Opera in the Middle of the Jungle

Amid the bustling city of Manaus (once the largest exporter of rubber in the world, I'm not sure if it still is) that is surrounded by rivers and jungles, lies a little bit of high-brow culture - the Teatros Amazonas - Manaus' famous opera house.

Opened in 1896, the theater was built with Italian and Scottish influence, and the only influence of Brazil is a rubber roadway outside the entrance so that late arriving carriages didn't make too much noise.  It's really pretty and we have an amazing view of it from our hotel room.

The opera house offers almost daily shows ranging from free to $R60 - plays, opera, orchestras - you name it, and Danielle and I were lucky enough to experience a free performance last night.  Plus it was a nice reprieve of cushioned chairs and air conditioning (as opposed to the wooden planks of the row boat we spent four days sitting on.)

How good can it be if it's free you ask?  Sooo amazing.  We saw the Amazon Philharmonic put on an hour and a half performance, playing Mozart and a bunch of other composers whose names I cannot spell off the top of my head.  Anyway, we might as well have been at Lincoln Center - it was that good.  And the conductor was cute...


Today after spending the morning at the open market buying random hand made crafts, we ventured to Parque do Mindu - what has got to be the crappiest park I've ever been to...


It starts off pretty nice - you think you are going to have a nice stroll in the woods with a pretty river rumbling through.  But this river is now a garbage dump, filled with trash, and surrounded by disgusting couches and broken TVs and emits a pungent smell.  The maps telling you where you are have large missing chunks, and the trail signs are broken or non-existant.


But...this park is also the home to an endangered species of primate called the pi-faced tamarin, and we were lucky enough to find a few.  They only live in areas of secondary forest, and cannot be found in other areas of primary jungle in the Amazon.  But if they are living in parks like this, no wonder they are endangered.


Overall I have had an amazing experience exploring 4 different states of Brazil.  Each state has its own distinct culture, and it was great having the opportunity to visit cities, rural areas and jungle!


Now if only we can get home!  I cannot wait to take a real shower and hit up a yoga class!  Unfortunately there seems to be a hurricaine in NC on its way up to NY that might interrupt our flight from Atlanta to NYC - but at least if we get stuck we wont't have to apologize for our crappy Portuguese!


Hope you enjoyed reading!
April

Me Tarzan, You Jane!

Yes everyone, my guide through the jungle's name was Tarzan, and he did actually refer to me as Jane at one point...

I made it out alive!  There was one point when we were camping out in the jungle that I thought I may be eaten by a jaguar or puma, but luckily we only heard them from afar. And yes - we did actually hear the cry of a black puma - while being woken up multiple times throughout the night by animals walking around our camp (don't worry - most likely they were only armadillos...I hope...) we heard a sound unlike anything else we had heard so far.  After waking up Tarzan for the 9 millionth time because of the animals (this was Danielle really, although I was definitely a bit freaked out, I was trying not to show it as much) he told us it was a puma.  Eek!

The Amazon is so amazing!  There are no roads at all - you have to take a boat everywhere through the different river estuaries, and are surrounded by jungle.  They even have a school boat instead of a school bus.  

So other than freaking out a bunch of times at the sound of crunching leaves, and trying to calm Danielle's fear of the many bugs we saw, hear is the lowdown:


Day 1:

• 3 1/2 hour trip into the jungle.  We indeed were in the middle of nowhere, and it was soooo amazing to feel like you are the only people on earth.  This trip consisted of an hour and fifteen minute boat ride across the meeting of the waters (black and white water meeting for the first time - you see the actual split in the water - very cool), an hour car ride through dirt roads in a VW van from like '72, and another hour and fifteen minutes through the channels of the amazon rain forest. 
• A quick swim in the river - yes I went in, and the piranha do NOT nibble at your toes.
• Dolphin watching - fresh water dolphin - both pink and gray!
• Piranha fishing - I caught about 3.  Their teeth are INSANE!
• Caimen hunting at night.   

Day 2:

• Paddling in the river at sunrise (so beautiful!) and bird watching.  Soooo many different birds - including toucan (totally kept thinking of Fruit Loops) and parrots.  Saw a fire eagle too.
• Monkeys jumping in trees.
• Hike in the morning through the jungle.  Saw mostly some cool looking bugs and lizards.
• In the afternoon headed to our campsite - about an hour ride from the lodge we were staying in - the middle of nowhere.  Set up our hammocks.  Yes we slept in hammocks with mosquitos nets, and definitely were out in the wild.
• Caught a fish for my dinner.
• Cooked dinner over the campfire. Tarzan is a good cook!
• Attempted to sleep, but didn't really.  Was counting down the hours until day light!

Day3:

• Morning bird watch.  Saw two tapirs eating breakfast.
• Breakfast over the campfire.
• Morning hike through the jungle to do some turantula hunting.  Found a lot.  Those things are  HUGE!
• Lunch by campfire.  Danielle and I actually started the fire on our own!
• Short afternoon hike to find some monkeys, but failed to do so.
• Packed up our campsite to head over to a local indigenous family's home, where we ate dinner and spent the night.  We might as well have been in the jungle, except this time we were woken up by the many farm animals roaming around.  We also toured their land where they have a pineapple plantation and various other trees...

Day 4:

• Sunrise bird watch.
• Breakfast with family.
• Visit to a rubber plantation, and made a condom...well a jungle condom...and it probably wouldn't do any good...
• Back to lodge to finally take a shower and use a real toilet!  Danielle and I were under the impression that we were going back to the lodge in between the camping and family's home, so did not bring an extra set of clothes = we were GROSS!
• Lunch.
• Three hour boat/car/boat ride back to Manaus.

So that's all folks.  I'll follow up with one last post soon.

Tchau!

I Think It Is My Destiny to Have to Go to Two Different Airports Each Time I Travel

I started out my trip to Brazil by going to Laguardia airport (correctly) and ending up having to go to JFK (the full story is in my facebook notes if you haven't already seen it.) 

Today, or yesterday really, I had the lovely experience of realizing that my flight to Manaus was out of Sao Paulo, and I was in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro.  

After having a slight panic attack, and not being able to get a hold of anyone who could help me attempt to change my flight, I decided to make the 6 hour bus ride trek to Sao Paulo.  So I hopped on an 11:30 p.m. bus, and arrived in SP by 6:30 a.m. - perfect timing for my 9:30 a.m. flight.  There was of course an hour delay where our bus literally sat at a standstill, making me think there was going to be another China like delay, but all of a sudden traffic was moving again.


This was a strange experience.  Typically in NY, when you are sitting in traffic, you are at least creeping along slowly.  We were literally completely stopped, and then all of a sudden traffic was moving at full speed.  I am not exactly sure how that happens, but I'm not sure I care either.


This is also not the first time I've had this lovely two-airport experience.  A few years ago, while travelling to New Orleans with my friends, we had a connection in D.C.  and of course we landed at Reagan, and our connection was at Dulles (or the other way around, I can't remember.)


Such is my life of airport travel.  Only me...


Next post will be from the Brazilian state of Amazonas!!!!

P.S. - the bus system in Brazil is absloutely amazing!  The terminal was waaay better than any airport I've ever been to, and when you borad the bus they give you a box of snacks, a juice box and a blanket.  The seats go really far back so you can sleep, and there is a full leg rest thingy, so it's like you are in a bed.  And this only cost me about $50 american dollars.  The U.S. should take some tips!!

Private (For-Profit) Universities as an Option for Brazilians

As we've seen, the public/free universities of Brazil are equivalent to the Harvards and Yales of the U.S. and obviously are not accessible to the majority population of Brazil.  Today we visited Estasio de Sa - a for-profit, private university based out of Rio de Janeiro.  This is the largest private university in Brazil with, with 78 campuses in 17 states throughout Brazil.  But like I said - it is for-profit (as opposed to PUC-Rio or NYU - private, non-profit universities.

If you can pay for it (average tuition is $R500/month for two years, but the medical degree is $36,000 US dollars a year - quite tough for the average Brazilian to handle), the degree is basically yours.  The vestibular is a breeze (confirmed by both the professors and students we met with) and there seems to be a high job placement.  But it is definitely run like a business.  They have an org chart like any other big company and are a publicly traded company on the Sao Paulo Exchange.  They are all about the money.  This was even seen through a mis-understood question asked by one of my classmates.  She had asked about their perspective on the affirmative action initiatives within Brazil, and rather they perspective, they heard the word prospectus, and started talking about future performance of the company. (They missed the affirmative action part completely.  Unlike some of the other people we have met, they were not avoiding the question, they are just that hung up on money.)

Affirmative action is not their priority.  Why would it be if the people who affirmative action is targeting cannot pay the tuition in the first place.  Of course they offer scholarships through the government sponsored Pro-Uni system (they get tax breaks in return), but they do it to save face.  How could they not when Affirmative action is a public initiative right now.

But maybe this is the answer for those people who cannot get into the public schools, or even the high-rated private schools.  They seem to have a really good track record and have been around since 1970.  In 2008 alone, nearly 22,000 positions were filled by Estacio grads.  Estacio also partners with other companies and programs, like Walt Disney, and or the Alain Ducasse Culinary school in France.  They also offer distance learning programs that can be accessed online anytime/anywhere.

So maybe this is ok.  Of course if an employer is considering between a candidate from UNICAMP vs. Estacio de Sa, they are going to go with UNICAMP (its like NYU vs. U. of Phoenix), but someone coming from Estacio is going to be employed way quicker than someone with just a high school degree.  So is a private, non-profit university so bad if it is filling a need of the public?

How Do You Have Affirmative Action in a Country Like Brazil?

Is affirmative action even necessary?  Is it about social class or race?  Or both?  I think part of the issue surrounding this topic is that everyone's version and thoughts around affirmative action is different.  There is no general consesnsus of what the problem is in the first place.  If you speak to the general white upper-class population they will tell you the issue is social class, but if you speak to a person who identifies themselves as black will say it is about race.  Ans as I keep saying, yes there are many many poor whites in Brazil, but there is a very tiny minority of blacks in even the middle class - is this not a racial construct?

The issue of race in the United States is a social construct firmly ingrained in our minds.  This is not the case in Brazil.  There is this myth of a "Racial Democracy" still stuck in the minds of many Brazilians.  And this idea truly is a myth.  Yes, many Brazilians have multi-racial friends and family members, and they hang out in the same bars and listen to the same music.  But take a look around in the universities, or at a more expensive restaurant or shopping center,  and you will see there is a clear racial divide.  As I keep saying in my past posts - there is the saying in Brazil that you cannot tell who is black or white, but ask the doorman or a police office, and they can absolutely tell you.  

I also feel like the idea of a "Racial Democracy" is a generational construct.  While visiting the Getulio Vargas Foundation (basically a think tank), the director of the organization, made some interesting comments.  He basically said, "there is no race in Brazil. I can be white, black, Japanese, Lebonese - I don't know.  There is only one race - the Human Race...and dogs..." (I am not kidding - he said this!, and by the way - he is cleary white.)

Immediately after he said this, three grad students/researchers who were in the room, had a completely opposite opinion.  They said that there is a clear racial divide in certain places.  They confirmed that, yes, people hang out together, but there is no representation of blacks in politics, business offices (unless they are part of the cleaning staff or kitchen, and there are no black soccer coaches.

We also had lunch with some grad students from PUC-Rio (the Pontifical Catholic University of Brazil - a private, non-profit university) and the student at my table made an interesting comment.  He said that he believes there is a race issue in Brazil, and that his parents and grandparents were definitely racist - they make racial jokes, and look down on people who are darker than them.

One last comment that was made that I found quite interesting - Angela Randolpho Paiva, a professor we met at PUC (who I ABSOLUTELY LOVE, and think I might have been brainwashed to become a sociologist just hearing her speak!) told us that when her daughter was young, she said, "I don't even know if I am prejudiced, because I am only surrounded by whites." (Quite an astute comment made by a young child btw.)

Going to leave you with that for now.  Tomorrow we visit our last organization - a for-profit university.  Should be interesting.

Tchau for now.

There is Actually a General Education/Liberal Arts Degree in Brazil! (Who Knew??)

After spending a day playing tourist in the countryside of Bahia on Saturday, and shopping and chilling poolside on Sunday, Monday we returned to our scholary quest of visting the universities and NGOs of Brazil.

Our first visit Monday morning was with Livio Sansone, the author of "Blackness without Ethnicity."  It was really nice to hear from someone who is removed from the universities/administration, but rather than go too much into what he said, I am going to list a few quick bullet points that I found interesting:

• In Brazil you are not born black, you become black.
• There is no Brazil without the United States, and vice versa - we live off each other's mistakes.
• In a way, segregation in the U.S. and S. Africa allowed blacks to ascend within society, at least within their own groups.  For example, having an all black university allows for a black person to be dean.  Segregation of shops or doctors offices, means you have black shop owners and black doctors.  (This is a really interesting point - I have never thought of segregation in this way.  This does not mean that segregation was by any means a good thing, but compared to Brazil, where there was no segregation, and where even in Salvador the population is 85% black and they've never had a black mayor, it makes you wonder...)
• In Brazil, only 50% of the population have access to credit cards, whereas in the U.S. everyone has access (maybe too much, as we have seen in the last two years...)
• Brazilians now want to become citizens, and as the U.S. has taught us, in order to be a citizen you need to be a consumer.
• There is a law in Brazil requiring all schools to include Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian education as part of there curriculum (I believe I mentioned this in another post), but due to the tremendous lack of resources in the public school systems, the wealthy, mostly white, student population of the south receives more Afro/Indigenous education than in the north where it is prdominately black.

And finally,

• The way Sao Paulo is handing issues of affirmative action is anachronistic because while the rest of the country is focusing on race, they are only focusing on "public school" quotas.

Ok, that wasn't exactly quick, but hopefully you can see how some of Sansone's ideas are very radical compared to what we've heard so far.

Later that afternoon we visited UFBA - the Federal University of Bahia.  This was the first school in Brazil to initiate quotas and is the fastest growing university in Brazil.  We had the amazing opportunity to meet with the president of the University Naomar Almeida-Filho (well until today anyway - immediately after our visit the school was inaugarating a new president!)  You could tell how big of a deal this was because as we were walking around, I swear all the students were looking at us like we were celebrities.  One student came up to me as we were walking into the classroom to ask who we were - I think he was slightly jealous that we were getting face time with the president, but he'll get his chance soon enough - President Almeida is returning to the faculty, and I am sure the students will be flocking to his classes.

NYU Students Chatting with the President of UFBA

After hearing from this man, I can see why he is such a hot commodity.  He has some extremely radical ideas, and is changing the way university education has taken place in Brazil since the 1930's.  Keep these points in mind:

• One of the arguments against racial quotas was that the quality of education would decrease.
• One of the arguments of increasing the size of universities to keep up with demand would, again, decrease the quality of education.
• In Brazil, you decide what you want your career to be prior to taking the vestibular.  Kids are making a life changing decision that is extremely difficult to change once you start (to change your major, you would need to drop out and take the vestibular all over again.)

As I believe I have mentioned previously - the first argument has been disproved by data showing that many of the students who have been admitted to university through an affirmative action program actually perform better than those who have not because they work harder.  UFBA has implemented a quota system that includes both social and racial factors - 50% of the students admitted must come from public schools, and within that 50%, the quota is broken down even further to include race.  Becuase of this system, 70% of the students at UFBA are now black/pardo/indigenous.  Walking around the campus we were clearly able to see the demographic difference compared to USP and UNICAMP.Naomar also mentioned that a solely racial quota would not work in Bahia.  Becuase the population of Bahia is 85% black, this also means they have a larger black middle class, so a solely racial quota wouldonly increase the number of wealthy people at the school.

In terms of increasing the size of the school, Naomar believes the exact opposite of the argument above - if you want to increase quality, you need to grow.  You should open doors for more people, which allows for more/different ideas.  In 2002, UFBA had 3,700 openings for new students and in 2010 they have 8,000.

Now here comes the really radical part.  UFBA has a general education program!  This is unheard of!  Who knew!  In the traditional way of doing things, if you entered into a medical program, you would have a very strict schedule of what you had to take, and when, and you would ONLY have medical classes. Now there is an option the enter a general program, where there are only two required classes, and then the rest of the classes are electives. (These electives can be profession specific if you want.)

There are for general themes within the new program that you can "major" in if you want to call it that.  These are Arts, Sciences, Humanities, and Health.  Each major has there own application process in a way.  You still have to take an entrance exam, but if you want to a music program within the art major for example, you would need to audition as well.  Or if you wanted to enter for art, you would submit a portfolio.

Similar to the U.S., even if you are in the arts program, you are required to take some gen. ed. classes in language and contemporary science.  Also similar to the U.S., many of these students complain about taking, say, a Biology class, but then they actually end up enjoying them, and maybe even decide to change their focus of studies.  They still have the traditional program in place, so it's not completely off the charts radical, but its there.

I can go on and on about this new program.  I think it is absolutely amazing, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it is more "American."  I think it is ridiculous to ask a 17 year old to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives.  How can you know?  I went into undergrad thinking I wanted to be an accountant and then changed my major in the middle of MY JUNIOR YEAR to ENGLISH of all things.  Then I ended up working in the accounting/banking/human resources world anyway, and now at the age of 30 I am in a grad program to become a high school guidance counselor.

Here is another interesting point of view: Without any of us asking, Simone - our guide while in Salvador, also said something really interesting.  She said that she wished there was something like this when she was in school becuase she tried university twice and dropped out both times.  The first time she did 3 years of psychology, then dropped out, and tested and applied all over again for business administration.  Again after 3 years, she dropped out.  She feels it was a waste of 6 years of her life, and if she had a program like this, she would probably have a university education.

I would love to get the faculty of UFBA in a room with UNICAMP and USP.  They all have such different thought and ideas, and are kind of on a scale with UFBA on the left, UNICAMP in the middle, and USP definitely on the far right.  It would be great to hear a debate between all of them.  Maybe it's my own leftist point of view, but right now I am definitely siding with UFBA. (I don't really think this is a competition, but I'm allowed to have my opinion right?)

I can't wait to see what other POVs we get to hear from in Brazil.  I was not expecting such a range of differences!

Salvador is HOT!

Everything about Salvador de Bahia is HOT!  The sun (extremely, as we all unfortunately found out), the sand, the atmosphere AND the people!  I love this city!  It was where the Portuguese explorers first landed and was the original capital of Brazil.  The city is absolutely beautiful and one of the only places left that still has the original architecture from the colonial era.  And I really need to find a place in NYC to learn capoeira - so amazing.

Salvador is also almost completely opposite of Sao Paulo and the south in almost every way.  For one thing, whereas the south of Brazil contains a very white population, the north is very black.  And poor.  And you can tell almost immediately.  It is also filled with so much more culture (in my opinion anyway - Sao Paulo was just like NYC, but with less culture - like I said - my opinion, don't hate!)  Specifically it is the center of the Afro-Brazilian culture of Brazil.  In the United States during the time of salvery, the slaves were well taken care of in order to keep them alive (and working) as long as possible.  The slaves of Brazil were worked to death (literally) and there was a constant influx of slaves into the country to replace them.  Because of this constant replenishing of slaves, the African culture stayed alive, whereas in the U.S. the slaves became more Americanized and lost much of their heritage. In another way to look at it, in the U.S. salves were seperated from their families, so many blacks in America have no idea who their ancestors are and what tribe or country they came from.  In Brazil, salve families were kept together, so even now, most black people of Brazil can trace back their ancestry.  Because of all this, the African culture has stayed very much alive in the state of Bahia.

After spending the morning exploring the old city of Salvador and taking in its rich culture, we visited two organizations that specialize in the black movement of Brazil.  The first was CEPAIA - a research center and "think tank" at UNEB - the State University of Bahia, that specializes in research about the indigenous and people of African descent.  The second organization was the Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Steve Biko was a black activist in South Africa during Apartheid who was killed by the police.  He wanted the blacks of South Africa to be free, but he also wanted them to be free from self oppression.)

One of the on-going projects of CEPAIA is to study the impact of affirmative action programs on the students, as well as the strategy they are taking to complete their degree.  Many of the students admitted to university through the affirmative action programs are the first in their family to attend school, so its a huge deal!  The other project described to us was studying the use of Africa and Afro-Brazilian history in the classrooms.  In 2003 a law was passed making it mandatory for Afro-Brazilian history to be part of the curriculum in elementary and high schools, but many of the teachers do not have enough of a background in this to teach it properly, and there is also an extreme lack of resources in the public schools.  So to make up for this CEPAIA also trains teachers in this area.

Different from all of the schools we have heard from so far, UNEB actually uses a quota system as their form of affirmative action.  Prior to affirmative action programs being in place, blacks were a clear minority on campus.  Now, blacks/mixed races are 50% of the student population.  As I've mentioned previously, I am not sure quotas are the right way to go about things, but when you look at USP, that only has 2-3% blacks on campus, and then see that UNEB with 50%, you start to question if maybe there should be quotas.  To be fair, Bahia's black population is also probably around three times that of Sao Paulo's, so the numbers are always going to be skewed.  But that doesn't mean that USP can't do a better job of getting them there.

There have been many arguments against affirmative action at the universities in Brazil.  One being that the entrance of blacks in university would lower the quality of the school. (remember that phrase I mentioned in another post - Anything done by a black is not done well.)  Luckily research has shown that this is not true at all.  In fact, much research has shown that the students admitted to university through affirmative action programs have performed better because they work harder.  Many people also argued that due to the miscegenation of Brazil, how do you decide who is black?  But almost every person we have spoken to says that "if you ask a police officer who is black and who isn't, believe me, they know."  And although the government says they support affirmative action, they will do things like schedule an open forum for everyone to discuss the issues, but hold it on a Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. when everyone needs to be at work...

The Steve Biko Institute was formed because they realized there was very little representation of the black community in Salvador and throughout Brazil.  Although blacks are the majority in Brazil, the government is run by the white minority.  According to a flyer given to us, "The institute arose out of the concerns of young black activists in the fight against racism.  Coming from black communities themselves, one of their concerns was the absence of students of African descent in universities.  These young people recognized the university as a space of power to be occupied by black people, as a way of interacting critically with the hegemonic knowledge circulating in the academy and thereby ensuring the community's more dignified, equal insertion in Brazilian society."

We met with George who was a former student of Steve Biko, and received his degree in economics from UFBA.  He told us the institute helped him in two ways:

1. He was helped tremendously in studying for the vestibular.

2. It also helped him with his own black consciousness.  He is now ok with saying that he is black, and that it is ok to have black features. 

I loved everything about the Steve Biko Institute.  This was the first organization we've met with that is trying to do so much more than just help black students with the vestibular.  I strongly believe that you can not just help someone get into school and then leave them stranded once they get there.  There should be support for them throughout their journey in higher education.  So many times, even in the United States, students have no idea how to navigate the experience once they get there, and drop out soon after. Here are some of the programs that are available at Steve Biko:

• Education through Social Movement - they realized that many of the students who come to Steve Biko do not have cultural access, like going to the theater or museum, so this is available to them through the institute.
• They have a program called Open Door - for students who are already in university to help them prepare for going into the workforce, offering programs like interview skills and resume writing.
• They noticed that many blacks were going into "softer" subjects, like humanities and teaching, and not many in areas like medicine/physics/math.  This is due mostly to the insuffiicient teaching in these areas in elementary and high school.  So Steve Biko has started a group to help funnel students into these areas, offering after school programs for supplemental learning.

Carnival is also a huge aspect of Brazilian life, but even this seems to be segregated.  There are many roles within the Carnival experience, and even here, the blacks are the ones holding the ropes; i.e. doing all the hard work, while the whites are dancing on the float. So Steve Biko created there own float where everyone of all colors can take part in all aspects of Carnival. 

Unfortunately funding has been an issue.  Many large companies do not agree with affirmative action and would prefer to give donations to the arts and dance companies.  The vestibular in Salvador costs about $R150-200 per month for 10 months.  Since they couldn't get any donations last year, they had to charge the students $R50, but this year they have been able to provide the course for free.

The institute also prioritizes students they feel will be able to do well once they get into university.  Therefore, they require the applicants to interview, as well as take a mini test. 

I cannot say enough about this Institute, but feel like I am going on and on.  So I am going stop here, and hope that the other places we visit in Salvador will impress me just as much!

Zumbi - The Equivalent (kind of) the United States' HBCUs

Note: It doesn't seem as if I can upload pictures onto the computers at our new hotel, so unfortunately you will all have to use your imaginations for now... (Pictures have been added at a later date.)

Today is our last day in Sao Paulo, and of course it is finally warm here and we are leaving! When we arrived, Sao Paulo was having an unusual cold spell that none of us were prepared for, especially coming from 104° NYC.  I think the hot weather and beaches in Salvador will be much appreciated by all of us!  Oh and a note to all of you - caipirinhas are VERY dangerous...

This afternoon we visited Zumbi - the semi-equivalent of an HBCU in the United States.  I say semi because the reason HBCUs were created in the United States was because blacks were not allowed to attend the same school as whites.  This was also the same reason all-women colleges were created in the States as well.  As I mentioned earlier, there were never segregation laws in Brazil preventing whites and blacks from participating in the same activities, so technically there isn't a need for an HBCU in the same way, but obviously as we have seen blacks in Brazil do not have the same access to education as the white population.

 Zumbi is a private college, which means the students pay tuition to attend, rather than the free public universities.  Whereas the universities like UNICAMP and USP typically focus on research and are equivalent to the Harvard and Yales of the U.S., Zumbi is more of a technical school, with undergraduate degrees in areas like PR and marketing, administration, teaching and transportation services (focusing on the transport of goods and services, as well as people.)

The programs are typically around 2 1/2 years long, and the price ranges depending on the degree.  For example, the law program is about $R315/month (right now this is about $178/month).  Tuition cost is also subsidized in some ways.  For example, PR tends to attract a younger crowd around the ages of 18-22, and because their parents are usually carrying the cost, the tuition is more flexible.  On the other hand, the average age of someone in the transportation concentration is around 35, and they typically have to pay out of pocket, since they should hopefully be supporting themselves in some way already.  Students from a lower socio-economic status may get scholarships for up to 1 year.  Unfortunately attrition is an issue, typically because of economic constraints.  Last month alone that lost 36% of their students because of money issues.  Often times things pick back up and a students returns to finish their degree.  If they are gone for less than 6 months, they can keep their credits, but if it is 6 months - 1 year, then they have to start the process all over again - including retaking the vestibular.

  In addition to the subsidies above, if a class is only 80% full, they will call EducAfro to fill up the rest of the class, and they are eligible for up to a 100% scholarship.  It is nice to see that they are working with other local organizations!

There are a few reasons why this school was created.  The first was that their were quotas created at schools for women, people with disabilites, etc., but there was a lack of racial quotas.  Zumbi was also created as a "safe space" where students could be surrounded by others of the same background (economically speaking.) For example, if a student who is wearing a cheap pair of tennis shoes, and he/she looks around and sees that everyone else is wearing expensice Air Jordans, they may not feel very comfortable. 

Unfortunately there is also a saying in Brazil (one of many - just another example of the microaggressions being ignored) that goes, " Anything done by a black is not done well."  This weighs heavily on the students and faculty of Zumbi, and the school works really hard at building up their self esteem.

You do not necessarily need to be black to attend the school - one of the missions of Zumbi is to show how people of all kinds can work together, but they do ensure that at least 50% of the applicants self identify as black.  90% of their students are black, some are white, and they do have an indigenous student from the Amazonas region. 

An interesting note about the indigenous student - the faculty has noticed that he does not hang around the black students at all, and only hangs out with the white ones.  Unfortunately many black and indigenous people still have it stuck in their heads that white = better.  In fact, according to the professor we met with, many of the white students identify more with being black than the actual black students do (dressing black, listening to black music, etc.)

One of the most surprising things we learned while we were there was that Zumbi does not yet have a permanent location.  In the last 7 years, they have moved locations 3 times!  Any funding they receive usually gos to paying rent.  The space they are in now used to be a sports club, but it was abandoned so they took it on.  They need to be creative with whatever space they get, and all of the classrooms we saw were created afterwards.  This points to the disparity behind the government sponsored public universities, and the private schools who are just trying to give additional opportunities to the under-represented.

Zumbi also shares it's location with Centro Paulo Souza - a technical high school.  Technical high schools are usually suplemental education that gives high school students a leg up in a specialized area - for example, event planning, or law.  High school in Brazil is usually only a half day, so the students who go to these technical high schools go to regular school in the morning or afternoon, and then the tech school the other half of the day.  (I guess you can call them super nerds in a way.)  Again for you New Yokers - I guess this program is kind of like BOCES?

We got to visit a classroom, and these kids were AWESOME! The groups of kids we met with were studying event planning, and this class happened to be about the French type of waiter service.  They presented to us a demonstration of what French wait service looks like.  They usually study how an event works from beginning to end, and they visit actual events and businesses to see how it works in actual practice.  They also submitted their own proposal to a company that organizes all of the Samba events for Carnival, and you can follow the project on twitter @escolafazsamba or their blog at http://www.escolafazsamba.blogspot.com/.

I wish I could post pictures because these kids rocked!  And they were so excited to have us there as well - having us pose for pictures and everything.  The main objective of the technical high school is to prepare the students to go directly into the work force, but when we asked if any of them wanted to go to university, almost all of them said they were planning to take the vestibular and apply.  And not all of them want to go into PR/marketing/event planning.  Some want to be doctors, lawyers or go into business. 

Overall I really enjoyed this visit. Because the public university system is so competitive, it was nice to see what the other options are like.  Although increased access to the universities for blacks would be more beneficial, at least there are some other options for people to better their lives if they want to, as well as subsidies for those who cannot afford it.

As I mentioned, today is the last post from Sao Paulo - next we move onward to Salvador de Bahia in the north east of Brazil.  This area is extremely different from Sao Paulo as the majority of the population if Afro-Brazilian - should be an interesting experience. 

Tchao for now!

My Opinion of Affirmative Action is Changing on a Daily Basis

I am slowly learning Portuguese, but as you can see in the picture to the left, I am constantly using my handy phrasebook...

Our next stop on our Brazilian journey was the Univeridade de Sao Paulo (USP) - the oldest university in Sao Paulo, and the 2nd oldest in all of Brazil, but before I get to that, I'd like to explain a little bit about the elementary and secondary school system in Brazil...

Brazil has one of the worst education systems in the world, and many people of Brazil have only 4 to 8 years of schooling, due to a tremendous dropout rate (see picture to the right.)  As you can see, this has improved over the last 40 years, but it is by no means stellar.  Most of the wealthy Brazilians send their kids to private schools that specialize in preparing them for the Vestibular and university, while students in the public schools of Brazil barely have a single book to read.

Public universities in Brazil are free (paid for by the government), but the competition is fierce.  Kids who went to private high schools have a clear advantage over those who attended public schools.  While the poor people of Brazil are of both the white and non-white races, there are almost no blacks in the middle or upper classes of Brazil, which means there is a very small amount of blacks attending public universities.  Professor Balbachevsky who we met at USP told us that gives about 1/2 of her paycheck to taxes.  I wouldn't mind that so much if it meant I received free healthcare and education too!  But can you imagine these poor Brazilians who are paying taxes, yet they do not receive the benefit of attending public universities because because they cannot afford to send their children to private high schools? 

Enrollment in higher education has grown quite a bit over the last twenty years, but this is due to the many private universities (where you pay tuition) that have been popping up all over the place.  These private institutions are more closely related to the community colleges or trade schools that we have in the United States.  I passed two of these types of schools just within a four block radius of my hotel!  They are everywhere!

Similar to when we visited UNICAMP, at USP we learned about their affirmative action program - also a point system.  Here is how their Vestibular process works (the short version): There are two exams, one in November, and another in January.  If you do not pass the first exam, you are eliminated from the process and cannot continue on to the second exam.  Now their bonus system, which they call INCLUSP: If the student is from a public high school, they receive 3% added to their grade in both the 1st and 2nd exam.  Depending on their performance on the first exam, they can also get up to an additional 6% added to their 2nd exam.  In addition, if they participated in a PASUP program in high school (for you New Yorker's, I kind of relate this to graduating with  a regents vs. a non-regents degree) then you get ANOTHER 3% added on to your grade.

Their affirmative action program does not take race into consideration at all.  Nor do they do any type of outreach to get more non-whites into the university.  They feel that having an affirmative action program for public school students is enough to get more blacks into their school. 

My opinion of affirmative action in Brazil is changing on a daily basis.  When we visited with UNICAMP, I thought they had a very well rounded program that took into consideration many aspects including SES, race, etc. (see 2nd posting).  EducAfro had made a pretty good case for why actual quotas should be in place, but I do not think quotas are the right way to go about this issue.  I would be ok with USP's version of affirmative action if I did not feel that Brazil DOES actually have a race problem.  I know they deny this, but while walking around USP's campus I did not see a single darker person.  I very rarely see them while walking around the city of Sao Paulo either...  29% of the popoulation of Sao Paulo is considered non-white/non-asian.  23% are high school graduates who are eligible to attend university.  But at USP, only 2-3% of their students are non-white.  At least at UNICAMP this number is 15% (I am assuming because of their point system that includes race.)

As I said, I do not think quotas are the answer, but I do think something could be done to reach out to the black communities.  Offer them free classses/workshops to prepare them for the vestibular.  Start a mentor program where other blacks who have gone to university go back to their communities and show them that they can go to college too.  As far as I can tell nothing is being done to try to increase the number of non-whites at this school. 

Experiencing a Small Part the Black Movement in Brazil - EducAfro

Today I ate some magical toast and drank some magical tea that will supposedly make me fall in love with EducAfro, and pay for one of their students to come to the United States.  If only David Santos, the head of EducAfro, knew that the poor grad student's bank account leaves them barely enough to feed themselves month to month...

As I mentioned in my last post, EducAfro is a non-government organization that is focusing on the black movement in Brazil.  They very strongly feel that universities in Brazil should have quotas in place, and are not happy with a point system compromise.  After meeting with many universities in Brazil, they realized (according to them) that the universities of Brazil were not going to do anything about the racial inequalities, so they were going to have to interfere.  In many cases they use protesting as a way to get the universities to listen to their cause.  They are sick of the university administrators who only do research, but do not do anything about the results that are found.

In an example of one of the more extreme protests (that we heard about at least), when the organization first started they would send some of their younger students to the university each week and they'd stand in front of the school entrance with a cross (as if they were being crucifed) and protest until the school would budge.  

We were taught their protest chant as well - sing along if you'd like:

"Che, Zumbi, Antonio Consehero
Na luta por juctiça somos todo companheiros"

As soon as we walked in, you could see the huge difference in their organization compared to the university we had visited the day before.  For one, Wendi, our T.A. had to translate for him the entire time, as opposed to the fluent English we had experienced at UNICAMP.  Their power point was also not as polished, they do not have as many resources, and you can see how their battle will not be easy to win. 

One of the more moving and emotional parts of our visit was the story David told us when asked about how he identifies (his skin is of a lighter shade, his mother is white, father black).  I am going to keep the story a lot shorter than what he told us:

Basically growing up, he always thought he was white, but just had a nice tan since he grew up near the beach and that his hair was  nappy (as he called it) becuase of the salty air.  His father married a white woman and moved three states away to be closer to whites. (sidenote: of every 100 black people in Brazil, 83 will be ashamed to say they are black.) Much later on, David and his siblings went to Bahia to find their black relatives.  They couldn't find any and assumed they also married whites and moved away. (At this point, David stops, and begins to cry...it is a few moments before he starts again.  Wendi starts to cry too, and it catches on throughout the room.  Even typing this I am getting teary eyed...)  Next what he had said was, "then I looked around, and realized that all of these other black people were his relatives too."

As I mentioned, there is a large chunk of this story I am leaving out, but you get the picture...

One of the aspects of the organization that disappoints me a bit is where they focus their attention.  They strictly work with people who have already finished high school, and many times they work with adults (in their 30's, 40's, 50's, and even beyond) to help them prepare for the vestibular and get into university.  In fact they put age as a priority - a 50 year old man would take priority over a 17 year old.  I think this is great, but there does not seem to be any organization that works with black students who are in high school, to get them into university at the proper age (most students in Brazil who come from private schools attend university right after high school, between the ages of 18-24.)  I know there is a much bigger issue of primary and secondary education in Brazil (I will talk about that more in my next post) that is too difficult for EducAfro to take on, but I do not understand how helping older people get into university will build a stronger middle class.  People who are in their 50's are no longer having children that they can bring up to go to college as well.  I feel like it would be better to build a pipeline into the middle class.

I was also surprised, but understood, David's feelings about Zumbi, Brazil's version of the HBCUs we have in the United States. (For those of you who are not familiar with this acronym, it stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, for example, Howard University.)  EducAfro feels that if you want to create a school that is only for blacks, that is great, but they will not support them.  Their goal is to integrate blacks into every aspect of Brazilian life.  I totally understand this point of view, and see how a black university is segregating the students from the rest of society, but at the same time, having an all black university will give blacks an opportunity to get a college degree that is otherwise very difficult to obtain, as well as give them the tools they need to move up in socio-economic status.

A Visit to UNICAMP- Brazil's 2nd Most Prestigious University

Today we are driving to Campinas to visit UNICAMP - Brazil's 2nd most prestigious university.  It is about a 2 hour drive from the city of Sao Paulo, which was a pretty good estimate - we arrived to the campus at exactly 10:30.  Unfortunately we have now been driving in circles around the campus for the last 40 minutes!  We have no clue where we are going.  Hopefully someone will figure it out soon...

...After driving around for 45 minutes, we finally found the building we needed to get to.  The president of the university, Fernando Costa, greeted us, which was a  nice surprise, and gave a quick introduction to the school in general.  Then we heard from Professor Renato Pedrosa who is the head of admissions at the university, as well as the design and issuance of the vestibular.  The vestibular is a test that all candidates for university must take to be admitted to the university system in Brazil.  It is similar in a way to the SATs in the United States, except that this test is the sole deciding factor of admittance into university.  So all those clubs, sports and extracuricular activites that American students try to cram onto their resume mean absolutely nothing in Brazil.

I was surprised at how much UNICAMP does that is a bit radical compared to what we have heard so far.  For instance, all students must declare their concentration before they even take the vestibular, but Renato thinks this is a horrible idea.  He feels the students are too young to make a life decision like that, and what if they start the degree and 6 months into it decide it really isn't for them?  They can't just change their major the way we do in the U.S.  They have to test and apply all over again.  No changing majors or transferring schools 2,3,4 times for them!  There are also a lot of familial and social pressures forcing students to stay put.  If you apply to the med school and are lucky enough to be accepted (it is a 90-1 chance), you are going to stick it out and become a doctor, whether you like it or not.  Renato mentioned there are discussions going on about having a general education program, but at this point it is just theoretical.  But in general, it was surprising to hear that a process that has been going on since the university system started is being questioned by the administration.

When looking at some of the charts shown to us, we noticed there was a spike in applications to the university in 2005 - this is when affirmative action programs started in Brazil.  Rather than using quotas at UNICAMP, they have a more well rounded system of looking at diversity.  In addition to the vestibular, admissions also looks at gender, race/skin color, family income, family education status (if their parents also when to university), the student's secondary education, and their participation in the affirmative action program (they check a box and select their racial preference if they want special consideration.)  Basically point are added to their vestibular score.  For example, +30 points if they are from a public school, +10 points for race (black, pardo (mixed) or indigenous), etc.  Up until this point, I had assumed that most of the universities in Brazil were using a quota system, so it was nice to hear they had a more well rounded system of admissions.  

Racial categories in Brazil are not as clear as in the United States, and there are many names for what can be construed as the same racial category.  To clear up this confusion, UNICAMP uses the same racial categories as the census.  Similar to the United States, whatever box you check, they take your word for it.  They do not believe in the submission of pictures to verify racial status - a process we have heard is done at the University of Brasilia.  UNICAMP believes that there is definitely potential for people from a low SES to do really well in university that cannot be detected by the vestibular, but they do not think quotas are the answer - quotas will cause too much controversy (similar to the racial descrimination lawsuits that have popped up in California and Michigan causing them to get rid of their affirmative action programs completely.)

After the presentation we went to lunch on campus and were joined by some of the professors and administrators.  One sat at each table and we had the opportunity to have a more intimate conversation.  Leonardo, a physics professor at UNICAMP, and who previously held Renato's role, was sitting at my table.  One of the most surprising things said was that while he was visiting MIT, a predominately white school by United States standards, he saw even there that it was extremely diverse compared to UNICAMP, and that is when he knew that Brazil had a problem.  It was interesting to hear that it took a trip to the United States for him to realize that Brazil is not truly a "Racial Democracy."  

I had also asked if UNICAMP does any type of outreach or work with NGO's to bring in more diverse students and he said no, but that they do go to the public schools to give presentations, and basically say, "you can go to university too."

The best part of lunch was when we told Leonardo we were visiting EducAfro tomorrow. (EducAfro is a pretty extreme NGO focusing on the black movement within Brazil, specifically working to get more blacks into universities.) Leonardo rolled his eyes, and said, "Oh my god that guy HATES me!"  Apparently EducAfro is very pro-quota and does not agree with the way UNICAMP works their affirmative action at all.  Guess there will be drama tomorrow!!     

A Quick Note About What This Class is About, and My First Encounter With Race in Brazil

Welcome to my blog!  As an introduction I thought I'd say a little bit about why I am in Brazil.  I am taking a class at NYU called "Race and Higher Education in the U.S. and Brazil."  As most people know, race in the United States is a pretty heated topic of discussion, and many American's believe that racial issues are the same throughout the world.  Brazil also had slavery during it's early history, and in fact had 7 times as many African slaves than the United States.  But when slavery was abolished in Brazil in the late 1800's, they did not have segregation laws the way we did in America.  In fact, they encouraged the mixing of races...

...today, many Brazilian's feel their country is a "Racial Democracy", or a color blind society.  But if you look at the structure of their socio-economic status, you will find that many of the black or mixed race people are in the lower rungs.  To keep this short, in an effort to bring more blacks into the middle class, many of Brazil's universities have started an affirmative action program - similar to the United States.

My travels throughout Brazil will bring me to the cities of Sao Paulo, Salvador de Bahia, and Rio de Jeneiro.  I will also be extending my travels to Manaus in the north west part of the country in the Amazonas region.  While in all of these places, my class mates and I will be visiting different universities and NGOs (non-government organizations) to discuss and learn about race and universities throughout the country.  Some of these universities will have affirmative action programs in place, some will even have a quota system, but they all run things differently...

And now a snippet of my first encounter with race while here.  It was actually while some classmates and I stopped at a local outdoor cafe.  We were chatting and a Brazilian man interupted us (in English) and asked where we were from.  When we said New York, he pulled back - a little surprised.  He had said that if he were to guess, he would have only picked out one of us as being American - the one who was very pale white.  Of the other three girls, one was of Asian Indian descent, and the other two were white, but had a nice summer tan, making us look darker than we would be if it were not summer.  When I told Wendi, our teaching assistant this story, she said that apparently Brazilians only think of American's as being very white, or like the black rappers you see in music videos...

Keep a look out for my next posting - about our trip to UNICAMP - Brazil's second most prestigous school and one of the 3 public universities (Free!) in Sao Paulo.