This is also a metaphor for the critical voices of CPLP?
AB: I do not answer to anyone, but it is a reality. The CPLP is a project that was born. Is eighteen years and the EU has nearly sixty years of existence and you see the European project last all these years and still has not arrived where it want's to be and also in my point wrong. The political unification will not be the solution to the problems that countries cross. Remain the diversity of cultures and language, this may already be an economic project. Europe is not only culturally unified, has no uniqueness.
When you discusses the CPLP's almost seems you are speaking about the UN and this universal project already exists.
AB: I'm not talking about the UN, we can speak of the "Commonwealth" which also has a much more universal nature, the English language is greatly expanded. I think the CPLP is an affirmation of cultures, the language and affections and it is now important for countries like Japan, Venezuela, Australia, India, East Timor and Peru want to belong to CPLP, because it is an investment, is a form of economic putting stones in order to sustain its future.
You also notice that China has taken the reins of the commission at the expense of Brazil, which would be in terms of leadership the natural choice, thought it curious that you not speak of Portugal.
AB: I have the ease and happiness of looking at this Lusophone world of CPLP with my African eyes. I grew up in that continent and I have that view of the world, Portugal has no capacity to lead, Brazil is the fifth or sixth economic power in the world, so when we are talking about 280 million people belonging to CPLP, only 230 million are brazilians. Strange is Brazil letting China take on this role, which justify only by internal issues. The country currently has no security and internal political force, or is still the fear of the ghosts of certain words as neocolonialism that are no longer part of our lexicon.
You said the CPLP is one of the strengths for the twenty-first century. But is this analysis in our book?
AB: Not in those terms for this century, but it is a long-range project, which will continue for many years, due to the youth of the CPLP. This institution is criticized because it does not do this, or that, but civil society is doing it and has two politicians most of the time. In the various diasporas lusfónos spaces, there are Mozambicans in South Africa, Japanese in Brazil, Cape Verdeans in the United States and Europe, these are the communities of the various countries of Lusophone world, is a network that can be leveraged, so in this book , I state it is a great project worldwide.
This book arises from an investigation that lasted how long?
AB: This book is based on my thesis of international relations and was conducted over the years of my degree where I collected documents and my status as a citizen of the world. I was born in Portugal, raised in St. Thomas, did military service in Angola and worked in Macau, I have an open mind to allow me this look without prejudice and that there is this problem, the prejudices that still exist.
You focused on two names Ramalho Eanes and Adriano Moreira.
AB: Yes, also José Parecido de Oliveira, who was a great promoter of this project, was ambassador of Brazil in Portugal and was in that condition that traced these paths of CPLP. I spoke of Ramalho Eanes, because he unlocked the ice that existed in the post-colonization, was a big problem of relationship between Portugal, Mozambique, and Angola, not so much with Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe that were smaller countries, but was with the so-called spirit of Bissau, when he meets with Agostinho Neto the, summit serves as an icebreaker, from which emerged the first steps towards this idea of Lusophone.
And Adriano Moreira?
AB: Because it's a great thinker of this whole space. It is perhaps the most engaged in this line of thinking. There is another thinker that meant a lot for the book, which comes from the best study I know about the best potentialities of the Lusophone world, who is also now deceased, Ernani Lopes. It's a great paper on the advantages of Lusophone, especially at sea level. Then, we tackled the issue of the Atlantic platforms, if we join the Brazil and Angola the world gets united, all this is a sea of potentials that CPLP can leverage in expanding in terms of geo-political and strategy.
