Wednesday 7 August 2013

My country is being sold. And it’s really cheap too!

The other day I was wandering through the supermarket aisles and found this fruit called… Portugal.


This other Portugal (pronounced po-ti-gal) is a variety of clementine and it seems it is very enjoyed in TT because of its fragrance and the ease in peeling it (I’m sure the very affordable price is a plus). Also, like most (all?) of the citrus fruits it is rich in fibre, antioxidants and vitamin c.

In my home land the crisis is escalating; wages, pensions and aids are being cut; purchasing power is decreasing, strangling families; the austerity cuts are widely blamed for keeping Portugal in recession over the past two years; there’s been a wave of street protests; the treasury secretary quit only five weeks after he was brought into the government following the resignation of two senior ministers; public companies (everything from public broadcaster RTP to parts of the postal service, water utilities, energy utilities, state banks, the rail service and oil firm Galp) are being or will be sold to repay bailout loans; people started talking about calling a snap election.

I couldn’t refrain from buying a bag of Portugals and smiling at the irony. But it would be so much funnier if I had found Portugals being sold in Germany.

(Check here a Portugal chow recipe, trini way.)

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