Reality Check

Today's discussion with my colleagues, over lunch. It's not always that I have matching experience with people, usually where I am now (research center) I look very much like a big time traveler, that went to a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Back there in ops it was a different pictures, I looked more like a newby learning his place in the World. So yeah I heard a lot of stories, some are in this blog already, some other might not have their place in it (this can be revised). One of my colleague, which is now a good friend of mine actually had similar experiences. Not the same places nor the same experiences but that what makes it nice, the sharing is always interesting.
So we were talking about nothing and everything when came the subject of the work places and their images in the human pre-conceptions. We sometimes see people, friends, acquaintances going to work to foreign places for what it represents rather than what it really is. Best example are places like Barcelona, Paris or NYC. For new industrialized countries like South American or developing countries the image of Europe is idealized by it's life style and "joie de vivre" oftenly coming from broadcasting and enhancements of the experience by natives going abroad wanting to show that life is what it looks like on TV (it never is but they wont say it not to look bad or simply not to worry their own familly, but that how the cycle goes on). Seems like a total paradise and promise of a better future. Truth is it most of the time was like this, but not anymore and it is very easily debunkable by doing a "reality check" (term happily chosen by my buddy but very accurate): A brazilian thinks of Barcelona like it's a wonderful city, lots of culture, good food and nice weather. You make good money easier because of high employment and, well, it's Europe so it just cannot be bad. What you see on TV corroborates what your representation from the place is (oftenly travel documentaries or movies). You have not a good life where you live, so you decide to join the money and leave your place for this new TV fancied Barcelona. The example my friend gave had a good diploma but probably had very high expectations of what it would be like with her diploma in Barcelona. Result is, she is in Barcelona a waitress earning minimum wadge with a lawyer's degree. She argues that she would not earn that much money as a waitress in Brazil, true. Now she left at a time where Brazil was probably experiencing some difficulties but as now the economy is booming a lawyer's salary in Brazil would probably be much higher than in Spain where competition is fiercer. The problem was probably elsewhere and she never wanted to face it. Going to some other places looking for an El Dorado nowadays is overrated because El Dorado simply never existed and doesn't exist. If it does the counter part is heavy enough for you not considering it as one at all. The "reality check" will probably have her realized that she was better off in Brazil than abroad, but it might not have looked that glamorous. In Brazil being in Europe represents the quintessence of good taste and success (don't ask me why, European are desperate to look for an excuse to go work in Brazil, at least the Latin Europeans). It is very rooted within the culture of the country and in most layer of the society it is highly considerated (modest layer dream of it, wealthy layer insist on going there). A simple fact is Paris being the number 01 dream destination of all (or most of) Brazilian.

TBC