FROM BRAZIL OF CARNIVAL AND CARNIVAL OF BRAZIL

 FROM BRAZIL OF CARNIVAL AND CARNIVAL OF BRAZIL

These three days of revelry confuse the whole world. Some see in the Brazilian carnival a fun, cheerful people that overflows in the revelry, in the rhythm, in the dance and in the beauty all of their Brazilian being. Carnival in Brazil is the only activity, you can call it a popular festival, that unites the whole country. No date on the calendar, not even Christmas with Santa Claus, puts all races, religions, genders, social classes and everything else under the same hat. Carnival equals. But, even over, even in happy living and happy living.

There is no country in this world that has a party like this. Carnivals around the world not only do not have the swing of the Brazilian carnival, but are reduced to cities, closed and sectarian dances in the sense of bringing together only a tiny part of the population. A long time ago, the white millionaires of Cape Town, South Africa, invented the carnival there. Parade beauty, general joy, but something totally artificial, even killing the popular Mistral festival and having nothing to do with the country's cultural roots.

The contagious Brazilian joy has another unique characteristic in the carnival subject: it is universal, but very regional. Recife's carnival is different in form, but not in content from carnivals in other places, including famous ones, such as Rio de Janeiro. In all of them, not only the rhythm permeates, but the content, sometimes overshadowed by the beauty of the percussionists, the drumming and the brilliance that the carnavalescos present.

This content is mixed with pictures, music from today and yesterday. In their contemporaneity, carnivals, whether samba schools or blocks, never escape being the mirror of current or past society, even at the dances of the chic and rich. Carnival allows people to express themselves individually and collectively. The individual leaves the shell of a day to become an actor in a moment of a world that exists, but does not cease to be imaginary. An example of this is how gender, currently under wide discussion and with new values, was treated through carnivals. Or how politicians and their figures who take advantage of the popular soul are presented.

Carnival songs are the best of world poetry. They express the love and life of a people, and of each one. A moment lived eternally in the three days of revelry, which is lost in history. Tell me honestly, does the carnival in Cologne, Germany, have this soul of poetry?

The samba and frevo schools have an unsurpassed visual magic. It has a plot, it has rhythm, it has dance and they always tell us something to enrich our soul, our being, or as they say nowadays, our human essence. You leave a parade like this enriched, humbled by the ability of its participants to show and exhibit the best that the person, that is, the Brazilian man or woman, has.

There are two other aspects when we look at Brazilian carnival. One, well known, which is the economic. Carnival moves a lot of money, laundered or not, billions of reais and millions of jobs. A business that went from contravention to legality, who doesn't remember the bicheiros that dominated Carnival in Rio, and today is one of the biggest businesses in the country. It gives and creates jobs, allows the less privileged to be socially equal and the rich to participate. It is a social success for a rich blonde to show off at the Sambodromo, whether in Rio or São Paulo. There is only samba, the difference is who swings better.

But, the most fascinating aspect of the Brazilian carnival, for those who study management theories and practices, is the summary of all that is best in management in the world, which is the Brazilian revelry.

It brings together unique creativity, design, organization (have you ever seen the parade of the block or the samba school being late?), content, engineering with all the most advanced resources in technology and, first and foremost, impeccable, true and authentic leadership. See a samba school parade, in addition to the perfect branding, thousands of people in an impeccable association of human rhythm with machines, and a message that reaches the public beyond the days of the parade. And every year there is more innovation, nothing is repeated, there is always innovation.

Having lived for 40 years on the factory floor, one cannot but be envious of carnival artists, from any part of the country, but with deep admiration. Carnival shows the unique capacity of the Brazilian people to innovate, lead, organize, manage and obtain results, both in the economic and social fields, with the joy of living. It's a party bigger than the party itself, it's an eternal allegory of living well in Brazil, overcoming the difficult day to day, to say yes sir, we're happy, we sing and dance, but we're capable. And here goes the question, which other people have this set of capabilities gathered in their culture?