One of the few agreeable features of São Paulo is that it is a thriving residential and business center at the same time. Unlike the center of Rio de Janeiro, for example, which is practically deserted in the evening after people have left their offices, the old center of São Paulo is vibrant. This is because hundreds of thousands of people live there.

The city's most famous street, Avenida Paulista, and the surrounding area is densely inhabited and filled with restaurants, cinemas, theaters, discos, nightclubs and even hospitals. São Paulo has more claim to being the city that never sleeps than New York does.

The majority of these residents are from the middle and upper class but there are also people from the lower income group. How long this will last is a matter of conjecture since there are already signs of creeping gentrification, which is making life more difficult not only for the lower income group, but even the middle class in areas such as Jardins and Pinheiros.

Buildings and houses are being torn down and replaced by gigantic obscenities, which only millionaires can afford. Simple shops and bakeries, where you can buy a pãozinho (bread roll) or a soft drink, and tradesman's places, such as cobblers and key cutters, are being replaced by expensive bars and restaurants where a beer can easily cost a domestic maid's daily pay.

Working class people have almost no chance of buying a property since the gap between an industrial worker's wage and that of a middle class person, like a lawyer or doctor, is enormous. However, these middle class districts have tens of thousands of maids, janitors, security guards, waiters, nurses etc living and working there.

There have to be facilities which suit these people's pockets, such as cheap eating places, unpretentious bars and corner shops where you can buy rice, beans and potatoes rather than imported fancy foods and wines. The existence of such places is good for the middle class as well since it means that the consumer still has a choice and can buy simple things at reasonable prices. Removing or replacing downmarket stores and restaurants pushes up prices for everyone.

For example, there used to be a family-owned corner shop by the junction of Rua Oscar Freire and Peixoto Gomide where you could buy fruit and vegetables. Nearby was a small bakery with a simple dining area, and there was also a little stationary shop where you could make photocopies. Over the last two years these places have gone.

The fruit shop is now a so-called Irish pub, the bakery has been turned into a trendy restaurant and the stationary store is a fancy Arab restaurant. These places have become very popular and must be making much more profit than they ever did before.

That is good news for the investors and for those who have gained employment but one wonders what is of more value to a community - places where anyone can go and buy necessities at a reasonable price or places which exclude a large part of the community and offer only added-value items, which bring the owners a bigger profit?  

Only a couple of hundred yards away, at the corner of Oscar Freire and Mello Alves, a workman's place and a upmarket bar/restaurant are virtual neighbors. In the simple place you can buy a big bottle of a popular brand of beer whereas in the smarter place you are restricted to a smaller bottle of a premium brand which costs much more. At least you can still take your pick but for how much longer?

American Visitors 1: Tyson - from Champ to Chump

One man who enjoyed São Paulo's vibrant night life was Mike Tyson who passed a memorable night, which started in a bar and ended up in a police station where he spent four hours being treated more like a hero than a hood. Tyson ended up in police custody after thumping a photographer who was annoying him and then smashing his camera and ripping out the film.

One can sympathize with a celebrity who just wants to be left on his own and few people will shed any tears over a press cameraman who would photograph a corpse if he could make money out of it. However, Tyson made a worse mistake by giving a street boy US$ 100.

Tyson was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that it was better to give a poor child US$ 100 than spend it on a prostitute. This is a bizarre example and shows the kind of mentality Tyson has. However, whereas a prostitute would spend the money on herself and family the boy is more likely to be targeted and robbed.

Instead of making a showy gesture, which could endanger the boy's life, it is a pity that Tyson did not make a donation to an organization which looks after underprivileged children or even visit a favela. This might have also polished up his tarnished image.

American Visitors 2: Rice - No Rosa Parks

Other recent American visitors, George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, might also have made some efforts to meet local people during their flying visit. Bush could have shown Brazilians that he was not the demon he is made out to be while Rice could have spoken to young black Brazilians as her predecessor, Colin Powell, did.

Unlike Tyson, she is a good role model for poor black youngsters, but she could not find a space in her crowded diary to pass an hour with them. The recent death of Rosa Parks, the black woman whose refusal to go along with the segregated system in the southern US, was the spark which led to the advancement of black Americans was given great coverage here. Rice missed an excellent opportunity to capitalize on this event in a country with one of the world's largest black populations.     

Warmongering Brazil Style
 
Here is a part of a letter published on the day President George W. Bush arrived in Brazil. It did not appear in some leftist or student rag, but in the Estado de S. Paulo, a newspaper with probably the highest opinion of itself in the whole world. 

"What is Bush going to do here? A proposal for Acre in exchange for the foreign debt? Brazil will not sell Acre! The Amazon is ours! Go home Bush II. Caesar of modern times. Go home warmonger!" (I have translated it literally to show how inarticulate the original Portuguese version was.)

This irrelevant verbiage was published without any explanation or comment. Nor did it mention the fact that Acre used to belong to Bolivia and only became part of Brazil at the start of the 20th century after an uprising by Brazilians who declared the territory an independent republic.

Brazil exploited the presence of thousands of Brazilian rubber tappers who had started arriving in Acre in the last decades of the 19th century. They eventually formed a majority of the population and revolted. At one point, they expelled the Bolivian governor leading to intervention by Bolivian troops.

In 1902 there was another revolt, this time backed by the governor of Amazonas state who provided military and financial support to the rebels. Bolivia was unable to resist and in 1904 handed over 73,000 square miles of its territory in exchange for access to the Madeira river, US$ 10 million and a pledge by Brazil to build a railway on the right bank of the Madeira, thus giving the Bolivians access to the Atlantic via the Amazon.

This is just one example of Brazil's own warmongering past which saw it annex territory belonging to neighboring countries but which modern Brazilians do not like to recall. The latest issue of the magazine Nossa História has a section called "Fronteiras do Brasil" which describes how today's borders were fixed. Obviously the Estado's correspondent has not read it.

Gunlovers of the World Unite

Perhaps this martial history explains why Brazilians voted overwhelmingly not to ban the sale of guns in the recent referendum. Maybe those who favored the ban underestimated Brazilians' wish to own guns and shoot people.

Just as I was surprised by the sheer size of the majority in favor of guns I was also surprised by the strong feelings this issue generated. I received quite a lot of e-mails from readers, only one of whom agreed with me.

About half the responses came from Americans, who as far as I could see had no link to Brazil, and my articles had links to gun-related sites. There have been reports that the Brazilian gun lobby sought advice from American organizations such as the National Rifle Association.

I am not sure if this is so but the odd interest shown by the American pro-gun lobby in a purely Brazilian domestic matter makes me think it could be true.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish writer and consultant who is based in São Paulo. He writes on Brazilian politics and business for his site www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br. He can be contacted at jf@celt.com.br.

© John Fitzpatrick 2005

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