You know what's sad? (written in Brazil, Mar 2019)
In 2013 I was in India. In 2016, Kenya. And in 2019, Brazil. Three very different countries on three continents — why do I list them? Because of one similarity: the ENORMOUS gap between the countries' rich and poor. India, Kenya, and Brazil may be top examples, but this is a common phenomenon in fast-developing countries. In a way, it's sadder than the whole country being poor. Let me tell you why.
On day one I travelled from the airport to my hostel in São Paulo via bus 257 and metro. Within the ten-minute walk from the station, I saw a huge spread of rubbish blocking the pavement, a man digging through it, two men washing their hair with ditch water, and a middle-aged woman naked from her waist up, yelling. Too intense? I stayed in the "wrong" neighbourhood? Okay, moving on. On day two I walked down Avenida Paulista with modern shopping malls and business centres, bakeries with price tags no different from those in Boston. Then I arrived at the aquarium with an entrance fee of 90 reals (24 USD). Mind you, a proper dinner next door to my hostel costs 10 reals (2.6USD) and poor people cannot afford even that.
There are Brazilians who drive BMWs and own houses by the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. There are also Brazilians living in the favelas, some of them controlled by drug lords. It makes you wonder: Exactly which people are Christ the Redeemer protecting with his open arms?
If a country is uniformly poor, then all kids get to see animals — or none! But here, a rigid line divides the rich and the poor and determines who can go where, who can do what, who's the servant and who's the master.
It's sad, I say. And how easy it is for me, living in a first-world country, to say that.
Well, I'm not here to send Brazilian kids of the favelas to the aquarium. I have no solution. If I did, I'd be doing something more useful than writing this article right now. But at least, my lack of attachment to any one country gives me objectivity and allows me to be equally critical toward all countries. At least, given the way I travel, I can help raise awareness — in this case, of the wide social/economic spectra in developing countries, which cannot be found in first-world countries. A homeless person anywhere in America lives a reasonable life in the eyes of a homeless Indian/Kenyan/Brazilian. If comparing the poor with the rich in first-world countries is comparing chicken with ostrich, then in developing countries it's comparing sparrow with phoenix.
Having talked about the economic prejudices in Brazil, I do want to mention that the country is an amazing melting pot of cultures. True, the higher you look up the Brazilian social ladder, the whiter the skin colour you see. Nevertheless, due to centuries of mixing, today racism is small here compared with most countries I know. This is a real asset to the Brazilians. After all, an average citizen from most other developing countries is much more racially prejudiced than an average Westerner (that's the subject of a different piece of writing, but if you disagree, you have quite some research and understanding to do).
The Museum of Tomorrow (Museu do Amanhã) moved me profoundly, as did the beautiful Brazilian cities and towns, the amazing coexistence of the people of Rio and the Tijuca forest, their integration. I see hope.
