Friends for rent

I recently read on a magazine that it is possible to rent a friend over the internet. Yes... rent a friend!

My jaw dropped when I read it. At first I thought it was some kind of virtual friendship but it isn't. It works with real human contact.

People use this service for different reasons: they have no close friends (anymore), they are away and alone in a country (like visiting) or even when they need to go to a dinner party and have no date.

People pay by the hour, spend some time together and then say goodbye and thank you.

Now... are we realising we really need human touch and social lives or are we facing friendship in an unattached fashion?

Royal Wedding

Honestly, for me, the situation is so stupid that I don´t understand people.

Throughout the Salazar dictatorship we knew that people liked football, fado, Fátima or in general, religion, and this was a way of forgetting difficulties.

But then we really had difficulties! We didn´t have social security, good pensions, good medical assistance, and so on...

But today we like to “in”. Why religion?

Nowadays, it´s so nice to know news about kings, jet-set, TV presenters, etc.

What crisis? We have subsidies! We don´t need to work, the welfare state takes care of us! They have this responsibility!

But my questions are:

where is our responsibility a citizen?

As a father?

As a boss?

In general there are no responsibilities. People live in the clouds!

Again about crisis: on TV I only watched people complaining in the Algarve, saying that this year they will have to save money because things are bad, bla, bla, bla,

But they are on holidays (that week I was working!) and spending money, and they are in the Algarve! How can they be so ridiculous?

But they had been complaining!

In my opinion, in reality, and in general of course, until now people in general didn´t feel the crisis!

Until now the welfare state had been solving difficulties.

In public administration less 5% in wages over € 1.500,00 is not important. These people earned a lot of money during many years (they don´t know why) and they never worked as private workers. This is reality.

Now the pensions over € 1.500,00 will be reduced in 5% on average.

What´s the problem? € 1.500,0 is a good pension! And most of these people that have this pension amount, didn´t have any difficulty in order to have it.

In general these pensions are a bonus! A bonus directly from private pockets to public workers' bank account.

Because of that, actually, presently, we don´t have a big crisis.

We only have a public deficit. We only need to reduce the public administration expenses.

On the other hand, for me, the main challenge is to create conditions in order to have a big growth in the future.

Reduce high pensions: go ahead!

Reduce politicians' jobs: go ahead!

The Royal Wedding - Really?...

Dear gentlemen,

buried in a deep financial mess, as we are, I found our four regular TV channels broadcasting a Royal Wedding from another country and opening the News with it. What happened to the concerns about our situation and how we are being helped (if we are indeed) by IMF? Second place they have been thown, so it seems.

Bother us not crisis, for we have a wedding to watch! But... wait a minute.... we are not British! So what? Being an ostrich once in a while is part of our national conscience, or didn't we (all) go to the Algarve on holiday?

Cynical and sarcastic I know, but this post is to spice you into writing. How do you read this "Royal Wedding Fever"?

Incompetent Politicians

When I think of our economic and political situation. Sometimes I´m optimistic but sometimes I´m pessimistic.
I get pessimistic specially when I hear our politicians or some other important people: all of them give us their opinion but they are always the same: we have to change, we have to cut down on expenses, and so on… but some (or all!) of them depend on state payments, through pensions, contracts, among others.
But when we heard the President of the Republic in his acceptance speech, forget his responsibilities over the last 25 years, honestly I got angry!
We only need to think of the last four years: why doesn’t he do something, using his words, of course?
That speech arrived at least three years late.
But worse! In his Facebook page he called our attention to some journalists that made a wrong interpretation of his intentions!
It’s amazing! Such lack of competence for the job! How can the Portuguese people vote in these men?
I know: we didn’t have better! This is our main problem: we don’t have an honest and hard-working man that instead of thinking of his position, thinks of the country.
On the other hand we are less demanding and we lack of economic knowledge. We have bad habits regarding our personal financial management.
It’s true that youngsters don’t have a good future in the horizon but it’s also true that youngsters have never before had such a good life.
They are always complaining (as their parents). A few days ago I heard in a restaurant that the Portuguese people only complain for two reasons: about everything and about nothing).
But we have to understand: they learnt this behavior from their parents. In the last 25/30 years we got the used to the state taking care of us.
Right now we are discovering that this is not true. We have to work and to take care of ourselves. For the future I think that we need to take these steps. They are called steps, but they are essential in order to change the mentality of our State

We have recently discussed crises and how they will affect future generations.

Here we can find the traditional cycle of crises from 1990 to 2040.

In my opinion we should discuss this topic next lesson. This picture shows the real world perspective that we will get during the next few years.

Financial Mentality

Last time we met we talked about our opinions regarding the origins of this present financial crisis. Both of you mentioned different topics but you both agreed on two topics "finance" and "mentality", hence the title of this post being "Financial Mentality".

I look forward to reading your posts on this matter and I will expect you to focus on this question in particular - should our financial mentality be submitted to training? If so, starting when (age) and where (family, school,...)?

Look within

I was told the other day that life is pink and tastes like chocolate.

It is a rather romantic perspective of our present national and international situation, but what if we limit ourselves to our little own world for a few minutes, just to forget about the rest. What would you say your like is coloured like and what would it taste of?...

Here's a proposal that I hope will help you focus on the good side of life; I long to read all about it.