2024-02-17 09:01:51
Study trip to Brazil – the return: Rio – Rommerskirchen
Willi the farmer*
Monday morning, at 6 o’clock, I took my towel, crossed the street and bathed in the Atlantic. On the edge of Copacabana, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the background. Water and air temperature: approximately 25 degrees. At noon it is warmer, around 35 degrees. The plane took off at 2 p.m. for Frankfurt, the 11.5 hour flight was calm, we arrived there 10 minutes earlier than expected (6:30 a.m.). With the ICE and the regional train I was in Rommerskirchen by 9 o’clock. It’s 5°C, there’s a storm, there’s water in the fields.
Wednesday morning: it rained 16 mm overnight, it’s 3°C, there is even more water in the fields and it’s still raining. Our son reminded me to order wood pellets, the stock is slowly running out, as always in February. I’m back in Germany.
My travel diary has been read by many people. Some also wrote comments. I received a WhatsApp saying that some farmers did not appreciate my praise of agriculture in Brazil. I don’t understand this comment, because I only described what we saw. Many things are different from what we heard regarding Brazil before the trip. Let’s take an example: I went to the favelas of Rio. With Malta, I went up the hill. To the right and left, brick houses with windows, a solid roof and sometimes air conditioning. Locals would go to the beach with a cart full of deck chairs to rent them. The small streets are clean, there is no waste, it is sometimes cleaner than in Cologne central station. At Cologne central station, I see people living on the streets, in Rio too. But no more than in Cologne. People in favelas earn their living by doing small jobs, for example selling things to tourists. They are as poor as the inhabitants of Cologne-Chorweiler, an ugly satellite town of Cologne. Did I feel unsafe in the favelas of Rio? Neither more nor less than in Cologne-Chorweiler.
What we didn’t know regarding Brazil: In Brazil, medical care is free. For everyone, even for tourists. But it is possible to take out additional insurance, as in Germany.
Brazil also has retirement insurance. But the amount of the pension is capped, whatever the amount paid. And as in Germany, the pension does not go far and it is better to protect yourself differently for retirement.
I think we need to know this when we talk regarding social standards in other countries. We took an agricultural trip because we went to see agriculture in Mato Grosso. This agriculture is big, very big. And it is modern, at least as modern as in Germany. The farmers and their collaborators are motivated, they are very well trained and have as much success or failure in and with their profession as any European farmer. Farmers here are fundamentally positive. This is not a judgment, it is an observation.
In Brazil, we have seen a lot on television of the farmers’ protests in Europe (mainly in France). We talk regarding it almost every day. It’s also the only thing we know regarding Europe. Here, we don’t know the name of a politician. Maybe Angela Merkel, but no one, really no one, knows Olaf Scholz or Robert Habeck. Apart from President Lula (or Bolsonaro), we don’t know anyone from Brazil either. Besides, in the countryside, we don’t really like Lula, we preferred Bolsonaro. When we talk regarding it with people, we understand. But the reasons are not reported in Europe.
We were a great group of 35 individuals from Germany and Austria. Okay, Josef, from Styria, from southern Styria. We all got along wonderfully, but we still exchanged different interpretations and opinions on what we saw during the trip. Our residential house, in which I am writing this text, was built in 1742. At the time, Brazil had less than three million inhabitants. Today, there are more than 200 million. The world then had around 0.6 billion inhabitants, compared to more than 8 billion today. Mato Grosso was then certainly 100% a cerrado, that is to say a bush without any exploitation. Today, this federal state is important for exports of soybeans and corn worldwide. Today the cerrado is protected, whereas 50 years ago you might get as much land as you wanted. It cost almost nothing. We saw cities that didn’t exist 30 years ago.
Do I find this good or bad? I cannot and do not want to judge it. Germany is considered the country of the knowledgeable and of double morals, I would not like to be part of it. And once more: I only reported what we saw. I cannot and will not report on what we did not see.
I am personally of the opinion that my contributions can serve to give a different vision of things than that of the media in Germany. It’s an offer.
But it is much better to form your own idea of the situation on the spot. Travel trains.
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* Source: Rio – Rommerskirchen – Farmer Willi
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