The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

dated 2010-05-25 | posted in columns | topic People | permanent link

I spent the past week randomly looking, listening and observing in this part of Portugal. It occurred to me recently that I’ve never seen a black person working in a bank, insurance company, or in any firm of importance except to clean them up. It’s true that I live in Cascais, often referred to as the “Beverly Hills of Portugal”, but when I asked my banker if she knew of any black managers or tellers in Lisbon, she looked at me with a “ not there” blank stare and said, “ Um..well, I think I saw one, once, but I couldn’t be certain.” She then defended her bank: “We do have employees from Goa, and other former colonies.” I’m no history scholar, but I thought the ex-colonies also include black Africans. So where are they in the upper employment ranks?

Now the good. Today I had lunch with three dynamic women. The topic of fitness came up .My friend at the table turned to the one woman I didn’t know and said, “Berta, tell Pat about your adventure.” Then this attractive grandmother somewhere in her late 50´s told me, “On my 50th birthday, I became the first Portuguese woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.” I sat there astounded then extracted as many answers her as etiquette allowed. Here’s the summary: in her 50th year Berta Marinho set out with a French group and successfully climbed the mountain in five days. “The event changed the way I looked at myself. It was an achievement I was not supposed to be able to do,” she said modestly and then asked the rest of us what we do for exercise. When I asked if she had been interviewed by the Portuguese press on her return she said, “No, no one asked me anything.” I’ve asked her to give a talk locally and will announce the date when it’s set.

Speaking of events, last Sunday, Richard Zimler, the author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and seven other books, spoke to a group of 60 gathered in a Cascais vegetarian restaurant. The event was sponsored by Democrats Abroad Portugal and attracted the new, affable US Ambassador to Portugal, Allan Katz and his wife Nancy Cohn. Zimler was dynamic, bright and very funny. One participant commented, “For that afternoon I felt like I was in New York. Let’s have more cultural events.”

Back to the ugly: last week Don and I were walking our two dogs in the park in front of our home. We always set out with plastic bags and leashed dogs, two items I see infrequently with local dog owners. (Why the Portuguese think their dogs don’t need leashes I will never understand, even when I see them in the vet cradling their “ Bonita” in blankets after being swiped by a car.) On this pre-summer morning a woman walked her pug and we watched as he made a huge “poor” on the newly cut grass. She watched too and then walked off with no interest in picking it up. In my best Portuguese I said,
“You know you’re supposed to pick up after your dog.” She growled back at me, “The dog poo is biodegradable. The plastic bag is not, so I never pick up.” I said “Bom dia” hoping that she will be the next to step in the poo, not us.

We’re in World Cup countdown mode these days, so the nation’s troubles seem far from people’s minds. When I asked a college graduate in my gym if he was concerned about Portugal’s economy he said, “Well, I once heard something about it. But not very much.”

patwestheimer@gmail.com