Head Space Daily Words...

Our Brazilian family arrives for a few days today - my wife’s brother, his Brazilian missus and their little boy and girl - jetting in direct from Sao Paolo. Whenever I think of Brazil, my mind pictures Socrates and Zico playing against Italy in the 1982 World Cup Finals - in possibly the greatest game I ever saw - I hear Bossa Nova tunes, Astrud Gilberto’s Girl From Ipanema, Sivuca’s Ain’t No Sunshine, I think of beaches, carnival, the massive Jesus statue in Rio and a laid back, smiling nation, drinking coffee and capoeira kicking into yesterday. So, my image isn’t too stereotypical then!! It’s always fantastic to see them all and our boys love being with their cousins. The real picture in Brazil, from what I pick up on, is actually very different. It is a fast developing, rapidly modernizing, hugely vast nation of possibility. There is extreme poverty and a huge gulf between the comfortably well off and the poor, there are large Japanese and Italian communities – something I was never aware of – and there are racial tensions and snobbery, which is an issue you I guess you will face in any country. When league football first began in Brazil, black players were excluded. This changed after the first season but Pele must have been a ground breaking individual not only for his ability but for what he did for black Brazilians. I really hope that one day soon, we will be able to fly out in the opposite direction and see Brazil for ourselves. I am sure that Brazilians really do smile a lot and drink copious amounts of coffee…