Portugal’s disgruntled Facebook generation, inspired by a pop song, marched in a dozen cities to vent its frustration at grim career prospects amid an acute economic crisis that shows no sign of abating.
About 30,000 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, crammed into Lisbon’s main downtown avenue on Saturday, called onto the streets by a social media campaign that harnessed a broad sense of disaffection. Local media reported thousands more attended simultaneous protests in 10 other cities nationwide.
A banner at the front of the Lisbon march said: “Our country is in dire straits.” Another said: “We are the future.”
Photo: Reuters
The Lisbon march was festive and raucous, featuring brass bands, drum combos and small children with balloons. -Middle-aged parents also turned out.
Portugal, western Europe’s poorest country, is producing the best-qualified generation in its history, thanks to big investments in education, but after a decade of feeble economic growth and a huge debt burden that has forced the government to enact crippling austerity measures, Portugal’s economy is unable to deliver the opportunities that trained young people are seeking.
The jobless rate stands at a record 11.2 percent and half the unemployed are under 35. In the third quarter of last year, 68,500 college graduates were idle — a 6.5 percent increase on the same quarter the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute.
Like Greece and Ireland, other debt-heavy European countries, analysts say Portugal is on the verge of needing an international bailout that would prevent its financial collapse, but doom it to more years of recession.
“People’s well-being has taken second place to financial matters,” said Luis Santos, a 28-year-old out of work since graduating from Lisbon University three years ago.
Most of his old college friends also are finding it hard to get on the career ladder.
“It’s hard to come across anyone who’s happy about their prospects,” he said.
Portugal’s youth isn’t just angry at unemployment, but at “underemployment” — low paid, dead-end jobs beneath their levels of qualification — which leaves them stuck at home with their parents into their 30s.
Goncalo Montenegro, 45, was at the Lisbon march with his 14-year-old son. He works as a salesman, but said he is worried about his son’s future.
“We’re passing on this mess and our debt to the next generation. We have to find a different path,” he said.
Four college graduates in their 20s were inspired to organize the unprecedented protests after a pop song struck a chord with their despairing generation.
The song, called What a Fool I am by Portuguese band Deolinda, was an unexpected hit in January, even though it had yet to be released. An amateur video of a concert performance of the song posted on YouTube went viral as it set a generation’s simmering grievances to music.
The song’s lyrics, including the lines: “I can’t go on like this, this situation’s dragged on for too long,” built into a battle cry.
Joao Labrincha, a 27-year-old unemployed graduate from Coimbra University, said he and three friends took a spontaneous decision to organize the marches after seeing the video.
“We realized that lots of people are unhappy. It wasn’t just us,” Labrincha said.
Within weeks, thousands had signed up to their Facebook page and commented on their blog.
The protest’s manifesto said it wasn’t targeting the country’s embattled government, though many banners at the Lisbon march chided politicians. The demonstration’s aim was to make people aware they have to pull together to change the course of the country.
“We are protesting so that all those to blame for our current uncertainty — politicians, employers and even ourselves — might unite and quickly change this situation, which has become intolerable,” the manifesto said.
After contracting in 2009, Portugal is forecast to record a double-dip recession this year.
The country’s current -economic plight stems from Portugal’s inability to generate wealth while amassing massive public and private debt to finance its western European lifestyle.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS