Friday, January 29, 2010

The Field of the Castles


Europe lies, reclining upon her elbows:
From East to West she stretches, staring,
And romantic tresses fall over
Greek eyes, reminding.

The left elbow is stepped back;
The other laid out at an angle.
The first says Italy where it leans;
This one England where, set afar,
The hand holds the resting face.

Enigmatic and fateful she stares
Out West, to the future of the past.

The staring face is Portugal


Fernando Pessoa


[translation from here]

Friday, August 14, 2009

Brunei vs Majapahit & Kutai


Brunei was brave enough to declare war on Kutai, my vassal. The armies of the Majapahit empire will now march to Kutei to protect our vassal.

I really love Europa Universalis III. I love history, specially the history of the small and obscure countries that nobody knows about, so this game, together with the modding community, offers me a fully playable world full of these WTF countries.

[BTW this is the In Nomine expansion, with the mod Terra Universalis (I'm the creator of it! But this part of the world is based in another mod, Divide et Impera)]

I miss that world, full of countries, full of culture, full of complexity...

I will remember the history of these obscure countries in future posts. They deserve it.

As you may know, Brunei still exists today. Sure it is just a shadow of the powerful sultanate that ruled Borneu, but its existence is enough to make me feel happy as it makes the world a more interesting place. (As a monarchist, it makes me double happy as it still is a monarchy - republics are much less interesting).

Monday, August 10, 2009

The South Monarchy












90 years after the North Monarchy it was proclaimed the South Monarchy.

«Soldiers!
You have in front of you the Blue and White Flag! Those were always the colours of Portugal, since king Afonso I, in Ourique, in the defense of our lands against the Moors until king Manuel II keeping against the african rebels our domains in Magul, Coolela, Cuamato, and many other battles that showed the portuguese arms.
«When in 1910 Portugal abandoned the Blue and White, Portugal abandoned its history! And the peoples that abandon their history become weak and die.
«Soldiers! The Army is, first of all, the highest symbol of the Nation and, because of that, it has to sustain and saved it in the hardest circunstances, helping it in the right hour against the internal or external dangers that threaten its existence.
«And abandon the history is an error that kills! Against that error the Army must hoist again his old Blue and White Flag.
«The Nation points you the ways of Value, Loyalty and Bravery, where the portuguese of the past conquered the greatness and glory that today still dignifies the Army of Portugal among the nations of the World!
«Let's follow it, soldiers! And sustain it with the body, even at the cost of our own blood!
«And with the help of God, and with the strength of our traditional beliefs , that the Blue and White symbolizes, we will save our Nation!»

«Long live king Manuel II!»
«Long live the Army! Long live the Portuguese Nation!»

Speech of Paiva Couceiro to his soldiers in the North Monarchy in 1919.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Maria João Pires renounces the portuguese nationality


Maria João Pires renounces the portuguese nationality

Am I the only one that thinks that the portuguese nationality is worth more than money or childish disputes (legitimate or not)?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

My Buddy Pidgeot

(I won't translate everything from the blog in portuguese as it isn't that important)

As you may have noticed, I like many things, some more scholar, others more "futile". One of the futile things I like is Pokémon. I like the idea and unfortunately there isn't an "adult"-like pokémon game. It would surely be sucessful.

Pokémon games are 2-D RPG, but it is easy to finish the ingame competition, so what keeps Pokémon alive is Metagame - online battles.

My favourite pokémon isn't good in Metagame. It is Pidgeot, Normal/Flying, generation I. Since Red/Blue it is my favourite.

PIDGEOT!!!

Stats
HP: 83
Attack: 80
Defence: 75
Special Attack: 70
Special Defence: 70
Speed: 91

One of the things I like in Pidgeot is that he's balanced. Yes, it sucks because he can't do anything good, but I like Pidgeot's balance when compared with other Normal/Flying pokémons (OK, evolution-needing Farfetch'd is balanced too). He isn't as good as physical sweepers (Staraptor, Dodrio, Fearow, Swellow) or special sweepers (Chatot, Togekiss - galactic when compared with these humble birds) or the "weird" pseudo-defensive Noctowl. But he's balanced enough to be anything of the above (mostly useless) - that's what I like the most in Pidgeot.

Abilities

Tangled Feet or Keen Eye. It sucks. Intimidate or Speed Boost would be good. I have a suggestion: one that makes wind based attacks 1.5x more powerful (Wind Maker?), as wind things looks to be Pidgeot speciality. But with two abilities chosen it will be hard to have another one.

Moves

Brave Bird, Return, Double Edge, Steel Wing, U-Turn, you know, the physical sweeper thing for birdies. People mostly see Pidgeot as a physical sweeper so it generally carries the above. But with only a difference of 10 from physical to special side, Pidgeot can actually use special moves almost as good as physical ones. Of course Staraptor has trump card called Close Combat that any other physical sweeper bird has.

But Platinum tutor brings new life to Pidgeot: Heat Wave! Yes, it isn't stellar, but it now can kill steels (and Scizor). Of course the others also learn this, but Pidgeot balance lets him use both physical attacks and Heat Wave (or Icy Wind or Air Slash) with some sucess. It does 2 HKO Garchomp with Icy Wind (speed drop!) and 2 HKO Skarmory with Heat Wave after some Ev's in SpA, while still having an +Attack nature and 252 Ev's in Attack. Again, it isn't stellar, but it may do some things.

Non-damaging moves: Featherdance and Roost can stop some dangerous physical sweepers, as Pidgeot have defences (comparing with the "oh I couldn't OHKO you so I will die" birds). It isn't a bulky something, but it can take some hits (one?). Tailwind and Agility suck, as Mirror Move. If only Mirror Move did exactly what the opponent used...

I think Pidgeot needs more tricks. Extremespeed and a Rapid Spin-like Gust would be good. Of course a flying "Extremespeed" or at least "Quick Attack" (Mach Bird?) and "Overheat" (Hurricane? It makes so much sense) would be great, as Pidgeot could Hurricane something and then physical-attack. And a dragon "powerful-Twister" (Tornado?) would kiss ass too (just for the fun - it would not kill many things with it). Game creators don't like Pidgeot, and he's becoming worse and worse (some are worse but most of them aren't in the final of a 3 pokémon evolution chain... Farfetch'd I'm looking at you).

Whatever happens, I would love the good ol' balanced Pidgeot...

PS: Pidgeot does not learn Icy Wind, so he fails at that too

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Lost Cods (V) - João Fernandes "Lavrador"

As I said before, there were many portuguese voyages of exploration to the west before 1492. However, the first now "widely known" started in 1499, with one of the most unknown famous discoverers. The very famous Lavrador is actually very little known everywhere. He's famous because today there is a land with his name, Labrador, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada. The existance of a common Newfoundland and Labrador province is at least ironic as Portugal claimed both, together with Cape Breton and adjacent islands.

But let's get back to Lavrador, the discoverer. In September 1499 something very important happened in Portugal, with the return of Vasco da Gama. The sea route to India was open, and in my opinion this allowed Portugal to formalise its discoveries in the west, together with the fact that the Portugal-Spain bound was put only in prince Miguel da Paz, that was very young. I think king Manuel I of Portugal played a safe game and the future happening, with the death of prince Miguel da Paz in 1500, would prove him right. I don't think it is a coincidence that in 1499 and 1500 Portugal quickly discoveres all the western lands assigned to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas (Greenland, Brazil, Newfoundland, Labrador). In October 1499, a month after Vasco da Gama returns to Portugal, the following authorization is issued:

Dom Manuel etc. A quantos esta nossa carta virem fazemos saber que Joham Fernandez morador em a nossa Ilha Terceira nos disse que por serviço de Deos e nosso se queria trabalhar de hyr buscar e descobrir algumas Ilhas de nossa conquista aa sua custa e vendo nos seu bõo desejo e preposito aalem de lho termos em serviço a nos praz e lhe prometemos por esta de lha darmos como de feito daremos a capitania de quallquer Ilha ou Ilhas asy povoadas como despovoadas que elle descobrill (sic) e achar novamente e esto com aquellas remdas homrras proveitos e imteresses com que temos dadas as capitanias das nossas Ilhas da Madeira e das outras e por sua guarda e nossa lembrança lhe mandamos dar esta carta per nos asynada e aseelada com o nosso seelo pemdente. Dada em a nossa cidade de Lisboa a 28 dias do mez d'outubro, André Fernandez a fez, anno de nosso senhor Jhuu x.º de 1499

Dom Manuel etc. To those who see this letter we let you know that Joham Fernandez [old portuguese for João Fernandes] that lives in our island Terceira told us that by the service of God and ours he wanted to discover some islands to us and as we see his good will and objective we grant and promise him the captaincy of any island or islands inhabited or not that he may discover or have discovered and together all those rights we gave to other captaincies of our islands of Madeira and others and we send him this letter signed by us and with our seal. Given in the city of Lisbon, the 28 October, André Fernandez made it, the year of our lord Jesus Christ of 1499 (sic)

Two years later, in the 19th Mars 1501, king Henry VII of England gives a similar authorization to Richard Ward, Thomas Ashurst, John Thomaz, from Bristol, and to João Fernandes, Francisco Fernandes and João Gonçalves, these ones from the islands of Azores, vassals of the king of Portugal (Armigeris in Insulis de Surris, sub obedientia Regis Portugalis oriundos). The 7th January 1502, Henry VII gives "to the men of Bristol that found the island pounds=5", so the voyage was sucessfull. We know more of Lavrador indirectly from Pedro de Barcellos, that in a dispute over some woods in Terceira, defends himself, explaining his absence of the island with:

houve um mandato d'Elrei para ir a descobrir eu e um João Fernandes Lavrador, no qual descobrimento andamos bons tres annos

the king sent me and a João Fernandes Lavrador, in this discovery we took 3 years (sic)

There is doubt about the date of this letter by Pedro de Barcellos, Ernesto do Canto believed it was from the 14th April 1495, I saw other authors indicating the year of 1502, a more plausible alternative when we see king Manuel's donation in 1499. However, the donation said "that he may discover or have discovered" so that may mean that he discovered the island before 1499. We have to confirm the correct date. We will get back to a Barcellos family later, probably the same as Pero de Barcellos'.

In the 9th December 1502 king Henry VII of England issues another letter similar to the one of 1501, but this time the name are Thomaz Ashehurst, João Gonçalves, Francisco Fernandes and Hugh Elliott. The name of João Fernandes is absent. An important information is that this letter says "to navigate and do maritimous discoveries, however these must prejudice the previously discovered portuguese lands (sic)". This means England was guaranteeing that it would not violate the previously discovered lands by Portugal. Here is another information that nobody refers.

Does this mean that Lavrador died before the letter was issued? It is possible, as we never see his name again. But the name of Land of Lav(b)rador become to be a constant in almost all maps.

In an anonymous map pf 1434 the so called Tiera do Labrador has the text:

La qual fue descubierta por los ingleses de la vila de bristol e por que el que dio el laviso della era labrador de las illas de los Açores le quido este nombre

It was discovered by the english of the city of bristol and who warned about it was a farmer (=lavrador in portuguese) from the islands of Azores, that's where the name come from (sic)

This text is a sort of abstract of all the descriptions of the Land of Labrador in the maps of the XVIth century. But this is the most complete of them. We have to ask why Lavrador went to England to join the traders of Bristol. If we assume the letter of Pedro (= Pero in old portuguese) de Barcellos is from 1502 (the most plausible) we know then that their voyage was from 1499 to 1502. In 1501 he was in Bristol. As king Henry VII was safeguarding portuguese interests (note that in 1501 Gaspar Corte Real already departed to his second voyage) Labrador maybe wanted to ally with the people that lived from the northern seas, where the lands of Lavrador, granted by king Manuel in 1499, were located. We can't exclude the possibility of the existance of some kind of rivalry with the Corte Real, as both were from Terceira island in Azores.

We just have to clear one thing, which land(s) Lavrador and Pero de Barcellos discovered? Most of the maps of the XVIth century show modern Labrador together with Greenland, so the "Land of Labrador" is difficult to isolate. The Cantino map of 1502 shows Newfoundland / Newfoundland + Labrador and Greenland (see this part of the atlas in the image in the right side) in their correct positions, far away from each other, and it have a text in Greenland, that has the name of "The Tip of Asia":

Esta terra he descober (sic) por mandado do mui excelentissimo principe dom manoel, Rey de portugall a qual se cre ser esta a ponta d'asia, e os que a descobriram nam chagaram a terra mas viroula, e nam viram senam serras muito espessas, polla quall segum a opiniom dos cosmofircos se cree ser a ponta d asia

This land was discovered by order of prince Manuel, King of Portugal, it is believed it is the tip of Asia, those who discovered it did not landed but saw it, and they only saw thick mounts, some cosmographers believe it is the tip of asia

Unlike Newfoundland, that is clearly identified as discovered by Gaspar Corte Real, Greenland does not indicates a discoverer. It is likely that Greenland was then discovered by João Fernandes Lavrador and Pero de Barcellos. If Lavrador discovered or not modern Labrador we don't know, but there is a possibility he did not do it and the confusion of the maps of the XVIth century moved his name from Greenland to modern Labrador. If this is true, Labrador was the captain of Greenland, which is another never mentioned extremely interesting information. This way it makes sense his connection to Bristol, whose people fished in the coasts of Greenland. Note that Greenland's cartography made by Labrador and Barcelos would be the best for 200 years, only then any other map portrayed Greenland more accurately.

There one more thing to discuss about Lavrador, that is the reaction of the re-discovery by Denmark and Norway, as these kingdoms claimed Greenland in the viking time. It seems the last nordic populations in Greenland disappeared in the XVth century with the mini ice age of this century. Portugal claimed the land, as seen by Cantino map and others. 25 years before Portugal and Denmark made secret join explorations of the arctic so the relations of these countries should have been good. So the answer to the reaction is not yet known. We only now Labrador and Barcelos' excelent work, with very adverse condition, in very dangerous seas full of icebergs.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Democracy and such (I)

Most times we think in actual social and moral ideas as the ones who will stand forever. Obviously this is not true, other ideas will appear, at least in a cyclic way. I would like to discuss the "right ideas" of the present, specially the idea of democracy.

Today democracy is a synonym of universal suffrage. There are a lot of things to say about this. The signs that we have today are that abstension is kept high in countries with universal suffrage. A lot of people (like me) think this is due to the disbelief in the system or disinterest in this act or both. But after these interpretations nothing more is done. Won't these signs mean something? After all the country's decisions are being taken by a non majority of the population, so is this a real "democracy"? In my opinion most of the people is only interested in politics if their fundamental rights (human rights necessary to survival and dignity, freedom of thought and speech, respect) are threatened. If these ones exist I think most people don't care if their regime is a secular western democracy or an absolute and fanatic theocracy.

Today it is an heresy to criticize the democratic system and we are immediately labeled as [insert here an example of bloody regime, a XXth century one is better]. Is the universal suffrage the "final" regime? I think most things are not eternal and this is one example of the things I think. And yes, I believe in the fundamental right of people I said above, I'm not an [insert here an example of bloody regime, a XXth century one is better]. The question is if the political right is one of the fundamental rights, but is it possible a system where everybody has an acting political right?

Let's imagine a system with a small amount of laws (the ones necessary to guarantee the fundamental rights), quasi-anarchic, pacific in a certain moment. Is it possible that everybody meet their desires? Obviously not, just imagine that someone with radical ideas can try to destroy the system by only using his political right (and there are so many persons...), motivated, for example, by religious ideas. The laws of this society arrest him, breaking the anarchic essence that everyone can apply the respective political rights. Otherwise the society colapses. The human societies have sexual, racial, politial and religious tensions, so we can't create a beautiful theoretical system that ignore these practical problems.

Can we change this regime so that it can't colapse in theory and reality this way? Let's imagine that the political right cannot break the fundamental rights not change the regime. This regime is stable, although some people won't apply the radical political right they have because they can't destroy the regime, and this is what we want, a psycho killer should not be able to execute his ideas. But how can we deal with non-radical ideas? As everybody has a political right in this society, different ideas will appear. How can we decide now? One way is the universal suffrage, and here enters the idea of majority.

The majority appeared to solve these problems. Who has more votes wins. This idea solves this problem. But does it always work? Let's imagine this society has two ethnicities, A and B, that want its respective religion (or idea, doesn't matter) as the official one of the state, and they respect the idea of universal suffrage and majority. As A is more populous than B, it wins, and A's religion becomes the official one (we assume all As and Bs vote in their respective religion). What happens to B? Its religion is respected because of the constitution, so that B only lives with the fundamental rights. Let's imagine another situation, that the country will build a new capital city. A lives deep in the country and B lives near the shore. Let's assume the coastal capital has more advantages. As people want to leave near the capital (in reality this happens) A wins again, although B's position has more advantages. I want to focus two ideas:

1 - The political right of A is stronger because it has more people, so the political right in an universal suffrage with democracy depends only in the number of persons with this idea, and it doesn't matter if this idea is a good or bad one for the country.

2 - Ethnicity B always lives in minority relative to A, so that its ideas never get through. It works like if B don't have a political right (because it de facto is never used, but it exists de jure). But B lives peacefully because its fundamental rights are respected

This country's ideas will only be A's. If A's ideas are all bad, this country will lose to some other country in a specific point. The only thing that prevents this is the national conscience of at least some of A's citizens. The only way this country can follow a better way is to guarantee A's citizens feel the duty to focus on the national objectives, not their own's, even if that brings disavantages (e.g. living farther from the capital). In the capital city issue B can use the national benefits to defends its idea, but it would probably be motivated mostly by non-national thinking.


Spain is an example of a plurinational country. The castillian community made castillian the official language of Spain (= spanish...), although other nations had different languages. If a poll would be made to chose spanish's national language, castillian would won because castillian population is bigger. So, Castile is Spain's A nation.

To B citizens the only way to have an idea met is to change to one of A's ideas or rebel against the regime to execute one idea of its own. In this political regime A is the only victorious political force so that B can only dream in a coup d'etat. This happens in reality, specially in countries with two or more very different cultures. After a while, B, that does not exists in politics because of its minority status, asks exterior help or try a separation or elimination of A. If we have societies where universal suffrage and majority ideas are not respected, we can easily have wars.

Africa is very sensitive to these questions because its countries are a result of non-cultural borders, where several ethnicities are put together. Naturally the majority ethnicity dominates politicaly, with a westen world regime, the other ones. As many times nor even the fundamental rights exist a civil war starts. That's why universal suffrage and majority generally do not work in these kind of countries, that have a low national responsability idea. Another trivial way to get the power is through force, and obviously the majority one wins...

Note: the presence of stupid pictures in this post or future ones must be understood as a tribute to the McGyver of pixels: MS Paint.