There are several reasons for being in Brasil: first, it is at a fairly happy stage that the UK seemed to be in when I was a child: when there was still thoughtful conservation of the countryside and historic buildings, and no heedless 'town planning'; there were still individual businesses with the personal touch, before the 'supermarket' giants sprang up from their dung heaps (along with all the 'celebrities'); secondly, the weather (getting a tan off the mid-winter sun); all the space, filled with natural beauty; the gathering prosperity (the GB£ and US$ have halved in value against the Br$R in five years), and not having to watch 'up close and personal' the disintegration of a civilization and a way of life - Gone With The Wind Without The War (without much of a struggle really): morally, socially and economically. "The falcon cannot hear the falconer".
The trouble is that, from as far away as this, it actually seems clearer to me than to my cocooned friends back there what is going on as the Ye Olde England joins the "Glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome".
It has been noted many times that Brasil involves a learning curve but this is not the place to go in to all that. Let's just say that "This is Brasil" covers every unusual occurrence. But I love it here.
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Being a man that live in more than one country and one that also travel quite a lot, I very much appreciated this post. It's interesting to hear about choices like these.
ReplyDeleteLovely. I'm envious.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I've considered a similar sort of exile for myself, for those same reasons, in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Eastern Europe.
But part of me wants to stay here, to partake in the struggle that is surely coming.
I started various initiatives to: save trees; preserve buildings; to stay the mindless juggernaut of profit-driven 'progress' but it made no difference and I decided that people do indeed deserve the governments that they get and just decided to find somewhere more compatible with my thinking. I know one East Coast American who has recently moved to Chile to live and work because he just got fed up with it all. As for the struggle to come, I think that it is largely an economic struggle (in the USA and Europe) against the consequences of successive governments, for decades, shuffling off responsibility onto their predeecssors and shutting their eyes to reality; lacking the guts to bring in necessary but unpopular measures: avoidance just to keep the votes; cling on to power. Enough of that for me. Moreover, I think that the social and cultural battles are really lost and the cult of ignorance has got a deadly grip upon the nations' throats: exemplified by the mindless and ready absorbtion of all the rubbish that abounds in all the media and shops.
ReplyDeleteI know of two American families who recently moved to Uruguay, for these reasons.
ReplyDeleteI can think of worse places than Punta del Este to live out one's last years.
Uruguay might be a good choice, in many ways, but it can get a little cold. Here, a jumper fends off the worst of the cooler weather and I've never really known the rain (even though, sometimes, hard), to be less that fairly warm. Some locals seldom wear more than shorts; come rain or shine. Note the use of the semi-colon.
ReplyDeleteI always do.
ReplyDeleteBreathes there a man with so soul so dead,
ReplyDeleteWho never to himself hath said,
This is my own my native land!
I am not sure I would make a good migrant. I like to be close to nearest and dearest.
Kingstonian - I do understand what you mean (sometimes with painful gusts of nostalgia) and I do miss certain people, places, events, things - but Skype and e-mails keep me in very good touch with family and friends; as for the places - they are being bent out of shape and exploited: whatever happened to 'The Green Belt'? and I prefer to remember them as they were. As for the events, I just recall that, I often used to regret attending and the things - well, one learns to make do and to appreciate different things.
ReplyDeleteNJS