Time to Say Good Bye São Paulo

I am almost about to leave for the airport. I had a wonderful time in São Paulo. And I would love to come back to this country one day. I have rarely met people that are so hospitable than Brazilians. There is a great deal of enthusiasm and passion for introducing foreigners to Brazilian culture and customs.

I would especially like to come back to visit Rio and the state of Bahia. All the great music and food seem to come from this Northeastern state, characterized by the most distinctive African imprint in Brazilian culture. I am thinking here especially about the martial art of capoeira. Just an incredible artistic expression. 

Some music recommendations from Brazil

On Sunday, February 5, I went to a concert of Elomar. He is a Brazilian composer from the Northeastern state of Bahia. He is absolutely fantastic. His compositions, which include several operas, are incredible. He performed with his son João Omar, who is an amazing guitar player.

The lyrics talk about Brazil's culture and history and make many references to Brazil's period of dictatorship. Unfortunately, I don't speak much Portuguese and rely on the translations of Brazilians. This was especially a pity during the concert. Brazilian singers love to talk during concerts. And Elomar talked a lot. He performs very rarely and seldom gives interviews. So there is a lot of mystic around his personality. But during the concert, he spoke and joked and enjoyed the audience's attention. He even made fun of one of the sponsor's of his concert, Itaú, a powerful Brazilian bank and the 10th largest bank in the world. But even without understanding much of the lyrics, the Elomar and João conveyed great emotions in their voices and guitar play.

Some other great Brazilian music: Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim (remember The Girl From Ipanema?), Baden Powell, Otto, Funk como le gusta (even saw them perform at Bourbon Street), Maria Gadu

Maybe there is a God?

I took this picture on my way home today.
It happened after days and days of big troubles with my phone camera.
But when I saw this sky, I pulled out the phone anyways and tried my luck.
Mystic.

The beauty and the beast?

Yesterday, I went to Guarujá, a city on Santo Amaro island about 100km from Sao Paulo on the Atlantic Ocean. Given the nice beaches at Guarujá, it's an attractive weekend get-away for many Paulistanos. During our drive, I took these two pictures less than 15 minutes apart from each other.

<-- The first picture shows the Atlantic Rainforest, which surrounds Sao Paulo and is considered the biggest urban natural forest in the world.

<-- The second picture shows Cubatao, an industrial city hosting more than 20 different industries mostly in the oil refinement domain. It was long considered one of the most polluted cities in the world. In Brazil, it is often referred to as the "Valley of Death". The city was known for numerous pollution scandals, which led to health problems for many of its inhabitants. Even though the government has in recent years invested a lot of money to clean up the pollution, the long-term environmental damages will remain a challenge for decades to come.

Some random political observations from Brazil:

The Brazilian Constitution is known for having 'constitutionalized' almost everything (like the retirement age or property ownership for foreigners). The initial text of the constitution even fixed the interest rate of the government at 12% (a stipulation that was amended during the first year of the constitution).

Brazilian parties get 'mandatory' radio and TV time that is attributed to them according to their representation in Congress. There is one hour of political programming per day distributed among the 10 to 15 parties represented in Congress.

Voting is compulsory for literate people between 18 and 70 years old, but optional for illiterate people and people between 16 and 18 as well as over 70 years of age. Illiterate people only received their right to vote in 1985. If you don't vote, you have to pay a penalty, which, in monetary terms, is actually quite low (4 BRL). But the Brazilian government keeps a recors of your voting participation. In case you ever want to work in a public domain, you need an impeccable voting record.

Like the German Fundamental Law, the Brazilian Constitution contains a so-called "perpetuity clause", which stipulates that federalism, regular elections, separation of powers and individual rights can never be abolished.

Architecture

<-- Orthodox Catholic cathedral built in Byzantine style in the 1940s

The city skyline is mostly made up of modern skinny skyscrapers. But there are some interesting clashes between old and new architectural styles.

<-- Sao Paulo Museum of Art opened in 1968

The streets are filled with comfortable, fast buses. Many people drive German and French cars. The iphone and blackberry culture dominates Paulista Avenue.

Food and drinks


Favorite snacks and food so far: Bolinho Lampião, Ceviche (even if it is not Brazilian, it's amazing here), Farofa (the toasted manioc flour mix served with every meal be it in a restaurant, bar or a university cafeteria), Pão de Queijo, Pastel (filled with mozzarella cheese, tomato and oregano), Fresh fried fish with onions and lime (on the beaches of Guarujá), Moqueca (famous sweet water fish dish with coconut cream from Bahia), Tapioca (Brazilian pancake made of manioc flour and filled with cheese and bananas)

Favorite drinks so far: Cachaça (well what else!), Batidas (especially batida de maracujá), Chope (a great light summer beer), Água de coco, Vitaminas (with milk) or sucas (without milk) mistas

Some random notes from Brazil


Just arrived in São Paulo ...

I am here to attend a Summer School on Methods in Political Science and International Relations. But no worries, I am not gonna bore you with dummy variables and heteroscedasticity diagnostics.

It is my first time South of Sarasota, Florida, in the Americas. So I was really excited to come here. I tried not to have too many expectations. But that's always tricky. And I obviously had some kind of image in my head of what I thought Brazil and specifically São Paulo would be like. Brazil is one of the most important emerging economies and THE commercial capital in the Southern hemisphere of the Americas. Brazil is known for tremendous inequalities between rich and poor. And, of course, it is a football champion (Brazilians refuse to call it soccer).

So far, São Paulo is not at all like the city I expected ...

It's a very modern, dynamic and vibrant city - but without the hectic and stress that I know from North American or European metropolises. The first day I went to the Universidate de São Paulo (here just affectionately called USP pronouncing an "I" after the "P"), I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that nobody ran down the elevators to catch the subway just about to leave the track. There are crowds and crowds of people in the subway, but there is no stress in the air. It's only a minority of people, which are probably foreigners. But since it is vacation time right now, some Brazilians have told me that this is gonna change after the Carnival.

The neighborhoods I have visited so far are very rich and expensive. They all seem very safe. I am staying right next to the subway station Paraiso on the South end of the famous Paulista Avenue. The police presence is as comforting as it is disturbing. But I have not walked through any poor neighborhoods. Most of the "favelas" are far from the city center. The Brazilians I have talked to told me that there is a stronger separation between rich and poor neighborhoods in São Paulo than in any other Brazilian city. Currently, there is a big problem with people being paid for setting fires in some of these "favelas". Certain people hope to benefit from this horror to buy the land to expand the city even more and make more money.

Prices are unexpectedly high. A subway ride costs 3 BRL (roughly 1.70 USD). Most of the cafeteria lunch platters at USP go for around 10 BRL (roughly 5.8 USD). Like many big cities in emerging economies, the prices have skyrocked. I am thinking here for example of Moscow. A Russian friend from the summer school just told me that it was cheaper for her to book a flight to Berlin and go shopping for Christmas presents in Germany than to stay in her home country and shop in Moscow.

São Paulo is a huge metropolis. The heart of the city counts 11 million people, the suburbs an additional 7 million people. That corresponds to about 22% of the entire German population. The streets, subways and buses are tremendously crowded. Approximately, almost 4 million people ride the subway in São Paulo every day. The first day it took me almost 3 hours (instead of 1 hour) to get home after school (Welcome to São Paulo). Traffic is one of the top themes among Paulistanos. In São Paulo, you live near where you work to avoid the traffic. At first, it was quite surprising to me that every public transportation bus counts two people working in it - a conductor and an operator. The driver is only responsible for driving, while the operator sits in the middle of the bus and controls all the tickets. Smart and safe. That would be a great suggestion for Québec, where drivers have to cope with crazy weather conditions during the winters. I was surprised to hear that quite a lot of Brazilian students own a car to drive to University. In São Paulo, there is, on average, one car for every two inhabitants. In order to try to reduce the number of cars driving through the city, the government has imposed a law that stipulates that every car can only be used 6 days a week. But the system is flawed since people just exchange cars with their friends and families.

The University campus is in the South West of the city. I have never seen such a huge campus in my whole life. Somebody told me that 55% of all the research in Brazil is produced at USP. And you can feel the thirst for quality education.