Deciding from our air-conditioned offices

This Saturday, I had the pleasure to take part at TEDxSP, an independently organised TED event. From 07h30 to 20h00, more than 30 people passed their message to a super qualified 700 people audience.

Right in the beginning, journalist Denis Burgierman sad something somehow obvious, but that touched me importantly. He said: “We have the bad habit of solving problems in an air-conditioned room and imposing the solution to others. The problems are not theoretical, they are on the streets. And they can only be successfully addressed if the people affected by them are involved.”

The point of Denis’ lecture was that Brazil is rich in many things, especially in problems. As weird as it sounds at first, for him the abundant interesting problems is one of our biggest assets, because they channel creative people’s passion and efforts, generating a very attractive and flourishing environment. Therefore, specific problems are solved, more people engage in solving more complex problems and we can form a bank of creative solutions adapted to our times, which can be replicated in other places.

When working for big organisations, we often feel contributing for building large scale solutions to important issues, such as poverty, shortage of opportunities, low quality education and, in my case, pathways for bringing sustainability into the management of different organisation. However, commonly we do such from our acclimatised offices, based on cold data and on what we think we know about the problem.

Well, turns out it could be better to be “less efficient”, do less stuff, so we can free our agendas to interact with the ones directly involved in the situation. This way, we can build stronger solutions, help forming a community in the process and individually learn.

I am certain we become better people in the proportion we learn to respect other points of views and stories. And we can only learn that lesson by wholeheartedly engaging with others.

So, why is it we don’t do it?

Birds on the Wires

Inspired on a picture of Birds on the Wires, the Brazilian musician Jarbas Agnelli translated their position onto a melody which crossed the world and made him famous.

Sensitive and beautiful!

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

The fun theory

What can change our behaviour for better? FUN can!!!

The impact of giant companies

Everybody knows giant companies cause a lot of impact: environmental damages where they produce goods, greenhouse gas emissions while transporting these goods, cultural interferences as they advertise and social issues all along the chain.

German RWE energy company sensitively created a video to question: what if giant companies caused a lot of... POSITIVE impact?

See you in Rio in 2016!!!

Today, all Brazilians are proud and content. In 2016, we'll have the opportunity to host the world's most beautiful peace and limits overcoming gathering: the Olympic Games. We'll put all our hospitality, rhythm and joy available so that the athletes and visitors can prove the Brazilian spirit, enjoy themselves to the fullest and take a bit of the experience to their lives back home.



As citizens, we also intend to make this wonderful opportunity bring results for the population after the games, through the infrastructure built, partnerships created and cultural exchanges started.

The world will come together as never before, because passion unites us!

Holidays notice :-)

For all friends calling and writing for my birthday, thanks a lot for the good energy sent!

At the moment, I'm traveling through South America, so had a very different birthday, without any friends and family around, but with lots of beautiful sights, nature, sports and good trekking mates from different countries to celebrate with.

Anyhow, celebrations aren't over. I'll call a party as soon as I'm back and will be super happy to receive belated wishes and calls.

Carpe diem!

Feeling foreign

When I came back from Australia to Brazil after just 16 months overseas, various people asked: Why?

The easy answer was “I intend to build my life close to my family and close friends”. Although that is partly true, there was another feeling I could never express clearly, a sensation that I would never totally understand the context and fit in another culture.

Today, as part of my preparation for a 3-week backpacking trip through Chile, Bolivia and Peru, I was reading Isabel Allende’s “My invented country”. She is Chilean but has been living in the US for many years now. At some point, I found the description I could never articulate as well:

“I understand the language, but I lack the keys. When we meet our friends, I can’t really participate of the conversations, because I don’t know much about what had happened and about the people they are referring to, I had not watched the same movies when I was young, had not danced to Elvis’ epileptic guitar, had not smoked marihuana nor had I protested against the Vietnam war. How can I not be a foreigner if I don’t feel any fascination for Clinton’s sexual scandal? […] Baseball is another mystery for me; I can’t understand so much passion towards a group of fat people expecting a ball that never comes.”