March 11th, 2010: After 18 hours traveling I finally arrived in São Paulo. I was walking around at the airport, looking for a place to change my money (euros into reais). As the exchange rate of euro was the lowest of the last couple of months, I decided that I'd just exchange some small money to eat something and keep the rest to wait for a better rate. I saw a small "bureau de change", with a huge queue in front of it, without any blackboard showing the rates/taxes. The lack of information actually made me get a bit upset, but I didn't mind. However, I wouldn't wait. I immediatelly stared at one of the employees of the airport and asked him, very politely:- "Bom dia! O senhor sabe quanto está a cotação do euro aqui? Sabe também se existe alguma taxa fixa?" (Good Morning Sir! Do you know the rate of the euro at this bank? Do you also know if there's any taxes?)
He immediatelly asked me to talk with a lower voice, and invited me to do "business" with him:
- "Olha, é o seguinte: Fala baixo, mas aí no banco os caras tão pagando R$ 2,25, mais uma taxa fixa de 10 reais. Mas 'cum nóis' é R$ 2,40 sem taxa!" (I'll tell you what: Speak low! Here at the bank they're gonna pay you R$ 2,25, plus 10 reais of taxes. But whit us you can get R$ 2,40, without any taxes!)
I realized that I wouldn't get a better rate so easily, so I accepted the offer. He drove me to a dark corner and asked:
- "Quanto cê vai querê?" (How much are u gonna change?)
I answered him, he calculated with the mobile phone, we changed the money and both took their ways. Suddenly a voice came to my mind and told me: "Welcome home!".
March 17th, 2010:
I wanted to park my car in the center of the city at about 8 o'clock in the evening. There was a "flanelinha" (guy who takes care of cars at the street) there. He pointed me a parking space reserved for handicapped, and asked me to park there. As I scorned to do it, he started to laugh and said: "Hahaha... Todo mundo pára ae! Não dá nada!" (Hahaha... Don't worry! Everyone parks there!).Somewhen in the past: Someone from my family comes to me very excited and says: "Hey, you're not gonna believe me! I'm getting R$ 2000 from the government every month, just because the doctor was my friend and we're pretending that I have a serious illness that makes it impossible for me to keep working. And you know what!? I'm getting this money and I'm still working."
You probably have already heard something about the well-known "jeitinho brasileiro" (the brazilian art of findind an easier solution for problems that seem unsolveable at the first sight). This behaviour is frequently mentioned as one of our best qualities, considering that it might avoid some waste of time with bureaucracy and sometimes find a fairer solution for some issues. However it's probably one of the worst obstacles that makes it so hard for us to reach the organization level that some rich countries have. The culture of violating the rules to get advantage on every situation makes people who want to follow these rules be named as fools. "If everyone's taking advantage of the government or of the neighbors and you're not, shame on you! You're the fool! The society you're living in does not tolerate people like you! If you do not change your attitude, you're not gonna survive!".
Outwit the government might make you sound as the smartest guy in the world, if you forget that the function of the government is to serve you! If you went to the hospital and did not find a doctor, whose fault is it? Right, it's the government's fault! The government did not pay the doctor properly because they ain't got enough money, and they ain't got enough money because some "citizens" have the habit of ouwitting them. Every time you get some money which is not supposed to be yours, you're making someone else lose some money which is supposed to be his. I just wanna say that these people are not less guilty than those ones who got arrested for murder. If you get some money which was supposed to save someone's life in a hospital, you can be named a murderer as well.
The common excuse of the brazilians is: "People inside the government are gonna steal this money if I don't get it". Unfortunately, we've seen a lot of corruption in our government that actually made us lose our faith on it, but things have been changing in the last years. We've been fighting against this corruption and it looks like the problem can be solved in some decades. Blaming someone else doesn't solve the problem.
If you're reading it and thinking about starting to hate me because I'm saying a lot of shit about my country as if I wasn't part of it, you're wrong. I am part of it. I accepted the offer of the guy at the airport and changed the money illegally with him. I did not park at the place reserved for handicapped, but my driver licence was expired and I had no fear of the police
whatsoever (because I'm a brazilian, and I know how to talk).I don't how many years would it take for us to change our mentality, I just hope I'll see some changes until the end of my life. As long as WE do not assume that WE are ALL guilty for everything, we're not gonna change anything.
I'll keep my eyes open! ("Order and progress" is the sentence that is written in the middle of the brazilian flag)
Auf Wiedersehen!
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