Brazil - have you been there?

http://www.rotovibe.com/images/rio/Canon-S400-221.jpg

check out diplo's new site http://www.formdiplo.com
there's a pics page which has some video and photos from the favela party we went to. check out the guy with the bleached hair in pic #11--that same guy was gyrating his firm booty right in my crotch later that night...i totally got a boner from that. then i attempted to have a conversation in portugese with him--cross cultural hilarity ensued.

Bruce Sterling on Brazil

Similarly in Brazil President Lula da Silva who this year completes the fourth year of his second mandate and will be leaving office next January first 2011, has an approval rating of 81%, according to the latest release from consultants Sensus. (((That is a crazily high rating for a guy in power eight years, but then again, Lula did transform his rambling wreck of a country into a global major power.)))

“The popularity of the president and his government continues strong and rising because of the good numbers of the economy, the positive results of social policies and the high employment index”, according to Ricardo Guedes, head of Census. (((It probably helped that Lula didn’t brusquely round up any Tropicalista pop stars or chase them off to London, but, rather, made the cool people into major political figures.)))

(((More. Lula’s opposition: “Yeah, okay, things are going great around here, but it was all the doing of us eight years ago, actually”)))

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8451472.stm

(…)

Brazil’s profile has never been higher on the international stage where some say it appears no world summit on key issues such as climate change or energy is complete without President Lula.

The country has also secured the rights to stage both the Olympics and the World Cup in the near future, putting it in the limelight as never before.
Marta Suplicy, the former tourism minister in the Lula government and ex-Mayor of Sao Paulo, is clear about his achievements.

“Besides the minimum wage increases, the 12 million new jobs, and inflation controlled, I would say self-esteem,” she told BBC News.

“Twenty one million Brazilians getting out of poverty is something. People being able to eat much better, to live in better conditions and have hope.
“I would say one of the most important things is the hope and self-esteem that President Lula brought to the Brazilian people.”

(((I dunno why people would think that a national government ought to do something helpful about the daily lives of the majority demographic within its borders. What is the point of all that? Was there no one else to be helped? What about the suffering bankers, the beleaguered oil companies, the needy defense contractors, and the free speech rights of major multinational corporations? We can hope to see Brazil get its priorities in better order in the next administration.)))

Just booked my ticket motherfuckers! Rio carnival!

awesome

http://cdn2.wi.gcs.trstatic.net/AmfgAY3e8ZTee6ys3yT0JIWQUFBqGHVmhMmicf76Y1GxG8waSxBcc_8xRsf7Ou0Icg5rT9cQjUkRUdGZANy3-4nkEFgqpfRsaGpitB3TFwYkZAhsLQJ-Hmy2qNQIKK1J
http://cdn2.wi.gcs.trstatic.net/dX-7h4A2tDcTPCgddOJQ1MdnNUy4E3STGUTqVy_9hn8xZAceSzjeW0mO_GCpuOAEQv6qCErAgh7gpd1Dr72jtw
http://cdn3.wi.gcs.trstatic.net/dX-7h4A2tDcTPCgddOJQ1JvzcpaVqHg-ArXGgNCunGwfeRQiRi88midj4-i1y3ZnivnfAzcRvc7NS3o8dJ8iaQ

I don't want to go do illegal logging in the Amazon in Brazil, I want to go to Rio and to Salvador, Bahia around carnival time and hear samba groups in the streets. But it seems expensive to go at that time of year (February). But can I find lots of samba in like April or May?

Consider contraception during your next visit.

Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage, possibly due to mosquito-borne virus

Brazil is investigating more than more than 2,400 suspected cases of microcephaly and 29 deaths of infants that occurred this year. Last year the country saw only 147 cases of microcephaly.

The situation in Brazil is so overwhelming that Angela Rocha, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Pernambuco, one of the hardest hit states, said in an interview with CNN that women may want to hold off on getting pregnant.

Used plenty of bug spray too.

Posted this over on ILM--

Just got back from an incredible trip to Brazil (Rio and Salvador, Bahia). Alas, a connecting flight got cancelled and then our luggage got misplaced on the way there, so We missed a free Romulo Froes gig. But we did hear that MC Joao cut "Baile de favela" everywhere (that Rob mentioned upthread). Mostly a remixed version (the light remix I think its called). Thousands were chanting the words to that in a Carnival bloco parade we attended at Copocabana beach. The song certainly got stuck in our heads.

We saw a late-night Maria Rita gig, a number of bands playing Carnival gigs on various streets, the 2nd night of the Sambadrome event with samba schools composed of 1,000 or so folks, plus the amazing Salvador Campo Grande Carnaval circuit with afro-blocos like Olodum and Ilie Aiye.

― curmudgeon, Saturday, February 13, 2016 5:49 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Had great food, saw lots of impressive neighborhoods, and made it to beaches too.

Such a fun holiday/vacation

Loved stumbling onto small mult-culti parade down those steps in Lapa not far from the Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio. Great Amazonian influenced meal in Santa Teresa, with a dj there playing classic samba and bossa nova. Massive outdoor Carnival event in Lapa was great too.

The Pelourinho area in Salvador may be aimed at tourists but its still a great place to go. On a street where afro-blocos like Ile Aiye and Dido and Muzuenza (sp?) have headquarters, we came across a great band and its bloco followers dancing and hanging out (a day after Carnival). The Afro Bahia Museum there though could use an infusion of funds.

Briefly spoke with some folks re the fraud investigations but not too much, when I was there.

Here's the W. Post take. Democracy Now has been offering coverage from a more left view

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/how-brazil-the-darling-of-the-developing-world-came-undone/2016/04/14/40ee9356-fab4-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html?tid=pm_pop_b

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/18/dilma-rousseff-congress-impeach-brazilian-president

On a dark night, arguably the lowest point was when Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right deputy from Rio de Janeiro, dedicated his yes vote to Carlos Brilhante Ustra, the colonel who headed the Doi-Codi torture unit during the dictatorship era. Rousseff, a former guerrilla, was among those tortured. Bolsonaro’s move prompted left-wing deputy Jean Wyllys to spit towards him.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, his son and also a deputy, used his time at the microphone to honour the general responsible for the military coup in 1964.

Greenwald was on this all weekend, of course

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n08/perry-anderson/crisis-in-brazil

Such a great piece.

Skimmed it and it looks fascinating. Will read it all later. Neither clichéd leftist nor mainstream nor right-wing, it appears

I have been looking for something credible on the current Brazil crisis, sadly that one is pay-walled :(

Solution is buy the LRB :)

I was angling more for "here is paste bank link I have done for you comrade" but never mind :p

Weird - it's not paywalled for me.

Not for me either

I only have the opening paragraph, maybe I have used up all my LRB freebie privileges.

without reading that lrb piece and at the risk of being extremely reductive the current brazil crisis can be boiled down p easily it seems: opposition politicians, the great majority of whom are implicated in corruption, are voting to impeach the president ostensibly for corruption, but really because the pt keeps winning elections and they've had enough of that

Rio all set for the Olympics

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-19/rio-warns-of-fiscal-collapse-as-brazil-states-seek-debt-relief

Bolsonaro just got stabbed.

Not thought to be seriously wounded, afaict.

Wouldn’t put it past him to do a Chen Shui-bian tbh.

Elections this weekend:

https://newsocialist.org.uk/future-brazilian-democracy/

Interesting parallels in the way courts have been used in Brazil and the US to shut down any resistance.

That article is so poorly written it makes a mildly confusing situation almost utterly incomprehensible.

Maybe certain things were lost in translation and granted a couple of the scenarios could be hard to understand - its not a newspaper piece so there is more analysis than usual - but the situation is fairly clear, and I am not that close to the minutiae of Brazilian politics.

Somebody told me it is "just like America". This can't be right.
― just adam (nordicskilla), Monday, March 14, 2005 9:59 PM (thirteen years ago)

They just needed a little help

It was a pleasure to meet STEVE BANNON,strategist in Donald Trump's presidential campaign.We had a great conversation and we share the same worldview.He said be an enthusiast of Bolsonaro's campaign and we are certainly in touch to join forces,especially against cultural marxism. pic.twitter.com/ceHoui6FH5

— Eduardo Bolsonaro 1720 (@BolsonaroSP) August 4, 2018

brazil is the most fucked-up country in the world y/n (see also: india)

i mean i guess it's about to be. when you're not sure whether he destroys civil liberty or the rainforest more quickly then you're kind of worried

hopefully someone doesn't fail next time they come at him /silby

There's a real sense of deja vu looking at my Brazilian friends on FB saying they're in mourning for their country, unfriending friends and family members who voted Bolsonaro, etc.

people are such craven fucking savage morons. you'd have thought they'd have learnt something as children, but no here they are, voting in satan himself, all in the name of their unreconstructed need to see other people dead. fuck this species

What is moronic is to call Brazil or India the most fucked-up country.

There is a 2nd round so Haddad could win that.

What is moronic is to call Brazil or India the most fucked-up country.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, October 8, 2018 11:02 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, ecological damage x murder rates x rape culture x suicide x political corruption it all kind of points to a perfect storm. what would your suggestion be

US...ah never mind.

Just under 80% turnout and yet Bolsonaro only just missed an outright victory :[

+ of all the countries built on rape, murder and slavery by europeans they've pretty much got the most abominable histories give or take the african west coast. i mean sure the congo/car might be more fucked up on some average-life-of-citizen basis but these are places that have just seen endless, endless evil for centuries anyway this isn't a competition really whatever

This will end well.

America wishes it had India's Supreme Court.

The whole Brazil situation just seems desperately sad, scary and depressing. In a final two run-off you'd normally expect some kind of Macron/Le Pen outcome but 46% of the vote is terrifying.

imago, I'm sure you're doing this with no ill intent, but the very thought exercise of "let's decide what the most fucked up place on earth is" has an unsavoury Mondo Cane exoticism to it, and certainly isn't very helpful at a stage where most of our problems are global in reach.

The whole Brazil situation just seems desperately sad, scary and depressing. In a final two run-off you'd normally expect some kind of Macron/Le Pen outcome but 46% of the vote is terrifying.

Yeah, and Macron had a somewhat successful rebrand on his side, while Haddad is settled with the legacy of the PT*. I can't see this going well.

* obviously I think Macron's rebrand is bullshit and the anti-PT sentiment pretty suspect but that's neither here nor there rn.