A place to call home

One of these days I was talking to my dad on the phone and I mention my plan of buying a house in London in three years time. His reaction was "wait a minute, so are you planning to stay there"? Yes, I am.

Whenever I read any news about Brazil I think this would be the best decision. I love my country and I don't think there is a better place in the world than Rio de Janeiro. But then I read about the corruption, violence, social differences,..., my friends tell me that getting a job is getting harder every year, salaries are decreasing, going to the beach by bus is dangerous. Well, it was like this when I was living there two years ago. My life was quite good, I had a nice job, a nice apartment, I walked to worked, never had to cook or clean the house, the weather was nice, blah blah blah, but I cannot pretend that all the corruption and impunity didn't get on my nerves. I would never walk alone late in the night or catch a bus coming back home from a nightclub. Not to mention that public transportation sucks!

London is not the nicest and safest place in the world to live, but at least you know that when things get a bit too nasty, authorities try to do something about them. I'm not afraid of the British policemen like I am of the Brazilian ones. They don't carry guns here and they are quite polite and helpful. They even treat suspects in a nice way - more like a therapist than a authority. That incident with the Brazilian boy in July 2005 was an unfortunate and rare one.

I think London is quite peaceful to a place with so many different cultures sharing a space. There is this culture of "pretend-you-don't-know-me-that-I'll-do-the-same" can be quite handy sometimes.

Why am I telling this? I guess it is just to justify why I would live in London for the next many years and why I wouldn't go back to Brazil to live (maybe to retire, by the beach, in Florianopolis or the Northeast). I don't see things getting much better in a near future, but I do hope my grandchildren will be able to see how lovely Rio de Janeiro can be in summer. And I confess - shamefully - that I am not the fighting person, that will demand some attitude from the politicians I voted for, that will go to the papers and complain about stuff, and so on. I’m too selfish and busy building my own personal portable paradise.

Why not going to sunny, warm city by the beach? Because those places are nice when you have money! Unless you want to sell coconut water on the beach. Or if you have your own business that can be managed from anywhere in the world. But I don't think, in my case, I could afford living in Spain now. Oh, I forgot to mention something really important: I don't like small cities.