Dragão do Mil

An attitude I believe to be a state of mind resulting from an opinion or belief. Cultivation of an attitude of respect, understanding, and sensitivity of a new culture, its people, and widely held beliefs is easy when I am comfortable with cultural protocols, etiquette, gender roles, and social systems. It’s how these things often differ and are outside of my comfort zone that makes travel rewarding. 

Typically I’m uncomfortable with swearing in English. The so called bad words that almost everyone loves for their versatility, utility and seeming resilience in spite of the fact they are widely acknowledged to be the “Bad” words is an aspect of most languages.  I learned a few of my first “Bad” Portuguese swear words at a Cearά Sporting Club game that the home team was losing; for example “Voce vai morrer!” (I’ll Kill YOU!), or “Vai se ferrar!” The question I have to ask myself then, if the end in mind is to be respectful and sensitive of cultural protocol, and the situation demands disrespecting the other team, is the only way to be respectful to be disrespectful? I love a paradox, especially one you can yell. 

Dining etiquette in Cearά is similar Canada’s, with both being influenced by European culture, but there are some little differences that make it interesting and delicious. Pizza is eaten with a knife and fork, maybe a little olive oil on top, and a thin crust is preferred. It’s quite civilized when compared to Canada’s fast food culture. I should explain that the vast majority of Pizza is eaten with your hands in Canada and when I explained this at a restaurant, the Pirata de Paracuru, the shocked response when I related that fact was “Even in Restaurants?!”. 

The types of clothing people tend to wear are quite similar to summer clothing in Canada. In this climate the weather is consistently above 20 degrees during the day and seems not to dip below that during the night very often. Most construction is open to let air flow through and there are no screens for insects as they don’t seem to have blackflys, and mosquitoes are relatively scarce. Coming from Canada’s colder climate I’ve found myself often overdressed even when wearing only a shirt. It’s a little cultural difference that I’m still getting used to. 

Knowledge and understanding is a key to developing sensitivity and respect and I have to admit I don’t know much about the Catholic religion. Brazil has the largest number of Catholics in the world and this manifests in interesting ways such as seeing a Rosary hanging from the handle bar of a motorcycle in traffic (beads to aid in saying prayers) or seeing candles light at the top of the Stairway to the 12 meter Statue of Fatima above Baturite. As you likely are aware, Catholics may wish to avoid meat on Fridays, which is very convenient in costal Fortaleza. The seaside fish market is very busy on Friday where they will also prepare a couple Kg of seafood for $R5. 

Amber, Veronica, Gutenberg, and I went to visit the beautiful mountaintop monastery the “Jesuit House” in Cearά, Baturite. The air atop this mountain smells like bananas, and after seeing the gardens and touring around the place we were treated to some semi de-hydrated bananas on the way back down the Mountain. 

Interior and Exterior of Jesuit House, the view of Baturite, and the Statue of Fatima

Cultural protocols, etiquettes, gender roles, and social systems differ to a degree everywhere you travel and people generally do like to learn about these differences and tend to reciprocate. While at small school with Amber and Veronica I got to sit in on a presentation by a volunteer from Romania to a group of 7 to 14 year olds. In her historic Romanian dress, she presented her PowerPoint and video while some magazines with lots of pictures of Castles and other historic sites where passed around. 

On my next trip I will need to bring a little bit more of my own culture to share. I have applied to a similar Business Advisor Position in Northern Nigeria for 12 months starting next February (2012). I did however get the opportunity to give a presentation on the activities and business practices of the Niagara College Student Administrative Council and the Board of Governors. Each of the slides was translated into Portuguese prior to presenting. 

 

One lesson learned from working with a translator is that an understanding of our own idiomatic language is important and that there are many phrases which may not translate well. For example to “Run for Election”,  would translate literally as “correr para a eleição” while a better translation of the meaning would be “Tornar-se um Candidato” meaning becoming a Candidate.

This is something that we are all aware of, that there are untranslatable words and phrases whose meaning may be lost in translation. It’s important to be mindful of their use, yet they are also an entrenched aspect of language and understandably difficult to avoid. Thankfully, here in Brazil, I’ve been able to use my outdated 90’s slang with impunity. 

Better still than respecting a culture from a distance, it think it’s much more fun to get involved in the vibrant cultural events that permeate daily life in large cities like Fortaleza. In addition to the various public spaces and squares in the city, there is the beautiful cultural center Dragão do Mar  it hosts Cultural programming, a Movie Theatre, Planetarium, Museum of Contemporary Art, Memorials to Cearάrian culture, works of outdoor art, multipurpose space, Gardens, Arts and Crafts school, among other things. The center is an architectural gem and a must see in Fortaleza.  

While in Canada it’s rare that I would take a moment to consider the extent to which my own activities, lifestyle and freedoms are cultural and effected by Canada’s history, it can be illuminating to consider. One window into the culture of Brazil is through the historic lens of some historic cultural icons. While they may have no more significance in ones day to day life than John A MacDonald or Abraham Lincoln, they never the less are important to the Brazilian story. Here is a little history about the Dragon of the Sea, after which the Cultural Centre was named. 

Cultural Icon and Historic Figure – Drago do Mar

o   Slavery in Brazil was abolished on May 13th 1888, when Princess Isabel signed the Golden Law.

o   In Ceará, liberty came sooner. The Abolitionist Movement of Ceará had been in activity since 1879. In 1884, Ceará was the first province in Brazil to free all slaves.

o   Chico da Matilde and his wife, Francisca Joaquina, rallied all jangadeiros to not transport the slaves between the beach and the ships; because they could not use the piers, the jangadas were the means to take slaves to the ships.

o   Chico had his importance recognized. He was taken to Rio de Janeiro, to visit the Emperor and other authorities. On return, he was received with a shower of flowers and new name, more compatible with his grandness: Dragão do Mar - the Dragon of Sea.

What is of value and interest to a group is often untrue of individuals, and I think this is important to remember when considering stereotypes.  There is value in learning stereotypes when beginning to learn about a culture while recognizing that inherent flaw in their construct.  Which exceptions of course, Brazilians love Soccer and Canadian love hockey, but the risk that these stereotypes be understood as entirely true can have demonstratively negative consequences.  

In response to a question about Brazilian taboos on All Experts.com, Paula had this to say: 

“Unfortunately, many black people here suffer from racism and there are taboos that increase that. At many residential buildings, for example, they will expect a black person to use the service elevator and not the main one, because the taboo is that the person is a home maid. That has caused many judicial law suits and I hope it ends soon because it´s sad. Also, many black people on streets receive that "look" from other people because many people here treat blacks as criminals. See, most of the Brazilian poor population is black, and the criminal rates are high among those.”

While taboos, stereotypes, and simple overt racisms are issues not unique to Brazil, there is also the more tangible issue of distribution of wealth in the society. Brazil has a relatively high Gini Co-efficient of 55 which is a measure of the inequality of a distribution of resources. (The Gini index lies between 0 and 100. A value of 0 represents absolute equality and 100 absolute inequality). By comparison to the other quickly developing countries identified by Goldman Sachs as the BRICS, had a Gini co-efficient of; Russia (37.5), India (36.8), China (41.5), and South Korea (31.6). These figures were taken from the UNDP’s Human Development Report  for 2009 and are a little out of date, however the issue remains. 

             

One of the projects in Brazil which, in part, aims to solve this problem is Mulheres Mil. “The Thousand Women project provides access to professional education for women in situations of social vulnerability, such as single mothers or heads of household, who had no opportunity to study and be included in the formal sector. The Thousand Women project was established in 2007 as a pilot project in partnership with Canadian Universities. Through 13 federal institutes of education, science and technology, the project served 13 thousand women in the North and Northeast. Now, will be effective across the country, and this year, 100 campuses of the Federal Network of Professional Education, Science and Technology, 100 000 women will benefit from the application program.”

Amber and I got to check out one of the cooking classes with a group from the Mulheres Mil where we made Bolinha de queijo (Cheese balls).