Ubiratan D’Ambrósio, a little bit...

By Benerval Pinheiro Santos and translation by Mônica Mesquita

           First of all, it is worth mentioning that to talk about Ubiratan D’Ambrósio can be easy task, but in certain ways, it also can be one of the most difficult task of are. That means, easy because I can, in a few words, mention that he has already lost his Brazilian citizenship to become a Being/Citizen of a planet called Earth. That is just how I see him: an international citizen.

          Ubiratan, or simply Ubi as this close friends treat him, is a being who during his own journeys around the world, has built himself allowing the other, the different, to build himself as well, in a relation.

            That explains exactly why talking about him is a difficult task, after all, how can we ever talk about someone who has founded many associations and institutions, someone who was a member (and founder) of many other Brazilian and foreign institutions and still a member of many associations around the world? How can we talk about someone who – with his 71 years of age – still has time (and patience) to talk with his students and people he barely know and have different kinds of interests? How can we talk about someone who is now in Japan, but was in German the day before yesterday, and who is going to be in Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil the day after tomorrow, someone who is going to USA the next month, but has been in Africa the previous month supervising his students, someone who a couple of months before has had time to spend with his granddaughter, and six months ago gave a course in São Paulo University, in which he had one arm paralysed in rehabilitation (because he fell down when he suffered a robbery attempt in Praça da República – São Paulo downtown? That is just to mention a few examples of this gentleman’s dynamic life, not to mention the many speeches in congress and other events, the TV and magazines participations, and the uncountable variety of published books and papers.

            Nevertheless, I see this sort of difficulty is not only mine, but it is also what every single one around him feels when mentioning our Ubi… This fact was quite clear on December, 09^th 2002, when the members of GEPEm supported by Education Department of São Paulo University, organized the “Ubiratan D’Ambrósio Colloquium. His 70^th birthday celebration”. In this event, many subjects and associations representative were present, such as: Brazilian Society of Science’s History,  Brazilian Society of Mathematics Education,  Brazilian Society of Mathematics’ History, Society of Future’s Studies, International Study Group on Ethnomathematics, International Association to Science and Cultural Diversity, and many others. During the event, at a certain point, the people who were watching were motivated to talk about Ubi’s influence in each of their lives/careers/researches. Some of them, were so moved, they hardly could express themselves… The event finished with a dinner party at Teacher’s Club of São Paulo University, in a totally cool and relaxed environment, with lots of smiles and hugs, and the cheered presence of our leader, the founder of Ethnomathematics Research Program…