Brazilian Airports

Since I arrived in Brazil I have heard and read a lot about the worries that the Brazilian airports are not fit for the big upcoming international events (world cup 2014 and Olympics in Rio 2016). This is something both the international community talks about as well as the Brazilians themselves. The government is also worried and therefore recently decided to not abide by the normal tendering rules. If that will work I don't know. Some say it will only increase risk of corruption, which most likely is already high. I can not make any judgement about airport security but after spending some time at some airports I can admit that the impression is that they are small, old fashioned and inefficient. It is hard to imagine them handling a far greater number of travellers. Let's see if the new rules will get the physical infrastructure on track, but I wonder what they will do about the human capital. Some are just incredibly slow and inefficient and the level of knowledge of other languages very low even at international airports. I think that might be a problem too.

Brazilian-European tour

Now I am off for a Brazilian-European tour. Leaving Brasilia for Rio now. Then to Madrid, having one day there before going to Ibiza, to attend a wedding Saturday. Monday to Stockholm, from there on to my mother's place for a couple of days. Then midsummer with friends in the Stockholm archipelago before going back to Brasilia via Madrid and Rio. I was considering going to Milano too for a while, where there is a birthday party next saturday, but that might just have been a little too much, considering I will only be away for a week.

Salvador de Bahia

Cidade Baixa



Farrol de Barra






Barra

View of Brasilia

Maybe I am starting to get a picture of how the Brazilians (that is the ones not living in Brasilia) see their capital. For the first time since I came here I am out of the town and talk to people not connected through work. When I say I live in Brasilia there is always an "ahhh, you work for the government." Not regarding the comic side of I that someone speaking as little Portuguese as I should work for the government I think it shows very clearly how they look upon their capital as nothing more than the site of government and find it hard to see any other reason to live there. It is so different from any other capital I have been living in. I have to ask my new Australian friend if that it is the same reaction if she meets someone from Canberra.

Home is where I lay my hat.

It is funny how the perception of "home" changes while you travel. Right now when I am on holiday in Bahia and think about "going home" it is Brasilia, I place I had never seen two months ago. Stockholm feels very far away and almost exotic when I read my friends' status updates on facebook. Funny.
How much of a cliche it might be, home really is where I lay my hat.

Cultural Adaptation and Cultural Adoptees

There is this thing that I have never understood and that is this total fascination and absorbtion of another culture that I have mostly seen happening to some europeans getting in touch with Latin American or African culture. What generally happens is that they get completely in to this culture and everyting connected to it; the language, the music, dance, food, sports and religion and specifically only are attracted to persons from that specific culture. Often they can go to quite some extent in defending why this culture is so much better, so much purer and more "real" than others.
I have never understood this and I have also never understood this faiblesse for these cultures. Partly I have explained this with the fact that I don't speak the language and hence is not able to understand this. I willingly admit that I still don't understand Portuguese very well, but I still think I would never be one of those committed culturalists. Not that there is anything wrong with the Brazilian culture, it has many positive and fascinating features, like most other cultures. And maybe here is my problem with these people. They tend to over romanticise the culture they have fallen in love with and start to despise and reject their own native culture without sometimes even knowing it very well.
This I don't understand and most of all I don't see the need for this reaction. I have a theory however and that is that these people are somehow seekers that are somewhat unhappy and unsatisfied in their life and with the culture they grew up with and find an easy fix in adopting another culture. What they tend to miss in the process is how much they are formed by their own culture anyway, like it or not. And also that all cultures have their advantages and shortcomings. Now I will want to interpret my scepticism toward this as a sign of good diplomat material. I like different cultures and like to know more and understand more about them, including my own, but feel no need to get over enthusiastic about one before the other.

On Morro de São Paulo

Lounging in a hammock on my balcony with a view over the ocean is quite nice. We arrive to Morro de São Paulo yesterday after a coat ride that became mostly a bus ride because of the rough sea. We still haven't seen much of the sun however, which is a pity because the island is really beautiful and everything looks even better with sun. It might be clearing up now however. Let's hope.