The Port of Last Resort
I'm listening to a documentary about jews who fled Europe in the late 30s, early 40s to Shanghai, China. I missed the first part so I don't know why they felt that Shanghai was the 'last resort'. Why they didn't go to the USA, or to south Brazil. At the turn of the 19th century, early 20th, Brazil's population grew by millions as European and middle Eastern immigrants flooded into the country to seek their fortune in the Brazilian gold rush days. Germans, Arabs, Japanese, Italians, French and Spanish changed the culture of the, til the gold rush, Portuguese colony. Even though Brazil had all kinds of other cultures represented in its founding peoples, today most Brazilians speak Portuguese and move to a common rhythm. Brazilians are of one accord: Brazil is our country.
Like the people I met in Tanzania, Brazilians have a strong sense of their culture. Everyone dances the samba and funk. Most citizens are roman catholics, everyone recycles. Brazil has a very interesting recycling policy: every container of recyclable materials that a Brazilian household brings to the recycling center, once it is emptied, is refilled with fresh fruits and vegetables, for free! Can you imagine a better incentive to recycle? I surely cannot.
Of all Brazilian cities, I love Curitiba the most. It's a culturally diverse yet cohesive city with an unrivalled transportation system. 85-90% of the population use the Curitiba metro, rather than drive cars. And there's a lot of people who could afford cars, but as we say in Honolulu (where 'da bus' reigns), why drive when da bus goes everywhere, dirt cheap and runs every 15 minutes, if not sooner?
Some of the best programmers, engineers, and computer hardware manufacturers are Brazilian. I had the great pleasure to work with a couple of Brazilian techies on a contract in Miami Beach. Fatima was an electrical engineer slash network engineer. Her much younger, extremely handsome husband, was a mathematician slash programmer. Actually her husband was not a male chauvinist, even though they were muslims. He took care of their baby as much of the time as Fatima did. They were good people and I'm glad I knew them.
Well, I strayed off the subject... jews in Shanghai. But it's time for bed now, so to bed I go as tomorrow I head up early to Maryland for a business trip. hie hoe! and a hui hou!
Like the people I met in Tanzania, Brazilians have a strong sense of their culture. Everyone dances the samba and funk. Most citizens are roman catholics, everyone recycles. Brazil has a very interesting recycling policy: every container of recyclable materials that a Brazilian household brings to the recycling center, once it is emptied, is refilled with fresh fruits and vegetables, for free! Can you imagine a better incentive to recycle? I surely cannot.
Of all Brazilian cities, I love Curitiba the most. It's a culturally diverse yet cohesive city with an unrivalled transportation system. 85-90% of the population use the Curitiba metro, rather than drive cars. And there's a lot of people who could afford cars, but as we say in Honolulu (where 'da bus' reigns), why drive when da bus goes everywhere, dirt cheap and runs every 15 minutes, if not sooner?
Some of the best programmers, engineers, and computer hardware manufacturers are Brazilian. I had the great pleasure to work with a couple of Brazilian techies on a contract in Miami Beach. Fatima was an electrical engineer slash network engineer. Her much younger, extremely handsome husband, was a mathematician slash programmer. Actually her husband was not a male chauvinist, even though they were muslims. He took care of their baby as much of the time as Fatima did. They were good people and I'm glad I knew them.
Well, I strayed off the subject... jews in Shanghai. But it's time for bed now, so to bed I go as tomorrow I head up early to Maryland for a business trip. hie hoe! and a hui hou!
posted by Tante Waileka at 7:54 PM
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