"The Postcard Race" Round 9: Winners Announced

On December 10th, Joelene notified us that she had received her postcard from Sao Paulo. Since then, on December 16th we had word from Winnipeg that a postcard had been received and then on December 17th our hosts (who never pick up their mail) on the Greek Island of Amorgos let us know that their Sao Paulo postcard had arrived.

Today former winners of "The Postcard Race" in Vancouver, under a severe handicap, said that their postcard arrived. Where have all the other Sao Paulo postcards gone? Are contestants just TOO busy with preparations for the festive season to even mention the receipt of a postcard OR are all the postcards buried under fancy, seasonal cards with pretty pictures of snow, Santa and decorated trees?

In any case we have a winner. Congratulations Kismet and Joelene and the postal workers of East Vancouver!

Yesterday we made our way to the nearest Correo Argentino (at Avenido Bernardo de Rigoyen and Calle Chile ) we had a packaged filled with treasures for our winners BUT we were turned away for an entirely new reason never encountered before in the history of "The Postcard Race" if you want to send a package from Argentina internationally you have to have your passport with you. So we hope to get back to the post office next week and get the package off to our winners!

Here are the "Spring in Sao Paulo postcard facts". Thought you would like to see them since I guess very few people have received a postcard.

The Postcard Race Round #9

Spring in São Paulo

By some counts, São Paulo is the world’s 3rd largest city after Tokyo and New York City. Other tallies put it after Seoul, Mexico City, Mumbai, Delhi, Karachi and sometimes Istanbul. Wherever it stands; at least 19 million people live here.

São Paulo is one of the greatest graffiti centers in the world, beautiful and vivid pieces abound. In 2008, when renowned graffiti artists Octavio and Gustavo Pandolfo were away decorating, by invitation, the exterior of the Tate Modern in London; city officials in their hometown removed one of their most famous street murals as part of the mayor’s urban renewal plans. Kind of embarrassing!

São Paulo is one of the greatest graffiti centers in the world, beautiful and vivid pieces abound. São Paulo is also home to a unique expression of art on the walls. Brazilians call it pichacao. This simple, single tone graffiti consists of black or blue letters in straight lines or sharp angles. The artist’s merit is determined by the canvas, such as the 14^th floor of a building scaled without ropes at night. This precarious pastime often leads to accidents.

The famous acai berry, from the Amazon has been marketed world-wide as a miracle cure for all that ails you; from weight-loss to anti-wrinkle creams, to detoxification agent to life extension. The acai berry has certainly been a money–maker for some.

Posters of the famous berry can be seen in luncheonettes around São Paulo, since the berries are actually very delicious in your smoothie or on your granola. Perhaps we could do the same with blueberries?

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil was ruled by military dictatorship. During the 1980’s the Catholic Archdiocese in São Paulo created a secret team of lawyers and researchers who worked on the records of 707 political trails against 7,367 defendants. The result was one of the most comprehensive records of dictatorial repression in the 20^th century: “Brazil: Never Again”, contained over 1 million pages detailing how the regime had monitored, investigated, arrested, tortured and prosecuted citizens. Proving that the Catholic Church sometimes does good things.

São Paulo has the world’s largest, private security industry; fueling the fears of violence held by many São Paulo residents “Paulistas”. There are 120 companies in São Paulo alone that bulletproof cars against revolvers and sub machine guns; and that costs $22,000 us per vehicle.

Due to the intense traffic jams combined with fears of kidnappings, São Paulo has become the city with the highest number of helicopters. 462 private helicopters in 2008, and around 70,000 flights per year within the city, turning it into a "real life South-American episode" of The Jetsons. Helicopters enable executives to sharply reduce their commuting time. Some companies own their helicopters, others lease them, and still others use helicopter taxi services. One suburban helicopter shuttle service, located about 15 miles from the center of the city is run and operated totally by women, including its pilots.

Though founded in 1554, São Paulo languished for more than 300 years, until a coffee boom hit in the 1880s. Immigrants from Europe (especially Italy) and, notably, Japan, and their descendants made the city the largest in South America. Today Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer and accounts for a third of the billions of cups drunk around the world.

Due to the difference in climate, São Paulo gets European fashions right after they leave the runway for the season in Paris. That’s when it warms up in Sao Paulo – which means that the same thing you saw in Milan on the catwalk in August has just hit the fashion district in Sao Paulo in January. And it’s still the height of style!

Caetano Veloso, is a composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. He has been called "one of the greatest songwriters of the century" and is sometimes considered to be the Bob Dylan of Brazil. Veloso is most known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s, at the beginning of the Brazilian military dictatorship and was part of the movement that ended the dictatorship. Caetano’s homage to São Paulo “Sampa” is the city’s unofficial anthem.

Walter Salles who directed “The Motorcycles Diaries” a film about the early life of Che Guevera is from one of São Paulo’s famous families and the son of Brazil’s most legendary bankers.

In other film news: São Paulo’s reputation as one of the world’s ugliest urban centres was the reason Brazilian director Fernando Mereilles chose it as a location for his film, “Blindness” based on Jose Saramago’s novel that depicts a bleak vision of a near –future hell on earth.

Shopping malls are to São Paulo what Versailles was to France: all about style and power. The American style malls (simply know as shoppings) as well as their greatest features – the parking lot- were adopted in Brazil after WW2 . There are more than 50 major shoppings in the São Paulo. Violence has contributed to the success of the malls; security guards, high walls …safe zones that recreate “normal” city life.