From October 2014 till April 2015, I am conducting field research in Brazil. In this period I will post reflections on Linkedin, aimed at a broader audience. However, these reflections will also be posted here, but with reference to academic litterature relevant for the post. As my training comes from social anthropology and social work, most references will naturally be based in these disciplines. Readers are more than welcome to add their references also from other disciplines in the commentaries below and by this help me to learn more about Brazil and human societies.
I will be fined by the police. Normally, getting a speeding ticket or parking ticket just leaves me with a blush of embarrassment on my own behalf. However, today I met the Brazilian federal police and I felt a blush of embarrassment on behalf of the public servant in front of me. He tried to convince me of the logic in having to fine the public when they do not have the resources or sufficient managing abilities to do their job. I did not quite get it.
As a foreigner coming to Brazil I have to register my presence at federal police within thirty days of my arrival. This is done first electronically and then you will have to meet at the police. But they don’t tell you that. Most foreigners are told just to appear at the closest federal police within thirty days.
For those of us who are lucky enough to speak Portuguese almost all you need to know is on the internet. Almost that is. It does not say that you will have to bring a copy of all used pages in your passport. But as the clerk behind the counter said without a moment of hesitation no irony or any signs of a camouflaged smile: “We don’t tell you all you need to know on the internet. You need to come here and get information also”.
Well, back on track. We, me and my family, did go to the Federal Police 25 days after our arrival in Brazil. One week to settle things properly was included as a margin, as my experience with bureaucracies all over the world tells me that it normally does not work out the first time. Being there, with the necessary registrations done in advance through the internet, I was informed that they would not attend my wife and kids as the reservation was done in my name with the 30 minutes reserved for me only. This could actually happen in Norway too, but I did wonder a little bit why they have a system where a family of five with four dependents (yes, my wife is formally dependent on me for these six months), will need 2 and a half hours to get their registration approved. Well, I did enter a non-diplomatic mode asking the clerk, whom I suspect really is a failed law student who never passed the bar exam and now is having his revenge on the rest of the world as a public clerk, if he could find a time for the rest of the family. He could not.
I would have to make reservation again through the internet, but most likely they did not have any possibilities before next week. I entered the site through the computer in the waiting room at the police and fund out that next available hour was ten days later. The clerk could also inform me that because the police had no available time before three days after the 30-day period expired, I would be fined for not having shown up before. I tried to ask him in different ways how it could be possible that even though all registration and payments were done in time, and we had appeared at the police station, they would fine me because they did had a problem of meeting me sooner. I was told that the problem was not really theirs, but the big number of foreigners. So there must be a fine.
My wife, who acts more mature than I do in such occasions, asked if there were any adults present. She did not use that word “adult”, but made it clear that she would like to talk with the boss of the police station. Without too much waiting, he appeared and could only say that this situation is really a problem that could only be solved by the central administration in Brasilia. That he actually himself was the very representative of Brasilia in the state of Espírito Santo never seemed to cross his thoughts. As we talked I also got the impression that he was the kind of boss that had limited insight in the practical details at the station. Inspired by my wife I told him in friendly terms that the praxis of fining people because the police think there are too many foreigners seemed a little odd. He agreed, but still told us that there has to be a fine to be paid. And that Brasilia is to blame.
I am not sure what I am learning from all this, but my thoughts after this experience go to all the Brazilians who have to live with the experience of never being able to know if the system is working for or against you. Where the concept of citizenship is as much negative as a positive experience, and where the possibilities of success in life depends on whom you know. For my own part I just found out that, technically, I am about to become a criminal by just trying to do things right.
Relevant litterature:
DaMatta, R. (1987). The Quest for Citizenship in a Relational Universe. State and Society in Brazil. by Wirth, J. D., Nunes, E. O. & Bogenschild, T. A. E. (eds.). Westpoint
Barbosa, L. (2005). Jeitinho Brasileiro -a arte de ser mais igual do que os outros. Elsevier.
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar