António Vieira da Cruz

"My name is Paul Rusesabagina. I am a hotel manager. In April 1994, when a wave of mass murder broke out in my country, I was able to hide 1,268 people inside the hotel where I worked. When the militia and the Army came with orders to kill my guests, I took them into my office, treated them like friends, offered them beer and cognac, and then persuaded them to neglect their task that day. And when they came back, I poured more drinks and kept telling them they should leave in peace once again. It went on like this for seventy-six days." ~ Paul Rusesabagina, in “An Ordinary Man” (2007) — a autobiografia do homem interpretado por Don Cheadle no filme Hotel Rwanda (2004). O actor Don Cheadle com o herói ruandês Paul Rusesabagina. Após o genocídio ruandês em que morreram e foram violadas várias centenas de milhares de pessoas no ano de 1994, Paul Rusesabagina sofreu em 1996 uma tentativa falhada de assassinato. Por isso, exilou-se primeiro na Bélgica e depois nos EUA, trabalhando...

Bangladesh is the 8 th most populated country in the world with around 160 million inhabitants and its capital Dhaka is a megacity with more than 15 million people. Today I had a direct flight from Istanbul to Dhaka, which was complete, but even in Istanbul Atatürk Airport we can see the lack of importance given to Bangladesh, reserving for it the very last gate of the airport. This could be a trivial example of how Bangladesh is forgotten internationally, too trivial perhaps. But did you know that in 1971, during 9 months of terror, in Bangladesh 3 million people were killed and around 4 hundred thousand women were raped? “Operation Searchlight” was planned and carried out by the Pakistani Army, with the help of local agents, and besides many indiscriminate killing it systematically targeted Bengali dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities. These hideous genocide and genocidal rape were part of a plan to subjugate people with a different language, culture and who were will...

Editorial que escrevi no sétimo número da revista Think South Asia: --- In this edition we will put the focus on Pakistan , a country with more than 180 million people, being the 6 th most populous country in the world. We could roughly say that the story of Pakistan was marked by two partitions: the partition of India in 1947 and its own partition in 1971. But as History is more complex than that, we are dedicating this edition of Think South Asia magazine to Pakistan . In the case of this country, etymology says a lot of its early history. The word “ Pakistan ” did not exist before 1933, when it was coined by the Muslim nationalist Mr Choudhry Rahmat Ali who, with other intellectuals, wanted to create a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia . According to scholars, the name has its origins in the acronym PAKSTAN, which results from P unjab + A fghani territories + K ashmir + S indh + Baluchi stan . An “i” was introduced amidst for reasons of pronunciation an...

Gostava de manter a regularidade deste blog, mas não tem sido fácil. Passo a publicar os mais recentes artigos que escrevi na revista Think South Asia, que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum .   --- It is a dream come true to launch this first number of Think South Asia, which wants to be a platform for dialogue between South Asia and European personalities with the aim of promoting peace, democracy, Human Rights and the rule of law.   First, I must begin to say that the pursuit of the truth of the facts is and will always be Think South Asia’s first principle. We think that light only comes from a pluralistic and polite debate. Each guest author will be fully responsible for his comments, and the Editor will ensure the quality of the choices.   In this first number the focus is on Bangladesh, a highly populated country that could be the key for a deeper regional cooperation in South Asia. We present some data and figures that coul...

A não perder esta manifestação! É essencial dar a voz a quem ainda não a tem, e reclamar os Direitos Humanos para todos, sem excepção. A actual lei do aborto já matou mais de 80 mil crianças em Portugal (ver estudo apresentado hoje pela FPPV ), e este é o apelo que o Lobby Pela Vida faz: Manifestação para assinalar 5 anos da lei que já matou 80 mil No ano em que se assinalam 5 anos do referendo que abriu caminho para a actual lei do aborto, serão várias as acções que irão decorrer para avivar a memória da população portuguesa em relação a este flagelo silencioso. Assim, o Lobby Pela Vida vem promover uma manifestação pública no dia 11 de Fevereiro às 15h em frente à “Clínica” dos Arcos, para afirmar que a Vida prevalece sempre. Esta manifestação vai relembrar que a actual lei do aborto (e sua aplicação maximalista) mudou muita coisa na sociedade portuguesa: Mais descrença na Vida Humana. Cerca de 20 mil abortos em Portugal cada ano mostram que o aborto aumentou exponencialmente desd...