Meet Mr. Barry

I am a legally blind senior citizen and an asylum seeker from the United States, living in São Paulo. I have called Brazil home for fourteen years.

For fifty years I have been a teacher and a mentor. I have taught more than 25,000 classes online, worked as a journalist, and built businesses while living and traveling in 27 countries. Mentoring university students remains one of the great joys of my life.

I am a reader of people, patterns and systems, and a connector of dots. I love a stimulating conversation and a good debate. I am passionate about human rights and civil rights.

My greatest passion today is health. I am developing artificial intelligence projects to help democratize healthcare in Brazil and across the BRICS nations — tools that help people understand their own lab results, diabetes and eye health, and that support the next generation of doctors. The goal is not only a longer life but a healthier one. This work grew directly from my own health journey. I use artificial intelligence every day; because of my visual impairment, it is how I read, write and build.

Life has brought me hardship — sometimes through my own choices, sometimes not. I have become a richer and stronger person through all of it.

I admire what Brazil attempts: healthcare for everyone, regardless of who they are. This record is not a story against that effort. It is what happened when I tried to use that system, asked for help in writing, and was refused — so I kept the record myself.

I am not an attorney. I am a layperson who loves to study the law, and I am still learning. I welcome correction. I am a witness, not a judge.

Thank you for reading.