Brazzil

The idea of a parliamentary inquiry of corruption in the government resulted from an unlikely, rather irrational alliance—a marriage of extremes with nothing in common, except the wish and need to harm the government's image at a critical time.
By Brazzil Magazine

The story seems hard to believe and some even think that it was invented as part of a campaign to fight against funk balls, one of the rare options of fun for Rio's poorest youngsters. Rio's Health Secretary, Sérgio Arouca, called the press to report about a new form of unsafe sex being practiced by those who frequent these balls.

According to official reports, the rage now is for girls to go these parties in short skirts and wearing no panties so they easily can have sex with several different partners. The sex is performed in two different ways. In one version, known as musical chairs, the girls go around a circle of chairs all with sitting boys. When the music stops, the girl sits on the lap of the closest lad. The second method is called trenzinho (little train) and in this case boys and girls form a beeline and go around the dance hall in a very tight embrace.

"From what we have heard," said Secretary Arouca, "this is a compulsory action. The girl who doesn't comply is excluded from the group." The secretary is worried, he contends, because many of the girls who participated in this group sex are showing up pregnant in the city's health clinics. They all have the same story and they never know who the child's father is since they had sex with so many men.

Viviane Castello Branco, who is the coordinator of the Health Secretary's teen program, states there is no way of knowing how many girls became pregnant this way. She also reported that this kind of unprotected sex is responsible for an increase in STD's (sexual transmitted diseases) among teenagers.

"We don't know which disease is the most frequent because we only find out about the illness among these pregnant girls during the pre-natal exams. But we know there are cases of syphilis and even AIDS." According to the coordinator, the majority of girls know about condoms and pills and how to use them, but don't use any kind of contraceptive.

Branco revealed that only recently were health authorities made aware of the problem. She seems worried that the practice of promiscuous sex will continue to spread:

"For the girls the sexual practice is just plain fun. It is even a kind of rite of passage, a way of experimenting and affirming themselves. And, as it is common among teens, they believe nothing is going to happen to them."

From Rio's favelas (shantytowns) where it was born in the mid '80s Brazilian funk has conquered a good portion of the country and can now be heard in São Paulo and Salvador (state of Bahia).

Commenting on the little train story, Rio's journalist Tutty Vasquez wrote, "That was what society—worried more with funk sensuality than with juvenile delinquents—wanted to hear to justify its habitual intolerance towards the suburb's leisure. In the eyes of these people, the poor having fun is always more shocking than the poor killing each other…. The hate against funk has its origins in prejudice! Why do blacks, poor, and the excluded dance? The reaction is ideological, inspired by the right."

Funk has constantly been in the news. In mid-February, for example, Judge Siro Darlan made headlines by forbidding 7-year-old Jonathan Costa from singing "Jonathan 2000", a song that, according to the judge, has "pornographic content". Said Darlan: "I'm in favor of funk as a cultural expression, but I'm against any music that uses children to spread pornography."

Some lyrics are much less subtle than this. "Máquina de Sexo" (Sex Machine), for example, says:

And "Barraco III" (Shack No 3) goes all the way:

Glossary

bruto (literally brute)—the boss
chapa quente (hot plate)—woman good in bed, crowded place
cachorra (bitch)—woman who's daring in bed
filé (filet)—pretty woman or man
gatinha (pussycat)—woman who's conservative in bed
pegar (to pick up)—stay with a girl during or after the ball
pichadão—bully
pepita—pretty woman
popozuda—big-butt woman, pretty girl
quebrar o barraco (to break the shack)—to have sex
tchutchuca—pretty woman

A new version of the peacefully jingoist Brazilian national anthem has been circulating on the Internet in recent weeks. While other national anthems like the American or the French sing about bloody war and revenge, the Brazilian official song praises the country's natural wealth and its serene skies. The new anthem, though, is a potpourri of well-known brand names from Grendene—a national footwear manufacturer—to multinational Coca-Cola.

The hilarious ad-like parody soon spread throughout the Internet as if it were one more of those anonymous little jewels that often arrive in our e-mail. Among those who received a copy was Adriano Siri, one of the members of the acting sextet Os Melhores do Mundo (The World's Best), a theatrical troupe from Brasília, Brazil's capital. He was particularly annoyed by the fact that that the text's authorship was attributed to an anonymous adman. After all, Siri, together with his group, created the parody anthem as the surprise finale for the show Política (Politics). The spectacle, which was presented February in Brasília, was seen by more than 10,000 people in the Federal District.

The show also makes fun of another national symbol: the Brazilian flag. On a flag used in the show, the words Ordem e Progresso (Order and Progress) were rewritten to "Advertise Here". The idea is to denounce the privatization of state companies, the invasion of multinationals and the Americanization of the country.

Just before the anthem is sung, an off-stage voice announces that the President will be talking on a national TV and radio pool. Then he comes onstage and tells the nation that some private investors have decided to get together to pay the national debt. In return, the president has authorized the national anthem to be rewritten. The audience is invited to stand while onstage the actors perform the new anthem.

A 1971 Brazilian law requires that the national anthem be performed only in a respectful and patriotic manner. Law number 5700 was passed by the military government of general Emilio Garrastazu Medici and is still in force, but it is not expected that Os Melhores do Mundo will be prosecuted for their disrespectful use of the piece.

Now, the group is in Rio performing the show Misticismo (Mysticism), Tormentas da Paixão (Passion's Storms) and Escrava Isaura, a Comédia (Slave Isaura, the Comedy). The theatrical group is planning to present Política again in January, in Rio. They hope by then few people will be talking about the anthem lyrics so that the surprise of the show's finale can be restored.

The Lyrics

"In Brasília, 7 p.m. On the air, A Voz do Brasil (The Voice of Brazil). Every weeknight at the same time, these words by a male announcer are the signal for millions of Brazilians to turn off their radios. That's when every radio station in Brazil from the smallest to the most powerful, capable of reaching several states, gets into a mandatory national pool. The Voz do Brasil was created in 1931 during the Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship as the main propaganda arm of the all powerful DIP (Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda—Press and Propaganda Department).

Only recently have a handful of stations been able to get through this siege by appealing to the courts. Rio Grande do Sul's Bandeirantes network went to the Justice and won the right for two of its stations (Ipanema FM and Band AM) to present the Voz in a different time than the rest of the country. The radio station's management convinced the judge that the listeners would be better served at that time with music, news and traffic reports. The court's only requirement was that the program would still be broadcast the same day it was released.

While A Voz do Brasil only presents the official angle of the facts and seems to be hated by most people it also has its defenders. The program is the only source of news in many small towns, villages and rural areas without newspapers and TV.

As for Band AM and Ipanema FM they start transmitting the daily program a little before midnight just in time for them to conform to the special license they were awarded. From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. they play popular Brazilian music interspersed with news and traffic flashes. With the market exclusivity for this time slot they have gained many new advertisers.

The Bandeirantes example has inspired several other radio stations across the country to try doing the same and many have asked the Justice for the special exemption. They continue, however, to be the exception. In São Paulo, giant Eldorado (AM and FM), a company belonging to the media powerhouse group O Estado, for years has waged a battle to end the Voz do Brasil's requirement. They led 850 other radios stations in a public relations and court campaign against the government. They contend the law that forces radio stations to broadcast A Voz do Brasil is unconstitutional. "This is an anti-democratic inheritance of the Vargas' era."

Eldorado is now waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the subject. The movement has encountered opposition in Congress. The OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil—Brazil Bar Association) had promised to fight against the law, but went back in its decision after being pressured by house members and senators. In December 1997, the Republic General Prosecutor, Geraldo Brindeiro, seemed ready to take on the case. But he also excused himself from the litigation when Congressmen started to call his office in protest.

Eldorado has posted a document on its Website saying, among other things, "We have no doubt that our action will be victorious and that the disgraceful program will be judged unconstitutional because there is no jurist or professor of constitutional right in this country that will not recognize the unconstitutionality of the obligation to broadcast Voz do Brasil. For all these reasons we can say that Voz do Brasil is finished. It tries to survive, as a castaway, clinging to minor questions, related to the tardy juridical rite. As soon as it get to the Supreme Court we have no doubt it will be found unconstitutional. Then, radio listeners in Brazil will be rid of this monstrosity forever. The world's worst radio program will end."

The so-called cesta básica (basic basket) is a list of 13 food items (meat, milk, beans, rice, wheat flour [manioc flour in the Northeast], potato, tomato, bread, coffee, banana, sugar, oil and butter) in an amount sufficient to maintain a family of four for a month. This measurement was created by the Brazilian government to, among other things, evaluate how far its annual minimum wage increase will go in giving purchasing power to those workers whose salaries are tied to the minimum (mainly public workers and retirees). By this criterion the new minimum wage in force since April 1st is doing little to improve the standard of living of the poorest.

While the 19.2 percent raise will inject $1 billion a month into the economy and touch the lives of 37.7 million workers, the new salary (180 reais or roughly $84) it barely pays for a cesta básica. A worker needs 63.8 percent of the minimum (compare this to 15 percent in the US and 13 percent in Germany) to buy that food basket and will have to make do with $30 for all other expenses including medicine, transportation and leisure. If there's any consolation, with the previous minimum ($70), a worker had to spend 76 percent to acquire the basket, leaving $17 for all other expenses.

When created in 1940 by President Getúlio Vargas, the minimum had considerably greater buying power. At that time a worker needed 39% of his salary to get the cesta. What would be an adequate minimum to meet the basic needs of a Brazilian living in big city today? According to DIEESE (Departamento Intersindical de Estatísticas e Estudos Socio-Econômicos—Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies), to pay for enough food, clothing, transportation and leisure, a worker would need to receive a monthly minimum wage of $480.

According to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who went to TV to announce the new minimum, "since the beginning of the Plano Real, in 1994, until today, the buying power of the minimum wage grew 40 percent compared to the National Index of Consumer Price and 100 percent in relation to the cesta básica."

Studies by the Finance Ministry reveal that close to 23 million Brazilians (13.9 percent of the population) still make less than the minimum. As gloomy as these numbers might seem, they look good when compared to the situation in the '60s when 70 percent of the wage earners working under contract were receiving the minimum wage.

For Antonio Carlos Spis, president of São Paulo's CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores—Workers Unified Central) the new minimum is "ludicrous and shows the pauperization of the Brazilian people. This is the smallest minimum wage of Mercosul. It's smaller than the one from Paraguay." The minimum in that neighboring country, $176, is more than twice that of Brazil's. CUT is in favor of a minimum of $120, which is the salary suggested by Mercosul.

The most ambitious Dictionary of the Portuguese Language ever put together is scheduled to make its debut in a few weeks, according to a story in O Estado de S. Paulo, a leading morning paper of the largest city in Brazil.

More than 20 years in the making, the end-result of the joint work of approximately 50 lexicographers led by the Brazilian author and linguist, the late Antonio Houaiss, the project has the financial sponsorship of a number of entities, including the Gulbenkian Foundation of Portugal.

Roberto Feith, CEO of the Brazilian publishing firm Objectiva, told newsmen that right now two members of the editorial staff of the "New Antonio Houaiss Dictionary," are in Lisbon, discussing with a Portuguese publisher, Círculo, the last details for a local edition of the book, which aims at including, in two slightly different versions, all terms in which the Portuguese language differs between Brazil and Portugal. One of the conferees in Lisbon is Francico de Mello Franco, director of the Antonio Houaiss Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

Never has such a complete dictionary been undertaken, neither in Brazil nor Portugal, or in any the several Portuguese-speaking republics of Africa. Following in the footsteps of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the forthcoming volume contains abundant etymological information, including the dates when a given term has been used with a different meaning. The Houaiss Dictionary offers the largest number of Portuguese words ever known to exist wherever Portuguese is spoken: 228,000 entries and 381,000 definitions. A CD edition is expected to be offered for sale in a few weeks, while the printed volume will take a little more time. No price has yet been set for either version.

American president's remarks in photo opportunity with President Cardoso of Brazil. Transcript of the conversation held March 30 and released by the White House.

The Oval Office

2:15 P.M. EST

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all for coming. It's my honor to welcome our friend from Brazil. Mr. President, we are honored—we're honored to have you here. We've got a lot in common. Brazil is a vast nation. It's a democracy. It's a country with a huge economic potential. It's a government run by a good man.

We've had a good, frank discussion about a lot of subjects. There's no question in my mind that we'll have good relations over the next years. And there's no question in my mind that as we cooperate together, the people of both our countries will benefit.

We've discussed a lot of topics, including trade. We've agreed to work closely together to see if we can't come up with a way for our nations to continue to interface with each other. This country invests a lot of money in Brazil, because Brazil's a safe place to invest money. And we're going to keep it that way, keep our relationship strong. So Mr. President, welcome, glad to have you here.

PRESIDENT CARDOSO: Thank you very much, sir. Let me say that I am very glad to be here, be with you. I knew your father. Now I'm very glad to see the way you are. As I said yesterday, I will put—take off my glasses to see your eyes, because you said that you would like to see my eyes directly.

PRESIDENT BUSH: That's right. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT CARDOSO: I must say that it was a very pleasant conversation about several issues. And I do agree with you, sir, on the sense that Brazil and the United States have to be close, and close not just in terms of trade, but in terms of the hemisphere in general, in terms of security, in terms of democracy. We have shared values; so why not work together?

And also because we know our responsibilities across the world. We know that the world is uneven, and it's necessary to work—to do a lot of things to offer more perspective to the world, to the hemisphere, to Africa and other parts. And the United States and Brazil can work together. We will work together.

I also see that you are a very informal kind of people, as I am, so I am very glad.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.

PRESIDENT CARDOSO: If you allow me now, I speak a little bit in Portuguese because there are lots of Brazilians over there.

(Remarks in Portuguese.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: We'll have one question from the American press, one question from the Brazilian press, and then everybody can go home for the weekend.

Q: Mr. President, there seems to be an effort underway in Belgrade to arrest Mr. Milosevic. Does the United States support this? Will the United States contribute in any way to getting it done? What do you think should happen to him?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, we've always said that Mr. Milosevic ought to be brought to justice. I had a visit with the Secretary of State about this very matter. We're watching it very carefully. We will cooperate in any way that we're asked to do so.

Q: Mr. President, in terms of trade, have you, Mr. President, President Cardoso and President Bush, have you been able—do you think that you are going to be able to bridge the differences between the two countries? Are you ready as free traders to fight the protectionists in each of your respective countries?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Absolutely, we can work together. We had a very good discussion about trade. The President and I have made a decision that we'll work closely to iron out any differences that may exist. Obviously, each of us have got different issues that we have to deal with within our own borders. I'm mindful of that, so is the President.

But the thing that's important is the spirit of cooperation. There are no differences when it comes to the desire to cooperate. I'm confident we'll have a very fruitful relationship. It's in our nations' best interests that we have close relations with Brazil.

For those of you who have never heard me say this, good relations in our neighborhood is not going to be an afterthought for our foreign policy in America. The best foreign policy starts with making sure that relations in our own hemisphere are very positive. And the fact that the President would come here to Washington and have a fruitful dialogue with me is an indication that not only are we interested, but so is the President. For that, I'm very grateful.

PRESIDENT CARDOSO: That's true. I do agree with the President. I believe that—we have, of course, from time to time some difference. That's normal between nations. Yesterday the President said, American—to be American first. Well, I would say the same, to be Brazil first. That's normal. But then let's see how to cooperate.

And the point is that regarding trade—you asked what about trade—our problems are going—are being discussed in several meetings. We have been making progress toward a more free trade. Of course we're going to have to take into account the situation in Brazil, Brazilians' interests, and we'll have to see how to solve, eventually, what can be a conflict of interest. But very localized interest, very specific interest. We cannot generalize as if America and Brazil will clash.

No, by being one point to have the difference. So let's try to work together to solve the difference. That's the way.

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