Brazil fact for the English speaking world

What does English speaking world know about Brazil? It knows favelas, carnavals, statue of Christ, Copacabana beach, Girl from Ipanema?

Well, for the New Year I decided to add a few more facts:

Full name: Federative Republic of Brazil
Population: 182.8 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Brasilia
Area: 8.55 million sq km (3.3 million sq miles)
Major language: Portuguese
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 66 years (men), 74 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 real = 100 centavos - here is a current exchange rate
Main exports: Manufactured goods, iron ore, coffee, oranges, other agricultural produce
GNI per capita: US $3,460 (World Bank, 2006)
Internet domain: .br
International dialling code: +55

I hope that will make this world a better place!

Violence in Rio

The week before the last of 2006 was marked by violence in Rio. The buses were burned people were killed. It is violence and it is terrorism. Not political but social. Certainly it is bad. But what good is that Brazil has freedom. The police states like Cuba do not have violence because the government assumed the role of mafia. It is also interesting that in the free countries there are citizens that are ready to follow the orders of the criminal boss. And it is not necessarily because of the weak laws. It is different national character. When there is a freedom some people take advantage of it. So should the rest of people give up freedom to gain security like they did in the USA?

Seven million people in the USA were in jail or under investigation or on parole at the end of 2006 . If one put millions of people in jail one will reduce violence a little and unemployment by a lot! But Brazil will not do it like it decided against banning weapon of hands of the citizens in 2006.

Prostitutes of Brazil Unite!

Not long ago I watched Programa do Jo, which is similar to Saturday night life. But instead of a person that should be similar to Brad Pitt or alike there was a young working Brazilian prostitute Vanessa de Oliveira. She was beautiful, sincere and animated. Her stories were engaging and humorous. They did not speak a word on the subject of morality. That was refreshing.

Vanessa de Oliveira has a website promoting her book. If you read Portuguese you can buy it on line. Can you image this happening in America? No. And it is not because prostitution is illegal everywhere but a few counties in Nevada. I can see one of the American militant moralists asking:” And you think it is good?” And I will say that in my eyes sincere prostitute is more of a person than any horny puritan defending moral health of nation while watching porn on the web and masturbating in his bathroom.

The other interesting news that is related to this issue was new cloth label Daspu (short for das purtas). Some prostitutes in Brazil decided to establish a label that would express their opinion. The label was a hit in Europe this summer. The product line so far is narrow but it is making news and appeals to some women (not only prostitutes). They make t-shirts with slogans like ”Lost women are most desirable” or “Good women go to heaven and bad ones go everywhere else”. They also see this label as campaign to bring their profession into main stream and make it socially respectable.

Prediction about Brazil

Since this is the end of the year and everyone is predicting so will I. As always, if you can’t predict correctly, predict often and some of you prediction will come true.

I see another prosperous year for Brazil and the world. I see Brazil to continue to trade a lot with Asia, Middle East and neighbors. Brazil could do a lot better if it would invest more money in production and marketing. Instead of sending the wood to Asia, It could make products itself. I know I will still see Chinese picture molding from Brazilian premium wood, Italian doors from Brazilian wood, Indonesian jewelry with Brazilian gem stones etc.

I do not see any major changes in Brazil. But I see myselft moving there...

More people search for Brasil than for Brazil

If you own a website about Brazil and you may think you may get a lot of traffic. But the fact is that Brazil is searched on the Google many times more as Brasil. If you care to see that go to Google trends and you will see the most searches come from Latin countries? English speaking searches are a minor fraction of it.

Paulo (Pavel) Lojnikov - Russian carioca or a man who spoke to a spirit

I have met Paul (Paulo or Pavel) Lojnikov in 1993 during my first visit to Rio de Janeiro Brazil. He was by far the most interesting person I ever met in my life. He was more carioca than anyone I even known. Carioca means the person who belongs in Rio. He was born in 1922 in Harbin, China. He was born in Russian family and was very Russian even he never been in Russia. He ran away from home when he was 10 and joined the British corpus where started training in boxing. Also he was not formally educated he spoke fluent Chinese, English, Russian and Portuguese. He became a boxing Champion China and then Asia in light weight in 1940th.

He was a playboy and because he was flirting with a girl from Czechoslovakia ended up spending 5 years in solitary confinement on spy charges in Communist China. Meantime his wife and his son immigrated to the USA. He managed to escape from China and ended up in Macao (Portuguese colony at that time). He was given a choice to move anywhere in the world as a refugee. He chosen Brazil and never felt sorry. He had reason to feel sorry as he became a successful gem dealer (at one time worked supplying gem to H. Stern - brazilian jeweler who worth another story in this blog). Paul was assaulted in his house two times and one time police killed 6 assailants. So he bought a condo in Barra de Tijuca and moved. But he kept his pistol on his nightstand even there. He married 7 times. That was not a surprise as he was interested in women till the day he died. He had many fiends around the world. He had written a book “Seven year conversing with a spirit.” He believed that he was a reincarnated St. Paul and did a lot of charitable work. He never retired. He was not a saint by any means womanazing, smoking 2 packs daily and for a while drinking 1 quart of whiskey per day.

Paul died in Rio de Janeiro in 2002 and was buried in Sao Joao Batista cemetery. He use to have a website but it is down now.

What a movie, what a country!

“Tieta of Agreste” (1998) is a movie that you have to see. The movie is witty, funny and very Brazilian as anything written by Jorge Amado. It is a bit of a immigrant dream of a successful rich woman returning to visit her little village. She left it long ago. She has a secret that I do not want to reveal. Otherwise I will spoil your pleasure. Only in European movies (and in Brazilian ones) we can see how the bad an the good is actually one. The life is not black and white. But this movie is in many colors. There are some moments which Americans would find to be X rated but overall it is PG.

God is Brazilian in case you are still not sure

If you are still wondering what god was then you need to watch "God is Brazilian" film. God (played here by Antonio Fagundes) has reached the end of his tether with the human race, and has decided to take a well-earned vacation. I love Brazilian take on god. Unlike American God, the Brazilian one is not a Judge which tell you how to live your life but a cool Dude.

So God needs to find someone to fill in for him while he's away. Perusing his list of Saints, he travels to Brazil, where he stumbles across a guy name Taoca (Wagner Moura). The young man with a passion for life inspires God to rethink some of his ideas about the human race. It is witty and unique. It is a nice slice of Brazilian life and a good entertainment for the entire family.

I bet you did not know

Did you know that the territory of Brazil is bigger that the territory of the USA? It is a big country!

Did you know that Brazil was a metropolis of the Portuguese empire? That was the only time in the modern history that it ever happened.

Well, did you know that tourmaline is rarer than diamond? It is! If you have not been in Brazil and you never cared much for jewelry you may ask what is it? It is a beautiful stone! You can see some of them in jewelry in http://paraiba.com/ If you are to give a gift to someone who loves Brazil consider tourmaline.

Rent a room in Favela Hotel!

Sure you know about a favela if you ever visited Brazil. And how about staying in one? On my last visit to Brazil I had a driver that lived in one of the favelas in Rio. It is basically unplanned and unregulated buildings erected on the sides of the mountains. You may read and see some shooting etc that happened there but in reality it self-governed territory where police does not go unless there many of them and they are in an armored car. Police is not welcomed there. Inside the favela life is simple and regular. In fact my driver was leaving his car with windows down and his car was a nice imported air-conditioned vehicle. Some houses are very nice and have modern conveniences and others do not. But please do not judge it by American or western standard. It is just different.
Now, how about staying in a favela hotel? This is exactly what is offered to you by the owner of this place. Many people did and were very happy. The can arrange a car, a guide and more!

Apartment rental in Rio de Janeiro Brazil

I have met Kenn on my last trip to Brazil. He is an American man in his 50s who retired in Rio De Janeiro. Yes folks there many people who leave this “wonderful free country” of the USA and go elsewhere. He is one of them but there are many more! He rents apartments and condos and you can contact him if you need one http://www.ez-riorentals.com/. I often send him leads which I get from http://www.rio-de-janeiro-brazil-rental.com I had a beer with Kenn in one of the little places in Ipanema.

The reason I wanted to talk to him because a few weeks before I was in line at the post office when a woman behind me said: “I do not understand why this people want even to get those passports? I would never leave this country” . Well, it may not look like it because American media has power over public mind but for everyone that wants to get into this country there is a one who wants to leave.

Now do you want to visit Brazil or you are looking for an escape rout?