BRASIL, BRASILEIRO

Hi Okada,

You have just given an extremely accurate portrait of São Paulo indeed!!! It's incredible to think that there are still Brazilians that think "vai dar tudo certo" and that Brazil is going to be able to host the World Cup in a little over two months with nothing ready. Nationwide 70% of all the promised transportation projects for the Cup are way over budget and behind schedule or they've been cancelled completely. Airports everywhere are a disgrace. Yet, they've fooled themselves into believing that they're going to get through this event without the worldwide image of Brazil going into nuclear meltdown! They never learned their lesson following the 2007 PanAmerican Games fiasco, where workers were still putting final touches on many of the sports venues as spectators were filing in to watch games and where many of the sites were unfit for any use following the games. They won't learn anything this time and I'm afraid this could even put the 2016 Olympic Games in serious doubt.

I laughed until my sides split when you described the banks! The security systems keep everybody out except the bank robbers!!! Every year we see reports of somebody who loses patience with the revolving doors constantly locking them out and they wind up taking off everything down to their underwear. Even then the door won't work. We recently had a case where one of the bank guards shot and killed a client over some misunderstanding.

I remember when I first came to Brazil over 12 years ago and I asked if the building I was looking at was a PRISON. It looked just like a maximum security prison anywhere in North America, barred windows, razor tape atop the high concrete walls, guard towers, security barriers, everything! My friend just laughed and told me, "No, it's a factory SILLY". That's when I knew that I was really in for trouble. Here in Brazil the factories all look like prisons and the prisons look like factories!

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

My sister and family live in "predio de apartamentos" they have double automatic doors to park their cars, and in the "portaria" they ask for Documento de Identidade before call my sister at interphone... same procedure is observed in offices buildings... really like PRISONS, very scare.
This type of procedure is it normal out Sao Paulo or Big Cities??
Okada

Yes, it is common in São Paulo, Rio, Belo Horizone, and most other cities.

I used to work in most of the office buildings in São Paulo and many even have X-ray machines like the airports to scan all the bags, briefcases, packages, etc., that everybody brings into the building.  This is not just for visitors, but all employees too. Actually it is probably easier to get through security and get into many prisons than to get into most office buildings in São Paulo.

If any investor wants to make a fortune in Brazil, all he/she needs to do is start-up a company that manufactures any kind of SECURITY equipment like CCTV cameras and monitors, electric fences, window bars, barbed wire or razor tape, these things sell out as quickly as most stores can put them out on the shelves!

OMG

And when going out of the condo, look what`s happened today: "British oil worker shot dead in Brazil"
English expat killed in Rio
Sad.

much people know that I lived many years in Brazil and come to wonder about a vacance trip in Brazil ... I never had courage to recommend because I know better than any one how danger is the main cities in Brazil.
One time, 15 years ago, one japanese lady comes to ask me about visit her daughter and new borned grand daughter in Santos City, because her daughter and husband don't recommend her coming ... but that daughter is only child she had had, and the lady was with cancer, may be only one opportunitie to look their face and take a look about her daughter life in Santos... I don't had an other alternative and I recommend my brother in SP to pickup her at Airport  to Santos City.

Actually I wonder how japanese immigrants could ever adapt in Brazil. I worked in Tokyo a few months and never felt so safe in my life. Japaneses are so reserved, polite and respectfull. What`'s a cultural shock it should be when moving to Brazil!