Anyone who has spent enough time in Brazil will agree with this observer that there are ` certain` coincidences which only occur in this part of the world.
Rio Convention Week is chock full of events and with more visitors than one would ever imagine but somehow this observer managed without planning to end up at those which fit into my past and present.
As a subscriber to the Estado of Sao Paulo newspaper—which some liken to the NYTimes of Brazil—I respect its weekly publication of the columns of Brazilian philosopher Leandro Karnal but usually avoid reading him because frankly he requires too much patience and contemplation than an average newspaper column.
Together with Marcelo Gleiser,56, Brazilian physicist and astronomer, Karnal,62, hypnotised an over-packed auditorium with reflections on our age which indeed make sense.
Karnal likens the Trump ultra-conservative epoch to past witch-hunts burnings at the stakes of undesirable religions and intellectuals who incommoded Fascist leaders.
Hopefully this will pass, both speakers agreed.
Of course, there was much more to the discussion but this non-reader of Karnal`s columns will now begin to pay attention to what this important phosphor says and writes.
We returned to the more intimate Press auditorium, which also was packed but a bit more comfy than the over-loaded arena where Karnal-Gleiser spoke.
A panel discussion on the perils of author`s rights as the Artificial Intelligence moves onward was indeed appropos.
This observer immediately recalled a local TV commercial where the beloved late Brazilian singer Elis Regina was brought back to live driving a car besides her daughter Maria Rita, also a pop singer. All for the love of money but for desecration of a myth.
Future laws will begin to try to deal with the perils which ‘AI ‘ will bring to the world, according to the panel.
Finally, and most surprisingly to the observer was the appearance of the esteemed Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker to discuss her career which began in Rio with her dance academy and rose to her own internationally renowned dance company.
`My determination –I am stubborn—has resulted in my success, ‘ the always energetic Deborah emphasized as she included her recent experience of choreographing an opera at the Metropolitan Opera house based on the tragic death by Franco’ s Fascist regimes assassination of Spanish poet Garcia Lorca.
By some coincidence this observer was high up in the balcony at the Met opera in my native New York City last October to witness what I believe was the best part of an opera `Ainadamar by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov which had more dancing than singing.
The best part? DEBORAH COLKER’ S poignant choreography.
Wait a minute… let me get into the act!
So I seized Deborah`s microphone to reveal my experience at the opera adding I believe we had better operas in Brazil which Deborah should choreograph—if Mr. Trump allows—at the Met in the future.
There are no coincidences in Brazil!
