Resistance and Freedom
In December 2023, to research the origins of organised crime at Pedras d’el Rei, I visited Aljube Museum of Resistance and Freedom in Lisbon which is dedicated to “the history and memory of the fight against the dictatorship and the recognition of resistance in favour of freedom and democracy”:
On 28 May 1936, António de Oliveira Salazar lied that "the Great Certainties of the National Revolution" were "Unquestionable Truths". Salazar’s deceitful propaganda machine of nationalist totalitarianism - in family, in school, at work, at play - was the polar opposite of a vegan, naturist (or Keynesian, social) democracy. Many individuals and clandestine resistance organisations worked to oppose the fascist regime, culminating in the ‘Carnation Revolution’ of 25th April 1974.
Several techniques of the Salazar Dictatorship are ongoing at Pedras d’el Rei in 2023:
“Direct surveillance of the disaffected … to feed political records … on subversive activities … which affect the established order.” Vasco Queiroga (personally) and several of his servants have conducted direct surveillance of my home.
“A network of informers (‘bufos’) worked to harm social relationships and create fear.” Vasco Queiroga recruits employees and encourages neighbours to participate in the calculated harassment of innocent victims.
“Collaboration with the business world: large companies were encouraged to create their own systems of self-protection, surveillance and security." Vasco Queiroga operates, in 2023, his own private security force (using money extorted from others).
“Postal interception, codenamed "operation stork", in close articulation with CTT. Much correspondence never reached the addressees.” Precisely the same activity is ongoing in 2023, in intimate collaboration with CTT and Tavira Town Council.
“Censorship of publications that could violate the public order.” Vasco Queiroga controls the flow of information between homeowners, blocking the exposure of concerns about his own behaviour.
“Bread … and a ruthless trail of exploitation.” Vasco Queiroga seemingly enjoys a carefree lifestyle at the expense of countless victims.
“Preserving the Memory of History is an act of Citizenship:
… breaking the silence in which everyone was submerged.”
Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilised society, but where did they go under Salazar’s control? And why do so many people permit an Illegal Local Dictatorship to perpetuate Salazar’s regime at Pedras d’el Rei in 2023?
My theories include:
Many employees of “Pedras Group” may prioritise their own jobs and livelihoods above Rule of Law.
Parish Council of Santa Luzia may be afraid to assert its correct boundaries and jurisdiction.
Town Council of Tavira may be institutionally corrupt and subject to bribery.
Management of postal distribution for CTT in Tavira may be corrupt and subject to bribery.
Some GNR agents in Tavira may be corrupt and subject to bribery.
Many absent owners of houses in Pedras d’el Rei may be uninterested in complying with their civic duties and/or: unwell, incapacitated or deceased; perpetrators of tax evasion (from commercial leasing of tourist accommodation); unable to process a collective, population-level guilt (about complicity in Portugal’s Dictatorship within living memory).
It may be easier to block out a bad memory, to pretend we weren’t involved and that we wouldn’t have tolerated it (if we had been there):
How was it allowed to happen?
Why didn’t we stop it sooner?
Why were we complicit in abuse?
“In our country, the torture carried out systematically by the PIDE, on many thousands of political prisoners in 48 years of Salazar’s dictatorship, left scars of psychological and human suffering that were never duly assessed, treated and compensated.”
“Will the New Republic correspond to the call that summons it or once again will the hope of finally achieving anything worthy of being contemplated with political maturity fail us? To answer yes is to head in the direction of this hope, it is an act of positive passion, to already fight that whole insidious temptation to mistrust the profound popular movement that manifests it.”
Why does no legislation of Portugal explicitly permit co-owners of condominiums to directly communicate with one another?! Laws and institutions should keep pace with the times.
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! Have courage to use your own understanding! - that is the motto of enlightenment.”
“No civilized society can thrive upon victims, whose humanity has been permanently mutilated.”
“If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb.”
Libel actions are merely an ornament or a scar on a civilised society; they have replaced weapons in defence of a reputation.
“They give us a cake which is the history
of our history without a plot
and no other word resounds
in our memory than fear.”
Freedom
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Freedom 〰️
April 25, 1974/2024?
Pedras d'el Rei
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Pedras d'el Rei 〰️
