According to the organization, Make Roads Safe, and reported by The New York Times' Minute Waltz, every 6 seconds someone is killed on the roads of the world.
This got me to thinking. And I just read in today's local Bauru daily newspaper, that, on one of the highways that runs from Bauru to another city called Iacanga, someone dies every 10 days.
Now, this is a disturbing fact, just on the surface, but when combined with the fact that this statistic is fatal accidents, it becomes truly frightening when you think about how many total accidents must occur daily on that particularly small, two-lane road.
I have written in the past about my experiences driving in Bauru in particular, and this week, in one of my Conversation classes at CNA Language School, where I teach ESL, I tried to get to the roots of the problem.
The consensus was that individuality, and the belief that one's life is so stressful that everyone is just getting in the way when you are driving, leads to so many of the accidents on today's roads.In the textbook we use, the writer notes some instances in Philadelphia, in which one driver, cut off, shot another driver in the head. Another, in the same city, was over a parking spot.
As I drive to work today, I am certain that I will feel the adrenaline rush when someone cuts me off, or runs a red light, and I try not to blow my horn at them. Then, I am sure I will let my mind wander for a moment, longing for a city where I don't need to drive to work, because I have the greatest subway system in the world: New York.
Showing posts with label Notes from Underground: Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Notes from Underground: Brazil. Show all posts
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
A New Wild West?
Yesterday, in Brasilia, Brazil's capitol, Marina Silva, Minister of the Environment, resigned. She had worked for Lula's PT (Worker's Party) for over five years, but had battled recently with senior aides, as well as governor's of some of the most controversial states in the battle between agrobusiness interests and Amazon rainforest protection. While not exactly saying that she felt stepped-on, she did say that this time, unlike in the past, her decision was permanent. As Folha de S. Paulo noted, this is seen as a victory for the soy and ranching business, and especially the governor of Mato Grosso, who has called for an increase in deforestation, as a solution for the inflation of food prices. Silva, an ardent advocate for the different tribes in the area, as well as increased protection and penalties against illegal lumbering, was publicly at odds with the governor, one of the most powerful in Brazil.
BBC, as I just read in Folha de S. Paulo, is on top of things in the Amazon, as well as Indonesia, another literal hotspot for the burning and destruction of rainforests worldwide. The photo attached to this post is from yesterday's issue of BBC online, and shows the drastic demarkation between farmland (mainly soy) and the Amazon, in the state of Mato Grosso. This report, combined with the numerous reports both nationally and internationally regarding the acquittal of Bida, accused of ordering the death of Dorothy Stang, who tirelessly defended natives and the rainforest in the state of Para, has put the focus back on what has become today's Wild West, and one of the most important battlegrounds in the fight to control climate change while feeding a world increasingly dependent on Brazil for food. Numerous reports here in Brazilian periodicals have noted that areas with high levels of illegal lumbering also have the highest numbers of homicide per capita. With the aforementioned acquittal of a powerful farmer in the death of Stang, many fear that it is open season on dissidents an voices for the Amazon.
To check out the fascinating slideshow on BBC, complete with shocking captions and stories about those who make up the Amazon reality today, go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7399991.stm
Do not miss this revealing and disturbing look at one of the most important places in the world.
BBC, as I just read in Folha de S. Paulo, is on top of things in the Amazon, as well as Indonesia, another literal hotspot for the burning and destruction of rainforests worldwide. The photo attached to this post is from yesterday's issue of BBC online, and shows the drastic demarkation between farmland (mainly soy) and the Amazon, in the state of Mato Grosso. This report, combined with the numerous reports both nationally and internationally regarding the acquittal of Bida, accused of ordering the death of Dorothy Stang, who tirelessly defended natives and the rainforest in the state of Para, has put the focus back on what has become today's Wild West, and one of the most important battlegrounds in the fight to control climate change while feeding a world increasingly dependent on Brazil for food. Numerous reports here in Brazilian periodicals have noted that areas with high levels of illegal lumbering also have the highest numbers of homicide per capita. With the aforementioned acquittal of a powerful farmer in the death of Stang, many fear that it is open season on dissidents an voices for the Amazon.
To check out the fascinating slideshow on BBC, complete with shocking captions and stories about those who make up the Amazon reality today, go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7399991.stm
Do not miss this revealing and disturbing look at one of the most important places in the world.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Waste Culture
I like to read a monthly from São Paulo called Piaui. It has some pretty crazy reports, satire and political commentary. One story in this month's issue is entitled: "Trash is Relative."
Here it is, translated to the best of my abilities:
"The United States? In a recession? This country is blessed! They have no idea what poverty is."
For the Ganaese Desmond Antubam, maintenance man at Port Authority Bus Terminal, or New York's bus station, the best thermometer of American society is not Wall Street, but garbage. Antubam works at the largest bus terminal in the US and the busiest in the world. In operation since 1950, Port Authority takes up to Manhattan city blocks. Every day, 200,000 passengers pass through it. People come and go, and almost every one leaves a trail, generally found in the trash cans. It could be a crumpled up piece of paper, but it also could be clothes, toys, newspapers, magazines, shoes, bicycles, radios, TVs--and all in good condition.
For eighteen years, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 3 in the afternoon until 10 at night, Desmond Antubam empties the cans in the terminal. Between unhurried sips of tea at a Starbucks, he gave us a taste of his experiences.
Last Christmas, at the entrance to the station, Antubam noted a young woman who was talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend. She held a giant wrapped present and a bouquet of flowers, but, from the sound of things, had been forgotten there by the guy on the other end of the line. The conversation heated up, and Wham!, she hung up on the bastard. And, without thinking twice, she threw everything into the can-- the present, flowers, and the phone. Antubam, a good-natured, calm and soft-spoken guy, waited until the end of the tantrum and, slowly approached the woman: "Miss, your cell phone went into the trash."
"Fuck off, you and that asshole! He bought the phone and I'm not going to get it! If he wants to, he can buy another!" And, thus said, she left in a huff.
With extreme serenity, Antubam, fished the cell phone out of the trash and stuffed it in his pocket. The device, which was worth more than $200, wouldn't stop ringing. He ended up answering it, but didn't want to talk to the boyfriend, who kept shouting on the phone. He let it ring for a day, until her decided to return it to the owner, for a reward. He told the guy: 'I saved your cell phone; the flowers and the present are gone.'
For Antubam, waste has its limits. he was born in Accra, the capitol of Ghana, in a family with 9 siblings. His father died when he was 10 years old, which led to the beginning of a life full of hardship. Later on, Antubam would study graphic design and move to Nigeria, a better-off country than Ghana. There, he obtained an American visa, but the intermediary, as if it want't enough that he had been paid $ 1,700 commission, stole his passport. He was able to arrive on American soil via the Bahamas, in 1985.
Antubam married for the first time with an American and got his green card. After two years, they separated and he traveled to Africa, where he met his present wife, today 27 years old. The couple have three children, ranging in age from 10, 4, and 2. The middle child remained in Africa, with his grandparents, due to a technical problem with registration. Due to this problem, Antubam must prove that he is the father and for this has not been able to bring his son to the US. 'Immigration here is very complicated.'
As far as his eldest daughter, he says: "She took a bite out of her bread and threw the rest away. Times like these, I remind her that I paid almost $3,000 to get ehr out of Africa, and not to see her waste bread." The girl retorts like a good American: at school she it told to throw away any leftovers. This public health rule extends to restaurants in the bus terminal. After 9:30 pm, it is Antubam who takes away the hundreds of bags of fresh food discarded by 16 eateries in the station. All of it gets thrown away.
Since the workers are authorized to hold onto anything that's thrown away, he has co-workers who send entire containers full of unused food to Africa. During the summer, sweaty T-shirts go into the trash. Unneeded coats, the same. When it rains, umbrellas ge their turn. sneakers that don't fit in the suitcase? Garbage. A bicycle that can't be taken on the bus? Trash. Parents that give up on carrying the baby stroller leave the burden right there, in the garbage can. At the time of lockers, before 9/11, the harvest was even more plentiful. Bags and bags were forgotten way past the three-moth pickup dealine. After this point, it became trash. One co-worker found a gold necklace that earned him $2,000.
Antubam finishes the tea. Before saying farewell, he takes a moment to give his two cents on today's big issue: 'I would really be happy if a democratice candidate won these elections.' In the New York primaries, his vote went for Obama, but if Hillary survives the Obama wave and gets nominated, he'll vote for her, even though he didn't like seeing her crying on TV: 'Leaders that lead don't cry."
Here it is, translated to the best of my abilities:
"The United States? In a recession? This country is blessed! They have no idea what poverty is."
For the Ganaese Desmond Antubam, maintenance man at Port Authority Bus Terminal, or New York's bus station, the best thermometer of American society is not Wall Street, but garbage. Antubam works at the largest bus terminal in the US and the busiest in the world. In operation since 1950, Port Authority takes up to Manhattan city blocks. Every day, 200,000 passengers pass through it. People come and go, and almost every one leaves a trail, generally found in the trash cans. It could be a crumpled up piece of paper, but it also could be clothes, toys, newspapers, magazines, shoes, bicycles, radios, TVs--and all in good condition.
For eighteen years, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 3 in the afternoon until 10 at night, Desmond Antubam empties the cans in the terminal. Between unhurried sips of tea at a Starbucks, he gave us a taste of his experiences.
Last Christmas, at the entrance to the station, Antubam noted a young woman who was talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend. She held a giant wrapped present and a bouquet of flowers, but, from the sound of things, had been forgotten there by the guy on the other end of the line. The conversation heated up, and Wham!, she hung up on the bastard. And, without thinking twice, she threw everything into the can-- the present, flowers, and the phone. Antubam, a good-natured, calm and soft-spoken guy, waited until the end of the tantrum and, slowly approached the woman: "Miss, your cell phone went into the trash."
"Fuck off, you and that asshole! He bought the phone and I'm not going to get it! If he wants to, he can buy another!" And, thus said, she left in a huff.
With extreme serenity, Antubam, fished the cell phone out of the trash and stuffed it in his pocket. The device, which was worth more than $200, wouldn't stop ringing. He ended up answering it, but didn't want to talk to the boyfriend, who kept shouting on the phone. He let it ring for a day, until her decided to return it to the owner, for a reward. He told the guy: 'I saved your cell phone; the flowers and the present are gone.'
For Antubam, waste has its limits. he was born in Accra, the capitol of Ghana, in a family with 9 siblings. His father died when he was 10 years old, which led to the beginning of a life full of hardship. Later on, Antubam would study graphic design and move to Nigeria, a better-off country than Ghana. There, he obtained an American visa, but the intermediary, as if it want't enough that he had been paid $ 1,700 commission, stole his passport. He was able to arrive on American soil via the Bahamas, in 1985.
Antubam married for the first time with an American and got his green card. After two years, they separated and he traveled to Africa, where he met his present wife, today 27 years old. The couple have three children, ranging in age from 10, 4, and 2. The middle child remained in Africa, with his grandparents, due to a technical problem with registration. Due to this problem, Antubam must prove that he is the father and for this has not been able to bring his son to the US. 'Immigration here is very complicated.'
As far as his eldest daughter, he says: "She took a bite out of her bread and threw the rest away. Times like these, I remind her that I paid almost $3,000 to get ehr out of Africa, and not to see her waste bread." The girl retorts like a good American: at school she it told to throw away any leftovers. This public health rule extends to restaurants in the bus terminal. After 9:30 pm, it is Antubam who takes away the hundreds of bags of fresh food discarded by 16 eateries in the station. All of it gets thrown away.
Since the workers are authorized to hold onto anything that's thrown away, he has co-workers who send entire containers full of unused food to Africa. During the summer, sweaty T-shirts go into the trash. Unneeded coats, the same. When it rains, umbrellas ge their turn. sneakers that don't fit in the suitcase? Garbage. A bicycle that can't be taken on the bus? Trash. Parents that give up on carrying the baby stroller leave the burden right there, in the garbage can. At the time of lockers, before 9/11, the harvest was even more plentiful. Bags and bags were forgotten way past the three-moth pickup dealine. After this point, it became trash. One co-worker found a gold necklace that earned him $2,000.
Antubam finishes the tea. Before saying farewell, he takes a moment to give his two cents on today's big issue: 'I would really be happy if a democratice candidate won these elections.' In the New York primaries, his vote went for Obama, but if Hillary survives the Obama wave and gets nominated, he'll vote for her, even though he didn't like seeing her crying on TV: 'Leaders that lead don't cry."
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
NINA (No Irish Need Apply)
from Folha de S. Paulo, Sunday 3/30/08:
The government of Ireland decided to mistreat the Brazilians arriving in that country. (By deporting 57 Brazilians in the first three months of the year, mainly under the suspicious "law" that says anyone traveling to the EU must carry a minimum of 75 Euros a day for the duration of their stay, even if they are registered to attend a conference where that amount would not seem to be necessary.) In a case resolved by Policia Federal (Brazilian FBI), half a dozen natives of Ireland were in turn deported, focusing on people who were working in Brasil with a tourist visa.
It's a shame that Ireland has forgotten the time when it exported 5 million of its wretched, destroyed by hunger and lack of work. These embattled masses were accompanied by stereotypes as barbarians, brawlers, and drunks.There was a period when American commercial establishments put up signs on their doors stating: 'We do not accept blacks, Irish or dogs.' The madames of New York and London advertised for housekeepers with a code: "NINA," (No Irish Need Apply).
This short piece only reinforces the fear of a world ever-increasingly smaller, and the inability of countries to remain 'pure.' Whether it is the US, Ireland, Spain, or Italy, amnesia is running rampant. The immigrant of yesterday is the know-nothing of today. And so it goes.
The government of Ireland decided to mistreat the Brazilians arriving in that country. (By deporting 57 Brazilians in the first three months of the year, mainly under the suspicious "law" that says anyone traveling to the EU must carry a minimum of 75 Euros a day for the duration of their stay, even if they are registered to attend a conference where that amount would not seem to be necessary.) In a case resolved by Policia Federal (Brazilian FBI), half a dozen natives of Ireland were in turn deported, focusing on people who were working in Brasil with a tourist visa.
It's a shame that Ireland has forgotten the time when it exported 5 million of its wretched, destroyed by hunger and lack of work. These embattled masses were accompanied by stereotypes as barbarians, brawlers, and drunks.There was a period when American commercial establishments put up signs on their doors stating: 'We do not accept blacks, Irish or dogs.' The madames of New York and London advertised for housekeepers with a code: "NINA," (No Irish Need Apply).
This short piece only reinforces the fear of a world ever-increasingly smaller, and the inability of countries to remain 'pure.' Whether it is the US, Ireland, Spain, or Italy, amnesia is running rampant. The immigrant of yesterday is the know-nothing of today. And so it goes.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Notes from Underground...aka Brazil
Immigration. For thousands of Brazilians every year, this is their dream: to leave Brazil, for at least a while, and find a way to save up, live their lives, and adapt to, another country. The most popular choice, is, unsurprisingly, the US. The story, unfortunately, is not exactly paved with gold, and Folha de S. Paulo, ran a number of pieces last Sunday about the experiences, history, and reality of Brazil-US immigration. I have translated a short example of the great work done by Brazil's best daily.
'The Sacrifice of Immigration isn't Worth It'
''Nobody believes us when we tell them that the situation in the US isn't that good. They insist in going despite our warnings, and our acquaintance in Brazil say, 'But, you're there!' Sure, they see the photos we send them of happy times. The think we've found a goldmine and have an easy life."
Soon, Alexandre Ferreira, Paranaense from Curitiba, will be able to present his neighbors with his most powerful argument: at the beginning of 2008, he'll return to Brazil with his wife Scheila, 30, and daughter Alissa, a month old.
There arrives a moment when everyone realizes that the sacrifice of entering the country illegally through the Mexican border, unrelenting sun beating down, and then living with the fear of being deported, far from home, from relatives, isn't worth it anymore," says Francisco 'Sampa,' president of the Brazilian American United Association.
"It takes two or three years for a person to pay back the coyote's price--the crossing costs between $7,000 and 15,000. Before this, he or she doesn't go back, but already realizes that there is no way to save anything in a short period of time," relates Alexandre, whose family shared a three-bedroom apartment in Newark with their friends Jose Leandro ferreira, 33, Thaigo Borges, 21, and Claudiomir Perotto, 33, all from Parana.
Perotto' intention was always to get a green card. He gave up after repeated failures, in Congress, of the immigration reform that George Bush proposed, shelved in June.
'The Sacrifice of Immigration isn't Worth It'
''Nobody believes us when we tell them that the situation in the US isn't that good. They insist in going despite our warnings, and our acquaintance in Brazil say, 'But, you're there!' Sure, they see the photos we send them of happy times. The think we've found a goldmine and have an easy life."
Soon, Alexandre Ferreira, Paranaense from Curitiba, will be able to present his neighbors with his most powerful argument: at the beginning of 2008, he'll return to Brazil with his wife Scheila, 30, and daughter Alissa, a month old.
There arrives a moment when everyone realizes that the sacrifice of entering the country illegally through the Mexican border, unrelenting sun beating down, and then living with the fear of being deported, far from home, from relatives, isn't worth it anymore," says Francisco 'Sampa,' president of the Brazilian American United Association.
"It takes two or three years for a person to pay back the coyote's price--the crossing costs between $7,000 and 15,000. Before this, he or she doesn't go back, but already realizes that there is no way to save anything in a short period of time," relates Alexandre, whose family shared a three-bedroom apartment in Newark with their friends Jose Leandro ferreira, 33, Thaigo Borges, 21, and Claudiomir Perotto, 33, all from Parana.
Perotto' intention was always to get a green card. He gave up after repeated failures, in Congress, of the immigration reform that George Bush proposed, shelved in June.
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