Brazzil

A splendid article and my kudos again. We do need more Brasilians like Augusto and Ricardo to write such articles, questioning the lack of commitment to law in this country, not disregarding the fact that there are several hundreds of thousands of Brasilians that share their views. Let me cite a few examples from my own experience.

But when asked about a wealthy person who wishes to obey the law, the common answer to this situation was that this person is simply a babaca (fool).

I am not wealthy at all, but just a middle class person.But I obey all the laws, including the traffic rules. When I stop my car at a pedestrian crossing to let the people cross teh street, I get harassed by other drivers some of whom call me a "babacão" and some others (especially the lady drivers) show me fingers! Lately I have seen that evern the cops dont give a damn about pedestrian crossings. Because they are "autoridades maximas" (The highest authorities) and above any blooddy law.

Since Brazil's society stresses direct relations based on personal liking as opposed to formal relations which are based on the law, the greatest fear of Brazilians is that of eventually becoming an isolated citizen. The isolated citizen is an inferior who is reduced to the condition of being merely "under" the law.

Spot on again, Dr.Zimmermann. 100% correct. He becomes not only isolated but a "pariah" (because "ele não tem jogo de cintura")!!

"Master and slave live together inside him. When occupying positions of power he exhibits the arrogance of a master, when outside power he oscillates between servility and rebelliousness.

Augusto is brutally blunt again". Even the "Zelador" of a building becomes arrogant, when occupying power.Imagine the "doutores" in the justice system.They are beyond any control!! Have experienced this too.

The abysmal difference in Brazil between legal provisions and reality, bears a good testimony to the fact that "good laws" might be important, but what really matters is individual, straightforward conduct, which in turn is the natural result of a culture of legality entailing the willingness by all citizens, including judges and politicians, to honestly respect legal obligations.

100% correct again.

Indeed, Brazil does not have the rule of law because Brazilians have not yet developed this kind of culture.

Sadly, it will take many more years to develop this culture.

I enjoyed reading the article and kudos again to Zimmermann.

Ditto about rules and laws in Brazil...

When I try to cross the street, it's amazing how EVERY motorists cuts into my path, and does NOT stop to let me pass...

Sometimes, even when I'm already 2 meters into the street, they STILL do not stop ... I am amazed every time at this insensitivity, rudeness and lack of civility. As if I, a "mere" pedestrian, have absolutely no rights with respect to car drivers ... Stunning, this lack of upbringing.

But hey, it's "culture"!

I enjoyed this article for it explains much, and probably more than the author initially intended.

And so the familiar Brazilian maxim: "Para os amigos tudo, para os indiferentes nada, e para os inimigos a lei" (For my friends, everything; for strangers, nothing; for my enemies - the law!).

This line is brilliant and I’ll commend Zimmermann for resurrecting it. Apart for the blatant disrespect for laws, it also highlights a blatant disrespect for anyone that is not part of a specific “tribo” or family. This is why certain day-to-day Brazilian dealings and interactions, although perfectly legal, are still considered by most non-Brazilians as disrespectful, impolite and dare I say, morally reprehensible. Let me chime in here and now with my caveat! NOT ALL. I’ve met one or two. I know they exist.

Of course, I grew up in Canada where it was drilled into our heads from the first moment of awareness to respect everyone, and to never let a good deed go unanswered. Canadians are notorious for politeness and showing respect for others, maybe to a fault. Of course, it didn’t take on all, but the French aside; I find myself in daily conflict here with the Brazilian “every man for himself, f**k the women and children first” mentality. In my opinion, on the issue of manners, you can’t find a greater degree of contrast between two nations. I do suffer.

While this self-absorbed mentality in Brazil can be linked to crime and corruption (like our author has aptly argued) it is also intricately linked to pathetic driving habits, taking advantage of others, a complete disregard for manners, abandoning children, the exploitation of children, and well, this website provides gigabytes of examples to read through, so I won’t waste my time highlighting what is common knowledge to most here.

Not a day goes by when I don’t shake my head in total and complete bewilderment at how individuals here act and how they treat one another. But it is contagious. After years of going out of my way to be polite and not ever having it reciprocated, or worse, having good intensions abused and taken advantage off, I find myself these days -- not out of habit or revenge, but out of a “why bother” submission to defeat – of doing things that years ago would have shocked me. Maybe I am becoming Brazilian after all?

João, as for the pedestrian crossings, I’ll only add that here it is not always the motorists fault. The Municipality, in their excitement of thinking that by painting lines on the roads would make the town look more “first worldish”, forgot to think about where those lines would best be served. In most cases, it is next to impossible for motorists to see the crossing in time to stop. So it’s a combination of poor selfish driving habits with typical political bumbling and incompetence that leaves our roads dangerous to cross.

But we’re kicking gringo but in the Amazon and talking tough with the WTO, so why bitch about things here that actually may affect lives, eh?

João, as for the pedestrian crossings, I’ll only add that here it is not always the motorists fault. The Municipality, in their excitement of thinking that by painting lines on the roads would make the town look more “first worldish”, forgot to think about where those lines would best be served. In most cases, it is next to impossible for motorists to see the crossing in time to stop. So it’s a combination of poor selfish driving habits with typical political bumbling and incompetence that leaves our roads dangerous to cross.

My apologies for not having mentioned about the bumbling,incompetent and arrogant politicos who interfere in such silly matters as where to paint the white lines for the pedestrian x-sing.A point well observed by you and well taken by me. My observation too while driving around our city, where you must have noticed that even the traffic signal lights are either ill placed or not well synchronized to permit a smooth flow of traffic.

Maybe I am becoming Brazilian after all?

No, you will never be and don't try to do that.Be what you are and we need good outspoken people to question. Being different makes a lot of difference.

But we’re kicking gringo but in the Amazon and talking tough with the WTO, so why bitch about things here that actually may affect lives, eh?

I still wonder if this law is going to passed.All "Fogo de Palha". Besides, you have plenty of Tainha and I good quanity of "Pinhão". No wories

Brazen yourself for some cold days ahead of us.Tomorrow is supposed to be a cold and rainy day.

should be written on the bathroom walls in the courts .
and the halls of congress

let the people hold them responsable for there actions .
in brazil and the US.

bunch of thiefes they are

than brazil elite just give up and punsh the poor

and the gringoes

if you give up all hope than you have nothing to loose

as you have nothing worth taking

Yes, the magic that keeps us sane. These bits of blessedness, such as sun, sea and our yearly tainha harvest. With a chill in the air, it´s now time for Canja, and if I beg, I can get the wife to make the greatest soup on earth, Pato no tucupi, that always warms the c**kles (although the tucupi is super hard to find).

No, you will never be and don't try to do that.Be what you are and we need good outspoken people to question. Being different makes a lot of difference.

Nothing wrong with some give n take. No one, anywhere, being a foreigner survives without adjustment. Gringos here or Brazilans abroad. And here, everyone whines... the Paulistas complain about the Manézinhos, the Manézinhos complain about the gringos, and the gringos complain about everyone. And no wories, no matter how much I adapt, I´ll always have an unpopular opinion to express whether its called for or not.

Brazen yourself for some cold days ahead of us.Tomorrow is supposed to be a cold and rainy day.

I don´t mind the cold, but oh the rain. I´ve not seen such a wet year. La Nina they say...

it simply cannot existas a permanent form of government.'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that congress discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'. During those 200 years,those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School > of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting fact sconcerning the 2000 Presidential election:> > Number of States won by: > Gore: 19> Bush: 29> > Square miles of land won by: > Gore: 580,000 > Bush: 2,427,000 > > Population of counties won by: > Gore: 127 million> Bush: 143 million> > Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: > Gore: 13.2> Bush: 2.1> > Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by > the taxpaying citizens of this country. > Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living ingovernment tenements and living > off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes theUnited States is now somewhere > between the 'complacency and apathy' phase some forty percent of the nation's population > already having reached the 'governmental > dependency' phase. >

Yesssss and Nooo....Joao

Reality is much bleaker than that :
- Brazil has thousands of good laws
- But the lawmakers who voted these laws also voted hundreds of laws that protect them for the breach of the good laws !

And of course....if you are not a politician or a high ranking official, money can buy your breach of laws !

But if you have no money you will end up for months in jail.....not even getting a judgement. And when the judgement is given..... 3, 4 or 5 years for petty thieves who have stolen.....an apple !

This is the rule of Brazilian laws, not..... NOT the rule of laws.
Do you catch what I mean !

Things are even much darker : a Brazilian judge is not obliged to follow the written laws, he has total freedom to interpret or not the laws...as it pleases HIM only.
If you dont trust me, you can find this "Brazilian principle" through hundreds of reports and articles in the Net, even from Brazilian sources.
Therefore it becomes quite "normal" that a judge will free a criminal and send a petty thieve for years in jail....since it became THE JUDGE DECISION REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE WRITTEN LAWS SAY !!!!!

Do you understand the filthy system you are living in ????

The man with itchy genitalia!

What you lack in intelligence, you more than make up for in stupidity.

Hehehe

Costinha

bad... bad news!

there are places ... like in nordeste ... uses the chickens to atract the turists: esporte estranho: chicken runs...

you are right in that statement

as even if the brasilian is wrong in the laws of brasil and he is up

on trail with a gringo the gringo always losses

unless the judge can get some sort of larg money deal from the gringo

then he plays the two off on each other till the gringo runs out of money

or the fed deport him and then the brasilians police or navy claim it as abandon

costinha do some thing good for us and your country

kill your self it would raise the IQ of brasil if you were gone

Very few people have respect here for others and/or the law. Yet when one disrespects someone else, at least here in the northeast, the people get very agressive.

Is it any wonder why 55,000 die from violence a year and another 40K die from auto accidents?

And yes, in the U.S. 40K die per year in auto accidents as well. But they have 8X the number of cars and registered drivers. Proportionally speaking, if Brazil had the same number of cars and motorists as the U.S. over 300,000 people would die per year in Brazil due to auto accidents.

That's insane.

I don't know what's sadder, the fact that Zimmerman has simply restated a classic Brazilian anthropology article by Da Matta - written over a quarter century ago, no less - on the "relational society", or the fact that many of the gringos, above, seem to see this as new and devastingly original work.

Folks, read "Carnivals, Rogues and Heroes". What Zimmerman's saying has been known for a good long while down here. It ain't news.

I don't know what's sadder, the fact that Zimmerman has simply restated a classic Brazilian anthropology article by Da Matta - written over a quarter century ago, no less

What's really sad is that this has been known for so long and nothing has changed.

Long time no hear. You been sowing wild "feijão" in the nordeste, Bo?

Been trying to keep alive João. Finally Aracaju is starting to develop. The land here is starting to appreciate and it looks like me and my partners are just going to sell. With the devaluation of the dollar and GBP and the appreciation of our assets we've done well.

Aracaju just recently won the award as being the capitol of Brazil of having the best quality of life....believe it or not. Now, if they could just get rid of the Sergipanos!

"Now if only they could just get rid of the Sergipanos!"

No doubt, Bo. Because hormone-ridden yankee mountain trash like yourself are much better people.

just more polite.

You said it all.
But junkies here disagree !

I am an American Law Student. I will be traveling to Brazil in a week to learn about and contrast Brazilian Law with American laws.
The sad story is that in many ways this is not that different from law in America. The wealthy & powerful often try to escape trouble by virtue of their position. It is only when public opinion turns against them that they find themselves unable to escape the law. The only way America has escaped some of the problems between the haves & the have nots is through protesting, rioting, and other forms of resistence. When those that see themselves as the lower class & voiceless grow in number, education, and influence the world evolves for everyone. But the real question is Does Brazil really want to be more like America or does Brazil want to be Brazil? I think Americans sometimes take the law too far.
I would like to learn more about Brazilian's and the law. Other than "Carnivals, Rogues, & Heroes" is there anything else I can read online?
I am interested in any thoughts you may have.
Thanks for your help americanlawstudent@yahoo.com

american law student @ yahoo . com