The curse to be rich

The distribution of resources in Brasil (land, income, minerals etc.) is ridiculously unequal. Some people talk about the following figures: 7% of the people own the 93% of the resources of the country, while 93% of the people live with the remaining 7%.

I am not sure if the above figures correspond to reality, but what you can easily see if you travel in Brasil is the existance of 2 worlds:
- the world of the rich people and
- the world of the poor people

The rich ones have access to all services and can afford all the amenities and beauties of this wonderful country. They can afford a a big house with a garden or a spacey appartment with a view. They can afford a housemaid (or more than one), a gardener and a driver. They can afford a luxurious car, expensive furniture and imported jewlery. They chose private (mainly international) schools for their children, they buy expensive clothes and they spend their holidays to the United States or Europe. You name it, they afford it.

Is it because everything is so cheap?
...partly yes, services are extremely cheap, for example the monthly salary of a housemaid is rewarded with 100 EUR and a plate of rice
...however, most imported products are extremely expensive, costing twice or 3-times the European prices. Multinationals sell so expensive as long as there are always enough rich people (7% of 185 millions is about 12,5 millions of people) to buy them.

But is it really as nice as it sounds to be rich in Brasil?
A short visit to Sao Paulo (SP) is enough to answer the question. Rich people in this megalopolis, live completely isolated from the society and are totaly unaware of the reality around them.

I explain myself:
They are into constant fear. Rich people in SP live in condominios (complexes of houses or apartments), well protected behind alarm systems, armed guards, cameras and wired fences.
They drive huge cars with black glasses, locked doors and closed windows at all times. They are afraid to stop at traffic lights and they never park at a non-protected area.
They cannot even enjoy a beer at an open-air cafe, a walk at the streets or some jogging in the park.

Is all this fear justified?
The fear in Brasil -as in most of Europe and United States- is created by the media (which is the most corrupt and manipulating I `ve ever seen in a country, I hope I can dedicate a post for this subject). The media in Brasil, next to football and the telenovelas, they principally sell fear. The news dedicate at least the first 15 min to talk about street violence and the papers show daily pictures full of blood at first pages. For most of the rich people that have never been out of the comfort of their car (never walked, never used public transport etc.) this is the only truth. Therefore with good reason they are afraid of everything, even of their own shadow (as we say in Greek).

So street violence doesn`t exist?
Of course it exists, as in most of big cities, but of course the reason is not that SP has a big concentration of "bad guys". On the contrary the Paulistas are extremely kind and hard working people. The reason is the incredible poverty of the big majority of Brasilian people.

And what is the government doing?
They do a lot but towards a rather wrong direction. Some would expect that the government would take actions to create jobs, improve the education and living conditions of poor people. But instead of finding a solution, they `d rather put the problem under the carpet.

Street children are being killed by dozens by corrupt police officers who execute contracts, pickpockets are thrown into jails and stay in packed cells for ages without a trial, street vendors are expelled from cities and are replaced by shopping centers owned by multinationals. Even the most hard-working people of SP, the garbage collectors, who walk barefoot for more than 15 hrs per day to collect and separate garbage, they will soon be replaced by a professional company that will provide less services (collection but no separation of garbage) and at a much higher price. However, the change was decided by the city authorities only because the neatly dressed employees will look nicer than the filthy barefoot garbage collectors.

As our friend Kritonas said, who lives in SP for the last 2 years, better being middle class in Greece than high class in Brasil. At least in Greece, you can enjoy an ouzo with your friends at a taverna downtown, whereas from SP you need to cross the ocean to enjoy a coffee at the open-air.

Isn`t it a curse to be rich in Sao Paulo?