Two incidents involving sexual harassment and assault took place in Brazil and the U.S. this week, shocking each nation. Though both were seemingly isolated incidents, part of what made them so horrifying was the thought that these terrible events could somehow reflect on the people of the respective countries. I'd like to think that they were, in fact, isolated incidents, but the events are undoubtedly telling.
In Brazil, a female college student at a respected university was chased by a mob shouting and cursing at her and threatening to rape her, supposedly because she was wearing a very short skirt to class. She barricaded herself inside a classroom and was escorted off the campus by military police. Several videos of the incident were floating around the Internet this week, though most have been removed (this one seems to be working). It seems as if a few reactions to the woman's attire sparked a mob, consisting of both men and women accusing the woman of being a whore. The incident provoked outrage all over the country, with many shaking their heads at what was perceived as evidence of a machista society. [From an outsider perspective, the irony of this terrible incident is that it debunks the gringo myth that Brazilians love nudity and approve of wearing little clothing in everyday life, as opposed to just at the beach].
I take your mob and I raise you something infinitely worse.
In California, a fifteen year-old high school student left a high school dance intending to go home, and instead went to drink in an alley behind the school. She wound up getting drunk, and was attacked by around ten male students who gang raped her for nearly three hours, while allegedly around a dozen other people stood around watching and did nothing. Several of the attackers have been arrested (they are being tried as adults even though they're minors), though police are still looking for more suspects, including those who watched and failed to call the police or alert authorities. The girl was found later in critical condition, and only was released from the hospital three days later. All over the U.S., people expressed outrage and disbelief that such a large group of people could watch such a brutal crime and refuse to stop it.
Both incidents forced both countries to reflect on issues people neither want to think about nor acknowledge. In the case of Brazil, some claimed that the victim "asked for it" because she provoked her fellow students with her "lewd" clothing. In the U.S., there's likely a minority who blame the incident on immigrants, since the arrested suspects are Latinos. But fundamentally, the large majority in each country tried to reconcile how something so unthinkable could happen in civilized places in this day and age, how as a part of a crowd, seemingly normal individuals could become monsters.
When CNN broadcasted the 2016 Olympics announcement, an American friend pointed out that there was a single black person in the entire Brazilian delegation, which she thought was odd considering Brazil has the largest population of African descendants outside of Africa, not to mention many black athletes. I explained that this reflected the overall status quo in Brazil, and that black Brazilians, especially lower class blacks, don't have a strong voice or political power. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
I featured CatComm's project proposal two weeks ago, and thanks in part to my readers, they made it to the final round of the Idea Blob contest, and are up against seven other non-profits in competition to win $10,000. CatComm has worked with marginalized communities in Rio for a decade, and hopes to create a project to prevent favelas from being razed to make way for Olympic stadiums. The project would empower community leaders to make sure the world knows what's going on in Rio and to prevent human rights abuses from taking place. The communities in danger of being destroyed are some of the few in Rio with no drug trafficking, militia, or violence that have created their own social projects and their own infrastructure. They are essentially model communities that have achieved rare success on their own, and are at risk of being leveled to make room for a stadium.
That said, please take out a minute to vote for CatComm. The final day for voting is Saturday, and it only takes a minute to do!
Also, CatComm filmed some interesting videos about the project, including messages from community residents and an explanation (in English) about the project. Take it away, Theresa!
Sometimes, the Brazilian media likes to romanticize poverty under the pretext of "living more simply," which I find irritating, but I couldn't resist the incredibly charming tale of Zé Peixe, known by the gringos as Joe Fish.
Zé Peixe, age 82, was born as José Martins Ribeiro Nunes in Aracaju, Sergipe. He learned how to swim very young, and soon gained the nickname Zé Peixe for his swimming skills. At 17, he became a harbor pilot in his seaside city, helping guide ships in and out of port. He is now one of the most famous harbor pilots in Brazil and even in the world.
At 5'2, 116 pounds, Zé Peixe has stayed fit by never drinking or smoking and swimming every day. He eats very little; just a roll and coffee for breakfast and fruit for the rest of the day. You can't swim well on a full stomach, according to Zé. He rarely drinks water; only a few mouthfuls of salt water when he's swimming now and again. He hasn't taken a shower since he was a kid, and only gets clean by swimming in the river or the ocean (and does so without soap, a fact that probably makes most Brazilians squirm). He rarely wears shoes and usually walks around in a bathing suit, and only gets dressed up with shoes for church and special occasions.
He lives in one of the oldest houses in Aracaju, where he was born and where he and his family have lived for three generations. He's been a widow for two decades and never had children, but has a large extended family. Even though he's been technically retired since the 90s, he has kept working because he enjoys his job so much.
Zé gets on the ship to navigate it safely out of port, and once he's done, he leaps from a height of a five-story building, and sometimes as much as 130 feet high into the water below, and then swims back to shore, which takes between 2 and 4 hours, an average of over 6 miles a day. He learned to swim in a way where he kicks very little, as not to attract sharks. Before diving, he tucks his paperwork and money into a plastic bag that he sticks in his shorts. Back in the day, he used to swim out to the boats on a boogie board, and wait between jobs by floating on a buoy.
He's also known for his heroism. In 1941, bodies of sailors from a ship bombed by the Germans washed up on the shore of Aracaju, and ever since then, no one has drowned when he's been nearby. One of his greatest feats was helping rescue an entire crew from a burning ship on its way back from an oil platform.
For a gorgeous black and white photo archive with English descriptions, see here. Check out the videos below to find out more (Portuguese only) and to watch Zé's trademark breathtaking dive.
I found out that Rio had been elected by Forbes as the World's Happiest City when a Brazilian TV producer I know emailed me to see if I could shoot a segment they were doing about the announcement the following day. Even though I found the news infuriating and insulting, I knew it wasn't her fault, and politely explained I wasn't in Brazil anymore but I was grateful for her offer.
My knee-jerk reaction was that it was an obnoxiously typical American view of developing countries. Unworldly Americans are apt to marvel at how happy the locals are in the Caribbean and Africa, noting, "They're poor, but they're so happy!" Similarly, Americans often think of Rio as the party headquarters of the world, due to its reputation as the home of Carnival, which seems to make foreigners think that the city enjoys endless partying year-round. My suspicions were confirmed by the article:
"Ever since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio, the world has been fascinated with Rio de Janeiro. Popular perception of the city is infused with images of starry-eyed youngsters dancing into the dusk, backed by imposing mountains and dark sea.
That view has propelled Rio to the top of our list of the world's happiest cities. Famous for its annual Carnaval festival (starting Feb. 13 next year), the second-largest metropolis in South America finished first among 50 cities in a recent survey conducted by policy advisor Simon Anholt and market researcher GfK Custom Research North America."
The second thing that irritated me is that I hate rankings like this based entirely on subjective opinions. I'm a fan of rankings based on hard numbers and facts, like the Human Development Index. This survey merely reflects one of foreigners' greatest misunderstandings about Brazil, and Rio in particular.
But the Brazilian media went wild with the story, another feather in Brazil's hat. The foreign media also celebrated the story, like this op-ed in Spain's El Pais entitled "Happiness is Brazil's natural specialty." The author claims that Brazilians' best weapon is their smile, and that their amiable nature and desire to please makes them a naturally happy people. Meanwhile, the comments on the article written by foreigners living in Brazil are much more telling.
The American media jumped on the story, too, as Oprah included Rio on an episode about four of the world's happiest cities. She interviewed two women: a wealthy housewife from Zona Sul who cited cheap plastic surgery and beach culture as the reason's for Rio's happiness, and her housekeeper from a favela. I can't find the video for the Rio segment, but from the article it seems to me that like Forbes, Oprah seriously missed the point.
When I sat down to write this, a reader sent me an op-ed from Estadao that said everything I wanted to say infinitely more coherently than I could. Lobao, a songwriter and musician, wrote an incredibly eloquent piece explaining "The risk of wearing the sash of the world's happiest city." He went on to explain that such self-indulgence is dangerous in a city plagued by so many complex problems, and that it only made Cariocas more complacent and less likely to take these issues seriously. Some of the best parts:
"Talvez essa tal felicidade esteja nos condenando à eterna permanência
da precariedade, pois aplaca nossa indignação, estupra nosso luto, mina
a vontade de sermos melhores, impossibilita qualquer tentativa de
engendrar profundas e necessárias transformações da imagem que temos de
nós mesmos e, infelizmente, acaba por facilitar a tal da
autofolclorização, caindo na gratuidade insólita, boba e até cruel da
carnavalização...
Torço também para que no próximo concurso o Rio se torne um campeão de
gentileza, um lanterninha da violência, um exemplo de elegância, de
qualidade de vida, que sejamos reconhecidos pela honestidade sem
esperteza, por sermos um povo que tenha uma autocrítica mais severa, um
povo de fibra que, sem perder suas belas características, seja também
cosmopolita, apto a se transformar, aberto para a cultura do mundo, um
povo que em sua retumbante alegria seja menos narciso e, de
preferência, mais sério."
"Perhaps this happiness has condemned us to eternally remain in a precarious situation, since it appeases our indignation, rapes our mourning, undermines our desire to be better, makes impossible any attempt to create profound and necessary transformations of the image we have of ourselves and unfortunately, winds up aiding autofolklorization, ending in surprising, silly, and even cruel gratitude of being "Carnivalized."
I also hope that during the next competition, Rio will become a champion of courtesy, in last place in terms of [levels of] violence, an example of elegance, of quality of life, that we are recognized by honesty and not ingenuity, for being a people that are much more critical of themselves, a people of fiber who without losing their beautiful features, are also cosmopolitan, able to transform, open to the culture of the world, a people that in their triumphant happiness are less narcissistic and preferably, more serious."
Though I couldn't have said it better, I'll take a gander at how I see it. Rio has long been a place where optimism and superficial happiness are the keys to survival, a place where it is easier to put on a happy face than to face the weight of decades-old conflicts that have no end in sight. It is a place that is so painfully beautiful that it seems unfair not to look on the bright side. It's a city where a large number of residents live in abject poverty and are resigned to their fate, and see small chances at happiness, be it a beer on a Friday or a day-long barbecue as a temporary respite. It is a place that banks on any opportunity to escape from reality, to relax, to forget about its problems. It is not in fact a 24/7 party (not any more than any other major city), and Carnival serves as a necessary pressure valve for the social conflicts weighing down on the city the rest of the year. If Rio seems happier than every other city in the world, it is only because it is overcompensating, desperately trying to distract itself from the problems it doesn't wish to acknowledge.
*Thanks to Emma, Mallory, and Kleber for sending over some of the news links!
The other day, I stumbled upon a massive film set right in the middle of Manhattan, which was evidently a Mark Wahlberg movie. When I went to look it up on IMDB, my jaw dropped when I saw his newest movie, due to be released in 2011: The Brazilian Job.
A sequel to The Italian Job, the movie stars Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Seth Green, and Jason Statham, who head to Rio to pull off their latest heist. According to IMDB, they're in the scripting phase, though there are rumors that the movie may not happen at all.
While it's exciting they're expected to film nearly the whole thing in Rio, I can't say I anticipate a very balanced view of Brazil or Rio. I'm guessing there will be lots of scantily-clad women, caipirinhas, favelas and thugs. But god help them if they cast Latin, non-Brazilian actors to play Cariocas, or worse--if they give the Brazilian characters lines in Spanish. It wouldn't be the first time for Hollywood.
This is exactly the worst kind of movie that could possibly come out just as Brazil is taking its place as a serious player on the world stage, since it will likely be a movie awash with the same stereotypes, misinformation, and misconceptions, especially about Rio. But given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the remake, it's possible it won't get made. For Brazil's sake, I hope it doesn't.
Newspapers around the world splashed news of violence in Rio in the headlines, citing the battle last week in Zona Norte as an embarrassing reminder of Rio's security threats. But the truth is that though it was indeed scary and tragic, it wasn't really out of the ordinary in terms of violence in Rio. This type of thing happens sporadically, but the international media doesn't tend to pay attention. I suppose this is an advantage of the Olympics, since now Rio will be under a lot more pressure to implement real, lasting measures to combat violence.
But here are two pieces of news you may not have heard, that are much more telling.
Here's the good news first. Thank you to Luiza, who has Conjur on her Google Reader and spotted this small but hopeful little article to create an Olympics watchdog committee of district attorneys who work to protect the environment and consumers. The committee, which was formed within the Ministerio Publico, will track not only Olympics expenditures but also World Cup ones as well. Since there was out of control spending during the Pan Am Games in 2007, the committee hopes to ensure that spending is kept within the bounds of the budget, estimated at R$50 billion. The committee intends to protect the people of Rio, rather than the drooling contractors, politicians, and businessmen--or so we can hope.
The second piece of news isn't so good, but is much scarier in terms of violence in Rio. Favela battles tend to be confined to the favelas, keeping the residents of other neighborhoods relatively untouched. Even though police may be gunning down traffickers a half hour away, the residents of Ipanema or Gloria may as well be in another country. But this news is one of violence downtown, and it's unclear what really happened.
A social activist, Evandro João da Silva, who worked at AfroReggae, one of Rio's biggest non-profits that works with children in favelas, was shot to death during in a mugging in Centro last week. He was out with his friends at a bar, and at first glance appeared to merely be the victim of an armed robbery. But then, someone leaked security tapes that caught the murder on camera, and things got a lot more complicated.
The footage shows Evandro being approached by two men, the men tackling him to the ground, and the fatal shooting. It then shows the two men removing Evandro's jacket and shoes and running off. But then, a military police cruiser appears, in plain sight of Evandro dying on the ground. Instead of getting out of the car and rushing to his aid, the police cruiser keeps going as the officers confront the robbers. Instead of cuffing and arresting them, they let them both go. The video shows one of the robbers walking away calmly just a few minutes later. Then, the footage shows one of the officers with Evandro's belongings, confiscated from the robbers, which he puts into the police car. And then the police drive away, leaving Evandro bleeding to death on the ground just feet away.(His body was later discovered by other police officers.) Later, it was discovered the confiscated items were never given to Evandro's relatives and were kept by the police officers (after the news came out, the belongings were returned). The two police officers are now under investigation.
Was it a hit? Or was it just another horrific incident of violent crime and police corruption? Either way, this is the story the media should really be interested in.
I am a lot less proud of my writing than I am of the amazing and fascinating readers I have managed to attract here on the blog, and I thought it would be nice to put them the spotlight once and awhile, considering that I would have stopped blogging if it weren't for them. The first person I chose was a blog/Twitter buddy who I realized I knew absolutely nothing about. [If you're interested in being featured here, please email riogringaconsult at gmail dot com. There are some newcomers I'm very curious about--I'm looking at you, Jolly--and some older readers who definitely deserve a profile.]
So for the first profile, I'm happy to present Marina!
Marina is 27 and lives in Sao Paulo. She has two college degrees: one in Advertising, and the other in Web Design and Programming. She's a freelance translator, takes French lessons, and loves photography (take a look at her portfolio--she's really good). She writes Brazinglish, and given my interaction with her I had long assumed she'd spent a lot of time abroad, probably in the United States. Her perfect English and knowledge of American pop culture could only be from personal experience, I'd thought, and I was actually curious as to whether she was Brazilian or American. So I was shocked to find out the real deal. While she is unique as far as most of the Brazilians I know still living in Brazil, she faces some of the same frustrations and struggles many Brazilians do.
1. So it looks like you're living in Sao Paulo now. Could you explain where you lived in the US and Brazil and how you wound up in each place? And maybe a bit about your experience in each place?
I've never ever been to the real US. I spent 15 days in Florida doing the whole Orlando-Tampa-Miami theme park thingy when I was 15. People spoke to me in Spanish and it drove me mad, since all I wanted at the time was to test my English. I should've started taking English lessons when I was 12, but ended up starting when I was 10, because since the age of 5 I went to my mom's classes (when we first went to Santa Catarina, she didn't know anyone, so she carried me around). So her teacher told her to bring me over, and the rest was history. That was in 1992, a year later came cable TV, and 3 years later, the Interwebz. I only spoke Portuguese in school with my friends by then. The first e-mail I ever wrote was in English. I only watched TV in English. I have to thank my parents for that, the last time we all watched Jornal Nacional was in 1993. It all snowballed to a point where all the magazines and books I buy are in English, also my cellphone, computer operating system, you name it. In fact, if you come by my house right now, I probably have more stuff in English than you do, haha. [You're probably right; about half of my little library is in Spanish and Portuguese]
I'm in São Paulo now because of my boyfriend (Chiveta) of 8 years. We met in Santa Catarina, while I was living in Porto Alegre (at university). He's always lived here, I came because I'm your typical small town girl who dreams of making it in the big city (well, technically I'm from Porto Alegre, but I was brought up in rednecky Criciúma, Santa Catarina, where I taught English for a living til last year). There was absolutely no future there. After I got my bachelor's degree I went to Criciúma for a while, completely lost, and got a call from an English course. I wanted a job so bad, felt like a burden at home, all that stuff. So I accepted the offer, thinking "I'll just do this for a while till I figure things out" and ended up staying there for 4 years.
So far there's not much of an experience here, workwise. Got here in March, work from home, translating (mostly law abstracts and now books) and take French lessons at Alliance Française. Living with Chiveta is a blessing, he's amazing with the housework stuff that I hate, and he's ok with all my Seinfeld-like germophobia and neuroses in general. I feel right at home, it's like a bigger Porto Alegre, but without the annoying accent and loud people – gaúchos are loud as hell, I'm glad I left when I was 2 and developed a mixed accent.
2. What do you do (job/school)? What would you like to be doing?
Well, like I said, I'm freelance translating and learning French. I'd like to be studying photography, and like everyone else, I'd like to have a decent job. : )
Although the profile on the blog suggests Anderson (the soccer player) is "guilty" of brazinglish, what inspired me was pretty much being unemployed. Basically, I only include the mistakes of people who were paid to speak/write/understand English. Anderson's not to blame here, his publicist is. I love how he just goes for it. The blog started because I think it's so unfair that I'm here with no job in sight and there's so much crappy English going on everywhere. Woe is me, I know, but that's the truth. I have some stuff from SBT and Editora Abril that's so wrong it's just insane. I wish I could have a "video" version, only about brazinglish subtitles (those are the ones that really make me cringe), but I'd have to record everything that airs on TV and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
4. How did you originally find my blog?
Oops. No idea, sorry. But I'm absolutely positive the first post I read was How to Speak Brazilian, I left a comment there as Chiveta. You nailed it, Vick-ee Vah-poh Roo-bee gets me everytime.
5. What other Brazil blogs do you like? What are your other favorite blogs?
I don't really read Brazilian blogs on a regular basis. But if it's sarcastic and dark, I'm there. So I could say I read tedouumdado. I love gossip blogs when they're mean (IDLYITW is my favorite, hands down, because it's written by men. It's so crass, I love it.) and I hate them when they tone things down because they're getting "famous" (Perez, Just Jared, Pink is the New Blog <--- all stuff I read in '05/'06 and gave up on since). Apart from that, lots of Apple-related blogs, Wired's Gadget Lab and Lifehacker, which is not really a blog.
6. What interests you the most when you read about Brazil? the US?
It's hard to read something about Brazil and feel anything other than disgust. Yes, I know, it's easy for me to say that because I'm here, if I were away I'd have the flag wrapped around my head. I'm not so sure about that. I do love the fact that my family can afford health insurance and pay for stuff in a million installments with a regular credit card if necessary, but the air I breathe (music, movies, arts in general) is low on oxygen here. So that pretty much tells you what I like reading (and seeing and listening) about the US. Being a fan of all things underground, not only would I be able to go to a million shows 8 days a week there, but I'd also be able to hang out with the people I admire and talk to them like regular people. Graphic designers, poster artists, photographers, musicians, craftspeople from Etsy, you name it. One thing I gotta say though, is we have the most amazing lower class/poor community in the world. Just yesterday I saw this video from Fantástico – which I never watch – of a girl who was fired (she worked as a maid) because she missed a day's work. She missed a day's work because she breastfed 6 children during a fire in a favela. Now that is a Brazil I'm proud to live in. : )
