Leaving Brazil

There haven't been any updates for a while because for the past month I have been on the road, exploring this enormous country. I only once did I stay in a place more than five nights, and I did not bring me old compy, hence no blogging.

But now I gotta go. Back to New York. Up north, where visa restrictions force me. It's not that I am unhappy to return – quite the contrary, I am excited to see my friends and family again – but rather that I am actually afraid to. A friend of mine from Buenos Aires who studies and works full-time here in Rio said it well, "here life is a dream, man." I guess I am afraid to 'wake up.'

Not always a dream though. More like, somewhere where everywhere else is 'real life.'

Of course I will miss some things. Many things. The cultural value system, the stereotypical but true relaxed and open nature of (most of) the people, my new friends and family, and not having to wear shirts, pants, or closed-toed shoes all the time. (Full disclosure: I am not wearing a shirt right now.) But other things I will not miss, and you will learn about those if you stay tuned.

An overall impression I've got from this country is that Brazilians and Americans are similar in many ways. To address such 'big ideas' that all this travel has distilled into my brain, this here blog will now go in a new direction. It will offer a space for my reflections on Brazil after having left, and will advise future gringos-in-Brazil. Beginning with general observations and 'tips,' we will work our way towards city- and  region-specific personal reviews and advice. This may or may not be part of a larger work, depends how distracting the first world will be.

For now, know that this is probably one of the strangest, most beautiful, and most complete countries in the world. You should see all it offers while it's still wild. I will be back.

Gringo During Carnaval Photos

Rio Maracatu bloco in Ipanema

The front of the procession

The King and Queen, the best dancers, right in front of the drummers

The percussionists. Every type of person was a part of the bloco, each had a role

And then the giant beer can, or 'electric can,' that had the singers and amps

Meanwhile, across town, a bigger party was brewing...

Only a fraction of the crowd

The truck blasted the beats, with the drummers in front

Thousands of people were everywhere

There were a lot of creative costumes

The World's Biggest Shitshow

When it's calm

I went, as did a friend of mine, through the "OMG carnaval is awesome--No it is stupid and I hate it--Ok no it's really quite nice" cycle in less than twelve hours today, so I think it merits a few reflections.

As I have experienced it so far, and this has only been for about a day, carnaval in Rio is a chance for everyone to be and do everything they aren't and can't. For men to dress as women, the rich to act poor, for the poor to act rich, and for the extremely poor it offers an opportunity to pickpocket more easily. Also, the vendors jack up the beer prices.

It is basically a physical manifestation in song, dance, and public gatherings of the oh-so-Brazilian attitude of not caring about anything. And it is wonderful if you can get into the vibe, and if you like samba, huge drunken crowds, and crazy costumes. Seriously, its like the Halloween parade 24/7 for a week up in here.

The not giving a crap attitude really comes out, as everything can and will happen. A group of drummers had amassed a huge crowd in a local park, some dancing (I tried), most simply standing around shooting the shit until dawn just because it is carnaval. Taking an evening walk among them I was intentionally swerved into by a bus, saw simultaneous ER discharges fight each other, was subject to a drive-by with cans of shaving cream, and saw an old guy do a very vulgar axé dance.

The same attitude that gives you license to do whatever also is very accepting and welcoming, unlike anything I've encountered before. Standing around in a group of strangers is awkward enough in Brooklyn, Paris, Montreal or Berlin, but in Rio its different. No one cares!

My friend imagined thousands of live chickens kept in the back

During the daytime things can be little calmer, at first glance. People haven't had their naps yet, so are on the first drunk of the day. I went to a bloco (street samba party) that played samba covers of Beatles songs. It was their first year, and they were pretty good. There were babies, thugs, puking girls, hippies, old people, and everyone "all together, right now, over me." I also was near what must have been the world's largest KFC restaurant. -->

I wonder if I've been completely desensitized or what but all that, all this of my first day of carnaval in Rio, has been underwhelming. Don't know if I should blame Iguazu falls, video games, people or myself for that, but hey, here's to the next few days' revindication!

Back in Rio

Conquered Iguazu waterfalls

Hey all!

I've been MIA, traveling around southern Brazil and a little of Argentina. I'll have posts for different parts of that adventure written up over the next week if I can.

I just got back to Rio today, the day after Carnaval officially started. You can tell its partytime as soon as you step off the plane. People with funny hats drink beers while waiting for those little airport golf carts, and every non-essential business is shut down and boarded up. Blocos, or large drunken street parties, happen everywhere all the time. I'll stay away from the 8AM ones and try to be good about updating here for y'all.

Feliz Carnaval!

The Mechanized Stairway to Heaven

and no one even uses it

I saw Jesus today. He liked my new haircut.

Real Rio in a photo

A lot of the real Rio de Janeiro most gringos don't see appears in this photo

The Electric Coconut

Copacabana on a normal weekday

Taking cover from the rain under a barraca, one of those stands on the beach that sells everything, I felt a tingling on the back of my arm. "Ok here it comes," I thought, "my first stress-induced heart attack." My South American friends say I fit the stereotype of a New Yorker, hypocondriatic and prone to complaints (prices, rain, people, etc). I think the latter part is from my French side.

Anyway the tingling continued down to my fingers and up to my shoulder. I moved my arm a little and it suddenly went away. Well-versed in the scientific method, I returned my arm to the original spot and the tingling buzzed back across my flesh. I turned around, saw some coconuts on a shelf next to me, and thought I was crazy.

Crazy because I was being mildly electrocuted by coconuts.

My friend didn't believe me, but I have some experience with being electrocuted by strange things (computers, people, stoves) so I had to electrocute him, with the coconuts, to demonstrate. Standard beach occurrence.

The beaches are the reason Rio exists. The city would be nothing without them, and they are the center of daytime recreation and activities. "Oh, what will you do today?" is a normal weekend question in any city across the world, perhaps met with answers of reading, walking, museums, shows, cultural things, etc. Here, there is one answer: Beach. This has implications for culture and education we can get into another time.

Surfing fail

The attraction of the beach isn't necessarily the water, which is notoriously dangerous and often dirty. The beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana have had hundreds of tons of sand dumped onto them to make them wider, and this has messed up the sea's natural coastal currents.

The lifeguard system is top-notch and responds extremely quickly to any emergency. My friend's failed first surfing attempt, seen to the left, was quickly saved, and there are helicopters always in the air, never more than 5 minutes away, that can swoop in and pick up a distressed newbie.

So the beach isn't about the water; its about the sights. Rio's beaches and really quite beautiful, and while backed by hundreds of apartment buildings, on either side they are flanked by famous mountains and hills, and have several pristine islands offshore.

But again, many people don't care much for that either. What they go to the beach for is a central part of carioca mentality, what drives much of their everyday lives; to see and especially to be seen.

I'd be lying if I said that's not partially why I go myself. I spend most of my time there eating/drinking coconuts, watching the sea. However I actually enjoy swimming around, something many Brazilians seem unable to do. But they are rather good at doing nothing and posing for the perfect tan.

The beaches have quite a colorful cast of characters, and many of them actually make their living there. These are the Camelôs, the dudes who pack around drinks and snacks for us lazy beach folk to overpay for. After renting an umbrella or some chairs, you head down towards the water and set up camp where you think the people are most attractive. If you want something, you watch for the Camelôs.

There are the dirty-beach-mate guys, who lug around two large kegs with spigots, serving what is widely known as the best mate (a kind of tea) in town. There are the regular dudes, who pull or carry coolers with water, beer or mate, maybe ice-cream sometimes too. The guys with the worst job in the world are the ones who carry around a tiny stove to cook cheese sticks. Imagine open-fire cooking in 40 degree heat, and knowing that your customers will get sick from the rotten shit you sell them.

Ipanema at dusk

But it all gets better when the famous acai guy comes around. With his megaphone, he sounds like he should work for radio. "acai acaiii! gelado e saboroso! pontificoso!" I obviously can't type out what he sounds like, but imagine the announcer guys for TV pay-per-view events, in portuguese, and you get the idea.

My second favorite is the abacaxi guy, who many people rightly dislike. He carries around a tray of cut-up pineapples, yelling "abacaxi! aaabacaxi!" But then he goes silent for a while and that's when you need to watch out. He sneaks up on people sleeping or not paying attention and yells "ABACAXI!!!", freaking them out and selling a few pineapples to their laughing beach neighbors.

Overall, yeah, the beach is great. But it really can get boring after a few hours, and after a few days you find yourself wishing to actually do something. This is one of my greatest problems in Rio; if you don't absolutely love samba and doing nothing (on the beach, for example), then can be hard to live here, which I am. But for vacation, nothing's better!

Reveillon

Copacabana beach, pre-fireworks, 2 million people

Yeah, New Year's was a while ago, wasn't it? Kinda feels like...last year. And for me in many ways it was, as I have had to learn a new way of living since then. One that doesn't take for granted the most simple of things many of us carry with us every day and wholly rely on.

But before we get to that, a few words on Brazilian New Year, or Reveillon. The name itself sounds to me like a pagan ceremony to awaken an ancient sea-beast like a kraken or something, and indeed there is an idea similar to that behind it.

So basically there are remnants of African religions in Brazil, Rio especially, like Macumba (of which I am terrified) and Candomble. Spooky voodoo/wichcraft shit to my gingo sensibilities. Wiki says, Macumba "is secretly practiced all over the world where there are Brazilian communities. Many Brazilians continue to practice their traditional religions (Christianity, Judaism, etc) but also practice Macumba secretly, usually at night or the weekends." They kill chickens and dance around and use special herbs and become possessed.

Iemanja

Anyway so Candomble is more like a real religion with priests and temples and whatnot. One of its goddesses, Iemanjá, is the protector of the ocean and closely associated with Rio. Kinda like a patron saint. This informs many traditions, practiced all around Brazil, that people perform on New Year's eve to please Iemanjá so she might bring them luck and fortune. Off the top of my head these are:

1) Wearing white. This rule is far more strict than wearing green on St. Patrick's day and is more about symbolic purity than anything else.

2) Throwing shit into the ocean. Iemanjá, being a woman, likes flowers. She likes other "objects of female vanity" as well, however toxic for the waters.


3) Floating candles. Little boats with offerings and candles, floated out to sea. Neat.

4) Eating grapes whole. Not sure what the deal is with this one, but they say you're supposed to do it and make a wish for each one you swallow. Could pose a health risk.

5) Jumping over incoming waves 7 times. My friend told me to do this with no explanation so I just did it.

6) Wearing certain color underwear. Yeah, apparently white is for luck, red for love, yellow for money, green for something else, probably health, and other things people wish for in the new year.

So that's all nice, but what most people go for is the fireworks and massive party. I got to Copacabana with some friends about 5 hours early, encountered a mostly empty beach, drunk people, and some sweet airplanes, then shacked up in a nearby apartment to load up. At around 9PM we headed to the beach. The streets were packed, busses and taxis whizzing people to their destinations, revelers crowding the sidewalks and singing, gringos awkwardly dressed in white trying to make their way to the beach. We found a good spot to set up camp next to a bunch of passed out fat people who made holes in the sand to pee in.

This story should be prefaced with a note that two years ago I had reveillon in another part of Brazil and it was a blast. I expected as much and more from Rio. As with many such expectations of the city, they where not totally fulfilled. In any case when the fireworks started we were blown away. Best fireworks ever. 20-minute show from 5-6 synchronized barges off shore, massive finale, lots of colors and sparkling. I wish I could remember more of it, but everyone said it was great and my video (almost 1,200 views!) proves as much:

Yeah! Woo! 2011! Time for drinks and doing traditional Brazilian things, like making out. I looked around and realized I was in a proverbial desert, surrounded by gringas not privy to the Brazilian way and couples already way into it. Hmm...the RedBull jamming hard in my brain, I said, 'Let's go swimming!' Not the best idea.

Imagine 2 million people on a beach, drinking. Where do they go to the bathroom? It was relatively easy for me, as I had to just saunter in and go, but the girls had less options. My suggestion to go swimming was for them a chance to relieve themselves, and the drinks worked well to help us forget that we were walking into a sea of frothy, salty urine. I was up to my knees and happy, totally not wearing clothes appropriate for the water, bringing in the new year with cheer and good will.

Until disaster struck. At least it didn't rain!

I had given all my pockets' content to a friend to hold while I waded in. I forgot to safeguard the most important thing, what I cannot live without. My glasses. A wave came out of nowhere, hit me in the back and sent me tumbling. Adenir told me these are called 'jaca' waves, alligator waves that snatch things away, but I'm pretty sure he made that up. Underwater, my hand immediately went to my face to discover my loss. Upon emerging from the break, I notified the girls, who were pointedly disinterested and unsympathetic. Unfriend!

Despair and aguish rolled over me harder than any wave. The loss of my glasses rendered me functionally blind, unable to see detail a meter past my face. Imagine wearing a scuba mask greased with a centimeter of Vaseline in the visor, all the time. Night=ruined.

pew pew pew! I don't have any pictures of what happened after.

Or was it? I thought to myself, "well, pretty much the worst thing of 2011 already happened, so it can only get better! Reveillon in Brazil is no time to be emo!" I set out to party my way deep into the the night, which I did, leading my friends along the path to fun. At points I was the most festive, dancing and singing and running about.

At around 4, once we had our fair share of avoiding people having sex on the beach, we decided to head back. We went to the metro, me leading the way since no one else knew. At the nearest station, my friends said that about 10,000 people were lining up to get in. It looked like a giant snake to me. "Let's walk home!"

And we did, about 7km through spooky tunnels and empty streets, soaking wet, unable to see, burdening my wonderful friends who took great care of me. I would have been doomed without them, they stuck by me while all others left. Here is their blog.

I got home at 5:45 or so, too tired to take a shower. The next day I put on my prescription sunglasses and have been wearing them ever since. Blessing in disguise? Adenir dubbed me 'BatNestor' in honor of my excursion, but someone else told me a 'batman' is slang for a drug trafficker. So I dunno what he meant, kinda like how an ex-boss of mine recently complemented me as 'energetic.'

Buzios

My neighborhood in Rio. Not in Buzios yet.

So Buzios was pretty nice. I think I went the day or so after Christmas. Back in 2010, remember? I woke up an hour before the bus ticket place opened, which was pretty brutal, 9AM, so walked around my 'hood for a bit. Its a really nice, quiet residential neighborhood with few or no gringoes, but has its fair share of cracked-out (literally) little kids and aggressive mendigos one would be wise to avoid. A long city bus ride to the inter-city main bus station later, I settled into a very comfortable coach next to some random woman from London, who wasn't much for conversation. Nap time!

Arriving at my hostel in Buzios I found it totally empty. Not exactly what I expected, given the stories about meeting all kinds of great people in hostels, and especially not given the 'high season' price I paid. 'Whatever,' I thought, determined to have an adventure on my own. At least I had a 6-bed dorm to myself! ("Room to bring six women home with you, eh? Ha ha ha!" an acquaintance of mine said. Yeah right, that'll be the day.)

Buzios main port or something. Don't swim there.

'Downtown' Buzios is really like any other beach or island resort town. Two main streets, lots of bars and restaurants, high prices and tourists everywhere, mostly rich, unpleasant Cariocas who won't give you the time of day and friendly Argentineans (role reversal as per Brazilian perception?).

I hit up some beaches with the remaining daylight, paranoid about leaving my stuff while I swam, always glancing back at the shore as I chilled with the fishes. I think I saw a lionfish or a stonefish or something like that. I walked back to the hostel, showered and got read to go out on the town. A pizza (what all Brazilians eat all the time), two beers, and many futile glances later, the experience finished by reinforcing my prejudice against going out by myself.

The next day I started out early to rent a scooter, a real hog, 49CCs. Burning up the asphalt, actually mostly dirt and stone, I explored Buzios' beaches in what was a wonderful day on the road. Freedom! Flexibility! This is why people get drivers licenses and motorized vehicles, I realized.

The first two beaches I saw were praia Tartaruga, which was pretty meh, and then praia Ferradura, which was family-oriented and had interesting geography as a sort of bay with a relatively small, long channel to the sea. I think I ate something there and walked around a bit. Hopping back on my ride, I braved some nasty dirt roads to check out the pocha das Tartarugas. There, I finally felt like I had 'arrived' in Buzios, as someplace with natural beauty that I could enjoy. The pocha did not have tartarugas but was pretty wild, uninhabited and seemed raw. I liked it, and it set me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

The view of Ferradura from a mansion construction site

On the mountainous, steep, pitted 'roads' to the next series of beaches, I saw mansions sprouting up everywhere. One, at the top of a hill, had only the concrete foundations poured but had an amazing view; I could tell it would be easily a R$7 million home. Buzios in general seems like the playground of the rich, and seeing all the fancy houses and hotels and especially the nightlife gave me the impression that this was not exactly a 'virgin natural peninsula' of any sort.

The authorities of Buzios take pride in the geology of the area, which is admittedly kind of interesting, calling it the 'ancient Himalayas of South America,' whatever that means. Several bays and points along the south shore have unique and beautiful features, jutting out against the waves like a mad king's fortress. Spear fishers and regular fishermen line the coast, in between the beaches. Praia do Forno and praia da Foca were pretty awesome, I had a coconut on one of them while some Americans made fools of themselves, drinking and getting sunburned. The guy who opened my coconut seemed like some crazed German gringo expat, but his Portuguese was pretty fluent so maybe he's just from the south. A group of Brazilians listened to really terrible loud music down the beach, prompting some nasty notes in my journal. I think I was just lonely.

Buzios

I wrapped up the day with a look-out point, way up on a hill I had to use my feet to get the scooter up there. And man was it worth it, with a pretty full 360 view of the peninsula and all its weird mountains and coves. From there I saw a trail leading from a nearby beach, praia Brava, to another secret beach. I vowed to check it out as soon as I could.

My friend arrived that night, and we set out, with a random American, to have a good time in town. For me, this means drinking beers and that's about it. For my friend, this means chasing girls. I suppose I could learn something from him, but he was having a tough time with the Buzios crowd. After a coked-out crazed Frenchman accosted us while we were sipping our beers, we wandered the streets, my friend calling out and trying to talk to nearly all the girls we passed. None replied. Matters were made worse when a troupe of models in extremely skimpy lingerie strutted by, promoting a local club. "Bunda! Bunda!" I could almost hear him begin to scream.

The next day I met up with the guys and they recounted a night of frustrations leveled at Carioca women. All the others - Paulistas, Mineras, Argentineans - would at least chat with them for a bit, but not the Cariocas.

Praia Brava from the top of the trail

Later, at praia Brava, which was inhabited mostly by the super-rich at a super-fancy resort right on the beach, predictably filled with French people, I explored the 'secret' trail. At the far south end of the beach it shot up into the hills, all slippery red clay and angry pointy plants. At the top of the hill I was afforded a great view and a little break to check my map.

"Great, right on track to see the 'nature beach,' like the map says" I thought. Ohh boy, what a mistaken translation that was.

At the bottom of the hill, I came upon the beach. Tiny, nestled between steep hills, with no buildings and only the trail to access it, it was a perfect natural paradise. Then two things happened. First my eyes were drawn to a sign, which struck me as strange just for being there. On the sign, it said "Praia Naturista." Ok, natural beach, that's cool, but why do they need a sign? Then, the next part: "Por favor tirar as roupas." Hmm, I thought, why would the sign ask me to take my clothes off? A sign has never asked me to do so before, and I was immediately reminded of Terminator 2.

However, those happy thoughts were shattered when the second thing happened. I scanned to the left and saw several fat naked dudes. Ah. So that's what 'naturista' means. A Paulista who had been walking behind me turned the corner and said, "I did not know about this." I agreed and we both made our way back up the hill. I felt bad for the two girls walking on the rocks along the shore, fully clothed, garnering all the attention.

My last few hours in Buzios were spent cruising around, watching old guys deliver single 'long neck' (the name for a bottle) beers to their buddies by leaning out of a moving dune buggy, and waiting for the bus, which was right on time at one and a half hours late. I'm glad I went, but of course it didn't live up to the hype and I didn't have a real 'hostel experience' as I've been told about so many times before. Is that but an elusive dream, to want to meet educated, interesting, fun people and hot girls in hostels in beach paradises around Brazil? Regardless, I am looking forward to many more solo adventures. I just wonder if I'll ever get enough!

Rio’s ‘Internal Armed Conflict’ and Counter-Insurgency

Lucky you, you get to read my article for the Rio Times before it's published on Tuesday! Enjoy.

*

The end of 2010 was a busy time for Rio. Between Dilma’s election, the discovery of enormous pre-salt oil fields, and preparing for a massive Reveillon, one could almost forget Rio’s most important systemic concern. The favelas remain a central part of the city’s identity and a major source of many of its problems, and accordingly drew a good deal of attention from the U.S.’s Rio de Janeiro Consulate.

Late 2009 saw a flurry of activity in the favelas as the Favela Pacification Program and the UPP finished their first full active year with plans to expand (singling out Complexo de Alemao as the ‘epicenter of the fight’). However, foreshadowing the Navy APCs and marines in Zona Norte a few weeks ago and belying public confidence in the pacification efforts, retired Brazilian Army General Alvaro de Souza Pinheiro said in September 2009 that the Army was fully prepared to “occupy and maintain control of favelas,” given their experience in UN Peacekeeping operations around the world.

Acknowledging the lawlessness of the favelas, Pinherio said the Army is well suited for pacification, as “many officers and units were specifically trained and prepared to undertake operations related to public security and general policing in communities lacking state control.”

Wealth and poverty are not far apart here

It is significant in itself that a former high-ranking military official admits that the favelas, situated inside a megacity of one of the world’s strongest democracies, need a military occupation like those in Haiti or Sierra Leone. He is definitely not the only one to say so behind closed doors.

In November 2009 the Principal Officer of Rio’s U.S. Consulate met with an unnamed source in the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rio. The source explained what he could not disclose publicly because of ‘Brazilian sensitivities;’ that the situation in the favelas as of November 2009 was “for all practical purposes, a full-blown ‘internal armed conflict,’” with all the implications that such a weighty characterization entails.

While not exactly the definition used in the Geneva Conventions, Protocol II, the main features of Rio’s violence closely resemble situations around the world widely recognized as ‘internal armed conflicts.’ These include “organized factions holding the monopoly on violence in their areas while in an open conflict with rival factions or/and state forces, the humanitarian impacts on innocent civilians trapped by violence in favelas dominated by gangs, and the need for ICRC to operate as though in a war zone.”

The Consulate tentatively agreed with the source’s assessment, noting that it describes Rio’s violence better than simple urban crime. To this extent it took special interest in the Favela Pacification Program’s ‘clear and hold’ approach, which “closely resembles U.S. counter-insurgency doctrine in Afghanistan and Iraq, and highlights the extent to which favelas have been outside state authority,” reads a diplomatic cable from November 2009.

Largely a problem Rio created for itself, the favelas present a unique environment of state failure within a successful state, more similar to Fallujah or Marjah than the Ipanema and Copacabana neighborhoods next door.

Rio State Secretary for Public Security Jose Beltrame explained to the U.S. Consulate, “you cannot imagine what government neglect of the favelas have done to this city. It is a failure of public service” that the city is now paying for with blood. Although the beginning phases of the Pacification Program have gone well, it is only the beginning of the fight.

"The cat." Electrical theft is rampant

As with U.S. counter-insurgency doctrine overseas, the ‘center of gravity’ in the favelas is the population. Success wholly depends on winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of the residents, who must be made to trust and depend on the authorities, not an easy task for a government lacking legitimacy as a relative newcomer to the favelas. The crucial task is to deliver the services and benefits promised, which depends on civilian and NGO components of the Pacification Program following through after the UPPs.

Yet as of late 2009, during a visit to the pacified Dona Marta favela, U.S. representatives noted that “police officers are doing everything from assisting residents with requests for utilities to coaching sports. There is no cadre of civilian government and NGO personnel to handle those tasks, nor evidence of systematic programming for additional services.... If such a vacuum persists, it will wear down police capacity and lead to frustration among residents in pacified favelas, threatening the initial gains in those areas.”

The U.S. Consulate fully supported the Pacification Program and was enthusiastic about the results, saying they “could remake the social and economic fabric of Rio de Janeiro.” But however much U.S. support is genuinely humanitarian and good-hearted, there is no denying the enormous economic potential in the favelas.

According to José Luiz Alquéres, the president of Rio’s electric company Light, the economy of Rio de Janeiro could grow by 38 billion Reals (21 billion USD) through increased economic activity and new jobs, and 90 million Reals (45 million USD) in property and service taxes could be raised if the favelas were integrated into the rest of the city. Not a bad deal for the price tag – data from the Rio State Secretariat for Security show operations to pacify and reintegrate favelas would cost from 90 million to 340 million Reals (48 million to 183 million USD).

If Iraq is any example, we should realize that the road to favela pacification will be tough and bloody, but doable. What helped keep Iraq together was a history of strong central government and the promise of massive oil revenues. The favelas are a totally different situation, but if the authorities can coax the residents with commercial and educational opportunities, the hope of a better life, and then actually deliver that promise, perhaps Rio won't remain a city of millionaires surrounded by slums.

Happy New Year, btw.

Xmas in Brazil

The family I'm staying with is really wonderful. Caring, attentive, loving and happy, when they gather together one can really feel a strong bond beyond reason. The matriarch, a 95-year-old who remains the center of attention, holds together a group of sons and daughters, wives and husbands, and grandchildren, who really enjoy each other's company.

One of my favorite family members is Edson. My first night in Rio, at a rodizio de pizza ('cycle of pizzas'), Edson, also known as Bruce Willis, immediately befriended me although we couldn't understand much of each other's language. At following gatherings I taught him some English, and he taught me that old people can still be cool. 

He doesn't like Christmas that much though. At his mother's 95th birthday some weeks ago after an emotional song and ritual around her, Edson came to me, holding back tears with a cigarette, and said (my translation), "I hate Santa Claus. He's a motherfucker." Elaborating, he explained that 'Papai Noel' makes him spend all kinds of money on presents, while Santa himself spends nothing. "Is that fair? That's not just."

Nevertheless we all enjoyed Christmas. About 16 of us joined together in a small apartment, the boys in the 'back,' a small courtyard/storage area drinking beers, and the women tended to their mother and the food. The radio lost its MPB station so someone turned it to a house/trance station. Being intimately familiar with electronic dance music, I found this very strange and a little inappropriate, but I realized that the majority of them had little or no idea what it was. It was just an exotic beat, "like disco, musica de sapo" as Edson thought. Nearly every old person danced to it at one point or another. After a few beer and laughs, some food and a little rain ("from our Lady and Lord, it purifies the spirit. I have no problem with the rain" said Edson), it was finally midnight and time for presents.

Waiting for presents

I really like giving presents better than receiving them, I have a hard time knowing how to react. I actually didn't expect anything at all, but got a good haul. I'm pretty sure what I gave was well received as well. The core members of the family had a secret santa, 'amigo oculto,' and it was during this that for the first time I saw someone cry with joy after receiving a DVD.

We got home around 2 or 3AM, then played video games. The next morning, Christmas morning, each person got up at his own pace and after more video games we slowly made our way back to the previous night's apartment for a leftover lunch. It was like the party was already over, like Christmas had already passed, and we were just there to finish up the food. Very different from the American tradition, even with all the TV time.

Feliz Natal!

A nice picture of a nice waterfall I visited to make you northerners jealous

Merry Christmas!

Xmas works differently here. They don't have real pine trees, and the whole holiday seems to be a little bit less of a big deal. More like a run-up to Reveillon, the real holiday everyone waits for.

I think its usual for people here to stay up late on Christmas Eve, until midnight, then give out the presents (the family I'm staying with has a secret santa kinda arrangement). What happens next, I am not sure, for it has not happened yet!

Happy holidays! Enjoy the snow if you have to!

Lapa

Lapa in the daytime

There is a neighborhood, next to the center of Rio, called Lapa. I have mentioned it before. It is a neighborhood whose incredibly poorly-translated magazine heralds as a 'center of democracy.' I have had a friend tell me this too, while stumbling around its streets, which I must admit were filled with a fairly diverse group of people.

Lapa is were Rio goes to get drunk as hell on the cheap. There's samba too. Every weekend, Friday especially, a variety of municipally sponsored street vendors open onto the street, spilling their podrãos and drinks into the mouths of the waiting. A tallboy of beer is 2 or 3 reais, and a toxicity-strength caipirinha is about R$4, which my friend thinks should be illegal. There are lots of bars and music venues, but most people just stand around drinking, often well into the daylight hours. If this is the center of Brazilian democracy, then I guess the country is surprisingly well-off despite all its problems, the least of which is a constant hangover.

Recent weekends have seen my repeated appearance there, so it has lost a little of its novelty for me, but is still a solid backup for when other plans fall through. After an interesting day involving mistaking a heavy opioid for asprin and a subsequent attempt to boogieboard, I met up with a Swedish friend and bought beers from a guy with a cooler on a motorcycle, right in front of the cops. It was then that I realized I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

We proceeded though the growing mass of revelers and sambistas to a pool hall where they only had extra-huge and extra-tiny tables for some reason. Stopping at several places on the way and having been overtaken first by the hare-krishna then a whole other bunch of hippies, we lost part of our group so headed to a horrible club where I paid money to listen to music I hate.

I actually really dislike funky, I think it's among the worst music there is. No offense to anyone or anything, but it's stupid, violent and sexist. The dance is stupid too, but kinda sexy when girls know how to do it. Just sayin', and it's not like I think square dancing is any good either.

I don't remember what happened next, but then I was on the beach with a headache and a broken boogieboard and it was afternoon. I'm pretty sure I had avoided calling for Raul. The camelôs had inspired me with a way to get more ESL students; I was to write on a white shirt 'tem ingles aqui' and walk up and down the beach yelling 'Aaaaulas de ingles! Aaaaulas de ingles!' while giving out my business card. I thought it was brilliant, but my friend said I had better shed all sense of shame before trying it.

Looks innocent, doesn't it?

Back in Lapa that night, I learned that prostitution is a legal profession in Brazil. Get this: they have working papers, legal protections, and retirement! They can retire and get a pension! Amazing.

At was turned out to be a nearly gringo-only event, I spoke with a lovely Californian girl who sympathized with the minor culture shock I was describing to her. "You have to be lazy. Force yourself to do nothing," she said. "That's the only way to survive." That's actually pretty true. Coming from a place (NYC) where everyone cares so much about everything they paradoxically go to great pains to show themselves as the opposite, I have been undergoing a shock of sorts here in Brazil where no one cares much about anything, and excel at avoiding responsibility, especially politically or bureaucratically.

When the place filled up and the cariocas began to outnumber the gringos, I was thankful for being able to amuse myself with mild drunkenness while not understanding anything anyone is saying. I've gotten excellent at pretending to understand Portuguese, and I actually spent about five straight hours today doing that with someone I had just met. But if anything, if I fail to learn Portuguese, I will remember Brazil as the place where I learned that it's ok to look at girls' butts, since everyone here does it and for very good reason. Besides, some are so hemispheric you don't have much of a choice.

The next morning I stumbled back into Lapa. Why I was awake, hungry, and not yet sober, back in the place I had been a mere 6 hours before, was beyond me. I think it had something to do with a waterfall. The pee on the streets was still fresh and small groups of people were still drinking...at 8AM, with the sun already beaming down like a thousand lasers from space.

Interesting!

For all of you noobs out there, here's 60 Minutes on Brazil. Pretty accurate I'd say!

Brazil - U.S. Military Ties

Unrelated picture of some people surfing.

Because I'm a nerd, this is the kind of stuff I'm into.

Otherwise, I am very happy because my hat arrived from NY, and I got a nice Christmas card from a good friend of mine. A real post will come soon, I promise!

Preview

To hold y'all off until I get a real post written up, here's a spookified preview of my next article for the Rio Times:

Pew pew pew pew!

Despite Brazilian Sensitivity on Sovereignty, Military Cooperation with the U.S. Increasing.

In early 2010, President Lula deemed relations with the U.S. of “enormous unexploited potential” according to diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, a sentiment now echoed by President-Elect Dilma Rousseff. Ms. Rousseff recently said one of her top priorities after taking office on January 1^st will be to visit U.S. President Obama to build closer ties between Brazil and the U.S., particularly on trade and human rights.

However, military ties between the two nations are already good and improving, a result of President Lula’s personal rapport with former U.S. President Bush and increasing trade across the equator. Last month, the U.S. participated for the first time in Brazil’s CRUZEX 5 or “Southern Cross,” South America’s largest simulated air warfare exercise. Held in Natal, CRUZEX is usually a participation of 3,000 airmen from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Uruguay. But this year, Colorado Air National Guard Airmen were invited to work alongside pilots and crews from Latin America and France.

“We now have personal contacts with the participating countries,” said Brig. Gen. Trulan A. Eyre, the commander of the American forces. “If another partner country is in need, we now have face-to-face contacts with (representatives) from these countries.... We now have the type of partnership that whatever is needed, we will be there to support each other.”

Cooperation across a wide range of areas has seen quiet improvement since 2001 and is set to continue developing, according to other leaked cables. Military and law enforcement agencies from both nations now work closely together on counternarcotics issues, intelligence sharing, human trafficking and shipping container security. While collaboration in technical and operational areas such as these have progressed well, public acknowledgement and cooperation by the Brazilian government of the U.S.’s strategic concerns, such as Iran, nuclear proliferation and terrorism, has been lagging.

“Officially, Brazil does not have terrorism inside its borders,” reads a cable from late 2009. “In reality, several Islamic groups with known or suspected ties to extremist organizations have branches in Brazil and are suspected of carrying out financing activities. Although there is good working-level law enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil on terrorism related activities, the official position of the government is to deny that Brazil has any terrorist activity.”

Mmm oil om nom nom

Covering up potential links to terrorism might have links to what the American embassy in Brasilia called an “extreme sensitivity on sovereignty” on the part of Brazilian elite. New fears that the U.S. will prey on the enormous oil reserves off Brazil’s coast prompted efforts to increase federal control of mineral resources and have mixed with old anxieties that foreigners want to “internationalize the Amazon.” These fears pop up in Brazilian media and official statements, most strongly demonstrated when President Lula asserted, “the world needs to understand that the Amazon has an owner, and that is the Brazilian people.”

The re-establishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet, mostly a peacekeeping and training force, also caused Brazilians anxiety, prompting an official inquiry by the Brazilian government. While such concerns might be political theatre, they do have the potential to disrupt future cooperation. In Brazil’s political culture these kinds of fears are not uncommon.

However, a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Sobel and the Chiefs of the three Brazilian Armed Services in early 2009 indicated that behind the scenes, sections of the Brazilian military are willing to work extensively with the U.S. The fact that Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet is the Brazilian military’s favored choice for the FX2 jet fighter competition despite the virtual certainty that the French Rafale will win for political reasons shows that ties between the U.S. and Brazilian militaries will remain strong.


Yes I know it's easy to see through the black-outs, its just for fun, chill out.

Articles

Hey y'all,

Here is an article by a friend of mine about a monthly event we went to in an amazing hostel in the favela, Jazz in the Maze. If you can read Spanish you should check it out! Actually it has nice pictures too so you should just click and see anyway.

And here is an article I wrote for The Rio Times, Rio's only English-language local news source. It goes along well with what I wrote about last time.

Yeah, so...enjoy!

Life and Violence

Ok so here we go, its been a busy week, Fluminense just won the Brazilian football championship, lots of things have happened and I'm behind on letting y'all know what's what. Let's crack a beer and get to work.

I've been teaching a couple of classes a week now, nothing serious, and I'm not sure the students like me. I talk too much and hate preparing lessons, especially since I'm paid very poorly. But now I started with a private student twice a week who pays three times more and likes to talk; he's a great, a contract lawyer at a downtown bank who's really, really into comics. Not just like "Oh I read graphic novels" or "I know all the names of Spiderman villains" but more like "I have 3,000 X-Men comics and 300 figurines I painted myself."

Lots of Brazilian nerds

Speaking of nerdiness, a few weeks ago I went to the Brazil Game Show, purportedly an exposition highlighting South American video game developers. It was actually completely dominated by Sony, hot dogs, and long lines. Overall it was underwhelming and crowded, and the convention girls were nothing special. They kinda looked depressed.

Kinda like Superman!

Then I went to the beach, swam in dangerous currents and got sunburned. Fortunately this gave me license to chill out only in my underwear at home, who readers who know me well will recognize as my favorite housewear. 

The next day I went up to the Sugarloaf, which is now what I call voluptuous girls as a term of endearment, and that was pretty neat as the first 'touristy' thing I had done really. The approach up the mountain is controlled by the military, and the previous week a gay man was shot by a soldier there (this was during the pride parade) for no reason. But then I saw some small monkeys ('Micu') and forgot about that.

The biggest news is all the violence and police/military operations that climaxed last week. As you probably have heard, the police invaded several slums in the north zone of Rio and will occupy them for some time. However this isn't really what affected or interested people here, and y'all didn't hear about it because of the latest bickering over in Korea.

It's kinda complicated, but partially the conflict is over the UPP, a 'peaceful police force' that was installed in several favelas around Rio. These new units are sent in to live with the locals, show the human and non-murderous side of the police to occupy and secure the slums after the murderous side has cleared out the bad guys. The governor started the UPP program to stop drug trafficking, but the dealers just decentralized and moved to other slums (the favelas are many and enormous. 1 out of 5 residents in the entire state of Rio live in a favela). Many of the gang leaders are in prison, but just give orders and command from there. When they heard that they were going to be transfered to federal prisons out of state, where life for them would suck a lot more and they would lose control of their gangs, they basically ordered their lackeys to start firebombing cars, attacking police posts and causing mayhem.

This is what started a two week orgy of violence and paranoia. Every day more and more reports of attacks on cars, busses and trucks came in, and people started staying in and not going to work. The metro was seen as safe so was crowded over capacity, which I remember sucking exquisitely. 

BOPE being badass

Most people said it was just a matter of time before this happened, as Rio's huge poverty and crime problems need to be tackled before the mega-events of the World Cup and Olympics. So for the next few days there were tons of cops everywhere, helicopters flying low, and other shows of force; down where I and most gringos and rich people live, there wasn't much except a few shootings and arrastaos. But in the north zone the BOPE, police and marines supported by APCs quickly expelled the gangs from several key neighborhoods. Some BOPE members even complained that the dealers weren't putting up enough of a fight.

Obviously a lot of bad guys got away, and they left lots of drugs (3 tons of marijuana and 300 kilos of coke) and guns behind. So where did they go? Probably to Rochina, one of Rio's largest and most famous slums, inconveniently located very close to Leblon and Ipanema, the richest neighborhoods. (Check out this video I took of a bomb scare in Ipanema.) At this point the gangsters are squeezed and trapped, and could get more dangerous. The two main factions, the Red Command and Amigos dos Amigos, are rumored to have formed an alliance against the cops (with whom they themselves had a treaty of sorts with). NEM, the supposed leader of Amigos dos Amigos that rules Rochina, controls the distribution of cooking gas there and buys silence by being a community benefactor and sponsor for the residents. He was involved in a nasty shootout in the Intercontinental Hotel a few months ago that highlighted how the gangs often paid off the police, how some BOPE members might be involved with the Amigos, and how a whole different problem of 'milicias' of ex-cops run extortion rings and protection rackets.

Just this is a tiny fraction of what's happening, it's all pretty confusing, and only the beginning. What is clear is that the government is cracking down hard, and enjoys huge popular support. Police and military convoys get cheered in the streets, not something you would expect from a county with a history of military dictatorship. The people are tired of the gangs and crime and trafficking, and do not mind when innocents die by police bullets. Some think the favelas should just be razed. This raises the very important issue of potential "fascism against the poor," as a friend of mine put it. BOPE shoot first and ask questions later; the people and politicians look the other way because they just want something done.