Brazil
is an incredibly colorful country, and I mean this in the sense that it’s multi-faceted: a country composed of
diverse populations, vast territories, a colonial past, a booming economy,
along with an energy-independent outlook—to give a brief blueprint of what I
mean. These attributes, absorbed
over a month’s time, give Brazil the capability to strongly impress itself onto
whomever wishes to take it all in.
My
Brazilian Experience began with learning that no toilet paper can be thrown in
the toilet—and that it’s a serious (serious) luxury to be within the reach of a
sewage system whose capacity permits toilet paper in its piping network.
Following this lesson came our language tutorial. Now the Portuguese language is not Spanish, and though the two have overlaps, it isn’t sufficient
no know just a little bit of Spanish and think “oh they’ll just fill in the
gaps” (a mentality which certainly seemed to stand out amidst our group). Aside
from Spanish, I noticed hints of Italian and French when listening folks speak
Portuguese. Anyways, during our
language session, we learned basic words like “Je scupe” (excuse me),
“obrigado/a” (thank you), and “bon gio/a” (good morning)—just the basics you
see, allowing plenty to be learned within the hostel and through the CIEE
members.
As
for the city of Sao Paulo, it’s a colossal landscape of apartment high-rises,
office buildings, and two-story houses whose driveways are gated from the
outside. Amidst these buildings is
the network of roadways ranging from small graffiti-ridden alleyways to large
highway status thoroughfares.
Traffic seemed innate to city, which I suppose is why small-duty
helicopters is preferred by the affluent folks trying to get from one place to
another. Parks, street trees, and boulevard greeneries were all quite common in
many areas of the city.
Ibirupuera, the Central Park feel-alike near our Hostel allowed folks to
breath cleaner air, exercise, enjoy the lawns, or simply experience the
compress and release of space while wandering from the small pacing trails out
into one of the many expansive fields.
Like mega-city, parks play a crucial role, and Ibirupuera fulfills the
role of an urban green-haven: where you can escape the asphalt and
concrete. And I swear the
temperature would always drop by a degree or two on entering the vicinity.
The
city of Sao Paulo has strong economic value. More than once did I hear it described as “the economic
engine pulling Brazil forward”, with a GDP per capita twofolds greater than any
other region in Brazil. As a
state, Sao Paulo is responsible for one third of Brazil’s $2.47 trillion (USD)
GDP—and I’m sure sugarcane/ethanol production plays a significant role in this
figure, considering Sao Paulo State produces one fifth of the world’s ethanol
(in 2008). A city of 11 million
people, Sao Paulo is estimated to be composed of 111 ethnic groups—by far
Brazil’s most populated and ethnically diverse city. There are also large concentrations of people from other
nations: for example, the largest concentration of Japanese (outside of Japan)
live in Sao Paulo.
While
there, it was clear that the city was in slight turmoil—along with other areas
of Brazil. On our first tour with
Gustav, we went by the City Hall and noticed how heavily protected the building
was from the outside, as multiple policemen were standing guard. But looking closely at the building’s
façade, we could see a few windows had been smashed in. Riots had been occurring in Brazil for the
past few weeks prior to coming—and they were most prevalent in large cities
like Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro.
In Sao Paulo, the bus and train prices were increased by 20 cents,
which, to the people of Sao Paulo, was the tipping point to take street action:
to express many long-held frustrations regarding the socio-political-economic
decisions being made by the government.
But at for the bus/train fares, there are Sao Paulo citizens who simply
cannot afford to spend an extra 20 cents when having to use public
transportation a couple times a day.
Furthermore, it’s clear that as it as, citizens living on the outskirts
of Sao Paulo—one’s who need to commute the most—are also citizens living on
minimal expenses, so these fare hikes are working directly against those who
are most reliant on public transportation.
As I learned from
Gustav and the newspapers, these fare hikes were implemented to raise money
towards hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
As it turns out, Brazilians of (predominantly) the middle class are
enraged about designating their taxes to develop large arenas across Brazil rather than putting it towards schools,
hospitals, and other social welfare expenditures. “It’s really scary man,” Gustav said to me during our first
conversation, “we need hospitals this moment. What will happen when a soccer
player injured himself? We’ll have no
place to treat him!” Of course Gustav knows what to say to get his points
across, but at least he puts it in perspective, albeit exaggerated.
Finally,
these protests are directly attacking individual political figures who’ve been
disfavored long before the fare hikes. Corruption in the government, with hints of cronyism and
nepotism, though sometimes very vague, seem innate to the Brazilian
Government. How has the son the
former President Lula procured for himself the world’s largest beef company?
This is one of Gustav’s complaints. There is also the issue of Renan Calheiros, longstanding
President of Senate who, just a few months ago, was petitioned to be expelled
from office through Facebook—and in fact received more votes against him than the
number he obtained during his election! I found that interesting. Nonetheless, Calheiros remains
comfortably seated in his senate position, so folks aren’t too pleased about
that.
We
then discussed plenty about Brazil’s energy infrastructure, both in class and
out of class. We learned that back in 1970’s, due predominantly to the Oil
Embargo of 1973, Brazil promised itself to become more energy self-reliant,
thus reducing its exposure to any foreign energy “shocks”, often occuring
through political and economic reasoning.
This all occurred during the military regime, a so called “brutal” time
period when the dictators had full say on what could and could not be developed—and
as we learned in class, the hegemonic dictatorial mentality was to develop its
own energy (self reliant) infrastructure while building its economy. Conveniently, both these ends seemed to
be met using Brazil’s natural resources.
I
once read that Brazil’s territory covers roughly 49% of Latin America,
possessing recognized wildlife reservoirs such as the Amazon. Brazil decided to
utilize its fertile lands and rivers for economic development, constructing
large-scale hydroelectric dams while yielding incredible amounts of sugarcane for
ethanol and food additives.
Currently,
Brazil owns the world’s 2nd and 4th largest hydroelectric
dams, and is in the process of constructing the Belo Monte, which is estimated
to be the world’s 3rd largest.
Itaipu is the world’s second largest hydroelectric dam, operating at an
installed capacity of 14,000 MW. Tucurui
operates at a capacity of 8,370 MW.
Both dams caused communal upheaval in areas where flooding
occurred. Of course, communal
resistance takes place amidst any dam construction, along with eventual
displacement, flooding, groundwater contamination from the construction
process, methane emissions from the flooded brush, disruption of migratory fish
cycles (with consequential problems with food accessability). But these seem to be the “small-scale”
impacts; worries of larger magnitudes include inter-border disruption of water
flow, which can inevitably lead to serious multinational turmoil. Then there’s the question of who gets the electricity: does it go to
the industrial sector, or to the residential sector?
As we discussed in many of our classes,
there are social, environmental, and economic “sphere” influenced by
developments in the energy sector, whether positive or negative. So what this trip to Brazil really
reinforced is the necessity to weigh these pros and cons to understand what
actually viable. With solar panels we find problems such as intermittency,
heavy costs (long payback periods), energy-intensive construction processes,
material competition (since silicon is highly valued for computer use), and, as
we learned from the sub-secretary of energy, thievery! Cons for wind
energy—which is bleak at the moment yet estimated to grow—basically comes down
to intermittency, construction, and the NIMBY mindset, which stands for “not in
my back yard”—implying the esthetically displeasing reality of living in sight
of a large turbine; turbines are also known to depress real estate values as
well.
Actually visiting
a hydroelectric dam, a solar plant, Bosch’s flex fuel engine facilities, and a
methane capturing landfill was quite eye-opening. Exposure to these processes required for modern living is a
real experience, that is, to see all the labor and equipment required for modern
quasi sustainable living.
