Polska

Krakow,Krakau, Cracovia,

My gateway to Poland; the city I feel inclined to call: Home!!!

However, prior to finding Home, perhaps it is advisable to better understand two phenomena which are revolving the dynamics of my Polish existentialist experience. They are: 1 – Something I’d name: “in-no-time-acquired-Polish-skepticism” and 2 – a considerably respectable challenge called Polish language.

Not that the reported phenomena are keeping me from doing it the Latino way – I mean loving the city like we love Ipanema, Copacabana, the Sambadrome and Christ the Redeemer. It is just not the way to live it here and I am beginning to understand that.

Regardless, the grey clouds, the cold rain that reaches you from every single possible and impossible angle, a thermometer showing -20C in winter, hooligans on the booze, the classical rough public servants in the Post Offices among other institutions, here I feel protected, embraced and inspired.

In fact, the beauty of this place is vibrant but you cannot take it for granted. There is discretion, serenity what might often be interpreted as boredom to the demanding “Tropical Eye” – eye that finds a vigorous source of delight in this land; particularly with the sight of Polish women…Yes, they are gorgeous! As to be impartial in this remark, I will say it is a quote from my mother-in-law.

I have first visited Poland 3 years ago and I have landed in Krakow from a stopover in Vienna after flying from Dubai, or “home” (note the lowercase) at that time”.

The experience could be initially described in the primary level of  senses or that of shocking paradigm shift when it comes to one’s limited weather references (my case). Not that I was comfortable with my climate reality in Arabia where temperatures are normally around the 45C (in the shade) . Rewarding to be able to see apple and plum trees, after having as the only picture  date palm tress artificially irrigated with desalinated water. Summarizing: a leap from the Arabian oven straight to the Slavic refrigerator…and I Loved it!

And Love was the  main purpose of the trip. I was to meet my kochanie, Polish for sweetheart.  We have met in Taiwan back in 2005, when we were both on a governmental scholarship, studying at the same university. Who would imagine a Chinese cupido, so efficient! Obviously our student life in Taiwan deserves the best reportage of all, for it is about the best moments of my youth and my life. (Eventually, I want to work on that!)

Since then, we were to endure a lot of difficulties, proper to the so-called long-distance relationships. I would say I was happy every 2 or 3 months, when we could meet for a week or so, in Brazil, in Shanghai, Poland and Brazil…. We have had to fight hard to be together, oh yeah!

It’s been 1 year and 7 months I have been living here and it feels good!

A second degree within the experience starts to tackle the richest of all aspects of this country: Culture. To properly explore the realm of Polish History and Culture, it is necessary an unimaginable level of commitment to study and talent I have, so far, only found in the work of Norman Davies. After all, we are talking about 1,000 years of history; a country that has endured 3 partitions, occupation, humiliation, holocaust, communism. A country that has preserved intact its identity and, to an oversimplified but suitable metaphor “The Christ Among the Nations”.

Copernicus, Chopin, Malinowski, Kochanowski, Conrad, Kapuczinski, Borowski, Schulz, Curie, Nem, Milosz, to name a few geniuses in a wide variety of scientific  and artistic fields. I will certainly forget to mention someone brilliant… Ah…Mickiewicz!!!  Poland’s greatest Polish poet, Adam Bernard Mickiewicz, a leading romantic dramatist.

A remark of utmost importance: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe. The union gave birth to something called Polish Lithuanian noble culture to which is linked the nation’s most popular poem, often used as a “proof of Polishness:, Pan Tadeusz:

“

Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie; Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił.

”

“Lithuania, my fatherland! You are like health;

How much you must be valued, will only discover

The one who has lost you.”

If you know a Pole who cannot recite this poem, it’s very likely that he/she is a counterfeit…

Coming up next….The Almighty Catholic Church! Virgin Mary is the Queen of Poland! Plus posts on how Sinbad the Sailor came across the most valuable of all treasures: Polish beer!

Brasil!!!

I begin by saying I will not be able to report much about my country. Probably, because I don’t know it well enough. And this is being honest. Being Brazilian is a very personal aspect of life and it means a different Brazilian story for each and everyone of us.

Let’s briefly try my story: I am an “Oliveira de Carvalho” (Olive and Oak tree, respectively) hence my surname suggests I am from a “New Christian” background. There were reports of Jews escaping from a number of European countries to the Iberian Peninsula and ultimately to the American colonies.

But how accurate or, better saying, reliable is this assumption? How can it be helpful on determining my ethnic, cultural origins? This has a very limited if any relevance to most  Brazilians. I have friends by the name of “Saad”, cousins “Yamakoshi” and neighbors “Paticcie”. It’s just life!

Authors such as Gilberto Freyre and Darcy Ribeiro, despite their different approaches and emphases, have labored to identify traits of culture and people that are specifically Brazilian.

Their analyses have focused on processes, social practices, and symbols that are held to be pervasive throughout the large population and vast territory of the country (Probably you will not  notice that unless you have Peters projection map but Brazil is the fifth largest country in the Globe, slightly smaller than the States.)

Ribeiro would often refer to Brazil by using the metaphor of a “New Rome”. In no other country of the New World one could find such an extension of miscegenation, of different races living together and, in addition to that, a surprising and voluntary, perhaps uncommitted consensus of being united as one nation.

There is this strong African identity within. Something common perhaps to Cuba and Haiti.  This can be observed more intensely in some specific parts of the country such as the State of Bahia.  While the developed Southeast Region (Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo/Minas Gerais) appears as the industrial and intellectual and industrial engine of the country, Bahia comprises everything that is artistic, mystic, erotic.

To better describe this, I would share this excerpt of Jorge Amado’s masterpiece “Shepherds of the Night”. A superb novel where the night is described with mannerisms of a mulatto woman.

“She sat down with us in the gayest times taverns, a maid from the star-studded black. She danced the samba, whirling her golden skirt of starts, voluptuously swinging her black African hips, her breasts like heaving waves. She made merry in the circle of capoeira fighters, she knew the master moves and even invented new ones, with the cleverest devising, disregarding the established rules, that madcap of a night!”

Oh yeah, we have great Literature! And music and, plastic arts, and cinema!

To share something about my country I would have to rely on the experiences I have had in a fairly limited part of its continental domains.

I am from Minas Gerais (Portuguese for “General Mines”) Where the most remarkable Colonial Heritage from the Gold quest to the first Independence movements.

To be continued…

How sad are the U.A.E or how sad I was

World's most expensive scotch - 7,439 USD

The Federation of the United Arab Emirates was established on December 2nd 1971, when 6 of  today’s 7 member sheikdoms/emirates(Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Um-Al Quaim, Fujairah and Ajman) came together as a federation of monarchies thus founding a country where once there was a British protectorate – The Trucial States of Oman, which would also include a portion of today’s Qatar as well as some tribal areas the Sultanate of Oman. In March 1972, the emirate of Ras-Al-Kaimah or “the tip of the tent”  also decided to join the Federation, after the final acknowledgement that there were no oil resources within its territorial limits.

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of monarchies. The title “president” is somewhat misleading, as the head of state of the federation is “president” of the Supreme Council of Rulers, i.e. he is the presiding ruler among seven co-equal emirs. The president of the UAE is elected for a five-year period. The current president of the U.A.E (and he will be elected over and over again) is Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. His father, also known as the “Father of the Nation”, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan was President from 1971 to his death in 2004.

Sheikh Zayed was indeed a remarkable ruler, able to conciliate tribal traditions in dealing with politics, he  skillfully managed to  convert oil revenue in infrastructure and wealth of his own people. Summarizing: Al Nahyan= Sheikh Zayed=Abu Dhabi= UAE’s development.

Obviously, his intriguing figure was widely explored by media, mainly in the 1970s. When Zayed wanted to built a taxi fleet for Abu Dhabi’s newly accomplished master plan, he would distribute suitcases packed with dollar bills to those interest in join the cause. Some say that, in the old times, he would not have more than 2 Qatari rupees on his pocket. He was all about sharing. In a number of picture shots, he was portrayed  barefoot, walking on the deadly hot desert landscape of Abu Dhabi’s Western Region.

But Zayed’s main reputation was that of a womanizer. There are many versions for describing his harem in the island of Sir Bani Yas – a sanctuary with animals, artificially irrigated fields and young beauties from the most varied ethnic origins and looks. Today, the island houses a Luxurious  hotel with organized desert safari trips. It still bares the name of Bani Yas – the tribal branch of all Emirati people.

Abu Dhabi (the fatherland of the gazelle) is by far the largest landmass in the country. It comprises approximately 2/3 of the federal territory which is about the size of Austria. Their oil resources are estimated to last for over 150 years, unlike in Dubai, where for a long time Tourism and Services are the main economic sectors.

Oil was discovered in the Trucial States in 1958 and a decade-like prospection contract was signed with BP. Prior to that, those living in  tribal zones would rely on nomadic life, alternating between date-harvesting, fishing, pearl diving and finally, trading.

It was only with leaders such as Sheikh Saeed-Al Makhtoum, in Dubayy (Today’s Do buy!), that this particular emirate’s main vocation – trading, was to become the  mainstream of business in the calm and relatively shallow waters of the Kaleej (Gulf).

Whether to call it the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf, depends on which side of they same you might find yourself in. Hence Kaleejmakes things easier, or safer…one would certainly call the gulf “Persian” if in Bandar Abbas, on the Iranian side. There has been always rivalry, however there are clear specks of Persian heritage in the Emirati side of the Hormuz Strait. One of them, the Barjeel or the wind tower – a primitive but very effective ventilation/air conditioning system that is present in many of today’s Arabian mansions, as an integral part of Kaleej architecture.

By the way, if you want to purchase something in Tehran with your American Express credit card, don’t be surprised if the charging bank branch happens to be located in Dubai. The trade links are vigorous and up to this day one can find numerous wooden boats or Dhows crossing the Gulf from Iran towards Dubai Creek or Sharjah to trade in a wide variety of spices such as saffron, rose water, hibiscus flowers, oregano, anise, figs, fragrances…

If this is to be considered past, at least in the hearts of the wealthy-born 21st century Emirati citizens, their roots must not fade away, say those who have had to work hard to transform oil income in the infrastructure of country where there once was the one and only Rub Al Khali (“The Empty Quarter” or how the Arabian Desert is referred to in the Peninsula).  Needless to say, air conditioning was to be unknown until the 1970s. In the Arabian peninsula, temperatures can easily reach the mark of 50 C (and more). And it feels like its more!

Efforts to preserve and uphold the Arab are seen everywhere – reason why you’ll find the sailing motives in the shape of skyscrapers, hotels and shopping centers; and even in their utmost reference of Luxury – Dubai’s first symbol of triumph, the Burj Al Arab (the Arabian Tower).

If until late 1960′s camels and donkeys could be found  in the stress of the second biggest and second richest emirate. Today,  the world’s most luxurious hotel enterprise can pick you up from the airport in a Rolls Royce Phantom or a helicopter.

The sailed-shaped Hotel stands upon the city’s first artificial island and was built back in  1999. It has brought the city of Dubai to a world-class level of prestige and fame. 321 meters high, 27 stores; a place where you can order the world’s most expensive cocktail for a price proportional to its measures 27,321 Dirhams or something around USD 7,000, for a glass of scotch. That’s the paradigm shift to the extreme!

But the records the average tourists in Dubai are looking for are nothing but a reflex of the place’s inevitable identity decay,  portrayed in a mask of stupidity and ostentation.

The average tourist stays for no more than a week, alternating visits to malls, dune dinner or desert safari packages or doing amazing things such as skiing in the world’s largest indoor slope.

The average construction workforce individual stays as long as his passport is kept by his “sponsor”.  80% of UAE’s general population are expatriates. Mainly workers hired in the Indian subcontinent.

The average Emirati is subsidized by the government and occupy the highest posts in whatever Governmental office is the most suitable; politically. There is an attitude of arrogance among youngsters, specially towards expatriates.

Women are pursuing graduate and post-graduate education and counting on the prospect of transformation and liberalization of the society.

My first visit to the United Arab Emirates was in May 2008. A promising and exciting adventure that has turned out to be the most challenging and difficult period of my whole life.

For a period of 2 years, 6 months, 11 days, I have felt enchantment with the tales of the desert, with its mystical powers and its greatness . I have heard of and seen the deeds of people whose mission was to transform the lives of their brothers and sisters. I have seen a 21st century’s model slavery and the importance of freedom.

Coming up next…..more posts