António Vieira da Cruz

(também publicado no Substack ) My first travels began at home, going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. As a child sitting next to my mother, I was amazed by how she poured steaming water and tea leaves into the teapot. Simultaneously, we would prepare a tray with warm scones, slices of bread, crackers, butter, honey, and tomato jam. It was cold outside, so we had our tea by the fireplace. Those were the days! I have always loved tea. Infusions of other aromatic plants never gave me as much joy as real tea. I learned at home to take my tea without sugar, and only rarely with a cloud of milk to mask any excessive bitterness. If I had a sore throat, a spoonful of honey and a sliver of lemon peel were also acceptable. However, in the 1990s, most tea in Lisbon was sold in teabags; if we ordered loose-leaf tea in specialty shops, there were few variations of black tea and lower-quality green tea. And it was difficult to find a nice Oolong. Lisbon: As a teenager living i...

(Originalmente publicado no " Chás Andorinha Blog " no dia 6 de Dezembro de 2017) (com republicação editada na " Alameda Digital " no dia 22 de Dezembro de 2017) As primeiras foram da sala para a copa e da copa para a sala, era eu criança e ficava a ver a Mãe a escaldar o bule e a preparar as chávenas, o pão e os scones, as bolachas de água e sal, a manteiga, o doce de tomate e o mel. Um pouco mais crescido, já com alguns escudos no bolso, a viagem era já fora de casa mas ainda dentro de Lisboa, e acompanhando os Pais e os irmãos ia à Casa Pereira na Rua Garrett e comprava chá para no Natal dar às tias. Passou a ser o meu presente para as minhas tias cada ano, não sei se as tias deram conta no meio de tantos presentes e sobrinhos… Casa Pereira – R. Garrett 38, Chiado Portugal : sempre gostei de chá, chá a sério, e não tanto das infusões de outras plantas aromáticas. Em casa cresci a tomá-lo sem açúcar, muito raramente com um farrapinho de leit...

O artigo em baixo foi inicialmente publicado na revista The Brussels Europe Press Club Magazine nº5, de Novembro de 2015. Lusophone opportunities in the Indian Ocean by António Vieira da Cruz Por mares nunca de antes navegados Passaram ainda além da Taprobana (Luís Vaz de Camões, “Os Lusíadas”, Canto I) Portuguese presence in the Indian Ocean Portuguese is the 6 th  largest language in the world by number of native speakers and it is spoken by around 250 million people in the five continents. [1] But we might say that Portuguese culture is a tale of three oceans: the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific. Most of the times we hear news in Portuguese from Atlantic Brazil, Angola or Portugal; we may also think of Macau and Portuguese interactions with Pacific China or Japan; instead, I chose to write here about our relation with the Indian Ocean. By travelling through this ocean you will certainly face many people with Portuguese surnames, find Portuguese for...

Author: Wali-ur Rahman Publisher: Bangladesh Heritage Foundation Place: Dhaka, Bangladesh Year: 2011 181 pages If someone ever asks me how to understand Bangladesh better, my advice is: start by studying its International Crimes Tribunal. I would say this is perhaps the best way to know about Bangladesh contemporary history and politics. That is what happened with me. The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh tells us a lot about the country’s past and present; about its independence; about its cultural, ethnic and political tensions; and about its struggle to find justice, peace and prosperity. The book “Forgotten War: Forgotten Genocide” was written in 2011 by my good friend H.E. Ambassador Wali-ur Rahman and it is an ideal tool to understand everything about these issues. From 1947 to 1971 Bangladesh was part of Pakistan and before it was under the British Raj. Bangladesh, or East Pakistan, had a very different culture and language than West Pakistan, whic...

International Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka Yesterday, one of the worse criminals of the XXI century was condemned to life imprisonment. His name is Delwar Hossain Sayedee , he is 74 years old and he was one of the leaders of the extremist party Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. During the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, he committed brutal crimes against humanity. Being now accused of at least 20 crimes, the case went to Supreme Court and there he was proven guilty of:     torture a leader of the Awami League, Mr Nurul Islam, and arson attack on his house;     killing one and torching house in the village of Chitholia;     killing one and torching 25 houses in the village of Umedpur;     abduction and rape of 3 sisters of Parerhat Bazar;      forcing 100 to 150 Hindus to convert to Islam in Parerhat and other villages. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a Razakar Besides that, he was accused of many other crimes, as killing m...