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Could culture survive without being dependent on subsidies? Giacomo Scalisi has been working for a number of years as an actor, artistic director and cultural programmer, and during his career he has worked on different projects, in different theatre companies and on the organisation of international festivals. In 1998, he came to Portugal to join the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) as a cultural programmer for theatre and new circus, leaving here in 2008. At present he runs his own projects in the field of artistic production. This Portugal-based Italian recognises that culture depends on subsidies for its survival, but …

Erika Dux (65), a doctor of medicine from the University of Düsseldorf and trained in a wide range of additional disciplines, such as Chinese-Japanese Bo-Meridian Shiatsu therapy, has been living in Portugal for 35 years and works privately as a doctor. She has three grown–up daughters. Why do people become ill? I’m afraid I really can’t answer that question for you. What are the causes of illness? For different reasons: people get an infection, have a genetic illness or a metabolic disorder, or are affected by exhaustion and intoxication caused by pollution, environmental degradation, or precarious housing. How do you …

Indigenous forest A current website recently attracted my journalistic attention. Here I must point out that I only recommend websites these days where the creators identify themselves with their name and address. I no longer look at anonymous rubbish as a matter of principle. I do the same with telephone calls. I do not waste valuable time or my attention on people who call me from hidden numbers. As the creators of this website worked in a transparent way, I simply rang them up and asked them for an interview on the topic that had led them to put this …

Dear Reader, Life goes on. We are all slowly finding our way back to so-called normality, which will undoubtedly be very different to what it was before the country declared a State of Emergency. We are all faced with the task of tackling the greatest challenge ever to have confronted humanity: how to solve the problems of the climate crisis now. In this respect, we wish to say THANK YOU for reading ECO123. As from today, Monday 4 May, we are preparing to return to your homes, once more, in printed form, but we will also continue to be available …

ECO123 met Vítor Aleixo (aged 64), the Mayor of Loulé, in the corridor of the Town Hall at 8:45 am. He approaches us and takes a bunch of keys from his pocket. He finds the right key, opens the large door and invites us to go into his office. We want to know how he manages the political balance between the tourism economy and climate change. Good morning, Mayor. What does a politician need to bring to his role, in order to strengthen trust in the democratic system? A politician has to uphold ethical principles and values ​​of respect for …

The economy is in a parlous state. Millions of Europeans are suddenly losing their jobs. Who is giving them any support? The most idiotic view is the one that claims that everything can remain just as it is. Three years ago, in late September, 2017, scientists and politicians gathered together at a world conference at the Portuguese Parliament to debate the possible implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income. Now, faced with the Covid-19 pandemic and the bankruptcy of many companies as the world economy collapses around them, coupled with the threat of an environmental catastrophe and a shortage of our …

The year is 2030. There’s no one sleeping in the streets in Portugal any more. No one has to stand queuing at the soup kitchens of the charitable associations. The beggars have disappeared. The universal basic income in the social state of the 21st century arrived in southern Europe during Covid-19. Portugal, the smallest of the five southern EU countries, decided ten years ago to provide each of its citizens with a basic income. The EU’s pilot scheme began in 2021. Prime Minister António Costa and his government, which had had a stable majority in a coalition in parliament with …

The former Minister of Labour (68) considers the unconditional basic income (BGE) to be an exciting and challenging topic, but it is more a utopia than a reality. José António Vieira da Silva, supports a social model governed by the right to work and the entitlement to the corresponding retirement subsidy, and he fears that the introduction of the UBI model, which has been widely disseminated, could create a ‘bipolar’ society divided into two classes. ECO123: Last year, the one hundredth anniversary of the creation of this ministry was celebrated. Would the introduction of the UBI be a good way …

The Salt March of 1930… was a campaign by Mahatma Gandhi that was intended to break the British monopoly on salt and, in the end, led to India’s independence from Britain. The Salt March was the most spectacular campaign launched by Gandhi during his fight for independence. The campaign aimed to inspire civil disobedience and to stand up against the dependence on too high taxes imposed by Great Britain. On 12th March 1930, Gandhi set off from his home town with 78 of his supporters, on a march that continued for 385 kilometres to Dandi on the Arabian Sea. He …