Visit Report – “Darwin’s Evolution”

In the last months, all over the world people have been celebrating 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin, the great naturalist, geologist and thinker. In celebration of this occasion, on the 3rd of April I had the opportunity to visit the “Darwin’s Evolution” exhibition that also commemorates the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterpiece – “The Origin of the Species”. This fantastic exhibition is taking place in one of the most emblematic museums of Lisbon – the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where incredible surprises lie in store for all visitors.
The Charles Darwin exhibition examines the life and labour of this man whose work has changed the way we view and study our world and how we think. Charles Darwin’s theory transformed the manner in which we understand the origin and the nature of species on Earth. The exhibition also gives the visitor a brilliant insight into Charles Darwin’s life as a family man. An extraordinarily talented man beyond his time, with a great curiosity for nature, Darwin combined his thirst of adventure with a prosperous family life.
When visiting the exhibition you can expect to see very different types of visitors. Two helpful ladies together replied my query as to why they had come to the exhibition, explaining that they wanted to know more about what had motivated Darwin to travel around the world and make such outstanding discoveries. They left the museum having discovered a brave young man with an intrepid spirit behind the photographs of Darwin with his long white beard.
Aside from the exhibition, it is interesting to observe the human dynamics contained within the museum. At the beginning people were crowded together in the entrance to the exhibition, everyone wanting to observe all the details. However, in general people were considerate to others and did not spend too much time in the reading of descriptions and the observation of exhibits. There is a calm atmosphere within the museum which provides the space for reflection required of museums and exhibitions like this one. Everyone is welcome. It is particularly fascinating to see the affection and concern that parents take to explain something so scientific and complicated to their children. Even parents with restless four and five years old were trying to explaining the details to their children, who would undoubtedly have forgotten the theoretical explanation; more interested in the spectacular samples of exotic animals.
As you move through the exhibition you will be increasingly surprised by the quality of the collection. Amongst the exhibits there is the chance to view some rare specimens and artefacts. Furthermore you can see an impressive reconstruction of Darwin's office, some parts of the Galapagos Islands and their fauna, a miniature of the Beagle ship, computer interactive activities, documentaries, films, incredible fossils, skeletons and skulls, letters written by Darwin himself, an exemplar of Darwin’s travel diary and even a miniature zoo.
For all these reasons and in order to discover why Darwin’s name is of such importance, it is really worth visiting this exhibition which will be on display until May 24th.

Allison's Biography

Alison was born in Manchester, in the north of England, in the 1950s. There she completed her primary education and then afterwards moved to Oxford to go to secondary school.
She has travelled a lot to countries such as Germany (where she had a special bicycle – her black witch), Spain, India and Canada. The countries in which she has spent most time and worked are those where she has had the most significant experiences.
One experience that she shared with us took place in Algeria in North Africa. At this time she lived and worked there as an English teacher to men and teenage boys, at the centre of a chemical petrol business. In the classes she could wear her own clothes, but was obliged to cover her whole body. Only her hands and face could be seen, so short dresses and low necklines were out of the question. Outside of class she was not allowed to have any kind of contact with her students and could certainly not speak with them.
It is important to note that she was 27 when in Algeria and at the time quite a rebel and a feminist too. She had fought in England for what she believed were the rights of women. In some ways it was amazing to experience such a foreign culture, but it was also hard to integrate in a country so different to England. I can imagine how difficult it must have been to experience such a distinct way of life and accept it as ‘normal’. In fact, having to do so provided her with invaluable knowledge and preparation for the rest of her life, in particular the importance of being tolerant and open to multiple perspectives in various situations. She learnt that to achieve such openness it is necessary to have contact with the different ways of thinking and behaviour found abroad. Her experience in Algeria unquestionably contributed significantly to who she is now. It was an extreme challenge coming to deal with the women’s role in Algerian society, at times testing her patience to the limits, yet she was able to gain a great deal from this challenge.
From the linguistic perspective, while in Algeria she tried to learn Arabic and realised that speaking Arabic was necessary for certain activities, such as shopping. However she was also able to communicate to some extent in French.
Now she has been here in Portugal for almost eight years. She identifies with Portuguese culture, although still feels like a foreigner. Through the process of travelling she has never changed her cultural identity, but has rather gained new elements to construct this identity. She always keeps questioning her own identity and her notion of what is right or wrong. For her, things are not simply black or white. They might be yellow or pink: something quite different to what she expected. This is the attitude she tries to take when faced with things she does not like or agree with in Portuguese culture. One example that she gave us was the inactivity of the Portuguese people compared to the English. Sometimes our inactivity, our lack of urgency makes her angry and frustrated. Nevertheless, I think she feels obliged to accept the cultural differences within the Portuguese way of life. At the same time that it repels her, it also attracts her. Due to her cultural origins she is unable to escape from the urge to rush all the time and never waste time, to do everything the day before it needs to be done. Yet if she did not like our way of life she would not be living now in the peace of Alentejo. In my opinion, she needs both cultures to achieve a balance.

Mini Saga of Natasha - 50 Words

I was just a little girl
Living in an orphanage,
I felt poor and disgraceful
On that small cage.

One day he arrived
And took me in his arms,
We tried to escape
Passing by destroyed farms.

Once at UK
I was finally safe,
Leaving behind much blood and slay…

Mini Saga – 50 words

It was a kingdom with a bad King. One day a son of a hero arrived coming from nowhere. The ants slaves supported him in his new campaign of clean the land from the tyranny of the Sheep King. After he beat the guards the King was lost forever.

Event Assignment

This year ‘Março a Partir’ took to Pinhal Novo as lead group ‘Mão Morta’.
On a somewhat rainy day my buddies and I arrived at the S.F.U.A. (Philharmonic Society Agriculturist Union) after buying a ticket for the next two day concert. I missed the second day with Moonspell as lead group, but the first day was enough for fulfilled emotions and unexpected reactions.
All was as I expected, when I went inside the pavilion there were a lot of people jumping, rock music on the stage and five or six unknown and different band styles, but all related to rock music. Pretty good music such as beautiful singers as well.
The best by far was the last band, unknown to me until then. It was the lead group ‘Mão Morta’. They were the best, but not exactly for the music itself…
‘Mão Morta’ is an old band with about 25 years of work, so we expected a music style like ‘Xutos e Pontapés’… but guess what happened!? The vocalist started screaming and acting like a fool (not screaming like a metal band, but shouting things like “I’m tired of me”). His voice was hoarse, which gave him a much more charismatic character on the stage.
“And I said…What’s the matter? And she said…Nothing!” – He repeated this phrases throughout the time of one of his songs.
We were stopped there with our mouths wide open in surprise.
What a charismatic and amazing thing!
It was a total surprise for us. We were angry and boring while we felt happy and with admiration for that band style.
Next year we will be there again for sure!

Biography of ‘SomThor’ by Álison

Biography of ‘SomThor’

Som Phophet, also known as ‘Som Thor’ (Som for his first name and Thor because of a Mythological Nordic God of War), born on 13th of March 1986 in Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. At the age of 4 he and his mother moved to Bangkok. His father stayed in Thailand because he was a Major in the Thai Army. Som lived in Bangkok till he was 7 and then he came over to Melbourne in southeast Australia. He has a lot of siblings who are still in Thailand and some that live in Australia too.

For Som, Melbourne its a “pretty good city, it’s known for being one of the best cities in the world, people are nice, and night town life is pretty good here”. He said that Melbourne is a very modern cultural city with people from all continents. He enjoys living in Australia because it is ‘a peaceful country and everyone is pretty modern culturally’ and he also enjoys living on an island.

SomThor finished primary school in Melbourne and then he went to ‘Springvale High’, a high school in Springvale (Australia). During the last two years in Springvale he also did a course in ‘Hospitality Commercial Cookery’ so he became a professional chef.
Having finished high school and the course he started in hospitality operations and hospitality hotels, at ‘Holmsglen Tafe’ he then went to Victoria University in Footscray where he graduated after four years.
At the moment he is not doing anything related to hospitality, but working for a retail company called ‘Calls Express’. It is a department of a major company called ‘Calls Limited’, and he works for the logistic department, the trucking area, that sends all the trucks out to the other departments.

Som’s life ‘is all right at the moment’. He wants to become a floor manager at the Crown, one of the biggest casinos in Australia located in Melbourne, ‘which is actually pretty good and the work hours as well’.
Som is just taking a break for now, working in a part-time job, clearing his mind before he gets back to his full time job.
During his free time SomThor plays an online medieval RPG (Role Playing Game) called ‘Lineage 2’. He started playing ‘L2’ around February 2009 influenced by a friend who convinced him that it is a good game. He enjoyed the game because he likes medieval and war things like war movies, because he loves history and he is very good at it. About the movies he dislikes ‘lovey dovey’ and horrors. ‘You get paranoid’ he said about the last one. His favourites are ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Brave Heart’, good military movies like ‘The Last Castle’ with Robert Redford. And he also likes comedy and drama.

He can play the piano, and learned it because he likes orchestral music and symphonies. ‘I like a little bit of everything…but no pop!’ he said. He usually listens to Hard Techno at a bar he goes to with his friends. He likes Metalica, Without Purpose, etc.

Som is always a friendly outgoing person, he likes to joke around, watch ‘racing cars imported from Japan, like Mitsubishi’, meets new people, make new friends, go to gym but first of all he loves alcohol. ‘Alcohol is always good’ he said.








Made by:
Álison Martins
With special thanks to:
My friend SomThor

Bedtime Story - The Gifts

A long time ago, in a distant land, Queen Sarah gave birth to the King’s first son, Prince Emmett. He wasn’t the prettiest kid around, actually he was rather unattractive but he was extremely intelligent, he learned everything quite fast and soon he was considered the brightest child in the entire kingdom.
Years passed and they realised there was something different about Prince Emmett, the way he addressed people. Because of this, King Anthony and Queen Sarah called to the palace an old man who was known for his wisdom and knowledge and who might help them discover what was wrong with the little prince. The man said that Prince Emmett was born with a gift, a gift that allowed him to see how smart people were and that someday, when he found a worthy person, he would be able to pass some of his intelligence to him. the King and the Queen were stunned by this revelation and didn’t believe it. But well… They might deny it but it was nothing but the truth. After learning this, people who were… Well, less bright, came from all around the kingdom, trying to be the chosen one. Despite this fact, the Prince never found a worthy person in any of them.
This continued to happen until one day, the day when the Prince, already an adult, met a young lady in the woods near the palace. He was stunned by her beauty as she was definitely the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Her waist length hair was light brown and curly, her eyes a beautiful shade of green and her dress was white but a little bit dirty. And then, he started to wonder… What was this lady doing here, in the middle of nowhere? He decided to approach her.
“Madam? Can I-,“ This was when he realised she was crying. “Are you all right?”
“Oh! Hum… Yes, I am fine thank you.” She tried to compose herself and hide the tears.
“But what does a beautiful lady like yourself do around here? Not that I wish to interfere in your life, of course.”
“I just… Well, it is a long story and I do not wish to bother you with such irrelevant matters.” She looked at him embarrassed.
“Please do.” He asked gently.
And she told him everything. She was the Princess of a neighbour kingdom and had a twin sister, Princess Lillian. She had always been the prettiest of the two but her sister had something she didn’t, she was incredibly intelligent, almost as bright as the Prince. For that, she had always been favoured and out of embarrassment and unhappiness, Princess Emily decided to leave and hide in the forest.
This story touched the Prince and he knew what to do, he was going to help her and end her pain.
“I can help you, I have the solution to your problem.”
“Wha-at? How can you help me?” Princess Emily asked. Could her nightmare be really ending?
“Trust me, I can. But I will only help you if you accept to marry me first,” he said, smiling. He somehow knew she was the one meant for him.
After thinking about it, she decided she had nothing to lose. “Yes, I will marry you.”
He took her to the palace and announced the wedding and it happened, Princess Emily was now almost as smart as him.
A month later and with the wedding days away, she started to have second thoughts. She deserved better, someone as beautiful as her, by her side, she thought. After thinking this through, she realised it was silly. He had been the only one to make her happy, so it didn’t matter how he looked.
Years later, the day came when Queen Emily decided to tell this to King Emmett. He wasn’t surprised, he already knew it might happen.
“But how?” she asked surprised.
“The old man. I came across him after I met you and he said you could leave me but I decided to take a chance. It paid off,” he smiled at her. “But I am curious… Why did you stay?”
“Well… I realised that your looks didn’t matter because I love you the way you are.”
“Yes, the old man told me you had that gift, to perceive people’s hearts.”
“Really? But anyone can have such a gift! You just have to pay attention to others and see beyond their faces.”
“Thank you, my dear. I love you too,” added the King simply.
And here ends this story and just so you know, yes, they did live happily ever after till the end of their days.

Juliana Machado