Dear Editor,
We should be grateful for your reader last week telling us about the GNR picking on drivers returning to Portugal at Faro airport.
Petty, pathetic. What image of Portugal does it give?
We desperately need these people, especially in the debt crisis. We need people who will live here, buy houses, shop etc, and create jobs.
We need currency from them and overseas tourists. We are in a mess and for the Algarve all we have is those people – tourism.
As the new government has to adopt IMF/ECB/EC measures, including cutting bureaucracy and non-productive or inefficient jobs, can we afford a wasteful GNR?
What do they add to our wellbeing, what do they give? I would be far happier if they smiled, were helpful and talked to people, rather than walked round just talking among themselves and smoking. I would be happier if they showed such drive, enthusiasm in dealing with cars that have been here over 183 days, and have no tax and therefore no insurance.
I would be happier if they could deal with crime on our streets, were simply interested, rather than such crime damaging our tourism, our very survival.
Come on politicians, instead of asking more of the same, which clearly does not work (they cannot do it), look at it from a business review.
In a crisis, companies look for cost cutting, different ways of doing things better, efficiency; people being properly trained for their role, and expected to do it, to deliver.
So do we need one regional civilian force, accountable, community based? Do we privatise it, outsource?
You (Algarve Resident) claim that the authorities are listening? Are they, or just PR?
May I suggest that they are not listening, certainly not to expats or non Portuguese tourists. The very people who keep the Algarve going – alive.
D Taylor-Smith, by email
