Think Big

Here in Portugal, I've been thinking about what it is that can enable small countries to think big. One advantage is to have a big past. That extraordinary moment in the 15th century, when Portuguese seafarers such as Vasco da Gama set out across unknown seas to discover the world, has left Portugal with some extraordinary treasures. There's the Jeronimos Monastery, for example, paid for by the riches of the far east: a white, gleaming limestone wonder, with its unique, exuberant stone carvings evoking the nautical forms of ropes, knots and ships. Here the treaty of Portugal's accession to the EU was signed just over 20 years ago. The memory of such a moment can inspire across centuries.

More important, Portugal's world-power moment has left about 210 million people across the world speaking Portuguese (186 million of them in Brazil). That's more than speak French as a first language. It gives this country, like Spain, Britain and Ireland, an enduring transatlantic perspective.

Timothy Garton Ash, hoje no The Guardian.

É preciso dar atenção a pessoas de fora para deixarmos de ter medo de passados colonialistas.