My third Interview

Introduction:

I choose an Ethiopian person for my next interview, because I was really curious about how is life over there. And most important I wanted to know the role of women in this African country.

Preparation:

As the objective of my interview was mainly to know about the position of women in Ethiopian society, my interviewee had to be a woman. I met Abby by chance, she moved to an apartment in my building and I knew from the janitor, that she came from Africa.

She was quite shy in our first meeting. I explained to her the purpose of the interview and after a day of thinking about it she agreed on that.

The list of questions was about mostly her reasons to be here, her family, her city and some memories of her country.

Interview report:

Abby and I met at home so we could have a long talk about all the possible topics. She was extremely polite and nice.

She proudly told me that Ethiopia was the only independent country in Africa, and that they have never been colonized, except for a five years Italian invasion, long time ago. That the role of women is changing all over Africa, though still exist oppression over women.

I also asked her about the city where she was born, the capital of Ethiopia, an important city where converge important economic, political and social activities.

She explained the many kinds of music and dances they have in her country, which usually are used to celebrate, to pray and to give thanks.

Interview Bio: 

Abby Saidi is from Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. She has been living in US for almost ten years. She was raised in a humble home where the hard work produced the main income to her and her parents.

She thought that her opportunity to help her parents was travelling abroad to find a good job and provide them, back in Africa, of good money.

Country Report:

Ethiopia is a land-locked country located in East Africa, and is bordered by Eritrea,Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan.  With an estimated population of more than 85,000,000, Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country.  Although Ethiopia’s official language is Amharic, there are a variety of officially recognized regional languages which are spoken among Ethiopia’s ethnically diverse population.  According to a census taken in 2007, 34.5 percent of Ethiopians are ethnic Oromo, 26.91 percent Amhara, 6.2 percent Somali, 6.07 percent Tigraway, with the remaining percentage divided among the Guragie, Sidama, Welaita, among others.

 History

Ethiopia is considered one of the oldest centers of civilization in the world with evidence of hominid habitation of the area from as early as 3.2 million years ago.  Ethiopia has been the home of many expansive empires, examples of which include the D’mt in the 8^th century BCE, the Aksumite reign in the 4th century BCE, the Zagwe dynasty which ruled from 1137  CE until it was overthrown by the Solomonid dynasty in 1270 CE.  The Solomonid dynasty ruled the Abyssinian empire which at that time included almost the entirety of the current geographic areas of Ethiopia and Eritrea.  The Solomonids reigned until a Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg", led by Mengistu Haile Mariam,

deposed Haile Selassie, the last Emporer of Ethiopia, and established a one-party communist state. The communist regime which was established after the military coup that deposed the last Emperor of Ethiopia in 1974 was plagued by a series of ensuing

coups, drought and famines which contributed to wide-scale population migrations and displacement of populations.  In the 1980s, large scale famines killed 1 million Ethiopians and impacted the lives of 8 million more.   Demonstrations against communist rule began in the northern regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea.  In

1990 the Soviet Union completely cut all aid to Ethiopia furthering weakening the rule of the communist leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam.  Mengistu fled the country in 1991, and sought asylum in Zimbabwe where he resides to this day.  A referendum was held in 1993, in which Eritreans overwhelmingly voted in favor of seceding from Ethiopia, and Eritrean independence was declared on May 24, 1993.  Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections were held in 1995, after a constitution was adopted the previous year.  A border dispute with Eritrea resulted in the Ethiopian-Eritrean was that began in 1998 and lasted until June 2000.

Politics

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is described in its constitution, drafted in 2004, as a federal parliamentary republic.  Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister who presides over a cabinet.  Legislative authority is vested in two chambers of parliament, leaving judicial powers completely independent of both the legislative and executive powers.  Ethiopia’s current government is led by EPRDF’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, whose policies have, according to an assessment by the non-profit Freedom House, “promoted a policy of ethnic federalism, devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically-based authorities. Ethiopia today has nine semi-autonomous administrative regions that have the power to raise and spend their own revenues”.

1Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections were held in 1995, however many opposition parties

abstained from participation which resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Ethiopian

People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).  EPRDF’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, was elected for a second 5-year term in the controversial 2000 elections in which opposition parties claim the polls and media coverage of the elections were heavily biased towards the incumbent EPRDF party.  Human Rights Watch has reported that access to non-state run media has been severely affected by Zenawi’s policies, indicating that private newspapers are routinely shut-down by the government.  

Interview

 Me: What is your name?

Abby: My name is Abby Saidi.

M: Are you from Africa?

A: Yes I am. I was born in Ethiopia, the only independent country in the

whole territory of Africa.

M: How long have you been here?

A: Almost four years.

M: Do you have family with you?

A: No, I am an only child and my parents are still living in Ethiopia.

M: What do your parents do in Africa?

A: My mother is a nurse in a Children’s Hospital, and my father is a soldier.

M: How is to be a woman in Ethiopia?

A: Right now is easier than in past times. In present days women in

 Ethiopia are actively involved in social, political and cultural activities of

 their communities. This hasn’t been always like that, but still there are a

 lot of points to work about, to reinforce even more the role of women in

my country.

M: After so long living here, what do you remember the most about your city?

A: Let’s see; in every street of the city, there is eucalyptus trees planted on

 the sidewalks, and they have a particular smell. I guess that one is the

most cherished memory I have of Addis Ababa, the smell of eucalyptus

trees.

My Second Interview

Introduction:

I chose Brazil because is a very interesting South American country. It has a very rich social and political history. Brazil is a country known for its climate, its beaches and for the great humor of people. I wanted to know more about this country through the eyes and thoughts of a Brazilian citizen.

Preparation:

To prepare myself for the interview, I read some material about Brazilian society, habits, culture and some of historical facts. I prepared then, a list of simple questions to give me another perspective on what I wanted to know.

At that time I remembered I have known a girl from the ESL she is a Brazilian girl, during a weekend holiday I asked my group of friends if anyone remembered this girl’s name and finally the search got a result. Her name was Iliana Perez I got in touch with her through e-maiI. The previous days we talked by the phone and I had the chance to explain her better the idea of my interview.

Interview report:

Priscilla and I agree to meet at a coffee shop. The initial talk was friendly and light. Previously to start the questioning I thanked her for helping me, and she told me it would be a good opportunity for her to show in words how her country is.

Interview Bio:

Iliana Perez is from Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil,  she’s been here for year and a half.  

Country Report:

Brazil

largest nation in Latin America, comprises slightly under half the land mass of the South American continent and shares a border with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. It is the size of the continental United States excluding Alaska.

Brazil's physical environment and climate vary greatly from the tropical North to the temperate South. The landscape is dominated by a central highland region known as the Planalto Central (Brazilian Highlands, or Plateau of Brazil) and by the vast AmazonBasin which occupies overone-third of the country.The central plateau juts into theseaina few areas along Brazil's 4,500-mile-long, (7,240-kilometer-long) coast, but it more often runs parallel to the ocean, creating a fertile, lowland area.

Brazil is a land rich in natural resources, principally iron ore, bauxite, manganese, nickel, uranium, gold, gemstones, oil, and timber.

The physical environment in each region determined the types of crops grown or the resources extracted and this, in turn, influenced the populations that settled there and the social and economic systems that developed. Brazil's economic history, in fact, has been marked by a succession of cycles, each one based on the exploitation of a single export commodity: timber (brazilwood) in the first years of colonization; sugarcane in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; precious metals (gold) and gems (diamonds) in the eighteenth century; and finally, coffee in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brazil's northeast coast with its rich soils became the most prosperous region early on as vast sugar plantations were created to supply a growing demand for that product in Europe. Beginning in the seventeenth century, African slaves were imported to provide labor for these plantations. This is why even today the Northeast is the region with the strongest African influence.

The Southeast also received large numbers of African slaves during the gold boom of the eighteenth century and the coffee boom beginning in the nineteenth century. This region also attracted new immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan who established family farms and eventually urban businesses.

In contrast, the South—with a climate unsuited to either coffee or sugar—became the destination of many German and Italian immigrants who raised cattle and grew a variety of crops. The heritage of the Northeast coast, based on slave labor and a plantation economy, was distinct from that of the South and Southeast, where plantations existed along with small family farms. Such historical differences partly account for contemporary contrasts between these regions.

Another regional distinction, that between litoral (coast) and interior (inland), arises from the fact that settlement in Brazil has always been concentrated near the coast. To say that someone is from the "interior" usually implies that he or she is from a rural area, even though there are large cities located far from the coast. Although the gold boom of the eighteenth century and the rubber boom of the nineteenth century led to the growth of inland cities, the real movement to settle the heartland of the country began only in the late 1950s with the construction of the new national capital, Brasília, in the Central-West.

Brazil is probably best known as the land of the Amazon, the world's largest river in area drained and volume of water and second only to the Nile in length. The Amazon forest contains the world's largest single reserve of biological organisms, and while no one knows how many species actually exist there, scientists estimate the number could be as high as five million, amounting to 15 to 30 percent of all species on earth.

Demography

 The population of Brazil was about 170 million in 2000, the sixth largest in the world after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and the Russian Federation. Despite its large population, Brazil's demographic density is relatively low. Although there has been significant population movement into the interior in recent decades, about 80 percent of all Brazilians still live within two hundred miles of the Atlantic coast.

Fertility rates have dropped dramatically in Brazil in the last three or four decades of the twentieth century, with the completed fertility rate at the turn of the twenty-first century down to an average of 2.1 children per woman. Nevertheless, the population will continue to grow in the first twenty or thirty years of the twenty-first century because of the nation's current youthful age structure.

The Brazilian population has three major components. Somewhere between 2.5 and 5 million Brazilian Indians inhabited Brazil when the Portuguese first arrived in the early sixteenth century. Divided into many different cultures with distinct institutions, Brazilian Indians spoke a large number of languages. Today they comprise only about .02 percent of the country's population. Their numbers fell rapidly as a result of displacement, warfare and, most importantly, the introduction of European diseases against which they had no immunity. By 1955, only 120,000 Brazilian Indians were left and they were thought to be on the road to extinction. This downward trend has been reversed, however. Their numbers are now increasing owing to improved health care, lower incidence of disease, declining infant mortality, and a higher fertility rate. Contemporary estimates of the indigenous population range from 280,000 to 300,000; the population may reach 400,000 early in the new millennium.

Afro-Brazilians, the descendants of millions of slaves brought primarily from West Africa to Brazil over a three-hundred-year period, are the second major component of the national population. Afro-Brazilians and people of mixed racial ancestry account for at least 45 percent of the Brazilian population at the end of the twentieth century.

Brazil also has a large population of mixed European, mainly Portuguese, descent. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Brazil was the destination of many immigrants from Italy, Germany, and Spain. During the same era smaller numbers of immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rounding out the demographic picture are, Japanese-Brazilians, descendants of Japanese who came to Brazil in the first decades of the 20th century, and Koreans who began arriving in the 1950s. Still, Brazil is among the most racially heterogeneous countries on earth and these distinct categories are somewhat misleading in that many, perhaps most, Brazilians are of mixed ancestry.

Food in Daily life

 Rice, beans, and manioc form the core of the Brazilian diet and are eaten at least occasionally by all social classes in all parts of the nation. Manioc is a root crop that is typically consumed as farinha , manioc flour sprinkled over rice and beans, or farofa , manioc flour sautéed in a bit of oil with onions, eggs, olives, or other ingredients. To this core, meat, poultry, or fish are added, but the frequency of their consumption is closely tied to financial well-being. While the middle and upper classes may consume them on a daily basis, the poor can afford such protein sources far less often.

Traditionally the most important meal of the day is a multicourse affair eaten after midday. For middle-class and elite families it might consist of a pasta dish or a meat or fish course accompanied by rice, beans, and manioc and a sweet dessert or fruit followed by tiny cups of strong Brazilian coffee called cafezinho. For the poor it would be primarily rice and beans. The evening repast is simpler, often consisting of soup and perhaps leftovers from the midday meal.

As Brazil urbanizes and industrializes, the leisurely family-centered meal at midday is being replaced by lanches (from the English, "lunch"), smaller meals usually consumed in restaurants, including ones featuring buffets that sell food by the kilo and such ubiquitous fast-food eateries as McDonalds. The poor, who cannot afford restaurants, are likely to eat the noon meal at home, to buy snacks sold on the street, or to carry food with them to work in stacked lunch buckets. In rural areas itinerant farm laborers who are paid by the day and who carry such buckets have been dubbed bóias-frias, "cold lunches."

Portuguese colonialism shows its influence in large cities, with churches and market stalls converging on central plazas.

Meals may be accompanied by soft drinks— including guaraná, made from a fruit that grows in the Amazon—beer, or bottled water.

Interview 

Me: What’s your name?

I: My name is Iliana Perez

M: Where are you from?

I: I am from Brazil, and I was born in Recife, which is the capital city of Pernambuco. Recife is a beautiful city located in the north-eastern area of Brazil.

M: Tell me about your family, are they here with you?

I: No, they are still living in Brazil. My father is a hotel manager; my mother is a high school teacher. I have got a younger brother and an older sister, both studying in my hometown.

M: Why did you choose this country to live?

I: My idea was to live here for a while in order to perfect my English and find other interesting careers to study.

M: How was your English before coming here?

I: Was quite basic. Since I am here I have learned a lot, and enjoy learning small new things every day.

M: Do you miss your city and your family?

I: I do sometimes miss my city. Of course I miss my family a lot, but I think this has been a good opportunity for me to grow up and be able to have better chances.

M: How about your friends in Brazil? Have you made friends here?

I: I have a lot of friends back in Brazil. Most of them from my preschool time and primary school. I have also made friends here, and for me that is one of the good things this kind of experiences have; the chance of meeting people from different parts of the world, their cultures and habits.

M: What can you tell me about your country?

I: Well, Brazil is the biggest country in South America and in Latin America. Its language is Portuguese, and in a lower level people also speak Spanish and English. The economy is in a growing process, though politics as in many places is kind of difficult to deal with. We have a democratic regime, and our government system is very similar to the one the United States has.

M: What are your plans after finishing your studies here?

I: I would love to study literature and ancient poetry before returning to my country and be a good teacher like my mother.