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| A Rio Landmark: Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) |
There are days when the complexity of our connected world is
beyond my ability to manage with any efficiency, let alone patience. This past
Tuesday was one of those days. I spent much of the morning dealing with renewal
of various registrations tied my Brazilian cellular telephone. These renewals were
required since my 2016 Brazilian cell phone number expired during the months I
was out of the country. I had to get a new one. Consequently everything that
was tied to my old number had to be re-initiated. Then, via email, I asked friends
in Washington state – my permanent home – to facilitate getting connected to a
newly installed fiber optic system serving my home there. All of these
undertakings were straight forward but time consuming. We’ve all been
there dealing with some aspect of our connected society – hanging on the phone
explaining to customer service the problem and getting it solved; waiting in
line at the local cable service center; going into online help forums to try
and understand why a particular action didn’t effect the expected response.
Twenty years ago we didn’t have cell phones or fiber optic
systems. Now many of us are spending hours managing these new technologies –
all intended to keep us connected. Whew. That is the down side. The upside is
that I can email my sister who lives in England and hear back within hours,
send loved ones birthday wishes via Facebook and other social media and receive
pictures on iCloud from family and friends all over the world. Those are the
good things and I’m glad for them. Why should administrative hassles annoy me?
I can’t remember what the pre-Internet administrative hassles were but I am
sure they were equally annoying. For sure we were not able to exchange
photographs and commentary within minutes across continents before the Internet
and cell phones were invented. We depended on expensive long distance phone
calls and “snail mail” letters that could take weeks and even months to arrive.
I guess I just expect it all to work!
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| Assembing for a Bloco (Carnaval Street Parade) in Lapa, Rio |
Jeff and I arrived in Rio last Thursday for our annual
sabbatical in Brazil. When we
arrived, it was a few days after Carnaval officially ended. The city was still in party mode. On
Saturday, Jeff and I joined a friend at a morning bloco – that is a
community street parade with dancing and music. It was great fun to see the
different costumes and dance with the crowd along the parade route. Once again
I was reminded that keeping up regular exercise is worthwhile so that when an
opportunity to dance in a street parade comes along I am ready! Of course in my
American life there are not that many occasions when dancing in the street for
a few hours is an option. We had great fun – me dressed as a hippie complete with
a tie-dyed dress and my husband in an Egyptian headdress. We weren’t the only
senior citizens having fun. We saw all ages and all manner of hilarious outfits
– one of the perennial favorites is men dressed up as women. My first experience at a
Brazilian Carnaval was almost thirty years ago. Someone told me that the key to
remember about costumes, or fantasias
as they are called in Portuguese, is “The men dress as women and the women take
off their clothes.” Perhaps this blanket statement is a bit of an exaggeration
but it is still quite apt.
It is more than a month since we left another tropical
city, Singapore. During our last week there we visited the Singapore Biennale –
a biennale is a large-scale contemporary art exhibit that occurs every two
years. In the short time we were back in the United States, I didn’t have the
chance to write about this wonderful exhibit. Now I will.
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| The Great East Indiaman by David Chan, Singapore Raffles landing in an Imaginary Schooner powered by a Mythical Whale |
The 2016 Singapore Biennale showcased diverse art works by 60
Asian artists representing nations from Pakistan to Japan and from northern
China to the most southern island nations. It was hosted by the Singapore Art
Museum. Like the Bienal de São Paulo that I visited in 2014 (see my blog about
it at
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| Gate by Do Ho Suh, South Korea A ghostly memory of a lost home |
the Singapore Biennale was an eye-opening window on the
emotions and visions of the artists and their nations. Many of the pieces (artists
from South Korea and Indonesia for example) evinced a longing for home and nostalgia
for what the artist perceived to be a more stable past. Others were delightful, even fanciful expressions of the joy of living or remembrance of historical events. What I like about
visiting art museums is that the exhibits always show me something that changes
the way I see the world. Sometimes it is just a moment of self-reflection or a
sense of happiness at seeing something of pleasing to the eye. Sometimes a
painting, a sculpture or a mixed media installation sticks with me, influencing
my thinking and ability to understand the world around me. If you are ever in a
city that is hosting a biennale my advice is go – you will experience
paintings, sculptures, collages and other contemporary art forms that open your
mind to the beauty and the challenges of our diverse world. I am posting just two examples of what we saw – hoping to tempt you into visiting a modern
art museum next time you have the chance. We are so inundated with Internet distributed forms of video entertainment
that I think we miss out experiencing art forms that do not adapt so easily to
Internet distribution. Okay off my soapbox. I guess I am just a nut for
broadening horizons and besides who doesn’t love to visit an art museum?
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| The Singapore River at dusk |
It is interesting to compare the two tropical cities we’ve
lived in this year, Rio and Singapore. Rio is known for its samba and beaches
while Singapore is known for its strict behavioral standards, its efficient
infrastructure and cleanliness. Without question the overall standard of living
is higher in Singapore but Singapore is a tightly controlled independent city
nation whereas Rio is the historical center of a large, sprawling and complex
democracy. Despite the differences, both cities are great places to walk in – both
are full of public parks and interesting architecture. Curiously both Rio and
Singapore have good public transportation systems. Buses are abundant and cheap
in Rio and the subway system is greatly upgraded since the Rio Olympics. While
it does not reach as extensively into the neighborhoods as the city-wide system
in Singapore does, Rio’s new lines and new train cars are clean, fast and remarkably
similar to those in Singapore. There are of course more differences between the
two cities than similarities. One that interests me as a former water engineer is the surface water drainage canals in Rio and Singapore. In Singapore,
the Singapore River, that drains and flows through the center of town, is almost
drinking water standard but in Rio, the big drainage canals that run from the
inland Lagoa (lake) to the Atlantic Ocean are quite polluted. After rainfalls
in Singapore there is little trash in the river but here in Rio rain flushes
out endless forms of trash, particularly plastic bottles and bags. Singapore gets “bad marks” internationally for being so strict about littering.
It is illegal to litter in Singapore whereas in Rio, despite many street trash cans, littering seems like the norm. When
you see the difference in the water quality of runoff and in the amount of trash
on the streets the idea of no littering becomes appealing. But for now the sun
is shining and I’m thinking about going out to get some of my daily 10,000
steps in.
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| The pedestrian path along Copacabana |
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