This last Sunday (the 3rd of October) Brazilians brought out their votes in the first round of electing the new president of Brazil, the successor of Luiz Inacio - Lula - da Silva. Although she gained more votes than her opponents, Lula's most likely successor (thanks to his support, too) Dilma Roussef didn't gain the majority needed, so Brazil will need to vote again at the end of October. It is difficult for me to put forward my own views on Brazilian politics as I have not lived there for nearly long enough to know, but I got the impression from some of my friends that there is a certain lack of enthusiam this year over the elections and the candidates... The day of the vote, I read a long and sophisticated article in Holland's quality newspaper the NRC about the elections and the ways in which Brazil had changed (i.e. its economy had grown substantially) in the past eight years thanks to Lula's policies, which follow what his political predecessor had started already, apparently a plus point for Lula, who is much loved by many in Brazil. It is curious because I believe that at the same time as Brazil had begun gaining so much economic development in the past decade, a similar economic trend can be observed in Russia, which, since the start of the new millenium, has also grown to become one of the world's leading economies (I won't start on the political implications of the economic growth in Russia though).
Brazil will certainly be in the center of attention in the coming years, as the host of the 2014 World Cup, and I believe as the first country in South America to take the pride in organizing the Olympic games of 2016 (2 years after Russia will host the Winter Olympics, and Russia, too, will be the host to the World Cup in football in 2018. It seems, as you see, that there are indeed certain parallels between these two BRIC nations). As I have lived in and loved Brazil, I am now following the developments and news as I wouldn't have before. It rarely occurred to me before that Brazil is actually a very important world player. That is, I figured as much, but didn't really give it the thought. A friend of mine in Brazil had pointed out that many people (I guess, particularly in the West) still think of Brazil as a developing country, while it is actually pretty much developed already, and I trust her judgement. I've seen it myself too, Brazil is a very developed country, I can gather that just by looking at the amounts of money I've had to spend there on traveling and going out..!
Some may argue that Brazil's level of development is questionable given the pertaining amount of poverty and social/economic inequality, but couldn't you say the same about the world's biggest economy, the United States? At the same time, yes, all BRIC countries still have many challenges facing them on their way to catching up (and arguably taking over eventually) Western countries; challenges of social, political, and economic nature. I'm not a BRIC expert, but if anything, I did live for several months in China and Brazil, and grew up in Russia, and can say that the economic inequality in each country in this respect can be quite mind-blowing, and often penetrating... but it's part of each country and its society, and of course it will take much more work and joint effort to try and lower the level of this inequality. But there is the matter of cultural and social diversity within each country, too, and of course it is often a good thing. And the whole situation is too often also very, very complicated.
I will illustrate with an example from personal experience: when we traveled in Brazil, we got the chance to come to Buzios, a small beach-town in the Rio state, known for being 'discovered' and put on the vacation map by Birgit Bardot, and it is loved by many visitors of higher social standing. Buzios is really beautiful, although we may not have come there if we weren't invited by our friend to stay there for a couple days at her aunt's holiday house which turned out to be an amazing, gorgeous mansion. Buzios' center is a pretty fancy place, and a stroll along the stores already gives the idea of the crowd they're aiming at. We loved our time there, and even went to the beach one day in an awesome open-roof car, which attracted many looks from passers-by. And I remember Bryley saying something like, "this is so cool, we do this now, and then in a couple of days we'll be going to a favela in Rio, it's like we're getting to know the opposing sides of Brazilian life". I guess that much is true.
And so, a few days later we went to Rocinha, the largest favela on the continent, home to some 200,000 people or so, spread around the hills of Rio de Janeiro. And there, of course, it is a different sight. It is thousands and thousands of houses built on the hills around, one house almost on top of the other... narrow footpaths in between, a whole other lifestyle, shall we say. And yes, it is one of Brazil's main challenges, how to improve the quality of life there, but at the same time many people we passed on the way looked happy as they are. And why not, nothing should be able to take away their right to be happy, right?
We even ran into a girl from the UK who has worked at a child-care center there for a few months, and was absolutely loving it there. And in its own way, the view of the favela is beautiful, breath-taking as it surely is.Many people (interestingly, several Brazilian people) also reacted with various levels of shock when we told them we were going/went to the favela. "You went to a favela?? Why? What are you looking for there?" And oh dear, it's dangerous, isn't it. What were we thinking? Well. There are many preconceptions about favelas, and I won't play as if I know what it's like to live there, of course it comes with certain dangers, such as even occasional stray bullets from gang fights which injure and kill innocent people. Of course life in a favela is not easy, but it's not all like "City of God". It is a community, with people just like anyone of us who want to lead normal lives. And it felt like a community, too, and our guide certainly seemed to know everyone passing by, who all returned his friendly greetings. And he even told us this: "the guy who will shake your hand today in the favela may rob you in Copacabana tomorrow". Turns out there may be more chance to get into trouble outside the favela than inside it (though I still woundn't advise you to just go around prowling by yourself, as then you are likely to get lost and possibly get into some kind of problem). So go figure.
What's curious is that in the recent years favela tours in Rio have become quite popular with tourists. My guide book even warned that some tour companies even drive tourists around in jeeps, thereby treating the place as "an African game park" (it literally said this in the book). Of course, we don't want that, we could just walk through the favela on foot. A friend of mine in Holland, who is half-Brazilian herself, pointed out that some tourists just go there because it's like a new cool thing to do. They know to expect poverty, dirty streets, problematic housing. So why do they go, if they're not gonna do something about it? This is an interesting point for sure. I've studied about a favela before and never imagined I would get to visit one, that I would be in Rio de Janeiro in the first place. Myself, I went to complete what I had already learned and because I am interested in Brazilian society, and let's see what I can do with that in the future.
Of course, the issue is much more complex than I can discuss here; this is what I myself have learned from experience, and given the current political developments in Brazil, I thought I would share some insights. And I hope I will be able to keep learning, to broaden my perspectives. For the moment, let's see how the elections go further, and how Brazil develops in the coming years.
Beijos!
