Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 23oC, warmish and slightly overcast.
It is the 15th, and for some reason, this week and half the month have gone very quickly. Nalva arrived back from Sao Paulo last night. We talked a little. She was happy to be back. She said she had worked a lot in Sao Paulo, but the experience was worth it.
It was the first time she had ever travelled for work with everything paid for. I tried to explain that she should be proud of her achievement, her first business trip, but it was difficult for her to understand. Many times in life, people achieve things they never thought possible but do not know how to value themselves for what they have achieved.
Sometimes, I think this is the difference between normal and exceptionally successful people; successful people know how to be proud and value what they have done and achieved, and others do not. Brazil is a highly classist society, becoming more classist and polarised with the new government, the haves, and the have-nots.
What has been clear to me for such a long time in Brazil is that if you were born in a slum, a favela, or in extreme lower class, the Brazilian society is set up to punish you 100% because of it. That you are a piece of shit, you do not deserve to improve yourself, look for work, be a better person and want to have a better situation in life; you are also not allowed to follow or fight for your dreams or aspirations; remember, you are a piece of shit, and it is perverse.
I am not sure if Brazil is just one enormous time bomb waiting to explode at any time, triggered by a perverse and inhumane society with millions and millions of frustrated, ignorant people who have low self-esteem from being constantly manipulated by a rotten, corrupt government that does not care at all about their people, but only power that comes from their votes. Brazil has a legion of working-class people lost, without direction, because of a poorly managed government.
You also have the frustrated middle class in Brazil and many other democratic societies worldwide. In Brazil, they have the aspirations of the upper class, which they so much want to be a part of. However, very few will manage to arrive there, so they exploit the lower class to at least guarantee the minimum possible for themselves.
The middle class want to have a good car, put their children in the best private schools, go on expensive holidays, etc, just like the upper class, but constantly financially squeeze themselves to death doing so.
There is also the overloaded civil service in Brazil, especially with this new government that is constantly creating new jobs in the civil service sector with high salaries and little or no real work or responsibility, only to guarantee votes for the next elections every two years.
People who sell their souls to the devil see nothing, hear nothing and are only productive to society and the taxpayers who pay their salary in a highly mediocre form. It erodes Brazil’s whole structure and fibre, a demoralising society drowning in its own incapacity.
Over the years, I have dated and gone out with quite a few women who were or are civil servants, and I have always felt them to be arrogant, feeling superior to others to a higher or lower degree.
Projecting themselves above the majority of the rest of the population with their safe jobs where they can never be fired and their relatively high salaries, once in, rarely out, they sign their lives away on the guarantee of a salary every month.
I understand, but it is also a price they pay, and happiness is not guaranteed when you make a deal with the devil.
As you will never be fired as a Brazilian civil servant, your salary is deposited in your bank account every month, rain or shine, which is very nice, but there are also negative consequences. It is human nature that when passing an entrance exam that may take years and years to prepare and pass, sometimes candidates have to take many exams until they finally pass, and when they do, their professional future is guaranteed for the rest of their lives.
It is only natural that after such a high sacrifice in getting in that a person relaxes. It cannot be fair to presume that after passing, you immediately relax, but imagine that after ten years of doing the same job, no matter what you do, you will never be fired; it is too good to be true; who cares? It is only taxpayers’ money.
As I have already stated, with this new government, the tendency is to contract more and more people so that, at election time, they will have bought enough votes to form a solid base and continue in power. These people are resistant to changing their circumstances, particularly in a country like Brazil.
In Brazil, it is very easy and risky to fall down the social hierarchy, with the possibility of never being able to climb back up again. Moreover, unfortunately, the needs of the individual outweigh the needs of the society as a whole.
It is very complicated. As I have already said before, I love Brazil and its people, and I have always defended the country. However, in the last ten or fifteen years, Brazil has unfortunately lost its way and has only gotten worse and worse, and I do not see it getting better while I am alive. It is incredibly disappointing and a pity.
I went out Saturday morning for a hefty workout I felt I needed. Nalva picked up her new glasses from Dona Vera, which were ready while travelling in Sao Paulo. When I arrived home, Nalva was cooking and had already picked them up earlier.
She showed me her very nice new glasses; they looked good on her. All I felt was that she did not understand or appreciate the value of having such good glasses that I would have to pay for the next couple of months.
I relaxed, watched a film for the rest of the day, and thought about what I had to do shortly. To finish the day, I bought a bottle of wine and cracked it open.
In bed by midnight.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
