Carnaval in Salvador. People in the middle row paid for V.I.P. access - denoted by the obligatory wearing of a dorky T-shirt called “abada”, which costs between R$ 250 and R$ 1500 (roughly $ 100 to $ 750).
The City of Salvador has the greatest African ancestry in Brazil, with about 70% of residents self-identifying as black. The V.I.P. access is not segregated in any way, except for “Filhos de Gandhi” block, which accepts only blacks (“Filhos de Gandhi” means Sons of Gandhi - yes, the Indian guy). The locals are not willing to pay those outrageous prices for the dubious privilege of not mixing up with poor (and often colored) people.
Those douchey whitey V.I.P.s (heh) are tourists from southern Brazil and elsewhere in the world.
Note (edit): I’m in no way defending the theory that Brazil doesn’t have racism. What I’m saying is that this particular picture, impressive as it is, is showing the difference between locals and tourists. You can probably find a similar color contrast between VIP rooms against bleacher seats during a Carnaval parade in Rio or São Paulo, or during soccer games - in that case, both are composed mostly of locals. Still, I’m calling the tourists douchey for paying overpriced tickets to not mix up with people and failing to notice the role they’re playing in the above picture
Classic.
Ghost and ectoplasm by super-duper medium Chico Xavier. Looks legit.
Yesterday’s Marijuana Liberation protest in São Paulo was cracked down by the police. The cops were acting on a judicial order that simply forbid the manifestation on the grounds that it was an excuse for smoking pot in public. The judge in question apparently considered himself in the powers of a precog, sending the cops after a presumed crime.
A vicious circular logic is affecting both judges and conservatives arguing against the protesters - marijuana is forbidden, so asking for it not be forbidden is to make an apology to crime - and so, also forbidden. Unfortunately, after 26 years of democracy, Brazil still has a very shallow understanding of liberty (maybe also logic).
It’s also worth noticing the cheerful addiction of Brazilian cops to the spice. The camera being pepper-sprayed at the beginning of the video is from Folha de S. Paulo news team.
This is a video I just watched of two brazilian policemen (Here from Rio de Janeiro, the state I live in) being beaten by a suspect. The guy tries to get their guns, runs aways, gets hit by a car and comes back trying to steal the police car. And the policemen? COMPLETELY unprepared to deal with a situation like this. They didn’t even run after the suspect when he runs away. They didn’t try to do ANYTHING.
The worst part? A totally random guy that was there at the time has to take control of the situation and do the policemen’s job. This is tragic.
How can we feel safe living in a place where the police can’t arrest a guy that’s not even armed?
I hate to say that, but this is rather comic. Look at the fat guy sitting on the thug to keep him from fleeing. I just wonder how the situation would have developed if the cops were not being filmed.
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?
Porn spammers have invaded Tumblr. They are posting all their stuff with the “Brazilian” tag, among other “porn-related” stuff as “tentacle”, “lesbian”, “shemale” and so on.
Viewer Discretion: dozens of Critical Mass bicycle protesters in Porto Alegre are run over by a psycho in a car.
Something Brazil besides all that hula-hula we all know. Nothing that could have come from a tourism board and no ageing TV celebs taking peacock feathers for underwear to be seen here.
