By: KENNETH MAXWELL 

Folha de S. Paulo - Op-ed section - page A2  

I went to a boarding school for boys in the Southwest of England where we were not allowed to go home at all during term time. One of our only escapes, on special occasions, was to be taken to visit the “Old Vic” theater in Bristol where there was a magnificent repertory company. Here our school masters turned a blind eye, and we could even go into the theater’s bar where we would order, out of pure ignorance, exotic concoctions of hard liquor and fruit juices – in the process inventing something very much like a caipirinha.

One of the stars of the Bristol “Old Vic” at the time was a very young Peter O’Toole. I will never forget his extraordinary performance in Samuel Becket’s “Waiting for Godot.” This week I happened to be in New York City on the sixth anniversary of September 11. It was a week that reminded me of Waiting for Godot. General Petraeus came to Washington to deliver his long awaited report on the status of the War in Iraq.

But the general predictably had nothing new to say. Six years later, “ground zero” -- where the World Trade Center stood -- is still no more than a hole in the ground. And despite the election fervor in the U.S. – as if the elections were to take place tomorrow – there is in reality another whole year and four months to go before George W. Bush ceases to be president of the United States. The attacks of September 11, 2001, did indeed change the world, and not for the better. Except maybe for Brazil.

In this sense at least there is some benefit to being on the “periphery.” In New York this week I saw the dance group Vidança, comprised of poor children from Vila Velha, Fortaleza. They put on a virtuoso performance with drums and dance. It asserted a joyous.

KENNETH MAXWELL is a weekly op-ed columnist (every Thursday) for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading newspaper.