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Crisis - Austerity in Portugal

59 images Created 16 Apr 2014

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  • A screen shows a journalist reporting on further austerity measures announced by Portugal's Prime Minister. After Ireland and Greece, Portugal became the third country, among others to follow, which sought help from an international bailout fund. The years to follow would bring further implementation of foreign creditors' demands for severe austerity policies. The result has been staggering unemployment, rising taxes, economic depression, unprecedented poverty and emigration levels only comparable to those during Oliveira Salazar's fascist dictatorship years.
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  • A commercial airplane flies over Lisbon. After Ireland and Greece, Portugal became the third country, among others to follow, which sought help from an international bailout fund. Austerity policies demanded by foreign creditors have since then resulted in staggering unemployment, rising taxes, economic depression, unprecedented poverty and emigration levels only comparable to those during Oliveira Salazar's fascist dictatorship years.
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  • An elderly woman sits outside a supermarket, as part of a group who spends their days, attempting to sell small handmade embroidery made on the spot and begging for small change in an attempt to make ends meet. Pensioners have seen their pensions progressively cut and their expenses increased with rising taxation over food and electricity, forcing them to find during their "golden years" new ways to complement already meager pensions after a lifetime of work, saving and contributing to retirement funds.
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  • A shoeless homeless man pleads with a team of volunteers who distribute sandwiches and yogurt to the homeless and unemployed in need. Being this an emergency situation and charities a necessary way to cope with it in the short term, this raises deeper questions in the long run. Many of this questions stem from whether private enterprise, interest lobbies and charities should substitute people's democratic right to access fair job opportunities, dignifying wages and basic public services and if the state should be deresponsabilized in its functions of representativity in providing services and social security, in principle, already insured by taxpayers. The growing of food banks and charities in Europe are now barometers showing how crippled the economy is and how governments and public services are failing taxpayers and society as a whole.
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  • A commercial airplane flies over Lisbon. After Ireland and Greece, Portugal became the third country, among others to follow, which sought help from an international bailout fund. Austerity policies demanded by foreign creditors have since then resulted in staggering unemployment, rising taxes, economic depression, unprecedented poverty and emigration levels only comparable to those during Oliveira Salazar's fascist dictatorship years.
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  • A man drinks in a local tavern in downtown Lisbon. The century old tavern serving "ginginha" is a survival case among thousands of bankrupting small businesses in downtown Lisbon. An increase from 13% to 23% on VAT in food and beverages sectors implemented by the government to collect further taxes, is estimated to have resulted in the bankrupcy of forty thousand companies - restaurants and cafés - and in the direct loss of around one hundred thousand jobs, also causing a snowball effect of large scale unemployment reflected in other related sectors. The tavern is a popular point for traditional local quality liquor sold in affordable small portions to turists but mostly to workers, unemployed and homeless who roam around the tavern while killing time, chatting or waiting for charity food distribution vans.
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  • A homeless woman is seen taking shelter outside the Portuguese Finance Ministry.
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  • "Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of German economist Karl Marx. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often referred to as "religion is the opiate of the masses." "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". [in Wikipedia]<br />
In the still deeply religious Portuguese northern town of Vila Real people attend Christmas mass in 2012. The following year of 2013 was announced by the government has one of further austerity in an already stagnant economy slipping down into a deep depression.
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  • David Martins stands in his shoe repair shop. Mr. Martins started working at eight years old on October the 5th, the anniversary of the Implementation of the Republic after the overthrow of monarchic rule. At the time of Mr. Martins' first working day, still a child, the date was a normal business day. The date would later be established as a national holiday, one of the most important ones to be celebrated, rejecting absolutism and celebrating democracy. In 2013 the date will no longer be a holiday once again, a government measure to cut deficit by reducing public holidays. Mr. Martins, now 78, earns a pension of a couple hundred euros which doesn't allow him to stop working. For him, who since his eight years old never stopped working, this is a circle that now closes, back to days when the date was a normal labour day with no celebrations of revolution, popular sovereignty or democracy and when nothing was illegal in face of a rising world of capitalism. Not even child labor.
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  • Mother and daughter sell, in their home's salon, grain, potatoes, onions and other goods grown in their vegetable garden. Pensioners have seen their pensions progressively cut and their expenses increased with rising taxation over food and electricity, forcing them to find during their "golden years" new ways to complement already meager pensions after a lifetime of work, saving and contributing to retirement funds.
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  • Yougsters in an impoverished neighbourhood in the center of Lisbon show off dogs. According to the latest numbers, the percentage of youth unemployment among the Portuguese population reached 42% in 2013.
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  • A homeless man is seen searching a garbage container looking for food in a touristic area of downtown Lisbon where overpriced restaurants for tourists are located and which most locals can't afford. The minimum salary in Portugal is 485 euros bruto. With rising taxes on food and electricity and food, access to health, housing and basic living conditions are at jeopardy.
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  • Demontrators march in downtown Lisbon around the Finance Ministry headquarters during a nation wide strike against further austerity policies applied to an already deeply depressed economy, against loss of sovereignty and internal decision making to foreign creditors' commands. Protesters demand that the Portuguese government consults with it's constituency rather than with creditors, markets, private enterprise or lobbies.<br />
Populations in Portugal and Europe face increasingly aggressive policies under foreign creditors' demand for an economy reframe that prescribes a levelling of most social and labor rights, conquered in the last century, to make room for private enterprise over public property and resources.<br />
Public functions and services are increasingly extinct. Labor is devalued and basic public services are privatised to meet foreign creditors' demands. Access to once public basic services, still supposedly insured by taxpayers, is at jeopardy.
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  • "Bread and Circuses" (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative." [in Wikipedia]. <br />
Men watch football at café in Lisbon. Austerity policies and budget cuts have caused rising numbers of unemployed and cuts in pensions. Registered unemployment among active population reached 18% in 2013.
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  • Demontrators march in downtown Lisbon around the Finance Ministry headquarters during a nation wide strike against further austerity policies applied to an already deeply depressed economy, against loss of sovereignty and internal decision making to foreign creditors' commands. Protesters demand that the Portuguese government consults with it's constituency rather than with creditors, markets, private enterprise or lobbies.<br />
Populations in Portugal and Europe face increasingly aggressive policies under foreign creditors' demand for an economy reframe that prescribes a levelling of most social and labor rights, conquered in the last century, to make room for private enterprise over public property and resources.<br />
Public functions and services are increasingly extinct. Labor is devalued and basic public services are privatised to meet foreign creditors' demands. Access to once public basic services, still supposedly insured by taxpayers, is at jeopardy.
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  • An elderly man passes by a closed restaurant in the center of Lisbon. An increase from 13% to 23% on VAT in food and beverages sectors implemented by the government to collect further taxes, is estimated to have resulted in the bankrupcy of forty thousand companies - restaurants and cafés - and in the direct loss of around one hundred thousand jobs, also causing a snowball effect of large scale unemployment reflected in other related sectors.
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  • Demonstrators remove pavement stones from the Portuguese parliament's premisses to be thrown during protests in a nation wide strike against further austerity policies applied to an already deeply depressed economy, against loss of sovereignty and internal decision making to foreign creditors' commands. Protesters demand that the Portuguese government consults with it's constituency rather than with creditors, markets, private enterprise or lobbies.<br />
Populations in Portugal and Europe face increasingly aggressive policies under foreign creditors' demand for an economy reframe that prescribes a levelling of most social and labor rights, conquered in the last century, to make room for private enterprise over public property and resources.<br />
Public functions and services are increasingly extinct. Labor is devalued and basic public services are privatised to meet foreign creditors' demands. Access to once public basic services, still supposedly insured by taxpayers, is at jeopardy.
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  • A protester throws stones at Portuguese parliament guarded by riot police in front of the Portuguese parliament during a demonstration against further austerity to be implemented by the government. Portugal is known by it's peaceful revolution that overthrew the fascist dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar in 1974. However, unprecedented violence caused by anger and helplessness is starting to arise in a country where scenes as the one depicted are rare.
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  • A dockworker protests in front of the Portuguese parliament against work deregulation and labor precarization.
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  • People vigil in protest outside the Portuguese parliament in Lisbon against austerity, further government cuts, large scale public sector privatization and layoffs, and increasing taxation over food and utilities.
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  • A meal is prepared by a church charity worker in a soup kitchen in Vila Real, a small town in Northern Portugal. In the recent years people who resort to charity have not only increased but are comprised by not only the homeless, but by families with low income, unemployed, precarious workers and students. Being this an emergency situation and charities a necessary way to cope with it in the short term, this raises deeper questions in the long run. Many of this questions stem from whether should people depend on private enterprise, interest lobbies and charities food and basic public services and if the state should be deresponsabilized in providing services and social security, in principle, already paid by taxpayers. The growing of charities in Europe are barometers showing how crippled the economy is and how governments and public services are failing taxpayers and society as a whole.
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  • People wait in line behind a charity food distribution van to receive sandwiches, yogurt and milk. In the recent years people who resort to charity have not only increased but are comprised by not only the homeless, but by families with low income, unemployed, precarious workers and students who's daily meal is sometimes just the one received from the charities' vans. Being this an emergency situation and charities a necessary way to cope with it in the short term, this raises deeper questions in the long run. Many of this questions stem from whether private enterprise, interest lobbies and charities should substitute people's democratic right to access fair job opportunities, dignifying wages and basic public services and if the state should be deresponsabilized in its functions of representativity in providing services and social security, in principle, already insured by taxpayers. The growing number of charities in Europe are now barometers showing how crippled economies are.
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  • A man shows a meal ration card in a church charity soup kitchen with the dates in which the food ration was re-assessed. The most vulnerable sectors of the Portuguese population now rely, more than ever in recent times, on civil society solidarity as the sole means of survival. A growingly poverty stricken middle class fills the ranks as the biggest sector in the equation.<br />
The number of people who resort to charities for food has not only increased but is comprised by not only the homeless, but by families with low income, unemployed, precarious workers and students. Being this an emergency situation and charities a necessary way to cope with it in the short term, this raises deeper questions in the long run. Many of this questions stem from whether should people depend on private enterprise, interest lobbies and charities food and basic public services and if the state should be deresponsabilized in providing services and social security, in principle, already paid by taxpayers.
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  • An empty outdoor sign advertises it's vacant space for publicity in an open field next to a major Portuguese highway. As a policy imposed by foreign creditors, the Portuguese government has proceeded with a policy of wholesale privatizations of public property and state companies to foreign creditors.
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  • Cardboards form the living premises of a homeless person in Lisbon.
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  • Women sell second hand cloths and other objects in the street in Lisbon in what is popularly called the "thieves's market", an increasingly popular second hand objects sales spot in the center of Lisbon. With wage cuts, unemployment and expenses increased with rising taxation over food and electricity, growing numbers of people resort to alternative ways to complement meager incomes. Registered unemployment among active population reached 18% in 2013 and according to the latest numbers, the percentage of youth unemployment among the Portuguese population reached 42% this year. The minimum salary in Portugal is 485 euros bruto.
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  • A man climbs the Lisbon subway stairs heading to a demonstration that celebrates the popular revolution that overthrew, in April the 25th 1974, the fascist dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, giving place to democcracy. This year the holiday was marked by protests against further auterity policies and loss of sovereignty on internal decision making to foreign creditors. In the staircase wall leading to major city square a grafitti expresses, in vernacular language, rejection over further economic sacrifices demanded to the Portuguese people.
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