While growing up, my house was situated in an orange grove, with a large irrigation and drainage ditch separating it from a well traveled road. When we were real young, elementary school age, my siblings and I would play down there in the ditch, on our island, surrounded by weeds and algae, if there hadn't been any strong rains. But when I was a little older, probably middle school age, my brother and I and some of the similarly aged neighborhood boys would go along the ditch away from the house so that it wouldn't be associated with what we were doing, and then pick oranges off of trees and lob them at passing cars across the ditch. Of course for us, timing was very important; our hope was for the orange to slam into the windshield of the car and to cause a strong reaction from the driver, preferably loudly screeching tires. For which we would react by tearing back into the groves at max speed, starring at each other with huge eyeballs and full of laughter, and we were never spotted in all of our times doing this.
I don't recall totally how I felt about it then, but I started to feel remorseful and plain bad about doing this later on in life, although we never caused any real damage as far as I know. It kinda came back around though. One night, while in university, I'd left my house, the same house, to drive back to school after a weekend at home and while cruising down a grove lined rural road on my way to the interstate, an orange came out of nowhere and slammed into my windshield. I did a quick search of the surrounding groves as best I could at night, but I never found the little punks.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
"Manifestações" in Brazil
Since a R$0.20 (Brazilian Reais, about usd0.11) increase in bus fares in early June 2013 for the city bus system of São Paulo, the city erupted in protests which are now spreading throughout the country, including Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Belém, Brasilia, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Fortaleza, (http://g1.globo.com/brasil/protestos-2013/infografico/platb/) with more cities being added daily. The marches through São Paulo started as only a protest to the bus fare increase, the most expensive in Brazil (http://www.terra.com.br/noticias/infograficos/tarifas-de-onibus/), though the R$0.20 (7%) hike is less than inflation, which has ranged between 7.31% and 4.92% (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/brazil/inflation-cpi) since the last ticket increase in January 2011.
But since the scene first started in São Paulo, other causes have joined in, causing the manifestations, as they're being called in Brazil, to spread. The most common complaints are the costs of the World Cup and Olympics, respectively in 2014 and 2016, the sorry state of public health and education, deteriorating infrastructure, increasing violence, and corruption and large inequalities between the public and public servants.
One of the largest is the massive current government spending on the hosting of the World Cup and Olympics, respectively in 2014 and 2016, and even the Confederations Cup currently occurring and which has seen slight disruptions due to the protests. Twelve host cities will host games of the 2014 World Cup, seven of them will construct completely new stadiums and the other five have stadiums that will undergo renovations. Firm numbers are hard to come by, but I'm finding either usd1.1 billion or usd5 billion for all of the stadium work (conflicting real and dollar amounts), usd2.5 billion for airport improvements, and another usd1.5 billion for general works related to the World Cup, mostly related to transportation improvements, though many protesters are showing closer to usd30 billion on their signs, but I am not sure where those numbers come from, though here, I neither disagree or agree with the signs. But regardless, the complaint is that everyday, Brazilians drive on crumbling roads next to massive spending on stadium construction projects in the twelve host cities which will result in debatable benefits for most Brazilians. The story is similar for the coming 2016 Olympics. For the protesters, there are many better areas where the spending could be focused than can provide lasting benefits for Brazil.
Protesters argue that while these stadiums are built with large government funds, the country has a terrible public health and education system. Hospitals are understaffed and lacking tools and public education is nearly worthless. Anyone that can afford private education or private health will not bother with the offerings from the government. Brazil's infrastructure is deteriorating and to some economists is limiting the growth of the Brazilian economy, which is experiencing high inflation and a decrease of the BOVESPA this year (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/IBOV:IND), as well as only a 0.9% economic gain for the year 2012 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21630930).
Violence is an increasing problem for Brasil, which is in the top 20 for murder rates in the world. Petty crime is an increasing problem as well, such as assaults on the street even in city centers, nearly always targeted at women. In some towns, you'll have a hard time finding a woman than has never been a victim. No noticeable change has been made to the quantity of police or where they are stationed.
Lastly is the corruption perceived by the population and the entitlements of the governement and public servants. The minimum wage in Brazil in R$678 per month. For a senator to make one hundred times that, plus housing allowances, food allowance, the ability to hire family to help with his job, also with a high salary, is not uncommon. Amazing quantities of money have been documented (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/world/americas/brazil-seethes-over-public-officials-super-salaries.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). And all the time, large, heavily publicized corruption scandals are happening in Brazil, with the accused largely found guilty but facing no punishments and buying their elected seat back after a few years. See Fernando Collor de Mello and Renan Calheiros to name a few. However, this policy is maybe changing after the recent Mensalão ruling.
The government still has not released much at all on this issue. The people of Brazil are happy that their country is doing this and are excited for change.
More information:
video from Rio de Janeiro that really shows the extent of people present:
https://vines.s3.amazonaws.com/v/videos/0B0FD0D4-DED1-4F5C-BF9F-6E76488BCCDD-696-0000001B9FB6D9FD_1f58eaaf58e.1.2.mp4?versionId=q36TN0.uTojyFa1tRQuAVFA3YJtkwHoo. Many more on youtube...
photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/06/protests-spread-across-brazil/100536/
news: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21568722-historic-trial-those-guilty-legislative-votes-cash-scheme-draws-close
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/why-are-brazilians-protesting/276970/
But since the scene first started in São Paulo, other causes have joined in, causing the manifestations, as they're being called in Brazil, to spread. The most common complaints are the costs of the World Cup and Olympics, respectively in 2014 and 2016, the sorry state of public health and education, deteriorating infrastructure, increasing violence, and corruption and large inequalities between the public and public servants.
One of the largest is the massive current government spending on the hosting of the World Cup and Olympics, respectively in 2014 and 2016, and even the Confederations Cup currently occurring and which has seen slight disruptions due to the protests. Twelve host cities will host games of the 2014 World Cup, seven of them will construct completely new stadiums and the other five have stadiums that will undergo renovations. Firm numbers are hard to come by, but I'm finding either usd1.1 billion or usd5 billion for all of the stadium work (conflicting real and dollar amounts), usd2.5 billion for airport improvements, and another usd1.5 billion for general works related to the World Cup, mostly related to transportation improvements, though many protesters are showing closer to usd30 billion on their signs, but I am not sure where those numbers come from, though here, I neither disagree or agree with the signs. But regardless, the complaint is that everyday, Brazilians drive on crumbling roads next to massive spending on stadium construction projects in the twelve host cities which will result in debatable benefits for most Brazilians. The story is similar for the coming 2016 Olympics. For the protesters, there are many better areas where the spending could be focused than can provide lasting benefits for Brazil.
Protesters argue that while these stadiums are built with large government funds, the country has a terrible public health and education system. Hospitals are understaffed and lacking tools and public education is nearly worthless. Anyone that can afford private education or private health will not bother with the offerings from the government. Brazil's infrastructure is deteriorating and to some economists is limiting the growth of the Brazilian economy, which is experiencing high inflation and a decrease of the BOVESPA this year (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/IBOV:IND), as well as only a 0.9% economic gain for the year 2012 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21630930).
Violence is an increasing problem for Brasil, which is in the top 20 for murder rates in the world. Petty crime is an increasing problem as well, such as assaults on the street even in city centers, nearly always targeted at women. In some towns, you'll have a hard time finding a woman than has never been a victim. No noticeable change has been made to the quantity of police or where they are stationed.
Lastly is the corruption perceived by the population and the entitlements of the governement and public servants. The minimum wage in Brazil in R$678 per month. For a senator to make one hundred times that, plus housing allowances, food allowance, the ability to hire family to help with his job, also with a high salary, is not uncommon. Amazing quantities of money have been documented (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/world/americas/brazil-seethes-over-public-officials-super-salaries.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). And all the time, large, heavily publicized corruption scandals are happening in Brazil, with the accused largely found guilty but facing no punishments and buying their elected seat back after a few years. See Fernando Collor de Mello and Renan Calheiros to name a few. However, this policy is maybe changing after the recent Mensalão ruling.
The government still has not released much at all on this issue. The people of Brazil are happy that their country is doing this and are excited for change.
More information:
video from Rio de Janeiro that really shows the extent of people present:
https://vines.s3.amazonaws.com/v/videos/0B0FD0D4-DED1-4F5C-BF9F-6E76488BCCDD-696-0000001B9FB6D9FD_1f58eaaf58e.1.2.mp4?versionId=q36TN0.uTojyFa1tRQuAVFA3YJtkwHoo. Many more on youtube...
photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/06/protests-spread-across-brazil/100536/
news: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21568722-historic-trial-those-guilty-legislative-votes-cash-scheme-draws-close
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/why-are-brazilians-protesting/276970/
Friday, June 7, 2013
Going in the Dark
When traveling, I want to see and know my surroundings, to keep a minimum in the unknown. I want to see with my eyes the mountains rolling gently in front of me or the shear cliffs of monsters that I'm passing on above. I don't want to only know the specks of light dotting the distances and the smoke rising from those specks shading the moon. I want to see the blockization of the land into farms and I want to see and if possible know the people living there. I like a minimum of planning, but yet always manage to plan for traveling only in the day. To only know the terrain that I'm in from prior knowledge and photos is not enough, I want to see on my own and become familiar with the bountiful forests spreading out on the wet side of a mountain range or the nothingness of a desert, only sand and rock to the horizon. (The two "knows" of Portuguese, saber and conhecer, would be nice to have in English.)
However, there will always be times in which you must move at night: you must meet an old friend on a deadline; you're hungry; or rain's falling like a sonofabitch. Or sometimes, you just need a change, the current place doesn't feel good, the people aren't right, or the scenery's ugly. You have to go, into the unseeable. You may even find yourself changing a flat tire along the Rio Tacuya at night one day.
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However, there will always be times in which you must move at night: you must meet an old friend on a deadline; you're hungry; or rain's falling like a sonofabitch. Or sometimes, you just need a change, the current place doesn't feel good, the people aren't right, or the scenery's ugly. You have to go, into the unseeable. You may even find yourself changing a flat tire along the Rio Tacuya at night one day.
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