«This part, that part
and everyone, everyone is gone
Galicia you are without men
that they can cut your bread
you have in exchange
orphans and orphans
you have solitude fields
you have mothers who don't have children
children who have no father
Chicken Heart
that you have and suffer
long absences
widows of the living dead
that no one will console”
The poem is by the Galician Rosalia de Castro, who wrote it in the 60th century, referring to the reality of her native Galicia. It was set to music and sung, in Portugal, by Adriano Correia de Oliveira, I think still in the late XNUMXs of the last century.
But, if we change the word «Galicia» to «Portugal», the poem is 100% adapted to the current times.
Sorry for the insistence: last week I spoke here about the emigration of the Portuguese today, this stupid crisis that is pushing some of our best people out of Portugal.
And since last week I have heard of two more people who are friends of mine who are going to emigrate, who were forced to do so. And this time, it's about highly qualified people, with proven evidence, those people who are often said to be lacking in the country.
Therefore, this insistence of mine, which results from a certain anguish.
One of these people is a friend who lived in Évora, was a Mathematics teacher at a school in Alentejo, but he never managed to become a permanent member. He was one of those hired teachers, but who had been working for the Ministry of Education for over 15 years. The students loved him and they got good grades with him, because he was deeply committed to making them understand the intricate subjects of Mathematics.
He used to say, almost quoting the current Minister of Education Nuno Crato, that «learning to play is beautiful, but there is a time when you have to stop playing and work seriously». Little did he know that it would be this minister with whom, apparently, he shares so many ideas and opinions, who would dictate that he, an experienced professor who was passionate about his profession, would be unemployed this year.
In the meantime, he had an opportunity to go to the Netherlands to do a doctorate, he applied, he was accepted among dozens of candidates from all over Europe, and there he goes. You will receive, for at least five years, a doctoral scholarship. And you already told me you probably won't come back...
The other person I am referring to was a researcher at a Research Center at the University of Algarve, PhD in the United States of America, responsible for years for important research projects, with a solid reputation in the scientific and environmental world.
After 20 years as a scholarship holder, always on the tightrope despite her enviable resume, without the right to paid vacations, vacation pay, Christmas or unemployment, this year her scholarship at that Research Center was not renewed and she found herself, at age 50, without a job.
Therefore, he applied for a prestigious post in a UK body linked to Nature Conservation. He went to an interview with dozens of other candidates, from all over Europe, many of them Portuguese, some of them also from the University of Algarve. It was chosen and leaves there in October.
«Finally I will have a job, with the right to the social benefits that I have always been denied in Portugal, due to my scholarship situation», he told me. And she, who is yet another example of a brilliant mind that this country lacks, goes abroad. And he doesn't plan on coming back anytime soon either. ..
Do you see my anguish now?
«This one leaves, that one leaves, and all of them go away»…
This is my chronicle of last Thursday at Rádio Universitária do Algarve (RUA FM), which can also be heard here.
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