Você é brasileiro?

Essa não é uma tradução da última postagem "Are you American?". Preciso falar de algo bem mais grave desta vez.  E preciso que seja logo. Eu não aguento mais ouvir sobre corrupção no meu país. Um caderno inteiro do Estado De S. Paulo está dedicado ao tema. Já nem me animo a ler VEJA pois de capa a capa são denúncias de desvio de dinheiro público. É o meu dinheiro que eu ralo para ganhar - tá, tem gente ralando bem mais que eu e em condições bem piores, mas eu tenho que trabalhar pelo meu também - sendo ROUBADO. É, roubado. Quando verbas são desviadas, obras superfaturadas, é o MEU dinheiro que está sendo roubado. São os quase 30% de imposto que EU pago sobre TUDO o que eu recebo pelo MEU trabalho, e sobre TUDO o que compro: água, pão, sapato, fraldas para o meu filho. É o SEU dinheiro também. Nunca se descobriu tanta falcatrua e nunca se fez nada a respeito. Quantos políticos ladrões estão presos? Quantos sequer perderam os seus mandatos? Enquanto não se fizer nada, eles vão continuar roubando o nosso dinheiro - aquele que nós trabalhamos para ganhar. E o que se há de fazer? Eu não sei, mas preciso fazer alguma coisa. É por isso que estou aqui escrevendo. Estou disposta a ir para rua gritar que chega de político ladrão, que o Palocci tem que se explicar sim, que a Lei da Ficha Limpa tem que valer sim, que o Jucá tem que sair sim, etc. Quem vai? Quando? Onde? Como se organiza isso?

Are you American?

The first couple of times our friends invited us over for a gathering we arrived "late", that meaning about 30 to 40 minutes after the time we were supposed to be there. For our American friends, that was "late". They used to say we lived in the "Brazilian time". Well, in Brazil when someone says, "come over at 8pm for dinner" you would NEVER show up at 8pm because you would know they would definitely not be read for you... 30 or 40 minutes later would be perfect timing! Not late at all.
I would say we learned our lesson and started arriving on time. Now that we are back here in the tropics we are trying to keep it up. Not easy. Last week we arrived 10 minutes before the orchestra bus was supposed to leave for a out-of-town concert - assuming, by the "Brazilian time", it would leave about 15 minutes late, so that was plenty of time. We wouldn't be back until the middle of the night so we had to make complicated arrangements so we could leave our son with Grandma. We travelled 3 hours to pick her up, 3 hours back home. I pumped 3 bottles of breast milk so she could feed him during the 12 hours we would be gone. So we waited the reasonable 15 minutes and nobody knew where our bus was. 30 minutes later someone called the orchestra producer to say the driver was in town, but was lost. A couple more minutes and we hear that the bus was on the road, wouldn't be there for another hour or more. OK, that's at least one more feeding that I could have given my son, would I have known this... I could have spent 2 more hours with him... OK, someone gotta be responsible for this... OK, it is insane! How can we live like this? Next thing I know I am asking myself, is it worth it? To leave my son so I can wait endlessly for a bus that will arrive nobody knows when? If you are on time here, you are going to wait.
This is just another way of saying it has not been easy to re-adjust to life here. I am definitely Brazilian, but America has definitely changed me more than I wanted to. Now I feel homesick from America.