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Contents LONDON EDITION Is a montlhy publication of ANAGU UK UM LIMITED founded by
Ana Toledo Operational Director ana@brasilobserver.co.uk Guilherme Reis Editorial Director guilherme@brasilobserver.co.uk Roberta Schwambach Financial Director roberta@brasilobserver.co.uk English Editor Shaun Cumming shaun@investwrite.co.uk Layout and Graphic Design Jean Peixe ultrapeixe@gmail.com Contributors Antonio Veiga, Aquiles Reis, Christian Taylor, Daniela Barone Soares, Franko Figueiredo, Gabriela Lobianco, Heloisa Righetto, Márcio Apolinário, Nathália Braga Bannister , Wagner de Alcântara Aragão Printer St Clements press (1988 ) Ltd, Stratford, London mohammed.faqir@stclementspress.com 10.000 copies Distribution Emblem Group Ltd. To advertise comercial@brasilobserver.co.uk 020 3015 5043 To subscribe contato@brasiloberver.co.uk To suggest an article and contribute editor@brasilobserver.co.uk Online
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GUEST COLUMNIST
Terry L. McCoy on Lula’s corruption conviction
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INTERVIEW
Emicida, one of Brazil’s most acclaimed rappers
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REPORT
The uncertain future of the Brazilian youth
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CONECTANDO
The story of two garbage collectors from João Pessoa
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CULT
A review directly from Womad Festival
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CULTURAL TIPS
School of samba, theatre and music
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COLUMNISTS
Franko Figueiredo on theatre and life Heloisa Righetto on feminism Cilene Tanaka on literature Daniela Barone on human behaviour
074 4529 4660 brasilobserver.co.uk issuu.com/brasilobserver facebook.com/brasilobserver twitter.com/brasilobserver Brasil Observer is a monthly publication of the ANAGU UK MARKETING E JORNAIS UN LIMITED (company number: 08621487) and is not responsible for the concepts expressed in signed articles. People who do not appear in this expedient are not authorized to speak on behalf of this publication. The contents published in this newspaper may be reproduced if properly credited to the author and to the Brasil Observer.
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BR TRIP
Stepping into the Amazon
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
ARTE DA CAPA Personal archive
André Rebouças www.behance.net/oslo www.facebook.com/osloarte www.instagram.com/oslo.solo
To learn the story behind the cover art of this edition, visit our page on Facebook (facebook.com/ brasiloberver)!
“I am André Rebouças, I was born in Amazonas and today I live in Recife, Pernambuco. Here I became an advertiser, art director and father of two boys. With more than ten years working in the advertising market, having passed through the largest agencies of the state, I decided to take up all the knowledge developed during this period and let the my inspiration speak. Less than two years ago I began to make my solo flight composing art in a particular way, using the elements I love most: typography, photography and collage. I created a brand for this new phase of my life called Oslo, where I commercialize posters and lickers. It was the way I found to invade houses, bars, cafes, studios and walls. My work begins when I go out photographing, visiting antique shops, museums and, mainly, meeting a lot of people. What moves me is when I can gather stories, cases, images, publications and transform into art”. The cover art for this edition was produced by André Rebouças for the Mostra BO project developed by the Brasil Observer in partnership with Pigment and with institutional support from the Embassy of Brazil. Each of the 11 editions of this newspaper in 2017 is featuring art on its cover produced by Brazilian artists selected through open call. In February 2018, all of the pieces will be displayed at the Embassy of Brazil.
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GUEST
How Lula evolved from Brazil’s top politician to its most notable convict Now that a judge has convicted Luiz Inacio da Silva of corruption and sentenced him to almost a decade in prison, what’s next for the country that loves him? By Terry L. McCoy g
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
Ricardo Stuckert
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Brazilians watched along with the rest of the world as one of the country’s leading federal judges ruled that its most popular political figure is a criminal. On July 12, Sergio Moro, the federal judge leading Brazil’s massive “car wash” investigation, convicted former two-term President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva of corruption and sentenced him to nine and a half years in prison. My academic engagement with Brazil began in the late 1970s, well before Lula – as he’s commonly known – finally won the presidency in 2002 after three tries. Over these four decades, I witnessed his remarkable rise and now his devastating fall, and met him three times. Given that Lula is practically synonymous with brand Brazil, I believe his conviction confirms the total bankruptcy of Brazilian politics and raises serious doubts about the future of Latin America’s largest country.
LULA’S RISE Lula’s improbable emergence from the poverty of the Northeast and slums of Sao Paulo to the highest office in the land is well-documented. As a young political scientist focused on Latin America, I first became aware of Lula the union organizer and political activist in the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo during the country’s harsh military dictatorship (1964 to 1985). On three occasions our paths crossed. The first came in the halls of Congress in the late 1980s when he served as a deputy following Brazil’s return to civilian rule. I initially dismissed Lula as a being too far on the leftist fringe to become a serious national player. But he defied sceptics like me and rapidly rose to prominence, where he remains today. In 1989, in Brazil’s first democratic election since 1960, Lula made his first bid for the presidency. Although he lost, he made a much stronger showing than predicted. The campaign rallies I observed were large and impassioned. Throughout the 1990s, Lula and his socialist Workers’ Party (PT) strengthened their hold on politics. The party increased its representation in Congress as well as at the state and local level. Lula ran again in the 1994 and 1998 presidential elections. Again, he fared well but lost. Eventually Lula and the PT leadership saw the need to broaden their base beyond blue collar workers, urban slum dwellers and the rural poor if they were to win power and govern. This meant moderating their hard left image.
MOVING TO THE CENTRE I witnessed the beginning of this effort in the 1994 campaign. A respected public figure – who was not a PT militant but saw Lula’s potential – set up a trip for the candidate and his advisers to Washington and New York. The goal was to assure political and business leaders that he would not upset U.S. -Brazil relations if elected. I was invited to sit in on a meeting of the delegation with two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to attend a reception where one of the hosts was Lincoln Gordon, ambassador to Brazil during the 1964 military coup. In the minds of many Brazilians, Gordon represented Washington’s support for the armed takeover and would not have expected Lula to meet with him. On another occasion five years later, a Lula adviser approached me during a trip to Brazil and asked if a delegation of institutional investors I was accompanying would be interested in meeting his boss, who was dining at the same Brasilia restaurant. To me, this was another instance of reassuring foreign investors they could continue to make money in Brazil. These and many other examples of outreach to the centre proved decisive to Lula’s eventual victory in 2002. His “Letter to the Brazilian People” promised that his government would pursue market-friendly economic policies. This pledge neutralized business opposition and calmed the middle class. He also promised to root out corruption from politics.
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LULA’S PLEDGES Because of the widely perceived failure of Brazil to realize its potential, Brazil was branded as “the country of the future … and always will be.” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a mandate to lead Brazil into the future by integrating the dispossessed 40 percent of the population into the nation while working with the private sector to grow the economy and strengthen the rule of law. In an annual assessment of the Latin American business environment, published from 1999 to 2014, I chronicled Lula’s considerable accomplishments in fulfilling two-thirds of his promises: his government coupled redistributive social programs with pro-growth measures, and as a result the economy boomed, poverty declined and life got better for all Brazilians. Achievements at home won Lula and Brazil recognition and respect abroad. Brazil’s reward for becoming a “serious country” under Lula was hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Lula finished his second term as “the most popular politician on Earth.” But it was his failure to address his last promise, to clean up politics and to strengthen the rule of law that appeared to be his undoing.
LULA’S FALL While in office, Lula managed to deflect charges of corruption – even though there was a congressional vote-buying scandal and key members of the government were forced to resign to fight criminal charges. The car wash (lava jato) investigation, which has focused on corruption involving the national oil company, Petrobras, has already taken down many once-“untouchables” in politics and business, such as former Speaker of the House Eduardo Cunha and construction mogul Marcelo Odebrecht. And it has now laid bare the full extent to which Lula and PT leaders engaged in politics as usual. They now join the rogues’ gallery of those under investigation, convicted or in prison. Its ranks include President Michele Temer and the presidential runner-up to Dilma Rousseff in 2014, Sen. Aecio Neves. So far, more than 200 lawmakers, former presidents, Cabinet officials and businessmen have been convicted of corruption as a result of the car wash investigation. With Lula joining their ranks, it shows clearly that Brazil’s current political class has lost all credibility. Rousseff, for her part, was impeached last year, but it was not for corruption.
BRAZIL WITHOUT LULA Lula is not going quietly. He proclaims his innocence, claiming the charges against him are politically motivated. And he says he will run for president in the 2018 election – a contest in which he remains the favourite in the most recent polls – and is campaigning while his conviction is appealed. Even should his conviction be reversed, however, I believe that after three-plus decades as the commanding figure of Brazilian politics, the Lula era is over. He faces other criminal charges. And although still popular, his negatives are rising. One recent poll shows 46 percent of those surveyed would vote against Lula. So where does that leave Brazil? How much of the good he accomplished will survive is uncertain, as is who will replace him to lead Brazil into the future. Brazilians can only hope that it is someone who shares Lula’s commitment to social justice and economic partnership with the private sector, yet unlike him has a genuine commitment to strengthening rule of law. The one thing we know for sure is this person will not come from the bankrupt political class. g
Terry L. McCoy is Professor Emeritus of Latin American Studies and Political Science, University of Florida. This article was originally published at www.theconversation.com
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Interview
Emicida I make music with this chaos inside me
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By Guilherme Reis
Two hours before Emicida went up to the stage at Kamio, Old Street on July 21, his brother Fioti, who is also a singer, led the Brasil Observer team to the modest dressing room where the Brazilian rapper was gathering with his band. Leandro Roque de Oliveira, aka Emicida, had his sunglasses on and looked calm, talking in a relaxed manner, although he was actually pretty busy – he had just arrived from Lisbon and was embarking to Germany on the next day in his European tour. Emicida no longer needs major presentations. He is one of the most successful rappers in Brazil. His sharp lyrics deal with the unequal and tough universe of the largest Brazilian city, São Paulo, touching on themes such as racism, for example, but also explore diverse subjects, like love and his African roots, with melodies ranging from rap to pop. Last month’s concert was not the best the singer has ever done in London. For this journalist, who already had the opportunity to check out four performances of the rapper in the English capital, the best one happened in 2015, at Rich Mix, when the current album had not yet been released. Anyway, it was a great one. Emicida brings a lot of energy to the stage, which can be even more felt in small
houses like Kamio. Carlos Café (percussion), Doni Jr. (guitar, cavaquinho and percussion) and DJ Nyack closed the band showing a lot of competence and swing. Check out the interview below: When I had the opportunity to interview you in 2012, during the Back2Black festival in London, you said that playing abroad was like going back to the beginning of your career, because you were introducing yourself to smaller audiences that did not necessarily know your songs. Five years later, has it changed? It has changed a bit because you take ownership of where you are. When you go four, five times to a certain city you begin to understand a little bit more how people behave there, the kind of music that works in that place, so that makes us more local. On the other hand, we do not have a constant work in each of these cities we go; we are still a visiting group, so we enter this world music circuit. I’m not competing with the local rap artists here. In this respect, I think that this energy from the beginning is perpetuated. Last year, for the first time, we were able to officially release an album in Europe [About Kids, Hips, Nightmares and Homework…, by Sterns Music], and this solidifies the relationship a lot, so you see that there is an
audience here that does not necessarily understand the language, but goes to the concert. We launched with translated lyrics, so people have interest in what that poetry is talking about. In addition, over the years, the Brazilian community, who at first did not know us, came to know because our career is developing in Brazil, so the guys come to the show in order to hear the sound and also be in touch with Brazil. It’s good to listen to your mother tongue; the language is a kind of nation. In the last edition we published an interview with BNegão [Brazilian rapper]. He said that Brazil lives musically one of the best moments of the last decades, which is reflected in the number of Brazilian artists playing in Europe. Do you agree? Yes, I think so. And there are a few factors that reverberate out here. The internet democratized a lot, turned both production and consumption into something more horizontal, so the ghettos were dissipated, today you find a guy who lives in Alphaville [posh area of São Paulo] singing rap, which sometimes has nothing to do with his reality; in the same way, you see a guy from the favela who is fan of Imagine Dragons, and that’s pretty cool because people are connecting according to the songs they identify themselves, not
just their group. What also happens is that the profile of the Brazilians abroad has been changing, and this created a demand that perhaps didn’t exist before, there is a search for more alternative things. And there is another very crazy thing, my generation and the generation that came before me reap fruits that were planted by samba and bossa nova in the 1960s and 1970s. Brazil has a great respect in the musical field and I feel that out there everyone is very curious about what we are creating, because Brazil has already contributed a lot culturally to the planet. There is no place in the world that people don’t know who is Tom Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Jorge Ben... And what have you listened to lately? I was curious to know if you liked the new samba album of Criolo [another Brazilian rapper]... I listened a few times and I liked it because Criolo is crazy. It’s a very important moment, what he did is very symbolic, taking samba to the front line. Samba is completing 100 years old and, for the first time, samba is not among the 100 most heard songs in Brazil. This is very dangerous for a genre that is the soul of Brazil. So I think Criolo was surgical in this initiative to get his audience, young people who is not necessarily
THE PERFECT AD TO BROADEN HORIZONS WITH THE BRAZILIAN COMMUNITY.
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
I did a research to check what foreign websites were saying about you and Rhythm Passport wrote: “The São Paulo born MC has grown up, polished his sound and approached more traditional influences, but his tongue remains as sharp as ever.” Is that true? My lyrics are valuable, to give my perspective on that subject. I grew up listening to guys like Belchior, who was a fantastic lyricist. Gil, Caetano... Incredible lyricists, Martinho da Vila, Zé Ketti, Cartola, Adoniram Barbosa... These references go in that direction. There are a thousand ways of working the same theme. And what unites these forms? As in people’s daily lives, an album goes through various moods. You wake up sad, 15 minutes later you’re happy, 20 minutes later you’re depressed, three hours later it’s the best day of your life and you’ll sleep in doubt if you’re on the right track. I make music with this chaos inside me. Do you miss making MC battles? Yes I do. But I left in the right time. I had another expectation, another dream; I wanted to sing the things I wrote. I had an aptitude for the battles, I was very crazy, the battles were a bullying contest, you go up there to be cursed, so several times I got off the stage and I thought “man, that’s not cool.” But I miss it because the energy was great. We’re here a few hours from your show...
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What do you usually do right now? Do you have a ritual, some kind of concentration? What we do is stay here talking, laughing, resting... In a little while we will climb up there and do a great show! The good is this light energy. How are you feeling the political moment in Brazil? I’m honestly not surprised. My expectation was exactly what is happening. That’s why I was against Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. It’s not a joke, impeachment is not a joke, is breaking a very big thing. It set a dangerous precedent, this bureaucratic, institutional coup. All reforms are not being proposed, they are being imposed. Now people are beginning to understand, but they are apathetic. Do you think there could be a popular uprising? I find it unlikely. Everything was very well built. The people are not organized; the people do not fight for the people. The very demonstrations of 2013 are proof of this. That kid, Rafael Braga, was arrested and has been in jail until today, and the country do not mobilize to get him out of there. People protest like they are a third person. They protest to show how cool and engaged they are, not because they have a serious problem. And everyone has the rope around their necks. When is the next album coming? I don’t know. Each album I become a new artist. So now I’m aiming at something more spiritual, in this thing of silence. It is somewhat contradictory for a musician to speak that he is inspiring himself in silence, but I have been thinking a lot in this lull thing. Maybe the next album will go that way. I am conducting researches, several lines of reasoning and trying to understand what I could say to Brazil now. I am trying in the middle of this chaos, where politics also enters, to read and speak the language of people. The last album showed me that we have a lot more similarities than differences; an album about Africa connected everybody. I want to reach that same tune, only with a different theme.
Divulgation
close to that, and say “today we’re going to talk about samba”. What I’ve been listening to: Baiana System, Mahmundi, a new rapper caleld Coruja BC1... Those are constantly in my playlist.
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REPORT
The Brazilian youth and its threatened future Students’ demonstration in São Paulo
Young people have been the main victims of unemployment, falling household income and violence By Wagner de Alcântara Aragão
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The political, economic and social crisis is sacrificing everyone in Brazil. The youth, however, has suffered a more cruel punishment. Young people in Brazil are being hardest hit by unemployment and the loss of workers’ purchasing power. Students see the school system undergo crucial reforms without being consulted. Government programs that have extended opportunities to entre universities or to study abroad are under threat. And violence affects mainly the youth.
UNEMPLLOYMENT According to the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), conducted the
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
PHoto: Mídia NINJA | Art: jean peixe
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the unemployment rate among those aged 18-24 is more than twice the national average. In the first quarter of this year unemployment in Brazil reached 13.7%. Among young people aged 18-24, however, this rate was 28.8%. In other words: out of every ten economically active young Brazilians, three do not have a job. In the Northeast region the rate is even higher: 32.9%. Based on PNAD data, the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) compiled a survey (Labour Market Bulletin, 62nd edition) that confirms the youth has been one of the main victims
of the economic crisis that has plagued Brazil since 2015. From 2015 to 2016, there was a “big jump”, according to the IPEA bulletin, in unemployment among those aged 14-24. While in 2015 the average unemployment rate per quarter in this age group was 20%, in 2016 this average rate rose to 27.2% (an increase of almost 40%).
WITHOUT MONEY Another problem affects young people who remain employed: the decrease in the average income of workers aged 14-24. They saw their incomes shrink 3.6 percent from 2015 to 2016.
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Unemployment coupled with lack of money has prevented young people to improve their skills. In technical courses in the state school system in the State of Paraná, for example, there have been frequent drop-outs from students who cannot travel to school because they cannot afford basic expenses such as transport and meals. In the State College of Paraná, in Curitiba – one of the largest in Brazil, the largest in Paraná and a reference in the offer of technical courses – both the pedagogical division and the coordinators and teachers of the courses have been careful to find outputs that minimize the withdrawals or disapprovals due to economic problems of students. The courses are free and there is no cost of materials. However, from 2016 onwards in practically all classes there are cases of young people missing classes – that is when they do not leave the course – because they do not have the money for the transport.
VIOLENCE
EDUCATION
HOPE
For the pedagogical team, all the effort must be made because, in the current economic crisis, taking a free technical course is encouragement for a generation that increasingly sees the prospects narrowing. A series of measures and changes in the area of education already engendered by the current government has generated more doubts than certainty whether Brazil will offer its youth universal access to knowledge. Beginning with the so-called “reform” of the high school – a set of curricular changes made without a minimum discussion with experts, directors, researchers, or those affected by the changes, students and their families. In the evaluation of education specialists, the reform prioritizes the creation of labour force, and not the human formation. The poorest young people should be the most affected. If actions such as the Student Funding (Fies), the University for All Program (ProUni), the Unified Selection System (SISU) and the Sciences without Boarders meant in the 20052015 decade a big step on the road to universal education, reformulations in these programs and the freezing of public investments (set by Constitutional Amendment) signalled a stagnation in this process. The freezing of investments – for 20 years, according to the amendment – tends to make it impossible, for example, to open new courses and campuses of the state higher education system. The Fies, which makes it possible to entre private colleges and universities for low-income students, has already been changed for 2018. Although the Ministry of Education argues that the changes will facilitate access to the program, some of the new rules contradict these allegations. For example, students could start paying the loans after 18 months of completing the course – not anymore.
Although the scenario is adverse, there are several demonstrations that Brazilian youth is fighting to rescue its right to dream and hope for a better future. The students’ mobilizations that resulted in the occupation of state schools and universities, in defence of better teaching conditions, against funding cuts and the scrapping of facilities and resistance to the so-called “high school reform” are among the attitudes that have had the greatest impact in recent years. But daily, resistance occurs in everyday gestures. The pedagogical team of the State College of Paraná identifies, among the young students of the professional education courses of the institution, the search for solutions to the crisis that the situation imposes on them. For example, a couple that takes turns attending classes to save money; the creativity demonstrated in the works and projects developed in the disciplines; and mainly the collaboration between colleagues. In an article published by Midia Ninja, activist Nataly Neri – student of social sciences and a militant of feminist causes and the black population – rejects the common sense that blames the young people as apathetic, incapable of reacting to adversities imposed by conjuncture and structural conditions of the Brazilian society. She says: “Wherever I go, the youth work hard, study hard, break down barriers every day to access knowledge, strengthen the environment and still deal with their own mental health. Wherever I go girls from the peripheries talk about the limits of their relationships, about the right to their bodies, about how the lack of opportunity keeps them from many places. Where I walk the disinterested kid occupied more than a thousand schools.”
Reflecting the lack of perspectives – and at the same time a fact that generates a lack of perspectives – is violence. According to a study by IPEA, the Atlas of Violence (reported in the last edition of the Brasil Observer), Brazilians aged 15-29 are proportionately the main victims of homicides in the country. The rate of this type of death among young people in this age group is 60.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. It is more than twice the national average, 28.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. For one of the coordinators of the research, Daniel Cerqueira, it is a “civilizational crisis”. The document highlights that young men and black people are the most at risk of violent death: “young men and black men continue to be murdered every year as if they were in a war situation.”
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CONECTANDO
JoÃO PESSIA, PARAÍba
Survival collectors Group of collectors. From left to right, Egrinalda is the second; Joel, the third; Maria de Jesus, the sixth; Edgley in blue shirt
of political instability and ethical and moral crisis, inspiring trajectories serve as a point of balance and concrete sign of hope for the Brazilian people By Tiago Eloy Zaidan from João Pessoa, Paraíba g
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Tiago Eloy Zaidan is a professor at the Federal Institute of Paraíba (IFPB) and coordinates the Articulation Research, Extension and Society at the João Pessoa campus of the IFPB
Catajampa Association
In the current context
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
Laura Reis Andrade
Solid waste: a source of income for waste collectors such as Egrinalda and Maria de Jesus
Egrinalda on the left and Maria de Jesus on the right: president and vice-president of the Catajampa Association
Tourists, well-dressed people, sun, beach. In the midst of this glamorous bust, Egrinalda dos Santos Silva, 45, and Maria de Jesus Leite, 45, perform their work in a discreet, almost anonymous way. Zigzagging through the streets of João Pessoa, capital of Brazil’s North-eastern State of Paraíba, these two ladies go from trash can to trash can, at the doors of houses and buildings, undertaking an archaeological hunt for recyclable waste in the midst of all kinds of rubbishes. The journey of Egrinalda and Maria begins far from the beach. Around 1.30pm, they leave the shed of the Catajampa Collectors Association, in the suburb of the city. From there, they go by foot, with a hand-drawn cart, toward the coastal neighbourhoods, where the most valuable recyclables are concentrated. After traveling the streets of Manaíra, Tambaú and Cabo Branco, they go all the way back. They return to the shed at 4am in the morning, when they start the next stage of the process: the separation of the collected residues. Maria de Jesus has a son aged 22 and a daughter aged 15. There were three of them. She lost Joabson eight years ago, when he was just one year and a half old. The house where she lived had electricity cut off due to lack of payment. Candles were used. On one occasion, a candle fell over. The house was taken by fire and the child died asphyxiated. Egrinalda has two sons, aged 23 and 8, and a daughter aged 16. None of the two collectors could count on the fathers to raise their kids. They are single mothers. In fact, they helped each other. In 1997, during a bitter social recession in the country, they started working together to collect solid waste in the city’s landfill. They collected not
only solid waste. They quarrelled with vultures. They used, above all, the discards of supermarkets that arrived at the trucks. After João Pessoa’s landfill was turned off, Egrinalda and Maria de Jesus began to collect in the streets. “We forget the shame. It’s been ten years since we started to chase door to door,” calculates Egrinalda. Today, they live near the shed used by Catajampa in the community of Mandacaru. Their oldest sons, Edgley, 23, and Joel, 22, also work as collectors in the association. The professor and coordinator of the Environmental Management course at the João Pessoa campus of the Federal Institute of Paraíba (IFPB), Arilde Franco Alves explains Brazil has evolved in terms of recycling thanks to the work of collectors, such as Egrinalda and Maria de Jesus. “There has been, unintentionally, but as a result of the economic situation and, above all, the social situation of the country, the development of a true legion of informal people involved in this issue of collection, which involves the collection of these materials,” says Alves. The teacher emphasizes the importance of the work done by the collectors. “It can be said that they are true ecologists, informally, indirectly and even unconsciously. They are true heroes, although they are sometimes little recognized,” he adds. The lack of recognition is felt by them. Maria de Jesus, for example, says she is proud of what she does and recognizes the importance of her work for the environment. However, she admits: she expects his 15-year-old daughter, who is in high school, to go the other way. “Honestly, I do not want this for my kids,” she says.
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CONECTANDO is an editorial project developed by the Brasil Observer to enhance experiences of ‘glocal’ communication. With universities, social movements and independent journalists, our goal is to bring local content for a global audience. To participate, write to contato@brasilobserver.co.uk
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Womad Festival
Divulgation
Womad Festival: a world of music, By Priscilla Castro
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Before arriving in London to work as a collaborator for the Brasil Observer, I had already prepared myself to cover the Womad Festival (World of Music, Arts and Dance), a historic event in England that has been bringing art and music together for 35 years. Celebrated since 2007 at Charlton Park in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, Womad is a mix of sounds, activities and cultures from the four corners of the world, involved in spontaneous smiles, games and different colours. I packed up and left. As soon as I set foot there, I felt the energy. No rain, mud or cold could take away the feeling of being in one of the best music festivals in the world. I must say that what surprised me the most was the diversity of ethnicities, ages and desires that I saw there. From new-born to seniors, Latino to Asian, rockers to blues lovers, costumed, barefoot, lying down or jumping, there was a little of everything. At my first stop, I’ve already found an iconic figure. Vicky Osborne, 59, was working at the bar serving beer and other drinks to customers. “It’s the first time I come to the festival and even working, I love it. I intend to keep this mission on for the next editions,” she said. Doctor Melita Cambridge and her husband John have been attending the festival for 10 years. Their two children also come along when they can. This year, the whole family decided to attend the party. “I have not missed one single
year since I started to come and I always arrive on the first day. The music is fantastic and my husband enjoys it as well. This year, my children and my son-in -law were able to join us and we are having a great time,” said Melita. The event currently hosts around 80,000 people each year and brings artists of different styles and languages. This year, 95 attractions, among concerts and workshops, were spread in the three days of celebration (27 to 30 July). Names such as Toots and the Maytals (Jamaica), Chico Trujillo (Chile), Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (Nigeria) were among the artists. This year, I came across a selection of Brazilian artists in the programming of the shows, which got me even more excited to be there. One of the highlights of the night was, without a doubt, Seu Jorge’s concert, one of the most expected ones from Saturday night – and not just by the Brazilian public. It was already raining, and even before the singer took the stage, the tent was already crowded. Alex Mbow, 35, was one of those who waited anxiously for the start of the show. “A friend told me about this singer and I came to see what it’s like. It is my first time at the festival and I’m sure I’ll come back for more,” said Mbow. With a slower and more romantic repertoire, Seu Jorge tours in Europe in tribute to David Bowie, mixing songs in English and Portuguese. While listening
to the song ‘Astronauta de Mármore’ (Brazilian version of David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ song, created by the band Nenhum de Nós), the Brazilians sang in chorus some of the lines. At the end of the show, the singer spoke in English and was cheered by the audience. For those who enjoy it, Womad also offers exhibitions, forums and workshops of the most varied types, including samba, hip hop, Jamaican dance, Afro-Brazilian percussion and others. A diverse selection of food stalls and clothes were also available on site for those who wanted to buy different products. As far as I can tell, kids were not far behind in the fun competition. Children running, singing, performing acrobatics on the grass, and babies tied up in kangaroos on their parents’ bodies were the most common scenes of the party. After all, they had a show of their own within the festival. An amusement park was set up in the structure of the party, plus an arboretum, reading and instrument class, slackline, circus workshop and several other dedicated attractions to them.
BRAZILIANS ON THE SCENE In the last years of the festival, the production of Womad has added more and more Brazilian artists to the line-up. The investment in the Brazilian music also follows the increase of Brazilians who come to London during the summer.
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advertorial Divulgation
Vicky Osborne working at the festival
Alex Mbow waiting for Seu Jorge
Cristiano and Clau: native talents
Tasting Brazil:
at Boteco or Restaurant? Know what to expect from the Made in Brasil chefs Priscilla Castro
arts and dance Among our artists who have passed through the stages of Womad are Gilberto Gil, Criolo, Dona Onete and Cabruêra. This year, among the 95 attractions, five were Brazilian artists: Bixiga 70, a band from São Paulo that plays pop, jazz, dub and Brazilian music scenes; Metá Metá, a mix that goes from punk rock and jazz to traditional Brazilian, Latin and African forms; Seu Jorge, from Rio de Janeiro, famous singer and composer of samba, pop and soul; DJ Marky, DJ and drum’n’bass producer from São Paulo; and the Nomade Orquestra, an instrumental group from São Paulo that brings together different rhythms at the same time. Nomade Orquestra is on its second international tour. The goal is to release the band’s second album, titled ‘Entre Mundos’, in England and France. “It is a gratifying experience to be able to amplify and bring our sound and our way of thinking,” said Ruy Rascassi, a member of the band. Formed by ten musicians with different musical backgrounds and parts of different projects in Brazil, the group, which has existed since 2012, sees itself as a representation of an industrial scene. “The Orquestra is an intersection of all of this and so we have a peculiar sound with a little soul, jazz, rock. It is not totally Brazilian music, although we have the tropical touch, our music is global,” added Ruy. For Victor Fão, trombonist, the opportunity to be for the second time in Europe presenting their sound is the
realization of a dream. “It is gratifying to be here because it is very difficult to leave Brazil to play. We invested, worked hard and were able to consolidate our work and conquer a space. We live from the music, so making it echo and getting here is the realization of a dream.”
HISTORY The first Womad happened in 1982 in Shepton Mallet, England. Since then, the event has happened all over the world, bringing artists to various venues and entertaining more than 1 million people. The UK’s main event was held at Rivermead in Reading, Berkshire from 1990 until 2006, when it then took place at Charlton Park. Womad organizes festivals in more than 27 countries and islands, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and most European countries. The event boosted the growth of music from developed countries in the western part of the world. Nowadays, the festival competes on the same level with other Western festivals. In addition, Womad was an important piece in the dissemination and launching of artists and groups that today are renowned names in the international music scene, such as Master Drummers of Burundi, Afro Celt Sound System, Dhol Foundation, Ozomatli and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
It is not so easy to find similarities between the menus of Made in Brasil Boteco and Made in Brasil Restaurant. But when Chef Clau Souza took over the kitchen of Boteco, the situation was different: “I have been here since the opening of Boteco. We have changed almost all the menu, to make it very different from the Restaurant”. Today each kitchen is adapted to the space offered to customers. As Boteco is a place for celebrations, it has a menu with more portions, to compose the festive atmosphere. The Restaurant, with capacity for 60 people, serves classic Brazilian dishes and some snacks. In the Restaurant most of the dishes are individual, but Chef Cristiano Moreno gives a tip: “For two or even three people, order the appetizer picanha with separate accompaniments such as rice, salad etc.” Clau and Cristiano are chefs with similar trajectories. Brazilians who have been living the culinary universe since childhood, and who have become Portuguese citizens after had lived many years in Portugal. They arrived in London five years ago and are now the chefs of Made in Brazil – Clau since 2013, Cristiano since 2015. They prefer to follow the traditions of Brazilian cuisine. But sometimes the dishes can be adapted to European taste, explains Cristiano. In Boteco, for example, Clau makes been-broth without stake and also the so-called feijoada light, with less fat. Together with the picanha, Cristiano indicates wine if the client is European and caipirinha for Brazilians. In this case, Clau has an alternative: “I think that picanha goes well with beer, for everyone”. Brazilian picanha with cassava
The chefs made a summary of the menus to facilitate your next visits. RESTAURANT (more dishes) Bobó de camarão (shrimp in a purée of manioc or cassava), moqueca (fish stew), appetizers, grilled picanha (with cassava or without), hearts of palm bobó. BOTECO (more portions) Grilled picanha, homemade snacks, dried meat, feijoada and rice scone, crab cashew, shrimp in pumpkin, acarajé and kibbeh. Keep in touch: @MadeInBrasil1 – @madeinbrasilboteco
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August 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
TIPS
DANCE Divulgation
Paraíso School of Samba: ‘we are simply bringing the art of our people’ “We didn’t create anything; we are simply bringing the art of our people here and teaching them what has been taught to us.” This is how the founder of the Paraíso School of Samba, Henrique da Silva, describes the work that the institution has been developing in London since 2002. For 16 years, the school has been parading in the Notting Hill Carnival, transferring the carnival tradition from the Brazilian Sambadrome to England and teaching dance and percussion to adults and children. Raised in Rio de Janeiro and having experienced the sambadrome culture since childhood, Henrique and his brother Esteve da Silva, a former master of the Rio de Janeiro samba school Estácio de Sá, founded the school on April 23, 2002, the date of the Patron
of London, St. Jorge. Henrique explains that the red and white colours symbolize the colours of London, while the Phoenix, used as mascot of the group, is the same symbol of the old group of music in which Esteve played when he first arrived in the city. The school is proud to follow the samba culture in Brazil, bringing the tradition of the schools of Rio de Janeiro, not only the dance but also the music. “When we arrived here, we realized that there were many samba schools that were actually percussion groups, with a style more related to axé, Olodum and even ‘chorinho’, with wind instruments. This is why we decided to create the school so that others could follow our work,” explained Henrique. Over the years, the school has invested in generators, in allegorical cars, bre-
eding sheds, making of clothes. Paraíso also offers samba classes at different levels for those who want to learn dance, participate in the carnival or simply work out. More than 5,000 people are registered on the website of the school, among Brazilians and English.
CARNIVAL Paraiso School of Samba is in the final preparations for another Notting Hill Carnival (27-28 August 2017). With the theme ‘Caribe’, the school will present about 300 participants distributed among the five decorated cars specially assembled for this edition. In total, 400 people should attend the event, counting the production and the directive body. The school already has two cham-
pion trophies and is now on the run for the third one. This year, the scientist Liani Devito, 38, was chosen as the drums queen and will cheer the parade next to the schoolmaster. “The plan is to shine in front of the drums, but I’m not nervous, I’m anxious. I’m working out, doing pilates, samba and bodybuilding classes and I cannot wait to get on the avenue and show my Brazilian charm”, confessed Liani. For Henrique, the anxiety grows more by the day. “As always, this is the time when we are most anxious, and the excitement, panic and all the screaming begins. We leave Brazil, but Brazil does not leave us,” he concluded. For more information about classes and events, visit the school’s website www.paraisosamba.co.uk/events or call 0300 302 0220.
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
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THEATRE For its tenth anniversary year, CASA Festival joins forces with two of London’s leading off-West End theatres Southwark Playhouse and Arcola Theatre to offer London audiences eight weeks of brilliant Latin American theatre and culture. The festival kicks off at Arcola with Sergio Blanco’s highly-acclaimed Thebes Land returning for a five-week run, ahead of a five-week season of four acclaimed international shows and three exciting new works by UK-based Latin American artists at Southwark Playhouse. Completing the programme are: a new verbatim piece about violence against Brazilian women and girls who live in the UK, a new theatre show about Peru and its food, and an eight-week festival of play readings of Latin America’s most exciting contemporary voices. Daniel Goldman, Artistic Director of CASA, comments, “I founded CASA in 2007 to build bridges between two incredible theatre cultures. The importance of international festivals that push our cultural boundaries has never been greater… We are delighted that we are celebrating our 10th year anniversary CASA 2017 at two of London’s finest Off West End theatres and we can’t wait to share this outstanding theatre programme with our existing audiences and new faces.” For more information about the programme visit www.casafestival.org.uk.
Alex Brenner
CASA celebrates 10th anniversary with eight-week Latin American festival
Thebes Land
MUSIC When it comes to Brazilian music, there aren’t many names bigger than Marcos Valle. An undisputed legend of South American music, his fusion of samba, bossa nova, rock and jazz has resulted in countless classic records, from Samba 68 and his self titled album Marcos Valle to Previsão Do Tempo and the more recent Contrasts. When: 7 August, 7pm – 11pm Where: Jazz Caffe, 5 Parkway, London NW1 7PG Entrance: £20-30 Info: www.thejazzcafelondon.com
GABRIEL O PENSADOR A pioneer for the hip hop movement in Brazil, rap superstar Gabriel o Pensador hits London with his current show Sem Crise (‘No Crises’ in English) showing his versatility, not only as a rapper, but as the great songwriter, musician story-teller and communicator that he is. In his set list he brings many of his hits from a career spanning 25 years such as Retrato de um Playboy (1993), 2345meia78 and Cachimbo da Paz (1997), Astronauta (1999) and Até Quando (2001); as well as songs from his latest album Sem Crise, like Surfista Solitário, his version of the 1980 Jorge Ben Jor hit, and Linhas Tortas, a song that tells his story – from a classroom kid writing essays, all the way through to becoming “The Thinker” or “O Pensador” in Portuguese, as he has been commonly known as by fans across the Lusophone world. When: 19 August, 7pm – 10pm Where: The Garage, 20-22 Highbury Corner, London N5 1RD Entrance: £30 Info: www.thegarage.london
ED MOTTA Brazilian pianist Ed Motta is a bonfire jazz virtuoso. The nephew of the legendary Tim Maia, Motta played with the likes of Marcos Valle, João Donato and Roy Ayers over the course of his career, and wowed the Jazz Cafe audience last year with his electric performance featuring songs from his latest release AOR, as well as his substantial back catalogue which goes from funk and soul to bossa nova. When: 22 August, 7pm – 11pm Where: Jazz Caffe, 5 Parkway, London NW1 7PG Entrance: £20-30 Info: www.thejazzcafelondon.com
Divulgation
MARCOS VALLE
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Columnists FRANKO FIGUEIREDO
Challenging audiences outside Japan with a Yukio Mishima’s experimental version
Y
g Franko Figueiredo is artistic director of StoneCrabs
Theatre Company and artistic associate of New Theatre Royal Portsmouth
Yukio Mishima is probably one of the most complex and contradictory literary personalities of the twentieth-century. Whilst mostly known outside of Japan primarily as the gay writer made famous by novels such as Forbiden Colours and Confessions of a Mask, within Japan, he is most likely remembered for his obsession with right wing politics and aesthetics, often referred to as a fascist. However, it is the publication of his literary works in English, particularly his novels and short stories that has catapulted Yukio Mishima to international fame. Having said that little is known of Mishima’s achievements in theatre, probably because very few plays have been translated and those writing his biographies seem to have little interest in his dramaturgical work. For more than two decades, Mishima’s work as a playwright and stage director earned him huge popularity in Japan. He had written plays for kabuki, screenplays, opera, radio, musical, and shingeki, which translates as new theatre Japan’s version of modern, psychological realist drama. Most of his works were professionally produced, and he was so prolific that it attracted huge media attention. Mishima’s convictions about theatre and playwriting came not only from his extensive reading of worldwide literature and drama, but also from extensive theatre viewing. Wooed by the stagecraft, Mishima absorbed as much of noh, kabuki and shingeki as he could. Noh is the classical Japanese form that dates back to 1300s and fuses music, dance and the chanting of intensively poetic and allusive scripts. Kabuki, too, is classical theatre, however a little more lively and much less austere than noh. At the start of the 1950s, with the avant-garde drama movement coming through, Japanese directors and playwrights started experimenting more, taking risks with form breaking theatre, using noh, kabuki and shingeki forms in hybrid productions. Mishima himself took characters from classical noh plays and gave them contemporary psychological form in his modern versions. He also brought the works of Jean Racine and the likes to the kabuki form; with Lady Fuyo Mishima re-imagines Phaedre as a kabuki play. In 1955, Mishima wins the prestigious Kishida Prize for The Termites’ Nest, a three-act play set in the Japanese immigrant community in Brazil. But unlike most of his playwright peers, Mishima clearly was torn between the theatrical experiments that were popping out left, right and centre and the adherence to formal requirements in drama.
He often voiced that the latter strengthened his writing for the stage. Nonetheless, there was a new world being formed in post-war Japan: America’s massive influence on pop-culture leaves Japanese artists divided: either surrender to the influences of the west or stay stuck in time? Mishima’s writings show us how torn he was between one and the other; the themes of his novels, short stories and plays see death, homosexuality and spiritual emptiness as the most explored subjects. Fusion of thought, vision and expression emerge in a battleground between reality and fiction. He strongly believed that if you “[Give humanity a stage and] a mask and they will tell you the truth” [quote from Confessions of a Mask]. And that is what his plays do: go deep inside the human psyche, provoking us to face our own truths. Mishima’s attraction to the subject matters of the noh plays drives him to re-imagine them as modern plays accessible to his ever-growing fans and audiences. Critics have compared Mishima’s modern noh plays to the works of Cocteau, O’Neill and even Brecht, as they use classic subjects, themes and stories, re-working them for a contemporary audience. It is in this vein that Busu Theatre Company’s producer Ecco Shirasaka and I are approaching Busu & The Damask Drum. Busu is a classic farce commissioned for a couple of American producers after the publication of the modern noh plays in translation by Donald Keene. The Damask Drum is a tragic ghost story, originally directed by Takechi Tetsuji, one of the most important theatre innovators of the post-war period, with actors from shingeki as well as traditional noh and kyogen theatres. Takechi had directed radically experimental plays that brought together performers who before the war could never have imagined working on the same stage, in the same productions. These experiments brought new and younger audiences to traditional performance. This new version, a special collaboration between StoneCrabs and Busu Theatre to celebrate 70 years of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, aims to be just as experimental and subversive as those original productions. It should rouse, entertain and challenge audiences outside Japan as Mishima’s plays have done in his homeland for the past fifty years.
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
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HELOISA RIGHETTO
The dishes need to be washed A discussion about sexism – at least in Brazil – will often end with the not-afeminist person saying that feminists just lack a pile of dishes to wash. You know what, this might be right. Maybe feminists are slowly reaching their objective of destroying the structure of our society in which tasks are assigned to human beings according to their gender. Less women stuck in housework mean more women thinking about gender stereotypes and the politicization of the feminine condition. So, the more activists we become, more dishes will be piled up in the sink! Sexists cringe! Besides my biased personal conclusion, the fact is that housework is still seen as something women need to do. But is this something that we should really worry about right now? After all, there are thousands of women victims of rape, abuse and femicide, suffering the cruellest types of oppression every day, all over the world. Well, as everything that permeates female oppression, there is a direct link between all these issues. The effort to have more female representatives in the public sphere – as in leading roles in the private and public sectors, in major sport tournaments, in professions that are historically dominated by men – is not going slowly by chance. Few women have the disposition to face long hours in the office and long hours doing housework, and society couldn’t care less. While we continue to accept this “inheritance” – to do all the housework because of our gender – life beyond the private walls of our home (including but not limited to partner, kids, cleaning, cooking, and shopping) won’t be attractive at all. And the problem lies there: under representation generates oppression, which generates violence, which keeps women in the private sphere… “But I help my partner!” declares the “modern man”. Well, by placing yourself as a helper, you are suggesting that the one
responsible for all maintenance and management of the household is the woman. The so called assistance only works to clear the guilt of the male partner, who is often praised by friends and family for doing tasks which have always been done by women, but they never get the applause. Have you noticed how we have very low expectations for men? Daily tasks, that shouldn’t have a gender label, become a trophy when carried out by a man, and completely invisible when carried out by a woman. If a husband cooks, he’s such a great husband. If a father changes a nappy, he’s such a great father. If he raises the kids on his own, he becomes the subject of a magazine article. And what about the thousands of women abandoned by the father of their kids that are execrated by society and work non-stop? They should “be more careful” not to get pregnant, am I right? Even privileged women face this problem. They might have the benefit of being able to hire assistance (cleaners and babysitters) to do the housework, but they still deal with the management of the household. They are the ones expected to meet teachers at school as well as missing a day of work when their kids fall ill. Can you even imagine what the situation of less privileged women is? The ones that don’t even have access to quality health services and don’t have any extra money to pay for unexpected bills? That’s why we have to question absolutely everything, starting from kids’ toys that are supposed to look like kitchen utensils and are marketed to girls. The problem is not the housework, which of course needs to be done. The problem is to label it as a “woman thing”. Men: don’t help, simply do it without expecting applause. As for me, I will keep saying “so what?” every time someone expresses their surprise and say “how amazing that your husband is the one that cooks!” After all, nobody cares when I say I clean the toilet.
g Heloisa Righetto is a journalist and writes about feminism
(@helorighetto – facebook.com/conexaofeminista)
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CILENE TANAKA
Being John Malkovich or Are you willing to become a Matthew McConaughey-clone without putting up a fight?
g Cilene Tanaka is a writer
of fiction and non-fiction
If Harold Bloom is correct and Shakespeare is really the inventor of the “human”, then who’s inventing the “new human”? Is the new Shakespeare a bearded hipster and, more importantly, does the new human have a man bun? No, no. Differently to Shakespearean times, today there’s a plurality of inventors of the new human. Let’s find and let’s kill them with our particular set of skills. Our first column will discuss how much Hollywood narratives take a toll on contemporary literature such as that of Ian McEwan’s “Atonement”. How certain stories shorten the limits of storytelling when they should do the opposite. How does mass culture help build and what does it say about who we are? Little tip: the answer to these questions is 42. Shakespeare did invent the human, just not the way Bloom would like to think. Bloom’s book (which, if you haven’t guessed yet, is entitled “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human”) is like a more literal click-bait. When you read online that “This person has changed the world”, it usually just means that said person just does some recycling, really. But Bloom is more literal than that. He actually thinks Shakespeare invented the human. Like God. Well, if you call imposing the western culture into half of the world through colonisation “invention of the human” then, yes, definitely Shakespeare invented the universal personality. He invented Brazilian people as well, even those Brazilians who don’t know Hamlet since, erm, they speak Portuguese. “What about translations?” – you may ask. Inventing the human through translation is surely a possibility. Just make sure you have the money to pay for the rights. Internet wasn’t that big when Bloom wrote this book, so one more hypothesis we shall explore here is that Bloom invented click-bait. No, just joking. Now, except for no sleeping pills, what do Shakespeare, Bloom, and Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” have in common? For the three of them, literature is more important than, say, TV. I think (actually, I’m just repeating Terry Eagleton’s thinking) that each historical period has at least one main cultural representation. Today’s would probably be both the TV (and by “TV” I actually mean “Hollywood”) and the internet. In the 19th century, literatu-
re; the 15th century, paintings. In other words, the only reason why Shakespeare had time to “invent the human” is that he had no Netflix. “Atonement’s” plot involves a “lie” told by Briony, which has dreadful consequences for someone who is (spoiler alert) innocent. The “lie” ends up saving the guilty person from jail. I say “lie” instead of lie because Briony actually doesn’t really know any better – she might know, it’s uncertain. She probably just wants some attention (ba dum tish). Well, doesn’t Briony’s “lie” remind you of social media behaviour? I consider “Atonement” a great piece of writing, particularly because there’s something mundane about its plot. In a sense, “Atonement’s” plot happens every day. Every fake news we share on social media is a potential Bryonesque act; every hateful comment we make condemning someone to death on the tribunal of Facebook; every click -bait we like, share, write or even believe. We all become Briony at least at one point in our social media lives. Some of us have even distractedly sent some innocent people to jail; even worse, all that without any book deals ever coming out of it. McEwan’s novel is very Hollywood, which attracts me. The main characters are made to do so, attract people. They follow the formula: they’re likeable; they go through a journey and learn big life lessons, usually finding love at some point. The plot is unexpected yet familiar; with a twist, but nothing too unreal. No problem so far, except for that if you only consume that type of narrative you’ll never practice any other type of existence, therefore you’ll be an extremely limited type of new human. Shakespeare wouldn’t be proud of you. In Hollywood culture, the most uninteresting of people are absorbed into these incredible stories. It’s like giving the Kim Kardashians of the world the spotlight before they’ve even released their sex tapes. Hollywood heroes are given the protagonism before they’ve ever done anything interesting to deserve it; sort of like Trump. “Keeping up with the Kardashians” and Shakespeare have at least one thing in common which is the intrigue. Both thrive on dramatic conflict, treason, lies. Again, pretty much like social media, eh? However, the complexity of the conflict
is the important bit. In Shakespeare, we have layers upon layers, whereas on “Keeping up with the Kardashians”… Nevertheless, are reality shows really that simple? Is Shakespeare really that complicated? An intelligent person discussing the Kardashians could produce a 400 page book as interesting as any of Harold Bloom’s. The thing is, intellectuals such as Mr Bloom usually reject popular culture, which is a shame if you ask me. I, personally, would definitely read an intellectual work on “Keeping up with the Kardashians: the invention of the human”. The more varied one’s cultural diet – I assure you – the more complex one becomes. Don’t you want to be the new post -Shakespearean-human? Are you willing to become a Matthew McConaughey without putting up a fight? Let’s say the entirety of your cultural diet consists of gifs for example. I know no one survives exclusively on gifs; there are always snappy listicles and incredible memes as well. I know. I too love them all. But just for the sake of the argument, let’s say you consume exclusively gifs in your life. Gifs for breakfast. Gifs in the shower. Gifs, gifs, gifs. You’ll start to speak like a gif; walk like a gif; you are a duck, sorry, a gif. Gun to your head, would you rather be a gif or a Hamlet? If you were a gif, your profile pic might hit harder on the first days, but your posts would be slightly repetitive. Shakespeare has more words than a gif and that is why it’s better. We are the words. We are also the world, like the song, but I mean “word” really. Humans are made of words and the more of those you have, the better your chances of not becoming a Matthew McConaughey. Of putting up a fight. At the very least, words are cheaper than a new bag. The thing is not to completely extinguish gifs nor McConougheys from the face of the Earth. The thing is to read as many gifs as humanly possible and be as McConaughey as you can, while also enjoying other, sometimes more difficult, stuff. And what does John Malkovich has got to do with anything? That, my friend, is my version of a “Cliffhanger” which I shall baptise as “philosophical Cliffhanger”. If you wish to find out the end of this story, send me your thoughts about this edition’s column. I’m on cilenetanaka@gmail.com.
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
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DANIELA BARONE SOARES
The quiet superpower reprodução
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In a world full of uncertainty, change and shifting fortunes, where can we find solid ground? What, if anything, can keep us buoyant when we find ourselves in the midst of raging storms? Is there a way that we can even turn things around? When everything seems to be falling apart, our solid ground, buoyancy and power lies in our own inner resilience. The good news is that we can build up our inner resilience in advance, by using our quiet superpower of introversion. Inner resilience has four essential aspects: Strength, Flexibility, Lightness and Tranquillity. These qualities lie within us, which is why we need introversion. Introversion is the key to re-discovering these qualities within ourselves and bringing them to life. This is why it is considered a superpower. First is strength. Inner strength relates to our ability to remain peaceful, loving and positive no matter what is happening. This isn’t a rigid strength. We know that it is the trees that know how to dance with the wind that survive the storms intact. So, this strength needs to be tempered by the second quality, flexibility. This is the ability to adapt to unexpected changes and grow stronger in the process. In short, we’re flexible, but never to compromise our peace, love or positivity. Lightness is: the ability to stay light, see the funny side, keep faith, have hope and remain unburdened in the midst of
challenges. Lastly, tranquillity is needed, because when things are moving fast we need to make fast decisions. Tranquillity allows attention without the tension, making our capacity to discern, decide and act much more accurate. Introversion is the superpower that allows us to manifest these qualities within ourselves. To be introverted means to dive into the heart of our consciousness. It could be said that we have four levels of consciousness: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Introversion is to locate ourselves in our spiritual awareness. It is here that our inner resilience is anchored. Spiritual awareness is the process where we re-connect with and experience our inner peace, love, joy, wisdom and power. It is about being in the world, connected and actively participating in it – contributing the best we have to offer. We can then start to bring these qualities into our everyday actions and interactions. The more we do this the more we will find that we naturally become stronger, more flexible, lighter and tranquil. And much less affected by the everyday stresses of life. Ultimately, introversion enables us to live more fulfilling and content lives. It empowers us to live in the present, not to over-think, to remain calm in a crisis, to respond positively to situations, and to choose to act according to our own inner values.
g Daniela Barone Soares is part of the Inner Space team (www.innerspace.org.uk)
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BR TRIP Divulgation
Janauari Park
Stepping into the Amazon rainforest Live an unforgettable experience making tours through the forest and visiting the city that grew around it By Visit Brasil | www.visitbrasil.com
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The Amazon rainforest is a case of curiosity for tourists that enjoy wild nature. With dense vegetation and a giant and diverse fauna, the forest attracts people from all over the world in search of adventure, fun and contact with nature. But the attraction is not restricted to the forest: Manaus, the gateway city to the Amazon, is its own attraction with its history, sights and its people.
If you will pass by quickly through Manaus, there is a bus option that takes you for a 3 hour walk along tourist spots. The bus leaves from the city centre, next to the Amazonas Theatre. To visit all of the attractions in town and see everything calmly, schedule a 3 to 4 day visit, at least. If your goal is to stay in a hotel in the jungle, reserve at least 2 full days.
brasilobserver.co.uk | August 2017
Getting to know Manaus Between the airport and the historical centre of the Amazonian capital, is one of the first points that are worth a visit: the Amazon Arena. The arena will impress you with its imposing architecture, inspired by the forest. If you go to Manaus to attend football games, you can leave this stop for later. If not, plan a visit straight from the airport and take pictures! Getting to downtown Manaus, the mansions and old buildings will already reveal the inheritance left by the prosperous era of rubber extraction. The Amazonas Theatre is one example of buildings that the old Barons – charmed by the European way of life – spared no expense. The theatre dates back to 1896 and its dome, a registered trademark of Manaus has 36 thousand colourful pieces inspired by the colours of the Brazilian flag. Almost all material employed during construction was imported from Europe. It is considered one of the most beautiful theatres in the world; you can watch every detail from the ceiling to the floor, for hours. Another place marked by elegance and luxury is the Manaus Port. The Conjunto Arquitetônico (architectural ensemble) has artnouveau and neoclassical styles, and will provide you with beautiful clicks. Continuing with the urban itinerary, another place for you to meet is the Povos da Amazônia Cultural Centre, located in Bola da Suframa (in Manaus’ industrial polo). The exhibitions open to visitation provide a unique knowledge experience regarding the people of the Amazon. By now you’ve probably noticed how hot the city is. Therefore, the next tip is for you to cool down and also have fun: go to the Ponta Negra Beach. Take your swim suit and get ready for a delicious bath in the waters of the Rio Negro. The location is a tourist complex with gardens, observatories, sports courts, auditorium for 15 thousand people, a skateboarding rink, playground, in addition to kiosks and restaurants that serve typical food. It’s perfect for a day-long visit.
Get in touch with nature Another beach option is the Praia da Lua, located 10 minutes by speedboat from Ponta Negra. This attraction includes white sand, lush vegetation, stands with regional food and drinks and a tour at the Seringal Vila Paraíso Museum, a place to immerse yourself in the local history of the golden period of rubber extraction in Brazil. Another cool attraction is the Janauari Park, an area of dry land and flooded forest where you can see the vitória-régia, giant water flower symbol of the Amazon. The program includes a voadeira tour (the voadeira is a type of canoe) through the lakes and streams of the region, lunch in a typical restaurant and visit to the Encontro das Águas, a required tourist stop for the region. If you don’t have a full day for the complete tour at Janauari, at least go to the Encontro das Águas, where the Rio Negro meet the Solimões River to form the Amazon River. The waters do not mix, making it possible to see the two rivers separately in a spectacular phenomenon. The tour also includes other attractions such as a visit to the breeding grounds for fish.
Amazon Theatre
‘Encontro das Águas’
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