Obsessions
It is a diabolical pursuit, this relentless fixation of the entire media apparatus on chasing after Donald Trump’s megalomanias, following the media network that he himself manipulates. Even while knowing that he is a spineless liar, a narcissist afflicted by immense visual psychopathologies, already convicted of various sexual crimes and facing others still pending—cases from which he seeks to shield himself by brazenly interfering in the United States Department of Justice—he continues to display a public and constant contempt for the principles of the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Freedom of Expression, Gender Equality, and, not least, the foundations of American parliamentary democracy, which he strikes at without mercy.
This disappointing figure, painfully elevated from the global political aquarium by the obsolete American electoral system, appears increasingly capable of provoking nuclear disturbances alongside other belligerent and aggressive partners such as the current leaders of North Korea, Russia, Iran, and Israel. All of them aspire to remain indefinitely in disproportionate positions of power, at great cost to the suffering of their respective peoples. Some of these madmen are subject to international arrest warrants in any country—such as Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and Putin. Others continue to evade accountability behind the veil of international cowardice, euphemistically called diplomacy. Some even succeed in attracting the sympathies of the far left or the far right through Stalinist and fascist ideologies, ignoring the fact that the world advances without possibility of return and that ideologies, like religions, are gradually being torn away from the realm of human reason.
These are obsessions of a pathological nature, creations of the Universe itself, part of the permanent dynamism of Life, which is forever transforming. Fortunately, death exists, bringing an end—and renewal—to all such aberrations.
Meanwhile, within our own archipelagic reality, Portugal decided to celebrate its national day in the Azores, more specifically on Terceira Island.
It did so at a strategic moment, when American military ambitions once again pass through Lajes Air Base. The Portuguese state was left shivering, hair standing on end, when Trump declared that he intended to go shopping for Greenland, Cuba, Venezuela, and a few other items while they were on sale. And so Portugal decided to stage a martial display, baring its toothless gums—like the frog confronting the ox—with military forces parading and fighter jets roaring overhead during the speeches.
The frog wished to be as large as the ox and, to achieve this, challenged it by filling itself with air. It inhaled, inhaled, and inhaled until finally it burst into pieces.
All these demonstrations serve no purpose other than expressing nostalgia for past greatness, long buried beneath what Fernando Pessoa once called “the webs that Empire weaves.” Their sole intention is to send messages to Washington and to the Azoreans concerning an obsolete sovereignty over the last colonies—Madeira and the Azores.
Portugal’s obsession with the unequivocal “sovereignty” of its adjacent islands recalls Salazar’s vision of a nation that was one and indivisible: African, Atlantic, Asian, and Indian colonies united with the peninsular rectangle, while insurgents, rebels, and dissenters were dispatched to Tarrafal’s infamous “holiday camp.”
Such military parades, designed to intimidate and subjugate peoples, are primitive relics, utterly out of place in our times. This is an age for peace, and all of these commemorations should be conducted in an exclusively civic manner, without uniforms.
Moreover, vast sums are spent transporting the entire diplomatic, political, and military establishment into the middle of the Atlantic. For a poor country that survives largely on Brussels’ charity, this elaborate spectacle—bearing little resemblance to modern Portugal, to Camões, or even less to the Communities and the Diaspora—is nothing more than a catwalk for cabaret choristers.
What António José Seguro ought to be doing is prodding the government into accelerating reform of the Regional Finance Law for both Madeira and the Azores. That, indeed, matters to the people. And since they so dearly love to proclaim that the Azores are Portugal, then let him use the influence of his office to ensure that we pay a fair and direct price when travelling to the mainland. Or let him put an end to the prohibition against island-based political parties—and so many other matters besides.
With so many profound discrepancies in the policies governing the Atlantic islands, our Portuguese identity—or our lack of it—will remain a choice belonging exclusively to the islanders themselves, never something imposed from outside.
José Soares is a contributing writer for several Azorean newspapers. He was an immigrant for many years before returning to São Miguel, Azores