Juno and the Cloud

Rogério Beltrão Coelho

There is a Portuguese aphorism that describes people who tend to get the wrong idea out of a sign or event as ones who “Take the cloud for Juno (the Goddess)”.
Roman mythology says that a horse-breeder called Ixion fell in love with Juno, the Roman Goddess who was the sister-cum-consort of Jupiter… already more that enough to confound the modern mindset. Although only a platonic love, the daring passion displeased Jupiter and he resorted to creating a look-alike Juno cloud to trick Ixion.
Ixion was fooled by the cloud but somehow managed to liaise (in dreams, of course) with Juno and from that idillic love a centaur (a half-man, half-horse creature) was born. That centaur bore descendants, full of aggression and cruelty and yet simultaneously joyful.
So now you see where a misinterpretation can lead us… if we mistake a cloud for Juno.
I was reminded of that old aphorism when reading the editorial by my comrade Jose Rocha Dinis’ published yesterday in the Portuguese daily – Jornal Tribuna de Macau. The director’s editorial was titled “E era ainda maior o lucro” [Profits would be higher].
I am a keen advocate of the spirit of camaraderie and solidarity among fellow journalists and utterly opposed to sterile controversy that shows no dignity.
Of course this is not such a case, namely when dealing with someone that I’ve come across in my professional career for over thirty years.
What really matters here is only giving him a helping hand to try to separate the real from the cloud.
In reference to a comment made by the British Consul General to the Macau Daily Times, JRD (just back from vacation and on his way to update his reading) said he was touched (and astonished, as it seems) with the concerns expressed by the diplomat.
Andrew Seaton was referring to “lack of information available in English” in Macau and namely “regulations, laws and other legal matters”.
JRD’s editorial satirizes the Consul General’s unease that the two official languages in Macau are Chinese and Portuguese and the fact that the local law is Portuguese-based. Then he goes on until reaching the historic (and failed) English incursions to occupy Macau, while it was still a territory administered by Portugal.
It is the Consul General’s turn to clarify or not, and if he chooses, the misinterpretation of his words. But it is also always relevant to clear out situations like this that periodically and too often succeed in ‘taking the cloud for Juno’.
In due course – by way of politics and diplomacy – it was decided that Chinese and Portuguese should be the official languages of Macau. Chinese was chosen for ‘all the reasons’ you would think of, while Portuguese was chosen because of over 400 hundred years of tradition and for its importance as a language of culture, and as a way of understanding the history of Macau and even the history of China.
I have nothing against this decision, indeed.
But in today’s Macau, one may easily reach the conclusion that English has become the lingua franca (as elsewhere in the wide world). This reality is so naturally accepted nowadays that only a few doubt that a culture can be (and sometimes ought to be) divulged and promoted in a language other than its own, without regarding the fact as ‘contra natura’.
It is not only the foreign businesses and traders that need information to be provided in a language other than Chinese or Portuguese. The migrant workers also need to know the rules of the land where they choose to work. And they are not asking for information to be provided in their own language, just in a common one – a concern that is finding some support in a few Government departments.
I do believe that what is meant in JRD’s editorial should find applause from all those who consider, for instance, that is serves the public interest to publish information in Portuguese in publications meant to be read by those do not understand Portuguese.
It seems that the director of “Tribuna de Macau”, a veteran journalist, thoughtful and (usually) able interpreter of all things dealing with Macau has this once “taken the cloud for Juno”. And from what I know… he’s no Ixion and did not fall in love with the Roman goddess.