Gesellschaft | Corona Home story

Dal Portogallo al Brasile (e ritorno)

How coronavirus made me cross the Atlantic.
Aveiro
Foto: Ricardo Resende on Unsplash

Abbiamo raccolto testimonianze in giro per il mondo per capire come viene vissuta, nei vari Paesi, la situazione coronavirus. João Ribeiro, giornalista di Público, quotidiano portoghese, vive ad Aveiro. Il suo futuro, racconta, come quello di molte altre milioni di persone nel mondo, è ora “sospeso e incerto”. I piani di João, infatti, erano molto diversi: si era trasferito con la fidanzata a San Paolo, in Brasile, lo scorso febbraio per lavorare come corrispondente per il suo giornale, nel frattempo però le notizie dall’Europa diventavano sempre più allarmanti. Grandi città come appunto San Paolo dove molti vivono in piccole case affollate, lavorano in nero (e quindi restare a casa non è un’opzione), dove mancano praticamente acqua potabile e servizi sanitari, sono impossibili da immobilizzare. Non aiutano, poi, le misure minimaliste adottate dal presidente Jair Bolsonaro, in contrasto con i governatori locali e l’Oms. Alla fine di marzo João è tornato in Portogallo, dove, malgrado una certa tensione nell’aria, e qualche caso di violazione della quarantena, l’umore generale è positivo anche perché le precauzioni intraprese stanno funzionando.

 

Ecco la testimonianza originale di Ribeiro:

The coronavirus pandemic caught me during one of the most important changes in my life. As with many millions around the world, my future is now suspended and uncertain.

Me and my girlfriend moved to São Paulo, Brazil, in February, where I was about to start working as foreign correspondent for my newspaper in Portugal, Público. It was something we both anticipated for long, and we were thrilled with this new beginning. We arrived just days before the Carnaval, a month-long celebration of music and dancing in the streets, and any fears about a lethal virus were nowhere to be seen. By mid-March, the news coming from Europe were quite worrisome. Italy was putting millions of people on lockdown and borders were being closed.

Friends and family in Portugal were preparing for the worst in the coming weeks. That was when my editors at the newspaper advised me to return. At that time, Brazilians were for the most part still unaware of the destructive potential of the virus, and there were hardly any measures in place. But knowing that it was now inevitable that the coronavirus would also hit South America, I was quite sure that, unfortunately, in Brazil the death toll was going to be massive. 

Big cities like São Paulo – with 13 million people, many who live in small crowded houses, with almost no access to clean water or healthcare services – are impossible to paralyze. On top of that, the huge numbers of people who work without a contract means that staying at home is not an option. 

Friends and family in Portugal were preparing for the worst in the coming weeks

And there was also the political scene. At this day, when the virus as took already more than 1200 lives in the country, the President, Jair Bolsonaro, remains the only leader of a big country that still defies the WHO recommendations about social isolation. His speeches against the stance every expert credit as fundamental to avoid the contagion is hampering the work of state governors and local authorities. Disaster is around the corner and hence my decision to return to Portugal.

I arrived in the final days of March, and since then I have been staying at home, leaving only for shopping groceries. For a month already, Portugal has been in state of emergency, meaning only essential services are working, like supermarkets, pharmacies, transportation, some industries and health facilities. Schools are closed and probably won’t reopen before the term ends. Starting next week, classes will be broadcasted via television.

There is some tension in the air, some acts of violation of the quarantine – on Easter Sunday, one parish organized a ceremony of kissing the cross, and the images were widely seen on television and social media – but the general mood is quite positive, actually. Numbers of infections and deaths (16.934 and 535) show that the isolation measures are working and is very likely that the worst has passed without the collapse of the national health system.