via @chicobarney e @cintiacosta
A rather noteworthy poll was published on the website of Folha de S. Paulo, the most sold newspaper in Brazil.
Translation: The book “The Pink Triangle” tells the history of a gay survivor in a Nazi concentration camp. He says that even straight guys ended up making sex with other guys. If you were a prisoner in a Nazi camp, would make sex with a person of the same sex?
- Yes
- No
- Maybe, but no kissing.
Is BioB São Paulo-centric?
Some readers complained that my views on Brazil are São Paulo-centric. There’s not much I can do about it, as I was born and live in São Paulo and seldom travel outside. What I post about other states of Brazil is just what the internet brings me. I’d prefer if we had other contributors, from all around the country - the submit form is always open for everybody.
I live in São Paulo by choice. I love tall buildings (even the ugly ones), exotic food, the anonymity of big cities and the sensation there’s always something big going on. However, I’m no SP apologist (bairrista) - there’s tons of ugly stuff about Sao Paulo, and I always talked about them here. Since the beginning of this blog, I posted about SP favelas, urban decay, crime, pollution, traffic et all.
Still, what I think makes this blogs interesting is the fact it has something “foreign” on it, being made by an English-speaking, atheistic, geeky, libertarian, non-nationalistic SP dweller. People can get offended in that I absolutely don’t buy nationalistic propaganda, but I feel that has to do with the fact they have an outdated feeling of endangered nationhood. A feeling that is typical for minor countries, outdated because Brazil is not minor anymore.
Brazil is not endangered. It’s not a smallish nation in the verge of being absorbed, but a Behemoth that already feels aggressive and imperialistic to its neighbors. I think that Brazil is an interesting country which certainly has a future. A future in which it’s growing influence will force people outside to know what Brazil is really about, instead of relying on tired propagandistic junk. Thus Brazilians will have to learn to live with criticism. That’s the price of being relevant. Also self-criticism, and that one is the price of democracy.
What I try to do here is not just debunking old clichés and propaganda, but showing what I regard as real creativity, innovation and human curiosities. Including ugly, wacky human curiosities. Including the ones that fit into old clichés and propaganda - I’m not doing propaganda of my own.
BioB is in also in no way an academic essay on what the “real Brazil” is. Not only I don’t have the pretension or academic background to do so, but also I don’t believe there’s a single Brazil. It’s too much people living too far away, united mainly by language and government. There’s almost as big a leap from Rio Grande do Sul to Rio Grande do Norte as there is from Argentina to Mexico.
Stay pretty,
F. Marton (I’m not Carmen Miranda)
Wow, that’s a knowledge of Latin American politics I wouldn’t expect from a teabagger :) I thought they would just fill everybody in the “Berlin Wall-nostalgic chicanos” category.
Che’s daughter to parade on Carnaval
This is to our friends at Fuck Yeah Latin American History. According to Folha de S. Paulo, Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida Guevara (50) is going to show up on a tank-themed parade car for samba school Unidos da Ilha da Magia, of Florianopolis.
This year’s samba pays homage to Cuban Revolution. One part of the lyrics say:
Um preço a pagar, não vou negar
Mas a comunidade em primeiro lugar
Which roughly translates to:
There’s a price to pay, I’ll not deny
But the community comes in first place
P.S.: I could not find any image relating Che to Carnaval, so here you go. It’s related to family.
I thought those outrageous asinine policies were just due to lack of imagination. Now I see it’s purposeful. Next time someone drops a memetic banana at you, blame it on your government, not on those silly foreigners.
Brazilian policemen stand outside the vandalized Libyan embassy in Brasilia February 25, 2011. Libyan expatriate working in Brazil, Abdalla Al Hamdy, painted “Long live Libya” and “Down with Gaddafi” in reaction to the declaration of support for Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi by Libyan ambassador Dr. Salem Ezubedi after Ezubedi’s news conference in Brasilia on Thursday.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino (BRAZIL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)
vruz:
Muammar Gaddafi, Evo Morales and a friend.
Well, he sure does get around. This is the third one today. Fourth if you count Evo.
Muammar Gaddafi shakes hands with former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolivian president Evo Morales is between them in the background.
hey here’s another friend!
anti-south american bias? not at all, who could believe it?
I’m not sure what you mean. The person who posted the original comment is a Brazilian blogger, I’m sure he meant his “friend” comment in jest. Pictures of Gaddafi alongside Latin American leaders have been showing up on my dashboard a lot today. So I decided to reblog some of them. I don’t think there’s any kind of bias, it’s just interesting to see Gaddafi’s relationships with Latin American leaders, since Latin America is the scope of this blog, and it’s also topical considering the current events. I didn’t reblog pictures I saw on my dash featuring Gaddafi and Berlusconi or Tony Blair or Hilary Clinton because they don’t really relate to the point of this blog.
Let me put this clear: of course, being this a blog about Brazil, referring to Lula as “a friend” was a joke.
I didn’t vote for Dilma, and that is related to external policy, yes - but I was thinking mainly about the mindless support to the Iranian regime, inspired by an outdated Cold War third-worldism still prevalent on Latin American politics. Also some very blunt comments from Lula, as when he likened the clashes between opposition and government in Iran to a soccer gang fight.
Apparently, after Gaddafi became interested in reestablishing relationship with the West in 2000s, everybody in the world accepted his new “reformed” status. On the other hand, Gaddafi has never ceased to be an icon to the Latin American left, who, as I said, still party like it’s 1968.
