Adventures of a Gringa

As Gerações

Eline Kullock me achou através de um site de midia social e pediu para mim escrever um post. Já que ela é uma pessoa muito simpática, interessante e super trabalhadora (é presidente da Grupo Foco em São Paulo), topei, e aqui está. Ela vai publicar este post no blog dela, aqui.

As pessoas gostam de falar na brecha de gerações (generation gap), ou seja, as diferenças e distância cultural entre as gerações: a Geração Baby Boomer (pessoas que nasceram depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial e antes de 1960), a Geração X (pessoas que nasceram entre 1960 e 1982, a Geração Y (pessoas que nasceram entre 1982 e 1996) e a Geração Z (pessoas nascidas depois de 1996). Mas como é diferente esse gap no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos? Ao meu ver, é o seguinte.

Tecnologia
Nos Estados Unidos, dado o tamanho grande da classe média e alta, e a acessibilidade e preços relativamente baixos da tecnologia, todas as gerações conseguiram entrar na modernidade tecnológica rapidamente. Já que a tecnologia também forma parte da moda, todo o mundo quer ter a coisa mais chique, mais avançada, mais procurada (pense no i.Phone, W.ii, e TiVo, por exemplo). A grande maioria da população, da Geração BB ate a Geração Z é tecnologicamente alfabetizado, com acesso regular ao computador e/ou a Internet. A revolução da tecnologia é recente e muda muito rápido, que obriga as pessoas a aprender constantemente a usar novas ferramentas e novos produtos.

No Brasil, a historia é um pouco diferente. Só nos últimos 5 anos que a classe média cresceu considerávelmente, dando acesso à tecnologia que anteriormente não podia alcançar, como máquina de lavar, DVD e computador próprio. Antes, a alta tecnologia foi limitada a um setor pequeno da população. Agora, com salários mais altos, programas sociais e políticas do governo que a maioria tem acesso à tecnologia, principalmente à Internet. Porém, da nova classe média, os maiores beneficiários dessa mudança são das Gerações Y e Z, deixando as Gerações BB e X para atrás. Como antes, todas as gerações das velhas classes média e alta têm acesso e são tecnologicamente alfabetizadas, mas são os adultos da nova classe média que ainda estão no processo de aprender a utilizar a tecnologia, particularmente a Internet e programas de computador. A Orkut tem sido uma ferramenta muito útil para esses novos usários a entender como usar a Internet, fotos digitais e vídeos.

Mercado de trabalho
Eu vejo um processo contrário acontecendo nos dois países enquanto isso:
Nos EUA, estamos na pior crise econômica desde a Grande Depressão, a pesar de ter uma das maiores economias e ser um dos maiores poderes militares no mundo. O impacto não e só financeiro, senão emocional também. Nossa auto-estima está extramente baixa e não tem um clima muito optimista no país (depois da lua-de-mel da eleição presidencial). Todas as gerações estão sofrendo no mercado de trabalho, especialmente com cortes de pessoal em todo setor, mas a geração que mais está sofrendo é a Geração Y, já que muitos acabaram de entrar ou estão entrando no mercado de trabalho em um momento muito difícil. Desde os anos 1960s até a crise, houve uma mudança no mercado que deixaram as pessoas entrar em novas carreiras (especialmente as mulheres), e a revolução da tecnologia criou muitos empregos completamente novos (IT, por exemplo), deixando as pessoas fazerem algo diferente em vez de fazer carreiras tradicionais, como dentista ou contador. Como resultado, os jovens da Geração Y estão sendo obrigados a se diferenciar dos demais, tentando criar um perfil único com um conjunto de habilidades úteis. Mas já que tem mais pessoas procurando trabalho do que vaga, em este momento é mais seguro entrar em carreira "tradicional" como médico e engenheiro, onde precisa de pessoas com conhecimento muito especifíco, ou voltar a estudar, fazendo programas de maestria ou doutorado.

No Brasil, não é assim. As gerações BB e X sofreram com instabilidade econômica, ditadura militar, e hiperinflação, resultando (em como a Eline me disse), em uma auto-estima muito baixa. Até recentemente, com a estabilidade econômica e crescimento continuado da economia, a taxa de desemprego ficava alta e era mais difícil entrar no mercado de trabalho. Na faculdade, as pessoas fizeram carreiras práticas, como as carreiras tradicionais que mencionei, para ter uma maior chance de conseguir emprego. Não teve muito espaço para desejo pessoal ou criatividade, menos que tivesse muito dinheiro. Mas agora, isso mudou. A Geração Y, e também parte da Geração X têm acesso a um mercado de trabalho maior, mais fluido, e mais aberto. Essas gerações têm muito mais flexibilidade em que carreira querem escolher e mais liberdade para trocar o caminho profissional. Esses trabalhos inovadores que vieram da revolução da tecnologia chegaram pouco a pouco, e agora têm uma presença importante no país, entre eles as mídias sociais e sites na Web. A auto-estima da Geração Y está bem mais alta do que estava para as Gerações BB e X quando eles tinham a nossa idade, e isso da uma vantagem muito importante em um clima de esperança e crescimento.

Valores culturais
Nos Estados Unidos, temos uma história coletiva meio esquizofrénica, ou seja, que nossa memoria histórica é bastante limitada. Tendemos viver no momento, enfocando no presente, em vez de pensar e lembrar das lições do passado. É assim que vivemos 3 guerras desastrosas e fracassadas em sucessão. Uma consequência disto é que apesar do que cada geração preserva os momentos mais importantes da história, o mais valorizado são os de agora. Tem uma pressão sútil de conformar ao presente e deixar o passado "onde pertence," nos livros da história e os vídeos de preto e branco. Outra consequência é que as Gerações BB e X tem um desejo de formar parte da Geração Y, de afirmar os acontecimentos de agora como os deles e aceitar os novos valores. A mudança em valores culturais é compartilhada entre todas as gerações, em vez de ser transmitida só à Geração Y. Por exemplo, agora uma maioria de americanos querem banir cigarro de lugares públicos, achando que fumar é ruim para a saúde e a sociedade, apesar do que a Geração BB não pensou assim quando criança ou jovem. Muitas mais pessoas agora acham que os homossexuais merecem direitos iguais do que na época jovem dos BB.

No Brasil, a história coletiva é muito mais forte. Não é só o fato dos jovens lembrar da Copa de 1950 ou gostar da musica antiga do Gilberto Gil, senão também lembrar da ditadura, o legado do Vargas, e o colonialismo. A sociedade brasileira é muito mais como uma família, e por essa e outras razões, a história é mais valorizada. Mas também vejo mudanças mais lentas entre os valores culturais de cada geração. A Geração Y é a mais "progressista," mas os valores mudam mais devagar do que nos EUA, provavelmente porque tem um respeito muito maior e mais reverenciado para os pais e avós do que nos EUA. Nos EUA, onde é mais aceitável e até preferido rejeitar os valores dos pais; no Brasil, é mais aceitável concordar com os valores dos pais. Por exemplo, apesar das mudanças na tecnologia, como email e SMS, ainda é preferido comunicar por telefone ou cara a cara. Mesmo que tenha comida rápida e muitas pressões no trabalho, a hora do almoço ainda tem peso, e muitos trabalhadores saem juntos para comer. Agora, com certeza, a Geração Y do Brasil tem muitos valores culturais comparilhados com a Geração Y dos EUA, mas os valores tradicionais também são importantes e sagrados.

O Jeitinho Americano

Though the term jeitinho is Portuguese, based on Brazilian realities, the truth is that every country has its own form of jeitinho, even if it isn't as widespread or as woven into the fabric of society. We certainly have a jeitinho americano, but it's considerably different from the Brazilian kind.

First, it's important to separate the jeitinho from common corruption (stay tuned later this week for a post on that). The truth is that it's hard to get around the rules in the US, but in the face of necessity, there is sometimes room for a jeitinho.

In my personal experience, I've found the jeitinho in two places: customer service and health care. Companies concerned with keeping customers happy will let things slide or will provide certain loopholes if they feel it will ultimately benefit them in the end and will maintain their clientele. Given the choice between creating more red tape and generating a lower profit, some companies will be happy to accommodate customers by letting them skip steps or make a process easier. An interesting example of this happened to a Brazilian at a very popular American lingerie store that shall not be named, where the saleswoman let the customer jump hoops to get a store credit card. Recently, while touring New York on a pass that gives discounts to several locations, the first person to take the pass never wrote the purchase date on it, and not a single other ticket taker checked to see the validity of the pass, even though it is only supposed to be used within 9 days of purchasing it.

I've also, thankfully, found the jeitinho in health care. Last summer, I managed to convince a few doctors to see me for minimal or no charge since I had no health care, and since I've been back and had a traumatizing experience with the entire health care system (maybe I'll write about it later, when I'm less depressed about it), I've managed to get some discounts and skirt some fees since I'm unemployed.

With this in mind, I'd like to recommend Nurse Jackie as the perfect example of the jeitinho americano. Besides the fact that it has the best writing on American television at the moment, superb plot lines and outstanding actors, it's also the ultimate showcase for the jeitinho. It's about a nurse at a New York hospital, who doesn't let bureaucracy or rules stand in the way of doing the right thing--or at least, what she thinks will be the best solution. When it comes to others, she uses the jeitinho to reward those who need it or to punish those who deserve to have it used against them, but when it comes to herself, she uses the jeitinho purely for self benefit, though she knows it is morally wrong.

Nurse Jackie airs on Monday nights on Showtime, but if you're outside the US, you can watch it here.

Suburbia

The Rio suburbs and the New York suburbs couldn't possibly be any different.

Though poverty has grown in the New York suburbs, we tend to associate suburbia with the wealthy and the middle class, big houses with big backyards, fancy shopping malls, and quiet tree-lined streets where kids ride bikes. They were created to be havens of order, away from the hubub of the city, with cookie cutter homes and lawns. It's seen as the ideal for some.

In Rio, meanwhile, the suburbs are the "soft underbelly" of the city, except soft is a little misleading. The suburbs are overwhelmingly poor and working class, including some of the worst favelas in the city. The term suburbano (a person from the suburbs) can be used in a denigrating manner, since it implies a whole other slew of characteristics (like hick or white trash). Violence from the favelas frequently spills out onto the streets of the suburbs, where there are frequent robberies and sometimes shoot outs.

Though both types of suburbs connect to the city by train, the trains are completely opposites. In New York, Metro North trains have large, comfy seats and trips are quiet and uneventful, except on the late trains back to the suburbs on the weekends, when people are drunk and loud. Sometimes people have to stand during rush hour, but most passengers are able to sit.

In Rio, the trains look like subway cars, and there are huge gaps between the trains and the platforms that would likely not pass American safety standards. Though the city bought gorgeous, brand new, state-of-the-art air conditioned cars for the Pan Am games, they seem to use them very infrequently and stick to the old, rickety, graffitied trains. Once in awhile, the doors don't close, and the train goes full speed with the doors wide open. There are few seats, and during rush hour, people have to stand and squeeze in like sardines (though the Cariocas who use the trains to commute are much more in need of sitting down than the train passengers on New York trains). Despite the sad state of the trains, Eliseu tells me that they're are a step up from when the train company was state-owned. 

Mobile vendors make their way through the cars, selling everything from beer to candy to laundry bags to folders to inflatable balls to religion; evangelical "preachers" preach and ask for money. Lately, though, plain clothes "cops" have been kicking the vendors off the trains, quietly threatening them as they pass by selling their wares and warning them to get off. Even worse, there have been reports of train employees beating passengers with whips and punches to "keep them in line" and get large crowds onto the train.

See below for more.

The "Asian Eyes" Controversy

Back in October, I posed what I thought was a simple question: Is this ad racist or not politically correct?

The overwhelming majority of Brazilians said they didn't see anything wrong with the ad at all, while most of the gringos thought it was at least mildly offensive. It started a very animated dialogue about race relations.

In the meantime, two American pop stars have recently got in trouble for using the same imagery:

Miley Cyrus and Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers are in hot water after these photos hit the American media. The OCA, an Asian-American organization in the US, released the following statement in response to the first photo:

"The photograph of Miley Cyrus and other individuals slanting their eyes currently circulating the Internet is offensive to the Asian Pacific American community and sets a terrible example for her many young fans. This image falls within a long and unfortunate history of people mocking and denigrating individuals of Asian descent.

"Not only has Miley Cyrus and the other individuals in the photograph  encouraged and legitimized the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent, she has also insulted her many Asian Pacific American fans," said George Wu, executive director of OCA. "The inclusion of an Asian Pacific American individual in the photo does not make it acceptable." 

Discuss.

The American Carnival?

On Sunday night, I found myself flipping between the Carnival parade in Rio's Sambodrome and the Oscars on TNT. As I switched between the two, a strange thought occurred to me: Are the Oscars the American Carnival?

Call the police!

...or not.

I understand that the Rio police have a lot on their hands. I do. They have to deal with thieves and murderers and drug traffickers and crazies, are supposed to protect the public, and are off fighting a war in the favelas. They're very busy and they have bigger problems on their hands. But what about the simple problems, ones that don't require guns or bulletproof vests, but do require authority?

Let's compare two experiences, one stateside, one in Brazil.

In July, I went to visit my brother at school in Boston. He was living in a house off campus split into two apartments. His apartment was on the ground floor and his neighbor's was on the floor above. He suffers from debilitating migraines, and he wasn't in the best shape that weekend. So we took it easy and stayed in on Saturday night. At around 9:30, we began to hear commotion upstairs: heavy footsteps, laughing, music. It gradually got louder and louder until it was so loud it sounded like they were right outside the window instead of on the floor above. By 10:30, it was unbearably loud, so loud it was starting to drive me crazy, the kind of loud that's drunken and inconsiderate. I could only imagine how bad it was for my brother; he was already in pain. I waited a little to see if they'd quiet down, but it just got worse. I remembered what it was like to be in college, imagining what would happen if I asked them to quiet down. I wouldn't be enough for them to shut up.

So around 11 I picked up my cell and dialed 911. The dispatcher scolded me for not calling the police directly, though I told her we didn't have a phone book. She gave me the number and I called, explaining that there was a very loud and obnoxious party going on and I'd appreciate it if they could come by and ask them to turn it down.

Six minutes later, I heard more footsteps and a knock on the door next to my brother's. In the sixty seconds it took to open the door, register the cop standing there, and panic, the party went from 100 decibels to zero. It was like magic! There were nervous whispers, a lot of footsteps, and an abrupt end to the music. I imagined there must have been mostly underage kids due to how fast the party broke up. The cop left five minutes later, as did most of the party guests.

Sweet silence ensued.

Skip ahead to last Saturday night in Rio. Eli and I had to work on Sunday morning (stay tuned for that later), and it was already midnight. The music started around 11, and I had assumed it was coming from Eli's computer room since it was so loud. I heard hip hop and funk with the bass turned up, so that the walls were practically vibrating. But when I peered into the room, he had his headphones on, and he looked up at me, perplexed. I went over to the window and looked out. A group of people had conglomerated on the beach under a tarp, and were blasting music from large speakers on the back of a car. They weren't close to our apartment, but the music was echoing so that it sounded like they were right underneath our window.

At 12:30, when I was getting ready for bed, I asked Eli to call the cops. "What for?" he asked. "To make them turn down the music!" Obviously. He shook his head. "They won't come. It's not worth it." I couldn't imagine how people hadn't already called the police, considering the thousands of residents on the block.

An hour later, the walls were still throbbing and the music seemed just as loud when I put a pillow over my head. "Will you please call now?!?" So Eli got up, called, and came back to collapse into bed. "They're not going to come," he said.

The music boomed on, and I buried my head into the mattress. I drifted to sleep around three, funk beats bouncing around my head.

The police never came, at least as far as I know.

Mortality

I don't know what happened this past week, but it seemed to be one long mortality check.

I'm fortunate, I suppose, because it wasn't until I was older that I had to deal with death. My great-grandmother passed away when I was a toddler, but my memories of her are limited to her perfume and her pinching my cheeks. I had a bunch of hamsters that died in quick succession, but it wasn't until I was in college that I lost people close to me. Until then, death had certainly happened, but it was always to friends or family of people I knew, never to me. Then my paternal grandfather died my freshman year of college, followed by my maternal grandfather the next year. My paternal grandmother died a year later while I was on my first trip to Brazil, and my parents didn't tell me until I got home. A friend from high school died in a car accident a little while after.

So it wasn't until recently that I really had to confront the idea of mortality, and it was a big shock. It changed how I approached life, and whenever I get really stressed out it always flickers in the back of my mind. But even thinking about it terrifies me. These past two weeks, after seeing several movies with aging, death and mortality as the main themes, writing about two Brazilian deaths, and hearing about two terrible deaths (one of a Brazilian model with a strange bacterial infection, the other an acquaintance from school with a mysterious ailment), I got to thinking about mortality.

It seems to me that Americans spend a great deal of time and money trying to cheat death. Americans obsessively treat anything and everything with medication, constantly seek the latest tip on how to live longer (eat less red meat, drink more red wine, do yoga three times a day, take acai tablets), and invest a great effort into avoiding the inevitable. Hell, some of them even freeze ourselves in the hopes that one day, scientists will be able to thaw them out and bring them back to life. Americans understand mortality, but sometimes just don't think it applies to them.

But Brazilians have a different outlook on death. Though life has essentially the same trajectory as Americans (birth, childhood, school, work, retirement, death), Brazilians seem to be much more aware of their location on that trajectory and of what's in store next. Though they don't embrace the inevitable, they accept it. They grasp it as a tangible concept, one they file away at the back of their minds as they go about their daily business. It's this, amongst other reasons, that Brazilians celebrate life and take advantage of their free time to enjoy themselves, perhaps more so than Americans. They know what's coming for them and they know their time on earth must be well spent, because it's all they have.

But these perspectives apply to death when it comes on time, when a person is very old, and ideally dies of natural causes. It's a different story when death comes early, but the reactions vary. When an American dies young, a general, initial reaction is, "He had so much potential. He could have been a great scientist/laywer/journalist. What a waste." Meanwhile, it seems to me, the immediate Brazilian reaction is, "He was cheated. He never had the chance to enjoy all the things life has to offer. He didn't have enough time to take advantage of life's gifts." That doesn't mean Americans don't think the way Brazilians do, too; there is, however, often a greater focus on the opportunities lost, especially professional ones, when a young person dies.

I guess that from my point of view, Americans spend their lives running away from death while Brazilians spend their lives in resigned anticipation.