Balance and Parapente

The difference between writing about paragliding and the actual experience of flying it is like any applied activity, words simply fail to convey the view of Fortaleza and the Atlantic from 600 meters above the mountain range near the village of Pacatuba. The combination of low air speeds, warm winds, a dozen gliders in along the Mountain range, and large soaring birds below my feet makes for a truly surreal experience which much be tried to be fully understood. 

Paragliding was spectacular! We flew for about an hour up to around 700+ meters. It is such a peaceful way to fly, only the sound of the wind across the wing.

 

An instruction book on how to swim might provide some useful concepts and theories but the actual experience in the yellow Sands of the green Atlantic, naturally is different matter entirely. It need not be said; that you ought not to bring our books with you for a swim in the ocean or your laptop paragliding: but I think that it’s of some utility to state it explicitly, that when working inter-culturally, finding personal and professional balance is often a matter of leaving the books, or blogs as it may be, behind and just getting out there and doing it. 

The idea of living a balanced life while working inter-culturally is not an end in itself, and this is where I believe that some confusion may arise.  Living a balanced life is but a means to a more productive, active, sustainable, and enriching life while also meeting your personal and professional commitments when traveling and working in a new culture. Living a balanced life allows me to be more proactive in my engagements in this new environment. Now this ends vs. means chatter about balance may sound abstract, even idealist, but it is meant only to point to how attainable balance can be and clarify what was a bit confusing for me. 

While living in Canada, my home, experience sometimes had the appearance and comforting concrete quality of permanence without a specific expiry date. Having a date of departure causes this illusionary aspect to quickly evaporate during travel. Travel, you may have found yourself, is enriched by having finality and impermanence added to the experience. This adds both value and increased opportunity cost to both personal and professional activities and makes a commitment to maintaining balance when living inter-culturally more valuable, enjoyable, and exciting. 

My experience in the Business Incubator at the Instituto Federal in Ceará, Brazil, the Canadian corporate sector, and at Niagara College has provided some insights into achieving some degree of balance while working inter-culturally. However, my knowledge does not come from any innate skill or ability, but rather lessons learned from the natural consequences of finding the limits of my balance.

With the abundance of new and interesting delicacies available it would be easy to sample every type of deep-fried sugar that comes across my path, but eating a balanced diet while on the road is a worthwhile challenge. It gives you the energy to contribute and engage fully; whether it’s at a Churrasco (BBQ) at a shoe factory, Paragliding above Pacatuba, at work in the Business Incubator or anywhere else it may be true when they say “you are what you eat”. It’s yesterday’s news, but eating healthy makes a big difference in maintaining resilient balance. Reflecting from a distance on my own life, the way I’ve lived in Canada, and the decisions I made puts in perspective the ways in which my balance or lack thereof is affected. Getting a bit of sleep is crucial to maintaining balance, but until I came to Fortaleza I did not realize that how and when people sleep is cultural. The majority of residences in the state of Cearά have Hammock hooks in each bed room and most living rooms. It’s an easy way to add a lot of sleeping capacity to a home, and it’s quite comfortable in this climate. Hammocks are manufactured in Fortaleza and they are available at most markets, such as Mercado Central. Getting some hammock time also makes it easy to wake up earlier than I might otherwise. Being close to the equator, the days in Cearά are nearly 12 hours and I’ve found people tend to wake a little earlier than in Canada’s long summer days.  Waking up early also makes some time to really prepare for the work day and makes some time to respond to personal correspondences and prepare for professional commitments. Communicating is an aspect of ‘work/life’ balance and services such as Skype make it really easy and inexpensive to keep in touch with Family and Colleagues when traveling internationally. I’ve had the advantage of gaining some practical experience implementing marketing plans as the VP Communications with the Niagara College Student Administrative Council (NCSAC). This has been an asset when communicating with stakeholders and making sure everyone is up to date, and it’s also an easy way to be proactive in my engagements in this new environment.  In my research into this new environment, North-eastern Brazil, I’ve come across a few things in the Journal for Economic Development that I found to be of interest.

Capital, labor, human capital and technical progress are the four principal factors affecting the growth of aggregate real output in Cearά Economy. Also, It is found that one additional year of average education per person of the Brazilian labour force increases real output by approximately 20 percent. [i]This is particularly relevant in this state given that IFCE is growing fast; from 4 to 30 campuses throughout the State of Cearά. You can imagine the impact when a school goes from 10.000 to about 30.000 students in a short period of time. This expansion will have an impact on the rate of rural to urban migration, the development of the interior of the state, and statewide output.  Of the four sources of growth, technical progress, or equivalently total factor productivity, is the most important, accounting for approximately 40 percent of the growth in Brazilian output in the 1970s; followed by human capital, accounting for approximately 25 percent. Physical capital and labour together account for the remainder. As I wrote about in last week’s blog, the majority of the businesses in the IFCE’s incubator are involved in advancing new technologies in the State of Cearά, and internationally through the creation of online infrastructure and services.  A positive and significant effect of market and supplier access on the state–industry wage premium was found by Thibault et al., with the impact of market access being stronger than the effect of supplier access. International market access turns out to have a greater impact than national or local market access. The positive impact of market access on wages is robust after controlling for several variables, such as firm productivity, taxes, regulation, endowments, and after using instrumental variables. The results are also unchanged in regressions at municipal level, where they were are able to further control for local amenities and endowments.[ii] International market access: Air - The $224 million expansion of Fortaleza’s international airport will include updating and expanding the existing passenger terminal and apron as well as improving the area's road system. The first stage of the process –which is expected to increase capacity from 6.2 million to 9 million – is due to be finished by the end of 2013. The second phase, due to be finished in 2016, is expected to expand capacity at the gateway to 14 million passengers per annum. It is hoped that the expansion will help the region prepare for the influx of tourists expected during the 2014 World Cup, for which Fortaleza is a host.  Only 0.4% of all freight is sent by air. The cost of air transportation in Brazil is around 38 times higher than that of railroad transportation and some six times the cost of highway transportation. Marine: Long-haul ocean shipping comprises the majority of the carriage of goods on international routes. Maritime transportation is responsible for around 90% of Brazil´s foreign trade flows. The cost of freight movement through Brazilian ports is very high, significantly higher than in many developed countries or emerging markets. I will be returning to Canada, from Fortaleza, Brazil, mid-September to complete the final semester of my Bachelor of Applied Business in International Commerce and Global Development. Any additional reading or informational about international trade flows in Fortaleza would be very useful. Thanks!

Lunch Recommendation: Emporio Delitalia

Recommended – Biarritz – Ciabatta ou Sirio (Paorpeito de Frango, mussarela, tomat, Manjericao e molho de queijo.)

Not recommended: Sapoti con agua – The waiter may grimace a little if you order this. It’s a drink that smells herbal, thick, cool, somewhat bland, yet refreshingly gritty, and served with 9 sugars packets and 7 sweeteners presumably to eliminate the flavour and grit completely.

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[i] Lawrence J. Lau, Dean T. Jamison, Shu-Cheng Liu, Steven Rivkin -Journal of Development Economics, Volume 41, Issue 1, June 1993, Pages 45-70, “Education and economic growth Some cross-sectional evidence from Brazil”, <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030438789390036M>,Retrieved: 2011-08-29

[ii] Thibault Fallya, Rodrigo Paillacarb, and Cristina Terrac, Journal of Development Economics
Volume 91, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages 155-168, Economic geography and wages in Brazil: Evidence from micro-data”, <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387809000790>,Retrieved: 2011-08-29