Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 23oC, warmish and slightly overcast.
It is Friday at the end of the working week. Work this week has been relatively light compared to other weeks. I wonder whether this has been because Nalva is travelling or that just everything has worked relatively well without any drama or confusion.
Returning to what I had written before, two is good, three is a crowd, and remembering the flat is very small, for one is perfect, for two is ok, but for three can be complicated. Three people in a confined area are similar to three rats in the same situation. Eventually, they will start to attack each other.
Yasmin was curious if her mother would be returning today or tomorrow. I sent Nalva a message yesterday asking about it, and she confirmed it for today. She said that she would be leaving Sao Paulo at about 1 pm, so she should be arriving in Rio and home at about 7 pm, but, because of the traffic, it was after 10 pm.
The main motorway or highway in American English that links Sao Paulo and Rio is the Via Dutra, and it is not one of the best roads in the world if you consider the amount of heavy traffic that passes through it every day. Being English, I am used to a motorway having three lanes; in the past, when I lived in Sao Paulo as a consultant, I would return every weekend to see Jessica; at that time, Jessica was only one or two years old.
At that time, most of the Via Dutra was only one lane in both directions, which was nothing for the quantity of traffic passing through every day.
That was more than thirty years ago. I am confident that many parts of the road have been widened or improved.
Still, considering it is one of the most critical roads in Brazil, linking Sao Paulo and Rio, I do not believe that it has been enhanced to the level it should, considering the amount of traffic and, in comparison, European or American highways.
It is also apparent that PT, the newly re-elected socialist/communist workers party in power, breathes and inseminates a feeling of mediocrity again in Brazil. That mediocrity, more or lessness, is acceptable and ok where it should not be.
False promises to the ignorant and blind public with deadlines that are never met from projects that are never finished leave Brazil in a state of abandonment due to the lack of responsibility. Unfinished projects by the government are a form of mediocracy. The lack of transparency and accountability for their actions and sometimes the actions that should have happened but never happened is also a form of mediocracy.
They exhibit mediocre quality, lack responsibility, and fail to be accountable for their administration. If they have even a fraction of integrity, then they are only interested in controlling and manipulating people within the government to conceal or avoid taking ownership of their incompetence. The term ‘integrity’ does not appear prominently in Brazilian politics.
I came to Brazil more than thirty years ago to establish an office for exporting large yacht production, more specifically, super or mega yachts; thirty-plus-metre gin palaces built for the rich and famous, one-off bespoke projects where the cost of skilled labour is an essential factor in the final price, making a country and industry like Brazil extremely competitive.
The low, competitive labour costs and the solid European culture in the south of Brazil, coupled with a good infrastructure and supply chain for the shipbuilding industry, made everything favourable.
Nowadays, I am still determining. For me, the tables have turned for the worse. Brazil, already a heavily bureaucratic country, has become even more so, with the government wanting to shovel in more red tape, making it more difficult for companies to be efficient and agile in an ever-changing market. In terms of infrastructure, the Brazil of thirty years ago is more or less the same today.
Very little has been realised in terms of infrastructure, and very little has improved while the demands and the necessities in an ever-growing society have. Brazil is an ever-growing monster that never stops growing, is always hungry, constantly agitated, and always restless, and if you do not feed or calm, it gets nervous and fights.
We all live in hierarchical pyramid structures, a country, a company, a family, etc, where the influence from the top goes down through the ranks or layers below, like water going down a mountain. If what comes from the top is good, favourable, and proactive for the rest of us, then it is perfect; those positive, clear values, actions, and intentions will repeat and flourish through all the other layers. However, if, on the other hand, it is the opposite; the top is rotten, spoilt, corrupt, evil, etc., then it will negatively affect the lower layers.
This has happened in Brazil in the past, and it is happening again. We had sixteen years of PT, which destroyed the country, and now they are back to do the same again, and if not worse this time. I had always been the first to defend Brazil when someone criticised or spoke badly about the country.
I love Brazil; I have a long history and story with Brazil. I have two Brazilian daughters here but am very disappointed in this country. For me, Brazil is terminally sick, and I do not see it getting better, only worse like any terminal case.
Nalva arrived at about 10 pm. I had already bought and uncorked a bottle of wine, which we finished before bed.
In bed by 11.30 pm.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
