IMAGINE

Vandalism or Art: the Dilemma of Graffiti

Graffiti is a well-known type of art in most of the world, with cities like New York being infested with them. However, in other places of the world, graffiti is considered to be a crime (vandalism, specifically). But after all, what is graffiti? Is it a way of expressing feelings and thoughts through visual stimulation, or just an ugly painting on a wall that contributes to the degradation of cities?
For me, art can be literally anything, from a glorious painting to a plastic cup. It can have absolutely no meaning, and it will still be art as long as you tell me the object in question is considered to be art. But that might not be the perspective of someone else, which is totally fine. And that is the case of some cultures who see graffiti as a form of vandalism instead of art.
What I want to say is that, in my opinion, graffiti is, in fact, art. But it may not be the case somewhere else, though. And so, even though in a country graffiti is legal, in another one it might be seen as an act of vandalism. That’s something that comes from the culture of a people, and I prefer to respect the traditions of a country.

Mateus Mendes 11.ºD

Photo: Martha Cooper

Photo: Martha Cooper

A Speech

25th of April 1974

Today you can´t gossip about the president. Today there is only one political party. Today women can´t vote. Today you can´t get divorced. Today there is no minimum wage. Today groups of people are not allowed to come together to talk or discuss ideas.
Obviously this is not today but it was the reality in Portugal before the 25th of April of 1974. Would you want to live like they did? The answer is probably no.
Every year, on this date, we the Portuguese, celebrate above all our freedom. Freedom of speech. Freedom of vote. Freedom of marriage. Freedom of going to the street and demonstrate in favour of the rights you think you should have as a human being .
On the dawn of the 25th of April of 1974, the song “Grândola Vila Morena” by Zeca Afonso, was the password for the beginning of our amazing revolution. The strong line “O povo é quem mais ordena” quickly swept the whole country. The captain Salgueiro Maia responsible for the operation followed by a cavalry of tanks left “Santarém” and marched to Lisbon forming a siege around the police headquarters where Marcelo Caetano, the successor of António Salazar, sought refuge. This put an end to a dictatorship that lasted 48 years. All over the country people and soldiers came to the streets proclaiming freedom. This movement is remembered to this day as “Revolução dos Cravos”. It was given this name because the people offered carnations to the soldiers as a message of acknowledgment and these placed their flowers on their weapons to represent a peaceful revolution that ended up with only 4 casualties.
To this day, the 25th of April serves as a reminder so the Portuguese will never fall into a dictatorship again. I hope you will always remember this day and say “Viva a Liberdade!”.

Eduardo Barreira, Gonçalo Costa, Luís Cerqueira, Tiago Veloso - 11.ºA

by Adres at cargocollective.com

A Day I Will Never Forget

by Banksy at mocomuseum.com

I’m going to talk about the day when I lost the most important person of my entire life: my mother.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. I was with her when she received this frightening news. Whenever I could, I would go with her to the treatments. She was very brave and strong. After treatments and treatments, in the middle of July 2022 she had to go to the São João Hospital because every time she ate, she would throw up minutes after.
A month after my mother was hospitalized, a doctor from palliative care asked my father to talk to him. Here was the moment my father knew my mother had 6 months of life. That day I hadn’t gone with my father visit my mother, so I only knew the news when he arrived home. I could see he was hiding something... he was very sad and didn’t stop walking, his eyes were very red as well as his face. After some time, he told me, I just hugged him for a very long time... I didn’t want to believe.
Me and my father used to visit her every day, but then the school started and I could only visit her on weekends and Friday afternoon. On the second Friday after school started, when I entered the hospital room I stayed in shock... my mother was in induced coma, she was very thin, she was breathless and her eyes very tired. This day I cried a lot... I knew that she wouldn’t survive any longer. The next day, while having lunch, me and my father received the news that my mother had died. We cried and cried...
Nowadays, I still think of my mother every day... I will never forget her, she is my role model. I dream with her a lot and I like it, because this is the only way I can see her again.

Eduarda Pinheiro, 11.ºA

A Day I Will Never Forget

My name is Namu, I'm 24 and from Qatar. When I was 18 I had to leave my country because the police wanted to arrest me for being homosexual. The way they found out about it was very traumatic for me and made me develop trust issues.
One day, I decided to open up about the situation with my father and that didn't make him very happy. I thought that he would be more receptive, but I quickly found out that it was not true at all, when he kicked me out of home and called the cops.
After that, I didn't have anything to lose, so I decided to go away to a country where I'd be happier and safer, that's how I got to Canada. Here the people, at least most of them, support my sexuality and give me mental help to recover from my trauma.

António Paredes Carvalho, 11.ºA

at alifewithoutborders.org