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!

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.