Nome de uma rua de Macau...

 

What's behind the Netherlands' turn to the far-right?

Euronews International Correspondent Valérie Gauriat speaks with voters in the Netherlands to understand how the far-right PVV party secured a victory in the 2023 parliamentary elections.
Geert Wilders, an anti-Islam firebrand and the leader of the Dutch People's Party for Freedom (PVV) came first in last November's parliamentary elections with 23 per cent of the vote.
The champion of national preference gained unprecedented support in a climate of deep economic and social crisis, which many blame on the outgoing Rutte-led government.This episode of Witness takes us to the economic hub of Rotterdam, the second-biggest city in the Netherlands, and one of the places where the populist leader scored the highest.
Voters across the Netherlands have veered far to the right politically. The shift has been triggered by economic and cultural anxieties that have whipped up fears about immigrants. It's an extreme example of a trend being felt across the continent that could tilt the outcome of this year's European Union parliamentary election.
“Everything [has] become more and more expensive. Everything is just really taken away from you. And people are just afraid. We want to hear about something other than poverty and budget cuts. And if he [Wilders] thinks he can make things right, then it’s fine by me”, explained shopowner Rashma. Inflation, and in particular, the rising cost of food and energy prices, is hitting hard.
“Poverty is really a growing problem, even among working people,” said John, whose small charity collects food and necessities to be delivered to deprived families in a working-class neighbourhood in Rotterdam. Caroline, one of his beneficiaries and a single mother of four told Euronews that she couldn’t cope without his help. She is one of the many people now counting on Wilders to pull the country out of recession.
She claimed his anti-immigration stance is part of the solution: "He is going to change a lot. The country is already full. The Dutch people want to help everybody, but first, they need to help their own country. This country is all misery!” Wilders must still secure the support of other parties to form a coalition government.
Known for his Islamophobic, Eurosceptic and climate sceptic rhetoric, he has had to soften his narrative, and scrap plans to ban mosques, the Koran, Islamic schools, and the wearing of the burqa and niqab in the Netherlands. Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, a former asylum-seeker, took over from former prime minister Mark Rutte as the leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in August 2023.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius is now in talks with Wilders and two other party leaders about the contours of a new coalition. Nevertheless, the Muslim community in the Netherlands are still concerned for their future, said the Imam of the Essalam mosque in Rotterdam, one of the largest in Europe.
“Since the elections, violence, discrimination and the exclusion of Muslims here in the Netherlands have increased drastically,” he said.  “Now we see people who wonder if they are still welcome here, and are thinking of leaving [the Netherlands] to countries where their children can grow up in a healthy environment”.

Remembering...

 

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Martin Niemöller

The End of the Subscription Era is Coming

 

Um artigo interessante, de um blogger norte-americano, num momento em que pelo menos dois dos três grandes grupos de Media, em Portugal, estão à beira da falência: a Global Media e o grupo SIC.

I’m not just talking about streaming platforms, which have been biting the wallet for years, or newspapers and magazines, which have simply migrated their long-term models to a new digital era. No, I’m talking about everything. Beer, insurance, cinema: just three of the crazy subscriptions that I’ve currently taken out.
This move stems, obviously, from the collapse of digital advertising and the decline of the high-street. These are two related trends, which have had an enormous impact on the way that product purchasing works. 

Media enterprises — whether that’s Netflix or the New York Times — cannot rely on advertising revenue to underwrite their costs, and, similarly, the rise of online retail has made the expense of doing IRL business prohibitive. And so, rather than going to a local bottle shop for my craft beers, I have them sent to me once a month. And where product is not available on subscription, those businesses use subscriptions to incentivise loyalty: just look at ASOS Premier, which puts the fast in fast fashion.
(...)
I’ve got this far in the piece without even mentioning the cost-of-living crisis and the commensurate reduction in households’ discretionary spending. How much are you spending now on eating out, compared to pre-pandemic levels? How much are you spending on wine? How much are you spending on toilet roll? How much are you spending on perfume? How much are you spending on dog food? How much are you spending on newspapers? How much are you spending on porn? If the answers to any of those questions is anything other than “less”, well done you (and please take out a paid subscription to my newsletter).
(...)
Nick Hilton - Aug 30, 2023 (Medium Daily Digest)

Portugal Fighting Back Against Rising Tide of Cocaine

 

Portugal has seized records amount of cocaine from South America in recent months, underscoring how the country is regaining its place as a significant drug entry point and transit hub.

From January to mid-August 2022, Portugal has intercepted over 14 tons of cocaine, with a street value of around 700 million euros, according to an interview by newspaper Diario de Noticias with Artur Vaz, head of Portugal’s National Unit for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking (Unidade Nacional de Combate ao Tráfico de Estupefacientes).

(...)

From 2018 to 2020, Portugal was either in fifth or sixth place in Europe in terms of cocaine seizures. And 12.5 tons of cocaine were already seized from January to June 2022. That is an increase of over 20 percent from the total amount seized in 2021.

Organized crime in Portugal

Portugal became a destination for several thousand emigrants from diverse locations around the globe (particularly Eastern Europe, Brazil and the former Portuguese territories in Africa - the PALOP countries). With the development and modernisation of the economy within the globalisation process, corporate crime, financial crime, and corruption are increasingly important issues.[16]
According to the World Economic Forum's 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, Portugal ranked 9th best out of 141 countries for level of costs imposed on businesses by organised crime.[17] According to the 2021 Global Organized Crime Index, Portugal received a score of 4.55 for criminality, and 6.46 for resilience, ranking 117th, and 29th out of 193 countries globally, 24th, and 21st out of 44 countries in Europe, and 5th, and 2nd out of 8 countries in Southern Europe.[18]
The Galician clans, particularly the Los Charlines clan, have been major players in illicit drug trafficking, primarily involved in smuggling cocaine and hashish from Colombia and Morocco into Portugal via sea routes since the 1970s.[19][20]
Various groups of the Italian Mafia have been known to be active throughout Portugal since at least the 1980s. The Camorra is known to be active in Porto where it is involved in the business of fake designer fashion merchandise. Calabrian organised crime group 'Ndrangheta has been involved in drug trafficking, as well as money laundering specifically through the tourism sector.[21]
Organised crime groups from former Soviet states have been increasingly active in the Iberian Peninsula since the 1990s, especially after the fall of the USSR.[22] In 2016, members of a Russian criminal gang led by Alexander Tolstikov, with ties to the Russian mafia, were caught running a money laundering operation using the Portuguese football club U.D. Leiria.[23][24] By 2019, members of the Georgian mafia had committed over 370 burglaries throughout Portugal.[25] 

In 2021, two members of the Montenegrin Kavač clan, which is responsible for money laundering, extortion, and smuggling cocaine from South America into Europe, were arrested in Portugal after living and operating discreetly in the country for nearly one year.[26]
Since the 2000s, Mexican drug cartels including Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, and the Gulf Cartel, have been establishing their presence in Portugal. Of these three, the Sinaloa cartel has evolved to become the one with the most dominant presence in the country, where it is involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The group's primary modus operandi is smuggling cocaine of Colombian origin into Portugal, with the aid of corrupt officials and businessmen; The smuggling operation is overseen by Joaquín Guzmán's two sons Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo. 

Once in Portugal, only a small amount of the smuggled cocaine remains in the country; The majority is transferred to partners with whom the Sinaloa Cartel has alliances, including Portuguese, Brazilian and Russian drug traffickers, who then distribute the drugs throughout the rest of Europe to command higher prices.[20]
In the 2010s the presence of Brazilian organised crime group First Capital Command (abbreviation "PCC"; Portuguese; Primeiro Comando da Capital) in Portugal was confirmed for the first time by Portuguese authorities.[27][28] A federal report by the Brazilian government revealed that there were at least 43 members of the group involved in drug trafficking known to be operating in Portugal, the highest number of any country in Europe.[29] First Capital Command has had a working relationship with 'Ndrangheta since the 1980s to export drugs from Brazil to Europe, where 'Ndrangheta then takes over trafficking and distribution operations throughout the continent.[30]

Praising Hitler

“Are Jews endowed with humanity?”

(...)

“The Jews hates everyone who is not Jew (…) Jews are enemies of all those who are not, and seek to do them all possible harm. Maybe that was the reason why Hitler wanted to annihilate these damned people.” These quotes were taken from an article published in February 1988 in the Portuguese Islamic magazine Al-Furqán, edited by Yiossuf Adamgy. The author of the article, Aminuddin Mohamad, is a former spiritual adviser of the Portuguese Islamic Community of Lisbon (CIL). At the time, Mr. Karim Abdool Vakil was the president of CIL.

O judeus não são seres humanos