Well if you haven't noticed yet, Summer is here. More important, however, the month of August is just around the corner. We all know what happens in Portugal during the month of August: yes, that's right ... nothing. Since almost everyone in this country seems to go on holidays during this month, the country is left to run at half gas (insert your comment on who this country seems to runs at half gas all year around here). Lisbon in August, in fact, often looks a lot like this:
Now lets look at this from an anthropological point of view, and ask: what makes this country different during the month of August (beyond the aforementioned half gassing it)? And lets start with a typical image of what things often look like on August 1st:
That's right: the mad rush, but to where are all them folk going you ask? Well let us do it pictorially for you once again:
Looks familiar? That's right, it's the Algarve, the destination of many during the 'dear month of August'. It's the time of the year when the suburban middle-classes sticks the kids and the dog into their roomy Opel Corsas and off they go to Quarteira, to Armação de Pêra, to Monte Gordo or any other place that looks like their suburban neighbourhood back in the big city but instead by the sea.
Meanwhile, in the other empty depths of Portugal (at least during the other 11 months of the year), as in the interior regions where the majority of the people have had to emigrate, during the month of August, those who departed for other countries return home, turning the small villages of Trás-os-Montes, Minho, Beira Baixa, etc. into lively locations full of joy and fun and exotic languages. Typical of August in the província are the festas dedicates to the home-returning emigrants. Not only do the emigrants count down the days until August rolls around, those who await them do as well, because August means one thing and one thing only: festa na aldeia (partying it up in the villages).
So be it in the city, in the beach destinations of the Algarve, or throughout the aldeias of the country, August is meant to be different and no other month seems to substitute it. So this August, like any other August, Portugal will once again be posting up one of these:
Many recounted negative experiences of waiting long hours before being attended to in emergency wards, waiting months on end for basic surgery, the disorganisation of Portuguese health centres and the bureaucracies involved in such things as obtaining a simple appointment, not to mention the lack of information distribution among different medical units and labratories (how often we do see people walking around with ex-rays in envelops, having to deliver them themselves).
The event will also host the Canadian ambassador in Portugal, the Honourable Anne-Marie Bourcier who will provide the opening address.
Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, the end result would bring an unpleasant end to what was a fantastic playoff run. After game 7 was concluded, somewhere between 50,000 to 70,000 individuals converged upon Downtown Vancouver and at the intersection of Robson and Thurlow Street, a riot would ensue leading to nearly 200 hospitalisations and one rioter ending up with permanent brain damage after getting shot in the head with a plastic bullet by police.
After finishing the regular season with more loses then wins (or in other words, a below .500 record), the Canucks started their Stanley Cup campaign by eliminating, first, the Calgary Flames and, second, the Los Angeles Kings. The Conference final matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks, however, would bring about an episode that would forever leave it's mark in ice hockey. In game 2 of that series, Vancouver coach Roger Neilson, fed up with the performance of the officials in the game, placed a white towel on the end of a hockey stick and held it up like a white flag, in a mock surrender (see below). A few Canuck players followed suit and Neilson was ejected from the game.
In the game to follow, back in Vancouver, in tribute to Neilson's actions one game earlier, fans brought white towels to the game and began waving them above their heads. On that day in Vancouver a tradition was born - Towel Power - today pretty much a play-off tradition in hockey rinks everywhere.
Vancouver would go on to eliminate Chicago only to be dispatched in 4 games straight by the powerful New York Islanders. By then a whole industry had commenced based on Towel Power. Below is an example of the towels produced for the Canucks-Islanders series with the Canuck battle cry.
As far as Neilson, while he spent 25 years in the NHL, taking on various coaching duties, he will forever be remembered for the white towel act. In fact, in Vancouver, outside Roger's Centre, the home of the Vancouver Canucks, now sits a statue of Neilson as a rememberance of that day in Chicago.
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