On Friday, May 17, in the Diário Oficial da União, Brazil’s official government communication, the Ministry of Labor announced two measures to facilitate the entry of foreign workers into the country. The most important measure allows for processing and obtaining a work visa before the applicant provides the documents proving experience and education, which must be translated by a sworn translator in Brazil, and also implements the electronic registry of companies that are hiring foreigners to work in Brazil.

In the past, the professional was required to present translated documentation in order to obtain a work visa that is converted into a temporary visa, and companies had to resubmit paperwork every time they requested a visa for a new employee.

The second measure enables the Brazilian government to grant work authorization to obtain a temporary visa to travel to Brazil for those enrolled in postgraduate education and plan to come to Brazil to work in a company based in the country. The visa will be valid for up to 90 days without extensions and cannot be transferred to a permanent visa.

Under normative resolution No. 104, a foreign applicant may receive a work permit without providing diploma and documents demonstrating experience sanctioned by a Brazilian diplomatic representative abroad and translated by a sworn translator in Brazil. From now on the employee will have 60 days after obtaining authorization to submit the translated documentation. Previously the application process was halted until all documents were received.

The resolution also implements the electronic registration of companies, which will allow scanning of the required documents from the company and eliminating the need to send the paperwork again in a subsequent request. Before the documentation was mailed and was required each time the work permit was requested.

For a visa to be granted, prior authorization is required from the Ministry of Labor, which must be requested by the employer in Brazil along with proof of enrollment in the foreign master’s or doctorate degree or graduate program of at least 360 hours. Additionally, there must be the employment contract with the specified term of part-time or full-time, and signed by the requesting company and the foreign employee candidate.

According to the resolution, the work is not linked to internships or professional exchange programs.

[This article originally appeared in Globo news and was translated and edited by CIE]

Market research shows that products sold in Brazil with some form of English in the name or description sell better than other products. It doesn’t matter that consumers may not understand what the English words mean or that the words may be useless propaganda, such as “Better Quality”. The marketing or “chic” value of English in Brazil today includes not only products but the names of companies as well. Here again, it doesn’t matter if a Brazilian understands what the word means as long as it’s recognizably English.

There is a respect for English in Brazil, as there is in most countries because English is the worldwide language of business. However, the Brazilian fascination with English goes deeper – it reaches all the way to the level of envy. Brazilians envy people who can speak English, and they envy the US — a land of big houses and moon landings.

Gisele Bundchen's house in Los Angeles

Where does Brazilian envy come from? One theory is Brazilians believe American products are better than Brazilian products. While Brazil does boast some excellent quality, such as football players and the girls Olympic volleyball team, Brazilians want to buy US products. For example, the US produces more films every year than any other country. And the Apple computer company is doing well even though its tablets, laptops, desktops, and smartphones cost more than their competitors. Even in the US, Apple’s American competitors like HP and Dell are cheaper. Consumers in Brazil and all over the world recognize the Apple brand as a leader in quality.

If we travel back one or two decades, it’s easy to see where this envy for American products originated. In the 1970s, telephones were just arriving in Brazil. It was so expensive to obtain a phone line that there were people trading their cars for phones. Only rich Brazilians had ever flown on an airplane. Toilet paper was so thin it was possible to see tiny bits of wood in it. Brazilians lucky enough to travel to the US came back with stories of thick, soft toilet paper. They described a country where everyone had a phone and even poor people owned cars.

Thus, for decades Brazilians have been living with the idea that there was a better, richer world in the US. Feeling that the country one lives in is inferior to other countries is a heavy psychological burden to carry, particularly when it’s reinforced by movies and TV and everyone else you know. If the entire world refers to Brazil as an undeveloped or third world country, then it must be true.

Sophia Loren eyes Jayne Mansfield

In a certain way, there is justification for envy. For instance, many Brazilians have never heard of the Nobel Prize, the most prestigious award in the world. Why? Because no Brazilian has ever received one.

In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as the “Stockholm Syndrome”. It refers to an alteration in the personality of a kidnapping victim who is forced to spend many weeks or months with her captors and eventually comes to sympathize with them. An example of this was Patricia Hearst, the American publishing heiress, who after months of being a hostage, agreed to help her kidnappers rob a bank. The Stockholm Syndrome is an unexpected brainwashing of a victim that occurs over a long period of confinement. Brazilians may be the victims of the Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to their inferiority. When enough people believe something for a long period of time, it becomes true.

What has happened over the past few decades to Brazilian consciousness is envy has become a habit. If the US or Sweden is a better country because it’s richer and safer, then it’s easy to believe that Americans or Swedes are luckier than Brazilians. Decades spent feeling you are unlucky to have been born in Brazil creates a large problem with confidence levels. Brazilians suffer from a national lack of self-confidence. Don’t misunderstand, Brazilians are still a very proud culture, but they are speechless with inferiority when they compare themselves to the US.

The problem is when envy becomes a habit, it gets dangerous. Feeling inferior makes it possible for Brazilians to envy other Brazilians. Envy is comprised of negative emotions, and it can create a situation where it becomes impossible to be happy for what others’ possess. In this way, envy creates competition among equals, and it creates enemies among friends. When your neighbor returns from a trip to Turkey, suddenly you find yourself on the Internet looking longingly at pictures of Turkey. Instead of being happy for your neighbor, you are so envious you begin planning your own trip. Even worse, you are angry with your neighbor for telling you she went to Turkey. You believe she told you only to make you envious, to show she has more money than you.

Envy has become so hurtful in Brazil that Brazilians sometimes hide their good fortune. It’s considered impolite to tell anyone you’ve bought an expensive car; it’s “bragging”, an unnecessary display of personal wealth. Instead of your friends being happy for your success, they are envious, and it makes them sad and bitter.

Is it necessary that envy be equated with bitterness? Certainly, it’s not polite to display wealth. This is avoided in Brazil because people fear being robbed of their expensive jewelry if they flash it around. That’s why you don’t see people reading iPads on the bus.

Envy has become so commonplace in Brazil that it’s dangerous to mention any new possessions. Mentioning assets of any kind is considered rude because it encourages envy. A superstition has arisen in Brazil surrounding envy that if you insist that your friends admire your new car, the collective envy this creates can be so powerful it can cause you to have an accident in your new car. 

Envy is so strong in Brazil that not only has it entered into the consciousness of superstition, but it’s spawned a bizarre idea that says envy can cause illness in the person who is envied if the person envied feels sorry for those less fortunate.

Is envy the reason Brazilian women spend so much time at the hair/nail salon? In public, Brazilian women spend more time gazing at other women than their husbands do. Of course, all women want to appear attractive and will go to great trouble to achieve it, which explains why Brazil is the plastic surgery capital of the world. Being proud of one’s appearance certainly aids in self-confidence, but should it be inspired by envy? (By contrast, in a recent study, only 4 percent of US women consider themselves beautiful.)

I once invited some Brazilian friends to watch the World Cup game at my apartment, and I mentioned I owned a Sony HDTV. In the US, this is a polite form of self-advertisement to let my friends know watching the game will be enjoyable. However, my wife told me in Brazil this was rude. Owning something new isn’t polite because it creates envy. Instead of envy inspiring people to work harder and save their money to buy a new TV or travel, envy has become a nasty negative emotion.

A country full of the envious can’t be productive. It Brazil intends to continue its trajectory into the world of the developed countries, it needs to reconsider this bad habit. If Brazil can successfully utilize its new wealth to upgrade the education and justice systems, there would be no cause for envy. If everyone has clean water and access to good schools, what is there to envy?

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

By B. Michael Rubin

Human beings are social animals. We live in groups – families, tribes, cities. For the very first humans, a million years ago, like for all animals that live in the wild, life revolved around finding food and water and protection from the elements of nature: cold, rain, and other carnivorous animals. Humans survived by learning skills to protect themselves and their families.

As children growing up in a family, we are taught by our parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters the rules of social behavior. We learn that stealing from others or hurting people is wrong. And if we continue such improper behavior when we become adults, we pay a penalty. Adults who break the rules of society are punished and sent away to prison. In this way, a society separates itself from people who don’t follow the accepted rules of behavior.

Researchers who study social behavior cite five key elements that hold a society together. These five elements are similar to laws in that if they are violated, there is a serious penalty, such as being isolated from the family. However, these elements are different from laws in that they are not written, like laws in the Constitution. Nevertheless, these five elements provide a strict code for social behavior. They are as important as laws, and we all follow them even if we don’t realize it.

The five elements (or unwritten laws) of social behavior:

1. We must contribute to our family, thus whatever work is necessary to maintain the family should be shared.

2. Within any family there is a “pecking order” or power structure. A boy must do what his father says because the father has greater power within the family than the boy.

3. We rely on other family members to help us. We need help with small jobs; other times, when we’re sick, we need others to care for us. Therefore, we are dependent on the other members of the family.

4. Since we are dependent on others, such as our mothers to feed us when we are infants, we must learn how not to offend family members.

5. If we do not follow the rules, the family can isolate us or impose another penalty. If we offend others or refuse to help with work, why should the family take care of us?

When everyone in a family or tribe or city follows these five rules, life continues peacefully. As a result, it’s possible for a tribe of Indians living in the Amazon jungle to continue their existence along the same patterns of behavior and social order without changing. These tribes have been hunting animals and gathering berries and nuts for food in the same way for thousands of years. A boy learns the best way to kill an animal from his father, who learned from his father. Learning these skills are what enable the tribe to eat and survive.

What is not present in these Amazon tribes is the desire or need or ability to change. The group reaches a position of equilibrium with its environment, where there is enough food and water to survive, and they remain stable and stationary. Animal species behave in the same way. The basic instinct for unchanged stability is known as “biological stasis.”

If animal species and primitive humans seek stasis, then how and why did modern civilization occur? How do humans change? This is a fundamental and as yet unanswered question that scholars have pondered for centuries. Clearly some groups, like native Indians, have not changed, but they are the exception. Cultures change and evolve, which is why life today in Curitiba is different from life in the Amazon jungle.

One theory about human change is that there is a basic difference between humans and other animals — that difference being our curiosity and desire. In another theory, change is seen as a form of adaptation. People change because they have no choice, their survival requires it. This was the great contribution made by Darwin and other early experts in human evolution in the 19^th century. Darwin was the first to recognize that the animal species that survived throughout history were the ones that adapted best to change.

Change and progress also occur because humans are creative. We can use our imaginations to solve problems, then adapt our solutions to solve other problems, or solve the same problems in a better way. People have learned to explore, invent, and experiment. We have developed artistic expression and romance. These human desires have allowed cultures to change and evolve.

One thing we know for certain is that change is not easy. It comes gradually, and some changes are good while others are not. Yet, the advancement of civilization is based on the principle of progress and change. Without invention and creativity and change, there would be no wheel, no telephone, no computer.

It is still unclear exactly what inspires humans to change, what leads individuals or groups to invent new things and experiment. We do know that change is outside the norm; it is easier and safer to follow the guidelines set by our parents. It is safer to follow the rules than to break the rules. The question then is: What would stimulate people to act in ways that are not normal? What creates a different pattern of behavior?

Beer spa in Europe

Recently, some researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada have developed a new theory on human change. Their findings are not what anyone expected – beer!

Professor Brian Hayden and his colleagues in Canada believe they have proof that beer was being consumed by ancient cultures as long as 10,000 years ago. They believe that even before grain was being used to make bread, it was being stored to make beer. Hayden has published his theory in the Journal of Archeological Method and Theory.

His theory suggests that beer parties were essential in the development of early human societies because alcohol frees people. Drinking suppresses the rigid social codes that all families follow. People need an excuse that allows them to escape their inhibitions, to act in ways that are not normal. With the use of beer or wine, people who are usually shy or afraid to express their ideas are now free. Beer allows people to break the rules temporarily, to act differently, to celebrate even in times of hardship. Beer breaks down traditional communication barriers within the internal power structure of a tribe. Additionally, when people drink, they are more caring and affectionate towards others.

Beer advertisement

Some evidence suggests that these early beers (or wines) were also considered aids in deliberation. In long ago Germany and Persia, collective decisions of state were made after a few warm beers, then double-checked when everyone was sober. Elsewhere, they did it the other way around. Beer was thought to be so important in many ancient civilizations that the Code of Urukagina, often cited as the first legal code, prescribed beer as a central unit of payment and penance.

It should be noted the reason beer and wine were popular long ago is specifically because of their low alcohol content. As far as the research has shown, distillation of alcohol to higher concentrations began only about 2,000 years ago. It must also be recognized that while drinking may have provided a valuable element to the development and progress of a civilization, no society can function if everyone is drinking all the time. The morning after a party, the group must return to its routines of hunting and gathering food and caring for itself. Beer is not food. Without sober family members and hard work, society falls apart.

We have all witnessed the tragedy of people who drink so much they cannot live without it and become alcoholics. They lose their families when they are no longer able to follow the codes of social behavior, such as helping others or not offending people. And we certainly don’t need anyone to warn us about the dangers of drinking and driving a car.

Therefore, while it’s not suggested that everyone drink beer all day, every day, it does appear that limited and responsible use of beer and wine may have played an important role in the development of civilization. Or as the American statesman Ben Franklin supposedly said, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

By Roberto Muggiati

Like the unsung heroes he worships, Fernando Lichti Barros works stealthily — and consistently. In 2010 he published the biography Casé/Como toca esse rapaz! which was awarded the Funarte Critical Production in Music Prize. Now he is out with a new book, Do calypso ao cha-cha-chá/Músicos em São Paulo na década de 60. (The title, you must remember this, comes from the lyrics of a well-known Tom Jobim song, Só danço samba.) When bop saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker died in 1955, New York walls were covered with graffiti BIRD LIVES! When saxophonist Casé died in 1978, Fernando, then 25 years old, felt the urge paint CASÉ VIVE! all over the walls of São Paulo. But Ipiranga-São João is not a corner of Manhattan, and Fernando had to wait thirty years to pay his homage to his idol, making his biography available at first in the web and, two years later, publishing it in book form.

José Ferreira Godinho Filho, better known as Casé, was born in Guaxupé, Minas Gerais, in 1932 in a musical family: father and mother musicians, one trumpeter brother, three saxophonist brothers. From circus tents and church meetings to ballrooms, radio and TV studios and night clubs, he also travelled extensively through Europe and the Middle East. “Cool and introvert, he used to utter one sentence per year,” said one of his colleagues. Casé was the alto sax in the famous Dick Farney Quartet in the fifties, a Brazilian version of Dave Brubeck’s Quartet. He studied harmony and the classics, and rejected several proposals to play in the United States and in Europe (“I have to take care of my mother”). He met a tragic death, alone in a hotel room in Boca do Lixo, São Paulo’s Skid Row. Apparently he got involved with a gangster’s moll and the boss sent some of his henchmen to “fix him good…” But these crummy surroundings have not wiped out Casé’s musical achievements, still vivid after all those years. For him, modern jazz, more than a cultural adventure, was almost a religious experience.

Casé is also present in the mass of musicians playing all over São Paulo’s sixties, as Fernando Lichti Barros tells us wonderfully in Do calypso ao cha-cha-chá: Músicos em São Paulo na década de 60 — in the night clubs called “inferninhos” (pocket hells), recording studios, radio and TV auditoriums, and also at Saturday balls and marriage celebrations. Obscure sidemen rarely credited on album covers or notes, but splendid players who used to put their love for music above everything else. Writes Fernando: “A cauldron of styles and rhythms, from samba to jazz, from twist to “jequibau,” from bossa nova to rock’n’roll, from calypso to cha-cha-cha. The soundtrack of the sixties is highlighted by the presence of instrumentalists — a sax blowing in the night, a tinkling piano at the back of the bar, an orchestra rocking softly the dancing couples.”

Each chapter of the book unfolds one year of this decade of turmoil and crisis. The author shows almost graphically how political facts become intertwined with cultural ones and, particularly, with the music. As soon as the military seize power, in 1964, there is an intervention in the musician’s union — all unions are supposed to be communists’ nests. And the rock band Oliveira e seus Black Boys almost went to jail when its guitar improvisation on Glenn Miller’s American Patrol was taken as a disrespectful distortion of Brazil’s National Anthem.

Casé

Apart from such comical episodes, it was the best of times for musicians. São Paulo was the focal point of Brazil’s economic boom in the sixties and jobs were plentiful. (Just as reference, the city started the decade with a population of 3,7 million and ended it over the 7 million mark.) Nightclubs mushroomed at an incredible pace, with colorful and exotic names like Dakar, La Ronde, Clube de Paris, Chicote, Baiuca, Juão Sebastião Bar, La Vie en Rose, Galo Vermelho, Black & White, Lancaster. Most of the big hotels also had musical bars and engaged some of the best musicians in town.

Some of these players were known by curious nicknames, such as Foguinho, Fogueira, Chu, Buda, Bira, Lambari, Maguinho. Masterful pianist Dick Farney’s real name was actually Farnésio Dutra e Silva (his actor brother, Cilênio, became Cyll Farney.) Musicians came from all over the country to try their luck in São Paulo: Hermeto Pascoal, from Alagoas; Ayrto Moreira, from Santa Catarina — both would record in the late sixties with jazz giant Miles Davis. They also came from abroad, from Europe, from Argentina — saxophone virtuoso Hector Costita lives until today in São Paulo.

Dick Farney

If you lost your job or were after a gig, you just went to the Musician’s Point, a bar in the corner of Ipiranga and São João and all your problems were solved. Those happy and hectic days would soon be drowned in the noisy pile-driver of disco. But it was wonderful while it lasted and Fernando Lichti Barros set the record straight. He interviewed some sixty of those brave warriors of the night and they are still alive and playing — playing well, many of them already in their mid-eighties.

The story does not end here. If you wish to listen to those fabulous sounds of Casé and of the musicians of the sixties in São Paulo, just tune in: Fernando provides us plenty of music on his Radio Casé and Radio Do calyso ao cha-cha-chá. Just click the links below:

http://www.blogamp.com/skins/run_bamp.php?cID=0ba26316864a5fa98817303f546c7027&title=RADIO%20CASE

http://www.blogamp.com/skins/run_bamp.php?cID=92eca6fd4bb51d104dd041ac0b5a8db7&title=RADIO%20CALYPSO

Roberto Muggiati is a regular contributor to CIE. He is a musician who writes about music for numerous newspapers and magazines in Brazil.

With the Brazilian soap opera Salve Jorge over, it’s time to think about a visit to Turkey. If the sordid aspects of urban Istanbul portrayed in Salve Jorge were not to your liking, I suggest a visit instead to Cappadocia, the land of the heavenly balloons.

This region of central Turkey is less than one hour from Istanbul by plane and couldn’t be more different. While Istanbul is one of the world’s largest cities, the town of Goreme in Cappadocia is so quiet and safe that the local residents don’t bother to lock their doors at night.

The Kismet Cave Hotel in Goreme is owned and managed by Faruk Keles. Born in Goreme, where his father and grandfather were farmers, Faruk is the proprietor of the Kismet Hotel, a pousada with eight guest rooms. He runs the hotel with a Turkish mastery one would expect in the land of flying carpets.

Faruk Keles, owner of Kismet Hotel

A former chef with a strong farmer’s back and a trim physique, Faruk is an enigma in Turkey, known for its wide, pot-bellied men who consume mountains of sugar. Before building his hotel, which is nestled into one of Cappadocia’s famous fairy chimneys, Faruk worked as a waiter, where he picked up his English and Japanese. From waiting tables, he moved to the kitchen, which explains the wonderful Kismet breakfast omelettes, made to order and filled with delights like a pinch of dill plucked directly from a flower pot sitting on the breakfast terrace, which Faruk tosses into the omelette pan.

Faruk’s daily breakfast spread featured yogurt and cheese and olives, fresh plums and apricots from his garden, as well as homemade jelly and honey from his neighbor’s hives, still encased in the honeycomb. In Turkey nearly everyone owns a small piece of land, generally next to their homes, to grow vegetables and fruits – everything from apricots and figs to grapes and nuts, onions and potatoes. Faruk’s wife tended their garden in Goreme while Faruk tended to his hotel guests.

After a day or two at the Kismet, I realized there wasn’t anyone in Goreme Faruk didn’t know, which probably explained why the front door of the hotel had no lock on it. At night, after everyone was inside, Faruk would return to his home and four children, about a hundred meters from the hotel, and his assistant, Mahmoud, who slept in the hotel, would shut the front door of the hotel from the inside with a large rock.

Mahmoud holding a tortoise shell

Faruk was in the hotel seven days a week to assist us with questions and requests and even changing money. He told me Goreme’s economy was based entirely on tourism. The first tourists had started arriving about 25 years ago, mostly Japanese. Now they came from all over the world to see the fairy chimneys of Cappadochia.

By the end of the week, I was convinced there wasn’t anything Faruk couldn’t procure, and at a discount. Another couple who were staying at the Kismet Hotel with us said they were celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary that week. When they informed Faruk it was their anniversary, he suggested they visit a local restaurant that featured belly dancers. There they were surprised by a belly dancer carrying an anniversary cake, which Faruk had secretly arranged.

Turkish coffee

Every time we entered the hotel, passing his office, Faruk would offer us Turkish coffee, which he prepared in the Turkish tradition, passed down for thousands of years. For Brazilian coffee lovers, Turkey will provide that same everyday religious experience. The Turkish drink coffee all day, and treat its preparation and quality control in high reverence. The finely ground coffee beans, nearly a powder, are scooped into a tiny copper cup and placed over the lowest possible flame. Faruk had no stove in his office, but he kept a portable, round propane tank at his feet just for the purpose of making coffee. Coffee powder and a little water, nothing else, brought to a boil, then served the instant the blackened mixture bubbled. No filter. One cup at a time. The dark brew can’t be stirred for fear of disturbing the gooey coffee grounds on the bottom of the cup. Unaccustomed to such strong brew, my teeth chattered with the caffeine rush.

Our room was a tribute to Faruk who, without any training in architecture, had designed the hotel and supervised the construction. The vaulted, arched ceiling of our room was made of curved, white stone, which provided natural air circulation. Faruk said his design came from the ancient Romans. When he had provided the builder with the design, he told him: “You will build 1000 houses, but I will build one. I want it perfect.”

Our room at the Kismet Hotel

It was summer in Cappadocia, and during our last days at the Kismet Hotel, we were the only guests, as spring and fall are the busy seasons in Goreme. With fewer duties, Mahmoud had so much free time he was serving us hot apple tea four or five times a day, whenever he saw us. He would bring it without our asking, even delivering it to our room, which included a fireplace and private bath with large jacuzzi. Our king-sized bed, complete with hand-embroidered sheets and pillow cases, was draped with a white curtain that hung from the ceiling, which I stupidly mistook for mosquito netting. There were no screens on the windows, but as in Istanbul, I never saw a single mosquito.

Besides his years in the restaurant business, Faruk had also been a carpet salesman, establishing his expertise in this ageless Turkish tradition and adding to his repertoire of inventiveness. There are handmade carpets all over the floors and walls of the Kismet Hotel.

Faruk: “My father told me not to build this hotel. He thinks I’m in a hurry to get rich, but I don’t care about the money. I paid for the land and the construction of the hotel with money I made selling carpets. I never borrowed any money. My father is a farmer, so he thinks I’m lazy, sitting around on my ass all day. But I worked ten hours a day selling carpets to build my dream, and running a hotel isn’t easy. My father thinks anyone who doesn’t work with his hands is lazy.”

Faruk described the arduous construction of the hotel, including the bureaucratic delays and mistakes by the builder. He purchased the land in 2000, but the hotel didn’t receive its first guest until 2007. “Now my business is a success, and I know this is my destiny, to own a hotel. I have enough money now to purchase more land, so I’m thinking of building another hotel next to this one. However, my father has never told me that I was right, and he was wrong.”

The Kismet rests inside a fairy chimney

Throughout the hotel were original paintings covering the stone walls, painted by a friend of Faruk’s who visited the hotel one evening we were there and provided entertainment, playing a Turkish instrument similar to a guitar, except with 7 strings. The guitarist told us besides painting and music and designing jewelry, he was also studying to be a whirling dervish.

On one of our last days in Goreme, Faruk introduced us to two Americans, who both happened to arrive on the same day at the Kismet Hotel even though they didn’t know each other. Both of them had met Faruk a few years ago and fallen in love with Turkey. Since then, both had moved to Turkey, bringing their families.

I ask Faruk about the future, and he talks about creating his second hotel. “It’s not going to be easy, but the new one will be better than Kismet because of what I know.” Looking ahead, he thinks Turkey is in a better economic position than the rest of Europe because of one fact: “Turkey has a young population. Sixty percent are under 40 years old. In Germany, (which hosts many Turkish residents), everyone is old.” I tell him the same hopes exist in the youthful demographic of Brazil. Regarding my decision to live in Brazil, he says, “Life is short; where you are happy, that is your country.”

Faruk and the "Mayor"

As my wife and I were sadly packing our suitcases to depart, Faruk was arranging for our private car from Goreme back to the airport in Kayseri. For a goodbye treat, he offered to prepare a lunch for us. When he asked if there was something special we would like, my wife requested fish, and he promptly produced three beautiful whole trout, which he cooked himself in a manner of minutes. Faruk refused my offer of money for the lunch.

As we were scraping our fresh bread across the buttery trout remnants in the bottom of the cast-iron frying man, a Turkish man arrived. He greeted Faruk and shook my hand as well. He looked to be in his late 60s and gestured to some Turkish rugs he’d brought with him. Faruk explained that the gentleman trafficked in antique carpets of the finest quality, and whenever he visited, Faruk always bought something from him.

We halted our sad and delicious lunch to examine the carpets, which were over a hundred years old. The gentleman didn’t speak English, but Faruk translated his carpet expertise. Faruk told us the man’s nickname was “The Mayor” as he had once been a mayor in a nearby town. He had ten children, and his oldest son was now a judge. When I asked if such large families were common in Turkey, Faruk assured me they were not, except for men who had multiple wives. As I knew that polygamy had been outlawed in Turkey, I assumed Faruk was joking. In fact, the Mayor had ten children by two wives – one of whom lived in the city and the other in the countryside. Two homes and two wives – here was a man living an enchanted life.

The "Mayor"

After the Mayor departed, we finished lunch and Mahmoud carried our suitcases downstairs. When our air-conditioned van arrived, Faruk put our bags in the back. He told me, “I named my hotel Kismet because it means fate or destiny. I believe this hotel is my fate. Just like it’s fate for you to come here. Not all money is good money. Good money comes from you because you are happy here. You appreciate the work I’ve done to build this hotel, and so your money brings me good luck. Bad money I don’t need. There were some people who came yesterday without a reservation, and I showed them a room. They told me my price was too high. I told them, ‘You can always find something cheaper, but what’s the quality?’ They left. That’s bad money. I don’t need it.”

As my wife and I climbed into the van and he closed the door for us, we shook hands again through the window. He added, “Life is simple, but it isn’t easy.”

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

By B. Michael Rubin

It is difficult to explain how much the world is changing. In the past one hundred years, greater changes have taken place than during the previous ten thousand years.

Imagine daily life in the 1800s. It was normal at that time for someone to live his entire life without ever leaving his town. Most people lived in small towns and knew everyone who lived there. Therefore, it was rare to meet new people. Without television or movies or photography, people couldn’t see what other cities or countries looked like. Most people couldn’t read, so all their knowledge came through conversations with family or neighbors, people who had never left their town either. A person’s entire world was comprised of the few hundred people who lived around him. It was impossible to meet someone from another country who spoke a different language, wore different clothes, or ate different foods. The exposure to foreign cultures or ideas was almost impossible. Women didn’t have jobs, didn’t vote, and didn’t attend universities.

Today, technology has created the modern world. Thanks to TV and the Internet, our world is comprised of, well, the entire world. With Skype and Facebook, our friends might live on other continents. In only a few short decades, Brazil has entered the modern world. At no other time in history has a culture evolved this quickly. The speed of change in Brazil is faster than ever before. Brazilians are witnessing a monumental change in their everyday lives, and it is a unique moment in history. Brazil is making revolutionary history — the instantaneous transition from a traditional society to a modern society. It’s like watching a magician make a rabbit disappear: We can see and touch the rabbit, but a moment later the rabbit is gone.

There are vast differences between a traditional society and a modern one, and technology is only a part of it. People who live traditionally follow the same customs and habits and beliefs of their parents and grandparents. Since the residents of small towns were informationally isolated for their entire lives, the same ideas were passed down from one generation to the next for thousands of years. While we still learn a great deal from our parents as we are growing up, we have access today to a whole world of ideas.

Jared Diamond, author of the book, The World Until Yesterday, describes the contrast between a modern society and a traditional one in this way: “Loneliness is not a problem in traditional societies. People spend their lives in or near the place where they were born, and they remain surrounded by relatives and childhood companions. Identity isn’t a problem either. Neither is moral confusion.”

In the small cities and countryside of Brazil, life is still traditional. Many modern conveniences like high-speed home Internet are not available yet. As in times past, rural Brazilians do not commonly move away from the city where they were born. Similarly, everyone who now lives in Brazil was born in Brazil. Less than 1 percent of Brazilian residents were born in another country. (By contrast, 50 percent of New York City residents were born outside the US.)

Rural Brazilian family of Goiás

While it’s possible to change how people live their everyday lives — giving them cars instead of horses, cellphones and cable TV instead of letters and personal visits — it’s not as easy to change the way people think. Even busy, urban, Brazilian families, ones where both the husband and wife have full-time jobs and own two cars, still hold on to old traditions, such as family recipes for feijoada. Also, most young Curitibanos wouldn’t consider leaving Curitiba because their families are here. Changing routines or technology is very different from changing one’s ideas. It’s like asking someone to change his religion. While the everyday lives of modern Brazilians are changing rapidly — because of technology and divorce and birth control — their ideas and principles are slower to change.

Many of the principles of traditional culture still exist today in Brazil because it’s impossible for people to change their core beliefs too quickly. While teenagers in Brazil are all growing up with Facebook and text messaging on their cellphones, becoming experts in speed typing with two thumbs, their parents still remember just a few decades ago when the first telephones were being installed in their homes.

One of the foundations of a traditional culture that still exists in Brazil today is the belief in spirits or ghosts. Brazil is a spiritual country, full of believers of all kinds, from Catholics to spiritualists. Brazilians believe there are spirits around who are here to guide us. In Brazilian culture, a person is not born alone nor is he meant to be alone. There is always a mother to care for him and a father to mentor him. When his parents die, they remain as spirits working on his behalf like guardian angels. The one spiritual principle that connects Brazil is the sadness of being alone.

When spirits and ghosts are real, the world becomes full of magic and mystery. Brazil is a country full of mystery — a country of uncertainty, unpredictability, and the unexplainable. It’s as if Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle” had exploded beyond the molecular level and announced, “You think you know how the universe works? Don’t be ridiculous.” (Heisenberg’s Principle states it’s impossible to know the precise location of a subatomic particle because by the time its position has been calculated, it’s already moved.)

In contrast to Brazil, Americans have trouble making room for uncertainty in their lives. This can be explained somewhat by the fact that 25 percent of young people in the US report no religious affiliation. Mystery and the unexplained are the enemy. Americans believe it is the role of psychologists and scientists and intellectuals to “explain away” the uncertainty. However, the fact is much of the world we live in is unexplainable, at least for now. For instance, physicists have yet to unravel all the properties of gravity. Even more surprising, researchers still can’t explain why the human body requires sleep every night.

Americans fear mystery while Brazilians embrace it. In Brazil when a friend describes an event, there will be some truth and some rumor and exaggeration all mixed in together in the event. His story will be a stew with mystery as an added spice, without which the story lacks flavor. The ambiguity of separating the truth from the rumor is what makes the story fun.

Americans expect every word in the newspaper or on the TV news to be true. Before a news magazine is printed in the US, a group of magazine employees check the articles for accuracy. This group is called “fact checkers”, and it’s their job to ensure veracity. However, in the past few years, thanks primarily to the Internet, the US is becoming less factual and more mysterious. In the 21^st century, the US is becoming more like Brazil. The news has become entertainment, and on reality TV, entertainment has become news. Additionally, with the increase in the speed that news is reported on the Internet, it’s more likely for factual errors to occur because there’s less time to verify the facts. Even respected news sources like CNN can make mistakes. For example, in the Boston marathon bombing case, CNN reported a suspect had been arrested two days after the bombing when it wasn’t true.

Edward R. Murrow, early American hero of TV journalism

Perhaps Americans are coming to see the world more from a Brazilian point of view. They are beginning to recognize that not everything is knowable. Americans have been placing too much faith in their journalists’ and scientists’ explanations without leaving room for spiritual considerations. For someone who believes everything in the universe is explainable, mystery and magic can become a source of anxiety. In Brazil, not only is mystery accepted as a part of life, it’s pleasurable. Interestingly, researchers have proven that going to church weekly is good for your health. It boosts the immune system and decreases blood pressure. It may add as much as two to three years to your life. The reason for this is not entirely clear.

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

Some artists are referred to as geniuses, their work admired by millions of people over the centuries. However, in the case of M.C. Escher, the most common label associated with him is “impossible.” Escher was a graphic artist whose creations depict impossible realities. Although he had no training as a mathematician, he took his inspiration from the mysteries of math and once said, “It’s clear to me that mathematics and poetry have the same roots.”

To describe a typical Escher scene that cannot exist in reality is not the best way to appreciate his creations. Rather, I recommend you visit the Oscar Niemeyer Museum here in Curitiba and view Escher’s work. It’s necessary to see for yourself what happens when an amazing graphic artist learns how to play tricks with infinity.

Born in the Netherlands, his life spanning most of the 20^th century (1898-1972), Escher’s work focused on creating the impossible by playing with intersecting planes and three-dimensional perspectives that in reality couldn’t exist. He worked primarily in lithographs.

One of Escher’s favorite tricks involves interlocking images where it is impossible to see both images at the same time. You can only see the dark one or the light one because one provides the background for the other.

Another game Escher played in his work was to violate the rules of perspective and the third dimension. For example, in the lithograph “Ascending and Descending”, Escher created two lines of people ascending and descending stairs in an infinite loop on a construction which is impossible to build and possible to draw only by taking advantage of quirks of perception and perspective.

Ascending and Descending

It’s important to remember that not only was Escher self-taught in the realm of mathematics, which was central to his work, but also that his most known works were lithographs. This means that he was not drawing or painting his inventions but created the original design by carving them first in wood or stone and then making prints from the carvings.

In another of his best known lithographs, “Waterfall”, Escher again displays the impossible – a waterfall that powers a wheel, which manages to propel itself through the magic of the impossible. It’s a fantasy dreamed of by many engineers, like a “perpetual motion” machine.

Waterfall

The “Eye Museum” has mounted an outstanding exhibition of Escher’s work, including an Escher Room created by another artist as an homage to Escher. Some of his designs have been copied and expanded onto large backgrounds, including his famous woodcut “Day and Night” which has been reproduced over the Museum elevators.

There are also several exhibits that visitors can walk inside of, creating an interactive atmosphere, which will make this museum visit interesting even for children. The morning I saw the exhibit, there were several groups of school children enjoying Escher’s ability to play tricks on the mind, such as infinitely repeating images in facing mirrors, or animated versions of Escher’s designs created by other artists. A museum guide at the entrance was offering the use of special t-shirts to blend into an optical illusion, and visitors were happily taking their photos in front of the illusion.

As a result, a visit to the Museum is worthwhile simply to enjoy the looks of surprise and glee on the visitors’ faces. As many Brazilians are not familiar with Escher’s work, even adults are engaged by the games of impossible perspectives. Additionally, there is a one-hour film documentary on Escher, for those interested in a deeper investigation of the artist’s life.

Not surprisingly, the Escher exhibit is drawing record numbers of visitors to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. In the first ten days of the exhibition by the Dutch artist, an estimated 14,000 visitors have come to see the impossible. The show traveled through other Brazilian cities in 2011 and was the world’s most visited exhibition according to The Art Newspaper.

According to the Exhibition curator Pieter Tjabbes, the show’s immense popularity rests on Escher’s ability to be playful and technically brilliant. “Both those who understand and don’t understand art can engage with it.The pieces draw you in,” says the curator, who organized the show with the intent to educate the public with explanations about the artist and his work. Since organizers of the show have encouraged visitors to photograph and share the experience on social networks, many visitors are learning about it via the Internet. “This has had a multipling effect for attendance,” says Tjabbes, much like the multiplying images in Escher’s mirrors.

The large exhibit, occupying two rooms of the Museum is a rare opportunity to see Escher’s original work. The exhibit contains all of his most famous lithographs, including Metamorphosis I & II, which stretches for at least ten meters along one wall. Metamorphosis features Escher’s signature work of interlocking images, each one morphing into a different image using the juxtaposition of black and white. This imagery, known as “tessellation”, was first explored in the study of crystals by scientists in the 1600s. Escher read extensively about crystallography and also spent weeks making sketches of the geometric patterns of the Alhambra, the famous palace in Granada, Spain, which is covered with mosaics in the style of the Moors. The geometry of crystals and the infinite repetition of patterns in the Arab designs became Escher’s inspiration.

Metamorphose II

This exhibit of Escher’s most famous works is owned by the Escher Museum in the Netherlands. A show of Escher’s entire work has never been mounted before, but thanks to the Escher Museum, which has organized the show’s display in cities all over the world, Brazilians are able to meet the man who created the impossible. You’ll have to see it to believe it.

 

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

FILM REVIEW

British writer/director Sally Potter’s seventh feature film, Ginger & Rosa, came to Curitiba two weeks ago. Ms. Potter, although well-known in England and on the international film festival circuit, is not a familiar name in Brazil. Her independent films are amazingly different from each other, and some are not intended for wide audiences but rather the select few who appreciate offbeat work.

Ms. Potter’s earlier films include The Tango Lesson, an homage to the famous dance form. She wrote and directed a film in 2004 called Yes, that was performed entirely in iambic pentameter, the poetic form utilized by Shakespeare. She’s best known for the film Orlando from 1992, which is the most exciting film adaptation of any of the novels of Virginia Woolf, the famous British writer whose books are exceedingly difficult to translate to the screen.

Like the wide range of film subjects Sally Potter has tackled in her career, she is known for her wide-ranging talent. Not only does she write and direct her films, but she was trained as a dancer and took the lead role in The Tango Lesson. She is also a musician, having composed the music for Orlando.

In addition to her unusual range of film projects, Ms. Potter is famous for her ability to handle large, excellent casts of actors. Her previous films have included such actors as Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Quentin Crisp, Steve Buscemi, Christina Ricci, Oscar-nominated Joan Allen, twice Oscar-nominated Jude Law, and Oscar-winner Judi Dench.

Writer/Director Sally Potter

In Ginger & Rosa, Ms. Potter has written her most conventional film, the story of a friendship between two teenage girls in 1960s England. We witness the inner struggles of Ginger (Elle Fanning) trying to understand a world where she’s become aware of the power of nuclear weapons to destroy all civilization. She looks to her closest friend Rosa  (Alice Englert) and her parents to offer solace for her fears. Unfortunately, those around her, especially her parents who are continually separating, offer little comfort, with the exception of her gay godfathers (the marvelous actors Oliver Platt and Timothy Spall). As the drama unfolds, Ginger reaches out desperately for comfort in a world of uncertainty but is continually disappointed in her parents and Rosa.

For those viewers who grew up in the 1960s or 70s, you will recognize the landmarks of the era, like the Wurlitzer Hi-Fi jukebox playing “Tutti-Fruity Oh Ruddy” or the huge peace sign poster Ginger has over her bed. She attends marches carrying signs for “Ban the Bomb” and there are quotes from Lord Bertrand Russell. The girls iron their long hair to make it straighter and are also not afraid to hitchhike.

Alessandro Nivolo

Both girls make a habit of skipping school but receive an education from Ginger’s father (Alessandro Nivolo), a pacifist writer who has been to prison for refusing to fight in World War II. He teaches his daughter to call him Roland rather than dad, and that “God is an invention”. He teaches Rosa that she’s the right age to welcome the sexual revolution sweeping through Europe at this time.

As in many of Ms. Potter’s previous films, the primary reason for seeing Ginger & Rosa is her choice of the leading actress, Elle Fanning as Ginger. With her character’s red hair inherited from her mother and sparkling blue eyes, Ms. Fanning, just 14 in this film, manages to play convincingly the role of a 17-year-old, no easy feat for any teen actress. It’s a tribute to Ms. Potter’s talent as a director that she chose Elle Fanning for the role and was able to elicit such a brilliant performance. There aren’t many 14-year-old actresses who can carry the weight of an entire movie. Ms. Fanning is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, who until now has been more visible in Hollywood than her younger sister.

Elle Fanning, age 14

After seeing Ginger and Rosa, I suspect Elle will outshine her older sister in the years to come. Despite her tender age, a performer this confident doesn’t develop overnight. Elle Fanning has been acting since the age of 3, appearing in Deja Vu with Denzel Washington at age 8, Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt at age 7, and The Door in the Floor with Jeff Bridges at age 6.

Ginger’s parents are also a pair of accomplished actors, Americans Christina Hendricks (Mad Men TV series) and Alessandro Nivolo, who’s appeared in over 30 films including Coco Chanel, Junebug, and Laurel Canyon. And Annette Bening plays the role of an American feminist friend of the gay godfathers.

The movie ends in a dramatic scene where the ethical decisions of Ginger’s father are called into question and her mother’s fragility descends into a suicidal depression. It’s a telling glimpse into the way the cultural revolution of the 1960s changed people’s lives forever.

Alice Englert and Elle Fanning in Ginger & Rosa

Now playing at Shopping Estação in the VIP Room. Price: R$44/person. The reclining seats with footrests are deliciously comfortable in this newest movie viewing experience in Curitiba. However, movie fans should be advised that the film is shown without previews and due to the intimate seating, late arrivals are annoying.

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.

The career path that led João Bresolin Vicente de Araújo to the presidency of the West Paraná Railway S.A. (Ferroeste) is rather uncommon. Less than four years after graduating university, he has found himself commanding a team of 150 people.

 However, at just 25 years old, the former intern has been able to cancel the monthly deficit of R$600,000 at Ferroeste, one of the most important state railways in the country.

During his six months on the job, the young man has overcome some serious hurdles, such as reservations about his age and the accumulated losses of the company. However, with administrative and operational changes, Araújo foresees profits on the horizon for 2013. “It is my duty to try to fix this railroad.”

Founded in 1988 and in operation by 1996, Ferroeste is the primary link between Paraná’s western agricultural production center and the Port of Paranaguá. Agricultural production in the western half of the state depends on the transport of the company’s rail network. In 2012, 720,000 tons of product traveled on Ferroeste’s rail system.

Acceptance was one of the first battles Araujo had to fight in his early days of management. “Getting this position was a huge surprise. I couldn’t possibly imagine something like this was possible,” said the young executive about the time when he was invited to the office of the Secretary of Infrastructure and Logistics, José Richa Filho. “People were afraid that they were getting the spoiled son of a politician for the job, but that wasn’t my profile, and soon they changed their opinion,” said the president.

Photo Credit: Disclosure / Ferroeste press

The banter about his age was inevitable, but he always made sure to take everything in stride. “I remember a woman saying that there was a van from the Guardianship Council parked outside to take me away in case I did something wrong, or that they would call my mother. But it’s normal, the company is 25 years old and I am 25 years old,” he mused.

According to Araújo, the jokes stopped when he began to put into practice what he had learned in the private sector. “I tried my best to adapt, but it’s very different. Everything is much more bureaucratic, slower” he says. Still, the results of the new measures are already being seen in these first few months of the year.

João Bresolin Vicente de Araújo was born in Curitiba, but lived in western Paraná from age 4 to 17, when he returned to the capital to enroll in higher education. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 2008 from FAE and Forestry from UFPR in 2010, after a getting a technical degree in France.

His early career was spent at America Latina Logistica (ALL), which operates the railroads in various regions of Brazil. “It was a huge challenge working at ALL. I worked about 12 hours per day. I spent a year in the Operations Control Center (OCC) handling the Paraná and Santa Catarina grain loading. Then I was invited to join ALL’s program engineers,” recalls Araújo. After four months of classes and field work to get familiarized with operations, Araújo returned to the OCC, extending his previous activities to Rio Grande do Sul.

It was at this point he was invited to take over the railway that his grandfather, Hylo Bresolin, had helped create. “My grandfather was one of 40 entrepreneurs who went to Brasília to ask Sarney to create Ferroeste,” said Araújo, who believes his family name recognition gives him a special responsibility to the citizens of Paraná. “I feel a responsibility to make this business work. This railroad is one of the best things that could have happened to Paraná,” he said.

The previous financial losses at Ferroeste were inherited by Araújo from pending litigation and administrative liabilities. Privatized in December 1996, but with the consortium operator failing to make investments or meet payment deadlines, the State filed a suit to re-appropriate the railway’s operations.

The company returned to state control in December 2006, but the situation was still bad. “When the government resumed control, there were 15 operating locomotives. Between 2007 and 2011, 12 of them stopped running, and no investments were made,” says the president.

In the same period, the transit time between Cascavel and Guarapuava jumped from 8 1/2 hours to 11 1/2 hours. “Today we’ve reduced the time to 9 1/2 hours, and in 2014, we intend to again reach the 8 1/2-hour trip,” estimates Araújo. The shorter transit is one of the main factors responsible for the recent increase in productivity of the company.

 “Results of the first half of 2013 are the best since 2010, when we had more engines in operation than today,” he says.

Other administrative measures that have been taken under the new management are the return of leased locomotives that were idle, switching the telephone carrier, and the replacement of outsourced employees for competitive entrants. “We had 120 employees, but today we have 150 and are spending R$30,000 less every month,” he explained.

For operations, Araujo has brought on a production engineer and his colleague from ALL, Rodrigo César de Oliveira, also 25 years old, to be the new Director of Production at Ferroeste. “No one really understood operations at Ferroeste, so Rodrigo and I focused a lot on the day-to-day to increase railway maneuver speed. Also we focused on driver conduct. It’s very hard to drive a train, and we standardized the procedure,” he explained.

For the period between grain harvests, Ferroeste’s young president is investing in new machinery and agreements with ALL to maintain optimum operations. The goal is to carry lower quality crops during the period between harvests to the mills in Ponta Grossa in the Campos Gerais region to balance revenues. The agreement with ALL should result in savings in the export of the crops at the Port of Paranaguá.

“We were taking grains from Cascavel to freight them to Guarapuava. ALL leaves Ponta Grossa with rail cars, leaves them in Guarapuava, and picks up ours stationed there and takes them back to Ponta Grossa before heading on to Paranaguá.” After the changes were implemented, Ferroeste didn’t need to stop in Guarapuava and the transit time for the harvest was reduced. “Without idle periods, the line runs back and forth faster and revenues increase,” the new president summarized.

[This article was written by Fernando Castro in Portuguese and has been translated and edited by CIE.]

I have discussed in other articles the history, geography, and culture of wine, traveling the countries of the world that produce the bacchanalian liquid with its emblematic grapes, along with the technological advances that vineyards have achieved to date.

However, the most important question remains: Why should we drink wine?

The latest discovery about the Dionysian drink extends its positive effects to an increased life expectancy (a healthy one of course). This remarkable effect is thanks to a substance called “resveratrol”, which has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties found in the bark and the seeds of all red grapes. The substance is present especially in the grape varietal Tannat, which we call the “resveratrol pump”, from the French cutting of vitis vinifera, which grows very well in Uruguay. Today Tannat is the Uruguay signature grape, though it also happens to grow quite well in Brazil.

Let’s recall a study that occurred in post-WWII France, in which experts were baffled by the findings that the French consumed 450 types of cheese, as well as fatty foods such as fois gras, butter, and cream, yet still managed to keep their cholesterol and triglycerides levels so low. How did they do it? Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!

Tannat grapes from Uruguay

“Wine and food were made for each other”, defines the cardiologist Monson Jairo de Souza Filho. The doctor, who for 20 years has been studying the effects of alcohol on human health, assures us that it is wine that most facilitates digestion. “Provided of course, that no contraindication exists that would preclude its consumption,” he says. The specialist affirms that the best way to reap the benefits of wine is to drink it moderately during meals.

“When wine is ingested with food, the volume of free radicals in blood flow decreases greatly during digestion, when the amount of fat circulating in the blood stream is higher. With fewer free radicals present, fats are less likely to be oxidized and form fats deposits in the blood vessel walls,” explains the cardiologist.

What a lesson on the world, right? Let us also bring to today’s lesson the properties of white grapes. Based on studies of the honorable Professor José Osvaldo Albano Amarante in his course on gastronomy at the Universidade Anhembi Morumbi in São Paulo, the white grape has several valuable properties as well including: a) a greater diuretic effect than red; b) the same vasodilatory effect of red wine (though it does not dissolve plaque from coronary arteries because of the absence of tannins; c) the prevention of rheumatic diseases; and d) the readiness for drinking, unlike many reds that are tannic or have other properties, which were elaborated upon in our previous article on the subject.

By Osvaldo Nascimento Júnior

To review some of my previous articles on wine, visit: www.icnews.com.br. Click on columnists and then Vino Vita Est.