Rio Gringa

Brazil Around the World

This week has been full of interesting articles and events about Brazil, so here are a few I found.

Koni has opened in New York!

Well, not exactly Koni, but a definite cousin of the Rio cone restaurant fad. It's called K! Pizza Cone. (Read a review here) On Tuesday, I literally stumbled upon it and was so excited that I tried taking some pictures with my Blackberry, but they didn't come out so well. I know a few people who were interested in opening this kind of restaurant in New York, but it looks like someone beat them to it!

 

 

New York Times Carnival Photo Showcase

The NYT showcased a Brazilian photographer who took some really funky photos of blocos and street parties during Carnival in Rio. Rather than focusing on the glitz of the Sambadrome, he captured the heart of the party--and in black and white. It's worth checking out.

Açaí, a Global Super Fruit

Seth Kugel strikes again with an interesting story about açaí in the Amazon and how the locals eat it raw without sugar or flavoring (he says, literally, that it tastes like dirt). In related news, we just found some frozen pulp at Whole Foods this week. Yum.

Lula in Cuba

Lula is on a good will tour in Latin America, and his latest stop was in Cuba, where he met with the Castros and discussed trade, putting to rest any of the usual rumors that Fidel is no longer alive. Though the media reported jailed human rights dissidents had formally asked for Lula's aid, he denied any contact with them and never met with them. He did comment on the death of one of the dissidents, who died during a hunger strike.

New visa extensions for US-Brazil

This week, the Brazilian Senate approved a bilateral measure that would extend Brazilians' US visas to ten years, instead of five. This will also work the other way around, so Americans will get Brazilian visas that last ten years. It applies for tourist and work visas. Easier traveling for all!

Rising Brazil: The Choices Ahead

An excellent, albeit very long op-ed on Brazil's rise, with an in-depth analysis of its achievements and its challenges.

Paris Hilton too hot for Brazil?

The Secretariat for Women's Affairs wants the Devassa commercial with Paris Hilton pulled off the air, claiming it "devalues women" and is too sensual. Watch the video here and see for yourself, but other than being unbelievably stupid, the most offensive thing about it is that it in fact stars Paris Hilton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cristo's Price Tag

Yesterday, the news broke that the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro is demanding payment from Columbia Pictures for using unauthorized images of the Cristo Redentor statue in the movie 2012. Though the statue was built using public funds, the monument belongs to the Archdiocese, which also owns the commercial rights to images and footage of the statue.

Supposedly, negotiations began back in December with the hopes that the two parties could come to a "friendly" solution, rather than a legal battle. Although the Church doesn't charge people to use the image of the statue, they do have "veto power" over its use, which they have apparently used before during Carnival and other events. According to one report, Columbia requested use of the footage to the Archdiocese and was denied, but used the footage anyway. In addition to financial compensation, the Church is demanding a public retraction from the movie studio.

I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on this. The idea that an organism, be it a church or a government, having this type of control over the use of a public monument's image is absolutely ridiculous. The Christ statue, albeit religious in nature, is a symbol of Rio and internationally, a symbol of Brazil. It's incredible how such an archaic arrangement could still be in place, especially with such an important national treasure. Ironically, it reminds me of the latest New York Lotto print ads, which feature New York landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building with big price tags on them:

Also, if the church doesn't charge for the use of the image, demanding payment for its "unauthorized" use is what exactly? That smells like a lawsuit. It seems to me that the Archdiocese is going to have to sue Columbia, because I'd imagine this kind of demand is not going to go over so well. If they don't reach an agreement by March, the Church says the will bring an "official" lawsuit.

Interestingly, on many of the articles, Brazilians expressed their anger with the Archdiocese and noted that they had loved seeing the Christ in the 2012 movie, since it was evidence of Brazil's rising importance and made them feel proud. There are so many disaster movies where American and European monuments are destroyed with glorious special effects, but never any with scenes from Brazil. This really made an impact on Brazilians - the simple recognition was an incredible stamp of approval and renewed source of national pride. It had an especially important effect because Brazil was included as a major part of civilization, another country on par with the US, Europe and India, rather than the stereotypical images of Amazonian "savages" or scantily clad beachgoers. It was an equalizing moment, even though it was a fictional image of destruction. If you really want to look into the symbolism for what the scenes meant for Brazilians, it could be seen as the end of a history of marginalization, the end of the perpetual "country of the future," a kind of rebirth for Brazil.

Given the Archdiocese's ridiculous demand and a likely lawsuit, this could potentially discourage other filmmakers to include the Christ statue in their movies, or even encourage them to exclude Brazil altogether, given that the statue is the best known image of Brazil to gringos. We'll see how it plays out, but it might get ugly.

The Long March

So it took Globo nearly two months but they finally covered the Trail of Dreams march in Epoca Magazine, doing a Q & A with the Brazilian activist I interviewed back in January. The group of immigrants are on their way to Washington--on foot all the way from Miami--and are currently in Georgia. It's been really cold there, with temperatures in the 30s and snow showers. But they have kept on walking, every single day, in an effort to protest the broken U.S. immigration system.

Last time I wrote about Felipe's journey, it started a very lively debate about immigration. Interestingly, the Epoca article did as well - even though they're all Brazilian commenters, they represent essentially same spectrum of opinions - those who support the fight for immigrant rights, and those (especially legal immigrants in the US) who are against them. Take a look see.

Though I support Felipe, I do understand both sides of the issue, especially after going through the official immigration process. But what the Epoca article missed, and what I didn't focus on enough in the first post, was the issue of children being penalized for being illegal immigrants. There are so many cases of children brought to the US by the parents, illegally, who are raised along side Americans and grow up as Americans. But they have no rights - no rights to an education, or health care, or being fully productive members of society when they get older. Keeping so many children and teens in limbo hurts everyone in the long run, and can really be a recipe for disaster. There has to be a better way to deal with this issue.

Plus, it has become apparent to me that immigration in the U.S. essentially boils down to a single issue, one that many issues boil down to: money. (This applies to adults who want to emigrate, not children). The bottom line is, if you have a lot of money, you can live and work in the U.S. legally. If you don't have money, you won't be able to come legally, and you will likely not be able to become a legal resident. It's really as simple as that. If you think about the people you know who legally emigrated to the US as adults, you'll start to see a pattern. Going through the immigration process with Eli, as rigorous and long as it was, I understood how much had to do with finances and payments- it cost us upwards of $3000 in total, with around $2,000 of that as direct fees to the US government, and there was a significant portion of the process dedicated to proving the American partner's financial stability. Uncle Sam will open the golden gates in exchange for a load of paperwork and a wad of cash.

In any event, the immigration debate rages on, but the U.S. government continues to do nothing, even with social movements on the offensive and mind-boggling stories like this one from the NYT coming out far too often. It's an incredibly tricky issue, but there are some solutions out there that could help, even if they affect just the tip of the iceberg.

Video Mix

I came across a couple of videos I wanted to share:

As I mentioned last week, the Rio governor made an interesting comment about Dilma while sharing a box with her and Madonna during Carnival, and it was apparently caught on camera, when he decided to give Joel Santana a run for his money. Given how much traveling he does and the amount of foreign dealings he has, I was honestly surprised.

Kibe Loco is always talking about Rebolation, and that seems to be a pop culture item I missed, so I looked it up. Turns out it's this type of club/rave dance to techno that became popular on the Internet, and then ended up as an axe song this past summer in Brazil.

And in case you missed it, here is the really creative Unidos da Tijuca, the samba school that came in first in Rio's Carnival competition this year. 

DisneyLand Brazil

Last week, I came across some information online claiming that Disney is planning on opening its first theme park in Latin America in Curitiba, Brazil. I couldn't find anything about it in English, nor could I find any official information, so I can't guarantee this is definitely going to happen. Really, at this point, it's hearsay.

But given Disney's plans to build a theme park in China, and the fact that Curitiba is already a prime location for multinationals (it is home to one of only two IMAX theaters in Brazil, as well as the Brazilian headquarters for several major corporations, including HSBC), it seems possible. According to the sources, Curitiba was chosen due to its excellent infrastructure, its strategic location (its proximity to the city of Sao Paulo as well as several Mercosul countries), and its international airport.

So here are some of the details of the supposed plan to build DisneyLand Brazil:

• Construction is due to begin in August 2011 and is scheduled to last up to five years;
• The park will occupy 25 square kilometers, and the DisneyLand complex will be made up of four areas: a theme park, a water park, a zoo, and a shopping and hotel complex;
• There will be a special part of the park just for Zé Carioca (!), who will be one of the main personalities at the park, along with Mickey, Minnie, and co.;
• The park will offer packages to visit other Brazilian attractions, including Iguacu Falls and the Amazon, costal cruises, and special Disney hotel packages in major Brazilian cities, including Rio, Floripa, Recife, Salvador, and others;
• Disney-owned resorts in Rio, Porto Seguro, and Manaus;
• the launch of several Disney-owned TV channels, including Disney Channel Brazil, a new HBO brand that will include American channels like A&E, E!, and others, and a host of ABC Brazil channels (including news, ABC Family, and ABC);
• Several Disney-owned radio stations;
• a Buena Vista Pictures/Disney Pictures complex for making movies and dubbing/subtitling American movies into Portuguese.

There are some obvious pros and cons to an enormous undertaking like this, but the potential large number of jobs it could produce are a strong factor in its favor. Though the project will depend on talks with Parana government officials, it may also depend to the next Brazilian presidential administration, which will also be responsible for massive infrastructure and construction projects for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Aside from political support, Disney will have to throw some serious money around to get such a big project off the ground.

It looks like Disney is keeping its plans hush hush until they are finalized, but I'll be sure to post any new information as it becomes available.

Thursday Reads II

Since I'm hooked on the Olympics this week, here's a few good articles I've come across:

The Revolution televised, Global Post

"...Hours and hours of subversive American programming fill Cuba’s airwaves each day, attracting millions of viewers on the island with shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “Friends” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” How do they get there? They’re broadcast by Cuba’s own communist government."

[Fascinating story about TV, movies, and media in Cuba]

Lula's choice set to run in Brazil's presidential poll, BBC

"But perhaps the greatest impact will come down to the role and influence of the outgoing Brazilian leader.

President Lula, having used his dominant position to get his candidate in place, seems certain to exploit all his formidable political skills to ensure that this was not a wasted effort."

[Overview of Dilma's life and career, and her upcoming run for president]

Para a CNN, o Rio de Janeiro é a capital do Brasil (Diario do Rio)

Riot of color as Rio celebrates Carnival (CNN)

Yesterday, CNN had a small article attached to a photo gallery from Rio's Carnival where they referred to Rio de Janeiro as the capital of Brazil. (They also mentioned that the seven year-old sambista did dance in the parade with Viradouro, though she cried through part of it. Also, because of its overall performance, the samba school came in last place and was demoted to the second level of samba schools). I wrote about the mistake on Twitter, along with several others, and plenty of people left comments on CNN, and thankfully, they changed the error. But still.

Rio Gringos

In the last few weeks, quite a few gringo celebrities have made their way to Rio de Janeiro.

Beyonce was on tour in Brazil and did two shows in Rio, where she then took time out to shoot a video with Alicia Keys and visit Cristo. Sadly, the classiest celebrities were the first to leave.

After that, Madonna arrived to be with her boyfriend Jesus to attend Carnival. Maybe someone tipped her off that meeting with a presidential candidate during an election year is kind of, well, unkosher, since this time she made appearances with both major candidates, perhaps in an attempt to be impartial. She made a little trip to São Paulo to hang out with the Governor Serra to discuss setting up a branch of her NGO there, and then she spent a night at the Sambadrome hosted by the Rio governor and joined by Lula's chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, who is also running for president. (She also brought two of her kids and Jesus along for the twelve hour bash).

Paris Hilton is also in Rio for Carnival, since she's being paid by Devassa beer to promote their brand. (I'm wondering if anyone told her what devassa means in Portuguese. I'd hope so, but assuming they did, it makes the whole affair even less tasteful). Meanwhile, at one of the sponsored events, she danced around ridiculously and got so drunk she basically couldn't stand up, giving a writer at Globo the opportunity to write one of the dumbest headlines of all time. 

Also in town for the festivities were Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro and Scottish actor Gerard Butler, who hung out together at the Copacabana Palace ball and at the Sambodrome with Madonna.

It's great that Brazil is attracting celebrities with Madonna and Beyonce's star power, and it will hopefully attract more celebrities along those lines in the near future, though hopefully not just for Carnival, and hopefully not just in Rio. The goal is for celebrities to take Brazil seriously, sort of like Beyonce did, as a (dignified) business opportunity, and not just a wild party. Because no good can come of this Paris Hilton business, not even a new hotel.

Addendum: Totally forgot but meant to include that Madonna decided to waltz out onto the avenida during Imperatriz's performance and created a huge scene and messed up their procession, which possibly made them lose points with the judges. Lovely.

And in a new detail thanks to Marina's tip, the governor of Rio, Sergio Cabral, supposed introduced Dilma as "the first female president of Brazil" to Madonna.