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[Odler]

Portugal´s last GNP is around $11 billion dollars, which commends a

per capita income of only $10,000, making the Portuguese economy the

dimmest in Western Europe. Its growth rate has been a mere 2.5% per

year.

However, this picture does not apparently conjure up any severe social

ills. Unemployment remains low, homelessness is unheard of, and crime is not a problem.

Portugal holds a strong socialist tradition. The 1982 Constitution

established a "classless state", with all resources and means of

productions belonging to the people (i.e., the government), and not to

private interests.

The fall of the Soviet Union and the failure of the Marxist-Leninist

societies justified a change of stances when the constitution was

revised in 1989.

This flip-flopping attitude of Portugal has been its mark since the

fall of the monarchy. For example, Portugal did not partake to the

second World War. It declared itself neutral. However, when the rout of the Axis forces became ineluctable, Lisbon joined the Allied camp; a good strategy to be on the winning side.

The last trivia fact to remember about Portugal is the 1755 earthquake. It hit Lisbon (short of three neighborhoods) during mass on All-Saints' Day.

The quake was assessed at about 8 on the scale of Ritcher. Along with tidal waves from the Atlantic, it destroyed the city, the richest in Occident at that time, and killed half of its population. (No one knows the exact number of dead, since everyone was too busy burying bodies to count them. Too numerous to count.)

(The Traveller, Monday, February 11, 2002)