A Welling of Humanity

For all its challenges and paradoxes, Brazil is a great example to us all, not least as it so often wells up with humanity and reminds us of some the basic fundamentals of how to live and love together.   

Last night saw the first great welling I have seen this visit, as we await the New Year.   Thousands of mainly Brazilian people strolled along the front of Copacabana or settled into their terrace chairs to enjoy some bossa or some MPB, everyone word perfect in the lyrics and smiling and looking at each other with a twinkle or tear in the eye that recognition of their uniting bonds (and how important they are to them) brings.   

The mix of skin colour in families is quite astonishing, as is its easy acceptance, for example, at large tables where often a black patriach and white matriach will head and foot the gathering of three generations or more with a varied palette of brown skins amongst the many attending family members. 

There are better-placed people on blip to comment on the presence of racism in Brazil than me and, certainly, there are social strata and income levels associated with different skin colours but it does strike me that there is a carefree intermingling here that could usefully be exported to the rest of the world.