calvisson-leblon

  Last week, a small group of friends (social distancing obliged) went to visit a grand but mysterious mansion in the chic suburb of Jardim Botẩnico.   The privately owned Brando Barbosa mansion was the setting of the annual CasaCor event [1] .   CasaCor showcases the creations of famous architects and interior designers and also displays landscaping exhibitions.   It started in Sẩo Paulo in 1987 and now takes place in major cities of Brazil and Latin America.   In 2017, Miami launched its own CasaCor on the same concept.   The CasaCor event is usually hosted in mansions or other eye-catching venues.   It is now the largest exhibition of its kind in the Americas.   In pre-pandemic days, it attracted over half a million visitors globally.   It is a fashionable and sometimes over-the-top event where one can mingle with the well-heeled locals. The individual displays were dazzling, creatively bold and technologically trendy, as well as highli...

  “Brazil, love it or leave it” was one of the slogans of the military dictatorship (1964-85).   I remember hearing it ad nauseam when I worked in Brazil in the 1970s.   Last week, the slogan came back to me after chatting with Felipe, my dentist.   He was very depressed by the overall situation in Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro in particular.   Felipe felt that Rio was going down the drain and that the decaying process was irreversible.   Actually, a large percentage of middle-class Cariocas, as the Rio denizens are called, share Felipe’s pessimism and many of my younger friends feel like leaving the country.   They still love Brazil, but they despair the country’s permanent mismanagement. In Rio, dentists are part of the upper middle-class and like his peers Felipe has provided a good education to his two sons who now live in Canada.   Many of my friends‘ children live and work outside Brazil and have no plans to come back as good job opportuni...