In random news (plus a new thing I learned this last week)…

So, I was looking at a 2005 World Bank study. It researched the differing amounts of bureaucracy on a global scale, in regards to what it takes to start up a business – the amount of red tape needed to go through, the number of procedures to register, the amount of time needed to wait, and a variety of other categories. They also have a handy comparison chart in case you’re interested in finding where your country ranks.

In the two main categories, Brazil was in the top 5 (as in the top 5 worst!)

In regards to number of different procedures that need to be filed, two countries have as many as Brazil (Paraguay and Uganda) while only Chad has more.

And then when it comes to the length of time needed to complete everything, only four countries took longer than Brazil – Mozambique and the Congo (by one and three days, respectively), Laos, and Haiti (which takes a whopping 203 days to start up a new business.)

Now obviously, starting a business and applying for a visa are two different things. However, the same bureaucratic culture applies. And I am already dreading the day when we have to try to incorporate WMF as a non-profit here in Brazil. 150 days… yikes. Five months. Pray for us…

By the way – something new I learned this last week… I’ve found out why they put those plastic guards on the fans. The plastic grill/guard dealie-o was not working out well on the fan in my room (it was making this rattling noise that was really loud – it sounded just like the kids who would put playing cards in their bicycle spokes and pretend they were driving a motorcycle. I would have been one of them, but I could never get the cards to stay. sigh…) Anyway, so I took off the front and back, and so now I have what I affectionately like to call “The Fan’o’Death”.

Thankfully its blades are made of soft plastic (not like those old-fashioned metal airplane propellor type fans you would get in Yarina). But still, when you get up in the middle of the night to stumble down the stairs to the bathroom, it’s a bit of a rude awakening to accidentaly trip on the fan. It doesn’t cut you, but it scares you. And if I follow the Nichol’s advice and glue razors on the edges so I can cut my vegetables faster, who knows what might happen. Remember – if at all possible, keep the guard/grill thing ON your fan. You’ll save your legs and feet and hands much unecessary cuts and scrapes.

Good night friends. More later…

Ben

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.