Money in the wonderland

You've heard that money brings money, right?

Well then you make money that you need to raise money that will help you make more money ...

Huh?

Well, this is almost a mathematical formula of greed. And here the the thing is dirty.

The thing only gets dirty when I'm alone out there ... with Ellen by my side it's easier because she already knows what will annoy me or make me say "but what the hell?". So she tells me beforehand that the Dutchness is about to strike.

But it's always nice to go in the Cafeteria Braulio (nice name) across the street. Alone, with my wallet and playing in my head the text that I have to recite when I get there.

Cafeteria here has nothing to do with coffee. Nor marijuana, if you thought that. Marijuana is at the Coffee Shops. Cafeteria is a snack bar where you buy all kinds of fried things, potato chips and fricandel (Google it) with curry sause, mayonnaise and onion.

In another words, a healthy place.

But Braulio (amen!) opened its cafeteria in Angeren, a dorpje (small village) with 2000 inhabitants betweem the "big cities" of Arnhem and Nijmegen (the two together are smaller than some neighborhoods in São Paulo).

That means, who will eat at Braulio? Those who live in Angeren. Getting this far just to eat at Braulio, you'd better go to the great metropolis of Nijmegen and eat there.

So I enter the cafeteria and there's Braulio alone, waiting for someone to come by. I can hear a loud Dutch "hoooooi!" and then he is waiting to see if today I want to speak Dutch or English (depends on my mood).

Usually I choose Dutch as Braulio doesn't have the best English evah. But fricandel with curry and mayonnaise is good only once in a while.

- Hallo. Today I want something I have not tried yet.
- Ja, ok. Take a look at the board and order.

Since I don't know all the names of everything they eat here, I decided to play safely and not ask for anything that I could not translate at least to English.

Fricandel ... 1.60
Fricandel Speciaal ... 2.40 (curry and mayonnaise)
Broodje Fricandel ... 2.20

Broodje before any other word in Dutch means "sandwich". That is, a fricandel stuck inside a bread. Vonderful! Bring it on, Braulio!

After four minutes, which is the stipulated time (probably by federal and state laws) to fry a fricandel, Braulio bends down to pick up the bread. To my utter disgust it was people in Brazil call a bakery burger bread. The same shape and size, the soft crust, without sesame. A bread for toothless people.

"Oh shit", right? Okay, I separate the 2.20 and wait for the banquet.

- Will you want some sauce on it?

Well, it can't get any worse, you know ...

- What goes in there, generally?
- Can be mayonnaise or curry.
- Can be mayonnaise, then.

Braulio turns systematically to the tube of mayonnaise and puts no more than a tablespoon of mayonnaise in the bread.

- 2.40, please.

I look at the board. I look at him. Look at the board.

- Isn't the broodje Fricandel 2.20?
- Ja.

My Dutch cannot be that bad.

- You said 2.40?
- Yes, you asked for mayonnaise, right?

Silence fell on the Cafetaria Braulio.

- Huum ... ja.

And here we go back to greed. Not that Braulio is a bad person. He is very cool, made fun of me when Brazil was eliminated, wonderful.

But damn it, not even the best place in Brazil must charge almost one real for one tablespoon of mayonnaise. But in the Netherlands, that's it. You want it, you pay for it.

Not that it's wrong. 20 cents will not make me poorer, even less for a Dutch person. But the root of this goes deep.

The Netherlands now has the 16th world GDP while Brazil has the 8th. But the Dutchies also have an area 50 times smaller, a population of nearly 16 million versus 200 million in Brazil. And the Netherlands has no Lula, a reason for any country to brag about.

But now you can see where all that money goes to. People have money here. The poor Dutch is the guy who can not buy a new TV. If you think of the poor Brazilian who can not buy beans, it's pretty good, innit? They don't mind paying the 20 cents for the (little) mayonnaise. But at the supermarket, they have the habit of choosing a product of lower quality and in the end the difference will be the same 20 cents. You can say they're a paradoxical people.

Money, as you see, is no problem here. It's serious stuff, you're careful with it. But nobody lacks it. And with little effort. The poor Dutch in general are poor because they want to. That guy does not buy a TV because he doesn't want one. The country provides all the support he needs to buy eight TV's with public money and pay for this after ten years.

When you are unemployed, the government pays an unemployment insurance that is not too shabby, almost as good as the one in Brazil (hahaha). But the government will only pay the insurance until you get a job.

But you, a Brazilian who is reading this, have in your culture being a son of a bitch by your own nature, so you thought, "then I do not work and I am getting the money, is that it?". Well, in Brazil, pulling some strings, knowing someone here and there would make that work. But here there's a government agency with specialized people to get jobs for you. No more than six months and they'll find you a job.

And now?

You will now work.

If not, your benefit goes to hell. And the people go work. Really. How do I know? I never saw a slum here or people begging for something.

There're poor people, good people, bad people, humble, snooty, cool, boring. But not people in need of stuff. You go to work and the least that the country ensures to you is a doctor at the hospital and food on the table.

I do not think Brazil is a bad country. I love Brazil. I love the way that people live there. But what you most hear in political campaigns is the biggest deficiency of the country: sustainability.

In Brazil, all except the filthy rich, are hung on a rope and down there it's full of hungry alligators. The Netherlands gives you at least a safety net before the alligators.

Is Brazil able to do it for everyone? No. Probably not.

But it just could be better, no doubt. But Brazil is the country of smart, the law of the strongest and of the deceiving. It's growing in the eyes of the world. Big thing! China is as well. But tell me if you want to live there.