We're on a road to ...

Walked along Avenida Paulista this evening, stopping by a busker who serenaded Sam, and ending up at Casa das Rosas, one of the last remaining original mansions on this street and now a venue for various events. Tonight was one in a series of talks about cycling in the city. We got talking to a young enthusiast who says the trend for two wheels is beginning to get some traction here. I asked if there was a hardcore of urban cycling fans, into fixed-gear and single-gear bikes as as been seen for some years now in London and other big cities. He said there was and noted also the Sunday morning cycle groups, who enjoy specially reserved routes linking Sao Paulo's parks. In terms of workday commuting, the enthusiasts are trying to encourage the use of secondary roads so that cyclists don't feel so threatened by traffic. My concern would be the lack of street lighting. Apparently there are also some limited trials of the kind of bike rental schemes to be found nowadays in London, Paris, Barcelona etc. It was good to see this most civilized, efficient, fun, healthy and economic form of transport becoming more popular in such a traffic-choked city. Adjusting from my two-wheeled life in London to one of taxis and tubes here has been a challenge. Next Wednesday David Byrne of Talking Heads fame will be speaking about his passion for push-bikes. It's got a long way to go but perhaps cycling in Sao Paulo is not on a road to nowhere.

The next stage of globalisation

First, the rich world sought to get richer by milking the emerging markets. Then the emerging markets had their revenge by continuing to boom while the first world failed. But now it seems the pendulum is swinging back yet again. This news story reports that a UK telecom firm has decided to locate it's call centre in the north of England rather than India.

God is a Brazilian bureaucrat

When you fear for your life, as I did recently during the robbery, you emerge with a new philosophy: don't sweat the small stuff, where "small" means anything other than your life and the life of those closest to you. Sadly, being a mere mortal, it didn't take long before I returned to my default modus operandi, namely "God is in the details" so, please, please do sweat the small stuff. That attitude, in Brazil, is asking for trouble. Take today, for example. We went out to do some chores, using the metro, which meant carrying Sam in his push chair up and down several flights of steps at Trianon-MASP tube station, our local. Is there a lift ? We've looked before but can't find one nor anybody to help direct us. Don't sweat the small stuff, even when your back is hurting.

It's in the stars

"What are the chances ?!", you always ask yourself when bumping into someone you have met only once or twice before. It has happened a few times here in Sao Paulo, including today when we ran into a young Orthodox Jewish student, as he emerged from Shabbat services with his parents. (Religious Jews are fond of saying, "There are no coincidences!" although I suspect only if their interlocutor is also Jewish) It was outside a synagogue within walking distance from where we now live. He had, on our first meeting, given us a guided tour around the (quite famous) yeshiva where he studies in Bom Retiro, which happens to be close to our old home. One thing I have always appreciated in Sao Paulo is the ubiquity of Jewish life, at least in neighborhoods such as Bom Retiro, Higienopolis and, now, Jardins. My old home turf in London's SE1 is pretty much judenrein.

Go ahead, Punk

The best of Brazil was on display again today, this time in our local hairdresser, Soho Trianon, whose employees swooped on Sam like a crowd of groupies. One of them, Duran, couldn't resist giving him his first ever styling, on the house of course.

The FT's parallel universe

If I didn't already have personal experience of supermarket chain Pao de Acucar and its shocking prices, I would have read this profile piece in the FT and not winced each time it referred to the company's founder as some kind of consumer champion. Brazil is a country with no consumer champions* ! Why do these articles on Brazil keep glossing over that fact ? Is it because when it comes to juicy emerging markets, FT readers make little distinction between profits and profiteering ?

Through a street, darkly

Went for a walk at 6pm, the streets were dark even though just one block away was the main, well-lit artery avenue of Paulista. Homeward bound workers were streaming out of offices and walking to nearby tube stations. There's plenty of research to show that street lighting goes a long way to reducing street crime, and these days you can get very environmental and energy-efficient alternatives to traditional lamp posts.

But let's face it: it's never going to happen in Brazil or indeed Latin America, is it ? People in this part of the world just don't seem to value this kind of public investment. Much easier to sit in your car with its own headlights and its blacked-out windows and pretend you have no connection to the no-man's land linking bubble to bubble.