-------------------------------------------- Travelling more than I'd like 2019.05.17 06:55:47 WEST -------------------------------------------- I know, who would complain about travelling? But this is very subjective. I guess if I asked my 25-year-old self, he would not complain, but things have changed. Last week, on Monday, I travelled from Zurich to Boston, then flew back on Thursday to spend the weekend with the family. Then last Monday I flew again from Zurich to Boston and I am returning home now (I'm typing this at the airport lounge). I am so glad to be going home. I miss my own place and specially my family. Thankfully I won't have to go on a business trip again until next month. On the other hand it was nice to work with my American colleagues. We even had a very nice dinner at a museum restaurant, where actors re-enacted events from the Tea Party time. I took the opportunity to learn and ask questions about US history. I know so little about US history. What stood out during the conversations was how different the term "colonization" sounded to my US colleagues and me. Coming from Brazil, the term carries a lot of bad context and connotation, but these weren't immediately clear to them. Even when applied to other scenarios, for example space exploration and "colonization" have different meaning. I was reflecting on this now and interestingly my stopover between Boston and Zurich is in Lisbon, Portugal. So I started asking myself: how did colonization impact the Portuguese culture and how does it change their worldview? I know the shock of the events during WWII shape the German worldview - I know I can't compare the Nazi regime to Portuguese colonization and that's not my goal, what I want to know is whether there the feeling of guilt for events during colonization exists. I also don't want to suggest colonization didn't have positive effects, but one can't just ignore the negative either. I've already heard the culture was shaped by the fact Portugal was once a global power and no longer is. But was it shaped by the negatives of colonization too? And how? Too many questions. Too little time. It's time to board.