I know I've written about SESC before, but at least this is a different one and I added pictures! Hey!

Also, I know just a little bit more about the history. SESC was formed in 1946 as a Social Service provider for Commercial workers, at the same time as SESI, a Social Service provider for Industrial workers. They were established by the central government, I believe, and funded by a 2% payroll tax levied on employers.

They have their roots in Brasil's corporatist past, but I do not understand how corporatism worked in Brasil. If you are like me, you will need to go the dictionary to look up that word, so I'll do it for you.

According to Merriam Webster, corporatism is "the organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction." Ok, if that doesn't make it as wonderfully clear as you might like, you can go to Wikipedia and get thoroughly confused. With luck, one of my Brazilian friends will read this and do a better job of explaining it.

Apparently anybody now can pay the annual fee and become a member of SESC. They let me in, after all. I know commercial workers still have preference for some things, as for example the gym is available at certain hours solely for their use. Probably there are other examples that I haven't encountered.

There are 15-20 SESC facilities scattered around the city of São Paulo. They are community cultural and recreational centers. As far as I know, they all have gymnasiums, swimming pools, and indoor courts for sports like soccer, basketball and volleyball. They all have spaces for the performing and visual arts. They all offer classes in a wide variety of subjects. I could sign up for origami class this month, or maybe a class about the art of Japanese tea preparation and presentation. At least some SESC sites have computers available for use; when we were without internet after moving into our new house, I finally realized a little late that all I had to do was use the ones at SESC when I was done in the gym. Rather than try to make an exhaustive list, I will end with the fact that they all have restaurants with very reasonably-priced lunches.

Before our move I used the gym at the downtown SESC. Now, I go to the SESC pictured here, SESC Belenzinho. It is only about one year old and is, on the surface at least, a more desirable facility. Certainly it is many times bigger, with an outdoor pool and an immense restaurant area. It takes me maybe 5 or 6 minutes longer to walk to this one than it used to take me downtown, but that's insignificant. I could take a bus if I wanted to. Still, for all its advantages, I haven't made myself at home in it yet. It is more sterile and the people who use it are, dare I say it? more boring. I think it must be a universal rule: city centers have more interesting people than suburbia. There is a comment section on this site for anyone who thinks that is too broad a generalization. Please, somebody, fight with me about it.

I'm doing my best to make the adjustment. I go to this SESC four times per week to use the gym, eat lunch, and sit around and read. There is no denying it is better than fighting people on rhe Red Line to go downtown three times per week. I just wish I could like it more.

As Heitor would say....ah, life.

Dognostic

Another in the series of interesting São Paulo business names, this time for a Veterinarian.

TV Choices: Liberals v Conservatives

Thanks to a Facebook posting by Andrew Janz for this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/top-tv-picks-liberals-vs-conservatives/2011/12/06/gIQA44smaO_story.html

After seeing this, I really do feel like a liberal elitist.

Writing for My Own Amusement

Here is a link to a story in the NY Times this morning about a speech Chief Justice Roberts gave yesterday, in which he indirectly (without mentioning any names) addressed the controversy of whether Justices Thomas and/or Kagan should recuse themselves from the cases challenging the healthcare reform bill that are working their way up to the Supremes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/us/chief-justice-backs-peers-decision-to-hear-health-law-case.html#commentsContainer

Since Roberts mentioned no names, he obviously didn't directly equate the Thomas and Kagan situations, but the story itself doesn't seriously challenge that assumption. I think the two situations are radically different; one is real and the other manufactured.

Certain people on the right are asserting that Kagan, during her tenure as Solicitor General in the Obama administration, may have been involved in the construction of a legal defense for the healthcare bill. We have to, first, remember that the bill was written in Congress, and not in the Obama White House. If you consider the timeline of the torturous process of the bill itself, the initial challenges to it that were filed in the lower courts, and Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, there was very little time for her to have been involved in preparing a defense of the bill. But, since you (presumably) and I don't really know what goes on in the Solicitor General's office, I think the best argument is Kagan's own history on the court. She recused herself from more than two dozen cases in her first term, and has already recused herself from at least one this term, a case involving immigration law. She has demonstrated her integrity. Calls from some of the right wingers in Congress to subpoena her records from her time as Solicitor General are unprecedented and unwarranted. The right is trying to make her prove her "innocence."

The case why Thomas should recuse himself is, however, real. His wife Virginia is the founder and head of a conservative non-profit group called Liberty Central that is dedicated to, among other things, the roll back of what the right likes to call "Obamacare." Part of the Thomas household's income is derived from opposition to what Virginia and Liberty Central call the "leftist tyranny" of the Obama administration.

The NY Times story points out that "A federal law requires justices to recuse themselves in a number of circumstances where real or perceived conflicts of interest could arise, including in cases where their spouses could have a financial interest." Period, paragraph, case closed.

I don't doubt that the attempt of the right to latch onto the Kagan issue and try to pretend there is something there, when there isn't, is a diversion from the real story of Clarence and Virginia Thomas. If they can equate the two situations, they have won.

Of course it is all speculation at this point, because there is still time for any Justice to recuse himself/herself and maybe there will be a surprise.

Tom and Jerry

This is a great video and a reminder, in case you needed one, that all change is not progress.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/QbxArVlS5tU?rel=0

Our Lady's Sex Shop

I guess this is, literally, nothing more than the innocuous "Our Sex Shop." But I love the angelic figure with the halo and what it suggests, which is peculiarly Brazilian (I think).

Perhaps the most common expletive in Brasil is "Nossa!" which is an abbreviation of "Nossa Senhora," or "Our Lady," which refers to Jesus' mother. It is the used as the equivalent of "Jesus Christ!" or "What the Fuck!" in English.

Perhaps someone can tell me if "Nossa Senhora" is used as an expletive in other Latin American countries.

Here we have Nosso because it modifies "Sex Shop," (masculine), and not Nossa Senhora (feminine). Still, I like to think of this as Our Lady's Sex Shop.

If the figure with the halo isn't perfectly clear, you can go to the website which is noted on the sign to get a better view.

Somebody who thinks like me.

Thanks to Alexandre for this cartoon from last Saturday´s paper. It sums up to a freaking tee my attitude toward Brazilian soccer mania.

Mind you, I have nothing at all against soccer or people who like it. In fact, I am beginning to like it myself. Today I was home alone and watched the entire game between Argentina and Greece. My problem is with the people who would rather cheer for the Brazilian national team (and light firecrackers and blow horns in the street etc, etc, etc.) than look around them at the incredible economic inequity that confronts them everywhere.

One of the saddest things I´ve seen here was last Sunday night after Brazil´s victory over Ivory Coast when I was waiting for a bus to go meet a friend for coffee. There was a street person, who had somehow managed to find a green and yellow shirt, and a horn, begging for money to eat. I am convinced that Marx was wrong. Religion isn´t the opiate of the masses; soccer is. Well, religion is too, but I´ve got soccer on my mind.

If yáll see the same picture that I see as I am typing this, you will not be able to read the captions...but since I will need to translate anyway....

Panel 1 (with all of the Brazilian flags, which are omnipresent here during the world cup, by the way) = Victory

Panel 2 (with people sleeping in the street) = a trophy

Panel 3 = Nobody´s life is resolved or improved (this is the shakiest translation...Help, Alexandre!)

Panel 4 = But everybody cheers (or celebrates)

Panel 5 = The rat says "We´re going to win."

The whole thing is so depressing.