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EESTI ELU reedel, 13. novembril 2020 — Friday, November 13, 2020
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What brings Estonia and Brazil closer together? Interview by Vincent Teetsov One wouldn’t typically asso ciate Estonia and Brazil as having much to do with each other, right? They’re located on opposite corners of the earth. Yet, Brazil has drawn immigrants from Estonia both before and after the Second World War. Of course, there are Brazilians of Estonian descent still there today. Sharing Brazilian and Estonian heritage myself, I wanted to speak with someone who could offer a con temporary glimpse of what it’s like in the space where these two cultures meet. Grete Soares de Camargo (née Kõrgesaar) lived in São Paulo for many years, before returning to Estonia in the sum mer of 2020. As the creator of the blog Living It Brazilian, she has shared many insights on Brazilian culture through an autobiographical lens. Current ly, she is the Customer Re lations Manager at Work in Estonia, utilizing her knowledge of the Brazilian market to encourage business interaction with and immigration to Esto nia by Brazilian professionals: What initially brought you to São Paulo? I was doing my Master’s de gree at Tartu University when I got the opportunity to become an exchange student once more. My first study abroad ex perience was at the University of Barcelona in 2008–2009 through the Erasmus Program. Since my first experience of
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election night does experience a shorter or sometimes longer period when no new data is re ceived. And yet, e-votes are by then counted and their final and unchangeable number published using the elections information system on the www.valimised. ee website. No one has ever suggested that the initial num ber of e-votes cast and their distribution has ever changed by even a single vote. This kind of lag is usually caused by system overload – too many people trying to access the system at the same time, while it can also be the result of technical mishaps at polling stations when entering paper ballots into the informa tion system. These errors have nothing to do with traditional or e-voting or the process of counting votes. It is a matter of migrating initial election results to the information system that the public can access. The interior minister also wondered at some polling sta
living and studying abroad had been truly eye-opening and enriching, I jumped at the opportunity. This time it was the ISEP program that allowed me to spend a year in a foreign university of my choice. I want ed to go somewhere even further, with a different culture, and learn a new language in the process. What were your initial perceptions of Brazil before you moved? I didn’t know too much about Brazil before preparing for my exchange year. However, my friend from school went on an exchange there. Commu nicating with her helped me to imagine a vast, multifaceted, and more profound Brazil than the famous beach-samba-foot ball combo that most of the world knows the country for. [In advance of studying in São Paulo in July 2013], I start ed to prepare with any and all information I could get my hands on. This is also when I became more aware of the so cial disparity and other issues that the country struggles with. This made me more curious to find out what Brazil was really about. Was your blog Living It Brazilian immediately something you knew you would do to document and report on what’s happening in Brazil? Life in Brazil (especially in São Paulo) was much more expensive than I had imagined and by the end of the first semester, I had already spent most of the money I had saved up for my exchange year. I started thinking of ways to make some more money to
tions reporting a lot of votes very late and these changing the election result. He suggested the reason is that somewhere someone is manufacturing votes. For example, by looking up people who did not vote in the elections and fabricating paper ballots under their name. As I described before, this stage no longer has anything to do with e-voting. The e-votes will have been counted and published by then. The delay in receiving election results from certain polling stations is caused by the fact some are very big and yield a lot of votes/ballots that need to be counted. Perhaps, some stations have fewer people tasked with counting votes, work slower than others or there could be other technical or work organi zation-related problems. The fact remains that vote counting takes place under the eyes of observers who include representatives of parties taking part in elections. All actions – opening of the ballot boxes, counting of votes, arguments over whether ballots are valid, vote sorting, packaging, sealing
What has been the most significant thing you’ve communicated to readers about your experiences and know ledge on your blog? Photo: Eduardo Figueiredo
An interview with Grete Soares de Camargo
contact I had.
keep afloat. Since I studied journalism as my BA and had collaborated with several news papers and magazines before, I contacted a few of them to find out whether they would be in terested in articles about Brazil. I got to write about tourism in São Paulo, women of different social status, and much more. This was also the first time I really started to write down my reflections on the cultural differences I was experiencing. Soon after, I got an intern ship and full-time job at a soft ware company, and actually started dating a Brazilian guy, who went on to become my husband almost a year later. I started Living It Brazilian a couple years later, when I had officially moved to Brazil with the intention to stay and was still experiencing a culture shock in its most acute form. Do you find that many Brazilians are familiar with Estonian people or culture? There are nice connections between Estonia and Brazil. Oskar Metsavaht [a Brazilian fashion designer of Estonian descent] definitely has been do ing an amazing job supporting Estonian initiatives and making them more visible in Brazil. Also, names like Toomas
Hendrik Ilves, Ragnar Sass, Transferwise, Pipedrive, and others are becoming quite well known in certain circles. Nevertheless, I would say that most Brazilians don’t have a clue about Estonia. But hey, that probably goes for the most of the world, and the situation is changing. I have noticed that in the last few years, Estonia has actually been talked about a lot in Brazilian media and busi ness spheres as an example for digital advances. A couple of months ago, my father-in-law sent me a photo of an article in Valôr Economico newspaper, which used “Estonia” in its title as a metaphor for a digital success to be copied. That was very satisfying to see. São Paulo has the largest presence of Estonians in Brazil. In what ways have you had the chance to get to know this community? I did meet the community of Estonian descendants in Brazil at least once, when I was feel ing especially homesick. I’m part of their group on Facebook and always kept an eye on what was going on there. However, since São Paulo is huge and hectic and there was something new going on all the time, this was pretty much the only
Downward spiral The only way to limit d amage to what has already been done would be to cancel the hatred-inciting referendum on changing the constitution stipulating that a m arriage is a union between only a man and woman. The principal damage to be done by this so-called marriage referendum that works to tear apart Estonian society is that the mere fact it will take place along with the base rhetoric that accompanies it will directly
place a part of society in a situation where they feel un wanted. And an even bigger part of society in a situation where they feel embarrassed and ashamed for what is hap pening in Estonia in the 21st century. In any case, this idiocy will notably boost stress levels in society. Not to mention that actual problems and challenges society faces are overshadowed. Therefore, the only way to limit damage to what has already been done would be to cancel the hatred-inciting r e ferendum plan. Right now. Otherwise, we will spend the coming months listening to and
of boxes, their transport etc. – are monitored and public. No one has ever identified or reported efforts to “comple ment” voter lists or pull packs of ballots “out of nowhere”. Not once. Estonia’s unique e-voting system needs to be explained to the public better. A correspond ing committee working with the
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has dis cussed the matter and conclud ed that the system can be made better. And yet, even the most skeptical members of the com mittee have not raised a single fundamental or technical issue in the key of what was suggested by members of the government on Tre Raadio.
Urmas Paet, Member of European Parliament, ERR
The most significant thing about my blog has actually been the feedback from the readers and the connections that have come out of it. I have always been torn between wanting to write from my own experience, since this is what ends up turning out the best, but not wanting to expose myself too much. However, when I started to get people’s heartfelt feedback, especially to those texts that had come from a place of vulnerability, I realized it was worth it. One experience that had an impact on me was from a Brazilian girl from Belo Horizonte, who got in touch with me in the beginning after her Estonian boyfriend recom mended that she read my blog. She wrote to tell me how much it had impacted her, how it opened her eyes to how us foreigners see Brazilians and thus, made her understand her boyfriend better. We started exchanging messages. Later, she got married and moved to Estonia, but we still kept in touch from time to time. Finally this year, after about four years since our first contact, I finally met her and her husband in person here in Estonia. It felt like meeting an old friend. ••• To read more about Grete’s experiences, you can read her blog here: https://livingitbrazil ian.com/. You can also see some of what she’s involved with at Work in Estonia here: https:// www.workinestonia.com/. This interview has been edited and condensed.
reading base treatments of how and why a part of Estonians are not complete. And that would poison and harm society for a long time. Things have already taken a turn for the absurd. For example, Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa) said via the ERR news portal that he wants to create “a supraparty yes-campaign advisory chamber made up of politicians of par ties that support the yes-cam paign.” A powerful statement indeed. How about the foreign minister of Estonia that is part of the UN Security Council proposing measures for support ing civil society in Belarus, ending the war between A rm enia and Azerbaijan, strengthening the EU’s China policy or European Union secu rity? Of course not. Because the most important thing today is the referendum campaign that debases a lot of people in Estonia. Sad and dangerous. Full speed ahead on the down ward spiral. Editor: MARCUS TUROVSKI
