CYNTHIA BARNES :: sharing the latest information on new media marketing

 An interesting piece of history once known as the town of Fordlandia is about 50-100 miles north of here. Henry Ford once thought he would build his own rubber plant and factory there, but it was a total disaster. He hired indigenous people from all over Brazil to work in the plant, but the conditions weren't good and he didn't understand the local culture. For example, the workers were set to eat cafeteria style, but for them, they were being forced to be waitstaff, and that was a huge insult. They staged a rebellion, shouting “I’m a worker not a waiter!”. The rebellion was so bad that the Ford executives had to flee and hide in the jungle, and the factory never recovered. If you ask the local people why it didn't work, they say its because Ford didn't ask for help, however, you could also attribute it to the economy or the competition of Malaysian rubber. Like most stories, the truth is probably somewhere in between, but it does illustrate the importance of understanding the local culture if you’re trying to do business in a country other than your own.

 

Today, large companies are still coming to Brazil to try to make a profit, and still not having much success. A major industrial company, Cargill, built a huge soybean processing plant in Manaus. We’re all aware of the de-forestation of the rainforests, but it seems to have slipped their mind. They weren’t able to get the permits because cutting down rainforest trees to replace them with soybean crops is bad for the environment, so now this huge factory sits idle in Manaus.

 

 

We took a small river boat up a tributary of the Amazon called the Tapejo, and got to do some fishing. My dad (a lifetime fisherman as a hobby) was one of only 2 people in our group of about 30 to catch a fish - although he didn't realize at the time, it was a piranha!

                 

 

The boat staff fried it up for lunch with some manioc flour (a typical Brazilian grain similar to tapioca that is eaten like rice – it was hard and tasteless, but good when mixed with the fish.) I don't usually like fish, but this fresh catch was pretty good. The trip back was nice and relaxing, we saw more wild life, I saw a huge iguana run up the river bank, and we saw lots of birds - egrets, and many river people like these kids.

 

 

In the afternoon, we took a tour of the city - they have huge Xmas display in the center of town, I tried to buy Havianas, which are really cheap here, but no luck, they didn't have my size and we didn't have much time to pursue it.

We went to a small museum where they have ceramics dating back 8000 years. They think that eventually it will be proven that the Aztecs were originally here in the Amazon and then eventually migrated to Mexico.

 

We also went to a farm, saw lots of exotic fruits, and tasted some - some slimy and sweet (not good) others less sweet and consistency of a pea - those were much better.

 

We saw how they farm and process the manioc flour by extracting the juice from the root using a special elongated basket and brazil nuts (bought some to take home) you can see they use a machete to break open the pod and get the nuts inside.

 

        

 

Herbs of all kinds are grown and cultivated in the forest.  They use many for medicinal purposes, to cure anything you could think of – everything from upset stomach and headache to heart trouble and cancer. As the population grows more and more urban, these traditions are being lost, but before the knowledge is gone forever, scientists are coming to the Brazilian rainforests to study the practices of the local medicine men, in a hope that they can find cures for disease from the unique indigenous plants here.

 

 

Overall quite a an interesting day and I learned a lot!