One of the worst things about Brazilians is the lack of respect for other people’s space. The neighbour’s music is always loud, anytime during the day or night; dogs poop on our sidewalks and only a few owners care enough to take it from the ground. Even in the same house, there’s no such thing as caring about who else lives there (and here comes the TV on the highest volume).

In the subway or in the train ‘artists’ bring their bluetooth speakers to sing rap songs, pointing at you and exposing you to the other passengers because now you are part of their art (it’s annoying when they notice me, but I pretend I’m not seeing them). In the streets the noise is the same, but to be fair, sometimes we do find some talented artist making good music.

Once I saw a ballerina dancing on the bridge (if I wasn’t on the bus I would have stayed to watch her performance), very rarely I see someone playing a violin or a guitar graciously. But most of the time, it’s just noise with what could only be assumed as an imminent explosion of the microphone (could these people’s ‘music’ be any louder?)

And there are always screams. Everywhere. In the street market people are screaming, in public transportation, groups of friends seem to have something against talking at a normal tone - they prefer to scream with each other as if they were far away, but they are right next to one another. Also, who needs a set of headphones when you can hear a video with your phone’s speaker? Let’s make everyone hear our favourite show with us.

Things are this way now, maybe they will be like this forever. Because how could a child grow up with a sense of respect living in society when their parents cross the limit and invade someone else's space as if the other’s feelings didn’t matter at all? Maybe we are all doomed to die listening to Anitta's songs or the noise of yet another building being built at 3 am.

Anne Rios – Brazilian girl writing about Brazilian things

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