Sept 2013: Ordem e Progresso

This is the flag of Brazil, billowing atop Praça Engenheiro Bernardo Saião in Rio de Janeiro.

On the green flag is a yellow rhombus — two colors of the old imperial Portuguese flag — surrounding a blue disc filled with 27 white stars. One star is for each state, plus the capital. The stars also represent the night sky when Brazil declared independence in 1889.

Written on the disc is the phrase Ordem e Progresso, a motto of French philosopher Auguste Comte’s positivism. Comte write: “L’amour pour principe et l’ordre pour base; le progrès pour but.” Which means: Love as a principle and order as the basis; progress as the goal.

Doesn’t sound bad, even if the philosophy was wacky.

I am looking at the flag with Sergio, who is renting me a spare room in his apartment for September. We live in Flamengo, a neighborhood on the inner harbor of Guanabara Bay. Flamengo doesn’t have the flash of the city’s more upscale neighborhoods Copacabana and Ipanema, which directly face the Atlantic Ocean, but I like it. Our street, Rua Paissandu, is bookended by the state governor’s residence and Flamengo Beach. In between are the ever-partying parks of Praca Sao Salvador and Largo do Machado and dozens of great carioca restaurants and juice shops.

Carioca simply means “of Rio” and it can refer to the people here or to the general lifestyle.

Behind Sergio and I are two egg-shaped rock outcroppings, known as Morro da Urca and Pão de Açúcar. Such peaks are what define this city’s landscape and helped earn Rio its designation as a UN world heritage site last year.

The mountains here are also excellent for hiking. While Pão de Açúcar is a tricky climb that requires ropes and a harness, Morro da Urca is a 45-minute hike, steep at times. Along the way up we encountered a clan of capuchin monkeys. Sergio fed the animals.