A Postcard from Brazil
I´m sitting on my balcony here in Vitoria, capital of the beautiful Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Blue skies, beautiful people, and a temperature that is always warm but never hot. Below me, I´m looking out on the typical hustle and bustle of city life. Restaurant terraces are packed, and a young man is dancing with a young woman who is certainly not in his social bubble, all to the music of a live samba band. This joyful daily life is now an act of rebellion. Our Governor just made another stern pronouncement on the news admonishing people to follow the rules of distanciamento social and threatening to impose harsher restrictions. As a Canadian who has lived here for three years now, sometimes I think I´m the only one who follows the news. Everyone else just goes on living. Despite being in the epicentre of what the Western media breathlessly calls one of the world´s worst coronavirus outbreaks, most people here are going about their life. They called a lockdown and nobody came. An earlier bike ride along the beach found the sand packed with scantily clad men and women playing football and volleyball. Despite a recent law proclaiming masks to be worn in all public places, I observed the take up being probably less ...