''How can people say we don´t have a sense of humour'', a Brazilian friend protested to me, ''we have order and progress (ordem e progresso) plastered across our flag!''
My Brazilian family and friends have a great sense of humour, sarcastic, ironic humour about their own country....but woe betide anyone outsider who says a word out of place against it. This is a relatively young country and a very young democracy and, like so many other young nations, its identity is quite ´in your face`. Flags abound and large numbers of people routinely wear the country´s colours. One understands why and, of course, you can find similar manifestations of nationality in nations that feel a question over their place in the world or even their right to exist; and I would note my own nation of Wales in this group, Scotland and many others.
Some of the most vociferous critics of Brazil are Brazilians, as we saw amply demonstrated on the streets in June/July, but that does not impugn their sense of identity or pride, rather the opposite. In my experience, they tend to be fiercely proud and defensive of Brazil while desperately wishing that the country was better than it is; and I dare say we could apply that to many, or most nations around the globe to a degree....not least, the USA currently. There is no doubting a Brasilian´s sense of identity at the national level or, I find, or at the State level. Up here in the NE, there is serious, occasionally violent friction between Bahianas and Sergipanas, that is those who live in the larger and more famous Bahia State, to our immediate South, and those who live here, in Sergipe. In addition to that, with much of Brazil seeing the NE as the poor, uncultured and even backward region of the country Nordestinos, those living in the NE, are almost aggressively defensive of their Region and proud of its rich variety in cuisine, religion, music and dance that derives from the mix of indigenous, European and African influences. It is often impressed upon me that the NE is the real Brazil, unlike the urban sprawls of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the 'mini-Europe' South.
My friends here take pride in characteristics they deem to be Brazilian and particularly Nordestino. A carefree, ´chilled´ approach to life....taken to the degree of refusing to adopt more organised structures at home or sometimes at work, even when they agree it would be to their advantage because, 'that's not the way we do things up here'. This characteristic extends to time management. If one plans to meet at X hour or perhaps start a dinner party at X hour, best you allow an hour or two either side just in case....even if the invite is for a cooked meal. I have met similarly relaxed behaviour in Fremanagh, Northern Ireland as well as in other rural communities and in various states in the Arab world; but here, it is prevalent in the urban Aracaju as well as in the rural surrounding areas. One can either find it amusing, even enchanting, or quite maddening.
The tendency to have fun, to sustain a hedonistic life style is also proudly trumpeted as a Brazilian characteristic here in the NE, with the party spirit always to the fore. Carnaval is the single most important annual event in the country and many of the poorest families will start to save for next year´s Carnaval celebrations the day after the current ones conclude; or as soon as they sober up. Along with that comes the ability to dance, to dominate the dance floor with seductive styles such as samba and even forro if danced well. Though not in our household, Brasil´s unparallelled soccer prowess is also the source of what one might have said was unbounded pride, until the clamour against the World Cup last June; though that is about the administrative aspects and funding, not the game or Brazilian prowess per se.
Manifestations of community sense and spirit are also different here from what I have been used to elsewhere and, I am told, different from that which one would find in the South of the country. In these regards I am only talking Aracaju, as the smaller towns and villages outside the State capital are quite different and more akin to my earlier life experiences. From the moment we arrived in the City I was amazed at how dirty the streets were in many residential areas. It was explained to me that it was not the business of the residents, who may often be responsible for the littering, to keep the streets clean. In this area, one's home is one's castle and what happens outside is neither here nor there. Our house is bounded by a ten foot/3.5 metre wall, topped with electrified wire and barbed wire and we also have security cameras. Inside the wall is a much loved and pampered home, while outside is...well, outside. There is little, if any interaction with neighbours.
Few of our friends, in the City, have social groups built on place of residence but rather on family, friends from work or sport and, in our case, gay friends. I noted that circles of friends here rather reminded me of what I found in some Arab states, where wasta was key. Wasta, to simplify, is one's influence, power, social standing as measured by the composition of your social circle and the ability to leverage it to get things done; you might think of the saying, 'it's not what you know, but who you know', but have that as part of the accepted social order. People we know here are proud of numbering perhaps a judge, a policeman, the manager of this or that company amongst their friends; though the circle may also include members from the other end of the social economic scale, as ours certainly does. There is a lot of 'back scratching' in social groups and you know that, if you ask for a favour from someone, it is a given that you now owe one in return.
When we first took up residence here I was often concerned at volume level from our musics systems when we had a party. My husband and friends explained, again and again, that the behavioural norms here were the reverse of what my concern suggested. Rather than keeping volumes down and being careful not to disturb neighbours, who you hoped would return the level of care and concern, everyone exercises their right to do what they wish in their own home by cranking up the decibels, knowing that your neighbours will do the same; it is almost a measure of one's masculinity, it seemed to me.
The social mix in various areas is also different and fascinating. A house we know was recently sold for about R$1.75million yet, from its gate, you can see extremely poor housing, even squatter homes only a few hundred metres away. It may be that this juxtapositioning fuels the resentment and anger which contributes to the levels of crimes against property in the area. This is mirrored in some of the major cities, where luxury high rise apartment blocks may sit directly across the road from poor, shanty type communities.
I have, at times, asked about things like the numbers of stray dogs that roam the streets in residential areas or about occasions when homeless people set up 'tented' homes on the nearby grass park and soccer field but, of course, these things relate to things outside the wall and are not, therefore, our concern. If one pushes the issue, you will usually return to the argument, 'well, nothing would happen if we did complain so why bother', which seemed to be the default setting for most things prior to the exciting public awakening of June.
For me, there is nothing right or wrong in the aspects of community that I have highlighted above, they are just different; though not in an absolute way, usually, more different in degree or in ordering in different societies....and we shall discuss questions of cultural differences and cultural similarities and how the traveller or immigrant might approach them in the future, what I call my ideas for the traveller's mindset.
So, just a very few observations on different aspects of identity and community in Brazil and here, in Aracaju, and we shall return to many of these in greater detail and with personal examples in the days ahead.
Right. Many thanks for spending time with me this evening. I am really most grateful to you for dropping in.
Stay safe.
Dave
3 comments:
Walled houses or larger compounds were the way in the Middle East. The big difference there was they could pay to import street cleaners from Yemen and Indonesia. What we would call littering was a big problem with the local population. Drop the cup - someone else will come along to pick it up.
It seems sad, to those of us lucky enough to have come from societies where such measures are not necessary.
It is simply horses for courses, a case of what you are used to, but I still dislike seeing littered streets, people throwing their food and other waste into the public arena because it is outside their domain and therefore not their concern.
It provides jobs, my friends assure me.
Thanks.
Dave
Hardly quality jobs....
A tidy patch helps as the military knows.
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