Virgílio A. P. Machado comments about living in Portugal

Mr. Adams, Thank you very much for writing such beautiful, honest testimony of your experience and life here in my beloved and so badly misgoverned country. I found most of your comments correct and to the point. The only statements that I would dispute are that "The culture is male-dominated. Additionally, there is no feeling of sisterhood among women as is so prevalent in America." and that "It is virtually impossible for an expat to find employment in a Portuguese company." What you wrote is quite understandable from someone who is an American who "lived out in the country for a decade" and have lived in Cascais for the past 12 years. I find the Portuguese culture "apparently" male-dominated, but the family women (mothers and grand-mothers) are really the ones calling the shots, i.e. making all the decisions, big and small. Like in America, women hate each others' guts and would rather work with and for a man than even for a travesty, if (s)he wears a skirt or paint suit. However, when push come to shove, in family and many other matters, they will stand for each other and will make any man feel like a pariah, whatever it takes. You will experience that if, for example, you start dating a lady amongst your circle of friends and then break up for whatever reason. You may kiss your friendship with that circle goodbye, man included, specially those that are married. Why? Go back above to where I wrote "I find the Portuguese culture "apparently" male-dominated." As for an American finding it "virtually impossible ... to find employment in a Portuguese company." I really have no statistics to contradict your statement but there seems to be foreigners working everywhere (I have heard the same thing being said in the US). I guess it all depends on what your qualifications are, what you are willing and capable of doing and what you would consider an acceptable salary. You might have missed an important point also: How much safer it is to live in Portugal compared to the US (I'm talking about average numbers, not comparing any two specific locations in either country where that relation might be reversed or extreme). Anyway, glad to have you here. Hope you continue to enjoy your life in Portugal and become more and more a Luso-American.