Outback Diaries on YouTube

I just realised it's been over a year since we (Jhow, Marina, Salma, Lucy and I) went on our amazing Australian outback trip, when we learned a lot about ourselves, nature, aboriginal culture, trips and friendship.

To celebrate, I finally put our "Outback Diaries" film on YouTube. Enjoy!

Part 1:



Click here to see Part 2

Grupo Corpo

Grupo Corpo is one of the best contemporary dance groups in Brazil. They do about 80 shows a year, travel all around the world, launch a new fantastic spectacle every couple of years and do unbelievable things with their bodies. Tonight, I had the opportunity to talk to Paulo Pederneiras, the production director and one of the founders of the group.

History
Started 33 years ago in the house of the founders, who convinced their parents to move out. Contributions for the first big success came from famous and unknown artists.

Principles
- one interferes and helps in everyone else's work
- doors are always open. In fact, there are no doors
- transparency and honesty
- commitment to do arts (and not with any particular cause)
- hard work
- great freedom AND responsibility

Evolution
After a big success, a need for self assurance and various experiments, an identity started to emerge.

Keeping humility
- "I don't know anything about contemporary arts. But I pay a lot of attention"
- "Our goal can't be success, because it attracts dishonesty"
- "I depend on other people's skills 100% of the time"

Plans
- "It doesn't matter much what has happened in the past, but what's in front of us"
- "I'd like Grupo Corpo to be something I don't know exactly what it is. I guess a space where everything is allowed"
- and asked about succession, Paulo said: "I don't intend to pass away any time soon..."

Let my People go Surfing

I've started to read the book Let my People go Surfing, written by Yvon Chouinard. Yvon is a climber, surfer, kayaker, skier and the founder of Patagonia, a company created to provide gear for nature related sports, which has been maintaining a few interesting principles since its foundation in the 70s:

- work has to be enjoyable on a daily basis
- one dresses as it pleases him/her
- colleagues are all friends
- everybody should have flextime to surf the waves when they are good, of ski the powder after a big storm, or stay home and take care of a sick child - the distinction between work, play and family should be blurred
- be aware of one's impact and reduce the environmental damage

This is how Yvon starts its book.

"I've been a businessman for almost fifty years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer. I've never respected the profession. It's business that has to take the majority of the blame for being the enemy of nature, for destroying native cultures, for taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and for poisoning the earth with the effluent from its factories.

Yet business can produce food, cure disease, control population, employ people, and generally enrich our lives. And it can do these things and make a profit without losing its soul."

Brazilian Attractions

In the exact week Brazil is celebrating the Standard & Poor's raise of debt rating to investment grade, which can potentially open the floodgate for foreign investors - particularly big endowments, pension funds, and insurance companies that are restricted from buying risky debts - I came across an article talking about another of the Brazilian attractions: the Brazilians.

Two hundred years ago, José Bonifácio in his "Living Thinking" expressed the following about the citizens from my country:

"Brazilians are enthusiastic about beautiful ideals
They love freedom and suffer very little whenever they lose privileges they once had
Obedient to those who are fair, the enemies of arbitrary actions, they would rather be robbed than despised
Ignorant due to a lack of instruction, but talented by nature
With a brilliant imagination, they are therefore the lovers of novelties that promise perfection and nobility
Generous, but braggers
Capable of great actions, as long as they do no require a long attention span or constant monotonous work
Passionate about sex, climate, life and education
They take on a lot, but finish little..."

Recently, a research carried out for the National Tourism Company (Embratur) confirmed the uniqueness and attractiveness of our people. When foreign tourists come to Brazil for the first time, their main motivations are the beaches (31%), the climate (20%) and the scenic beauty (16%). When they leave, asked about what they liked best, some of the most common answers are the tropical climate (19%), the scenic beauty (22%) and the beaches, sun & sea (28%). However, the absolute leader wasn't showing in the expectations' list: 52% of the interviewed will miss the Brazilian people the most.

Wanna come along?