RSS feedTask 2 — Who are your learners
This is Task 2 from my line course on How to Teach Webcraft and Programming to Free-Range Students . The question is to describe who the learners are.
Again, my answers are focused on my Programming for scientists course.
Who are my learners?
Sabah is a trained microbiologist who is doing pharmaceutical research. She picked up a bit of Matlab in a two day workshop a year back and has been writing some code to analyse her results. She is surprised at herself for enjoying it, but does not use any version control, has no experience writing anything longer than 100 lines, and, generally, her code is spaghetti like.
Maria works on material sciences for her PhD. She has been forced to learn how to write a bit of Fortran code. She learned it back in undergraduate in a formal university course and others in the lab have developed a big solid state simulator. She doesn't like it very much and it takes her a very long time to get anything done. Her advisor or supervised recommended that she take a few more courses so that she can improve. She is not enthusiastic, but thinks that programming is something that, unfortunately, has become a required lab skill.
Naturally, I prefer the enthusiastic student, but I have seen both attitudes and every thing in between.
Who are not my learners?
I also decided to list people that would probably not benefit from the course I want to teach.
Anna is a biochemist. She does not know any programming and uses Excel for everything now. She has seen other people in the lab do simple scripts and it seems to help them. She would like to learn. I think Anna does not have the background for the course.
Rita is a computer programmer who wants to learn Python. She is also interested in learning about bioinformatics, so she thought that a for scientists course would help. Rita could probably benefit from the first module, where students are, in fact, thought Python, and she is welcome to do that. But we do not really go over any bioinformatics as such and much of the rest of the course might be repetitions for her.
Hugo Chavez
Evolução do discurso esquerda-caviar em relação ao Hugo Chavez
- Não é maravilhoso o que ele faz? O teu cinismo é medo que ele mostre os falhanços do capitalismo.
- Não apoio tudo o que ele faz, claro; mas no global é um grande passo em frente para um modelo alternativo.
- Sim, há coisas más no sistema, mas ele não é um ditador (vocês os direitosos chamam ditadores aos que estão pelo povo). Ele faz coisas boa. No global, acho que o balanço é positivo.
- Tudo o que eu digo é que nem tudo é mau na Venezuela.
- Como é que te atreves a falar no Hugo Chavez? Eu nunca defendi o Hugo Chavez. Eu defendo uma coisa completamente diferente.
Estamos agora entre o 4 e o 5.
Hugo Chavez
Evolution of caviar-left speech on Hugo Chavez
- Isn't it wonderful what he is doing? Your skepticism is hidden fear that he'll actually succeed and make capitalism look bad.
- I don't support everything he's doing, of course; but overall it's a big step towards an alternative model.
- Yes, there are bad things in his regime, but he is not a dictator (you right-wing people always use the word dictator for men of the people). He is doing some good things too. On balance good.
- All I'm saying is that not everything is bad in Venezuela.
- How dare you bring up Hugo Chavez? I have always denounced him as a dictator. He is not at all what I defend.
We are now between 4 and 5.
Paragraph of the Day/Parágrafo do Dia
Using data from a national survey, it is shown that intelligence tends to be positively related to the probabilities of having tried alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and several other recreational drugs. Evidence is also presented that those relationships typically disappear or change sign at high levels of intelligence.
From Intelligence and past use of recreational drugs
The "reversing signs" phenomenom is stronger for cigarettes.
(Plots need error bars)
Assorted Links/Linques Mistos
- How conference calls can be free
- How I ended up Non-Ambitious by a woman of above-average ambition
- Guardian on a captain's responsibility (the captain of the Costa Concordia deserves the shame of cowardice)
- Matt Yglesias on SOTU
R(T|D)P e a Censura
Anda aí muita gente chocada porque os meios de comunicação do Estado seguem as políticas definidas pelo governo. Acham que se lhe chamarmos controlo democrático das fontes de informação já pode ser?
Por falar nisso: comparar o governo actual português aos Khmers vermelhos devia ser, por si só, motivo de despedir o jornalista; por estupidez. Portanto, em termos jornalísticos, acho que o ouvinte até fica a ganhar.
Leite Grátis
Na série uma posta um bocado à João Miranda:
Uma malvada organização religiosa tem andado da prometer leite grátis para pessoas com poucas posses.
Não sabem que é ilegal?
Alguém que os denuncie à ASAE!
Free Milk
Some evil religious organisation has been giving milk to poor people.
Don't they know that it's illegal (Portuguese supermarkets were fined for selling milk too cheaply)? Someone should stop this!
Mundo Moderno
Dois grandes artigos sobre o mundo moderno:
Acho pena que nenhum dos artigos sequer sinta a necessidade de justificar moralmente porque é que devemos "proteger" o trabalhador Americano que ganha $13/h se isso prejudica o trabalhador chinês a ganhar $2/h. Aliás, porque quem ganha $13/h está no 10% de topo mundial.
(Portugal está mais próximo de $2 do que $13 para uma hora de trabalho não qualificado; muitas vezes se ouve um discurso anti-china importado de países mais ricos que não faz tanto sentido no contexto português).
Modern World
Two great articles on modern manufacturing:
I do find it a bit grating that none of the articles found a need to address the underlying moral question of why we should accept policies that make the $13/hour American worker better off and hurt the $2/hr Chinese worker. At $13/hr, you are in the top 10% worldwide.
(Note to Portuguese readers: we often have an anti-China speech imported from the US or France, but Portugal is much closer to $2 than to $13 for unskilled labour).
Alberto João Jardim
Portugal é a Alemanha da Madeira.
O governo central (do continente) terá de salvar as contas do governo regional que gastou mal e mentiu sobre isso (algumas das mentiras serão certamente criminosas, mas, em Portugal, ninguém se preocupa muito com tais questões procedimentais).
O Alberto João Jardim, é muitas vezes gozado pelas elitas de Lisboa, mas pelo menos o Bloco de Esquerda devia olhar para o senhor com mais atenção. É que ele se comporta em relação ao continente exactamente como os bloquistas dizem que o governo português se deve comportar em relação à União Europeia e à Troika.
Cada vez que vejo ou leio sobre o Alberto João sorrio a pensar que isto é exactamente aquilo que o BE defende:
- O problema não é ter-se gasto demais, é dos de fora (continente/Troika)
- Eles não respeitam a soberania regional/nacional
- Se não me derem mais dinheiro, eu ameço ser independente
- Ou não vou pagar a dívida
- Faço tudo pelo povo
Se o Alberto João ainda tem ambições em Lisboa, devia fazer uns telefonemas ao Francisco Louçã e ser candidato pelo Bloco.
Alberto João Jardim
Portugal is Madeira's Germany.
The central government is being asked to bail the regional government out of its mispending, its bungling of the budget, its lies (including at least allegedly crimes, but, it's Portugal so nobody cares about such "procedural" issues).
Alberto João Jardim, Madeira's elected-for-life President, is often laughed at by Lisbon's elite. But, at least the left-wing Bloco de Esquerda (BE) should look at the man more carefully. He behaves with respect to the mainland exactly as they argue that the Portuguese government should behave with respect to the EU.
Everytime I see or read about Alberto João, I cannot help but smile. Here's how Alberto João is BE's model prime-minister:
- Everything is the outside's fault (mainland/Troika)
- They don't respect the sovereignty of Madeira/Portugal
- If you don't give me more money to mispend/invest in the economy, I will threaten to leave the Union (with mainland, EU)
- Or I won't pay the government debt
- I do it for the people
Mudanças na Era Ikea
Mudanças de A para B:
- Em A, livre-se das suas coisas.
- Vá de A para B.
- Em B, compre exactamente as mesmas coisas que tinha anteriormente.
Moving in an Ikea Age
Here's how you get furniture from point A to point B:
- While at A, get rid of your things (sell, donate, trash...)
- Move from A to B.
- Once you get to B, buy exactly the same things you had.
Teaching Webcraft to Free Range Students, Task I
I am taking Greg Wilson's online course on How to Teach Webcraft and Programming to Free-Range Students.
The first task is to relate the recommendations in this education study guide to our experience (as teachers and students).
I will talk about what I did for my Programming for scientists course and how it relates to the recommendations.
Space learning over time. I did a good job with the programming part of the course where Python examples kept coming up and being reviewed, but a lousy one with other aspects. In particular, some of the tools that I wanted the students to learn (the shell and version control) were only mentioned in their respective sections.
Interleave worked example solutions with problem-solving exercises I think I did some of this, going through code examples. I also used to review the homeworks (after they were due) in class and go through the solutions. The major reason was for efficiency, but it might get me some cookie points here.
Combine graphics with verbal descriptions I would like to have done a bit more slides (if I had the time), but I did most of the verbal communication orally.
Connect and integrate abstract and concrete representations of concepts I certainly tried to do this, but I am going to refrain from evaluating whether I did it well. I had a lecture class and a practical class. They had the same format (lecture), but I tried to do more worked-out examples in the practical and more concepts in the lecture.
Use quizzing to promote learning There was a multiple choice homework every week (plus a single long-answer question or coding problem) and at the end of the first module (which was an introduction to Python), I had a full in-class quizz. This was done by show of hands, ungraded, with discussions. I mostly did this for expediency as the class was not worth enough credits for me to assign time-consuming homeworks, but I think it worked out very well.
Use pre-questions to introduce a new topic Other than as rhetorical devices, I did none of this.
Use quizzes to re-expose students to key content As I said, I did a lot of short quizzes as homework. I could have been a bit more pro-active in class, though.
Help students allocate study time efficiently Nope, I did none of this.
Ask deep explanatory questions Unfortunately, I refrained from assigning questions that were too deep as homework as it was a low-credit class. In this context, it might be programming that is most important, in the sense that I want the students to be better programmers (i.e., a skill) and not verbal or conceptual knowledge (I'm sure that there are educational science words for these concepts, but I don't know what they are).
O Público é um bom jornal
Reparem como a manchete é exactamente ao contrário do que diz a notícia:
Manchete: Médicos portugueses procuram emprego em França
Notícia: [Uma] associação de recrutamento está em Lisboa até quinta-feira à procura de médicos e técnicos de saúde que queiram um posto de trabalho em França. Isto é, empregos em França procuram médicos portugueses (o contrário do título).
Estacionar em Lisboa
Uma coisa que tem melhorado em Lisboa é que finalmente o estacionamento é suficientemente caro.
Parking in Lisbon
One thing that has improved in Lisbon is that parking is finally getting pricy enough.
Moview Review of the Day
Stilted acting, cliche ridden in word and image and without a single honest emotion. Some people will love it.
Esquerda
Sem comentários, só o linque: Obrigado, não quero recibo
ECB
Today, a slightly more technical post.
Whose fault is this? As Tyler Cowen says, when you start telling stories, your IQ drops 10 points. The crisis had several midwifes.
The portuguese government is very much at fault. It spent too much for too long. It reached the crisis obese. The European Central Bank is also very much at fault. It has been following an ultra-conservative policy, which has broken the PIGS legs. But the obese patient, who on top of that smokes, cannot claim that were it not for the broken leg, it would be training for the marathon. Just go back a few years, and the Portuguese economy wasn't doing so well either. Still, without assigning it all of the blame, we can say that the ECB doesn't help.
Unfortunately, I feel that the question of whether Germany (and the other Northern countries) should transfer resources to the PIGS has been confounded with the monetary question. The German voter is against transfers and they have mainly been made behind the scenes (if the voters only understood how much the Bundesbank has been lending the PIGS). Just sitting here saying that the Germans should pick up the tab is really no solution.
The monetary question is different. Transfers and money intersect, but are separate questions. In Europe, in the political centre, there is no true monetary thought, except for the Germans who are against monetary policy. As Matt Yglesias pointed out, this is an area where the European centre is the American Republican Party (Axel Weber could do well in the Republican debates).
The ECB should expand much more. If banks are not lending (in technical terms, the velocity of money has fallen), print more money. This is a central bank that raised interest rates last summer. It brought them back down, but still. This is a central bank whose pride is in having been to the right of the ultra-conservative Bundesbank.
As the two questions are confounded, influential Northern politicians will be against this idea. Moreover, the ECB has been acting in way as to transfer resources to the PIGS. The solution is simple: the ECB should buy more Bunds! And Finish, and Dutch bonds.
The Northern governments would get their debts reduced, leading to an increase in inflation there. For the PIGS, this would be similar to devaluing their currency.
As Laffer says: there are free lunches and we need to find them and eat them.
BCE
Hoje, uma posta um pouco mais técnica.
De quem é a culpa disto? Como diz o Tyler Cowen, quando começamos a contar estórias, o nosso QI desce 10 pontos. A crise tem muitos pais e várias mães.
O Estado português tem muita culpa. Gastou sempre demais, desde há pelo menos uma década e chegou à crise obeso e fumador. O Banco Central Europeu tem muita culpa. Tem seguido uma política ultra-conservadora, de origem alemã, que atropelo a economia do Sul e nos partiu as pernas. Mas o doente fumador e obeso não pode afirmar que, se não fosse a perna partida, estava a correr maratonas. Basta voltar atrás, aos anos em que o BCE era mais expansivo, e a economia portuguesa não estava muito melhor.
Mas, saindo do discurso de a culpa é toda deste ou é toda daquele, podemos dizer que o BCE não ajuda.
Infelizmente, parece-me que se têm confundido a questãos das transferências da Alemanha para o Sul com a questão monetária. Os alemães estão contra transferências e as que têm existido tem sido feitas à sucapa (se os eleitores alemães soubessem quanto o Bundesbank tem emprestado aos PIGS). Fracamente, não é solução nenhuma estarmos aqui sentados a dizer os alemães é que deviam pagar tudo.
A questão monetária é diferente. São duas questões que se intersectam, a das transferências e a monetária, mas são duas questões separadas. Na Europa, ao centro, não há verdadeiro pensamento monetário excepto da parte da Alemanha (são contra). Como dizia esta semana o Matt Yglesias, nestas coisas, o centro europeu está localizado bem na direita do que é o partido Republicano americano (Axel Weber estaria em casa nos debates republicanos).
O BCE deveria ser muito mais expansionista. Se os bancos não estão a emprestar (em termos, técnicos a velocidade de circulação diminui), imprima-se mais dinheiro. Este é um banco central que subiu as taxas no Verão passado. Entretanto, desceu-as, mas francamente! Este é um banco central cujo orgulho é ter estado à direita do já ultra-conservador Bundesbank.
Como se confundem as duas questões, os influentes políticos alemães estarão contra esta ideia. Ademais, até agora, o BCE tem agido de forma a transferir recursos para os PIGS quando deveria ter uma política mais equilibrada. A solução é simples: Caro Dr. Mario Draghi, compre mais Bunds (títulos do tesouro alemão)! E títulos finlandeses e holandeses, e de todos os estados a quem não tem comprado muito.
O governos do Norte veriam reduzida a sua dívida, levando a algum aumento da inflação nesses estados. Isto seria, para os PIGS, semelhante a um desvalorizar da moeda e um reequilibrar mais harmonioso da situação.
Como dizia o Laffer: o trabalho de um economista é procurar almoços grátis e comê-los.
Not in Portugal
Marxists did lose a big argument, one we now know as "the 20th century."
In Portugal, they are still taken seriously.
Não em Portugal
Marxists did lose a big argument, one we now know as "the 20th century."
Em Portugal, ainda são levados a sério.
Milk
Thank god we have the government to stops us from buying milk that is too cheap.
Preços Baixos
Ainda bem que temos a ASAE para nos proteger contra os preço baixos.
Precaridade
If this were to become law (that after 18 months a temporary employment contract needs to become a permanent one), how many people would be fired after 18 months?
People who have more specialised jobs would probably make the transition to a permanent position, people which are more easily replaceable would be easily replaced.
Precaridade
Se isto fosse lei, quantas pessoas seriam despedidas ao fim de 18 meses?
Pessoas com empregos mais especializados provavelmente fariam a transição para posições permanentes, aqueles que podem ser facilmente substituídas, seriam substituídas, facilmente.
By Paying
If I don't pay for my food, I don't eat; I'll die. I'm not even 70 years old.
Related to this
Pagando
Na série tudo é um escândalo:
Eu só como se pagar e nem sequer tenho 70 anos. Para quando a comida toda gratuíta?
Em resposta a isto
Posta Ridícula do Dia
É esta
(Eu costumo pagar 3.50 pelo almoço, incluindo sopa; mas o vinho é à parte).
Ridiculous Post of the Day
It's this one (in Portuguese).
(I usually pay 3.50 for lunch, including soup, but not wine).
Parolos do Ingleses
Na União Europeia, os ingleses não são verdadeiramente europeus. Sempre que há algum novo tratado conjunto, os ingleses nunca querem participar.
Insistem naquelas noções velhas da soberania, e chagam ao ponto de querer ler os tratados antes de os assinar (que parolice!).
Um tratado deve ser assinado como um acto simbólico; o texto do tratado, as obrigações que os estados assumem, isso não é assunto que se deve discutir muito entre gente educada. Imagino que os ingleses individuais também leiam contractos antes de os assinar. Quando vão comprar casa, devem até ter aquela lógica de merceeiro de fazer a simulação e descobrir quanto é que vão ter de pagar.
Um contracto de compra de casa é um acto simbólico onde afirmarmos quanto gostamos do nosso banco.
Aqui, ao menos a extrema-esquerda nacionalista e alguma extrema-direita nacionalistas sempre foram coerentes. São contra a União Europeia e a favor da soberania dos estados nacionais.
O centro português é que, à segunda-feira, critica os ingleses e é favor dos tratados da UE, mas, à terça-feira, não quer cumprir nada do que assinou. O Pacto de Estabilidade e Crescimento não era para cumprir, os acordos com a Troika não são para cumprir, as propostas da Alemanha e da França que os ingleses rejeitaram também não seriam para cumprir. À quarta-feira, acha que a soberania nacional é um conceito ultrapassado que só os nacionalistas é que ainda pensam nisso, mas à Quinta-feira queixa-se que Portugal já não é suficientemente independente e põe vídeos do UK Indepence Party no facebook. À sexta-feira quase que lhe vêm lágrimas ao olhos quando fala no conceito da Europa, mas ao Sábado resmunga ao comer couve espanhola porque já não há "do que é nosso." Ao Domingo, descansa porque esta actividade cansa.
British People Are a Bunch of Hicks
In the EU, the British people are not really European. Every time there is a new treaty, they never want to be a part of it.
They insist in the anachronistic notion of sovereignty and they even want to read the treaties before signing them (hicks!).
A treaty should be signed as a symbolic act: the actual text, the obligations that states take on, this is a subject which should not be discussed too much between polite people. I imagine that Brits read contracts before signing in their daily life. When they go to buy a house, they might even follow their little-minded shop-keeper logic and simulate the payments to find out how much they will pay.
Signing a mortgage is a symbolic act where we express our love for our banking institution.
At least both the nationalistic extreme-left and extreme-right are coherent. They are against the EU and for state sovereignty.
The Portuguese centre is a bit more inconsistent. On Monday, it criticises the Brits and is for the EU, but, on Tuesday, it doesn't want to fulfill any of the obligations that it had officially take on. The Growth and Stability Pact was optional, the agreement with the Troika is to be flexible, and the Franco-German proposal that the UK rejected (and Portugal supported) was never intended to be taken seriously. On Wednesday, it argues that national sovereignty is an outdated concept for racist nacionalists, but on Thursday it cries out that Portugal is no longer independent and posts UK Independence Party speeches on Facebook. On Friday, it almost cries when it mentions Europe and how much Europe means (especialy compared to the US), but on Saturday it grumbles as it eats Spanish cabbage. On Sunday it rests, because of all this activity is tiresome.
Paragraph of the Day
If you are a democrat you want to gerrymander districts and have an electoral college. This vastly reduces the number of votes a president needs to win an election. Then tax very highly. It’s much better to decide who gets to eat than to let the people feed themselves. If you lower taxes people will do more work, but then people will get rewards that aren’t coming through you. Everything good must come through you. Look at African farm subsidies. The government buys crops at below market price by force. This is a tax on farmers who then can’t make a profit. So, how do you reward people? The government subsidises fertilisers and hands it back that way.
Leia o texto todo.
Paragraph of the Day
If you are a democrat you want to gerrymander districts and have an electoral college. This vastly reduces the number of votes a president needs to win an election. Then tax very highly. It’s much better to decide who gets to eat than to let the people feed themselves. If you lower taxes people will do more work, but then people will get rewards that aren’t coming through you. Everything good must come through you. Look at African farm subsidies. The government buys crops at below market price by force. This is a tax on farmers who then can’t make a profit. So, how do you reward people? The government subsidises fertilisers and hands it back that way.
Read the whole thing.
Becoming Portuguese
Having been gone so long, I needed a strong re-culturisation. Today, I went out and bought a fancy mobile phone and a Nespresso machine. I am writing from a shopping centre (alas, it has internet). Now, I feel Portuguese again.
Naturalização
Tendo estado fora tanto tempo, precisa de um programa de reculturação. Hoje, comprei um telefone com imensas mariquices e uma máquina Nespresso. Estou a escrever dum centro comercial (alás, tem internete). Agora, sim, sou outra vez português.
Fiscal Havens
Yesterday, I filled up on petrol in Spain.
Paraísos Fiscais
Ontem, pus gasolina em Espanha.
The State We're In
There are several states: there is the welfare state, the minimal state, and there is the state we're in.[*]_
I was gone for five years, I'm back, and I expected that the heralded libertarian revolution would have taken place. I expected that the bridge that links Lisbon to Almada would have been renamed Bridge João Miranda. Instead, it's still 25 of April and, in government, we won a D (the old party in power was the left-wing PS, now we have the centrist PSD). It's not a lot of progress.
Portugal, excuse my Portuguese, is in deep shit. So far, austerity measures were just a warm-up act and, in 2012, things will start to hurt. Since 2000, there has been almost no economic growth and I see no reasons to believe that things will change in the next few years.
A few months ago, some news paper (or was it a TV station) asked, in one of those throw-away man-of-street questionaires: do you think that the crisis will last two more years? My friends, countrymen: two years would be a dream scenario. It can last another 20 or another 40 years. We have 10 years of stagnation, a whole generation without a job. Why not another 10 or 20? The demographic situation is bad and will not get better.
The best case scenario is reforms now and, by 2016 or so, Portugal would grow enough that we would be back to the golden year of 2007 (remember how great that was? Neither do I). This is best-case scenario, if the right reforms are made now.
Will the right reforms be made? Probably not. This is a democracy. In a democracy, you get the government you deserve. The PS-led governments, for years gave the country exactly what it promised and what it was elected to do (as Henrique Raposo says, they weren't swindlers, just socialists). They did not lose those elections because the electorate finally got fed up with the waste of money. They lost because they run out of money to waste. (In Lady Thatcher's words the socialists ran out of other people's money.) Currently there is, in some leftist circles, talk of a Citizen's Audit to the Debt. Well, that already took place. It was during the 2009 elections, where the growing debt and its sustainability dominated the debate. The debt won.
The supposed "austerity" of this government may seem a lot, but except for a few extraordinary measures (raiding private pension funds, selling assets), deficit is still 8% of GDP. This is not even close. Even if the government completely defaults on its debt, how is it going to pay for its primary deficit? Prayer?
Even if the party with a D won, which is called a right-wing party in Portugal, this is still one of the most left-wing countries in Europe, economically speaking (Heritage places it almost at the bottom, just above Greece and Italy—great examples, those). Again, this is a democray. The Portuguese elites are on the left, the politicians give them what they want.
And, on the left, the solution is always the same: let the rich pay. As it so happens, the rich they tager are now very well-organised into a polity called Germany. And these rich people don't want to pay for Portuguese public-servants. Really, they don't.
| [*] | for English-speakers: this is a reference to a well-known speech from the Carnation Revolution. |
O Estado a Que Isto Chegou
Na série não percebo o optimismo do Vasco Pulido Valente:
Há vários tipos de Estado: há o estado social, há o estado mínimo, e há o estado a que isto chegou.
Estive fora cinco anos, voltei, e, estava à espera que já tivesse acontecido a revolução neo-liberal. Estava à espera que a ponte que liga Lisboa à outra margem tivesse mudado de nome para Ponte João Miranda. Em vez disso, a ponte continua 25 de Abril e, no governo, ganhou-se um D. É pouco progresso.
Portugal, em bom português, está na merda. Até aqui, a austeridade foi só para aquecer e, em 2012 é que as coisas vão começar a apertar. Desde 2000 que não há crescimento económico que o valha e não vejo razões para acreditar que isto venha a mudar nos próximos anos.
Há uns meses, um qualquer jornal (ou seria televisão) perguntava naquelas sondagens da tanga: acha que a crise vai durar dois anos? Oh meus amigos! Dois anos seria o cenário de sonho. Pode durar mais 20 ou mais 40 anos. Já lá vão 10 de estagnação, uma geração inteira sem emprego. Porque não outros 10 ou outros 20? A situação demográfica vai continuar a apertar, apertar.
No melhor dos casos, com reformas agora, em 2016 ou assim, começariamos a recolher alguns dos frutos e haveria finalmente, crescimento suficiente para voltarmos ao estado em que Portugal estava no ano dourado de 2007. No melhor dos casos, se o governo fizer as coisas certas.
Fará o governo as coisas certas? Provavelmente não. Estamos em democracia e, em democracia, temos o governo que merecemos. Os governos do PS, durante anos deram ao país exactamente aquilo que prometeram e que o país os elegia para fazer (como diz o Henrique Raposo, não foram vigaristas, simplesmente foram socialistas). Não perdeu as eleições porque se achava que desperdiçava dinheiro a mais, mas porque se acabou o dinheiro para desperdiçar. A auditoria dos cidadãos à dívida já foi feita: foi nas eleições de 2009. Ganhou a dívida.
A suposta "austeridade" deste PSD pode parecer que foi muita, mas, exceptuando algumas medidas extraordinárias (roubo das pensões dos bancos, venda da EDP), o défice continua nos 8%. Nem lá perto se chegou (faltam cortar uns 4% para se chegar a algo sustentável). Mesmo que se deixe de pagar a dívida, como é que se financiam o défice primário? Rezando?
Apesar de se ter ganho o tal partido do D, dito de direita, Portugal continua a ser dos países mais à esquerda da Europa em termos económicos (segundo a Heritage, somente a Grécia e a Itália têm economias menos liberais). Novamente, estamos em democracia: as elites de Portugal são de esquerda, os políticos dão-nos aquilo que os portugueses querem.
E à esquerda, a solução é sempre a mesma: os ricos que paguem. Acontece que agora os tais de ricos são os alemães. E eles não querem pagar funcionários públicos portugueses. A sério, não querem.
Regresso
Voltei. Estive fora mais de cinco anos, ganhei umas letras a seguir ao meu nome e, apesar dos conselhos amigos, voltei. Arquivei o blogue antigo (em breve estará online, mas noutro endereço).
Este blogue agora publicará uma crónica ao Domingo, às nove horas. Os artigos serão mais editados do que anteriormente (que muitas vezes eram escritos e publicados sem qualquer revisão) e estarão disponíveis em Português e Inglês.
Sem horário, escreverei algumas críticas de restaurante e, na categoria, l'écume des jours algumas notas aleatórias (quando me der na telha).
Back
I'm back. I was gone over five years, earned a few letters to place after my name and, despite the friendly warnings, I'm back. I archived the old blog (which will soon reappear online, in a new archive address).
This blog will now follow a strict schedule of an article every Sunday at 9am (Portugal time). The articles will be more thought out than previously (where it was often a spur of the moment, no-revision kind of deal) and they will be available both in Portuguese and English.
I will also write a few restaurant reviews without schedule. Finally, the category l'écume des jours is reserved for random blogging.
Restaurants
Eventually, this section will have restaurant reviews.
Feel free to suggest places for me to check out.
Restaurants
Eventualmente, esta secção terá crítica de restaurantes.
Estevam à vontade para enviar sugestões.