Walked up to the local supermarket this morning to pick up a few items and when I got there the store music was North American Christmas carols. So, while shopping for YPE liquid dishwashing soap among other items and between listening to “Let It Snow, Let It Snow” and “O Come All Ye Faithful”, my brain was asking “Where are we?”.  After all these years, Christmas here still seems like an imported cultural event, a Disney presentation or Hollywood set getting ready to film some scene for an old black and white Christmas movie.

Christmas was buying a real tree, decorating it and then smelling the pine scent when you returned home from school.   Of course you had to have cold weather, college football on Saturday and pro ball on Sunday.  All this had to be set in motion by Thanksgiving.

In November 68, I was in Rio processing out of Peace Corps. I had been at the US Embassy for some reason and on the way back to the Hotel Florida (the Peace Corps hotel) near the Palácio do Catete just off Flamengo Beach, I decided to take the long route, which went through the Flamengo Aterro (park) and passed by the Monumento aos Pracinhas (Monument to Brazil’s soldiers who died in WWII).  I saw a large group of kids, maybe over a hundred, milling around with several adults trying to keep them under control.  As I was watching, a helicopter (not a common sight back in 68) buzzed the area at low altitude.  The kids went crazy.  It was then that I could see that the chopper was carrying Santa Claus; red suit and long, shiny, gray beard. When the chopper landed, Santa bounced out and disappeared into the crowd of kids.  It was hot, it was humid, it was the tropics!    And there was Santa.

Volkswagen invests in Brazil

UPDATE 1-Volkswagen to pour $3.5 bln into Brazil ‘10 to ‘14 | Stocks | Reuters.

Belo Horizonte For All

Luc’s posts cover a wide range of subjects.  For anyone visiting Belo, lots of interesting information here for you and he posts regularly.

New Blog: Deep Brazil

ABOUT:

Brazilian born, French citizen, married to an American – I am your ultimate globetrotter. I lived most of my life in São Paulo – the crazy, impossible, lovely 17-million-people metropolis -, but travelled extensively around Brazil in search of sanity.

After concluding my studies (Biology and Journalism) at Universidade de São Paulo, I worked for several media projects – daily papers Folha de S. Paulo and Gazeta Mercantil, and Veja weekly magazine – and non-profit organizations – such as Instituto Socioambiental, Instituto Akatu and Greenpeace. I also worked with former congressman Fabio Feldmann, an outspoken environmentalist, and several Brazilian corporations, namely Banco Real (Santander Group).

During my two-year-period living in Paris, in the nineties, I worked for Radio France Internationale. Since 2004 I have lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

I authored or co-authored several books on Environmental issues – all of them published in Portuguese. I was also honored by the 2002 Reuters-IUCN Press award for Latin America and by the 2004 Prêmio Ethos.

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Brazil Real ‘Most Overvalued’ Currency, Goldman Says (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.

Ford plans its largest ever investment in Brazil: 2.3 billion USD — MercoPress. Ford Motor Co. announced it will spend 4 billion Reis (2.3 billion US dollars) to expand in the growing Brazilian market, the largest investment it has made in the country.

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• Site Ford do Brasil
• Ford do Brasil – Wikipedia

Unfortunately, this hasn’t improved a great deal over the last 20 years.  When corruption comes up in conversations, Brazilians say “You have corruption everywhere.”  This is true, but not to the same degree and with little to no punishment.  To make it to the first tier of world powers, Brazil must resolve these problems.  Until then, she will be an important Region Power with international influence, but not a World Leader…..in my opinion.

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The Brazilian Federal Police announced that beginning December an unmanned “spy” aircraft will over-fly the shanty towns of Rio do Janeiro at a height of 7.000 metres, well out of range from the drug gangs and trades that last week shot down a police helicopter killing three men on board.

• Brazil begins “spy” aircraft surveillance against organized crime in favelas — MercoPress.

Brazil Takes Off Now the risk for Latin America’s big success story is hubris

Interesting article that gives a summary of how Brazil got where it is and the obstacles it faces to get where it wants to be.  There are two links to other articles on Brazil that should also be read.

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The young man on the far right, who evidently is studying at the University of Kansas, wrote an informative article on drinking as a teenager in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  Gives you some insight into Brazilian culture.

You seldom see drunks here and when you do, they are usually knocking back shots of cachaça at their local Boteco (cheap bar).

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