Twice the size of India….home of the greatest rainforest in
the world, as well as the greatest river system in the world, and the biggest
waterfalls, by volume….extraordinary diversity and richness of its
inhabitants…..descendants of those millions of slaves brought to Brazil from
Africa, and of the Portugese landowners who enslaved them. Then there are those
who have come to Brazil voluntarily, and in huge numbers, from the late
nineteenth century to the present day. Italians, Poles, Lebanese, Germans,
Japanese, Koreans and many more…..fostered one of Brazil’s most marked
characteristics, tolerance…..
The Yanomami are one of two hundred or so indigenous tribes
still left from the days when the first Europeans set foot in the country.
There were estimated to be some five million Indians in Brazil when the
Portugese began to settle here early in the sixteenth century. Today, after the
depredations of slavery, disease and loss of land to loggers, farmers and
miners, they number no more than 300,000
Manioc, or cassava, is one of the oldest cultivated foods
known to man, but it requires careful preparation as it contains toxic
elements. Rendering it safely edible is a laborious and time-consuming process
involving peeling, grating, grinding and boiling.
….the Yanomami…. The bond between mothers and children seems
particularly strong. Small babies spend most of their time in flesh-to-flesh
contact with their mothers, and I have hardly heard any of the crying or
scolding that we in our enlightened world might take for granted.
Brazil is the largest exporter of beef on the planet, and
seventy-five percent of the deforestation has been to clear the ground for
cattle.
…..twenty percent of all the world’s fresh water is
contained within the Amazon Basin.
Stained and grimy from the heavy rainfall, they make Belem
look less like Lisbon and more like Calcutta. Both are at the heart of big
river deltas, and concrete and high humidity don’t mix well, creating the
impression of cities going mouldy.
The 2,500 kilometre long (1,500 miles) Araguaia, a river
which all Brazilians regards as especially magical and magically beautiful.
Because of the blessed combination of the Andes and the
Amazon Basin, Brazil generates ninety-five percent of its water needs without
any recourse to dams or irrigation. This, together with abundant land and a
generally benign climate, gives it enviable potential for cultivation on a huge
scale.
Brazilians tend not to be prohibitive and proscriptive;
their inclination is to accommodate each other….part of the reason might be
that, unlike most countries, they don’t seem to have a natural enemy to rally
against. Since the end of the devastating Paraguayan War of the 1860s, Brazil
has avoided any major conflicts……Their standing army is small. They have a few
fighters, a destroyer or two.
Alto Paraaiso de Goias….where a seam of crystals, 200
kilometres (124 miles) long and 30 kilometres (18 miles) deep, creates a force
field of energy which is said by those who live there to have powerful effects.
UFOs have been sighted there, and on a NASA photo of the earth from space the
area was reported as giving off an unmistakable glow.
…I ask Tatiana if its quite acceptable to be a witch in
Brazil. She nods briskly. The Brazilians are very tolerant of witchcraft, In
fact, they’re tolerant of almost everything. Especially in alto Paraiso……
Brazilian tourists are already out in force. And, being
Brazilian, half of them are as close to naked as is permissible. In this land
of the uninhibited, the dress code is as elastic as the tiny thongs which cover
less than a leaf in the Garden of Eden. Provided nipples (female only) and
genitals are concealed, the rest of the body can be joyfully unencumbered.
…..its very rare to see anyone in Brazil being angry.
Fizzy drinks are hugely popular in Brazil…..
Slavery continued in Brazil for much longer than most
countries……
On Brazilian beaches the buttocks are the most admired parts
of the female form and they’re referred to as melões – melons…….Beauty criteria
are always interesting, and I’m fascinated to hear….that it is the strap marks
from a bikini that drive Brazilian boys wild..
Brazilians are night people…..The forro dance steps, done
well, are amazing to watch. The couples dance close and the movement seems
entirely to come from below the waist, feet moving in a rapid pattern, while
hips gyrate rhythmically in a loose and sinuous, constantly rolling movement.
This is extrovert, sexy stuff and the best dancers are marvelously agile…
…..no event in Brazil is complete without a sound-system…..
….A Portugese expedition….was blown off course while trying
to sail round Africa………they stepped ashore on 22 April 1500…..in southern Bahia
State……..A later ……Portugese expedition found this to be an abundant source of
wood they called pau-brasil, which
produced a valuable red dye which glowed like hot coals (brasa in Latin). So the new-found land took its name from its chief
product. Brazil
This potent mix of a relatively small number of Portugese, a
much greater number of indigenous tribes and a huge number of slaves created
modern Brazil…. The city of Salvador ….remains the third-biggest city in
Brazil, with a population of over three million, eighty-two percent of whom are
black. Salvador is the biggest African city outside Africa.
Do the Brazilians have a word for self-conscious? I cant
even think when they’d ever have to use it.
When the slaves were brought over to work on the plantations
they were deliberately discouraged from practicing their own religion, in case
it became a rallying point for resistance to the landowners. So instead of one
all-pervasive belief system, different elements of African tradition became
interwoven, both with each other and then with the prevailing Catholicism of
the Portugese. Candomble is a syncretic religion, faith-based and animist at
the same time, a melding of Europe and Africa, of gods and saints.
In Brazil almost everyone believes in some kind of religion
or some kind of superstition. Atheism is considered profoundly weird.
The Candomble ceremony is at times powerful and at times
mystifying, but the complexity and richness of quite a commonplace event struck
me as another instance of the passion and vitality with which black Brazilians
approach their religion. The act of worship has to move and involve the
participants in something special. What impresses me is that it also has to be
fresh each time. In Candomble no one quite knows exactly what will happen when
the drums begin.
……Brazilian means extrovert.
…..my guide Sophia’s observation that in Brazil everyone
wants to believe in something.
Hans has lived in Brazil for fifty years, and what he likes
about the Brazilians is that they’re flexible; they adapt and move on. What he
also admires is their sense of a unifying national identity.
For 200 years after the first European strayed by chance
onto the coast of Brazil, the wealth of the country was largely generated by
the world demand for sugar. This was serviced from the huge slave-worked
plantations in the North-East of the country. Then, in 1693, something happened
to change all that. Reports came in from Sao Paolo of an adventurer who had
returned from the mountains with traces of gold……… The gold rush that ensured revealted
that the mountains were also rich in diamonds and other precious stones as well
as apparently inexhaustible reserves of bauxite, manganese and iron ore. God
had rewarded them beyond their wildest dreams. Churches were built and
profusely decorated. ………Agriculturally blessed as well as minerally rich, it
became the new commercial epicenter of Brazil. The capital moved from Salvador
to Rio de Janeiro in 1763. The transfer of power from the North to the South of
Brazil was complete. It has never been reversed.
….despite being the fifth-largest country in the world,
Brazil has no peaks higher than 3,000 metres
She is from Peru and works in silver. Which is the one thing
Brazil has always lacked.
In Brazil everyone has a nickname………
…..one of Brazil’s most delightful characteristics – a
complete absence of embarrassment.
……..Portugese expedition…..In early 1502 …..found themselves
at the mouth of what they thought was a great river……It was a January …they
called their new discovery Rio de Janeiro – ‘January river’…….It turned out not
to be a river at all but a deep, wide bay.
And yet sexual display is less overt than in Europe. There’s
less nakedness in street adverts, and topless sunbathing is still frowned upon.
I see very few couples enmeshed on the beach. There’s plenty of show, but not a
lot of action….For all the apparent openness of Brazilian society, sex is still
at the heart of one of its most secret, lucrative and – from what I can gather
– universal phenomena: the love hotels, or simply, the motels. Dotted all over
the city, and indeed the country, are establishments where for anything from
thirty minutes to thirty hours rooms can be hired for sex. And not necessarily
sex with prostitutes. They’re used by boyfriends and girlfriends seeking privacy…..
husbands who fancy other people’s wives….most important thing is that they’re
discreet. And discretion is not something I would have put high on my list of
Brazilian qualities.
Brazilians are the biggest consumers of poetry in the
world…..
The samba rhythm seems hardwired into every Brazilian
….the two great passions of Brazilian life – football and
samba. Football started at the top and seeped very quickly down to all levels
of society, whereas samba started at the bottom and became the ultimate in
sophistication.
….an historian, Sergio Buarque de Holanda, as suggesting
that the Brazilian contribution to civilization is ‘cordiality’. The negative
side to all this, thinks Tim, is a national inability, or simply
disinclination, to deal with anything bad…..the manic depressiveness at the
heart of the Brazilian national character. ‘It pats itself on the back
effusively with every victory, and torments itself with every defeat.’
….eighty percent of Brazil’s population lives within 400
kilometres ….of the coast
I admire and rather envy the Brazilians’ ability to eat,
drink and be merry in public without feeling the need to be in any way
aggressive or objectionable.
The Amazon Basin occupies forty-two percent of Brazil’s land
area. Yet its combined population is less than that of New York City. The
southern and south-eastern states of Brazil comprise only sixteen percent of
the land area, but sixty percent of its population.
Brazilian women, he thinks, like to dress more daringly than
their European counterparts. If they’ve got it, they like to flaunt
it……Cleavage seems almost obligatory in Brazil.
Sao Paolo is a helicopter city. As traffic mires the
megapolis in endless congestion, the rich and successful take to the skies.
….In 2009, Time magazine reported a
traffic jam 200 miles long.
In Brazil, he says, ‘If you want to be respected, you have
to be informal.’… Brazil’s relaxed, less uptight attitude to life…….
Brazil doesn’t have a history of social or political
violence.
This southern ‘tail’ of Brazil contains some of the richest
land in the country and some of its most prosperous cities. If the North-East
can be called African Brazil, then the South is predominantly European Brazil.
Apart from some commuter services in Sao Paolo and Rio,
Brazil is a passenger railway wilderness……….Brazil is a country where those who
move either fly or drive, or take enormously long bus journeys.
Brazilians love a good hug.
Alex, holding the calf down with his knee, finds claw marks
in its side which have been inflicted by a jaguar. ….Alex …sprays it with
antiseptic. In the days before chemicals, he tells me, they would have used
dried cow dung to protect the wound.
As we’ve travelled round I’ve been struck by how little
curiosity the Brazilians seem to have about their own country. Many times in
the journey I’ve wanted to share with them the beauties we’ve seen here. The
power of the Amazon, the splendor of the rainforest…….And more often than not
my Brazilian friends nod their heads politely and ask, ‘What’s it like?’
Posts
