
US Film School
Full Transcript - Episode 3
Uber woes, visa joy, and an introduction to Luiza Simon...
J: Good morning São Paulo! Hello everybody. Hello and welcome to Samba Buzz, November, podcast 3, 2019. Gee, I-you-you look kind of a little bit different today. Is there something that happened to you? I mean, you look a little bit distraught actually.
G: Well actually I’ve just got back from the Federal Police. I have to go- I have to go there every nine years, do you know?
J: That doesn’t sound good at all.
G: Nine years ago I had a bad experience, so this time I was…actually I was pleasantly surprised. It went very well.
J: What, woah, I mean, what happened?
G: But, um, well actually…
J: Wh-what did you have to do at the police, actually?
G: That’s a good question. No, I had to renew my documents, my RNE as they called it in the past, and they now have a different name for it.
J: Your-your permit to-to to reside and to work in Brazil?
G: Exactly. Permanent residence status.
J: Ok, wonderful.
G: But I - there was something when I was there that puzzled me actually, cos I got to reception and, um, I checked in and the lady says ‘well it’s 3 – it’s on floor 3.’
J: On floor 3, ok.
G: And there was no elevator so I thought to myself – ‘do I go up 2 flights of steps or do I go up 3 flights of steps?’
J: Well I’d say 3, right?
G: Because it depends where you are, doesn’t it?
J: Well I suppose it does, but what-what floor was the reception?
G: Well, well I assumed it was the ground floor, I mean I went in through the ground floor. So, um, I was assuming…had it been England it would have been 3 flights of steps…
J: Right, cos you’re on the third floor and…and…
G: …cos we start on the ground floor and then the first floor is actually one flight of steps up.
J: That’s one.
G: Here, apparently, I was already on the first floor, so I only had to go up two flights.
J: Wh-where was the ground floor then?
G: Wh-wh-I don’t know. I don’t think it had a ground floor. The first floor is the ground floor! Anyhow, what do we have-what do we have in order today?
J: We have a guest-guest speaker today.
G: Wow, yes we do.
J: Yes, I’m very proud that we have our first guest speaker. She’s a young film-maker – a young aspiring film-maker. She’s Brazilian, living in Georgia and studying in Georgia.
G: So she’s quite brave, I guess, no?
J: I think, yeah, quite intelligent or quite daring or – I dunno – quite something.
G:Well, I’m looking forward to having our first guest. It’s very exciting. I’m looking forward to meeting her.
J: Yes, and we are going to talk a little bit about her latest project, which she’s made. She has a short out there. And of course, in addition to that, to our interview, we are going to have our ‘What Caught My Eye’ this week, as usual, and in addition to that we’ll have our grammar, or our English Guru section.
G: Yeah, the guru!
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J: So, Gee, enlighten me. What do you have for news? What caught your eye this week?
G: Well, um, this week, I don’t have anybody who died but I do have something from my home country – London!
J: London. So, English news.
G: English news!
J: It’s raining!
G: That wouldn’t be news but, um, if it stopped it might be.
J: Ah, ok.
G: Anyhow, in London this week, um, I saw that Uber has lost its license to operate in London.
J: What? How-how is that possible?
G: Well, um, apparently, there’s been some problems with the way that they’ve been running, and the Mayor of London and the Transport Council – or whoever makes these decisions – they have decided that, um, Uber represents a-a risk. They haven’t got their house in order.
J: A risk?
G: Well, one of the problems is, the main problem is that, um, there’s been a case of falsification of driver documents. So what’s been happening is that you’ve got people hacking the accounts of Uber drivers…
J: Right.
G: …and/or taking their details and pretending to be them.
J: So then, uh, but I think something similar, well not quite the same… Th-they haven’t been actually hacking the documents but there were some problems in Brazil as well.
G: There have been problems in Brazil as well yes…um…
J: But I-But I haven’t actually heard about any-any Uber actually heard about any Uber driver getting hacked in Brazil. They were-they were just presenting simply riding up in a black car and presenting themselves as Uber drivers.
G: Ah, well actually, by coincidence, I read today that there have been 5 drivers in Rio who were also, um, prosecuted for stealing the details of, er, existing Uber drivers. And in this case, they were 5 previous Uber drivers who had been dismissed for different crimes and they had managed to get back into the scheme by pretending to be somebody else.
J: Oh, so you-so you have the Ube… they were ‘Uber false’, basically.
G: They were Uber false so obviously they were well-in with the company in terms of knowing how it operates and apparently the only thing that’s real about these guys is that their photo and their phone number is genuine…
J: Ok.
G: And everything else is somebody else’s details.
J: Ok, so but that’s- now that’s the case of Rio that you’re talking about?
G: So that’s the case in Rio and that’s also what was happening in London which is why…
J: The same-the same scam?
G: The same scam, and that’s why, or one of the reasons why Uber has lost its license. But there’s a twist to this story, actually.
J: Oh, er, I am waiting for the twist.
G: The twist is that there’s a rival, um – what do they call them? – ride-sharing companies?
J: Ride-sharing, yes, correct.
G: There’s a rival, Indian ride-sharing company that has been granted its license in London, at the same time, would you believe, which is called Ola.
J: Oallah? Like-like God, like Allah?
G: Not Allah. Ola.
J: Oh. Ok.
G: Um, and would you believe that the mayor of London is actually an Indian?
J: Hm. That’s kind of a strange coincidence!
G: So I’m just putting two and two together and making six, possibly. But anyway, it does seem an interesting coincidence.
J: Erm, that’s-that’s good, but…
G: There are 45,000 Uber drivers in London, apparently.
J: And how many of those are false? Do they know?
G: Well they reckon that over a period of 3 months, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year there were 15, or 14 or 15 thousand rides that were carried out by false drivers.
J: Fourteen or fifteen thousand by false drivers, false Ubers?
G: False Ubers.
J: But now did they receive 14 or 15 thousand complaints, or were these just people that were pretending to be somebody else, charging the normal price and just running away with the money?
G: Well they would have identified the-the drivers involved, and they would have had records of how many drives…
J: Ok.
G: …rides they gave. Um, and in some cases I-I believe in Rio that the reason those guys were caught was that, um, one or two of the genuine drivers tried to go back to Uber and they found somebody was-was already using their details.
J: Oh!
G: And that’s how they-they caught these guys, so...
J: Yeah, that’s no good, well, interesting! Interesting story.
G: Interesting and a little scary from the safety point of view, particularly…
J: Certainly.
G: …particularly if you were a lady traveling alone I would have thought.
J: Or…anybody that is non-Indian, of course it’s scary as well!
G: Well, I guess if you are Indian you can join Ola and their taking…their recruiting apparently.
J: Y-you can join Ola and pray to Allah…
G: Exactly.
J: …that you get the right-right driver.
G: So I imagine Uber drivers are leaving London – are leaving Uber and heading to Ola in London.
J: That’s negative Uber news. I hadn’t heard - hadn’t thought about that.
G: Yes. Anyhow, what do you have for us to kick off this week?
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J: This week I have good news…
G: Good news is always welcome.
J: …yeah, good news for anyone that-that wants to go to the United States frequently.
G: Ok.
J: Because the United States embassy has decided that they are going to start a, er, global entry program for frequent flyers to the United States who present a low risk. Now with this you could think about business people who travel quite frequently to the United States but perhaps also normal passengers i-if they have certain requirements, they can go into the global entry program, and that has the advantage that you will have-go through customs much faster than normal.
G: So what’s the criteria, then? How do they identify who is a low risk and who isn’t?
J: Well in-in this particular nose – in this particular news, I don’t know exactly what the-all the criteria is, they simply say that they have-have established that the program has been approved by the United States’ government and therefore it can proceed. And I assume that the details of this are going to be left open to the-the United States, er, consulate and embassy here locally.
G: Because by implication, if they’re a frequent flyer to the United States, then they’ve been approved previously and therefore they don’t need to be approved again, probably.
J: Exactly. It’s going to facilitate visa process but also entry process into the United States. So with this you can assume that… Normally you have to through a very long customs line, whereas with this program you simply have y-your fingerprint registered, you go through a small kiosk and you are processed much quicker.
G: Ah, that’s what it is.
J: So you can avoid the long lines.
G: So it’s about the entry into the US rather than the obtaining of a visa then?
J: Exactly, it’s about the a-actual entry in the airport going through customs and entering into the country. Er, now, just a-a couple of small little facts. Since 2017, approximately two million Brazilians have traveled to the United States annually. So that’s-that’s quite a few travelers going to the United States.
G: Ah, ok, that’s the total. It’s not the same two million, then, every year, then no?
J: I would assume not, but I didn’t actually ask about that, yes. Can you give me some guess about how much these people spend annually in the United States?
G: Annually, on average in the United States…
J: Two-two million Brazilians.
G: Two million…
J: On vacation.
G: …I would say…ok…
J: Going to Orlando. New York.
G: They’re going to spend at least, probably, fifteen hundred dollars each, so therefore that’s gonna be…about two billion, something like that?
J: Two billion?
G: Hm.
J: You’re a little bit low.
G: Really?
J: Low.
G: My goodness.
J: Think a little bit more. Approximately 7 billion, they say…
G: 7 billion!
J: 7 billion annually. So, of course, it’s in the United States interests to let these people come in. More and more and more visitors…er…I don’t know if that’s going to, er, necessarily translate into more housing or more opportunities. But for anybody who wants to go to the United States, who is thinking about becoming a businessman – please contact us and we can help you!
End of Part 1
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