Exploring Brazil's economy and culture
Ten Wellington School of Business and Government students are visting Brazil for four weeks on a Prime Minister's Scholarship to explore sustainable development in the region. This is the first of four blogs that will come out over the next month documenting their experience.
Group 1: Janice Cheng, Mari-Clare McLaughlin, Madeline Thompson, Hana Wong
At the end of 2019, ten students from the Wellington School of Business and Government were awarded the Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Latin America to travel to Brazil in January 2020 for four weeks to explore sustainable development. We make up a diverse group of undergraduate and postgraduate students whose backgrounds include finance, tourism, economics, music, science, information systems, and health. We are accompanied by Associate Professor Arun Elias and Dr Flavia Donadelli who are academic staff at the Wellington School of Business and Government.
Our first two weeks are based with Campus B in Sao Paulo, the financial and business centre of Brazil, visiting businesses and attending lectures at Insper and FGV. The last two weeks are based in Manaus and Tumbira (in the Amazon) and hosted by FAS (Fundação Amazonas Sustentável - Sustainable Amazonas Foundation).
Before arriving in Brazil, we were interested in learning about the preservation of Brazilian indigenous communities in relation to its government’s sustainable development initiatives and its diverse economic sustainability challenges. We were also keen to understand the political situation and its influence on environmental issues. Prior to the programme we thought that the biggest sustainability issue Brazil faced was the fires in the Amazon as highlighted by strong international media coverage.
One week in and we are fully immersed in the Brazilian and sustainability experience. We have had inspiring lectures on Brazilian culture, the past and present political environment, strengths and challenges of the Brazilian economy, as well as issues of inequity and violence. Supporting this learning, we have been fortunate to visit the Krutuku tribe to gain an understanding of the indigenous Guarani community’s perspective on sustainable development. We were also privileged to visit Itau Bank with Green Building Council (GBC), who implemented sustainable practices through building design to decrease their environmental impact.
Despite the jetlag, we each had fun navigating this Portuguese-speaking city. We have explored some of São Paulo’s impressive sights from the bustling Paulista Avenue, Vila Madalena, Museum of Contemporary Art and Ibirapuera Park, and to the peak of Jaraguá state park. We are also enjoying the diverse local music and cuisine, including the influence of Lebanese, Japanese, and Italian culture.
We quickly learnt that the Amazon fires were not the biggest or only sustainable development issue Brazil faces. Instead, it became clear to us that the more pressing issues include economic development, sanitation, education, health, corruption and security. Throughout the week, we have identified recurring themes which have changed our original views and opinions on the sustainability challenges Brazil faces. This will now drive us to position our questions and discussions with our lecturers and businesses differently as we enter our second week in Brazil. Based on what we learnt this week, sustainable development is not paramount in the political arena, however there are entities in Brazil who are actively making changes to improve this. Next week we are interested to learn more about implementation and engagement of sustainability strategies in the public and private sectors, and the short term versus long term views. We look forward to updating you on our second week in Brazil!
Group 2: Jacob Barrett, Kirsten Boardman, Shah Kabir, Adele Lonergan, Rochelle Tait, Shannon Toe
Prior to this trip, we thought sustainable development was about using rules and regulations to motivate people to live sustainably. We also thought many countries around the world would be incorporating sustainable practices into their lifestyles, as climate change is becoming a more notable issue. After one week in São Paulo, Brazil, our perception has significantly changed. We now realise there is much more to sustainable development than initially thought.
Throughout the week we visited both the triple crown accredited business universities in São Paulo, INSPER and FGV. We learnt that the last decade in Brazilian politics has been riddled with shifting political views and agendas. Due to the rise in poverty and unemployment, the political dynamics have shifted significantly which has resulted in the current president being elected.
Sustainability is not currently a focus for the Brazilian government—this administration is conservative and the laws that prioritise environmental sustainability are being marginalized and ignored, overruled or outright removed at times. With the economy in turmoil, the issues of unemployment, corruption and crime have become the focal point of political debate. The drastic socio-economic differences between the rich and the poor have never been more evident.
We also learned that Brazil is a genuine melting pot of cultures from across the world, including Japan, Italy and Mauritania. They celebrate ethnic diversity and encourage people to connect over their shared uniqueness. However, we were amazed to see the disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor, especially how rich people lived barely a block away from those in poverty. We were shown that education in Brazil is a perfect example of the divide between the rich and the poor, as public schools are not equipped to help people get into universities while the private schools are. This means that Brazilians face the choice of paying exorbitant fees for private schools or enrolling their children in ill-equipped public schools, both of which are likely to keep them in relative poverty. This was then tied back into the traditions of music and art in Brazilian culture like Samba, Carnaval and Capoeira which helped people to express themselves and bond over their mutual love of culture.
On Wednesday afternoon we paid a visit to the Itau, one of the three main banks in Brazil. Like many major organisations, Itau is involved in several philanthropic initiatives. The building has achieved Green Building Council LEED certification, meaning it has met a stringent set of standards for commercial buildings in terms of sustainable, healthy, efficient and economical buildings. We were given a tour of the building and got the chance to see the control room in the basement which monitors the entire building’s lights, air conditioning system and carbon dioxide levels. It was interesting to hear about the ways that Itau has achieved and maintained its certification. For example, Itau uses two types of light and AC sensors—timer and presence sensors. While Victoria University of Wellington relies on cleaners to switch these off each night, this automation allows buildings at the scale of Itau’s to be as energy efficient as possible.
After spending most of the week in Sao Paulo’s urban areas, we visited an indigenous Guarani tribe located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo city. Over 300 members of this tribe were living in the village (Krukutu) which is an environmentally protected area. We began the visit by meeting one of the locals, Olivio, who took us to where his family lives. Olivio talked to us about the various books he had published which were very impressive, then we had a musical performance from his children. Each song was written by his son and held a lot of meaning which he explained to us. After the performance we had a lunch prepared by Olivio’s family consisting of a traditional Brazilian dish of black beans, corn and fried bread. This was an incredible cultural experience that exposed us to a way of life very different to our own in New Zealand, which was very eye opening and memorable.
Throughout the week we also explored Sao Paulo city and experienced Brazilian culture first-hand. We visited the famous Batman Alley and spent an afternoon at Ibriquera Park. We were amazed by the number and variety of people participating in recreational activities and enjoying the park environment. We also visited a pre-carnival performance and were exposed to unique music and dance that encompassed the friendly and confident culture that we perceived Brazil to have. On Sunday, we managed to escape to the outskirts of town and hike Jaraguá Peak. At the top we had an incredible view and were able to understand the sheer magnitude of the city. We also visited our guide Raul’s neighbourhood and were able to gain an authentic insight into how many of the population live. Our visits have exemplified some of the different topics we discussed in class, such as sanitation and employment. All the experiences we have had thus far have been invaluable to our understanding of sustainable development in Brazil, and we’re excited to continue learning about Brazilian culture.
Read about the group's blog post about their second week in Brazil.