With colonies in Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania, in the 15th and 16th century, Portugal once ruled the waves. More recently, however, the once great nation has struggled with the single market system of the EU and Portugal is now perhaps the second worst economy in the continent.
With the economy expected to contract by 3% or more this year, many Portuguese have left for greener shores. Five hundred years after Vasco da Gama first landed in Mozambique, impoverished Portuguese are turning up there in droves, begging for work permits.
So the once shining beacon of Western prosperity has been relegated to supplier of cheap labour to the Third World. It's sadly ironic for a country whose national anthem decries, "Salute the sun that rises over a gleeful future..."
