Journalled on Friday, 14 July 2023 | Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro: 23 degrees, warm and slightly overcast.
It is Friday at the end of the working week. Work this week has been relatively light compared to other weeks.
I wonder whether this has been because Nalva is travelling or if just everything has worked relatively well without any drama or confusion.
Returning to what I had written before, two is good, three is a crowd, and remembering the flat is very small, for one is perfect, for two is ok, but for three can be complicated. Three people in a confined area are similar to three rats in the same situation.
Eventually, they will start to attack each other.
Yasmin was curious if her mother would be returning today or tomorrow. I sent Nalva a message yesterday asking about it, and she confirmed it for today. She said she would be leaving São Paulo at about 1 pm, so she should arrive in Rio and be home at about 7 pm, but because of the traffic, it was after 10 pm.
The main motorway or highway in American English that links São Paulo and Rio is the Via Dutra, and it is not one of the best roads in the world, given the amount of heavy traffic that passes through it every day.
Being English, I am used to a motorway having three lanes; in the past, when I lived in São Paulo as a consultant, I would return every weekend to see Jessica; at that time, Jessica was only one or two years old.
At that time, most of the Via Dutra was one lane in each direction, which was nothing for the volume of traffic passing through every day. That was more than thirty years ago. I am confident that many parts of the road have been widened or improved.
Still, considering it is one of the most critical roads in Brazil, linking São Paulo and Rio, I do not believe it has been enhanced to the level it should be, given the amount of traffic and, by comparison, European or American highways.
It is also apparent that PT, the newly re-elected socialist/communist workers party in power, breathes and instils a feeling of mediocrity again in Brazil. That mediocrity, more or lessness, is acceptable and ok where it should not be.
False promises to the public, missed deadlines, and unfinished projects leave Brazil in a state of abandonment due to a lack of responsibility. Unfinished government projects are a form of mediocracy. The lack of transparency and accountability for their actions, and sometimes the actions that should have happened but never happened, is also a form of mediocracy.
They exhibit mediocre quality, lack responsibility, and fail to be accountable for their administration. If they have even a fraction of integrity, they are only interested in controlling and manipulating people within the government to conceal or avoid taking responsibility for their incompetence. The term ‘integrity’ does not appear prominently in Brazilian politics.
I came to Brazil more than thirty years ago to establish an office for exporting large yacht production, more specifically, super or mega yachts; thirty-plus-metre gin palaces built for the rich and famous, one-off bespoke projects where the cost of skilled labour is an essential factor in the final price, making a country and industry like Brazil extremely competitive.
The low, competitive labour costs and the strong European culture in the south of Brazil, coupled with good infrastructure and a strong supply chain for the shipbuilding industry, made everything favourable.
It is much the same as it was thirty years ago. Nowadays, I am still determining. For me, the tables have turned for the worse. Brazil, already a heavily bureaucratic country, has become even more so, with the government seeking to add more red tape, making it more difficult for companies to operate efficiently and agilely in an ever-changing market. In terms of infrastructure, Brazil is much the same as it was thirty years ago.
Very little has been realised in terms of infrastructure, and very little has improved, while the demands and necessities of an ever-growing society have. Brazil is an ever-growing monster that never stops growing, is always hungry, constantly agitated, and always restless; if you do not feed or calm it, it gets nervous and fights.
We all live in hierarchical pyramid structures, a country, a company, a family, etc., where influence flows from the top down through the ranks or layers below, like water going down a mountain.
If what comes from the top is good, favourable, and proactive for the rest of us, then it is perfect; those positive, clear values, actions, and intentions will repeat and flourish through all the other layers. However, if the top is rotten, spoiled, corrupt, evil, etc., it will negatively affect the lower layers.
This has happened in Brazil before, and it is happening again. We had sixteen years of PT, which destroyed the country, and now they are back to do the same again, and if not worse this time. I had always been the first to defend Brazil when someone criticised or spoke badly about the country.
I love Brazil; I have a long history and story with Brazil. I have two Brazilian daughters here, but I am very disappointed in this country. For me, Brazil is terminally sick, and I do not see it getting better, only worse, like any terminal case.
Nalva arrived at about 10 p.m. I had already bought and uncorked a bottle of wine, which we finished before bed.
In bed by 11.30 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
