Back to my old life – same problems but new hope!

Sam Lakha

January 9, 2010

Volans’ Alumni Network member Juliana Velloso refects on life post-London

After spending a year in London, I feel re-empowered: the power of the academic environment and being in contact with inspiring people like John (Elkington) brought back hopes that I had almost forgotten, hopes not just for myself but also concerning my city, my country. After two months back at my hometown, Rio de Janeiro, I am reminded again how great the scale of various challenges are and realize how ‘change’ is difficult to bring about. However, I remain hopeful because there are so many others like me here – Brazilians that want to change this country for the better.

Given the sheer size of my country, I find it useful to roughly rank a diverse list of problems that we have to deal with: on the one hand we are reasonably stable, economically speaking, and have advanced some social indicators, such as the number and dimension of poverty that have decreased in the last decade, yet we still face several problems in our day-to-day lives that obstruct our (sustainable) development (as I learned from Amartya Sen from his book Development as Freedom, one of my great influences from my academic years at university in Brazil).

For instance, I do not feel I can walk about so freely here in Rio as I was used to doing in London: when I hear gunshots, I remember that I am living in an undeclared civil war. I feel guilty when I drive my parents’ car through the city while on the streets around me hundreds of children are begging or are trying to sell things under streets lights to earn some money. I read the newspapers and see how the politicians elected by us publicly disrespect the citizens of our country and use our money in mind-boggling ways and that an iron company will be established in my state (Rio de Janeiro) and will increase C02 emissions by 9.7 million (thats 76.3% above the current levels). I want to ride my bike but discover that we have no place or space for bicycles on our streets, unless you live near a bike-lane which generally tends to only be in the areas around the beach (rich areas) .

Ok, I know I sound very pessimistic about all the problems: I’m not usually like this, I assure you. I actually believe in the power of the human race and in our power to change the world for better. It’s easy to think of so many examples of the ‘bad things’ developed by people but it’s important to keep in mind too the many ‘good things’ created to benefit our civilization. And so, with regard to my country, after listing some of the key problems, I now have the duty to list the good things that I am observing in my new life here too and they are extraordinary: we see social entrepreneurs trying to address inequality, such as the developed by the Rede Asta, that scales the work of several people that live in low-income communities producing various crafted goods. There are initiatives being led by small entrepreneurs, young people that want a better world for future generations. For example, Henrique Bussacos, 26 years old, founded TEKOHA in 2007, a virtual company that promotes the handcraft work of several artisans and has already started to export sustainable products to countries such as Switzerland. Also, Alessandra França, 23 years old, founded in 2009 the Pérola Bank , an institution that lends small amounts of money to informal entrepreneurs in São Paulo, so a micro-finance initiative. And Tiago Dalvi, 23 years old, founder of Solidarium a fair trade design company that has begun to supply big corporations like Wal-Mart in Brazil with sustainable products. These are a few examples of initatives that fill me with hope that a different future is possible.

So, in this light, even if I have many reasons to be disappointed and frustrated with how my country is developing, I also have a growing list of reasons to not give up and am inspired to be one of the young agents of change that are moving my lovely country towards being more equitable and sustainable. I don’t know how it will turn out but I do feel that progress is being made towards paving a better world overall for coming generations. I am among a strong group who believe in our future here! I have mentioned just a few examples of progressive initiatives and will be keeping a close watch on these, seek them out in fact, and report again soon.

- Rio de Janeiro, 07/01/2010