Global Campus Portugal 2013 – 1st trip (21-23/10)

Dear friends in the world,

our group, the Global Campus Portugal, has the task to discover a very new continent: the region in which we live, our neighborhood, our beloved home country. Our aim is to see the image of a healed and sustainable Alentejo. For this we are doing four trips, one into each direction, each direction into one watershed - Sado, Guadiana, Mira... and the ocean. The first trip led us, seven women between 20 and 54, and our VW van into the North of the Alentejo. The first report was written by Ana Margarida.

“Que força é esta? Esta é a minha força.”

(What power is that? It is my power.“) Raquel Freire, “Transiberic Love”

We are in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the April ’74 revolution, they say. This crisis is leaving a trail of tears and despair that is especially strong in Alentejo, given its history of poverty, inequality and desertification. Portugal is shedding the last remnants of its illusions of patriarchal grandeur and coming to terms with a self-limiting pattern that dates back to the Age of the Discoveries. From the colonial empire to a brief flirt with Marxism-Leninism, followed by a love affair with an idea of a united Europe based on technocratic power and bureaucratic control. A common thread crossed these three “ages of illusion”: A technocratic, top-down domination of Nature and fellow Humankind and its two deepest consequences: The concentration of power in the hands of an exploitative elite that took it for granted; and the deprivation of a whole people from a sense of self-worth, belonging and consciousness of its own wisdom. However, behind the mist of despair, we can feel the enormous potential that waits to be seen and felt, in order to give flower and fruit. The energy of pain and loss is the same as that of joy and plenty. All we need is a change of attitude for it to become manifest. It’s never too late for a new beginning.

Day one. We spent the night at the stone circle in Almendres. We quieted our hearts and the stones and the night sky spoke to us about the wonder of existence. Theirs is a wordless voice that invites us to know more about what it means to be alive, and about the stones themselves. We visited the Associação de Idosos (Elder’s Association) of the nearby village of Guadalupe to hear stories about the stone circle from the local Elders. We received much more than we were expecting. We came into contact with the circular reality of time, with the living proof that no memory, no knowledge is lost forever, just laid dormant until it returns to the surface again in its fullness. Also, no human potential is lost forever, despite the tears of loneliness and longing we saw in the eyes of the Elders, many of them abandoned by relatives who emigrated to cities or foreign countries. Tears that ask “what my life could have been”… Those tears come from sharp intelligences that are underestimated and curious hearts that were forced into illiteracy by poverty, child labor and brutal exploitation by rural landowners. “The land around the stone circle was cultivated”, said Mariana a 98-year-old woman. “The stones were laying down, covered by musk and detritus. (…) Then some outsiders came and started looking at them. (…) About 20 years ago, they put them up again. (…) Now the local government sponsors and mid-summer party there every year.”

The strength. The life force that remains intact despite the trials of existence. A 99-year-old man, António Rosa an imposing beauty that reminded us of an old sea captain, told us how, in his youth, he was magically attracted by the still half-hidden and half-forgotten stones and walked miles and miles to visit them. A youth of love and longing in which he wrote poems to the women that touched his heart. He recited to us one of his youthful poems, in which he called his Beloved “The Rose of Alexandria”. Wisdom and Longing, Eros and Knowledge. They are the same energy, the energy that keeps this man alive and whole. May we recognize the youthfulness vibrating in old bodies and once again give our Elders their rightful place in society.

At the University of Évora, we were filled with hope by the Fórum Academia de Sofia, which aims to introduce new paradigms in the Academy. Paula Soares who recently had visited Tamera for the Education Symposium is the core person of this development. In exchange for a presentation of Tamera and its Global Campus, we were gifted with presentations by a very vibrant network of Transition projects that are re-igniting the potential of the region of Évora. They are doing that by connecting permaculturists, changemakers, seedkeepers, artists and researchers in the construction of a local economic network, with its own social currency, based on principles of solidarity and sustainability.

Day two. We spent the night in an old aristocratic mansion full of secrets, where an unassuming, humble-looking but radiant Lady of the Manor is weaving a new paradigm of nobility. We can all feel in our skin and surroundings the effect of the old one, craved in imperious paintings of ancestors with flamboyant mousta

ches, hunting trophies and manuals on “the art of politics”. The Universe wants the nobility of the heart to emerge against all odds, even if it means offering one’s land for the community to build food gardens and going against bureaucracy to create non-regulated vegetarian restaurants, so as to build community and spread information.

(Addition by Leila: I would like to write some more words about our host: Maria Inácia, a 70 years old activist, farmer, restaurant owner, nurse... and Phoebe´s midwive when she gave birth to Jan. She supports the project doctors for the world, which gives medical care for elderly and isolated poor people in the Alentejo. In her farm, which is always open („I have no treasures that can be stolen, everything that thieves can get in my house is a good meal“) she invites people without land to grow their own food. Her family owns an ancient house in the middle of Évora, close to the cathedral, where she hosts activists who need a shelter for the night. Maria Inácia is a wonderful and heartful woman, and we had the feeling this is the Portuguese Peace Pilgrim.)

In the afternoon, we visited Boa Fé and Casas Novas, two villages 7 km from the Stone Circle, threatened with an environmental disaster by the impending mining of gold in the region planned by a Canadian multinational. If the project goes forward, 5 000 trees will be cut down and the local water streams will be poisoned. The local people are concerned, but they still see advantages in the fact that the project will create jobs in the region. But what kinds of jobs? Under what conditions? Is there really no alternative to environmental destruction and disease in order to generate employment and income?

The evening meeting with the Rede de Cidadania (Citizenship Network) of Montemor-O-Novo confirmed that there are indeed alternatives. Like in Évora, there is a group of local activists that are building a solidarity and sustainability-based local economic network. The local government supports a Banco de Terras (Land Bank) where the locals can garden their own food, as well as a local market where the Rede has a place to spread information and commercialize the products of its participants. The biggest challenge facing this network is that of being constituted mainly by outsiders, who moved to Montemor-O-Novo in search for quality of life. Building trust with the locals is one of the major tasks ahead.

Day three. This was the day of witnessing major transitions unfolding in the here-and-now. Two herdades, large landholdings of the former rural aristocracy, are turning from bastions of authoritarianism and exploitation into havens of community building. Matriarchal inspiration is playing a fundamental role in the process. Alfredo Cunhal Sendim, the owner of Herdade do Freixo, owes much of his drive to his mother, a Christian activist who promoted social inclusion and dignified employment. (Addition by Leila: On Freixa da Cima - a part of Alfredo´s herdade - we helped the young family of Catarina Joaquim and Carlos Simões to plant some trees on their 11 ha fruit orchard. It is so far the only place in Portugal where the keyline technique is successfully applied, an innovative and effective way of water retention. Carlos says to the question what they are doing: we build soil.)

The love that José Arantes Pedroso, an artist and permaculturist, has for his task of sharing knowledge, building community through theater and promoting beauty and sustainability in food production, is to a large extent supported by the loving memory of his late wife and son. Both men are paying the price of being pioneers and facing economic insecurity and alienation from family and friends, as well as political and bureaucratic difficulties. Driven by Love, they are succeeding, against all odds.

VENCEREMOS!

Ana Margarida Esteves