The celebration of Carnaval each year is based on the beginning of Lent, the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Thus Carnaval is not only a time for dancing and singing, but it marks a religious occasion as well. It allows us to honor our humble position in the universe and contemplate the blessings of family and friends with music and food and drink. It is a time for festive gatherings, and a time to reflect on the gift of life we too often take for granted.

Samuel Coleridge, an 18^th century English poet, once wrote:

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?

And what if, in your dream you went to heaven and there

plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?

During Carnaval, all Brazilians hold that strange and beautiful flower in their hands, and what a joy it is to behold!

The Curitiba Mother’s Program, which Mayor Luciano Ducci initiated to provide maternity and child care in Curitiba, will now be adopted by the United Nations (UN) in the poor countries of Africa and Asia to help save mothers and infants and contain the vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS. The program will also serve as the basis for a scientific study by the World Health Organization (WHO), which will send experts to Curitiba in order to adapt the model to other continents.

“Curitiba has for the first time presented a program at the WHO. And what better subject than to present the Curitiba Mother’s Program, which already has been highly successful in Brazil. It’s a program that has been implemented in other states such as São Paulo (the São Paulo Mother’s Program) and Pernambuco (the Mãe Coruja, or “the Owl Mom”). In a few months’ time, the Paraná Mother’s Program will be deployed in Paraná under governor Beto Richa. The fact that it can be implemented in other cities and other countries just goes to show how simple the program is. It will go a long way to helping reduce infant and maternal mortality, and in particular the reduction of HIV transmission,” said Mayor Luciano Ducci.

Mayor Luciano Ducci in Switzerland

“The Curitiba Mother’s Program will help save lives in many countries. Our city, which for years has exported urban design ideas, is now also a reference point for supporting families,” affirms the mayor, who presented the results of the program on Thursday, the 2^nd of February in Geneva, Switzerland, at the invitation of the director of the Strategy and Outcomes of the UN agency UNAIDS, Bernhard Schwartlander.

After presenting the results of the Curitiba Mother’s Program, the mayor met with Flavia Bustreo, the deputy director general of the Family, Women and Children group of the World Health Organization (WHO). At the meeting, the WHO agreed to send two Brazilian experts to Curitiba, Jose Martins and Cinthia Boschi Pinto, to research and write a scientific article about the program.

“This program is extremely fascinating, inspiring, and should be shared with more people, governments, politicians, and society in general. The Curitiba Mother’s Program shows that it’s feasible and can be implemented in cities around the world,” said Karusa Kiragui, Senior Assistant for UNAIDS Prevention (Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS).

Coordinator of UNAIDS Prevention, Mariangela Galvao Simao, endorsed Curitiba’s project. “If it’s possible in a city like Curitiba, then it’s possible in other cities in middle income countries of the world. Curitiba has been an example of how a city can get organized and solve its own problems. Curitiba has lessons to tell the world, not only from its environmental experience, as its already shown, but also in health care,” he added.

The Curitiba Mother’s Program is already part of the UN’s global plan for maternal and child care. It was featured in a book published by the Pan American Health Organization (OPAS), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Brazilian National Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS). The book, “The Health Care Networks”, by public health teacher and consultant, Vilaça Eugenio Mendes, addresses health reform movements within Brazil, as well as in Canada, England, and the United States, highlighting the importance of the organization of municipalities and cities in health care networks for the public health of the nation. The program created in Curitiba has served as an example to similar projects implemented in Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Paraná, and in the city of São Paulo.

Program Highlights

The Curitiba Mother’s Program ensures prenatal care exams for pregnant women, safe deliveries, and care for the mother and infant throughout the pregnancy until 40 days after birth. At the conclusion, the mother leaves the Program, but the child is automatically enrolled in the Infante Lactente, or “Infant Program”.

Each year, 17,000 women are admitted to the Mother’s Program, which offers more than fifteen types of exams, dental visits, and workshops for pregnant women, where both parents participate. In addition to the care that they will receive for their children, mothers are also counseled in family planning. The goal is to prevent unexpected new pregnancies. A variety of contraceptive methods, depending on the unique health conditions of the woman or man, are being offered for free at the health clinics.

The integration between the different levels of services — health facility, hospitals, clinics, and laboratories — continues after the birth. Before being discharged, the hospital or maternity ward sets a returning date and a clinic location for all mothers and their newborns for a first visit to the health facilities where the mother and child are registered.

Since its establishment in March of 1999, the program has assisted 200,000 women and their infants. About 85 percent of pregnant women in Curitiba are admitted up to their 4th month of pregnancy, and only 13 percent are diagnosed as being medium or high risk pregnancies. Thus, almost 70 percent of the births, which represent about 60 percent of pregnant women in the city, are normal.

The program has contributed significantly in reducing infant and maternal mortality. From 1999 to 2009, infant mortality fell from 16.64 in every 1000 live births to 8.97 in 1000, nearly a 50 percent reduction in infant mortality in only a decade. The reduction of maternal mortality is also noteworthy. From 60.5 in every 100,000 live births between 1994 and 1999, to 43.9 in every 100,000 between 2000 and 2005, the rate of maternal mortality has continued to fall, and now, in the last five years has reached 38.6 in 100,000.

[This article and photo first appeared in Paraná Online on February 2, 2012.]

{Source: http://www.parana-online.com.br/editoria/cidades/news/590759/?noticia=MAE+CURITIBANA+SERA+IMPLANTADO+NA+AFRICA+E+ASIA}

It’s presidential primary election time in the United States and here comes another wave of television commercials. Of course their sheer volume depends upon many factors. Some states, for example, don’t have primaries, while this election year only the Republican Party will be selecting its nominee through the primary system. Nonetheless, already Americans enjoy ample illustration of how presidential elections in the United States have become a part of television advertising.

Curiously, spending by presidential contenders has decreased, while money flowing from so-called “outside” groups, in particular Political Action Committees or PACS has greatly increased. These PACs are in many ways already the main story of the 2012 campaign. Products of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that for the first time permits both corporate and union spending directly advocating either the election or defeat of candidates, they have only one proviso: that they do not “coordinate” with his or her organization in any direct way.

Witness, say, the donation of Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas mogul, of some $10 million to Newt Gingrich, not to the candidate directly (illegal) but to a so-called pro-Gingrich “super” PAC, “Winning Our Future” (legal). Not only do these PACS introduce into the political system a hitherto unknown degree of duplicity, if not outright dishonesty, but they make available hitherto undreamed-of amounts of money for campaigning. Most of this money is spent on television advertising. Outside groups had lavished some $44 million by the end of January this primary season, compared to $16.6 million at this same point in the 2008 presidential campaign.

What you get for your PAC-driven dollar is often an ad criticizing another candidate, a so-called “attack” ad. These ads already have a rich tradition in American political history, most memorably in recent years the ones about Willie Horton during the 1988 presidential campaign between Michael Dukakis and George Bush. Horton, serving life imprisonment for murder in Dukakis’s state, Massachusetts, was temporarily released under a new furlough program, whereupon he murdered again.

Two different ads blamed Dukakis for the Willie Horton mess. (In fact, as governor, he played no part in the creation of the furlough program.) They were prominently played on television and widely discussed. A special commission subsequently ruled that no violation of campaign financing laws had taken place (today, the existence of PACS might now dispel the specter of such a violation), but the damage had been done. “Willie Horton” (the man, the ad, the symbol) is now widely understood as constituting one significant reason why Dukakis lost the election.

Will another Willie Horton play a comparable role in the fall, 2012 presidential election? Probably not —but not because more restraint or more civility now governs American elections. If anything , today it’s the reverse. The viscousness of the Willie Horton ad can be and has been (re)produced virtually every day during the just-concluded Florida primary, in which the two leading contenders for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, each ran unrelenting attacks on the other of unprecedented negativity and creativity. The two traits go hand in hand, as we might expect, given the availability of unlimited money combined with the provocation of a fixed period of time for each state primary.

Would the political advertising on Brazilian television be comparably negative if Brazil had a primary system, only two major parties, and no limit either on the duration or the number of ads that can be run by each party each day? Hard to say — perhaps as hard to say if one tries to imagine political advertising on American television with free time made available to each party by the government on a proportional basis. American ads might be less intensely produced if they had some free time, but then Brazilian ads might be less wooden if their very existence had to be earned.

As it is, it’s hard to imagine Folha de Sao Paulo running a special feature, entitled “Ad Watch,” as The New York Times recently did, in which an ad from a current campaign was paraphrased, assessed, and otherwise parsed as if it were not only a piece of propaganda but in effect a poem. We appear to have reached an aesthetic moment in the United States with respect to these television ads. The “message” of any one is obvious. The means, however, including the cited words of an opposing candidate or how he is characterized by an announcer, compel attention almost for their own sake.

Republican Mitt Romney

How much are voters actually influenced? The question proves to be impossible to answer in any specific way. Equally impossible, though, not to feel that in large part Romney beat Gingrich so decisively in Florida because he and his PAC , “Restore Our Future,” ran 12,760 television commercials to Gingrich’s 210. Just so, Romney won because he has far more money at his disposal than Gingrich, thereby reinforcing the belief that the candidate with the most money (which can be spent to produce the most ads) wins the election.

So Americans are left with the spectacle of a commercial practice that’s finally hard to judge. From the point of view of production, television advertising rewards the rich, and transforms politics into a playing field for the politicians who can secure the most campaign contributions. From the point of view of reception, however, this same advertising expresses a kind of crude or vulgar populism —decontextualizing all manner of an opponent’s remarks, and exposing his or her every action to ridicule.

Do we want a candidate for president to emerge from such a process? Whether we do or not, this year, more remorselessly than ever, the Republican who will be victorious over the course of the next few months will become a monster-creation of television advertising, his pockets stuffed with dollar bills, his gait electric with energy, his forehead zig-zagged with scars. It’s not a very pretty sight. However, for Americans in 2012, it’s the only one we’re going to get.

Terry Caesar is an American writer currently living in Texas who has spent time in Brazil. He is the author of several books, which are available on Amazon.com. His most recent book is a memoir entitled, Before I Had a Mother.

This article marks the beginning of a new venture for

ENGLISH GRAMMAR — BASIC

Possessive Adjectives and Personal Pronouns are easily confused by Brazilian students. This is a brief explanation, with a few examples for a quick review. Then, you can practice by doing the exercise. [Answers to the exercise are provided at the end.]

Personal Pronouns (Nominative Case) – I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they function as the subject of a sentence. Examples:

I live in New York.
Do you like playing tennis?
He doesn’t want to come this evening.
She works in London.
It won’t be easy.
We are studying pronouns now.
You went to Paris last year, didn’t you?
They bought a new car last month.

Possessive adjectives – my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their are often confused with possessive pronouns. The possessive adjective modifies the noun following it in order to show possession. Examples:

I’ll get my books.
Is that your car over there?
That is his teacher, Mr Jones.
I want to go to her store.
Its color is red.
Can we bring our children?
You are welcome to invite your husbands.

It is time to practice what you have just learned. Fill in the spaces with either personal pronouns or possessives adjectives. I did the first one for you.

(1)__I_am a singer and this is a story about a person like me. Jennifer Lang is one of (2)______favorite singers. (3)_____is a jazz singer and often performs in clubs. (4)____voice is different from mine. (5)____sing standard jazz songs. Jennifer and (6)____ have the same teacher. (7)______teacher’s name is Jeannie. (8)______gives lessons four times a week. Jennifer is married.(9) ______husband is an investment banker in New York. (10)_____office is on Park Avenue where (11) ____arrives every morning at 7:30 am. (12) ____have different professions , but (13)____feel (14)_____marriage is great. (15)____am not jealous of (16)______success, but (17)____am jealous of (18)_______wonderful marriage. Maybe someday (19)_____will meet a man just like him.

Answers: (2)my (3)she (4)her (5)I (6)I (7)our (8)she (9)her (10)his (11)he (12)they (13)I (14)their (15)I (16)their (17)I (18)their (19)I

Personal Pronouns & Possessive Adjectives — Part 2

When learning a Second Language, practice is one of the most important factors in improving your fluency. This will be the last set of exercises on Personal Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives. This time we will practice them separately.

[Answers to the exercises are provided at the end.]

Choose the correct Personal Pronoun:

1. My name is Cindy. ___ am English, and this is my family.

2. My mom’s name is Susan. (Susan)is from Germany.
3. Rob is my dad. (My dad)is a waiter.
4. Simon is my brother. (Simon)is 23 years old. Sue is my sister.
5. (Sue and Simon)are twins.
6. Our dog is Simba. (Simba)is two years old.
7. (Sue, Simon, Susan and Bob)live in Miami.
8. (Miami) is not far from Orlando.
9. My grandparents live in New York. (My grandparents)often come and see us.

10. What can ____ tell me about your family?

Answers: 1(I) 2(She) 3(He) 4(He) 5(they) 6(It) also acceptable he/she 7(They) 8(It) 9(They) 10(you)

Replace the Personal Pronouns with Possessive Adjectives:

1. Where are (you)parents now?
2. Here is a gift from (I)friend Peggy.
3. She lives in Brazil now with (she)family.
4. (She)sister works in Rio de Janeiro.
5. (He)company builds ships.
6. (They)children go to school in Buzios.
7. (I)husband and I want to go to Rio, too.
8. We want to see Peggy and (she)family next winter.
9. (We)  winter.
10. It is (they)summer.

Answers: 1(your) 2(my) 3(her) 4(her) 5(his) 6(their) 7(my) 8(her) 9(our)10(their).

This exercise was written by Luiza Moura, who has a Master’s Degree in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) from UFPR. She is a private English instructor in Curitiba and can be contacted at www.luizamoura.com.br.

Paraná’s industry sold 5.8% more in 2011 than in 2010. The results reveal that 2011 marks the year of highest sales for industry in Paraná since historical records were kept in 1986 by the Federation of Industries of Paraná (FIEP). Furthermore, 2011 marked the third year of consecutive growth. The sectors that contributed most to the outstanding performance also weighed in as the heaviest in the state’s economy, namely: ‘Food and Beverages’ (contributing 2.7% of the total and 5.76% growth) ‘Petroleum refining and alcohol production’ (1.6% share and 12.05% growth) and ‘Motor Vehicles’ (1.38% share and 9.61% growth).

The positive sales performance was also reflected in employment, which grew 3.38%. According to FIEP’s Economics Department, which was responsible for the research, the two indices place Paraná as a top performer among the Brazilian states of the South and Southeast for the period between 2002 and 2011.

“The sales performance in 2011 bested the overall growth of the national economy, a fact which has been repeated in recent years,” says Maurilio Schmitt, coordinator of FIEP’s Economics Department. This increase was not only motivated by the increase in jobs, income and favorable harvests in Paraná, but also by the abundant supply of personal credit in recent years, which puts into question the sustainability of this growth.

“Several factors suggest this growth won’t last, including the excessive levels of financing for the demand for goods and services, and several unresolved problems in the national economy, like interest rates higher than the rest of the world, high taxes, excessive social costs, infrastructural issues, and poor domestic savings rates. Also the lack of strategic planning for the development of the country, coupled with the international crisis,” remarks the economist.

According to the research at FIEP, the accumulated results in 2011 showed positive results for sales in Paraná (+12.58%) and other states in the country (+3.23%) and negative for the rest of the world (-2.39%). The result indicates that for the first time, the primary destination of sales of the state’s industry was the state itself. It also demonstrates an intrinsic dynamic of the state economy, whose performance was greater than the national average.

The increase in exports from 2008, regardless of exchange rate parity, was cheifly the result of new product development with greater added value, ventures into new markets and the diversification of industrial exports. In 2009, the global financial crisis made world commerce shrink significantly, reducing the share of exports to 20.76%, i.e., to 2005 levels. In 2011, the US dollar was being traded at R$1.72, making the real more valuable and discouraging exports of manufactured products, so much so that sales to foreign markets reached an all-time low since 2000.

FIEP’s research also revealed that 11 of the 18 sectors surveyed had positive results for the year. The largest increases were recorded in ‘Clothing’ (+17.59%), ‘Metal Products’ (+13.68%) and ‘Petroleum Refining and Alcohol Production’ (+12.05%). Major reductions were in ‘Textiles’ (-36.72%), ‘Basic Metallurgy ‘(-7.54%) and ‘Machinery, Electrical Appliances and Materials’ (-6.81%). In December 2011, sales of manufactured goods showed a predictable decline for the month, down 2.95% from November.

Source: http://www.agenciafiep.com.br/noticia/vendas-industriais-crescem-58-no-parana-em-2011/

Take a test. In a group of friends, say “Nossa, nossa…” There is a great chance that you will hear back “Assim você me mata. Ai, se eu te pego. Ai, ai, se eu te pego.” (You will kill me this way. Oh, if I catch you. Oh, Oh, if I catch you.).

With simple ballad lyrics about courtship, the country singer Michel Teló, 30, reached the top of the charts and spread his addictive hit “Ai Se Eu Te Pego” (Oh, If I Catch You) around the world.

The official video has already been seen more than 85 million times on YouTube. In the iTunes store, it is first in sales in Portugal, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Peru and five other Latin American countries.

In Brazil, it is second only to “Someone Like You”, by the English singer Adele, but it is blasted on radios and is on the way to being the music of the summer.

This is not the first time that Teló has scored a hit that will rock the kids on the beaches and at Carnaval. In 2010, “Fugidinha“, full of double meanings that can make the most prudish blush, was also on everybody’s lips.

How did this guy from Paraná, brought up in Mato Grosso do Sul, develop the Midas touch for transforming an already existing song into gold? The answer is simple: Cristiano Ronaldo. In October, the Real Madrid playmaker celebrated a goal against Malaga by dancing the choreography to “Ai Se Eu Te Pego“.

“I felt goose bumps for three minutes after I saw it,” Teló told Folha. “At that moment, I realized that something would change.” And it did: Teló ended 2011 with 220 shows, a European tour scheduled (12 shows in seven countries) and a version in English of “Ai Se Eu Te Pego“.

“The challenge is to continue (my career) after this explosion,” he says. “I want to build a strong partnership so the international success continues.” Teló reveals that he is negotiating with the rapper Pitbull, the one with the hit “You Know You Want Me”, and he dreams of recording with the singer Shakira.

Teló admits he doesn’t quite know the reason for the success of “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”, but he bets on the simplicity of the lyrics. “People use the words from the song all the time,” he says. “It is difficult to find such a simple song that pleases people. It has some kind of magic.”

The magic in this case was forged in 2008 by Sharon Acioly, 41, an entertainer on the beach in Bahia and owner of another catchy hit, “A Dança do Quadrado” (Square Dance). She used the expressions from the song in her shows. One day, Antônio Dyggs, owner of a forró band in Feira de Santana (BA), heard it and made more “complex” lyrics. The song broke out among the forró dancers and fell in Michel Teló’s lap at a São João festival this year.

“Right then I called the owners of the music and asked for permission to record it because I knew that it had the potential to be a hit,” Teló recalls. Acioly didn’t reveal how much she has earned in royalties, but it is enough to pursue her dream to be an entertainer on TV.

On Thursday, Teló released the DVD “Michel na Balada” (“Michel at the Disco”) at the Villa Country, the biggest country music venue in São Paulo.

The singer recalled a story that sums up his career: “Two years ago I did a show in the same place and had to give out invitations to try to fill the house. Now, the tickets are sold out.” This was at the beginning of his solo career, after 12 years with the group Tradição, from Campo Grande (MS), where he grew up after his family moved from Medianeira, a city of 40,000 in Paraná.

According to Teló, his family was very simple. The owner of a bakery, his father let his son play music in the back for his first audiences. Soft-spoken and with a back-country accent, Teló recounts that success has brought the financial stability to achieve his dream to be a father.

Married for three years, the musician also invests in real estate. He bought an apartment in São Paulo, has a condo in Passo Fundo (RS), and is a partner in a construction company in Campo Grande, besides being the owner of a music publisher.

Is he afraid that his success won’t last longer than one summer? “I want to take advantage of the moment to build a nest egg because I know that I might not be on top next year,” he says. “But I will work hard to be.”

[This article was written by Iuri de Castro Tôrres and appeared originally in Folha de São Paulo on Dec. 27, 2011] 

São Paulo did not think twice before getting rid of defender Xandão and midfielder Marlos. It also spent R$ 10 million to bring Jadson from Ukraine. He is the attacking midfielder São Paulo desperately needed. Brazilian champion Corinthians did not lose any important players during the period. It did not bring any players from abroad either, except attacking midfielder Chen Zhizhao, 23, of China, who was hired free of charge. But he hasn’t even arrived yet and will not be on the starting team.

Marcelo Moreno

Palmeiras’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari handpicked Argentines Adalberto Román (former defender for River Plate) and Hernán Barcos (former attacker for Ecuador’s LDU). Flamengo spent R$23 million to buy Vágner Love from CSKA to try to solve its problem — a striker capable of scoring goals. Inter and Grêmio also bought players: Inter got Argentine midfielder Dátolo from Villareal, and Grêmio brought Marcelo Moreno back from Shakthar Donetsk.

Santos did not have any difficulty to keep its young stars. Porto sent a proposal for midfielder Paulo Henrique Ganso, but Santos’s President Luis Alvaro de Oliveira Ribeiro did not want to hear it. Neymar, fought over throughout the year by Barcelona and Real Madrid, will stay in Santos. But the team lost right full back Danilo to Porto. In exchange, Santos received Fucile, of Uruguay.

Asian teams were the top buyers. Of the 26 transfers, five went to Japan and four to South Korea.

The “financial fair play” rules will be applied this season for the first time. The rules are among UEFA’s measures to prevent teams from spending more than they earn. Included in the measures are fines and suspensions.

[This article appeared originally in Folha de São Paulo on Feb. 4, 2012]

If there was any hope for Rubens Barrichello, 39, it ended yesterday on the F-1 circuit with the announcement that the Indian driver, Narain Karthikeyan, would occupy the last unclaimed cockpit in the category. But for Barrichello, who raced the last two years for Williams and two weeks ago lost his place to Bruno Senna, his F-1 story is not over yet.

“My future is open. I know my story will end one day, but that day has not yet arrived,” Barrichello told Folha yesterday, one day after arriving from the USA, where he participated in three days of testing of an Indy car. “I’m always optimistic and now I’m fine,” said the driver, who said he was sad to learn that Williams would not keep him on for another year.

*****

Rubens Barrichello

Folha: What about testing at Indy?

RB: The trial began without any real intention of doing much. Of course the team thought about the media, and I also wanted to get to know the Indy environment and be with my friend Tony [Kanaan, 2004 champion]. But it was much more captivating than I had hoped. I ended up going around faster than I thought and still got a half day more of testing. These things happen.

Folha: For those accustomed to F-1, Indy seems to be more “rustic”. What is the biggest difference?

RB: I think what was strangest was to go for the first time in 19 years without a tire cover. You go to the track with a cold tire and find a way to get it hot. The feel of the car is not very different, the engine is similar, but it’s a turbo and this year the brakes are carbon, very similar to those of F-1. Of course the car is heavier, but it’s fun.

Folho: How were you received there?

RB: They treated me like a novelty and I met all the drivers. I was always an exception in F-1 because I always talked to everyone, but I got the impression that the Indy people get along better than those in F-1.

Folho: Did you get invited to race?

RB: The team really liked me and asked if I had any interest in staying. Now we are trying to facilitate this, and I need to make a decision.

Folho: How did you learn about the Williams decision?

RB: I was told the day that they announced Bruno, but a little earlier.

Folho: Did you talk with Bruno afterwards?

RB: Yes, he called me and it was a little awkward. But I explained to him that my quarrel was not with him but with the team, and that it was a shame for two friends to fight for the same position, but Brazil came out the winner in this.

Folho: Did you think of talking to Hispania after this, since there was a spot?

RB: I wanted to be in F-1 in a competitive way and not just in any situation. I don’t think I have to close the door. It is open, and we saw that [Kimi] Raikkonen came back, [Michael] Schumacher returned. I am an optimist and know that I don’t lack speed.

Folho: How did you feel when you found out that you were out of F-1?

RB: Without a doubt, the feeling was sadness. It was an unexpected moment. The engineers always told me positive things, so it was very sad, it was crappy. I didn’t like how it was handled, in such a cold way. But two hours later, I was at the table with the kids and they said to me: “Williams was already bad, maybe they will continue that way”. So it was good, they showed me that there is another path.

Folho: Do you have any bitterness or resentment from these 19 years in F-1?

RB: No. I have 19 years filled with great pride. There were great moments and good moments. And the bad ones made me learn. I wouldn’t change anything.

[This article was written by Tatiana Cunha and originally published in Folha de São Paulo on February 4, 2012.]

The following is a true account of how a guy from Tampa, Florida ended up here in Curitiba.

It began in 1997 when I was living in Tampa and met a Brazilian woman, Cleria, who worked in the same building as I did. Our eyes met several times before we dared to speak. One day a mutual smile and eye contact appeared in harmonic symphony.

Brazilian sunset

 My wife had passed away the year before, so I was mindlessly going to work and coming home to my cat and dog, just going through the paces of life. Little did I know God had sent Cleria to the US in 1996 as my new wife. We began dating with an English-Portuguese dictionary always between us. She knew little English and I knew no Portuguese. We wrote notes and drew pictures, which made everything more fun. I was thinking I was a tad crazy but realized life was meant to be an adventure. Had she not come along, there probably would have been three skeletons in my house (dog, cat and me).

Soon she was visiting often and helped de-clutter my house. Then she invited me over to her apartment to eat. It was food unlike anything I had ever tasted before. Delicious! I showed her some of Tampa culture and the landmarks, and she joined me for meals at my grandmother’s house as well as my mom’s — all good signs.

We got married in 1999 and traveled together to Brasil for the first time. As you can imagine, it was a huge dose of culture shock. We were met by some of her family at the airport, and they were ecstatic. I felt like a visiting dignitary! The next day they had a party for us, around 40 people — all relatives. I didn’t know anyone had that many relatives. I enjoyed the various food trays and cakes and ate until I was bursting.

Enjoying the sites of Curitiba

Over the next few years, we settled into our life together in Florida, and we made annual trips from Florida to Brazil. Each trip I enjoyed it more and more. I thought to myself, What a great place to live! Most everything is economical and the way of life is similar to how it was in the States 50 years ago.

In 2004 my life changed, as I was baptized here, as my wife had been baptized earlier in Tampa. In 2008, my job was eliminated and I was having health issues, so we decided to make the plunge. Cleria and I moved to Curitiba with my mom in November 2009. Mom got to see the city before she passed way in March of 2010.

Since then I have grown to love the people in Brazil from around the world and now have my permanent residency. Now if I can just get used to not being on time!

Rick Parnell is a Consultant and Proofreader of American English. He can be contacted at Ricktparnell@msn.com.

[Photos are by Michael Rubin]

I am an American, which means by definition I am anxious. Twenty percent of Americans suffer from chronic anxiety. There have been thousands of books written about anxiety and its causes and cures over the past few decades. W.H. Auden, a famous English poet once wrote a poem entitled “The Age of Anxiety.” The poem was 138 pages long! The most common prescription drug for treating anxiety in the US is marketed under the brand name Xanax, and in 2011 it was the most highly prescribed drug in America. Amazingly, it wasn’t until Freud and the dawn of the 20^th century that anxiety was even considered a psychological condition. The diagnosis of anxiety exploded in the 1970s with such American psychologists as Rollo May.

As the Irish author, James Joyce, wrote in his first book, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, which was first published in 1916 and considered groundbreaking at the time: History is a nightmare from which we are trying to awaken. With life viewed in this way, there’s certainly plenty to be anxious about. In a novel published this month in the US called “Hope: A Tragedy” comes this quote: “It’s a tough place to get some sleep,” Kugel says. “Earth, that is.” Later in the novel is this: “The greatest source of misery in the world . . . was neither disease nor race nor religion. It was hope.”

 Anxiety and stress have become such an integral part of the American way of life that Americans no longer hide their dependence on chemical relief, like Xanax. Twenty years ago, if an American suffered from depression or panic attacks and wisely chose to seek help from a psychologist or psychiatrist, he would keep this information hidden from his family and friends. People who sought the help of a therapist were in danger of being considered crazy and ostracized from society. This stigma of seeking therapy for emotional problems still exists in Brazil and for good reason. All societies take a dim view of people who are not “normal.” That judgment of normality is based strictly on numbers, on what the majority of people are accustomed to doing or thinking. Twenty years ago in Brazil, for example, it was unusual to meet someone who wasn’t Catholic, but not anymore. Today it’s unusual to meet someone who attends therapy regularly and is willing to admit it. It is normal for a woman to discuss her liposuction treatment with other women at the hair salon, but she would never discuss her therapy treatments.

All societies have strict rules of behavior, and anyone who lives within a certain culture, like a Brazilian, knows what those rules are, even though they are never written anywhere. The “codes of conduct” in Brazil are as clear and strict as the laws in the Brazilian Constitution, and the penalty for violating those codes is as severe as the penalty for breaking the law: banishment from society. If you are convicted in a court of law of being a thief, you are banished to prison and kept segregated from society. If you are convicted, by popular opinion, of breaking the code of conduct in society, you are banished to the realm of “nonpersonhood.” In other words, people will think you are strange and your family and friends will question your sanity. If you violate the rules of normal behavior in your workplace, you will not be able to find a job. For example, in Brazil, when two men greet each other, they shake hands. When two women meet, they kiss. However, if a man were to regularly refuse to shake hands with other men or refuse to kiss women to say hello, he would immediately be considered strange, foreign, and even dangerous. In the ancient world, such as that inhabited by the tribes living in the Amazon, the ultimate form of punishment for a crime was not death (as in the US death penalty), and there were no prisons. The ultimate punishment was banishment – to be driven out of one’s own tribe is the worst possible penalty that could happen to a native Indian because the tribe is the source of all life, the emotional center of existence.

However, when modern people are faced with overwhelming stress or they are victims of great tragedy, it is common for their behavior to change. The everyday presence of depression or sadness in one’s life can have an immediate affect on oneself, not to mention one’s family, friends, and job. Therefore, it makes sense to seek professional help from a therapist to cure or alleviate the anxiety and return to a “normal” life. Today, psychologists in Brazil are beginning to see the need for therapy, as stress and anxiety are taking their toll on some individuals.

In twenty years, will people in Brazil be seeking therapy and medication for their emotional problems in huge numbers the way they are now in the US? I certainly hope not. Just because Brazilians envy the quality of American products, like Apple computers and Calvin Klein jeans, doesn’t mean Brazilians should envy the American way of life. Americans are suffering with anxiety on a huge scale. When 20 percent of an entire country suffers from chronic anxiety, that affects the whole country. Anxiety takes its toll – people make poor decisions when anxious, and it also affects the body. People with chronic anxiety suffer more heart attacks and get sicker in general because stress comprises the immune system.

What makes anxiety so much more prevalent in the US than in Brazil? Unlike the tragedy of hope described in that American novel, I see hope in Brazil. Brazilians face many of the same challenges that Americans do, yet they seem happier. There is a stable foundation critical to the Brazilian way of life that provides for a greater satisfaction with everyday existence. Brazilians have an easier time accepting life’s disappointments and forgetting the harsh times that have passed. Suicide, for example, the ultimate expression of unhappiness, is far more common in the US than in Brazil. Thus, I believe, at the core, Brazilians are different from Americans.

An integral part of the foundation of Brazilian life that is different from the US is the strength family and religion provide for the average Brazilian. Families live geographically closer to each other in Brazil, providing a constant level of support. No matter how awful one’s life becomes, a Brazilian can always count on his family to help him. In the US, families have grown apart, and often see each other only during the holidays. Today, more than 50 percent of American adults are not married. In Manhattan, half of all the apartments are occupied by only one person.

I went to a party in Curitiba recently to celebrate the birthday of woman who was turning 90 years old. All of her family in Curitiba were invited to join in the celebration at a restaurant in Santa Felicidade. Of course, there were some family members who have moved away, to São Paulo for example, and didn’t attend. However there were at least 150 people who came to the dinner. The aniversariante had only four children, not twelve, so I was amazed that so many people were in attendance. Naturally, the familial connections to the aniversariante were not all blood relations. For example, I was invited because my wife’s grandfather and the aniversariante’s mother-in-law were brother and sister. It’s a distant connection by marriage, especially as both the grandfather and mother-in-law are no longer living. The contrast with American families was clear to me – I honestly couldn’t tell you who my grandfather’s sister was. Not only do I not know her name, I’m not even sure if my grandfather had a sister. In the US, to find 150 people who are all related to the same aniversariantewould require invitations being sent all over the country. Thus, it’s rare to see such a large gathering in the US for a birthday.

Large family gatherings do still exist in the US for weddings and funerals. However, to assemble 150 family members in the US requires people flying in from a dozen different cities all over the US. This joyful celebration in Santa Felicidade took place with just one family living in or near Curitiba. For this reason, hope is still alive in Brazil.

Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba.