Musings Archives - Page 18 of 45

Favela Spirit

23/05/2013/10 Comments/in Musings

Sure local government should do these things, but when they don’t, we do it ourselves.
-Favela resident

Favelas are a touchy subject here in Brazil. I think I covered this subject in my previous post (What’s wrong with favelas?), so I’ll just add a minimal pre-emptive clarification: I don’t think favelas are fun or cool, but I do think they are legitimately interesting.

Back in Britain it is common to hear people lament the decline of “community spirit”. Of course there are plenty of great community projects and kind, helpful people, but as a general trend, people have become less sociable with their neighbours over the last 50 or so years.

Many people in London (and other large cities I’m sure) hardly speak to the people who live next door or across the hallway. It’s not uncommon to hear of people dying alone in their apartments and only being discovered weeks later when neighbours notice the smell.

I used to think that this phenomenon of people closing themselves off from their neighbours was caused by the population movement from small towns and villages into large cities and conurbations. It seems a logical reaction to a reduction in living space: people put up metaphorical walls to counter the fact that they are living in such close proximity to each other. But if that were true, how could you explain favelas?

Just a small section of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela.

Photo Post: Rain in Rio

17/05/2013/9 Comments/in Musings

My first job interview in Rio went pretty well. We spent about 10 minutes talking about what the new role would be, then another 20 minutes talking about my skills and past work experience. Then, at the end, one of the two interviewers turned to me with a quizzical look on his face and asked: “Just one thing – why would you leave a job like that in London to come to Rio?“. The way he asked the question made it clear that he thought I was crazy!

Conversely, I know that many Brazilians who move to London are asked by incredulous locals “Why would you leave sunny Brazil to come to this miserable place?”. I guess next door’s chicken is always fatter, right?

Well you know what? You might not see it on the postcards, but it rains a lot in Rio. In fact it rains more in Rio than it does in London!

It has rained pretty much non-stop every single time I’ve left the city of Rio to explore other parts of Rio state. This was a nice bamboo sprout I saw in Petrópolis.

I imagine that Londoners will be reading this and thinking “Oh sure, you get more actual rain in Rio because of those crazy tropical storms, but I bet we (Londoners) have more rainy days than Rio”. Well that’s where you’re wrong:

Futevôlei: Is this why Brazil is better than England at football?

15/05/2013/11 Comments/in Musings

I’ll be honest from the start, I like football a lot – I used to play a bit and I think it’s a great game. I’m not obsessed with football though; I don’t love it. If anything, my interest in the game has faded a bit over the last 15 years. I certainly don’t think football is a matter of life or death (or even more important than that), so if you’re looking for insightful and up-to-date football analysis, you should probably check out some proper blogs.

Did anyone stick around for the second paragraph? OK, so now that we’ve established that I’m no expert on the subject, let’s talk football! I have a premise so deeply ingrained in my footballing psyche that I doubt I’ll ever be able to shake it: Brazil are better than England. For most of my life this had been an indisputable fact. The fact that this is now a matter for some debate (sadly due to a slump in Brazil’s form rather than a surge in England’s) is something I still struggle to get my head around.

But why are (were?) they so much better than us?

Brazilians play a lot of football. But then so do the English!

On my first trip to the beach in Rio I saw something that made me go “Ah! So that’s why they’re so good!”:

Gol incentivises pilots to save fuel

03/05/2013/18 Comments/in Musings

I was gazing out of my window a few days ago when I saw a rather nice wisp of cloud floating around the top of Pão de Açúcar. I grabbed my camera and was taking a few snaps when a plane came flying through the shot – bonus!

A Gol flight passing Pão de Açúcar. If you look carefully you can just make out the contrails coming out the back.

Later on, when I transferred the images to my computer, I took a closer look at the plane and made out the airline: Gol.

Gol is a low-cost airline and Brazil’s second biggest carrier by market share. Times are tough for many airlines right now, with rising fuel prices really squeezing profit margins. Gol has been suffering more than most – according to Bloomberg, they lost 11 cents for every dollar of sales in 2012 (R$1.5 billion net loss for the year).

While some budget airlines have devised novel pricing ~~scams~~ schemes, Gol have come up with their own approach: use less fuel. Gol management have introduced a new scheme of bonuses for pilots and flight crews to incentivise fuel economy. Hmm, how does a pilot use less fuel?

Photo Post: Crazy flowers

13/04/2013/7 Comments/in Musings

I spotted these crazy flowers when we were in Petrópolis a few weeks ago. To be honest with you I have no idea what they’re called, whether they are indigenous to Brazil or anything else. The flower starts off as a simple, lantern-like pink capsule, but later on this opens up to reveal sections 2 and 3.

I’ve put these second and third sections in expanding panels below so you don’t see all the images at once – just click the panel text to open it up.

Here is the first capsule:

Looks like a fairly simple little thing doesn’t it? A bit like a chinese lantern crossed with a cherry (or something).

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