Seriously, I'm not making a sarcastic Anti-Brazil insult question. I have nothing against Brazil. I've never been to Brazil but I did meet Brazilians abroad and while many of them were more affluent students they never quite explained it or even had much of an opinion (possibly being upper class they are isolated from it).
By "It" I mean the perception. Brazil joins China and Syria as having their own 'shocking crime video' channels and websites. The Perception is that Brazil is a crime-ridden fuckup country with nothing but monkey riots, bandits, poor 3rd worlders seem to be everywhere.
I made a point of watching about a dozen documentaries on Brazil. Nearly every one of them covered crime, corruption, hedonism, ghettos, shantytowns, insane gangland violence, 'santoria' and every crazy fucking transvestite, street urchins and robbery pickpockets and over and over the 'rising economy' that never happens and just collapses again into a shitty half-ass economy.
And this is all especially baffling since the documentaries and Brazilians tell me 100+ years ago Brazil was actually expected to be 'The USA' of South America. Or even the USA of the Americas - THE big new world advanced superpower. Then 50 years ago again was predicted to be THE next big rising giant star of South America! Then as little as 15 years ago - again people said Brazil is FINALLY going to rise as the new modern 1st world leader and ... I just see 100 shitty shootouts and machete battles with sandal-wearing druggies in what looks like filthy decaying old shithole streets.
Again, this perception MAY BE TOTALLY UNJUSTIFIED but I'm asking any Brazilians or those who know Brazil well to please try and explain WTF is going on?
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[–] DeliciousGuave 0 points 8 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago (edited ago)
Brazil is a land of dychtomies. You have segregated poles of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. It's easy to walk into the country and find the exact demographic for your shocking violence video. Or the next "corruption is everywhere" documentary.
Yet it is just as simple to walk into a neighbourhood where everybody is wealthy, educated and ridiculously productive. Every major city in Brazil has those bairros and even within a community you may find that it is split between the rich and the poor.
Now, to give you some perspective: People estimate Brazil has about 205,168,963 inhabitants (Source is the IBGE.) But that number is inaccurate since, especially in rural areas, there are a metric fuckton of unregistered births. (And deaths for that matter). There are also a lot of unregistered people in the favelas.
From those ~206 mil people, only about 20mil have a decent living standard with a decent access to good education, regular meals and so on. Now, my numbers don't really match those of the IBGE, but my metrics are more restrictive. I also don't want to bog people down with too much detail here, I just want to give you a general impression of the inequality going on in Brazil.
I definitely belong to those 20% since I had the chance to study abroad and I was very well cared for. But many of my peers, who also belong to those lucky enough to have access to education, simply don't have a fucking clue about the world or about their own nation. They live in bubbles of perfect, americanized "bigger is better" lives. Only a few have any meaningful contact with the poor and needy, and then it's mostly through their maids or other servants. (My family had a maid from our bairro's favela for example.)
I can elaborate further in case you are interested. I'd also love to have additional HUEHUEHUEBRGIBMONIPLS chime in and give their impressions.
[–] Zardoz [S] ago
That's some shocking disparity and yes I met quite a few young Brazilians abroad but they were more like your demo. Basically wealthy enough to be traveling and studying overseas and in relatively expensive countries like the UK and Canada. When I'd ask a little about the seemingly pandemic thefts and robberies and pickpockets they'd kinda just laugh it off or would mention those 'favelas' but in a kind of 'joke way'. Yes, oh those places are full of crazies and gangs. But I could tell they were in the 'bubble' which you can see in rich Chinese kids, Indians and others from similar high-disparity countries
Thing that baffles me a little is that Brazil (so i thought?) has quite a Roman Catholic tradition. And if anything it seems South American Roman Catholicism really puts quite a lot of focus and respect and admiration on the poor and needy, social justice (not the SJW brand) but on charity and community spirit.
India doesn't have that. They really do have a 'caste system' deep-seated in theri religions and so there are real explanations on how and why one guy can have golden gates to a 600 million dollar mansion overlooking a horrifying slum.
China also has an entirely different mentality. The more poor people and the poorer they are only make the money man bigger and prouder. Hell you don't even have to get richer and Chinese can be happier everyone else is poorer. In a 'shame culture' there are lots of explanations for 5% having insane comfortable (and isolated or 'bubble life') wealth.
But Brazil? Brazil should have every Western ideal. Oh, I don't mean Venezualen 'Communism' or socialism either. I just mean Brazil should have all those Western values that just want to constantly clear the way for anyone to succeed, equality among classes and I'd think a kind of work ethic and pride for the working man??
I have to give one of the Colombian student credit. He was almost a kind of 'activist' but in a critical way about his own country. He was a helluva speaker who could have done 'TED Talks' and he say - "Colombia, we have only ourselves to blame! We have everything. Everything, every natural resource, every lush forest, farmlands and beaches, we have open spaces, we have beautiful warm weather, Colombia has everything to be one of the single greatest tourist destinations in the Western world, we have geography on our side and we even have some of the most handsome and beautiful people on the planet! We have Latin music, we have football champions, we have cathedrals, history, culture" - and then he'd explain why its just wasted over and over again. drugs of all the stupid things. senseless gangster cultures, blaming the USA, blaming Venezuala, blaming rich people, blaming poor people or as its said "voting in governments that we deserve" (meaning of course whos to blame when a terrible party sinks the economy again and again).
I was led to believe that its entirely possible his family, quite likely his uncle who I knew well, that they were abroad because of involvement in a group called something like 'The Pepes' and holy shit did they clear up some drug problems. And I give them credit. Because they just decided to 'take their country back'.
But can Brazil do something like that? Can Brazil ever have a kind of 'social revolution' that does NOT amount to people throwing toilet bowls in football riots or massive cops vs gangs shootouts and machete battles??
Come on Brazil.. get your shit together please!