Thursday, January 1, 2015

is God Brazilian? English puis FRANCAIS

God may well be Brazilian! 

Where else would an aircraft registered and operated by a US carrier and with an on-board staff all American, only two of whom speak Portuguese, make its final approach into Rio de Janeiro allowing passengers peacefully asleep over two seats to continue their rest until we reach the gate... In fact, the announcement for the final descent, as we flew over the Serra dos Orgaos mountain chain that surrounds Rio's Bahia de Guanabarra to the North, the announcement in which passengers are asked to "return their tray tables and seats to the full upright position", the Portuguese version was something like "estamos começando a nossa descida final pro Rio de Janeiro, Graças a Deus" - Thank God, we're approaching Rio!

Dedo de Deus (God's Finger - no one asks which) in the Serra dos Orgaos
that encircles the Bahia de Guanabara NW of Rio de Janeiro
3000-ft descent from the Serra dos Orgaos
and the beginning of Rio's Zona Norte suburb

Innocuous as it seems, a simple butterfly ("borboletta" - also the last fabulous "old" Santana album) fluttering between palm trees along the completely jammed highway is a most appropriate symbol of Brazilian Life. Behind the favelas in this poorest section of the City, the 3500-ft Pico da Tijuca towers above 20 square miles of forest nearly entirely surrounded by the City. The contrast between the butterfly's lightness amidst powerful turbulences of the air is a fitting symbol of the unique spirit of the Brazilian people: no others master freedom and nonchalance in the face of adversity so well as do the Brazilians. 


Indeed, we've been half an hour on the bus and we've barely covered one mile in an endless, mid-day bumper-to-bumper traffic jam. Friends had warned me, "this will be your first shocking experience in the "New Rio"". Sure enough, people walking along the higway are moving faster than we are...


Pico da Tijuca and favela near Galeao/Tom Jobim airport
Twenty or so years ago, returning from a day paragliding in the site of Marrica, 40 miles Northeast of Rio, we had run into a similar massive traffic jam and after but a few minutes, I was terribly car sick. I had spent the next three hours walking along the parked line of cars and stopping every so often to wait for my driving friends to catch up. In tyical Brazilian style, other curious drivers began to recognize me as we passed one another. Some would offer caipirinhas (heavily alcoholic - but traffic was all but stopped, so who cares?), pieces of meat they'd be grilling in their open trunks, and by midnight, when traffic finally began passing me without hope of meeting again, one in ten cars knew something about France. That was on a Sunday night, returning from a long week end on a two lane road. Now it's virtually the same on the 4 lane expressway at noon on a Monday - though we're finally moving even as I write this.

Favela on a promontory under flight path
"Brazil maravilhosa, cheia de tantas flores, ..." Despite the favelas and remaining poverty, despite the remote areas in this immense country where education and basic services have a hard time arriving, despite the persistent corruption (I would humbly argue that it is not disproportional to that than in most nations, and less "corporat-ised" than in the US) Brazilians are unequivocally proud to live in a land "abencoada por Deus" (blessed). 

This unity in "celebrating Life" is stronger among the people of Brazil than in any other nation I have known and one of the nation's greatest strengths!

Si Dieu existe, il y a bien des chances qu'Elle soit bresilienne! Dans quel autre pays pourrait-on imaginer que, lors de l'annonce de la descente finale sur l'aeroport de Rio, la seule hotesse non americaine a bord se permette d'ajouter au texte prescrit, et tout naturellement "Gracas a Deus..." "Grace a Dieu, nous sommes en descente finale pour Rio". Combien encore plus surprenant que l'equipage quasi totalement americain laisse dormir paisiblement ceux qui sont allonge sur deux ou trois sieges sans meme exiger qu'ils ne redressent leurs dossiers. Apres tout, cela ne gene personne, et certes, dans les pays latins (dont la France) les lois sont faites comme sauvegardes, pas pour etre systematiquement obeies au doigt et a l'oeil (sous peine de mort).
Une heure plus tard, nous sommes immobiles dans un embouteillage sans fin et au dehors de l'autobus (maintenant climatise!) un papillon vole legerement parmis les palmiers dans la poussiere qui approche 40 degres. Derriere un million de favelas dans le quartier encore le plus pauvre de Rio, s'eleve le Pic de Tijuca, haut de 1200m. Il domine une foret qui fait plusieurs dizaines de kilometres carres et qui se trouve desormais quasiment encerclee par la ville, un atout ecologique que les cariocas commencent a peine a considerer. La circulation automobile, au contraire du papillon, est epouvantable, meme en ce milieu de journee de lundi. Mais personne ne klaxonne ou ne s'enerve, on a toute la vie.
Il y a vingt ans, rentrant d'une journee de parapente a Marica, un village a une cinquantaine de kilometres au nord est de Rio, j'avais ete e proie a un abominable mal de coeur dans un semblable embouteillage. Rien a voir cependant, car il s'agissait d'un retour de long week end par une route de campagne a deux voies a peine. J'en etais venu a descendre de voiture et a marcher le long de la file. Chaque demi heurre environ, je m'arretais et attendais que me rattrapent les amis dans leurs voitures. Comme je repassais toujours les memes voitures, sous peu on m'offrait une caipirinha, ou bien un bout de grillade que l'on faisait sur le grill improvise dans le coffre. Lorsque le traffic se debloqua finalement, vers minuit, nombreux me saluerent tandis que j'attendais mes amis, et bon nombre de ces conducteurs et familles de tous azimuths avaient appris quelque chose au sujet de la France. Typiquement bresilien!
Nombre d'entre nous se souvient du tube celebrissime de Jorge Ben qui fit exploser la MPB (Musica Poular Brasileira) sur les radios francaisess vers 1974, "Pais Tropical..". Effectivement, malgre les favelas sans fin, malgre les diffficultes d'acces aux services de base dans des contrees tres isolees, et malgre la corruption qui semble enracinee a tout jamais (commentaires version anglophone), les bresiliens sont quasiment unanimes a se sentir "abencoado por Deus" (benis), une unite dans l'appreciation de la Vie a tout moment qui leur donne une force incroyable.
Quelle inspiration pour nous qui nous plaignons si souvent! Je promets d'essayer de moins raler en 2015 (...ambitieux!)
Je nous souhaite la liberte et la nonchalance du papillon.
N

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