Bulletin 9
– 15 September 1997
Telecom Amazon Adventure Update
 Update
from Andrew
Well, my adventure is almost over, and
I'll be returning to New Zealand later this month.
Talking to you in the audioconferences and email has been
lots of fun – it's made me feel home is not so far
away.
I've seen lots of things on my travels,
but the best thing has been the interesting people I've
met. I like the people here very much – most of them
are friendly and very helpful. But, there's poverty and
other problems in the big cities, that can make them
dangerous and scary if you go to the wrong places. Of
course this isn't just limited to South America - it can
happen in many other cities as well.
Mostly, I will remember my time in the
rainforest. I saw lots of animals and now better
appreciate that rainforests are precious and special
places. I realise it’s important to protect the
rainforests – maintaining large areas that remain
undisturbed and unpolluted for the people and wildlife
that live there. Protecting the rainforests is also
protecting ourselves because they are important for the
well-being of the world's environment, and they contain
many things that haven't yet been discovered. Future
discoveries might include new medicines and other
beneficial products extracted from rainforest plants.
I've also learnt about the native
cultures here. The Amazon Indians have their own unique
stories, traditions, skills and an intimate knowledge of
the rainforest. It is important to preserve these.
My last audioconference will be from the
city of Brasφlia.
Brasφlia isn't on the Amazon, but it is the Brazilian
capital and is where many of the decisions affecting
Amaz⌠nia's environment are made. It's also an
interesting place because of its unusual buildings and
design. The entire city was built in just three years!
I'll be telling you about the city's history and what
it’s like to visit there. Brasφlia is also the
location for the New Zealand embassy in Brazil, which
I'll need to visit to cast my vote in the compulsory
retirement savings referendum.
This week's audioconference will be the
last for the Amazon Adventure, but the Internet site will
still be available and will continue to be updated.
You're welcome to keep in contact by email and if you
wish to send in letters, pictures, and stories you can
still do so by sending them to Danielle at the Telecom
Education Foundation.
Tchau (a Brazilian goodbye)
Andrew.
Another world
“The impression is that I'm
arriving on a different planet.”
That’s what Russian Cosmonaut and
first man in space Yuri Gagarin said about Brasφlia. And
it’s the impression most visitors have.
Brasφlia is unique . . . unlike any
other city on earth. It is famous for its unusual
buildings, built in a futuristic style which makes the
city look like background scenery for an episode of Star
Trek. In 1987 UNESCO (United Nations Education,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation) added Brasφlia to
their list of World Heritage sites because of its modern
architecture and layout.
Most cities begin as small villages, then
grow to become towns – and eventually grow big
enough to become a city after many decades. But Brasφlia
was different. In 1957 it was a vast empty plot of land .
. . and three years later it was the site of a brand new
city, and Brazil’s new
official capital.
Brasφlia is special because it is a
planned city. This means that, even in its earliest
stages, it was designed to be a big city - with roads,
apartment buildings, office buildings, parks, shops, and
all the other things cities need. It was intended as a
showpiece to demonstrate Brazil’s place in the
developed world – as a forward-thinking country
capable of great achievements.
The city was proposed by the Brazilian
president, Juscelino Kubitschek, and its design was
produced by a team of famous Brazilian architects and
planners. The architect was Oscar Niemeyer; the urban
planner was Lucio Costa; and the landscape architect was
Burle Marx. The city was built by a huge workforce of
hundreds of thousands of people.
The city is set out in the shape of a
giant jet airliner. The government buildings and
monuments make up the plane’s fuselage, with the
congress and supreme court buildings located at the front
of the plane (forming the cockpit). Apartments and other
residential blocks form the plane’s wings. At the
front of the plane there is a big artificial lake called
Lago do Paranoß.
Living in Brasφlia
Brasφlia sounds as if it would be an
interesting place – but it is heavily criticised by
people who live there. They say the city isn’t a
very nice place to live because it seems sterile and
boring. The city is very spread out, meaning that it is
often too far to walk from one place to another, and
there are few trees to provide shelter from the hot sun.
Brasφlia lacks the fun and excitement of Rio de Janeiro
(Brazil’s former capital city) or the cosmopolitan
feel of S„o Paulo (Brazil’s largest city). Some
people say that Brasφlia’s jetliner shape merely
represents the fastest way to get out of the city!
The Brazilian government had difficulties
getting people to move to Brasφlia. It doubled the
salaries of public officials and workers to convince them
to shift there. Many government officials choose to live
in Brasφlia during the week, but spend their weekends
and holidays in Rio de Janeiro or elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the city’s poor
can’t afford to travel. They live in several small
satellite towns around Brasφlia. These satellite towns
are known as “anti-Brasφlias” because they
aren’t modern or futuristic – they merely
represent the huge gap between rich and poor which exists
in Brazil.
The Brasφlia Legend
There is an interesting legend about
Brasφlia – a prophecy that it may be the capital of
a new civilisation, and that its people will be the
“Rulers of the Third Millennium”.
If you take a close look at the lines on
a map, you will notice that Brasφlia is located between
the 15th and 16th parallels (imaginary lines running
parallel to the equator). In 1883, an Italian priest
called Joπo Bosco prophesied that this would be the
location for the capital of an advanced new civilisation.
Many religious and spiritual cults have chosen to base
themselves around Brasφlia and claim they are the new
civilisation described in Bosco’s prediction. Some
towns are full of people who claim to be mediums and
spiritualists. Some people even claim that the area is
regularly visited by aliens and UFOs.
Amazon activity
Imagine you are an explorer, exploring an
area of the Amazon jungle for the first time. Write an
“Explorers log”, diary or journal about your
adventure - the sort of things you did, saw and
discovered, the dangers and problems you faced and how
you overcame them. Keep a record of your progress
throughout your journey and make up a map of your route.
Take “pictures” (drawings or ‘made
up’ photos) of what you saw and did. Make a
presentation of your expedition to the annual meeting of
the “World Explorers” club.
Amazon fact
The Perne-longo mosquito (also
known as the carapan╖) is one of the loudest in
Amaz⌠nia – and the most annoying. People
say that if you have two or three in a room the
sound is enough to keep you awake all night. The
carapan╖ makes this sound because when it flies,
its wings beat at a frequency of 500 cycles per
second – resulting in a sound that is within
the octave of middle C, usually the note G. The
sound is important to the carapan╖ because it is
used by females to attract a mate, but it has
also created an unusual problem for outdoor opera
singers. It has been reported that when the
singer hits this note, the insects are confused
by the singer's voice and think that it is
another mosquito. The result is that mosquitoes
suddenly start flying towards and into the
singer's open mouth.
Amazon books
Richard Orr's Nature
Cross-Sections, Moira Butterfield,
Viking Publishers.
Red Gold: The Conquest of the
Brazilian Indians, John Hemming,
Macmillan, London. This book covers the history of Brazil
and the Amazon from its first discovery by the Europeans
(1500) through to 1755.
The Amazon, Pamela
Bloom, Fielding Worldwide Travel Guides, USA. This
well written guidebook is full of interesting background
information and travel tips and is an excellent
introduction to Amaz┘nia's plants and animals.
Kingdom of the Sun God: A History
of the Andes and Their People, Ian Cameron,
Random Century, London. This fascinating book traces the
history of the Indian cultures which grew up in the
Andes, including the Incas, and their history following
the Spanish conquest.
Explorers Mystery Quiz - Bulletin 9
Answer the Explorers Mystery Quiz
questions below correctly and be in to win a Panasonic
cassette recorder for your class. You will find the
answer to this week’s first question on your
Explorers and Adventurers Mystery Trail poster. You might
need to do a bit more research to answer question two.
Fax your answers to the Telecom Adventure Line: 0-4-498
5575. Entries close at 5pm on Friday 19 September
1997.
The classes whose students correctly
answer the most Explorers Mystery Quizzes during the
Explorers and Adventurers programme will go into the draw
for a grand prize in December. So
good luck everyone.
This week’s questions
Question One
How many species of birds have been
identified in Amazonia?
Question Two
Who led the first expedition of the
Amazon in 1540 and 1541, starting at the Napo River (in
what is now Ecuador) to the Atlantic Ocean?
Last week’s winner
The winner of last week’s Explorers
Mystery Quiz was Room 5, Aranui Primary School,
Christchurch.
Last week’s answers
Answer One
Anthropologists believe the native
Amazon Indians wore very little clothing so they
could walk through vegetation without getting their
clothes caught on branches.
Answer Two
Urban planner Lucio Costa based the
layout of Brasφlia on the shape of a jetplane.
Wrapping up an adventure
Our Amazon Adventure finishes this week.
Hasn’t it been great taking part in Andrew’s
adventure and seeing Amazonia through his eyes? To wrap
up the Amazon Adventure, we’ll be putting out an
additional fax bulletin next week that’ll include a
farewell from Andrew, the answers to this week’s
quiz questions and an introduction to the next adventure
– Space exploration.
 
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