Macunaima,
Please excuse the late response!You said"
Unfortunately, "common knowledge" is often simply a euphemism for prejudice.
Where Armando gets his info from is an open guess. AFAIK, this years' murder stats haven't been compiled yet and last years show us behind plenty of "democratic" countries: Colombia and Jamaica, to name just two. (Though what in the hell Armando means by "the democratic world" is also anyone's guess.) ".
Actually, for the year 2002 jamaica's murder rate was slightly lower than that of brazil and I sincerely don't think that it's a good idea touting columbia as an example ,after all,the country is officially experiencing an organized civil war.
"In terms of favelas, last I saw, we were far behind Mexico. A favela, in any case, is a pretty local phenomenon. The very word itself is Brazilian. So, again, what Armando is comparing when he sets our favela count off against other nations' is anyone's guess. "
Wrong again! the amount of violence that takes place in mexico's worse communities isn't as bad as those of brazilian favelas.You see,the favelas are all but in a class of their own ,when it come to violence,poverty,misery and deprivation in the free world.
"Furthermore, what the hell, exactly, is "a third world nation"? "
Well,as disparaging as the label may be,it basicly ranks nations according to certain criteria such as-level of industrialization,gdp,per capita income/spending power,literacy rates,quality of life index.How healthy a given population is etc..
I mean,there's no arguing that bostwana is a third world nation and france is not.Likewise, there's no way in hell that brazil could be considered a developed nation when a little over half of it's population doesn't even graduate high school.
"And finally, as for Brazil "exploding", not even Rio de Janeiro is likely to explode (at least any more than it has in the past) in the near future."
Well,even some brazilian experts are theorizing the impending doom to come in brazil.Look around!
"Let's move on...
""Crime run amock and huges swarths of the country brimming over with deperately poor and illeterate people.""
"Now I'm not one to trash on folk's grammar or spelling errors, but it does seem ironic to me that Armando feels fit to judge others' illiteracy without even knowing how to spell the word himself, let alone "desperately" or "amok". (I particularly like the use of "swarths", btw, Armando. That's a new one...) "
Lol! I'd say that there a big difference between typos,mis-spellings and not being able to read and write in one's native tongue,As sooooo many brazilians seem to be.For this we should primarily blame the brazilian government,aye?
"As for crime, what we're seeing is a slight increase in what's been the normal rate for SP and RdJ for over a decade. This hardly qualifies as a potential explosion, nor does it justify tarring the entire country with these two cities' problems, however grave they may be."
Well,the thing is amigo....most of the murders that occur in industrialized democracies happen near big cities and regradless of wether or not most of brazil's homicides take place in/around rio or sao paulo,the country still has a ridiculously high murder rate.Last year it was close to 39,000 and that's more than some countries who're officially at war with other countries.
"Another wonderfully ascriptive statement backed up by no data of any kind, whatsofuckingever. f****d though the authorities may be, I hardly think their keystone cop-like antics qualify as gross disinterest in the citizenry's welfare. Rank incompetence, maybe."
Well,I happen to believe that brazil actually has enormous potential and could become a major player internationally,if the government and people would get more serious about life and invest more into the education,health and well-being of it's citizenry,instead of carnival and samba schools.
"Armando, of course, knows EXACTLY what this country's ills are, even though he probably can't speak the language and would have a hard time identifying the dates of such major Brazilian historical events as abolition, independence or even the 1964 coup. This is the typical view of - for lack of a better descriptive term - colonialist fuckwits. They already KNOW everything they think the need to about a country before they set foot in it, so what they see there just confirms their prejudices. When the better educated brand of native disagrees with them, they get all huffy and puffy over said native's ignorance. How DARE that uppity little wog contradict Armando's deep Brazilian knowledge? Truly, one simply can't understand how these Brazilians can be so irrational... "
Yes,you're correct, I'm an intruder- gringo socialist,don't speak a lick of portugese,but ponder this:I still have much concern for the progress of the brazilian masses.
"Again, "third world" isn't even defined by Armando, simply used as a neat little blocking device which, magically, throws Brazil in the same boat, developmentally speaking, with India and China - despite these three countries MASSIVE historical, cultural and economic differences. This is simply fuzzy thinking at its best, made all the more delightfully ironic seeing as how it comes at a time when China has had to admit to dropping the ball over SARS... "
I pointed out these these two nations,because they're classified(along with brazil)as mid income developing countries,yet still they have recently moved way ahead of brazil in terms of development & education.
"Well, that's that then. Forget all those upper and middle class people who donate time and money to improvement projects here in Brazil. They simply don't exist because Armando and his ilk have decreed them to be irrelevant. And as for the "poverty line", even this simple stat, which can easily be found on the IBGE website, Armando blows. About 20 percent to a third of Brazil lives below the poverty line. That's quite enough, thank you. No need to exagerate an already bad situation. What one could do about that, however, is anyone's guess. Certainly, education can't hurt. But there are plenty of overeducated, underemployed people already living in Brazil (I'm one). What adding to their ranks will do in terms of ending poverty, nobody can say. Perhaps it'll eventually generate enough resentment to blow the lid off this thing and have a real revolution, but I very much doubt it."
This I find too funny,because you're pointing out a handfull of the better off in brazil,who're proactive in helping the poor,but the fact remains that they are greatly out-numbered by mid/upper class brazilians who don't give a rat's ass what poor people are going through.
"Perhaps. Though "human potential", in and of itself, isn't necessarily generative of wealth. Furthermore, most of the folks who are poor - the worst off in fact - don't even LIVE IN THE FAVELAS!!! Nor are most of the people who live in the favelas illiterate (though ~I'm beginning to wonder about Armando...) Here we can see that Armando's completely farting out his mouth. A simple search on the IBGE website would give him enough damning stats to write a decent critique of Brazil, but he can't even be bothered to do that, prefering to simply INVENT whatever the hell he pleases and argue it from there. "
Well,It's not so much that the favelados are more impoverished than rural brazilians(per se),it's just that they live in much more hazardous environments.Plus,common sense would dicatte that rural brazilians have greater access to food stuffs and don't live in environs that are as violent and mentally & physically as depressing as the favelas.
"This tells us all we need to know about the depth of information behind Armando's opinions.
"chacho"
Did you perhaps mean "tchau" Armando, or is this something new like "swarths"? "
Na! I'm not brazilian or latin,I just chose chacho(short for muchacho)as a screen name,only to find out that it was already taken here,so I then opted for armando(the name of a close friend).
armando
