A Dividadura

 I was in the metro yesterday, and the man beside me was reading a book with this intriguing title. It would appear that the word “Dividadura” is in fact a made up word, invented by the author Francisco Louça, a Portuguese politician of the Bloco Esquerda (left wing). it connects together the the Portuguese word for debt, “divida” and the the word for dictatorship, “ditadura”. The English equivalent might be “debt-tatorship”. But the concept is an interesting one, especially today, as the country celebrates 38 years since the quiet Revolution that brought to an end a 42 year period of dictatorship under António Salazar.
In many ways there’s a new sort of dictatorship that seems to ruling the country, and it’s a dictatorship from outside, not from within, a dictatorship of the impersonal forces of the financial institutions and the markets of western Europe. That dictates what I can earn, what I need to pay in taxes, and what are my chances of having a job next year, and being able to put bread on the table. I have heard more than one person in recent weeks describe their own personal situation as a form of slavery - working long hours for meagre returns, or in some cases, no work at all, and still the bills to pay.

It’s good to look back in history, and to savour those moments of liberty when everything seemed rosy and bright and startling as you emerge from, as it were, a long dark tunnel. In fact the Carnation Revolution that took place in the early hours of 25th April 1974, and is memorably captured in the film “Capitães de Abril” is a particularly inspirational story, and reveals a lot about the Portuguese national character.

(The carnation idea, by the way, came from the spontaneous action of the flower sellers in Lisbon, offering carnations to the soldiers who marched in to liberate the city). But freedom, in the end, is elusive, and as political dictatorship gives way to financial dictatorship of a different sorm, the “debt-tatorship” as proposed in Louça’s book. In the end, the only lasting freedom is that which Christ gives. An internal liberation from all that enslaves - “Stand fast therefore in the liberty, where with Christ has set us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage...”  (Galatians 5:1). When you know that lasting freedom in your own life, you can cope with these temporary impositions that threaten to drag you down.