Comment du Jour

Not on the News...but interesting nonetheless!

It's not often that literary figures are quoted in the UN General Assembly. It was a pleasure hearing Portugal's energetic new Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho refer to the great Portuguese writer Luis de Camoes in an address to the assembled delegates.

"Camoes, the Portuguese Poet of the 16th Century maritime discoveries, said that 'the world is made of change,' asuming always new qualities." The Prime Minister stated, "Identifying the World of Change, and its new qualities, is a permanent challenge that we have to face and to which we have to respond."

Camoes remains the Bard of the Portuguese speaking world and chronicled voyages from West Africa to the Far East.

Those voyages brought Portuguese mariners to the Cape Verde islands off West Africa.
Interestingly Cape Verde's Prime Minister Jose Maria Pereira Neves, addressing the Assembly added yet another near novel dimension to the UN debate.

"I address you in the Cape Verdian language, Creole of Cape Verde." he said adding, "I believe this is the first time Cape Verdian Creole is used in the United Nations General Assembly."

Given Portugal's 400 year plus association with the Cape Verde islands, the local Creole evolved from the Portuguese and is largely the language of the small population. Prime Minister Neves added, "I do it to share with you this authentic world Heritage, born on the threshold of the fifteenth century, considered by lingustic experts as the oldest Creole of Euro-African origin and the oldest within the Atlantic context"

Portuguese mariners sailed these Atlantic waters en route to the Cape of Good Hope, through to India and beyond to the China coast.