Back from a long break!

First and foremost I would like to apologize and thank my readers for continuing to read and check our blog for updates.
The long break was necessary, we endured a personal life changing event, along with a harder than ever tough transition period back to Brazil, not entirely in Brazil yet, but working on it.
So, my dear mother, who I loved more than life itself passed away after a long and hard battle with a rare lung disease acquired from poisonous black mold (don't take mold for granted, it's a deadly force that medicine still knows little about!).
My mother suffered so much that at the end, believe it or not, I was shamefully relieved that she finally had a break, and could rest, and still feel bad about that weird relief, I wanted nothing more than to spend long happy years with my mother now that she finally accepted and respected the fact that I was born gay and this is not a "phase".
She spent 45 days in intensive care, doctors telling us each and every day that day was the day...an unimaginable roller coaster of emotions!  I had left Gilson alone at our house in the Boston area and stayed in São Paulo with my family.
See, this event hit Gil and I particularly hard, because back in 1998, when we left our happy Brazilian life, friends and family and embarked on this self imposed exile in the US, we did it for peace of mind, if you read our first posts, you will understand the whole family drama, my mother gave us a real hard time in the beginning. She was raised in a boarding Catholic School, and had a real hard time accepting the fact that her oldest son was gay.
Long story short, we finally made peace after so many years of pain and bitterness, and destiny had this sour surprise for us, finally, now that my mother was ok with who I am (the way I was born), and we were ready and looking for jobs getting ready to return home, no more reason to continue in our long time self imposed exile, she passes away.
Honestly, I am still trying to figure out/digest this one, if there is/ was something to be digested. I am trying to understand if there is a life lesson to be leaned here, if any.
This past weekend was really, really cool/relaxing/awesome, I spent with people that I knew very little but I already felt in love with just like if they were my life long friends from the days of high school.
We had a wonderful time in the beautiful mountains of Rio de Janeiro, great cool weather, we talked in front of the fireplace with good wines, yes, plural, great cheeses, an awesome Raclete maker, and great company into the wee hours of the night/morning.
Petropolis is up in the mountains region of Rio de Janeiro, a must visit if you are in Brazil and can go, only a short 40 minutes beautiful drive from the "cidade Maravilhosa", a visit to the Imperial Museum is going to be the highlight of your visit to Petropolis, I highly recommend.
One of the awesome visitors to this great weekend was our blog's God mother, Rachel, from Rachel's Rantings in Rio blog, we were guests of our also great and dear friend Mrs. Born Again Brazilian, Rachel basically kicked my behind, told me to snap out of it and get back to blogging, eh eh eh, I love her, and here I am, back in contact with you, our loyal readers that have followed our life dramas and funny moments of our split life between Brazil and New England from the beginning.
I am really looking forward to meeting flaky awesome friend/fellow blogger Alex from Bossa Breezes in Rio tomorrow, if he doesn't flake on us, yet again, he is swearing this time "e pra valer" and he will show up, possibly and hopefully Tom, from Eat Rio blog if he is around and available and Jim from "Qualidade de Vida", if we are able to get hold of him in time to make it work.
First blog post written from my best gadget friend, the iPad, I have to say, it as somewhat smooth, and it got easier by the end of the post.

Abraco a todos
Ray

Brazil cracks down on sweat shops!

Sweat shop in Sao Paulo- NO MORE!!

 
The governor of Sao Paulo just approved a new law this week that will make it impossible for companies who condone in any way, slave-like labor anywhere in the state.
States cannot create it's own labor laws in Brazil, so the creative "Jeitinho Brasileiro" here was pass a law that will cancel the registration with the state ICMS system, which will block said companies from issuing invoices and making their operation impossible.
This piece of news comes as a huge relief to me, thinking of all the abusive, greedy business people that take advantage of poor immigrants who come to Brazil dreaming of a better future for themselves and their children.
The irony here, is that the staggering majority of the abusive sweat shop owners are immigrants themselves, mostly from Korea and a few middle easterners as well, and the immigrants they lock up in their sweat shops are usually from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay.

Read more here...

Santa Maria Tragedy

Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

To say that we are both devastated with the awful news from Rio Grande do Sul is the understatement of a lifetime, we are sadden beyond words.
I have been watching the Santa Maria tragedy on the news, reading it on newspapers, magazines, blogs, you name it, it's everywhere. And it has affected people worldwide, from Mexico, to the UK and the United States to Thailand and New Zealand. Nightclubs are being inspected, some shut down, and fire safety rules and regulations are being reviewed and upgraded.
Not to mention Brazil, 2 nightclubs were closed at the infamous Rua Augusta on the night following the fire, 10 nightclubs were shut down in Manaus, 9 Municipal Theaters closed in Rio de Janeiro, only 1 passed the city fire inspections this week.
A much stricter set of laws stalled in the Brazilian Congress since 2007, are now being pushed forward for an immediate vote.
Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president, met with majors of the largest Brazilian cities this week and pressured for tougher enforcement of fire safety laws, the laws are actually good, but enforcement is crucial.
I am honestly tired of hearing Brazilians and foreigners alike blinded by dramatized and overblown claims of corruption in Brazil for every and any problem that arises in front of them, yes, corruption exists, yes, it is bad, very bad, but it is just not to blame for every single thing that goes wrong with this country.
I have read some claims that most businesses in Brazil operate without licenses and these claims are just not a fact, not by a long shot.
There are the few, rogue exceptions for sure, two night Clubs were closed in Sao Paulo, that is not the rule, and very much an exception.
Brazilian businesses in general do follow the rules, principally in Sao Paulo and other Southern states, the staggering majority of them have operating licenses (called Alvara in Portuguese), are safe, and corruption is not as generalized or prevalent as perceived by some foreigners and yelled out by some Brazilians.
Keep in mind, many Brazilians are prone to exaggerated drama and have a tendency to multiply negative aspects of Brazil by 10 fold, trust me, I am not one of them.


Gross Negligence, poor judgment, a sad chain of events

- The Santa Maria Night Club, had until recently 2 exits, when it was last inspected by the Fire Department, in 2012.
- They also had no "flammable acoustic" insulation, the toxic foam was installed as recent as the end of 2012, because of neighbors complains of noise.
- Two fire extinguishers near the stage had their dates falsified by a rogue employee, who pocked the refill money, and lied to the owners about it.
- Band members used a cheap 1 Real version of the outdoor pyrotechnics opposed to the more expensive 35 Reais safe for indoors type.
- The recent renovation also created a maze of corridors, right next to the main exit, leading to restrooms without windows.
- Crowd containment bars were recently installed right in front of the main entrance/exit on the sidewalk, creating an extra barrier for an emergency evacuation of a large crowd of people.
- A line of Taxi Cabs were parked right in front of the Night Club at the time of the fire, forming another barrier wall that slowed down the crowd even more as they desperately tried to exit the flaming building. (Due to the recent Brazilian ZERO tolerance for drinking and driving, most people nowadays will get a ride to a night club and ride a taxi on the way back home).

What a night club in Brazil must look like to pass fire safety inspections according to current laws!

MORE DETAILS ON FIRE SAFETY IN BRAZILIAN NIGHT CLUBS HERE

As you can see, there was an unfortunate series of disgraceful poor judgment decisions and events that had little or nothing to do with corruption of city officials and more to do with negligence on the part of the owners, night club workers, band members, and yes, a slow and inefficient inspection conducted or not yet conducted since last August by the city of Santa Maria's fire department.
My point here is not to discussion the existence or prevalence or corruption in Brazil, my point is to not be blinded by dramatic claims that Brazil is corruption ridden and there is nothing anyone will ever be able to do about it, that is not true, and we can and must do a lot to change it constantly, the first step is to dramatized and exaggerate and second, never, ever give up, hope and change is not just a popular sounding campaign slogan, but has to be a way of life, it most certainly is for me.
I have not seen or read any real connection between any act of corruption and the Santa Maria fire yet, that could very well change in the future, but as we stand, a lethal combination of gross negligence, poor judgment and bad timing cost the lives of 236 victims, but make no mistake about it, Brazil is learning from this tragedy and fire safety will be greatly improved in that country in the years to come.



Ray

Proud to be Brazilian

Yes, I know, at times, we can have a lot going against us, hey, who doesn't! But, in the end, we always manage to pull through, one way of another, we make it work.
This makes me think about the "Jeitinho Brasileiro", (which in my opinion is not a way to go around the rules or law but rather a creative way to solve challenges), so here we go, to all the naysayers, it looks like the preparations for the Soccer World Cup are turning out just fine, ports, subways, new bus corridors and train systems, 30 Airports being expanded and remodeled, widening of highways and bridges, and 12 new soccer stadiums are being completed as promised, maybe it won't be air tight perfect, but Brazil will definitely be ready to host the World Cup in 2014.
I just spoke with a personal friend from childhood who is one of the lead engineers on the reconstruction of the Maracana Stadium in Rio, he is actually not even from Rio originally, he was brought in from Belo Horizonte, apparently all the other civil engineers in Rio were busy in other projects, he is happy and making a lot of money, plus he loves Rio.
He also told me the Maracana project is moving ahead full force and they will be done on time, and most likely will even finish ahead of schedule, he really likes the way things are progressing.
My friend pointed me towards this video and I thought it is really cool and it showed me a side of Brazil I didn't know, a lot of progress, a lot of work, hope you enjoy it.
I have to say this video made me even more proud to be Brazilian!!!
What a beautiful country!!! (Can't wait to get back!!)   ;)
Brazilians are working hard and I am confident the country will be able to show the world a great World Cup!!!

Abracos a todos

:)

Ray

Brazilian Automotive History

The Brazilian Automotive history started in the early years of the 1900's, however, most cars were assembled in Sao Paulo and Rio with imported parts, Ford was one of the first car factories in Brazil in the beginning of the 20th century, mostly with imported parts.
Until the 1940's when the first 100% National Parts Car Factories popped up around Brazil.
One in Rio de Janeiro, the Fabrica Nacional de Motores, a subsidiary of the Italian Alfa-Romeo, and then Wyllis Overland (Jeep) and Mercedes-Benz, both in my hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, right on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
It amazed to learn on the versatility of the JEEP, it was used for everything, I love their SUV of the day, they were used for all sorts of Agricultural applications, Ambulance, Police, you name it.
The video is only about 10 minutes long, and it's narrated by a Brazilian who speaks English very well, however, you can tell his Brazilian accent.
The Jeep had a fundamental part in the vast interiors or Brazil, it was a versatile 4 Wheel Drive, with 100% Brazilian made and very affordable parts and also of easy maintenance.
The Brazilian automotive industry today has come a long way, cars made in Brazil have, by law, to have 70% of parts MADE IN BRAZIL, or they have to pay imported car tax, and the government is looking to raising that limit to 90% in the next few years.
Brazil today already has the largest number of car factories anywhere in the world. Ford has it's largest and most modern car factory in the world at the state of Bahia, with it's own harbor and has a great capacity to produce and ship cars all over the world, economically and efficiently.
It is also very profitable to produce cars in Brazil, the highest profit margins of any country, a paradise for business people, not so fun for the consumer, who ends up paying a ridiculous price for small (crappy if you ask me) cars. Taxes are also a good portion of the high price of cars in Brazil, but the manufactures profit margin is also abusive.
There are pressures from the people to adequate the car prices to a more realistic level.
I personally think it will take a few years for the industry to actually lower their prices in Brazil, if they do it at all. Let's hope for the best
Meanwhile, enjoy this short movie in English and learn a little bit more about Brazil.


PS: There is also Video's number 1 and 2 on the Brazilian Automotive History, but they are both in Portuguese, hence my choice the number 3 video of this series (#3 is in English).

Abracos

Ray

Weather in Brazil

Ok, so it's sunny in Rhode Island again, after a couple days of snow and snowed in, we are cheerful and happy and decided to share with you a joke about cold weather in Brazil and how Brazilians from each state react to it.
In case you are not 100% on your Portuguese yet, ( Alex not you, you are a Portuguese speaking hipster, creating new words in Portuguese and luring innocent Brazilian mulatas into marriage to get your Brazilian Green Card)  the states made fun of in the video are Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul.
The humorist describes how people from each of these states react to a certain weather forecast and temperature. It's not accurate, and it was created to make you laugh.
I almost had a small aneurysm from laughing so hard.
Hope you enjoy it!!  :)

Abracos
Ray

Anthony Bourdain-Layover-Sao Paulo

I really loved this show! REALLY!! :D
First and foremost, the great MERCADO MUNICIPAL where dear friend "Born Again Brazilian" and I had the classic Paulistano Mortadela Sandwich on my last trip to the city, I will tell you more about that later.
Now, if you want/need a crash course on Sao Paulo, this is the best 47 minutes you will spend learning about the city.
Gil and I have been watching the entire "Layover" series and this is our absolute favorite, hands down.
A few things to note from the video, they confirm what I have been telling you fine folks for a while, PIZZA is for DINNER only, PERIOD!!!!!! Remember our "Word's Best Pizza" post? :)
I love UNIQUE Hotel and stayed there a couple of years ago and highly recommend it. If you don't want to spend R$1800,00 per night, at least go there for a drink or dinner and make sure to ask for CHURROS com DOCE DE LEITE, the best I have ever tried. They bring you a tray with baby churros and a little pot with delicious doce de leite do dip in, you will have a great Sao Paulo experience.
Mocoto Restaurant at Vila Medeiros sounds awesome, my mouth was watering the entire time Anthony Bordain was eating there, I have never tried "Northeastern" Brazilian food, but it sounds like a great opportunity to try and learn more about it, after all, so many Northern Brazilians have migrated to Sao Paulo since the 1970's, they are a part of the city now and it looks like they are in for good.
Sao Paulo was formed mostly by ITALIANS, JAPANESE, PORTUGUESE and GERMANS, but saw immigrants from all sorts of countries such as Spain, Lithuania, Greece, Ukraine, Austria, Danish, England, Russia, Poland, you name it.
Sao Paulo had more immigrants speaking several different European languages in the beginning of the last century than Portuguese, yeah, Portuguese speakers were a minority in the 1920's, we truly are a city of immigrants.
Ok, I will say no more, the show is really informative, a great summary of Sao Paulo.
Enjoy!

Abracos
Ray

Jewish Grandmother Discusses Circumcision

On my most recent visit to Sao Paulo I had an interesting conversation with an expat friend of mine and was surprised to find out that she had no idea circumcision was not practiced in Brazil, at all.
Yep, in case you didn't know, every Brazilian men you are looking at, is not circumcised.
Even baby boys born with a birth defect called phimosis, no longer need circumcision, Brazilians developed a treatment with steroid topic creams that stretches the foreskin and avoids the costly and dangerous procedure of circumcision.
Gilson's nephew is 5 years old and had to go thru the treatment with the topic steroid cream and was able to avoid circumcision, his sister was so happy to have been able to keep her little boy intact.
It made me realize, that despite being a fundamental difference between most American men and Brazilian men, the staggering majority of people are not aware of this fact on both sides.
After the eye opening conversation with my friend, I wanted to ask my sisters and other women friend in Brazil if they had any idea most American men are circumcised.
They had absolutely no idea and were horrified with the fact. WHY would they do that to perfectly healthy babies? was the common impression I got from asking Brazilian women if they were aware of the widespread practice in the US.
I think many American parents understand now that there is absolutely no reason to circumcise their infant baby boys in 2012, you know, now that we all have soap and indoor plumbing and we don't live in tents in the desert with no plumbing and no infra structure for normal hygiene.
I know many parents in the US who feel extremely guilty for having practiced infant male circumcision on their baby boys, but it's done and it's too late to reverse it, most usually say they were young and naive and listened to their doctors or nurses recommendations, you know, the same ones who got a couple thousand dollars for performing the 5 minutes long surgery for them.
It is frequent topic of discussion in the US nowadays, mainly because Insurance Companies no longer consider circumcision medically justified and do not cover the procedure.
Young parents now are faced with the costly decision of paying 3 to 5 thousand dollars out of pocket if they insist on performing a circumcision.
So, in the past 5 years alone, circumcision rates in the US have dropped from around 90% circumcised down to only 60% circumcised, and many are forecasting this number will drop well below 50% in the next few years.
We have seen 3 baby boys born on our street in the past 4 years, and none of them were circumcised, one couple from across the street even came knocking on our door and asked us what did we think about it, considering they knew we are from Brazil and they found out on the Internet that we don't practice circumcision. We told them, just don't do it, if you are concerned your son will feel bad because he looks different from other boys, let him do it when he grows up if he chooses to do it.
That way you give him the choice, over something so important on a man's life.
They did NOT circumcise their baby boy, and 2 other neighbors followed their example.
I saw this video today on Facebook and found this to be a very eye opening conversation.
Hope you learn something from it like I did.

Abracos

Ray 

Sidewalks in Brazil

Our dear fellow blogger Jessica, from FIQUE TRANQUILO wrote this cool post about Sidewalks in Brazil, more specifically in her town of Santos, Sao Paulo, which is located about 1 hour away driving from the city of Sao Paulo and South America's largest and most important harbor.
Awesome patterns and just so you all know, this is an art form imported into Brazil from Portugal. You can find this cool mosaic type sidewalk all over Lisbon.
If you ever watch them repairing one or setting up a new mosaic sidewalk, it's labor intensive and it does require skills, each stone is shaped in a certain way with small chisels and hammered into place carefully so they don't brake but fit together perfectly to form the desired design.
Here is her post:

Sidewalks

One of the things I love here in Santos are the sidewalks.  This pattern is the most common, and I think it's called Rio, because they have this design all over Rio de Janeiro as well.

You can read more on Jessica's post HERE.

Enjoy

Abracos

Ray

Extremely Scary Ghost Elevator Prank in Brazil

This Brazilian Prank on You Tube went completely viral in the US today, it even hit the nightly news.
So, in case you missed it, here we go!
Born Again Brazilian, the doll on the girl's arm reminded me of your fear/horror of Brazilian dolls!
Ha! LOL!!! :)

Abracos
Ray

40 pounds Heavier in 7 hours

Ok, continuing on our European journey thru Belgium and Amsterdam.

So this is how I was feeling as we waited for our Amsterdam train :(

 
I described on our last post the actual flight and the great conversation I had with Georgie, the awesome lady from Belgium that I met on the flight from New York to Brussels.
So, the first impression when arriving in Brussels was that we were 40 pounds heavier, and EVERYBODY smoked, even before we got out of the luggage carousel area, smoke filled that air, and I don't think I had felt that since sometime in the late 80's, not indoors anyway.
See, we didn't actually ate like pigs and gained 40 pounds each on the flight from New York to Brussels, but everyone was so much thinner in Brussels, that we felt so much fatter...instantly... :(
The Brussels Airport felt a bit small to me, it was like we were landing in Ribeirao Preto, a city in the state of Sao Paulo, it really didn't fell like the capital of Europe.
The Airport was nice, don't get me wrong, everything was functional, clean, modern, I think I just had the wrong expectation regarding the size of the Airport and the city.
By the way, there was a great train station right under the Airport where you could choose between the ubber expensive "Thalys", the fast train, or the regular train.

This is the Thalys, not the train we took

 
Our options were, 200 Euros a piece for a one way ticket from Brussels to Amsterdam or 90 Euros each on the regular train. The difference was 30 minutes sooner arrival in Amsterdam, so we passed, decided to try the "Thalys" on a longer journey when time and comfort justified. The trip between Brussels and Amsterdam is about 2 hours on the regular train (our option) and 1:30 minutes on the "Thalys" .

The spacious Thalys, definitely our choice on the next European trip

 
As a travel trip I must say that after a little research I realized that the Thalys can be a lot cheaper if you buy in advance, depending on the day and how far in advance we could have paid as little as half the price for a nice, quick Thalys trip from Brussels to Amsterdam, the problem was that we were flying into Brussels to catch the train to Amsterdam and the Thalys does not change tickets and does not refund if you are late. Long story short, if your flight is late, you miss your train and has no recourse for a refund, we were flying American Airlines and our odds at being late were too great, it turns out we were right, our flight was 3 hours late leaving New York and we would have wasted 200 Euros if we had purchased the Thaly's tickets in advance.
Gil and I bought this awesome little" backpacks" at Ikea, I know what you are thinking,  I am a big critic of Ikea, but the darn store is growing on us :)
What I love the most about it is the durability, and flexibility of this compact backpack on wheels, plus the hidden pull out handle, and a zipper attachment on the outside for your laptop. You can't beat it for under 100 bucks.
We always try to fly without any checked luggage nowadays, principally if we have a connection, which is a certain way to be delayed or to loose luggage.
As soon as we arrived we headed to the underground train station and bought our tickets on the first train to Amsterdam.
Gilson always tells me how complicated trains can be in Europe, and my only experience with trains in Europe up to that point was in London and it was a breeze.
Well, think again my friends, Gilson was right, I had no idea how complicated trains in Europe can be, principally because they speak ENGLISH in London and I think that city is very tourist friendly, not the case elsewhere, train stations announcements are not in English.
However it was easy to find people who spoke English in Brussels (Airport), so we hoped on our train, which included a connection on a small town just outside of the Airport.
There were no direct trains from the Brussels Airport to Amsterdam, so we had to either take a city train to downtown Brussels, and then take our connection or take a train somewhere else where a train to Amsterdam was going to pass.
The train we caught at Brussels Airport was to a town called Machelen, Belgium, just outside of the Airport, a short 10 minutes and 2 stations down, from Machelen we would tke our connection train to Amsterdam.
Machelen is a suburb of Brussels, an old train platform that has been there for almost a century, again, cigarette smoke filled the air. I just couldn't stand it and we decided to walk away from the smoking crowd and wait for our train at the extreme end of the platform, where we could still watch the clock with the train's timetable.
Gilson was already having a coffee withdraw so I went down to the underground part of the station where you could find everything from coffee to newspapers and magazines, including hard porn magazines, yes, welcome to Europe, you are no longer in the land colonized by the Puritans!! ;)
I started to notice similarities with Brazil right away, not only on the station itself but in people's attitudes, Brazilians are way more influenced by European than we could ever dream.
When I went downstairs I saw the doors to the street and decided to take a peak out, I saw a couple of CAFE'S right across the street from the main entrance to the train station, so I decided to run over there and get Gilson's coffee from a CAFE instead of the train station vendors.
I ran across the street and it turns out both CAFE'S were still closed and guess what, at a closer look, they were not the CAFE we are thinking of, they were places dedicated to strip tease shows and old man smoking themselves to death, ugh, no coffee.
Got back into the station and bought Gilson some great EXPRESSO coffee from one of the vendors, great quality coffee by the way, and no Starbucks, YAY!
Our train tickets to Amsterdam said 10:37am. Many trains were coming and going and we were paying attention as the station clock approached 10:37am, not understanding the language made me a little tense and with a felling I was missing something.
Neither of us speak or understand FLEMISH, or FRENCH, which are the languages spoken on the station's speakers and written everywhere in Belgium.
I started to have flashbacks to my trip to Budapest when I couldn't understand a thing anyone said and couldn't read anything anywhere, frustrating to say the least. I guess now I understand how frustration it must be for some of you folks moving to Brazil and not speaking or understanding a word of Portuguese... :(

10:37am comes around and NO TRAIN anywhere to be found!
I started telling Gilson: See! Aren't Europeans supposed to be on time? 10:40am and no Amsterdam train yet!!!
Something must be wrong, the station was empty by now, with the exception of a couple of American tourists carrying around the exact same backpack we bought at Ikea, HA, lol, we also suspected they were Americans because they came near us to escape the cloud of cigarette smoke towards the middle of the platform... and then we heard them speaking! ;)
At around 10:45am, other trains started to come into the station and other people were hoping in and out of them, but none of them said AMSTERDAM on them, so we stayed put and I started to panic, there were all kinds of announcements on the station's speaker, but we couldn't understand ANYTHING they were saying :(
Around 11:00am, I decided to go look for someone and ask where our Amsterdam train went!!
I found a gentleman wearing "TRAIN STATION UNIFORM LOOKING CLOTHES", so I asked him if he knew what happened to our 10:37am train from MACHELEN to AMSTERDAM and this were his exact words, in perfect ENGLISH:

Train station gentleman's answer:  
  
I "THINK" the 10:37am train's engine wasn't working too well this morning when I saw it at central train depot!

I thanked the polite gentleman and went back to Gilson to brake the news to him.
So I tell Gilson the train station worker told me, OUR TRAIN'S motor wasn't working too well this morning, and he wasn't sure if that train was coming at all.
He also told me we could "try" and catch the 11:37am train to Amsterdam, because he knew THAT one was operating normally and it had no "ENGINE" trouble.


WHAT!!!!!!!

Are you kidding me! I was fuming, what the hell kind of train system are they running here! They desperately need skilled operations managers in Belgium, and I was ranting away, fuming mad...UGH!!! Because we would be late to meet our friends in Amsterdam for lunch.
A meeting 23 years in the making. More details about that in the near future.
What do you mean! YOU THINK... the train had engine trouble!!!! Either it had or not! What the hell! Just too weird!
I told Gilson I wasn't gonna be able to wait until our LUNCH in Amsterdam with our friends to eat. I got an awesome little sandwich at the train station and tried to cool off a bit.
At 11:37am sharp, our train showed up at the station....we had been staying away from the cigarette smoke in the center of the station, so when the train stopped we entered the last train car, the one right in front of us.
Let me tell you one thing, I was not impressed, at all, the train car we walked in was spacious, but very old, think "ORANGE FORMICA" on the walls with dark red vinyl seats, but it was clean and comfortable, good enough for me, but again, not impressed.
However, to my surprise, we had gotten into the FIRST CLASS car by mistake, it happens when you don't understand the language or the rules.
So when we showed the "ticket taker" our regular (Economy Class) tickets he got all tense and told us we were in the wrong car, he said that in Dutch/Flemish first, and after my startled look of oblivion, he explained it again in perfect English, that we were sitting in FIRST CLASS when we were supposed to be sitting in the 2nd Class cars.
OMG!! Really!! This is FIRST CLASS!!!!!
I was thinking the old ORANGE FORMICA FIRST CLASS train car was so so, and got scared to think what would 2nd class look like!!! :(
It turns out, 2nd class wasn't so bad after all, it was just a little tight, and super crowded, because we later found out, there was no engine trouble what so ever. Trains were on strike, so all passengers from the 10:37am train got jammed up into the 11:37am train which was already half full.
We just happened to land in Belgium in the middle of a HUGE fight between government and the people for a hike in taxes, YES, a HIKE in taxes. Both in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Dutch actually pays 19% income tax, and their government have just approved an income tax hike to 21%, so all hell broke loose, and the trains were on strike.
That is when I get really mad, they pay 19% in taxes now and get UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, among many other nice amenities.
We pay a hell of a lot more taxes and go broke if we get cancer and have no health insurance! Europeans were constantly asking us WHY oh WHY Americans are against universal health care, they just don't get it, and never will, because contrary to what we hear in the US, universal health care is really good in Europe.
So, back to our main topic, the trains were NOT MALFUNCTIONING, but I think the polite railroad worker gentleman didn't want to be so blunt, so he made up a story on the spot, now the weird phrase " I "THINK" the 10:37am train's motor wasn't working too well this morning when I saw it at the main train depot!"  made more sense.
According to Gilson trains around Europe are quite nicer and more spacious, what happens here is that the trains between Brussels and Amsterdam are almost like city trains, because the two cities are actually very close to each other.
We really enjoyed the ride to Amsterdam, it's amazing to see how these people, both the Belgian and the Dutch take advantage of the flat geography to use bicycles as an efficient and healthy mode of transportation, not just within their cities, but from the train we could see nicely paved and well signaled bike lanes all over the country side, going thru the woods, next to beautiful lakes and rivers, connecting one little town to the other, all lined with trees providing shade to the riders, really really nice.
Sorry, but I still hadn't taken any pictures up to this part of the trip, were were still trying to get over the fact of how FAT we looked compared to everyone else around us, plus the language barrier and the train confusion, pictures were not a priority for us up to that point.


Amsterdam HERE WE COME!!!

:)


To be continued shortly!!!!  :)


Ray

Black Friday in the US 2012!

I know deep inside this offends my Brazilian values to the core!!
Scenes of an Alligator feeding frenzy attacking Zebras at a river crossing in Africa come to mind.
Ay ay ay!
Glad to say this Brazilian only went to a Black Friday madness once, never again.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving season, and I will sure be back writing soon.

Abracos a todos
Ray

2012 Voting Machines Altering Votes!

American Airlines fiasco & a True Love Story!

Getting there:

Gil and I have been back from our European tour for almost a week now, but we have both been miserable with a horrible cold we caught on the last days of our journey.
I am feeling a little better now, so I should start sharing with you the first impressions and points of view from these two Brazilians in the Netherlands and Belgium.

American Airlines fight their management for benefits and jobs

Ok, so our trip started with the ever so nasty drama of American Airlines and their fight between the executives and the pilots. See, the executives screwed up big time, poor management, and now, in the reorganization efforts, they are punishing the workers, by cutting hours and benefits and the pilots are not putting up with it, can you blame them? I don't! I am with the pilots on this one.

Our plane was replaced and we had to wait for tests on equipment 

So, what they are doing now, they are following the rules, by the book, no, seriously, by the book like they never do. So, if there is a coffee pot malfunctioning, they ground the plane and wait for the new coffee pot. If there is one arm rest not properly attached, they call and wait for the maintenance personnel to repair it before they take off.

End result, we take our plane from Boston to New York's JFK with no major delays, but when we arrive in New York, the pilot requested a new Airplane, saying there was something wrong with the originally scheduled plane, probably some bird poop on one of the wings or something like that, God forbid we fly to Brussels with an Airplane containing bird poop on the wing.
This strategy by the pilots has the goal to delay as many flights as possible and piss off the public and pressure management to ease up on cutting the pilots benefits. Clever, but irritating if you are a passenger.

Understand more about American Airline's fiasco from this CHICAGO TRIBUNE report.

To be honest with you, I had paid so little for our tickets that I told Gilson I was prepared for all the insanity, we were armed with Valium, ear plugs and fluffy face masks, we should be ok.
We finally see the new Airplane pulling up, and sure enough, they had to run all sorts of tests on the new (old) plane to make sure it was safe to cross the north Atlantic.
Long story short, we boarded the plane 3 hours late, and sat on the tarmac another 3 hours, half of our first day would be consumed by American Airlines tit for tat little war.
As it turns out, it wasn't all bad. Gilson took a Valium before I did, and had his Ipod hooked up and the fluffy face mask before I could put the rest of our stuff on the overhead bin.
As soon as I sat down and got ready for the long flight, this bubbly, smiley Belgium lady, approaches me and says, Hello!!!! My name is Georgie, I will be sitting next to you, I am from Antwerp, Belgium, this is my husband Francois!!!! What is your name???? :)

I swear, it might sound cold and weird, but for some odd reason, I haven't spoken to people on airplanes for the longest time.
Maybe because I usually drug myself and put on the face mask and the ear plugs before the other person even sits next to me, I know, very UN-Brazilian of me.
I was just caught completely off guard and was wondering how long we would be talking and how tired I would be the next day in Belgium trying to find the right train on the right platform.

Georgie and Francois- The love story of a life time!

It turns out I had one of the best conversations on a plane ever!!!
And ended up in tears, all melted and sobbing like a 3 year old girl who just saw her Barbie shredded to pieces by a mean Pitbull. ( Ok, you got the picture, I got emotional as hell).

Ok, hear me out, Georgie is just one of these great, positive, bubbly personalities that you might want to punch on the face if she catches you in the wrong day, wrong mood.
But I was kinda mellow, and ready to see my long time friends I hadn't seen since 1989.
Georgie goes on to tell me she LOVES Americans because we are soooo nice, so positive, so polite and so gentle all the time.
I was scrachting my head and thinking, lady, you must have been in the deep South, because you are surely not describing anywhere in the Northeast...such as Boston, Philly or New York city! :)
Georgie tells me that they come to the United States once a year, her husband and her are semi precious stones dealer.
There is this International Semi Precious Stone Dealer Convention in Tucson, once a year.
So they meet Stone dealers from all over the world, she told me she buys and sells lot's of stone to folks in Brazil and all of Europe.
She actually buys stones from all over the world and sells them to sculptors and artists all over Europe and Brazil.


Georgie's Belgian Friends move to Petropolis- Rio de Janeiro

She goes on to tell me her best friend from Belgium, woke up one day and just said, we are moving to Brazil!! That is it, we want good weather and a beautiful landscape.
Her friends think Brazil have the nicest birds and they love carving birds on stone, so they decided to move to Brazil carve Brazilian birds out of rocks, granite and semi precious stones.
OK!!! It sounded odd to me at first, how random can that be? But really cool at the same time.
So, her best friend and the husband sold everything they had, applied for some kind of artist/entrepreneur VISA and moved to Petropolis, a medium sized town just outside of Rio de Janeiro.
It turns out, they became a reference in entire region for Birds carved out of stone, granites, amethysts and other semi precious stones.
The Belgian couple who immigrated to Brazil is actually making a ton of money, and Georgie knows, because they buy all their stones from her.
She is getting ready to go visit Brazil and see how her Belgium friends have adapted to life in the nice town of Petropolis-RJ.

Love story- Continued

I never miss an opportunity to ask European folks how much they pay in taxes, how much they pay for their health insurance and how is their health insurance in details, I also ask how much is gasoline, heating, mortgage rates, I know, I am a big sponge of information.

As it turns out, we pay taxes out of our behinds, and we don't get much in return what so ever, not to mention, we have no universal health insurance (with the exception of Massachusetts) and a pathetic Social Security system on the brink of bankruptcy after years serving as a cash cow for dirty politicians borrowing money from it and never paying it back, and then they say SS is broken, oh, don't even get me started on when they start calling it "entitlement".

So, Georgie tells me they pay 36% taxes, but that is because her husband and her make a lot of money, they make over 150 Euros per year, combined, so they are at one of the top brackets of the tax payers in Belgium.
Most middle class Belgian pay between 19% and 25% in taxes.
Yeah, that is a hell of a lot LESS than we pay in the United States, and they have UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, we have Blue Cross Blue Shield for 1500 dollars a month  :(

PS: Sidetrack Alert! If you want, just skip this paraghaph when I go onto a little sidetracked rant of my own!! :)
See, Europeans don't have as many WARS, like we do all over the place.
I tell you, it sucks to be the POLICE of the world.
We would easily have enough money to afford health care for every one, plus have decent roads and bridges that are not falling in the water and killing dozens of people like the Minnesota disaster. We have bridges and overpasses on I-95 connecting Boston and New York that are being supported by wood beams, because the concrete has been completely corroded by ice and salt and heavy traffic of HUGE trucks. It's a shame.
But, priorities, priorities, we need to have wars all over the place, so our people are on their own when it comes to health care and our infra-structure is falling a part! SHAME!
I wish and hope that we can change for the better.



Side track alert activated, see, I am terrible!
Here I go ranting into the political arena when I have a beautiful love story to share with you that moved me to tears.


Ok, back to Georgie and Francois

So, after I talk Georgie to death about politics and taxes, she goes on to tell me, she has been married to Francois twice.
I said, TWICE!!! What! How? Why?
She goes on to tell me they fell completely in love for the first time back in 1963, and got married.
They were both young and had brilliant careers in Banking, they both were working and going to school at night and taking their Masters in Business.

So, they didn't want to have any children, school and career was the main priority.
Georgie told me this is their country's biggest problem, most people of her generation, folks born in the 40's and 50's, didn't want to have any children, their priority was money, and career.
Their population is aging fast, and there are no people to work in their factories.
The solution was to import immigrants from Morroco back in the 70's and 80's and started paying a lot of money for Belgian willing to have children.

So, Georgie and Francois. after 9 years of marriage, slowly drifted a part, they were still great friends, but didn't have much in common anymore, plus, Francois really wanted children, but Georgie didn't, so they divorced 9 years after their first marriage.

Georgie met another man called Pierre and felt madly in love with him, got married again and lived very happily with Pierre for a little over 30 years.
Francois was very sad, he always loved Georgie to death, didn't want the divorce, but finally decided to move on with his life, he met another lady, married and had one daughter.


On a beautiful crisp, sunny fall morning in Antwerp, Pierre suddenly had a massive heart attack during breakfast while reading the daily newspaper and died on the kitchen table before the paramedics even had a chance to arrive and start CPR procedures.
Georgie was completely devastated, sad and became gravely depressed.
Thoughts of suicide were constant and she had no more reason to live.

A couple months after Pierre died, Georgie finally gathered some strength and started cleaning up Pierre's closet.
Georgie found a box of pictures at the very deep end part of the closet that she hadn't seen since the 70's.
It turns out, the pictures were not Pierre's, but they belonged to Francois, and they were pictures of cars they had owed together when they were married in the 1960's.
Georgie and Francois both loved cars, they loved classic cars, sports cars and that was one of their passions and one of the things that got them together in the first place.
She decided to call Francois to tell him about the pictures, but was reluctant because she knew his present wife wasn't very fond of her.
She decided to call anyway, and told Francois about the box of pictures of their car collection from the 60's that she had found.
He had been looking for a picture of his favorite car ever, it was a special edition BMW, special custom trim from factory, special dash board, the car was made up to his specifications from the factory in Germany.
It was white, with a large Blue Stripe, like a race car, the car also had a cool blue dash board, matching the rest of the car.
The little BMW was a powerful 8 cylinder beast.
The fastest car Francois ever had.
It turns out, all the pictures from their favorite car in the 60's was in box Georgie found inside Pierre's closet.

1963 BMW similar to Georgie's and Francois! Picture a large Blue strip over the car

I love this BMW's style!! Love me some classi cars! :)

They arranged a meeting for the picture swap.
Francois started crying the minute he saw Georgie after so many years away, and she told him she was depressed and wanted to end her life, she saw no more reason for living.
That is when Francois told her, that he had always, ALWAYS loved her, and that he never wanted to divorce her and that he had been miserable all this years, he really didn't love his present wife and wanted nothing but another chance to make Georgie HAPPY!!!
Awwww! Isn't that awesome!!!!! So cool! I love a good love story!
Tell me! Doesn't it sounds like the ultimate chick flick plot, but it was a real story and I was completely melted in tears when she got to this part of the story.
I felt really privileged to learn about this awesome Belgian love story.
Francois divorced the woman he lived with for 30 years but wasn't happy with her and married Georgie again.


Georgie is so happy now, she can't even remember how she could have been soooo depressed.
They travel all over Europe now and sell beautiful semi precious rocks/stones they buy on their once a year trip to Tucson, Arizona.

I learned a lot about the Belgian people from Georgie's story, I learned their main staple food is FRENCH FRIES with Mayonnaise, and the love a bloody Steak! Who knew!!
The Belgian people are very well off, their income is 50% higher than the Dutch for example, they LOVE CARS, and they do not drive your stereotypical tiny FIAT like you might think all European people do, from silly Hollywood movies.


Georgie drives a Chrysler Minivan and Francois has a brand spanking new Chrysler 300.
They love large gas guzzler/American cars, they have driven Pontiacs, Buicks and Cadillacs all their lives and they are going thru a Chrysler phase right now.
Belgians have lot's of jobs, they have not outsourced jobs to India or China, they don't even comprehend the concept of outsourcing jobs.
It is just so stupid and obnoxious to export jobs and leave your own people homeless that they just don't get it. Can you blame them?

They don't get why we do it, or allow our Corporations to get away with murder it.

If you think things are SUPER expensive in Europe, think again, not the case, not at all.
Despite the fact that most things are made locally, in Germany, Belgium or France, they do not pay an arm and a leg for electronics for example, like we do in Brazil.
Their prices in general were slightly higher than they are in the US, but the quality of everything was so much higher it was totally worth the premium price.

Don't even get me started on the higher standards of food in Europe, well, everything really, not just food, no Garlic imported from China in the supermarkets we visited.
Gilson and I were in love with the creamy delicious taste of milk and pastries. Never tasted milk this delicious anywhere. Gilson says milk in the US tastes like Cauliflower, it must be all the hormones and chemicals. I really don't taste differences in the milk in the US or Brazil, but I did taste a HUGE difference in the milk we drank in Belgium and the Netherlands.

As a disclaimer for the first of my European posts, I will bitch and rant about things in the US that I found out are crappier and lower quality as in Europe, but I still love this awesome country that has been my home for the previous 15 years, and in time I will recover... ;)

Ufa! Enough for one post, I will write again soon with more exciting events and adventures in Europe.


Abracos

Ray

Ray and Gil in the Netherlands and Belgium

We are SUPER excited with our coming trip, Gil and I are traveling to Belgium and the Netherlands next Wednesday, September the 27th and staying for 7 days.
The only bad news, is that we are flying American Airlines, UGH, well, life isn't perfect, but we sure know how to make the best of it, a Valium, ear plugs, a comfortable eye cover mask, and that part of the trip can just be erased from memory or prevented from ever entering our happy brains.
We fly into Brussels and take the "BULLET" train into Amsterdam.



Fast Train from Brussels to Amsterdam

Netherlands and Belgium

I have never been in one of these super fast trains and can't wait to try it.
I ride the Amtrak Acela all the time between Boston, Providence, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington DC, but it's only called fast, because it doesn't stop in every little town along the way, but it's nothing like the bullet trains in Europe or Japan.
The train ride between Brussels and Amsterdam is about 1 hour and 30 minutes, not bad.
Gil and I will have no car for 4 days, which is making me a little paranoid, I know, I am bad. But I like to go wherever I want, whenever I want and I am not used to share my space.
How is that for an Americanized Brazilian brat? ;)
But all kidding aside, Gil and I will be in good hands. Let me explain WHY we are going to Europe next week.
See, when I was a Rotary Exchange Student back in 1989, I lived in the US for one full year, in Oklahoma, and in the middle of my one year living here, I went on a 45 day trip with 57 Rotary Foreign Exchange students from all over the world.

This is the route of our 1989 trip around the US, it included Toronto, Canada and Cidaud Juarez, Mexico

I made friends from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Denmark, Finland, Turkey, France, Italy,  Argentina, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Mexico and a TON of Brazilians, mostly from Sao Paulo state, 1 from Parana state and 1 from Minas Gerais state and I know I must have forgotten to mention a country or two.

Rotary Exchange Program Summer Bus Tour USA-Canada-Mexico 1989

I am the dude in the far right, skinny, with HAIR, wearing those God awful yellow sweat pants and my friend Miguel from Curitiba right next to me in the green polo shirt.

Me, Daniela, Miguel, Luciane, Ana Luiza,  and Marcio walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

I know, PINK sweat shirt, you are thinking that was so gay of me, let me clarify something, I am gay, and hate PINK, HATE pink with the passion.
But have you ever been in San Francisco in the summer wearing nothing but jeans shorts and a T-shirt? No! I have! You would cry like a 3 year old little girl.
Then you try to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on foot and freeze half to death, IN JULY people!!! JULY!
Alex, you would freaking turn blue and die in under 30 seconds.
Well, I was skinny, very HOT I know, and had all my hair still on top on my HUGE HEAD.
We went to one of those touristy stores in Chinatown and I bought the CHEAPEST sweat shirt the dimes, nickels and quarters found in the bottom of my JEANS backpack could afford, and apparently PINK wasn't a popular color, it was the cheapest, on sale for U$5,00 bucks, so PINK sweat shirt it was.
I thought it was the right price to use it one afternoon going across the Golden Gate Bridge. :)

For the first time since 1989, our group has re-organized, and Facebook played a fundamental role as a tool to make that possible. We have our own Summer 89 Bus Tour Community, and we will meet in Amsterdam to see each other after our trip of a lifetime, for the first time in 23 years later.
How cool is that?

Folks are coming from all corners of the world, you can imagine my level of excitement.
So, our friends from Amsterdam and the UK are preparing canal tours, bus trips into the interior areas of Holland, Cheese tours, Clog Factory, Cycling Tours, Canal Tours, a picnic at Vondelpark, Heineken Tour, Ann Frank and Van Gogh Museums, you name it!
However, we would love to hear from any of you who might have any experience in Amsterdam and and principally BELGIUM, and might want to share some tips, and recommendations with us.
That would be great! Principally because we don't have any locals guiding us thru Belgium.
I love when you share tips, when I was in Houston, Ginger from Flowers and more shared an awesome Persian restaurant and Bakery in that city, it was probably one of my favorite places to eat in this country EVER!!!


Our dear fellow blogger Sara, from Our Crazy Happy Life also one of my favorite Oklahoma Cowboy fans ;) , gave me a great tip on the BEST MEXICAN FOOD I ever ate in my life, that was my last night in Houston. Thank you so much Sara, I will treasure that for life.
I still crave Mexican Food, living in Rhode Island you get no Mexican Food what so ever, you might as well be in Sao Paulo, there seems to be more Mexican options there, ok, Ray, here you go side tracking gain.
Ok, so, please don't be shy, and share any tips, restaurant, hotels, scenic routes, small charming little towns, anything you think we could visit and enjoy as much as you did.
Again, talking to Ginger on facebook, she told me about the awesome little town on the coast of Belgium, called Bruges, it's on the coast. Colin Farrel was in a movie called "In Bruges (2008)", a cool action thriller. HERE is the link to "In Bruges".
So, needless to say, Bruges is on our travel plans, thanks again Ginger.


I love History, so I will enjoy Bruges, and have been doing a lot of reading about it all.
We also included Ghent on our trip, because besides the fact that Ghent is an awesome historic little town, it is where the BELGIUM WAFFLE was invented! You think I would miss that! Not in a million years, Belgium Waffle making class included. MAX Restaurant in Ghent, Belgium is the place where Belgium Waffles were invented, a couple of centuries ago, the same family still runs the place, several generations down.
Reading the reviews is so entertaining, they go on to mention that the restaurant has a line up front every morning, mostly Americans, waiting to eat Belgium Waffles for breakfast.
The owners often get irritated and have to explain every single day, that Belgium Waffles are not eaten for Breakfast, they don't even have the Waffle Iron and oven turned on until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, about the time they start serving the Belgium treats.
Belgium eat Waffles plain, with just a coat of powered sugar, with coffee, as a mid-afternoon pick me up snack. No whipped cream, no fruit, jams or syrup, but they keep all these items for American tourists, who insist in eating Belgium Waffles the American way.
The Americans describing the experience often mention how light the Waffles are and that only one won't suffice, you should order many of them if you are hungry. :)

One thing that made me literally sick to my stomach was to read about the recent History of both countries and discover that most towns near the border with Germany look modern, everything is pretty much new, because they were all completely destroyed by the Germans, during the Nazi invasion of WWII.
It makes me sick to remember I am part German, it makes me sick because I can't believe HUMANS allowed this to happen. It mostly makes me sick because I come to realize, it is very possible that this could happen again. You don't understand how Germans were brainwashed by the Nazis? I have one word for you: "Tea Party", ok, that is two words.
And I am not saying Tea Party folks are Nazis, but they have a similar level of stubbornness, ignorance and may I dare say, racism, that Germans had in the decades preceding that horrible war.
One more thing before I get carried away in "side tracking land", despite the fact that I am part German, my Paulista grandfather fought in Italy and helped defeat the Nazis in that country.
Yes, in case you didn't know, Brazil had a significant participation next to the United States and the Allied forces and played an important role in defeating Hitler in Europe, and that makes me feel a little better about the whole thing of being half German.


Back to our post's topic, I wanted to explore all of Belgium, but because of our short time, 4 days, we will concentrate in the towns that were better preserved from the Nazis destruction, and visit the regions closer to the sea, where our greatest and best friends forever, the British, helped defend from the BASTARDS Nazis, Tom, your people are awesome!!! Please thank your grandparents for me when you see them again!! :)


No, we didn't have enough time to learn Dutch, but I heard they all speak English very well over there, so I am not too worried about that.
Belgium mostly speaks French but most people also are fluent in English.
Gil knows a little French and he lived in Louvain-la-Neuve, a small town just outside of Brussels, Belgium, when he was 19 years old, we will definitely include this town in our trip.
So, please, please, share any tips you might have for us for Belgium or Holland.
We will most definitely post pictures and a post trip post.

Thank you

Abracos
Ray

Brazilian Marshmallow - Maria Mole

Brazilian Marshmallow- Maria Mole- Invented by Antonio Bergamo from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Gil shared this information with me and I thought it would be could to let you all know about the Brazilian Marshmallow.

Maria Mole Bicolor - Strawberry flavored Maria Mole

In case you haven't tried yet, it is heavenly if made home and enjoyed fresh.
You probably have tried it at Festa Juninas, when they are served more often.
There are several versions, the most common being the one rolled in Coconut, not my favorite.
You can also find it strawberry flavored, which is pink. Also not my favorite.

Maria Mole with a layer of cherry Jello

My favorite is the one my grandma makes it, fresh, homemade heaven, no coconut, no strawberry flavors, just plain white.
It is a typical Brazilian treat, made with sugar, egg whites, colorless gelatin, and optional shredded coconut - (not my favorite version).

Diet Maria Mole, looks delicious if you ask me

When the dessert is ready, the consistency resembles that of Marshmallow, but it's not sticky, it is said to be the Brazilian version of Marshmallow, very popular at the Catholic festivals in June, called "Festas Juninas".

Maria Mole made with wood handle sticks for parties

Maria Mole was invented by Antonio Bergamo, in Sao Paulo, he was a Paulistano of Italian ancestry. Antonio Bergamo manufactured candy and he wanted to find a way to use all the "egg whites" left over from the making of other candy that only used egg yolks.

Creative version of Maria Mole imitating a chess game

So he ended up achieving a harder consistency from beating the egg whites and added colorless gelatin to the mix, he was afraid it would turn to hard, but to his surprise, when the mix cooled down, it didn't harden too much, it remained soft, hence the name "Maria Mole" or rufly translated to "Soft Mary".



Brazilian creativity at it's best

Moma Duck knows best!!! :)

A heart stoping video! The Ducks make it across this Canadian Highway!
But I have to say I held my breath for 1 minute and 18 seconds.

Abracos
Have a good weekend everyone  :)

Ray

Crime rate down in Sao Paulo

Violent crime is down in Sao Paulo, 13% lower than last year

This is great news, principally because we are thinking of moving back home to Sao Paulo and after living in the US for 15 years we are as scared of news regarding crime as your typical/garden variety American expat. :)
We had heard and read a few articles here and there about more crime in Sao Paulo and that freaked us to no end, even our BFF and fellow blogger Alex has writen us before asking about certain articles he was reading around about the increase in crime in Sao Paulo and we all searched about it together, called people and searched a little more.
I happen to have a very close family member who is a Police Chief in Sao Paulo and this person has kept me very well informed about what is going on with the news of crime being up and then being down.
First and foremost I read this article today HERE, that goes on to say that murder rates are down in Sao Paulo by 13% compared to the same time period last year. Which is great news.
Before you go lighting up fireworks to celebrate, let me share the insider's information on the situation.
What happened in Brazil recently is a shift in the balance of power among criminal organizations, they are loosing space and shifting Geography, they are going into new areas and trying to find their niche.
With the approaching "Soccer World Cup" in 2014 and the Rio "Olympics" in 2016, the state of Rio de Janeiro needed to help locate phisical space to built some of the venues where the Rio Olympics will take place, and some of the Soccer events for the World Cup.
If you are familiar with Rio de Janeiro, there isn't much space to go around, the Geography of the region is very peculiar, which in my opinion makes Rio on of the most spetaculars places on earth, principally where natural beauty is concerned, the beaches, lucious green mountains, giant bolders, water falls, lakes, just out of the world beautiful.
Space is limited, the city is squeezed between Ocean and Mountains on a thin strip of land.
The city has to find space, which is already mostly occupied by urban development. The only alternative for the government of Rio is to claim back some of it's stolen government land to built the new venues.
If you are from Brazil, you most likely HATE favelas, you are not proud of them, you don't think they are cute, you don't think they are decent and you don't think it's a matter of human rights to keep this people in favelas, there is no way we should improve life in the favelas.
We should move them to safe areas, period. If you think otherwise, you are most likely not familiar with the situation.
The obvious traditional defenders of the favelas "status quo", are religious leaders, who want to be popular and gather more pupils to their churches, opportunistic politicians who want the obvious extra vote in their districts, foreign human rights watch groups, who in my opinion don't really understand the situation and other groups that have various random reasons to think favela living is worth preserving.
First of all, Rio favelas are built on dangerous cliffs that are suceptable to mud slides, not to mention fires with no access to Fire Department services in case of emergencies.
Favelas dwellers cut down natural vegetation that holds the "MOUNTAIN" together, and build flimsy little wooden shacks on top of it, and eventually build some fragile concrete and block walls, without proper foundation and nothing with the supervision of an civil engineer or any infra structure to hold the building/house firmly on that cliff.

Police moves into Rio Favelas, thugs run away to other Brazilian cities

Long story short, in my opinion, no human being belong in favelas, these people deserve a decent, safe place to live, with sewer services, police, ambulances and fire department access, a place well built and firm ground and proper public transportation.
They deserve a place with legal electrical, water and internet/telephone connections that won't just burst into flames because they steal electricity and clump up 300 connections in one and cause explosions, fire and death.
And ultimately, with the end of FAVELAS in Brazil, crime will have a much harder time to find "hiding" places and easier to control.
I have no doubt in my mind we will see that in our lifetime.
So, back to our main topic of discussion here, crime in Sao Paulo is up and then crime in Sao Paulo is down and there is a good reason for that.
I will tie it all together with my previous favela rant in Rio and the removal of some Rio favelas along with the "pacification of some of Rio favelas", bare with me.
See, when government started bulldozing some favelas down to the ground in Rio, and claiming their land back, they also started to bring in highly organized and powerful police forces into the remaining favelas, with the goal in mind to make the entire city safer for the upcoming sports events.
Police goes in, organized crime comes out and where did they go?
If you answered "other" cities, you got it.
Organized drug crime moved to other large Brazilian cities, wherever they could hide and continue to do business.
By the way, in my opinion, if you smoke pot and think it's an inocent thing to do, you are a direct part of the crime problem, come on, where do you think that pot comes from? Not from Lojas Americanas or Pao de Acucar, that is for sure.
I am not anti pot, if you can/could get it from a legal source, and if you like/enjoy/need it, good for you, but please either get it from a legal source or stay the hell away from it.

Rio favelas remain occupied by Police and the Brazilian Army and see an instant reduction in crime

They moved to Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Salvador, you name it, and upon their arrival, gang wars errupted, increasing the crime rate in Sao Paulo for example.
Sao Paulo was caught off guard, until they noticed increase in murder rates in the outskirts of the metropolitan region.
Sao Paulo, different than Rio, has a lot of space, we are not limited and surrounded by mountains like Rio, so our favelas and poor areas where most of the crime takes place is far away from the Sao Paulo I grew up and know as my home town.
There has been a fight for power over the drug business between the newcomers, who are "just kicked from Rio criminals" and the long established Sao Paulo crime gangs.
It took the state of Sao Paulo and it's police force a little while to catch up with what was happening and built a strategy to tackle the new challenge and we are now finally seeing the results of their efficient and hard work.

Principles of crime reduction, Sao Paulo Police is using efficient methods to fight crime

Violent crime is down again and continue on it's lowering trend that started back in 1998, about the same time Gil and I left Brazil, when crime had reached it's peak in Sao Paulo.
I am glad to see that the reduction of crime rates in Sao Paulo continues on a down spiral trend, not that it ever bothered me too much, because truth be told, in Sao Paulo crime happens far away from the parts of the city my family and I always lived, so it realistically doesn't affect me or my family directly, but less crime is always good news and always good for the overall image of the city.


Ray