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Thursday 31 March 2011

Intelligent (product) design ?

Put a lid on it !
British product design has long been one of the country's creative bright spots. Intense thought goes into the psychology as well as the practicality of how consumer goods are bought and used. Many was the time I received, as a marketing journalist, long and passionate presentations from design specialists keen to impress with their portfolios.

Brazilian product design ? Well, a good start would be to pass what I call the "little old lady" test. Jam jars whose lids might unscrew without an accompanying trip to the hospital for a dislocated shoulder. This morning's exciting encounter with local packaging came in the form of a jar of mushrooms. The lid (pictured) had a little blob of sticky something in the centre. The instructions said to remove it, which I did, not very easily. Then one would imagine that the rest of the lid should gently detach from the jar. Of course not! No, it required high drama, the cut and thrust of a knife wedged under the lid and, just when you're despairing, and sweating, it suddenly flies off, sending mushrooms all over the show.

Is there perchance a Government Minister for Product Design ? And if so, is he or she perhaps related to the people who supply my local supermarket with such delightfully sealed foodstuffs ?

UPDATE: How hard is it to make a milk carton that allows you to pour the milk without spilling it everywhere ? Simple as pie in most countries but another example of "rocket science" in Brazil.

UPDATE 2: Just received an email from a fellow Brit living in the North-East of Brazil and trying to build a couple of houses on some land. He writes:

"We haven't progressed far because the architect who was recommended to us turned out to be very unreliable, eg waited weeks for plans which were nothing like I asked for and when I drew up my own plans, I waited 5 weeks for a very basic outline which again was completely different to what I asked for. These Brazilians drive me maaad!!!!
On our second architect now so here's hoping. I think these people here have never heard of "reliability" or "customer service"...a totally alien concept."

Wednesday 30 March 2011

IT's the economy, stupid. *

Sao Paulo IT workers are now on strike, after weeks of failed negotiations. I was asked for my thoughts by Mark Hillary, another expat Brit in the city, who runs a website called IT Decisions.Thanks, Mark, for giving me the opportunity to learn and think about this issue.

I will start my musings (perhaps incongruously but bear with me !) by recalling a visit to the hairdresser here in Bom Retiro, an area absolutely saturated with hairdressing salons. Back in the UK, I have a weakness for what I call the "sheep shearing" approach to haircuts: no messing about with scissors, just a satisfying army-style sweep of the clippers back and forth across the scalp. Even with my unruly hair, I can be in and out of the chair within ten minutes.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Time and talent, the two most precious commodities

Just back from a very stimulating first meeting with Ricardo Geromel, a fellow blogger and an Italian-Brazilian. Still only 23, he represents exactly the kind of talent that Brazil needs. Sao Paulo-born but in recent years a globe trotter thanks to a soccer scholarship in the US, where he graduated first in his year, then business studies in Paris, accompanied by work as a commodities trader in Africa and research in a number of other far-flung locations. He may soon be off to China.

Monday 28 March 2011

Mad men & part-time women

It's been decades since the developed countries got to grips with new ways of working, adapting to a world where women are a major part of the workforce and men no longer have a job for life. The Internet has changed the notion of physical proximity, thus enabling the rise of the telecommuter. And while debate still continues over the motivational merits of working shoulder to shoulder with colleagues versus working solo from home, most companies now accept that there are numerous alternatives to the traditional nine to five, office-bound drudgery.

Sunday 27 March 2011

Glass half-full or half-empty ?

It's so easy to be demoralised by the institutional corruption, passivity and idiocy that starts at the very top of the Brazilian tree. But then, trying hard to be journalistic or academic rather than polemic, you search for evidence showing that, despite the sea of dross on which you are floating, Brazil is in fact moving, however painfully slowly, in the right direction. Articles such as this one. Key quote:

“There is a historical, cultural problem of a certain backwardness which is very hard to overcome but there is also increasing public demand for transparency and respect for the electorate.”

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Robber Barons in the Age of the Internet


What with all these news stories about Americans flocking down to Brazil, the purported Land of Opportunity, and Forbes magazine publishing its new Rich List, in which Mexican Carlos Slim Helú increased his wealth by $20bn last year, taking his filthy lucre total to over $70bn, it seems hard to refute the notion that South America's moment has finally arrived.

Hard to refute if you don't live here and like to view things through rose-tinted spectacles. What struck me as I watched a recent Bloomberg TV interview with Señor Slim (who isn't very), was how embarrassingly old-school he was. The Bloomberg interviewer vainly imagined he would be as forthcoming and interesting as a Warren Buffet; that he would have fascinating things to say about hot new areas to invest; and that he would have no problem sharing at least some of his great financial wisdom.

Monday 21 March 2011

Scientific wonders

It seems Brazil is making some serious headway in the scientific world, which I want to acknowledge here. Makes me wonder if my previous post was too bleak and simplistic. Still, It's hard to deny what you see with your eyes and experience with your wallet when you are actually living in a country rather than talking about it from a distance. Incidentally, the website carrying the science story looks interesting for other economy-focused articles on Brazil.

Sunday 20 March 2011

More food for thought

My mother's excellent (of course) comment on the previous post has prompted me to write something more than just a quick reply. She wonders whether Brazil doesn't have its own locally-made equivalent food products, and priced accordingly ?

If only, Mum, if only. But let me provide the quintessential example of Brazil's dire domestic market: furniture.

What do you need to make furniture ? You need trees, a degree of skill and a manufacturing plant. Brazil has had no problem allowing vast swathes of its rainforest to be denuded for the sake of crop or animal farming. So surely it wouldn't be a problem to use some of those easily felled trees to make furniture ?

This is why there is no real middle class in Brazil

R$ 154 for this modest shopping basket, that's about £58, $93, Euros 66, NIS 327, Argentine Pesos 372. Products that are nice but nothing special in the UK or US are luxury items here, sold only in the "posh" areas. You ask the locals how come everybody is so rich that they can pay these kind of prices ? They never look too bothered, although some moan that car prices are even more shocking. Where's all the money coming from ? I think when China's bubble economy bursts, Brazil will be left painfully exposed. As Warren Buffet says, it's only when the tide goes out that you see who has been swimming naked. A shopping basket like this tells me there is no real middle class here, and all the Americans apparently flocking down here to the country of the future should first check out how much their beloved peanut butter costs. Likewise all the Brazilians in London itching to return home to the land of opportunity. How much would this shopping basket cost in Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Coop, Lidl etc. etc. ? UK shoppers are spoilt for choice, even if food inflation has unnerved them in the past year or two. The price of everyday items here is enough to put you off your food. PS: Where are all the marketing promotions, the BOGOFs and suchlike? Pretty invisible to my eye.

UPDATE: The gravadlax gave me mild food poisoning.

Monday 7 March 2011

Perception is reality ?

Well, Brazil's image in the world goes from strength to strength. Hmm ... Still, an upbeat story to go with the upbeat Carnaval, whose sounds are wafting through my window tonight.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Prisons

I must apologise if I've given the impression that nothing happens on time here. Just the other day I was wondering if the hot and humid summer in Sao Paulo would ever end. Well, it did, about a minute later. Yes, come March 1st and overnight - literally, I remember waking in the night and shivering - the climate was transformed into something altogether chillier. Sadly, the seasonal change hasn't affected the relentless rain. Now I'm nursing a cold.

Went to an exhibition down the road, in a building that was built as a train station by the British and then transformed into a notorious prison during Brazil's military dictatorship era. Curiously, the exhibition also included work commemorating the perhaps even more horrific behaviour by our Argentine neighbour. Pictures of innocent children playing with pretend guns, who just 10 years later would be dead for real, some of the many victims of that dark era.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Mugged by the Last Mile


A Brazilian friend who has lived in the UK and US and like (almost) all such people feels disappointed on returning to his homeland, is leaving Sao Paulo today to take up a new job with a US-based company. Aged 29, he knows he must spend some of his most productive and energetic years working for a foreign company in order to get some respect back home and thereby ascend the career ladder much more swiftly than would otherwise have been possible - poor thing, he doesn't have family connections in the elite ranks of commerce and government. His forced action is another slap in the face for "booming Brazil".

Anyway, he kindly gave us his bed (In London it would have been a classic Freecycle item), for which generosity I had to pay the ever-present parasitical middle man, in this instance a delivery van (or so I presumed). Fee of R$ 150 (roughly £57) for a drive across town. As ever, we were told this was a big discount on the usual rate. Brazil is swimming in oil and alternative fuels like ethanol but that counts for nothing when it comes to the consumer. Just think what this country could achieve by making transport much more affordable.

Rocket Science

Last night, on an evening walk in my neighbourhood - admittedly not one of Sao Paulo's more salubrious - I made a rare visit to a local internet cafe. Much preferring to use my irreplaceable iPhone and it's wireless connection, I was as usual stymied by Brazil's almost complete lack of free wireless in public spaces. God forbid they should offer any service that isn't accompanied by an exploitative fee.

So I prepared to hand over my dois reais and sit down at a desktop computer for half an hour of slow broadband. Hold your horses, Gringo, that would be far too simple a transaction ! The man taking payment said I needed to show an identity card, which was impossible since I had left my passport at home. I tried to talk my way round it but no dice. He firmly and a tad officiously repeated to me that it was The Brazilian Law !

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Open Thread

I'll use these open threads as an ad hoc discussion forum in hopes of getting feedback, advice and stimulating debate between readers. So please feel free to post anything that seems relevant to this blog. But for starters, here are a few things on my mind:
Is the huge social divide in Brazil between the haves and the have-nots really beginning to close, or do the elites still exist in their own bubble ?
What inspires you about Brazil's current situation ? 
What worries you about Brazil's current situation ?
Why do Brazilians accept the recent outrageous pay rises which their politicians awarded themselves, making them higher paid than in, say, the UK ?
- Are broadband speeds poor all over Brazil ? What is the best Internet Service Provider ? How is 3G ?