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RE: Abandoned Old House, in Labruge (Portugal)
Wow, @trincowski.
We don't get a lot of economic news about Portugal, but I'm guessing this is part of a nationwide economic problem, or is it just tied to the rural areas? And what's happened to the farming? I guess some other country(ies) are exporting everything into Portugal?
As for the images, they tell the tale viscerally. I can only try to imagine how the owners felt realizing they would need to abandon that place. And I rather not know what would cause someone to live there in such dire circumstances.
I'm glad nothing happened while you were there, considering you didn't realize someone might be living there until you saw the last room. Chills up and down the spine at the point, is my guess. :)
First of all, thanks for your awesome comment, @glenalbrethsen!
Actually, it was the EU rules that led to a complete destruction of our farming and fishing industry. Before joining the EU, Portugal had enough fishing and farming to be independent from imports. But then the EU set up a system of quotas for each country... and we're forced to halt production. Now, we need to import those items.
The entrance in the EU was responsible for the development of other areas, though.
Spot on. It was quite scary.
The EU. I should have guessed that. However, we only seem to here about the 'positive' side of the EU, not necessarily the negative, other than when one country or another gets into crisis. I can't imagine the people at large are happy that entire industries have dried up simply by EU decree? I take it, farmers aren't even allowed to grow for themselves? And fisherman can't even fish for themselves or their families? What's happening to the fish then?
And are their other industries in Portugal that are like that, too? Anyone talking about an exit from the EU over this, or is it more like "What can we do?"
It's hard to understand what's the goal.
Just as an example. We used to have enough Cows for Meat and Dairy Products consumption.
Now... we still have a few Cows... but they are sold to countries like Israel. Go figure.
And are enough Cows left for the internal market? Obviously not. That's why we buy Cows from Poland.
If anyone can explain the logic of that, I appreciate. Because I don't.
The same thing happens with Apples, Pears, Shoes... you name it. Yes, we sell Shoes to Italy... and we buy shoes from Vietnam, Pakistan, India, China... Bangladesh.
Yeah. Interesting. I'd say that happens to some degree here in the states, too. I'd say what we buy from other countries, like China, is due more to economic factors, but I'm sure there is some government involvement with it.
In our case, though, even if we can't buy things made in our state (which doesn't happen a lot), the farming industry hasn't been shut down over it. However, the logging industry has been on the ropes for a while now, simply because the federal government owns a lot of the forests out here, either managed land or national parks. So, every year, a part of those trees end up burning down during fire season.
In that case, there is no goal, other than to destroy local economies through disallowing the logging and then destroying properties when the fires come through. I mean, that's a blunt way of putting it, but what else could the goal be? If it's something else, they're doing the opposite to achieve it.