Brazil: Bruno Beltramini
Interviewer
Güvenç Kutlusoy
1) What is your average weekday and weekend like?
– How many hours do you go to school?
I spend nearly 38 hours in school during a whole week (approx. 7.5 hours/day)
– How many hours of homework do u have weekdays & weekends?
It depends on the week, but at least 5 hours on weekdays and 3 on weekends.
– How many hours do u have for yourself weekday & weekend?
Basically the rest of the time that I’m not in school. But I can say 30 hours during the week, and almost the whole weekend.
2) Where do yourself in 5 year?
I see myself concluding the Engineering University, already working, and close to my family.
3) What is your favorite thing you lie about living in Brazil?
I like the food (the variety) and the warmness of the people here.
4) What do you dislike most about living in Brazil?
The high average of corruption, the social contrast and the high value of taxes.
5) What are Brazilian students most passionate about?
I don’t know if you want to know what school subject we most like, or just a random theme. They’re both hard to know in general, although basing on the people who surround me, I guess that things linked to current affairs or sports are the most mentioned themes discussed.
6) What do Brazilian students know about Turkey and how do they view Turkish people?
We know very basic information, but I would say the essential. We know about your geographic position, the relationship with Germany due to immigration, your economical development, the Muslim religiosity mixed with western patterns of economics, politics and culture. We study more about Turkey I think next year: 3rd of High School.
7) If someone were to visit Brazil, where would you recommend they view first?
I would firstly ask which kind of landscape the person is willing to see, because Brazil is extremely huge and due to this fact we have plenty of wonderful spots of all sorts. I would recommend the beaches of the Northeast, Rio de Janeiro (city), Foz do Iguaçu (waterfalls) and many other places as I told you.
8)Any one interesting fact about the Brazilian way of life?
Again it is something very variable. But in a general perspective, Brazilians have been spending more time with the computer and TV, sports are really appreciated although, the frequency that people practice it is low. Brazilian people like to get together with friends especially on Fridays, but also on Saturdays. And Sunday is usually spent with the family. In big cities, the citizens have been facing big problems with traffic, violence and usual problems of the metropolis.
9) What are your thoughts about the deforestation problem in the Amazon? Amazon is a very important zone in terms of animal and plant species, however it is being harmed by the current industrial activities. What does the Brazilian government do about this? Are you happy with what they are doing?
I am totally upset about the situation in which the Amazonic area has reached. The number of deforastation has been gradually increasing. Nevertheless, what also bothers Brazilian citizens is that the Indians are loosing their natural habitat and are also forced to work for the industries that are moving to those area. I have mixed feelings about the implantation of a brand new hydroelectric power plant within the Amazons. It has become a controversial topic in Brazil, because in order to built the hydroelectric power plant a massive deforestation occurred. On the other hand, many companies and citizens suffered due to the lack of energy and didn’t have access to many technologies that we do. So, it is pretty unffair to say that the Amazon can’t be a great source of energy, while some areas of Brazil consume tons of energy.
10) The current government with the leading of Dilma Roussef, is criticized for many things. One of the most important of its flaws is political corruption. Today Brazil is shown as one of the 15 most corrupted countries in the world. What do you think about this problem? Does the government accept and embrace this problem? Do you have any possible solutions?
The corruption issue really constrains me as a Brazilian citizen. Nevertheless, Dilma Roussef and its government have adopted many actions in order to prevent the extension of this panorama. The main one, called “ficha limpa”, prevents candidates with any kind of accusation or genuine involvement with corruption from even running in the elections. Although it sounds obvious, many candidates are constatly elected even with corrupted backgrounds and now thanks to this new law they won’t be able to run. It will take many years to acchieve stable politics if Brazil doesn’t deal with several historical issues that corrupted its political culture.
