When In Rome...

Do as the Romans do. When in Rio, do as the Cariocas AND ROMANS do. Apparently, that´s the way to go...

As I stood in a long and excruciatingly slow line waiting to cash in some traveller checks, I witnessed a tourist in a process of perfect adapatation to his surroundings. How, you ask?

After 3 minutes standing at the back of the line, an Italian man of about 30, as evidenced by his passport and his spoken language, realized just how long he would be occupying that very spot and very casually walked out of the American Express office. Gave up, right? Went back to his nearby hotel room and decided to come back some other time, right? No, not quite.

In an uncanny impersonation of a modern-day Brazilian, this man walked back into the office some five minutes later, this time holding in his arms a toddler, a little girl about 3 years of age, and without flinching, walked to front of the line. In case you have not yet processed this information, here is the way things work down here: Senior citizens (over 65), women in gestation, handicapped persons, and persons holding small children have the right to immediate assistance.

Well, from the behavior of the child I gathered that at least it was HIS child. But still, this little girl was way past taking her first steps (or needing to be in his arms, for that matter). I can only assume that he went up to his hotel room, got the little girl and came back.

So I say "well done, my Italian friend!" In a mere handful of days you have mastered the Brazilian art of "dar um jeitinho", which loosely translates to "find a quicker, easier, but not necessarily more respectable way" of getting things done.
Nevertheless, being one of those who tries his best to do things in the "slower, harder, more respectable way", and doing things in this manner in his native country and city (overseas I wouldn´t imagine doing things any other way!), I did not hesistate for one moment in giving this man a long, hard look of disapproval, of utter disgust even, for his actions. Whether it had the desired effect, I will never know...

But hey, I must be one in some ten thousand to behave this way. The other (and obviously "cleverer") 9,999 people probably would have done the same as the Italian. After all, stupidity feeds stupidity, disrespect feeds disrispect, and lack of character feeds from everything else.