Rio Gringa

Brazil on American TV

Brazil in American popular culture tends to follow the usual stereotypes, as does much of Latin America. It's much more convenient to use themes and plots that people are familiar with than presenting a completely realistic view, not to mention keeping as much Spanish or Portuguese out of the dialogue as possible - god forbid that Americans have to read subtitles.

While there are exceptions - there is a ton of Spanish spoken on Dexter and Weeds, for example - when you turn on the TV in the US, you'll be hard pressed to find themes about Latin America that aren't related to drugs, crime, or sexy women. Even Ugly Betty, based on the popular Colombian novela, is rapidly coming to an end mostly due to bad writing, but in my opinion, also due to sticking to many of the same Latino stereotypes other shows do. Sometimes, though, there are small, positive glimpses: V, ABC's remake of the 80s alien show, stars a fantastic Brazilian-born actress who got the chance to speak a little Portuguese at the beginning of the season, when there were brief shots of Rio.

Then, there are shows that take real-life occurrences and turn them into Hollywood crap. Take, for example, the most recent episode of Law and Order, that mixed together the Climategate e-mail scandal, the Balloon Boy incident, and more importantly, the Goldman case. The basic plot is that an American woman divorces her husband and kidnaps their child to Brazil, where she marries a Brazilian scientist. The scientist goes to the US for a climate conference, and then the plot gets Law and Order-y. With all of these different plot lines, the "ripped from the headlines" episode, ironically broadcast on NBC, does very little justice to the many left behind parents who followed the Goldman case (in fact, the fictional kidnapped child's name is Nicole, the same name of the daughter of an American LBP being held in Brazil). Don't try to hard to find the episode online - it's pretty dumb (not to mention it doesn't help LBPs' reputation in the least). 

What do you think of Brazil and Latin stereotypes on American TV?

The Wall Street Journal on Brazil

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a story based on apparently very superficial research, in which the author declared that Brazil's "low rates of corruption" helped the economy and and helped attract investment.

Luckily, this week the newspaper had a Brazilian expert write a much more realistic piece on Brazil's economy, citing its incredible growth as well as continuing challenges. While it basically combines and repeats the same facts and figures as similar articles from around the world in the past six months, it's nice to see something like this coming from the WSJ (though still no words of warning about consumer debt):

"For the past century, Brazil has been a land of great potential—but few results. With runaway inflation and stratospheric national debt, the country was too much of a mess for anyone to take it seriously on the world stage. How times have changed.

Consider this: In the face of the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, Brazil's economic output dipped a tiny 0.2% last year, and is expected to grow as much as 6% this year. Everyday Brazilians have been too busy buying washing machines, cars and flat-screen televisions to even notice the downturn."

Read the full article, entitled "For Brazil, It's Finally Tomorrow," here.

The Nardoni Trial

On Saturday, Alexandre Nardoni and Anna Carolina Jatoba were convicted of murdering Isabella Nardoni in a case that shook Brazil ever since it hit the news in March 2008. (See a brief summary of the case in English here) After plenty of forensic evidence gathered after the crime and a brief jury trial last week, Isabella's father and stepmother were condemned to 31 years and 26 years respectively. The defense is appealing to see if they can get another trial, which could potentially reduce their sentences.

Despite the wealth of evidence, there were also complaints that given the nature of the case - the brutal murder of an innocent child by a middle class couple in Sao Paulo - that Brazilians were too eager to condemn someone for the crime. Something so senseless needed to make sense, and someone had to go down. What became known as the Caso Isabella became something of a national obsession, as the girl's mother sobbed on national TV and the accused couple, stone faced, insisted on their innocence.

In this case, the evidence seemed pretty clear: forensic teams found traces of Isabella's blood in the couple's car and in the apartment, found evidence that Isabella had been strangled, and also found fibers and patterns from the window netting on Alexandre Nardoni's shirt, the same window where Isabella was thrown to her death. But there's not always so much evidence, and even if there hadn't been, the couple would likely have found themselves being accused as guilty.

So the question that arises is, in a case of murder with no real witnesses except the accused, are the suspects considered innocent until proven guilty, or what essentially happened in this case: guilty until proven innocent? While the law may state one thing, a jury can very well have a different view.

What do you think?

Port-au-Who?

Recently I got hooked on Dexter,  and last night, I spotted something weird when they showed a brief shot of what was supposed to be Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Odd, considering that in Port-au-Prince the wealthy live high on the hills, not at sea level, and considering the scene looks an awful lot like one of the favelas in Flamengo or Catete, looking out over Flamengo, Urca, the Cagarras Islands, Guanabara Bay and the Sugarloaf. Ou seja, Rio de Janeiro.

Nice try, Showtime!

A New Tale of an International Law Debacle

While I've been hesitant to write about the whole Arruda affair, since I'm waiting to see how it plays out, I couldn't resist writing about the Paulo Maluf Interpol scandal.

It began in 2007, when the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Maluf, the former mayor of Sao Paulo, for allegedly stealing US$11.6 million from a Brazilian public works project and illegally transferring the stolen funds through a bank in New York. The press release of the indictment reads like a bad movie. Read the full document here, and the full indictment here. Here are some excerpts from the DA's press release:

"PAULO MALUF, the former Governor and Mayor of the State and City of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and currently a Federal Deputy in the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil, is charged with participating in an over-invoicing and kickback scheme, which generated millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.  The stolen funds were illegally transferred to a bank account in New York secretly controlled by MALUF, and then wired to another account under MALUF’s control in the Isle of Jersey, the Channel Islands.  Some of the kickback funds were used to pay for personal expenses in the United States and Brazil and to finance political campaigns in Brazil.

The investigation disclosed that while MALUF was the Mayor from 1993 to 1997, and continuing thereafter, the defendants conspired to steal and stole massive amounts of money from the City of Sao Paulo.  MALUF used his position to install close friends and allies in key positions within the municipal government to facilitate the scheme. 

The MALUFs received the kickbacks through both cash payments and the transmission of funds through illegal black market money operations, known as “doleiros,” to accounts they controlled in New York.  Some of these illegal transmissions were in the form of wire transfers sent to an account at Safra National Bank, 546 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, maintained under the code name “Chanani.”  The Chanani account was opened by ALVES, who falsely indicated to the bank that ALVES and his wife were the beneficial owners of the Chanani account, when, in fact, it was controlled by the MALUFs."

While Maluf was briefly imprisoned in Brazil in 2005 on corruption charges, he was released due to health reasons and has since then been free, and is currently serving as a federal congressman. Since Maluf was never extradited, the New York indictment had no real effect. But now, three years later, the district attorney decided to try something new, and placed Maluf on Interpol's criminal "red list." Maluf's son, who was also named in the indictment, was also placed on the red list. Theoretically, if Maluf or his son leave Brazil, they could be arrested, since the red list is effective in over 180 countries.

At first, Maluf shrugged it off as an election year stunt. But now, he's pissed, and he has decided to sue the New York DA. He has hired white collar crime defense lawyers from Kostelanetz & Fink, who have a lovely website that opens with a Martin Luther King, Jr quote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." (I guess they're trying to be ironic.) In his explanation of the lawsuit, Maluf claims the DA's move was "arbitrary" and violates international law and Brazil's sovereignty.

But the Sao Paulo DA, who incidentally is an expert on international law cooperation and an advocate of fighting corruption, disagrees: he says the New York DA has every right to go after Maluf, who is considered a wanted man.

Survey: Health Care

Given the huge landmark decision on health care reform in the United States, I thought it would be interesting to get a feel for how Brazilians and Americans view health care, and the current system in place in each country.

For those living/who have lived in Brazil: have you ever used the public system? Do you have private insurance? Are you happy with the care you get? Would you make any changes to the health care system, if any?

For those living/who have lived in the US: do you have health insurance? Are you happy with the current system? Are you satisfied with the care you get? What do you think about the reform? What changes would you make to the current system, if any?

For those who have lived in both countries, what could each country learn from the other's system? Which one do you prefer?

While I'm skeptical that the reform is ever going to really happen, I hope that it will be an improvement on the broken system we have now. I'm hoping that if all goes well, the law will go into effect sooner rather than later, since I have tenuous coverage and Eli has none at all. While public health care is far from perfect in Brazil, it's definitely an important safety net, and the experiences I had with it were all positive. Still, I've heard and read about plenty of stories about long waits, supply shortages, and personnel shortages. Rio in particular has some infamous inner city hospitals. But on the other hand, private care is often very good. In my experience, the private clinics I went to were excellent and infinitely cheaper than in the US (one of the most memorable experiences I had was the eyeball incident). In the US, it seems we may never have a truly public system, but bringing down costs for private care--ones more on par with Brazilian costs--seems like a distant but hopeful possibility.

Rio Royalties, Part II

There's been a lot of talk in the international media about the Rio royalties debacle, so I'd like to share a few of the articles I came across:

• Jesus protests possible World Cup, Olympic funding cuts in Rio (sort of), National Post Blog
• Brazil: Protests over proposed oil law change, AP
• Rio Olympics at Risk From Oil Bill, Committee Says, BusinessWeek
• Oil Revenue Spat Threatens Brazil 2014 World Cup Projects, World Football Insider
• Rio de Janeiro is in Fight Over Brazil's Oil Riches, The New York Times

It's very convenient for the Rio state government to use the two big upcoming events as a way to play the victim card, and as a way to threaten the very outcome of the World Cup and Olympic Games in Rio. Personally, I think that private investment should be a much larger part for both events than government investment, but given the reality that the government has in fact offered to put up a majority of the funds, the threat does carry some weight. It's also a little frightening to imagine a Dilma - Cabral ticket, as the NYT article mentions. It seems unlikely to me, but the fact that it's a possibility is interesting.

But here's an article I highly recommend for Portuguese speakers, one that explains that oil royalties in fact have had little influence on the quality of life in the municipalities where they are distributed in Rio state, due to poor administration and disorganization.The study goes as far as to say that oil royalties actually encourage corruption. The head researcher believes that while the proposed legislation of redistributing royalties to other states is not the answer, he does believe that more structured oversight and control is needed.

Royalties não melhoraram vida em municípios produtores, diz estudo, BBC Brasil

Excerpt: "Nos municípios analisados, sobretudo em Campos e em Macaé, que recebem a maior quantidade de recursos, a gente não viu melhora significativa na saúde, nem na habitação. Há falta de planejamento, desvio de recursos públicos. Vários prefeitos na região foram cassados. Por não ter um controle social adequado, um marco regulatório, o dinheiro dos royalties, na verdade, trouxe com ele a corrupção. Essa é questão-chave. Isso não quer dizer que tenhamos de tirar os recursos desses municípios. Temos é que ter um controle forte sobre esses recursos."