages. Only after this did
the directors get hold of the proposals and
organize the allocation of grants. After a
year, the projects would be assessed by
outside people who did site visits to confirm
how things were progressing.”
HeAdsTronG BuT democrATic
Charles Buchanan recently returned from
a trip to the US where he was invited to
talk about how FLAD was conceived and
set up – testimony to the innovative nature
and success of the endeavor. A large portion
of this success is the result of Finberg’s
staunch sense of purpose; but his fierce
determination sometimes needed to be
checked. As Fernando Durão says, “He was
very controlling, and right at the beginning,
I had to have a talk with him, because
he didn’t like delegating responsibility, and
I demanded more freedom. He understood
my point and accepted it.” Durão recognizes
that his stubbornness was the feature
that was hardest to deal with. Almeida
Pinheiro adds, “Finberg had all the qualities
I associate with the United States: simplicity,
merit, and solidarity. But he was
extremely stubborn, and you had to stand
up to him. But even when you did, it was
hard to make him change his mind, because
he was very impatient and headstrong.”
Finberg didn’t always get his way. As the
dyed-in-the-wool, democratically-minded
man that he was, he usually ended up
accepting the will of the majority, and
recognizing the merit of ideas that he had
initially disagreed with. Charles Buchanan’s
recollections are clear, “Because of his
convictions, he didn’t always get approval
from the members of the executive
council. He was stubborn, but in some
cases, he ended up rethinking his position.
A lot of discussing went on over certain
topics such as cooperation with
Portuguese-speaking Africa, which he
thought was not one of FLAD’s missions.
But later on, he admitted that the results
of the trilateral initiatives I defended so
staunchly were good.” Correia de Campos
remembers another instance in which
Finberg’s notorious stubbornness did not
end up winning the day; “He voted against
buying our building, and had huge reservations
about FLAD’s art collection. But
he was very democratic and respected the
58
proFiLe
administrative board’s
decisions.”
In José Luís Almeida
Pinheiro’s opinion,
Finberg’s honorable
character and stubbornness
did not jibe too
well with the Portuguese
traditions of political
correctness that formed
the backdrop for decision-making
and power
relationships in Portugal.
“He called a spade a
spade, and ended up
leaving Portugal partly
for political reasons. He
said no to some of the
most powerful figures in the country. The
first three mandates were to be presided
over by Americans to untangle some of the
more complicated situations among the
Portuguese administrators from the two
main parties (the Socialist Party and the
Social Democrats), and he ended up breaking
the stalemate on several occasions. But
when he left FLAD, the principle of not
linking the presidency to any party stopped
being honored.” Correia de Campos
acknowledges that Finberg was never concerned
with leaving an ideological legacy
or “going down in history,” because he
“thought about the mission he had been
entrusted with in operational terms.”
‘ He placed a lot of importance on
evaluating the results. He designed a
lot of very clear timetables and made
a point of informing the media of the
projects that were already underway,
and the results of what had already
been done.
However, FLAD’s former administrator does
regret that Finberg was never officially
honored for the contribution he made to
Portugal’s development: “One of the things
that hurt me most was that he was never
decorated by our government, especially
since the work he did was so important.
But at the time, nobody was too fond of
the fact that FLAD’s first president was
American and not Portuguese. That was a
real sticking point. But he deserved to be
recognized. His three years of work shaped
the Foundation into a non-partisan organization
with a culture of independence
that functioned without being put through
an ideological filter.”
donald Finberg (left) and charles Buchanan: two of FLAd’s American administrators in the 1980s.
’ Fernando
durão
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
DR

cAusTic Humor
And Kind GesTures
But Portugal definitely won Finberg over.
At the end of his mandate, he returned to
the States to work in Latin-American relations
again at the Pan American
Development Foundation and Partners of
the Americas, but not without first buying
an apartment in Praia Maria Luísa in the
Algarve, where he continued to entertain
Portuguese friends during his vacations.
When he was there, he spent time discussing
some of the country’s most pressing
problems, because he continued to subscribe
to the Portuguese weekly paper
expresso, and always enquired about the
quality of the Gulbenkian Foundation’s
current concert season. “He didn’t miss a
concert, and he would organize trips and
distribute the programs. He was also very
funny, though it was a biting sense of
humor. I miss the days when we worked
really hard in those confined spaces in a
way that was both professional and familial.
Sometimes he’d bring in a cake that
his wife baked,” recalls Luisa Gomes, who
became Finberg’s friend.
Almeida Pinheiro feels that continuing to
work alongside his boss at the US Embassy
proFiLe
donald and Hela Finberg on a visit to portugal in June of 2010.
was a privilege. He has fond memories of
the frequent outings they made to Lisbon’s
hole-in-the-wall eateries because “he
adored our food.” He also recalls the conversations
that were tempered with fine
wine and Finberg’s “striking sense of
humor, with a sarcasm reminiscent of Eça
de Queroz. But under all that sarcasm was
a touching tenderness.”
‘ i miss the days when we worked
really hard in those confined spaces
in a way that was both professional
and familial. sometimes he’d bring
in a cake that his wife baked.
’
Luísa Gomes
“Our house is your house,” Finberg
would say, “and you could tell the statement
was genuine. Every year he would
send Christmas cards with a detailed rundown
of the events in his life that year. It
was a kind of family newsletter,” explains
Paula Vicente, who worked as Finberg’s
secretary from the first days of the
Foundation. Though he was professionally
demanding, the well-being and professional
growth of employees and
associates were his badge of pride. “I got
pregnant right after the Foundation got
going,” says Paula Vicente, currently FLAD
program officer. “But Mr. Finberg made a
point of me coming
back to my Job after my
leave was over. I learned
a lot from him, because
he helped people
improve themselves; he
didn’t want anybody to
stagnate.” She also still
remembers when
Finberg came to visit
her newborn, the smile
on his face when he
enquired about everyone’s
families, and how
he strolled down the corridors with headphones
on, listening to classical music.
“Sometimes he would ask: ‘Any news?
Y’know, when the cat’s away …’ And I
would unfailingly answer, ‘the mice will
play…’”
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 59
PAULA VICENTE

DR
60
socieTy
mothering behind bars
one of the few existing studies on mothers in prison was published by an American
woman whose grandparents were Portuguese immigrants. I had the pleasure of meeting
Sandra enos, 61, in her typically American home in Providence, rhode Island, the place
where so many Portuguese immigrants settled in the early 20 th century.
By isABeL nery
sandra enos outside the rhode island women’s correctional facility.
But aside from her Portuguese roots, Enos
and I share another bond: an interest in
mothers behind bars, a subject that inspired
her book Mothering from the inside – Parenting in
a Women’s Prison.
The prison where Sandra Enos did her
interviews is less than 40 kilometers away.
We leave the sociologist’s house and take
I-95 to a cluster of brick buildings, enlarged
and converted over the years to house
3,400 inmates, only 181 of whom are
women. The women’s wing opened in
1936 as a psychiatric hospital. Today it has
two buildings for female prisoners.
As soon as we arrive I am introduced to
Roberta Richman, Assistant Director of
Rehabilitative Services for the R. I.
Department of Corrections, who is waiting
for us. Though not a maximum security
prison, the facility houses inmates who have
been sentenced from three months to life.
The typically humid heat of the east coast
had driven the thermometer to 90º. Behind
the old building’s walls, it often tops 100.
As we leave the administrative area and
head toward the cells, the temperature rises
to sweltering. Maybe because of the heat
or because there isn’t work for many of
the inmates, several of them lie in bed conveying
a mood that is either one of two
things: lethargy and depression or depression
and aggressiveness.
The prisoners that walk by project more
of an air of defeat than of fearsomeness.
They wear ill-fitting orange or khaki scrubs
depending on whether they have been sentenced
or are awaiting trial. Some use a
white T-shirt under their uniform, which
consists of only two pieces: stretch pants
and a V-neck shirt.
Alleging security reasons, even underwear
from outside the jail has been banned. As
Guard Miller, 50, recalls, “One inmate managed
to sneak drugs in the waistband of
her panties. From then on, they haven’t
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

een allowed to bring their own clothes.”
And the thing most prisoners consider
their only legal refuge – cigarettes – is
totally banned both inside and outside the
penitentiary grounds.
The only rule that is not followed strictly
by the book is the ban on physical contact.
However, in the US, in this case, not going
by the book means, “If it’s a short hug, we
look the other way. But if it goes on too
long, they get punished. Because there’s no
touching allowed!”
The same feeling of “off-limits” pervades
visitation. The women can only hug their
kids if they are seated. For two hours they
remain in their chairs and are not allowed
to get up and play with the children who
are often enticed with candy so that they
will stay on their mothers’ laps, prolonging
the rare moment of physical bonding
between mother and child.
To keep the prison drug-free, the women
have to strip when they first arrive and
when they reenter the prison. Sometimes
the examination involves a cavity search.
The act, which is always accompanied by
crying and complaining, has come about
because of the bizarre stratagems the jailed
drug-user will resort to. “The weirdest
thing I’ve ever found, says Miller the guard
who accompanied us on our visit, “was a
crack pipe in somebody’s vagina.”
In practical terms, the war on drugs, which
has escalated since the Reagan administration,
has had no effect on reducing crime
and the brutal effects it has on women. It
is a reality particularly felt within the prison
system. In 2008, there were 2,821 inmates
in New York State prisons and one in three
had been jailed for drug-related crimes.
We’ve already gone down several cell
blocks when I notice that all the cells are
alike. Unlike the women’s prison in Tires,
there are no cut-out hearts or pictures
adorning the partitions. That’s the way it
is, they explain to me – tidy and impersonal
– to prevent fires. The only things
hanging from the cell walls are the surveillance
cameras, which are there to keep
track of the prison population, though they
still do head-counts six times a day.
By the next inmate tally, all the women
have to be back in their quarters, so I have
to use this chance to interview the women
who have agreed to talk to me. They’ve
given us an air-conditioned room which
provokes smiles of relief when we walk in.
The statistics show that 54% of all female
prisoners in the US are black, but I’m sitting
at a table with women who are not only
white – but blond. The number of inmates
has grown by 138% in the last 10 years
because of the war on drugs and – in line
socieTy
children’s clothes on a prison clothesline show that children have also make this their home.
‘ Alleging security reasons, even
underwear from outside the jail
has been banned. As Guard miller,
50, recalls, “one inmate managed
to sneak drugs in the waistband
of her panties. From then on,
they haven’t been allowed to bring
their own clothes.”
’
with the statistics – most of the women
seated around me are in for selling drugs.
But let’s start with the exception. If you
saw Petra on the street your last guess would
be that she committed any crime. It would
have been her last guess too. At 27, Petra
has beautiful blond hair neatly rolled into a
bun, and narrow Ben Franklin glasses adorning
a pair of deep blue eyes. She has the air
of a scholar.
Nothing in her background fits the stereotypes
or jibes with the statistics. The
majority of prison inmates are black. She is
blond and light-eyed. In the democratic
West, prisons are the places that house the
greatest number of illiterates per square foot.
Fifty-eight percent of the female prison
populations on this side of the Atlantic are
high school drop-outs. Petra has a degree
in Marketing. A large portion of the prison
population complains of not having a regular
Job: 74% of female American convicts
were unemployed at the time of their conviction.
Petra had a good job where she was
earning 15 dollars an hour
and had hopes of getting a
promotion. She owned a
house and a car and was, in
short, financially several cuts
above society’s customary
outcasts.
Though Petra’s case may
seem less obvious, her emotional
profile matches up
perfectly with studies on
criminality. A lot of research
has shown that over 50% of
all female prisoners were
victims of physical or sexual abuse before
being incarcerated. The figure is around
15% for men. In other words, before victimizing
someone else, Petra was herself a
victim. Her boyfriend sexually abused her,
took away her self-esteem and bludgeoned
her with insults.
As with the other women, she has a
harder time talking about interrupted
motherhood than she does about discussing
her crimes. When you ask her about
whom she left her 4 and 7 year-old children
with she responds weeping, “When
I was arrested my youngest was three. He
was so upset, all his hair fell out.”
Her other child is on the verge of being
given into to the exclusive custody of the
father. Once the legal battle begins, the
system in the US is relentless. The father
will have no trouble proving that he is a
better guardian than the child’s delinquent
mother. Petra has not seen the child for a
year because the ex-boyfriend has boycotted
every type of visitation.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 61
JOSé CARLOS CARVALhO

After our interviews in the penitentiary,
Sandra Enos remarked that when you are a
woman who’s committed a crime, you’re
penalized twice. In addition to the legal punishment,
these women often lose custody of
their children. “In most US correctional
facilities mothers and their children are not
allowed to be together,” she says. “Some
women are incapable of putting motherhood
first, but I’ve met good mothers and stable
families among the inmates.”
According to the Prison Activist Resource
Center, on any given day there are 90 thousand
women in detention in the US and, as
a result, 167 thousand children are forced
to grow up without their mothers.
When Sophie, 24, who is sitting next to
Petra, launches into her story, you realize
that she’s lived as fast as she talks. From
her rapid-fire sentences we find out that
her 11 month-old son was born hooked
on the same addictive white powder that
drove his mother to prostitution. Convicted
for selling drugs, Sophie comes from a long
line of marginalized family members who
are no strangers to the correctional system.
62
socieTy
‘ “in most us correctional facilities mothers and their
children are not allowed to be together,” she says.
“some women are incapable of putting motherhood first,
but i’ve met good mothers and stable families among
the inmates.”
’
A victim of child abuse, Sophie was turning
20-dollar tricks before she was picked
up by police. She freely admits that she
needed the help she found in jail. “Being
here saved my life,” she admits. “If it wasn’t
for the doctor’s appointments they made
me go to after I was arrested, my son
would have been born blind.”
Trisha has been sentenced to 18 months.
Less insecure than Sophie, she is a perfect
illustration of the role poverty and crossgenerational
delinquency play in the lives
of these inmates. At 13 she was already an
addict with a mother hooked on heroine
and an alcoholic father. Two fleeting experiences
with motherhood are the closest she
came to having a family relationship.
An inmate and her child in the corridor of the women’s prison in Tires, portugal.
She is tough when she talks and her
words smack of intentional self-flagellation,
as if she thought she deserved all her suffering
and didn’t need anyone to tell her
she’d screwed up. “I’m a 22 year-old junky
and a convict,” she says. “I’m not fit to be
a mother. I’m really sorry about it, but that
doesn’t change anything. Before, if I was
given a choice between coke and my baby,
I would have handed him over in a heartbeat
for a few lines.”
According to the US Department of Justice,
close to two million minors have a parent
in prison. The miles that separate female
inmates from their progeny is one of the
most painful consequences of incarceration,
and one that is attributable to gender. Today,
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
JOSé CARLOS CARVALhO

as in the past, female criminality is much
lower than delinquency among males.
While 58 women out of 100 thousand are
doing time, the figure for men is 896 out
of 100 thousand. Therefore, fewer prisons
are built to house females, and there is
much less likelihood that an inmate will be
incarcerated close to home.
New York was the first state to open a
prison nursery for the inmates’ children in
1902. It would take nearly a century for the
other states to follow suit. Repeating New
York’s former groundbreaking initiative –
but in 1994 – Nebraska opened its first
prison nursery. Since the late 90s, an additional
seven child-care facilities have opened
throughout America’s correctional system.
The Tires correctional establishment for
women in Portugal, inaugurated in 1953,
has always allowed children on the premises.
However, though the country has
considerable experience with children
being raised inside the penitentiary, no
studies have been done to assess the effectiveness
of the measure.
The National Women’s Law Center in
Washington DC notes that between 1980
and 1993 women made up the fastest
growing prison population with a 313%,
growth rate as opposed to the 182%
growth rate for men during the same
period. If we go as far back as the 70s,
we see that the growth rate for female
inmates has ballooned 800 percent.
Besides all the other social constraints
linked to motherhood behind bars, the
American inmates must grapple with another
issue that has been widely overlooked
by the US correctional system which is predominantly
male-directed – distance. Sandra
Enos cites research from 1993 stating that
“more than half the women in prison have
never been visited by their children while
incarcerated.” The distance between their
homes and where they are detained weighs
heavily in the visitation issue: “over 60 percent
of female inmates are over 150 kilometers
away from their families.”
Augustine is another among the countless
women who have forfeited their lives to the
justice system. With a tight black braid
wound as a hairband across her head and a
smoldering look of anger from having spent
the lion’s share of her life in and out of
prison, the 54-year-old is in jail because of
“an accident with drugs.” Her checkered
past includes a 12-year-old son who has
been in and out of foster care since he was
18 months old – all because of cocaine.
They deal to feed their own habits, to
support their families, or cater to their
partner’s addiction. Drug dealing is the
socieTy
“more than half the inmates have never been visited by their children,”
sandra enos states in her study.
common thread that runs through these
women’s lives both in Portugal and in the
United States – in one of the poorest countries
of the European Union and one of
the richest nations in the world.
Augustine is getting out again in four
months. Waiting for her on the outside are
five children and twelve grandchildren. One
of the girls already has a rap sheet; one of
the boys received two death sentences.
After so many years of cumulative prison
time, she knows her script and has her lines
down pat: “I raised my kids the best I
could. If they do what they do, that’s their
responsibility. I only ask the Lord to forgive
me while I try to move forward. But I’ve
been in and out of jail since I was a kid.”
Her narrative is so stark that it reminds
me of one of the ironies that goes along
with this type of life: the more brutal the
memories, the more urgent it is to summarize
them. Most of the women sitting
around me in this room in a Rhode Island
prison portray their pasts as Augustine
does – spewing out their life stories with
such jarring harshness that it seems they
want to stun the listener and divest him
of the urge to judge.
When they open the huge front gate for
me to leave I almost run into a large, smiling
black woman. She reminds me of Adilia,
the Portuguese inmate I spoke to when she
went into labor in the Tires women’s facility
before I left for the States. I can see her
panting with pain in an unbreathably hot
cell. That’s when I decided to learn more
about giving birth in prison.
In Rhode Island the women get their handcuffs
taken off during labor, but are chained
to the bed by the ankle as soon as the baby
is born. That’s the way it’s done in this
prison. In other states, female convicts still
have to give birth with their handcuffs on.
It was as late as 2008 when the Federal
Bureau of Prisons ruled that the shackles
could be removed during labor in state
prisons. According to the National Women’s
Law Center, there is now a more widespread
consensus on the issue, since shackling
made it harder for the obstetrician to
get to the mother and the newborn. But
there is still no national legislation on the
issue, which means that each district can
basically make up its own rules.
The United States and Russia are the counties
with the world’s largest female prisons.
In this Rhode Island correctional facility
there are 6 to 8 women per cell. They are
cramped together in the same space 17
hours a day. Each minute is monitored by
the authorities. They cannot touch each
other or have a cigarette or put on a speck
of make-up. The heat is suffocating. It’s easy
to go crazy in a place like this.
1. To safeguard their privacy, the names of the inmates and
prison guards have been changed.
2. This article has been excerpted from a book on mothers
in the prison system, to be published by Livros de Seda,
Plátano Editora publishers, and a feature article to be published
in the weekly magazine Visão.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 63
DR

64
cuLTure
The seeds that sailed the seas
As Portuguese, we were amazed at the towering height of the virginia tulip tree
and euphoric over being able to grow two “super-trees,” the catalpa and the black locust.
But these American-born beauties never settled here on a large scale as the europeans did
in America. Planted in Portugal over a century ago, these beautiful specimens hark back
to the days of the “plant hunters” whose overseas correspondence was made up of seeds.
TEXT AND PhOTOGRAPhy By susAnA neves*
A virginia tulip tree in monserrate park, sintra, portugal, 2009.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

‘ catalpa-planting fever
first hit the us in 1870
[…] it was described
in portugal’s Journal of
practical Horticulture in
the late 1800s, but there
is no mention of any
large-scale use anywhere
in the country.
’
40 meters tall, the Virginia tulip trees
George Washington planted at Mount
Vernon in 1755 posed an insurmountable
challenge to the most audacious of bees;
so much so, that the grounds keepers had
to resort to the use of a crane to pollinate
the blossoms. “With TV cameras trained
on them, broadcasting the scene live to
millions of viewers, the crane hoisted a
human ‘bee’ to the treetops to pollinate
the flowers by hand.” 1
Basking in all the media attention, the giant
tulip trees – a species that originated in the
Cretaceous period – proved indeed that they
were the “great divas” of the American forest.
Such was their beauty, that in the mid-
19 th century, the horticultural publications
of the time would wax lyrical, calling it “a
celestial tree,” with a trunk that was “beautifully
proportioned and as smooth as a
Greek column,” and “artistic” leaves that
were “shaped like the arabesques of a
Moorish palace,” and with blossoms that
were “like lilies, pleasant to behold (…)
golden and shaded.” Defending their propagation
as an ornamental tree, despite the
notorious difficulties that stood in the way
of their being transplanted, a writer would
add, “Indeed it is easier to walk than it is
to dance, but as all those who wish to display
grace in their movements learn to dance
(...) likewise, all planters who desire to own
a particularly elegant tree, must learn how
to plant the liriodendron (tulip tree).” 2
In Portugal, the specialty papers of the
1800s shared their American counterparts’
enthusiasm for the tulip tree, which was
still uncommon in this country, and
expressed “admiration” for the huge size
and quality of the wood. At the Second
Agricultural Exhibition Porto on November
20, 1860, “a huge plank from a Virginia
tulip tree belonging to the Viscount of
Samodães” stopped visitors in their tracks,
and inspired a reporter from the rural Archive
to write, “this broad plank is notable for the
quality of its wood, which is devoid of knots
cuLTure
A tulip tree in pena national park in sintra.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 65

‘ The existence of these trees in portugal
is linked to the botanical bent of
the upper crust english who lived
in portugal at the time. The members
of the privileged set were determined
to design gardens containing species
that had been discovered under the
patronage of the British aristocracy.
’
and grooves; with the wood being extremely
similar to that of the acacia, but without
its striations and hardness (…) It is a species
worth propagating on a large scale.” 3
Despite the obvious merits of the tulip tree
(which is native to Indiana, Kentucky, and
Tennessee, and was used by the Indians to
make dug-out canoes) and other American
species like the white magnolia, the black
locust, and the catalpa, which were brought
to Portugal throughout the 17 th , 18 th , and
19 th centuries, they were never used on a
66
cuLTure
wide scale or planted
intensively.
Catalpa-planting fever
first hit the US in 1870,
as the species was both
fast-growing and highly-resistant.
Used by
the Muskogee Indians
(also known as the
Creeks), the catalpa
turned out to be a valuable
resource in making
railroad ties for
America’s expanding
railway network. It was
described in Portugal’s Journal of Practical
Horticulture in the late 1800s, but there is
no mention of any large-scale use anywhere
in the country. Even though
Portugal’s inaugural train trip had taken
place on October 28, 1856, the rural
nature of the country led writers to propose
that the northern catalpa be planted
“together with the eucalyptus,” since this
would “clear up humid terrain, lend variety
to the landscape, and contribute greatly
to the country’s material wealth.” 4
detail of a catalpa blossom, 2006.
To some extent, though unconsciously,
they were becoming tacit accomplices to
the destruction of America’s landscape,
which had fallen prey to burgeoning
industrial growth. Dazzled by the prospective
profitability of these “supertrees,”
these writers never once considered
the impact they would have on the country’s
environment.
In an article from the Journal of Practical
Horticulture of 1896, writer M. de Freitas
starts off by praising the ornamental qualities
of the black locust, a native of the
Appalachian Mountains whose leaves have
an “enchanting effect,” and whose flowers
give off a “mild scent” reminiscent of
“orange blossoms.” He concluded that the
black locust tree warranted planting in the
nation’s “woods,” “avenues,” and “public
parks,” as he had seen done in Paris. After
pondering the issue a bit more, he excitedly
proselytizes that they be planted everywhere:
“Landowners, spurred on by the
guarantee of making a profit, should not
disdain this useful advice, but make it their
business to disseminate everywhere this
tree, which today is the most precious one
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

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Blossoms of the black locust tree, 2009.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 67

68
cuLTure
‘ As Jefferson […] and John Adams […] found out
on a visit to several of London’s most famous gardens
in the late 18 th century, ironically, “the english garden is,
in fact, American.
’
of all.” 5 In this case, it was owing to a
general lack of initiative that the black
locust, which is today considered an invasive
species (prohibited by Decree-Law
565/99), did not spread like a plague
throughout Portugal, but remained confined
– as did the tulip trees and catalpas
– to public and private parks, gardens, and
avenues as ornamental trees.
The existence of these trees in Portugal
is linked to the botanical bent of the upper
crust English who lived in Portugal at the
time. The members of the privileged set
were determined to design gardens containing
species that had been discovered
under the patronage of the British aristocracy.
Indeed, the monied classes, along
with British botanists, and even the British
monarchy had been long-time investors
and sponsors of countless botanical expeditions,
which included the journeys of
discovery carried out by two of the world’s
most tireless plant-hunters: the American
John Bartram, who brought the white
magnolia to Europe, and Mark Catesby,
British naturalist, illustrator and author of
the Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the
Bahama Islands (1731-1743), the first book
to contain colored plates of North
American flora and fauna, and the man
who “discovered” the catalpa while roaming
the wilds of Georgia and Alabama.
So, it is no surprise that one of the regular
contributors to the Journal of Practical
Horticulture, with a number of essays on the
trees of America, was the Englishman
William C. Tait, whose garden in Porto
was nothing short of a botany collection,
and today is home to one of the oldest
tulip trees in Portugal – 250 years old to
be precise. The Monserrate Park in Sintra,
formerly owned by Sir Francis Cook
(1817-1901), can also boast a giant tulip
tree, magnolias, and species from a number
of other continents. This imposing
park was designed with the help of landscape
painter William Stockdale, botanist
William Nevill, and James Burt, the master
gardener of Kew Gardens.
It is also strikes no one as odd that there
are American species in Pena National Park
in Sintra, where a majestic tulip tree holds
court along with a sequoia, and a giant
American arbor vitae. The Park’s main men-
tors, Fernando II, the royal consort and his
second wife, the Countess of Elda, both
cultivated an interest in botany to the extent
that they symbolically planted a eucalyptus
in Pena Park on the day of their wedding
– June 10, 1869. And they had the good
fortune of having as a friend the American
forestry specialist John Slade, the brotherin-law
of the monarch’s young wife.
As Jefferson, at the time America’s minister
to France, and John Adams, US minister
to the Court of St. James found out
on a visit to several of London’s most
famous gardens in the late 18th century,
ironically, “the English garden is, in fact,
American.” 6 Many of the shrubs and trees
had been sent from North America as
seeds by John Bartram, in what came to
be known as “Bartram’s boxes,” which
bore scores of American specimens to
both the European mainland and England.
In 1765 King George III granted the
American-born botanist an annual pension
of £50, to serve as “the King’s Botanist in
North America,” a post he would hold
until his death in 1777.
From his home in Philadelphia, Bartram
corresponded with Mark Catesby as he
trekked through America’s colonial heartland
discovering trees that no-one but the native
Americans had ever laid eyes on, like the
catalpa, which in Creek means “winged
head,” owing to the shape of its blossoms.
Catesby was known as a man of few words,
which must have been a great relief to the
Native Americans whose agricultural and
botanical acumen he was wise enough to
tap. However, several commentators have
noted that Catesby also expresses discouragement
in his writings. The reason is that the
naturalist had come to realize that the
European settlers had grown indifferent to
America’s natural wonders, which even
before the Catesby death in 1749, they had
relentlessly begun to destroy.
1. PAKENHAM, Thomas, “Le Tour du Monde en 80 Arbres”,
Éditions du Chêne, 2002, pg. 100.
2. “Shade-Trees in Cities”, Rural Essays, DOWNING, A. J.,
Geo. A. Leavitt, New York, 1869, pgs. 316-318 [Google
Livros].
3. “Impressões da Exposição Agrícola Portuense”, LAPA,
J. L. Ferreira, Archivo Rural, 1860, vol. 3, pg. 373 [Google
Livros].
4. “As Catalpas”, KNOTT, Edmond, Jornal de Horticultura
Prática, vol. X, 1879, pgs. 66, 67 and 68. Another interesting
article is: “A Catalpa Bignonioides como Árvore
Económica”, TAIT, William C., Jornal de Horticultura Prática,
vol. XVIII, 1887, pg. 153. [online: FUNDO ANTIGO,
Faculdade de Ciências Universidade do Porto].
5. “Robinia Pseudo-Acacia,” FREITAS, M. de, Jornal de
Horticultura Prática, vol. XVII, 1886, pgs. 198-200 [online:
FUNDO ANTIGO, Faculdade de Ciências Universidade
do Porto].
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

cuLTure
The catalpa with its heart-shaped leaves and suspended fruits and flowers, adorning a street in Lisbon, 2009.
6. “The Founding Fathers and Their Gardens,” DEITZ, Paula, Sunday
Book review, NYTimes.com, May 6, 2011, in a review of
the book Founding Gardeners - The revolutionary Generation, Nature,
and the Shaping of the American Nation,” WULF, Andrea, Alfred
A. Knopf, New York, 2011.
The following are the scientific names and respective
families of the three main trees discussed in this article:
the tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera L., Magnoliaceae), the
catalpa (Catalpa Speciosa and Bignonioides, Bignoniaceae) and the
black locust tree (robinia Pseudoacacia L. Fabaceae).
* Since 2007, Susana Neves has written a monthly chronicle on
the history of trees in Portugal for the magazine Tempo Livre,
published by the Fundação Inatel. Since 2010, she has been designing
a project for the Douro Museum called The Trees that Ate Paper,
an ethno-botanical, photographic initiative involving the Douro
region’s arboreal heritage. Neves represented Portugal at the
“Kulturnatten” (Culture Night) in Copenhagen with her “Trip
To the South Pollen – Photographic Work, 2007-
2009”. She has displayed over 100 photographs at solo shows
in Lisbon and at the first edition of Land Art in Cascais.
susanaseven@gmail.com
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 69

DR
70
cuLTure
Today’s dabneys get a fresh look
at the family history
Fred Dabney leafs through the pages where line after line and chapter after chapter run
on in Portuguese. Although his ancestors spent eight decades in the Azores, the 65-year-old
American can’t make out the words, but he does recognize the most important word
on the cover: Dabney. Cradling the book as if it were a baby, he smiles and says,
“What a marvelous thing this book is! We hope it gets translated into english.”
By mArinA ALmeidA
Fred and Kate dabney holding the portuguese edition of the Dabney Family Annals. They are anxiously
awaiting publication of the english version, which is slated for launching in the us in 2012.
It’s March and Fred and his wife Kate are
in the Azores Room at the New Bedford
Whaling Museum at an event to launch the
Portuguese anthology of the Dabney Family
Annals. Dominating the room is an enormous
model of the Lagoda, the world’s
largest model of a whaling ship. All around
are accounts of life at sea and the whaling
industry, which for decades joined both
sides of the Atlantic. Showcases contain
objects that bear witness to the bonds that
connected America to Portugal in the past.
Fred is the distant nephew of Charles
William Dabney, the second of three consuls
who represented American interests in Faial
from 1806 to 1892. Neatly placed on the
showcases’ shelves are bits and pieces of
his family’s history and the history of the
Azores, a wave from the past that swept
across the Atlantic.
The anthology collected by this American
family was put out by Tinta da China publishers
with FLAD funding the research. This
latest edition is an abridged version of the
three-volume collection of documents compiled
by Roxana Dabney. The long-deceased
cousin of Fred’s set about putting together
the huge collection of sundry correspondence
in 1892 after the family had returned
to the US. By the time she was done, she
had 1,797 pages that filled three volumes.
Fred recognizes that it’s a lot of information
to digest, but he is more than willing to
reconnect with a past that time constraints
and the pressures of modern life have kept
at a distance. “We have a copy of the original
Annals at home,” he says “but I’ve had
a hard time persuading my daughters to
read it; there’s too much to read! It’s interesting
but hard to read. I’m really looking
forward to the abridged version,” he says,
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

‘ one thing is to learn about
your family history, another
thing is to visit the places
themselves. i was really
touched by the way my
family was treated in the
Azores. We felt honored,
as if we hadn’t paid enough
attention to our past. We
have to give our younger
family members a good
shake so that they go and
see it for themselves.
’
Fred dabney
his blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm,
an emotion that Kate, who is standing by
him, shares.
Across the Atlantic at the same hour,
researchers Maria Filomena Mónica and
Paulo Silveira e Sousa are probably poring
over the reams of pages in the original
Annals. They are working on a new abridged
edition of the letters that family, friends,
and acquaintances exchanged with the
Dabneys over the 86-year period the family
was in the Azores. The outcome will be
an English edition that is reader-friendly.
The documents going into the anthology
will also be different from those in the
Portuguese version because, in this case,
“the target readership” will be different.
Apparently, the preface, written by Maria
Filomena Mónica, is done and is being
translated. The correspondence that will go
into the book has also been selected. “I’ve
already reviewed the translation of my preface
for the English-language edition, and
the translator is finishing up the notes. Paulo
has already cut what he had to. Naturally,
we’ve selected different passages to put more
emphasis on the letters that deal with the
Civil War ... and the notes are being inserted,”
the researcher told us.
So a version that Fred Dabney will be
able to read, and one that may pique his
daughters’ interest in the family’s past is
now taking shape. The book will most
likely be called The Dabney’s – a Bostonian
Family in Portugal. The new edition’s intended
readership, according to FLAD admin-
cuLTure
The Azores room of the new Bedford Whaling museum houses items belonging to the Faial dabneys
such the cap and braid of the second us consul in Faial, charles William dabney (1794-1871),
Fred’s distant uncle.
istrator Mario Mesquita, will be Portuguese
descendants and anybody else interested
in the topic. The new volume, containing
close to 400 pages, is slated to be launched
in 2012.
The new book has created some excitement
among the family, who seem to be
taking a greater interest in their ancestors’
sojourn in Faial. Fred and Kate made their
first visit to the Azores in 2007, and will
probably be returning next year on a trip
sponsored by the New Bedford Whaling
Museum. As Fred remarked, “One thing is
to learn about your family history, another
thing is to visit the places themselves. I was
really touched by the way my family was
treated in the Azores. We felt honored, as
if we hadn’t paid enough attention to our
past. We have to give our younger family
members a good shake so that they go and
see it for themselves.” That’s why he hopes
to organize a trip with his children and
cousins next summer.
Fred has a hot house a few miles from
New Bedford where he devotes his time to
horticulture. That’s why his family’s experience
in the islands holds additional fascination.
“The Azores is a great place to visit
because there are plants from virtually every
continent brought in by the sea captains
who stopped there over the years,” he tells
us. This modern-day Dabney recently discovered
his island-dwelling cousins’ penchant
for botany and the new plant life they
brought to Faial. At one of the family estates
in Horta, the Bagatelle, he was captivated by
the gardens, “I was amazed that many of
the original plants are still there, despite the
years of neglect,” he said. It probably
wouldn’t have been hard for him to envision
a scenario like the one described by American
writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who
spent a year in Faial in the mid-1850s: “It
would be hard to exaggerate the singular
beauty of the Dabneys’ gardens; each step
is a new foray into the tropics – a palm, a
magnolia, a camphor, and a dragon tree...”
As a horticulturist, Fred longs to link the
past with the present in his own special way.
“I would love to re-establish a link with
those original seeds and plant them here,”
he muses, particularly the recently-christened
Veronica Dabney, an endemic species
currently housed in the rare seed bank of
the Faial Botanical Gardens.
Without suspecting it, Fred was the center
of attention at the dinner with Portuguese
and Americans in the Azores Room of the
New Bedford Whaling Museum, a place that,
in the words of Portuguese Consul Graça
Fonseca, “celebrates the Portuguese-speaking
world.” Fred heard the speakers assert that
the Dabneys had been “a driving force in
the Azores of that era,” and that the Annals
were “a work of myriad voices.” The dinner
was preceded by a visit through the museum
with its director, James Russell, acting
as guide. No doubt Fred went home full of
pride in his family and anxious to return to
the Azores, because at one point he commented,
“There’s just so much history we
still don’t know about.”
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 71
DR

‘ in the attic in massachusetts
there were “mysterious crates
containing the consul’s ceremonial cap
and sword, a model of a portuguese
whaling ship, and lots of packets of
letters that had been sent by boat”.
’
sally dabney parker
mysTery Boxes
And memorABiLiA
Ceaseless curiosity is something Sally
Dabney Parker has had all her life. She
has researched the family history for
years, and was glad to receive this writer’s
question-filled e-mail. “It’s good
news to know someone is interested in
the Dabneys and their descendants,” she
says. She has spent “years” examining the
items she inherited and entrusting the
documents and objects she owns to the
in 1862, the Horta Town council donated a burial plot
to the family. Two of the fourteen graves belong to the first two
us consuls, John Bass and charles William dabney. This year
the local authorities rehabilitated the spot and published
a small brochure on the dabneys, focusing on the plot
in the carmo cemetery.
72
cuLTure
“right museums.” At 72,
Sally is currently finishing
up a biography of her
great grandfather, Frank
Dabney (1873-1934).
Sally’s childhood was
like something out of C.
S. Lewis, replete with
attics full of strange, dusty
boxes that, when opened
by the children, revealed
wondrously mysterious
objects from far away
times and places. Like
Sally, many of the other Dabneys of her
generation grew up hearing about the
enchanting lives of their ancestors on
Faial. “Many of our homes had a photograph
of the Bagatelle, or a portrait. In
our case, it was a picture of Francis Oliver
Dabney, Roxanna’s brother. There were
other unusual objects like a replica of the
Bagatelle in porcelain, half of an ivory
chessboard, a complete sewing box that
came from the Fredonia, and linen cloths
in “sieve” embroidery (a complex embroidery
technique developed in
northern Portugal). In the attic
in Massachusetts there were
“mysterious crates containing
the consul’s ceremonial cap
and sword, a model of a
Portuguese whaling ship, and
lots of packets of letters that
had been sent by boat.” When
Sally was a little girl, her great
aunt Edith Dabney Ford gave
her scores of objects that had
come to the US from the family’s
estates in Faial. Many of
them had once belonged to
Sariha Dabney, a sister of
Edith’s who had died at 16,
and whose initials – S. D. –
Sally shared.
From a childhood spent
among mysterious objects,
crates in the attic, and a collection
of memorabilia from
a long-dead relative who
shared her initials, grew a passionate
curiosity about the
past that Sally has nurtured
throughout her life. After her
children had grown, she started
working in an architect’s
studio where she began to
uncover the family’s history.
Apparently, when they
returned to the US in 1892,
the Dabneys settled in
California where, as Sally
recounts, “The climate
sally dabney, 72, has spent years researching
the family’s history and heritage. every year she
and her cousins meet to reminisce and exchange
old family photos. sally is currently finishing a
biography of her great-grandfather Frank dabney.
reminded them of the Azores.” There, one
of the recent arrivals built the Fayal Ranch.
The following generations (Frank, Bert,
and John) also fared well: one built a winery
and later a railway line in California;
while another one devoted himself to the
import-export business and the third to
architecture. “All of the boys got a college
education, most from Harvard and two
from MIT.”
Sally Dabney has donated most of the
objects and letters to the Peabody Essex
Museum in Salem. She refuses to let such
a fascinating past fall into oblivion. Every
year, she and two cousins get together
to bridge the time warp by remembering
stories, and exchanging photos and family
treasures. And like Fred, Sally also
made the pilgrimage to Faial, but in
1974. “I went with my mother, brother,
and cousin – all Dabneys. We had a beautiful
tour inside the Bagatelle and the
Cedars. But then there was a kind of
Communist take-over that week, and we
were advised to leave immediately. What
an adventure!” she writes from her summer
home in Maine, many miles away,
and many years removed from the treasures
in the attic.
DR
one of sally’s treasures: an 1862 medal won
by c.W. dabney & sons of Faial at a wine
competition in London.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
DR

cuLTure
The Bagatelle:
a possible public landmark
The Bagatelle, the famed Dabney home
in Horta, was the first family dwelling
built. Between 1812 and 1814, master
carpenters travelled from America to erect
the estate, the permanent residence of a
successful, cosmopolitan American family
that would change the face of the
island. It also marked a change in style
in the Azores, with its New England
architectural features. With three stories,
an ample balcony hanging over the
porch, and sash and bay windows, the
home commanded a breathtaking view
of the channel and Pico Island. Obscured
by unchecked vegetation, it still exists as
#19, Rua de São Paulo; but the huge pink
fairy-tale mansion is slowly crumbling,
althoug its current owners put it to sale
as did the owners of the erstwhile Dabney
residence, the Fredonia, which is now a
playschool. Another former residence, the
Cedars, is currently the official residence
of the president of the Azores Legislative
Assembly, and the family’s vacation home
in Porto Pim has gone from being a ruin
to what will likely become a museum
about the archipelago, thanks to the
regional environmental and maritime
authorities.
Horta’s town council explains that the
Bagatelle occupies a city block in the
parish of Mártires, has not been classified
as a public landmark, but that “the Horta
urban development plan approved last
year has allowed for the possibility of its
being classified.”
Questioned about the dilapidated state
of the building and the neglect suffered
by the whole city lock on which the oncecharming
grounds are located – 500 m 2
of building space and 1,500 m 2 of gardens
- the city authorities claim they are “naturally
worried about the state of this and
other historical buildings in
Horta. Over the years we have
been working – not only to
define the boundaries of the
historical quarter of the city –
but to design a recovery strategy
for it.”
The Horta Town Council also
seems to have recognized the
diamond in the rough sitting
squarely within the city: one
that can encourage more cultural
tourism once the link
between the Dabneys and the
whaling culture that joined
Faial and New Bedford has
been explored. In September of
2009, we brought the public’s
attention to the dilapidated
state of the Dabney family plot
in the Carmo Municipal
Cemetery. Since then, the mayor’s
office has informed us that
it has not only repaired and
recovered the plot, but “published
a small brochure about
the historical spot. The brochure
was distributed to a
group representing the New
Bedford Whaling Museum that
visited Faial recently to promote
cultural tourism.”
The American family now reposes
in the memory and in the deep
black earth of Faial. Fourteen
graves lie in the most tuckedaway
corner of the cemetery. To
reach it you must climb to the
top of the cemetery and look for
the marker – a stately palm tree
– that over the years has thrived
on the family’s history in order
to touch the sky.
‘ Bagatelle [...] marked a change in
style in the Azores, with its new
england architectural features. With
three stories, an ample balcony
hanging over the porch, and
sash and bay windows, the home
commanded a breathtaking view
of the channel and pico island.
’
Today in ruins, the Bagatelle was the dabney’s legendary
home in Horta. The Town council admits to being worried
about its condition, and states that it may be classified
as a local landmark in the future.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 73
DR

DR
It’s been nine years, so José Luís Peixoto’s
memory is not standing up to my third
degree. In 2002, he was the first Portuguese
writer to take advantage of the Ledig House’s
residency program, as part of an initiative
sponsored by the General Directorate for
Books and Libraries (Portuguese acronym
DGLB). He’s a man with a full plate, but I
persisted and he took the time to answer
via e-mail: “I remember a house surrounded
by beautiful scenery with all the colors
74
cuLTure
The writing retreat
Since 1992, Ledig House writers-in-residence program has hosted hundreds
of creative writers from around the world. At this idyllic colony in the Hudson valley,
authors and translators find the ideal setting and the time
to put their brightest ideas on paper.
By cArLA mAiA de ALmeidA
of autumn.” The memories return. “And I
remember the dinners, the times we were
all together and how we ended up sharing
a bit of what we were doing. And then there
was my room, where I spent most of the
time writing.”
The house, the long stretches of time,
the interpersonal experiences. Nine years
after Ledig House, José Luís Peixoto talks
about the three most important things he
recalls, like the other writers, as we will
Ledig House with its lush lawn, overlooking the Hudson valley.
soon see. “Mainly I remember the people
I got to meet,” he adds. “Ali Smith, the
Scottish writer, who I’m still in touch
with, and Ellen Miller from the US who
passed away at such a young age.” He
doesn’t remember the routine or the
methodical passing of the eight weeks he
worked on the draft of Cemitério de Pianos
(The Piano Cemetery), the novel he would
finish four years later. “I can’t even
remember what the most productive phase
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

was,” he admits. Prior to his stay at Ledig
House, he had published two books of
poetry and his popular debut novel Nenhum
olhar, which was printed in the US as The
Implacable order of Things.
Like José Luís Peixoto, Rui Zink and Inês
Pedrosa also had books published in English
after being at Ledig House. “The idea
behind these programs, is to gain a foothold
in the American market, because of
the importance of the English language,”
the head of the DGLB, Ana Castro, explains.
Though it is not the main feature of the
writers-in-residence programs – at least as
far as the personal experiences of the writers
themselves is concerned – the DGLB’s
programs promoting translation of
Portuguese works is also part of the organization’s
drive to disseminate Portuguese
authors abroad. Or at least it used to be.
By October, 2010, the DGLB’s functions
were already severely curtailed after a year
of drastic budget cuts. Things only got
worse in 2011, after the government fell
and the country ground to a standstill.
DGLB programs such as its landmark
“itinerant” program for local libraries,
aimed at encouraging reading, were suspended,
as were the literary residency programs,
despite the increase in applications.
“There was a real upswing in the last two
years,” explains Assunção Mendonça, a
member of the DGLB, who helps process
the applications. “That’s word-of-mouth
in action.”
The year José Luís Peixoto was attending
the Ledig House’s inaugural program, Paulo
Moreiras was coming out with his historical
novel A Demanda de D. Fuas Bragatela, the
precursor to his novel os Dias de Saturno.
Moreiras would be one of the last writers
to receive DGLB backing, like João Tordo,
last year’s Ledig fellow. At the time Moreiras
was working on his still-unpublished third
historical novel set in Portugal during the
Liberal Wars. His stay at Ledig House was
the tipping point for the book. “When I
left, I already had an idea about how the
whole book would go. I’d done the research
and sketched out a bit of the text. At Ledig,
I managed to write several chapters and
flesh them out, which would have been
harder and taken longer otherwise. The fact
that I had so much time to work allowed
me to hone the text I was writing. I’d write,
then always review it. You had time to do
everything. What a blessing!”
Even the writers who put their trust in
that incorporeal entity commonly known
as “inspiration,” know that no book rises
from the dark depths of the drawer to the
heights of public notice without grueling,
cuLTure
“i remember a house, surrounded by beautiful scenery with all the colors of autumn,”
recalls writer José Luís peixoto.
‘ The idea behind these programs,
is to gain a foothold in the American
market, because of the importance
of the english language.
’
Ana castro, DGLB
tiring, exhausting and – let’s admit it –
plodding work. It may not be as stultifying
as a postal worker’s routine but, most
of the time, it’s also not the romantic life
of Lord Byron. But can you get back into
the swing of things when you’re jetlagged,
and in a different room, house,
and, country? It depends on a number of
factors, including the organizational mindset
of the writer and at what stage he is
in the work. Paulo Moreiras had no trouble
getting up at 6 a.m. again, as he always
had in Portugal. “I was always the first
one up; I’d watch the deer walking in the
garden, have breakfast, and watch the sun
rise. At about 7, I’d start to write.
Dinnertime, when we’d all get together
to socialize, was our only commitment.
So I had hours upon hours to work and
polish the text.”
As a writer, David Machado is also persistent
and methodical. “I took the first
chapter of Deixem Falar as
Pedras with me and had a
very concrete idea about
how the rest of the book
would go. I’d get up
between 7 and 8 and
work 8 hours straight
with a short break for
lunch. Every once in a
while I’d take a long walk
over the grounds and in
the surrounding woods.
I didn’t work at night because I don’t like
to.” He was at Ledig House for a month
– the usual time – and it was only around
the fourth week that his enthusiasm started
to wane. “I was most productive at the
beginning. When I got there, I luxuriated
in all the silence; everything was so peaceful
and calm. I felt it and started to work
non-stop. I’m the kind of person who
makes plans like ‘if I write four pages a
day, I’ll have X number of pages a month
from now.’ But it didn’t turn out that way
because the pace changed.”
With the exception of José Luís Peixoto,
who doesn’t believe that writing away
from home is “particularly advantageous,”
all the writers interviewed by Parallel found
that the creative process was enhanced by
the unfamiliarity of their new surroundings.
David Machado was already far into
the creative phase for Deixem Falar as Pedras,
and it was in the house on the Hudson
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 75
DR

DR
that he got the idea for his children’s book
A Mala Assombrada, which was published
almost simultaneously. “Being so far away
helped a lot, especially before the writing
stage when I’m putting my ideas together
and thinking things over, because it
provides you with a mindset different
from the one you’d have ordinarily,”
Machado explains.
Pedro Almeida Vieira’s case was also
unusual. He arrived at Ledig in May, 2006,
six months after publishing o Profeta do
Castigo Divino and completing work on o
vermelho e o Negro. “Most of the times I write
at a fever pitch and finish a novel in six
months. Maybe I felt weird for being such
a long time in a strange place. During the
four weeks I was there I devoted my time
mostly to reading and jotting down ideas
for the novel I was preparing [A Mão
76
paulo moreiras in the Ledig House kitchen,
taking a break from work.
cuLTure
esquerda de Deus, 2009].
There were obvious benefits
to being in another
environment – but it was
more on a mental and
emotional level – than
where the writing per se
was concerned.” He
remembers the premises,
“which are gorgeous,” and
nighttime “when the writers
would gather around
the table, chat and eat the
amazing fare put together
by the Portuguese cook.”
Did he get homesick? “Not
in the least. What I miss
sometimes is not being there again.”
From 2002 to 2004, in a joint initiative,
the DGLB and Ledig House granted an
annual residency fellowship. José Luís
Peixoto received the first grant followed
by Rui Zink in 2003 and José Riço
Direitinho in 2004. After that, two residencies
were granted per year – one in
the spring and the other in the fall. In
2005, the Portuguese writers-in-residence
were Jacinto Lucas Pires and Pedro Rosa
Mendes and in 2006, Pedro Almeida Vieira
and Ondjaki. In 2007, Inês Pedrosa and
Filipa Melo were given the chance to stay
at the Omi, New York writer’s colony.
“Sometimes it was hard for people to
organize their lives so they could stay away
for a whole month; but there was never
a year when we didn’t attribute the residency,”
Ana Castro explains. One of the
‘ i was always the first one up; i’d watch the
deer walking in the garden, have breakfast,
and watch the sun rise. At about 7, i’d start
to write. […] so i had hours upon hours
to work and polish the text.
moreiras
’ paulo
‘ mainly i remember the people i got
to meet. Luís peixoto
’ José
reasons the program is so successful,
Maria Carlos Loureiro a DGLB administrator
adds, is that “there’s very little red tape
involved in the application process and
the requirements.” Unlike other creative
writing grants, where money is disbursed
for a given work, this one works along
lines that are not so rigid and institutional.
“The program came about because
writers need their own space. There were
never throngs of people applying like a
school of sharks circling a minnow. We
really only had to make a choice two or
three times when more than one person
applied the same season.” But the relaxed
atmosphere has not kept the writers from
honoring their commitments. “Everyone
produced work and everyone wrote out
a report when they arrived,” Maria Carlos
Loureiro adds. And when the book is published,
the DGLB’s support is mentioned
in the acknowledgments.
David Machado was at Ledig House for
a month in the spring of 2009, the year
Luísa Costa Gomes was there. “I was there
for only 15 days in September,” Gomes
recounts. In her suitcase was the translation
of a short story and the play o Príncipe
de Hamburgo. “The second week was my
most productive. I finished everything I
brought with me and still had time to get
started on something else.” Fifteen days
may sound like too little; but 15 days with
few distractions, interruptions, phone
calls, and e-mails – and the other niggling
duties that to the writer seem as if he were
the manager of a small, solitary empire
“Fifteen days may sound like too little; but fifteen days without
distractions (…) can ultimately be worth three or four times that,”
says writer Luísa costa Gomes, recalling Ledig House.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
DR

The simple, spartan dinner table, where the Ledig House guests
enjoyed meals cooked by their portuguese chef.
‘ There was a critic from the Wine spectator
in our group, so the stakes were high,
but the portuguese wines got two
thumbs up.
moreiras
’ paulo
– can ultimately be worth three or four
times that. “A blessing,” as Paulo Moreiras
would say. Luísa Costa Gomes adds, “For
me it was moving to hear someone say,
‘tell us what you need and we’ll get it for
you; your job is to write.’ A woman
doesn’t get to hear that very often. At one
point, I was craving fresh blueberries, and
I always had a stock of them in the fridge!
It was ‘Old Jim’ and his son who did the
shopping. There was a day when a bunch
of us – women writers and poets – had
to go off to the mall, because we missed
going to the supermarket.”
In addition to all the free time, which
she dubbed “extremely beneficial,” Luísa
Costa Gomes recalls how the management
of the Ledig House always made themselves
available: D.W. Gibson (“Young, cultured,
cheerful, happy, committed, and affectionate”),
who organized the activities and was
the intermediary between the institution
and the residents; and the cook who had
a Portuguese background, Rita Soares-Kern.
She was also taken by the “austere comfort”
of the house, the “old, bare-bones furni-
cuLTure
ture, lots of windows, lots of trees, and lots
of wild critters. You almost feel like a real
American author.”
Paulo Moreiras also won’t forget Rita
Soares-Kern. The author’s penchant for fine
food (a redeeming quality rather than a
fault) is no secret. “I learned a lot of tricks
and exchanged loads of recipes with Rita,”
the author of elogio da Ginja tells us. D.W.
Gibson confirms the fact: “He would help
her out a lot and we got used to seeing him
in the kitchen. He’s a great example of community
spirit at work in Ledig House.” The
crowning glory, Paulo Moreiras tells us, was
a collectively cooked dinner of fava beans
with smoked sausage, pork-belly, and bottles
of Portuguese wine they serendipitously
came across in a nearby store. “There was
a critic from the Wine Spectator in our group,
so the stakes were high, but the Portuguese
wines got two thumbs up.”
Aside from the group dinners, a diplomatic
obligation that soon turned into a
source of pleasure and even an informal
kind of group therapy (at the end of a day
of routine, the writers and translators were
‘ Being so far away helped a lot, especially
before the writing stage when i’m putting
my ideas together and thinking things over,
because it provides you with a mindset
different from the one you’d have ordinarily.
’
david machado
“An awesome experience,” is how paulo moreiras (left)
describes his stay at the writer’s retreat.
able to share their doubts and dilemmas),
on the weekends the Ledig House held
informal get-togethers with guests from
the New York publishing world. It was
this spirit of literary give-and-take that
led to the founding of the House, which
was based on the efforts of German publisher
Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, who
lent his name to the retreat. The resident
writers and translators –never more than
ten at a time – also have to present work
before the local community. “When I took
part in a public reading, I realized how
much curiosity and interest there was in
the Portuguese language,” Paulo Moreiras
says. The hardest part may be going home,
despite how much the writers miss their
families and the taste of delicious plate of
salt cod. The author of Os Dias Saturno had
a harder time with the jet lag coming
back. “But after two weeks, I started working
again full throttle, but I missed that
magnificent experience.” On this score,
all the writers agree. After all, without
experiencing life, there’s really nothing to
write.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 77
DR
DR

Seated in his regal chair, King Luis I of Portugal listens rapt to
the adventures of the inveterate seductress Laureana, who was
in turn seduced by Giovellino, the lyrical persona of the Count
of Florence.
The plot of the opera by Augusto Machado (1845-1924) unfolds
in four acts and six scenes. The libretto, by Jean-Jacques Magne
and A. Guiou is taken from the novel Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré
by Georges Sand and Paul Maurice. Dedicated to His Majesty Luis
I, the opera debuted on March 1, 1884 at the São Carlos National
Theater and today warrants a place of honor in the history books
as a milestone in... Portuguese telecommunications.
‘ His majesty was able to happily hear the whole opera,
in the comfort of his own home, without the customary
courtly etiquette and gris perle gloves of the royal
box, seated on his throne draped in his ermine mantle,
or tucked in bed with a woolen cap on his head,
depending on his wishes and bodily needs.
’
António Maria magazine, March 6
Still in mourning for his sister, Maria Ana de Bragança, Princess
of Saxony, and unable to leave the palace, the king decided to
commission an audition of the opera live via the theaterphone, a
recent invention by Clément Ader, first tested in Paris in 1881.
Placed in a semi-circle downstage on pedestals with rubber
feet to absorb vibration, six microphones – powered by three
sets of serial-connected batteries, alternating every 20 minutes
to guarantee power input stability – performed the miracle of
capturing and transmitting the performance. Thus, the king and
queen were able to accompany the opera from start to finish,
despite intermittent distortions, soundbursts, and the odd clunker
produced by the orchestra, singers, and chorus.
In the March 6th edition of the almanac António Maria, Rafael
Bordalo Pinheiro published a caricature that was to immortalize
the event. The caption, by Alfredo de Morais Pinto, whose pen
name was Pan, quipped: “His Majesty was able to happily hear
the whole opera, in the comfort of his own home, without the
customary courtly etiquette and gris perle gloves of the royal box,
78
riGHT To WriTe D.R.
“Laureana,” the theaterphone,
and a king’s pioneering spirit
mAnueL siLvA pereirA*
seated on his throne draped in his ermine mantle, or tucked in
bed with a woolen cap on his head, depending on his wishes
and bodily needs.”
Spurred on by success, the Teatro São Carlos promoted its 1885
opera season with opera lovers being able to subscribe to the
theaterphone. For 180 thousand reis, the listener got 90 recitals.
It didn’t matter whether the subscriber lived in Palhavã, Olivais,
or Braço de Prata, because the soundwaves generated by the Ader
device arrived in perfect condition.
According to the Le Times, for this huge achievement, the director
of the Edison Gower Bell Company, who installed the dedicated
phone line between Teatro de São Carlos and
the royal palace in Ajuda would later be dec-
orated with the Military Order of Christ!
The system was only commercialized in
France in 1890, five years later, and though
the monarch’s other deeds may have been
relegated to the dustbin of history, this
delightful caprice of music-lover Luis the
First is mentioned in a number of sources.
Less widely publicized though was the interest
and admiration the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York displayed toward this
breakthrough Lusitanian invention.
For almost eight decades now opera has
been broadcast live over the radio, allowing millions of listeners
to enjoy the best productions around. And in 2002, some of the
world’s major opera productions, staged in countless theaters
and concert halls, began to be televised in HD-TV from and to
nearly 40 countries around the world.
Interested in tracing the history of this new cycle of globalization,
which has sparked the interest of opera lovers and captured
new audiences worldwide, the MET – and particularly the people
responsible for their Live in HD program- once again resuscitated the
story of Adler’s theaterphone and the Portuguese king’s daring
initiative. When I personally contacted our only opera house to
obtain some names and addresses, and to ask for their help in
doing some in-depth research into their files, I was dumbfounded
by their off-putting response, “Don’t tell me we’re going to
have to write down the whole history for you!,” they grumbled.
So much for the pioneering spirit!
* Former aide to the Portuguese embassy in Washington DC and to the Portuguese UN Mission
in New York.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

cuLTure
Writers
sylvia plath and
the Falsity of the suicide myth
My image of Sylvia Plath (n. 1932), is
draped in a false suicide myth – like
Marilyn Monroe and James Dean – relentlessly
repeated by the voracious literary
and media machines. It is true that she
killed herself, in 1963, at the age of 30,
in a frigid February in Primrose Hill,
London, in the place she dreamed of living
– a flat formerly inhabited by the poet
Yeats. But she didn’t only die; she lived
and wrote. She had just divorced Ted
Hughes, a poet enthralled by astrology
and the occult, who was later accused of
thwarting her literary attempts, even
though he did publish her poems, a diary,
stories and correspondence. Like Dylan
Thomas, another author she admired,
Sylvia was born on October 27, in Boston.
She was young and tulip-skinned with
quick, restless hands that could not disguise
a tracery of delicate blue veins.
I envision her speeding on a bicycle over
a mantle of dry leaves or leaping over stones
as one bestriding a fish. I hear her obsessively
laughing in metallic bursts with the
water at her waist, when love, overwhelmingly
material, comes too late in “bits of
sweetened blood.” I see the shadow and
light that made her depart, not only because
lovers are not bonded forever, but because
her feet were veiled by the shroud of a
hollow world and her eyes were hollowedout
orbs. She is there studying and reading,
turned in on her writing and the words
and gestures of others who were absent and
fated not to return.
Sylvia in her negative narcissism and
overwhelming talent did not deem herself
sufficient. Yet she believed she was a
genius and said so in a letter to her mother.
She rationalized her need to escape and
yearned to write with “more inventiveness
than God.” She sought the comforting crib
By AnA mArques GAsTão
Sylvia Plath
of long-lost paternal warmth, and believed
that the world was driven by hard work
and dreams; she heard footsteps and voices
and was inhabited by lunar cries: “If I
sit still and don’t do anything, the world
goes on beating like a slack drum, without
meaning.” (Journal, 2/25/1956).
Like Faust, she knew that there was a
“quagmire at the foot of the mountain,”
yet she could not bear the draining toil her
work demanded. She left her life behind
with no soothing balms or purges; the
white lily of her sublimely ferocious pencil
describing a wounded body with biletinged
tears and words from a bottomless
abyss. As in the Bell Jar, her seeming selfrevelations
were, in reality symbolic, colloquial
and pregnant with metaphors and
transformed her mal-adjustment and
strangeness into something that did not
belong to her. And that is why she allowed
herself to depart and chose to write “in
line with the Poundian legacy between
emotion and intellect” (Mário Avelar, Sylvia
Plath, o rosto oculto do Poeta com uma antologia
poética bilingue, Edições Cosmos, 1997), and
then die: “O my God, what am I. That these
late mouths should cry open. In a forest of
frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.” (“Poppies
in October” 1962)
If anyone can actually be a poem, Sylvia
Plath was Lady Lazarus, the title of a poetic
monologue written eleven days after Daddy
in October of 1962, that talks about once
again being begrudgingly brought back
from the brink of death: “Dying/Is an art,
like everything else, I do it exceptionally
well.” The verses are pervaded by pain,
wit, and irony and pierced through and
through by a kind of morbid joy, a sulphuric
clamor, and haughtiness that the
spoken word brings out: it is a work that
must be heard – not merely read. As Maria
Filomena Molder points out in A Imperfeição
da Filosofia (Relógio d’Água, 2003), in a
reference to a text by Paul Valéry, Lazarus
“only comes back to life because he is
still alive.” He is not a dying figure but a
Christ figure.
Lady Lazarus is the account of a crucifixion.
After death, there is a revival. Skin, bones,
knees, hands, scars, and the crown of gold
are the symbolic elements that populate
the spiritual path the fictional account
details. In an archetypal approximation of
the language of the depths, but with
irresolute duality, the poem ends in a
labyrinthine web of red hair. Sylvia rises
from the ashes like the Phoenix – from
the quagmire of nausea to a kind of occult
eschatology. She has let herself be dragged
to a better place perchance, where time
no longer exists.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 79
CORBIS/ VMI

George Steiner
at The New yorker
George steiner
(edited and with an introduction
by Robert Boyers)
Gradiva, Lisbon, 2010. 1
80
The Horn
of Plenty
By cArLos Leone
Though it has been bandied about, the
“death of the intellectual” remains to be
proved. A bit like the previously also widely-discussed
“treason,” the public figure
known as the “intellectual,” so typical of
modernity, has persisted amid the general
decline of the conditions that brought him
to the fore and gave him the chance to exist.
With the demise of Enlightenment optimism,
the end of widespread belief in the
neutrality of science, the death of literate
culture of a universal bent, and at a time
when even the civilizational principles that
the West has taken for granted are being
placed in jeopardy (e.g., human rights), the
time-honored, ambiguous, polymorphic
figure of the intellectual persists. It has generally
been a tough row to hoe, but quite a
few have become veritable darlings of the
media such as Umberto Eco, Fernando
Savater, Jürgen Habermas, Allan Bloom, and,
cutting the list short (thus preventing some
thinkers from getting their due), George
Steiner. Not unexpectedly, there has been
criticism that Steiner has been “over-exposed,”
given the plethora of publications he
has in print – many of which have been
translated for distribution in smaller markets
such as Portugal: from the occasional lecture
(“The Idea of Europe”), to the scholarly
essay (Antígones), and collections such as the
one put together by Robert Boyers, which
taps material that Steiner wrote during his
decades-long collaboration with America’s
distinguished magazine, the New Yorker.
Interestingly, the editor himself broaches the
criticism that has often been leveled at
BooK revieWs
Steiner (and others like him): that he dabbles
in fields he has no mastery of, especially
when it comes to his alleged over-exposure
in publishing and media circles. But when
you read him, even if you are at odds with
his ideas (which would not be surprising,
given their striking singularity), the sensation
you get is one that can be described in
totally different terms: over-abundance.
Steiner was born in Paris in 1929 and was
educated in the United States (a fact he discusses
in the book, in the final essay, which
is not autobiographical). He is currently a
professor in Oxbridge, literally dividing his
time between Oxford and Cambridge. He
‘ it seemed to exemplify
nietzsche’s insight that there is
in men and women a motivation
stronger even than love
or hatred or fear. it is that of
being interested – in a body
of knowledge, in a problem,
in a hobby, in tomorrow’s
news-paper.”
steiner
’ George
has both studied and taught at a host of
prestigious US and European universities
and, in addition to the books he has published,
has written for a number of distinguished
English-language publications. This
particular anthology of New Yorker essays is
illustrative of how editorial choices can
effectively be based on quality and the
strengths of the readership, rather than character
counts and the attempt to reduce
everything to the level of the “average reader,”
who, by the way, does not exist. That
is why this collection is eye-opening for the
Portuguese reader in that it leads one to
think about what Portuguese magazine or
newspaper could possibly be the source of
a treasure trove like this one. The fact that
there is, in Portugal, no match for the New
Yorker is symptomatic of deep-seated cultural
differences that go deeper than the dichotomy
posed by “American speed” and
“European lenteur;” that is, even if we take
for granted our “Europeanness” which, judging
by the Steiner’s lack of reference to
Portugal and Portuguese authors, is also
questionable (when he spoke at FLAD in
2002 in Lisbon, he was loud and clear on
his views regarding this issue). What Steiner’s
unrestrained writing produces is a diversity
of subject matters and a prodigality of viewpoints
that go into creating an over-exposure
– or over-abundance – that Steiner
himself powerfully addresses when he writes
about Koestler who, he states, “seemed
to exemplify Nietzsche’s insight that there
is in men and women a motivation stronger
even than love or hatred or fear. It is that of
being interested – in a body of knowledge,
in a problem, in a hobby, in tomorrow’s
news paper.” This partial quote from one of
the best essays in the book, “La Morte
d’Arthur,” not only describes Steiner at his
best, but the matrix of his texts: that constantly
renewed link between the philosophical,
the literary, the political and the
historical, always graced by a personal perspective
that (as in Koestler’s case) is often
anchored in the personal relationship he has
with the topic of each essay.
However, there are limitations to be
found in most of his essays: the fact that
he focuses primarily on the West and reduces
the contemporary to haute culture (television
and advertising are the subjects of
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

elentless – yet funny – barbs, and rock
music and the Internet simply don’t exist).
But this approach is more of an idiosyncrasy
than a major fault. And the tone of
the writing is much more balanced than
in many of the author’s other pieces. In
these essays, Steiner, never displays a modicum
of paternalism or pretentiousness,
even when he resorts to the old professorial
saws about the decline of education.
Divided into four sections, you can
almost read this book of 400-odd pages
straight through without stopping. His
affection for such different authors as
Cioran, Orwell, Céline and Brecht; his
BooK revieWs
painstaking examination of topics such as
the Nuremberg Trials (see “From the
House of the Dead,” a remarkable critique
of the prison diaries of Nazi Minister
Albert Speer); his sensitivity to the cultural
import of non-literary works (such as
the significance of Webern’s musical compositions
to Central European culture and
later the West in general), in sum, the
unifying thread, created by the author, that
runs through this vast array of themes,
will impress even Steiner’s most faithful
readers. The sections in the book, “History
and Politics,” “Writers and Writing,”
“Thinkers,” and “Life Studies,” are well-
apportioned but are far from being decisive
or even necessary. The chief merit of
the way the essays is divided is that it does
not detract from the richness of the texts,
which, as any interested reader will soon
find out, is almost impossible to do.
1. The two-person translation was done by Joana Pedroso
Correia and Miguel Serras Pereira. There are a few typos
here and there and some clunkiness in the attempt to
transpose Steiner’s expressiveness into Portuguese, but
these do not ruin the end result. It is a pity though that
the publication dates of the original texts have not been
included. However, it doesn’t prevent them from being
read, and the omission may have come from the Englishlanguage
edition.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 81
SUSANA BRITO

The Scarlet Letter
nathaniel Hawthorne
Portuguese edition‑Dom Quixote,
Biblioteca Lobo Antunes, 2009
America’s most
unpopular writer
82
By cLArA pinTo cALdeirA
The Scarlet Letter is one of the books António
Lobo Antunes chose to include in a collection
aimed at giving the general Portuguese
public access to the world’s most timeless
classics. The work, which was translated by
Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, contains
a preface by Lobo Antunes and an introduction
by Georges Monteiro.
Originally published in 1850, The Scarlet
Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
masterpiece. Erratic and indecisive,
Hawthorne wrote obsessively throughout
prolonged periods of his life, and then
abandoned the activity for long stretches
of time. He is known for having commented,
“Who would publish anything for
me, the most unpopular writer in America?”
The self-effacing quote was recounted by
James T. Fields, who encouraged Hawthorne
to write the book. A partner in the publishing
company that printed the novel, Fields
had resolved to invest in the still-unfinished
work, which he erroneously announced
would be a collection of short stories like
the popular Twice Told Tales Hawthorne had
previously written. When The Scarlet Letter
debuted in the fortunate form of a novel,
the first 2,500 copies sold out in ten days.
The novel is a story within a story, or a tale
beyond a story. Hawthorne starts out with
a semi-autobiographical sketch entitled
“The Custom House,” in which he details
his stultifying stint at Salem’s port authority
at a time in his life when creative writ-
BooK revieWs
‘ When The scarlet Letter debuted
in the fortunate form of a novel,
the first 2,500 copies sold out
in ten days. The novel is a story
within a story, or a tale beyond
a story. Hawthorne starts out with
a semi-autobiographical sketch
entitled “The custom House,”
in which he details his stultifying
stint at salem’s port authority
at a time in his life when
creative writing seemed beyond
his reach.
’
ing seemed beyond his reach. But it is in
this stand-alone account of the old Salem
port that so eerily evokes colonial New
England, while being a portrait of contemporary
civil service that the writer reveals
how The Scarlet Letter was born. He discovers
an embroidered red letter on a tattered
piece of cloth and an account of the scarlet
letter written by a 17 th century customs
surveyor.
The bulk of the story takes place in
Puritan New England during the 1600s.
Hawthorne has now enticed us into
believing that the main characters were
really of flesh and blood. There is woman
condemned to wear the infamous letter
“A” for adulteress on her bosom, which
she herself has ostentatiously and masterfully
embroidered – almost with pride
– and must always wear when she walks
through the small town that has stigmatized
her, as she bears the humiliation
with resignation and dignity. There is a
child, graced with physical beauty and a
transcendent spirit, both devilish and
angelic, a living, blatant testimony to the
transgression of her mother who maintains
a majestic silence about the man who
led her to sin. There is a kindly preacher,
of exemplary behavior, who is adored by
a cruel, hypocritical population and tormented
by abysmal suffering; and an
enigmatic stranger who, in obscurity, harbors
a story, an epoch, and a pain bred in
innate darkness.
The Scarlet Letter can be read simply as a
tale of crime and punishment, good and
evil, sin and redemption. But Hawthorne
has crafted it into a portrait of human
nature, a paean to subtle dignity, a stunning
love story, and a reflection on symbolism
and the relationship between the individual
and the society in which he lives.
Yet the book is also a painstaking, almost
stifling reconstruction of a social reality
that went into founding America and its
national identity. “It is curious that a novel
which is so American in its essential plot
could touch people of such different cultures
with its interplay of emotions and
intrigues,” comments Lobo Antunes in the
preface. It is also curious that Nathaniel
Hawthorne, born a short 40 years after the
Declaration of Independence, was the
descendant of a judge at the infamous
Salem Witch Trials. Henry James stated that
the Scarlet Letter was “the finest piece of
imaginative writing yet put forth in the
country.” Although it deals with a setting
that is long gone, The Scarlet Letter is timeless
and universal.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

Cem Poemas
emily dickinson (A Hundred poems)
Translated into Portuguese, prefaced
and organized by Ana Luisa Amaral
Relógio d’Água, 2010
Her business
was silence
By AnA mArques GAsTão
A circumference is the outer contour of
a circle, the geometrical location of all
the points in a plane that are at a given
distance (the radius) from a given point
called the center. The definition is oblique
when trying to probe the poetry of
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), as is the
discourse she uses in both her poetry
and correspondence: a veil of silence is
drawn over what is said because it cannot
be stated. When Dickinson wrote in a
letter to Thomas Higginson in July, 1862,
“My Business is circumference,” she was
restating Nicolau de Cusa’s idea “Christ
is the center and the circumference of
intellectual nature; and since the intellect
encompasses all things, Christ is above
all things.” (De docta ignorantia) Dickinson
was aware of what Pascal had stated
when he cited Hermes Trismegisto: “God
is a sphere whose center is everywhere
and whose circumference is nowhere.”
This divine presence-absence, because it
is limitless, can only be at the invisible
center of one’s being, which would justify
the life of silence the poet led. The
“element of blank” in her esoteric poetry
speaks of one thing while meaning
another.
Influenced by the legacy of negative
theology – in the somewhat neo-Platonic
sense – Dickinson built an internal tension
into her disfiguredly stripped-down, dis-
BooK revieWs
tilled verses in which the relentlessly
monotonous meter concealed breaches of
syntax and startling turns of phrase. They
are poems pervaded by a frostiness that
transforms the fiery into the figurative.
The punctuation is erratic and the dashes
become lines, invisible beings, when seen
in the light of sacred geometry: the tracings
of erstwhile static periods on the
move, immaterial and akin to a zero- the
link between silence and speech.
‘ This divine presence-absence,
because it is limitless,
can only be at the invisible
center of one’s being, which
would justify the life of silence
the poet led. The “element
of blank” in her esoteric poetry
speaks of one thing while
meaning another.
In Cem Poemas (Relógio d’Água, 2010),
Ana Luisa Amaral translates one hundred
of Dickenson’s poems. In her preface,
Amaral explains, “By using the figure of
the circumference to define her poetry,
Emily Dickinson stylistically favors the
ellipsis.” She adds that the poet doubly
undermines the figure of the circle “by
replacing it with the distortion of the
center from the lowering and de-centering
found in the geometry of the ellipsis,
and what is absent at the center.” In
both cases allusion is used, as is paradox
in defining “excess through the actual
presence of boundaries” both in the way
the poem appears on the page, and in its
meaning.
Even today, Emily Dickinson’s forays
into the experimental are surprising.
Only ten of her poems were actually
published during her lifetime; and if her
sister Lavinia had obeyed her wish to
destroy all of her writing (Max Brod also
disregarded Kafka’s request), we would
have known next to nothing about this
cloistered woman whose life was spent
between the four walls of her Amherst
home and a garden no one ever visited.
Why didn’t these authors who purportedly
wished to leave no legacy destroy
their own papers? The ambiguity remains,
as does the ethical issue: had their wishes
been respected, works of genius would
have been consigned to the flames.
Ana Luísa Amaral’s work (which does
justice to Sena and Cesariny, and translators
like Hatherly, Llansol, and Júdice) is
not only a rigorous and poetic rendering
of the untranslatable Dickinson (based on
the Johnson edition); it is also the longest
anthology of the poet’s work in translation
to be published in Portugal. The reader is
also regaled with an enlightening and
information-packed preface about the
quasi indefinable and much misinterpreted
poet; a carefully laid-out time line that
is less like a list and more like a biographical
record, since it makes use of letters
and memoirs; and a list of recommended
reading with books on Dickinson that have
been published in Portugal.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 83
’

Carlucci versus Kissinger
The US and the Portuguese
revolution
Bernardino Gomes
and Tiago moreira de sá
Dom Quixote, 2008
84
The Portuguese
viewed by
the Americans
By e. muJAL-Leon
The Department of Government and the
BMW Center for German and European
Studies at Georgetown University had the
pleasure of hosting a presentation of the
book Carlucci versus Kissinger written by
Bernardino Gomes and Tiago Moreira de
Sá. Also in attendance at the book party
were former US ambassador to Portugal,
Elizabeth Bagley and the current ambassador
of Portugal to the United States
Nuno Brito, as well as a representative
from the Luso-American Development
Foundation, Miguel Vaz. It was our very
special privilege on this occasion also to
count with the presence of one of the
protagonists of this book, Ambassador
Frank Carlucci.
Carlucci versus Kissinger is an important,
original, and timely book. Not only does
it remind us of how much was at stake
in those crucial years in Portugal, it also
provides the reader with a perceptive
and thorough account of the Revolution,
the actions of the leading actors and
groups, and the extraordinary transition
to democracy that followed from it.
Other histories have been written about
this period. Two things are unique about
the contribution Carlucci versus Kissinger
makes. First, the book offers a compel-
BooK revieWs
‘ nearly forty years later,
this book casts a bright light
on the significance of the
portuguese revolution
and it tells the powerful story
of a nation’s struggle
for democracy.
’
ling analysis of the Portuguese Revolution
as viewed from Washington by US foreign-policy
makers. Second, it provides
us with an intimate account of the
debates that took place within the US
government and of the differences that
developed between Henry Kissinger and
Frank Carlucci over how to respond to
Portuguese events.
Nearly forty years later, this book casts
a bright light on the significance of the
Portuguese Revolution and it tells the
powerful story of a nation’s struggle for
democracy. Who could have imagined
that a small country on the European
periphery would awaken from the slumber
of a nearly fifty-year dictatorship,
fend off the efforts of radicals within
the Armed Forces Movement and in the
Communist Party to install a “popular”
democracy, and, then, in a few short
years assume its democratic destiny? This
historic process led one of the major
figures in American political science, the
late Samuel Huntington, to identify the
Portuguese Revolution as the birthplace
for the Third Wave which would in the
space of two decades sweep aside dictatorships
in Southern and Eastern
Europe as well as Latin America.
Carlucci versus Kissinger helps us understand
why Portugal was at epicenter of
world politics during the mid- and late
1970s. The future configuration of
European security and the role of the
Atlantic Alliance hung in the balance
during the Portuguese Revolution. So
did the shape of decolonization in
Southern Africa. Even the Cold War and
the balance of power between the United
States and the Soviet Union would be
deeply influenced by the successful
struggle for democracy in this small
country.
This book offers a penetrating analysis
of US foreign policy during a tumultuous
period, and it underscores the importance
of leadership in political processes.
Too often historians and political
scientists focus on broad and structural
processes. This book reminds us that it
is individuals who make history. Any one
interested in how US foreign policy is
made should read this book. Its documents
and interviews provide a gold
mine of information. The book presents
the riveting story of two major figures
in the US foreign policy establishment
(Henry Kissinger and Frank Carlucci),
their clashes and differences of opinion
toward events in Portugal.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

california presentation
of Landmarks
in Transatlantic Strategy
and the roosevelt Forum
In a drive to reconnect with the Portuguese
communities in California, FLAD held a
number of sessions to present its recentlypublished
book Transatlantic Strategies: From
roosevelt to obama and discuss the Roosevelt
Forum, a FLAD conference held in the
Azores every two years.
Tony Goulart, publisher and noted business
leader of the West Coast’s Portuguese
community, planned the 12 sessions,
which were held at the Portuguese
FLAd signs a protocol
for cultural cooperation
with the regional
Government of the Azores
As part of a cultural project called “The
Archipelago: A Center for Contemporary
Art,” centered on Ribeira Grande in the
Azores, a protocol was signed last July
whereby a number of works from FLAD’s
art collection will go on display in the
archipelago.
Jorge Paulus Bruno, Azores Regional
Director for Culture and FLAD representative
Mário Mesquita stressed the
importance of the newly-established
partnership, which will allow works
from FLAD’s collection to be loaned out
to several shows and exhibitions scheduled
to be held throughout the
region.
In planning each exhibition, the Regional
Director for Culture will present FLAD
with a project detailing the type of show
and the artists he would like to see featured.
FLAD, in turn, has agreed to honor
neWs BrieFs
departments of a number of universities
and community heritage centers from San
Francisco to San Diego.
FLAD administrator Mário Mesquita;
António Vicente, FLAD’s former head of
Portuguese language education in the
US; and Sara Pina, who coordinated the
Portuguese and English language editions
of the book, participated in presentations
and meetings held at
California State University, the J.A.
Freitas Library, San Jose High School,
California State University, the Portuguese
Athletic Club, the San Diego Portuguese
Hall, and at a conference of the Luso-
American Education Foundation, among
other venues.
the requests tendered, offering suggestions
whenever possible.
The agreement allows FLAD and the
Azores Regional Government to relaunch
a 2007/2008 initiative in which three
shows – Signs, Intermittent Body, and
Passages – were held in Ponta Delgada,
Angra do Heroísmo and Faial.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 85
D.R.

At times alone. At times accompanied. Was the world already there
before there was reflection? The small scenes explore, to the saturation
point, the enigmatic relationship between a double that is
either opposing or facing his double; they isolate the figures by
replicating them; they make us query the paradoxal originality of
the other, the one that reproduces by replicating itself infinitely,
conveying subtlety, tension, and deceptive fragility in seductive
but potentially aggressive body moves. We draw closer. The images
are fairly opaque, thick, dense, shadowy, obscure, faded almost
unfocused – can clarity be destroyed by clarity? – ill-defined,
precarious, somewhere between “fainting, falling, fading and
faking” (the title of a text by Delfim Sardo in Luxury Bound). Jorge
Molder, whose essentially photographic work is, according to a
number of critics, about “duplicity,” fences with an impressive
dearth of resources, with arguments that duel over the inevitable,
uncanny division of the self. What we see are small Polaroid images
taken from a number of video-recordings Molder made on
the movements of the body during a fencing match. Two bodies
– or figures (or maybe a duplicated body) are wearing the usual
white suits and protective masks that both conceal and reveal the
face. The naked hands relate to each other at different moments
though different poses/gestures, in an arena whose hazy background
is lit by a circular focus-light, expressively delineating a
here and now – hic et nunc – that is almost archaic, germinal,
seminal and symbolic, but one that immediately transports us to
a timeless before and after: “still not a not-any-more.” A past that
is the future perhaps. For João Miguel Fernandes Jorge, “the
Polaroids strengthen the potential reach of that living past.” As he
writes about Molder, he stresses the importance of “being ‘en
garde.’ The Duelers are his domain. In this work, the photographs
are his thoughts exactly. The on-target thrusts constantly lead us
to turn back to the photograph. They create a need for time – and
more time – to examine the consistency of a face that recoils in
flight (and fusion) at every instance into the blackness of the
background.” (text by João Miguel Fernandes
Jorge in the catalogue “Algum Tempo Antes/
Algun Tiempo Antes”, 2006). Discreetly revealed
is a paradoxical dialectic involving mirroring
and a seductive interplay of closing and disclosing
using two perspectives in each one of us,
without time and objective space: Il faut que je sois
mon extérieur, et que le corps d’autrui soit lui-même” (M.
Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la Perception).
The Polaroid series esgrimitas (the Fencers) is
cited over and over again in texts on Molder’s
career, but the texts rarely explore more than
the basics. The 1986 series with 8 x 8 cm photos
is complemented by two small black-andwhites
(the Polaroids are taken from
video-recordings and the photos are direct
shots) is a quasi-distillation of a number of
86
FLAd ArT coLLecTion
Jorge molder
en garde
features, topics, and pivotal points of the types of discourse
Molder has produced since 1977. The concept of “series” has
been essential since the beginning, as the artist has asserted. Its
meaning is rooted in a “well-known philosophical concept,”
having temporal allusions, and references to belonging and other
attributes that are difficult to clarify. “I know very well where it
begins and eventually discover when it ends, I can manage to
understand the elements that it comprises but what escapes me
completely is the way it works and how it comes about.” (from
the artist’s website) Unfinished – with an alpha but no omega
– this series dealing with the world of fencing is a window into
a few of Molder’s obsessions: primarily topics related to personal
doubles or doppelgangers: an offshoot creature or a replica of
ourselves wandering around out there somewhere.
The fencers in these works “are beings that are a bit special,”
according to Jorge Molder. The clothes, gestures, and anatomy
of a routine that borders on the ritualistic bespeak ideas and
memories of a fundamental archetype that faces the impossible
challenge of the master stroke, the perfect rapier thrust, the
unstoppable, the purest creation illuminated by human talent.
It is a model of inspiration and efficiency which, because of
its nature, discloses a spirit of agony, in a silent duel with its
own image whose reflection seems to escape the boundaries
imposed by the artist, between rejection and retention, obsolescence
and ritual, in constantly imprisoned flux. As George
Kubler has said, “the replications that fill the story effectively
prolong the stability of many past moments, allowing meaning
and model to emerge whenever we turn our attention to these
moments. However, it’s an imperfect instability. Any replica
made by man differs from the model owing to minimal, unpremeditated
differences. The cumulative effects of these differences
act as a slow drift in relation to the archetype.” (A Forma do
Tempo). Perhaps like making a hit while avoiding being touched
by the foil. pedro Faro
A graduate in Philosophy, Jorge Mol‑
der (Lisbon, 1947) began his artistic
career in 1977 with a solo show
entitled “Vilarinho das Furnas (Uma
Encenação), Paisagens com Água,
Casas e Um Trailer.” In 1980, he
collaborated with poets João Miguel
Fernandes Jorge, and Joaquim Manuel
Magalhães on “Uma Exposição”. his
self‑depictions, coupled with strong
references to literature, movies, and
day‑to‑day life start to take shape in
1987 with several series of works.
In 1999, Molder is invited by Delfim
Sardo to represent Portugal at the
48th Venice Biennale, thus confirming
him as one of Portugal’s most impor‑
tant contemporary artists. he was the
director of the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation’s Modern Art Center from
1993 to 2009. Jorge Molder’s work
can be found in a number of distin‑
guished Portuguese and international
art collections.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011

FLAd ArT coLLecTion
“Don’t move. You won’t move. Someone else, a perfect likeness,
a meticulous phantom-like double will perhaps perform for you, one by one,
the gestures you don’t make.”
Georges perec, The Man Who Sleeps
Untitled (from the series “The Fencers”) 1986, Polaroid snapshots on Canson paper, 8 x 8 cm
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 87
LAURA CASTRO CALDAS E PAULO CINTRA

moon over pico
Lucina Ellis, 1996, 48"×54", oil on canvas
88
“I grew up listening to stories about my
grandfather. He was a painter, a strict man.
He left Faial headed to Brazil, leaving behind
a wife expecting a baby, an older daughter,
a son ready for the army, and my father at
the age of thirteen. They travelled to Terceira,
dressed in their best attire, where they
would see my grandfather off on a ship.
The family was to wait for him to settle in
Brazil, and they would go to meet him.
Years passed, waiting, maybe grandfather
had fallen ill, had a new family, or perhaps
had been killed! He never knew how much
a part of me he is, and in my heart I too
waited for him.
Today, a photo of Pico is pinned to my
studio wall. One day my father walked up
my driveway carrying a dark and grey
photo. He wanted a painting of the photo.
My father was longing for a life once lived
with his father while a young boy painting
churches in Faial and Pico.
I painted an ever lasting bright day, chunks
of yellow, textures, and visible brush strokes,
and Pico ornamented with clouds of soft
hue, remembering a boat ride from Pico
to Faial, the ocean water dancing around
my fingers.”
Lucina ramos ellis, artist
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
D.R.