Brazzil

The murder rate in the state of São Paulo has been cut in half since 2000. This will come as a surprise to many readers because there has been so much news coverage of brazen attacks by organized criminals on police stations and public transportation in São Paulo as well as in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities.

These attacks are intended to generate media coverage, embarrass officials and intimidate law enforcement. They disrupt the life of the community and threaten the forces of law and order. But the number of people killed in these attacks is very small compared to the mundane monthly toll of homicides that get little press coverage.

These attacks by organized crime are a response to police crackdowns that have put large numbers of offenders in crowded prisons and removed thousands of handguns from circulation. These police measures have substantially lowered homicide and some other violent crime rates, and have made life much safer for the average citizen or visitor to São Paulo.

The criminal homicide rate in the state of São Paulo reached 35.7 per 100,000 residents in 1999, according to official police data collected by the Secretaria de Estado de Segurança Pública. It had been increasing steadily since the mid 1980s. Then, with the dawn of the new millennium, there was a remarkable turning point.

The homicide rate turned down rapidly, reaching 15.1 in 2006. Preliminary figures for 2007 show a further decline. There was a parallel decline in the attempted homicide rate. The rate for negligent homicide (96% of which is automobile accidents) did not show a parallel decline. The decline was in willful, intentional murder and attempted murder.

The news was not as good everywhere in Brazil. Data from the Ministério da Justiça in Brasília shows a stable criminal homicide rate for Brazil as a whole from 2001 to 2005 (SENASP: 2005, 2006).

During this period, the rate declined only slightly in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's other huge urban agglomeration. The fact that São Paulo did so much better than Rio and other cities suggests that policy measures implemented on the state level were responsible.

At 15 per 100,000 in 2005, the criminal homicide rate in São Paulo has not yet quite reached the levels achieved by New York City (7 in 2004). But it compares very favorably with the rates reported by Detroit (42), Baltimore (44) and Washington, D.C. (36) in the same year.

Criminological research has uncovered a number of important facts about murder in São Paulo:

* Men are both the offenders and the victims of most homicides; the rate for women is quite low.

* Most homicide victims are between 15 and 29 years of age.

* Most are killed with firearms; the average number of bullet wounds per victim is 6.9.

* Among those whose blood is tested, fewer than half are positive for alcohol, less than 1% for cocaine.

* Most occur on the weekend with the peak on Saturday and the lowest number on Wednesday.

* Most of the reduction in the homicide rate has been in the large cities, including the state capital.

The homicide decline in the state of São Paulo in the first decade of this century is similar to the decline in New York City in the 1990s. In both cases, the police adopted more effective methods. In São Paulo the state police forces gave new priority to gathering accurate and timely empirical data and using it to plan and evaluate programs.

An intergovernmental communications network was established to link the military and civil police. Crimes were entered into a geographic information system, and saturation units were sent to areas controlled by drug traffickers. A data base was established with photographs of over 300,000 criminals. Telephone switchboards were set up to receive citizen complaints of incidents, and a web site was opened to take reports of thefts of vehicles, documents and cellular telephones.

Community policing stations were opened, and a homicide combat unit was organized with an emphasis on solving difficult cases. A specialized unit was organized to provide supportive assistance to women who were victims of sexual crimes. Sophisticated computer software linked information from police reports with bank records, telephone records and probable areas of residence. And the police began more aggressive efforts to remove illegal firearms from the streets.

As a consequence of these efforts, the number of imprisonments in the state of São Paulo increased from 18,602 in the first quarter of 1996 to 30,831 in the first quarter of 2001, after which it settled back to approximately 23,000 a month. This increase in the number of convicts sent to prison each quarter of the year led to a steady increase in the state's prison population. The turning point in the state's criminal homicide rate came at the peak of this increase in imprisonments.

Gun control was another important factor in the crime drop. In October, 2003, the Brazilian federal government enacted a new set of laws to limit the importation of firearms, make it illegal to own unregistered guns or to carry guns on the street, and increase the penalties for violation of gun control laws.

Despite the failure of a national referendum in 2005 to ban commerce in arms and ammunition altogether, Brazilian gun control legislation is much stronger than that in most states of the United States. This legislation has helped to reduce homicide rates

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that firearms deaths in Brazil increased steadily from 1992 to 2003, then turned down significantly. The Ministry of Health data include all categories of gun deaths, including accidental deaths. The improvement was not consistent across Brazil, however.

Comparing 2003 to 2004, firearms deaths declined 19% in the state of São Paulo, 9.9% in the state of Rio de Janeiro, 14.5% in Pernambuco, and 20.6% in Mato Grosso. But they increased by 7.2% in Minas Gerais, 29.3% in Amazonas, 11.4% in Pará (Evolução da Mortalidade, 2007). The improvement in the statistics for Brazil as a whole can be largely accounted for by a very sharp drop in São Paulo which accounts for about 25% of the national firearm deaths.

Passing legislation is not enough, the legislation must be vigorously enforced by the state police forces. In the state of São Paulo, firearms confiscations by the police rose from 6,539 in the first quarter of 1996 to 11,670 in the second quarter of 1999. This peak coincides with the beginning of the great São Paulo homicide drop.

Firearms confiscations remained high through 2004, and then settled back to their previous level. São Paulo authorities believe that the decline in firearms confiscations after 2004 was because the new national legislation had increased the penalties for carrying firearms and fewer persons risked carrying them on the street.

Before the recent homicide drop, Brazil's high homicide rates were frequently attributed to high levels of poverty and inequality. In a recent book, historian Luís Mir (2004) insisted that Brazil was in a state of civil war and characterized São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as metropolises of death. 

Mir insisted that "nothing can be done about the problem until the majority and the minority sit down and discuss the slices of the pie" that each social class receives (Geração Online, 2004). But his book was published three years after the homicide rates in São Paulo had begun their sharp decline, yet no such radical re-slicing of the socioeconomic pie had taken place.

The same thing happened to leading American criminologists James Q. Wilson and John DiIulio who published works in the early 1990s predicting massive increases in crime rates after the rates had already begun their precipitous decline.

These analysts erred by attributing cyclical peaks in crime waves to persistent social and economic problems, underestimating the extent to which violent crime has its own dynamics and can be treated as a separate problem. When crime waves get out of hand the public demands action, political leaders allocate more resources, and the criminal justice system does its best to respond.

In both Brazil and the United States, police authorities took effective action to reduce violent crime without waiting for underlying social problems to be resolved. This was also true in Colombia where homicide declined 15% in the three years from 2003 to 2006 (Casa de Nariño, 2006).

By contrast, homicide rates in Venezuela have increased 67% since 1999 (Romero, 2006) despite a booming economy and a populist government that claims to be redistributing wealth to the poor.

Success has many fathers, and there is enough good news in the São Paulo homicide drop to credit many of them. Most importantly, the great São Paulo homicide drop shows that effective measures can be taken to reduce lethal crime without waiting to solve underlying socioeconomic problems.

References

Ceccato, Vania. 2005. "Homicide in São Paulo, Brazil: Space-Temporal and Weather Variations," Estudos Criminológicos 3: 11-30. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_3.pdf.

Evolução da Mortalidade. 2007. Ministério de Saúde, "Evolução da Mortalidade por Violência no Brasil e Regiões," http://portal.saude.gov.br/portal/svs/visualizar_texto.cfm?idtxt=24448.

Gawryszewski, Vilma Pinheiro, Túlio Kahn and Maria Helena Prado de Mello Jorge. 2004. Homicídios no Município de São Paulo. Estudos Criminológicos 1: 4-12. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_1.pdf.

Geração Online. 2004. "Entrevista com Luis Mir." http://geracaobooks.locaweb.com.br/releases/?id=29.

Kahn, Túlio. 2004. "Homicídios Dolosos em São Paulo." Estudos Criminológicos 1: 15-32. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_1.pdf.

Kahn, Túlio. 2004b. "Segurança Pública e Trabalho Policial no Brasil," Estudos Criminológicos 2: 75-86,. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_1.pdf.

Kilsztajn, Samuel, et al. 2005. "Taxa de Homicídio por Setor Censitário no Município de São Paulo," Estudos Criminológicos 3: 1-10. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_3.pdf.

Marinha de Souza, et al. 2007. "Reductions in Firearm-Related Mortality and Hospitalizations in Brazil after Gun Control," Health Affairs 26: 575-584.

Mendonça, Mario. et al. 2003. "Criminalidade e Desigualdade Social no Brasil," Rio de Janeiro: IPEA. Texto para discussão número 967.

Mir, Luis. 2004. Guerra Civil: Estado e Trauma. São Paulo: Geração Editora, 2004.

Olsén, Örjan, et al. 2004. "Desemprego, Rendimentos e Crime: Um Estudo no Município de São Paulo. Estudos Criminológicos 2: 4-73. http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/downloads/manual_estudos_criminologicos_2.pdf.

Painel de Indicadores. 2006. "Determinantes Sociais de Saúde," Pp. 36-47 in Ministério de Saúde, Painel de Indicadores do SUS http://portal.saude.gov.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/painel_%20indicadores_do_SUS.pdf .

Romero, Simon. 2006. "As Crime Soars for Venezuela, Chávez Coasts." New York Times, December 2, 2006.

Saúde Brasil. 2005. "Análise da Tendência de Morte Violenta," pp. 591-639 in Saúde, Saúde Brasil. http://portal.saude.gov.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/saude_brasil_2005.pdf.

SENASP. 2003. Secretaria Nacional de Segurança Pública. "Análise Comparativa do Número Total de Vítimas de Homicídio entre as 26 Regiões Metropolitanas - 1980 a 2002." http://www.mj.gov.br/senasp/estatisticas/homicidios/estat_homicidios1.htm.

SENASP. 2004. Secretaria Nacional de Segurança Pública. "Mapa de Ocorrências no Brasil 2001-2003: Brasil, Unidades da Federação e Regiões Geográficas." http://www.mj.gov.br/senasp/estatisticas/estat_ocorrencia.htm.

SENASP. 2006.. Secretaria Nacional de Segurança Pública. "Análise das Ocorrências Registradas pelas Polícias Civis (Janeiro de 2004 a Dezembro de 2005). http://www.mj.gov.br/senasp/estatisticas/mapacrime/Mapacrime2004_2005.pdf.

SESP. 2007a. Secretaria de Estado da Segurança Pública, Governo do Estado de São Paulo. "Estatísticas." http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/.

Souza, Maria de, et al. 2007. "Reductions in Firearm-Related Mortality and Hospitalizations in Brazil after Gun Control," Health Affairs 26: 575-584.

World Bank. 2006. Crime, Violence and Economic Development in Brazil. Washington: World Bank Report no. 36525. http://www.unodc.org/pdf/brazil/Crime_and_Violence_jan_2007.pdf.

Zimring, Franklin. 2007. The Great American Crime Decline. New York: Oxford.

Ted Goertzel, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. He is author of a biography of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. His WEB site is http://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel

Túlio Kahn, Ph.D., is Coordenador de Análise e Planejamento for the Secretaria de Segurança Pública in São Paulo. His research is available at: http://www.ssp.sp.gov.br/estatisticas/.

Comments (173)

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written by conceicao, May 18, 2007

Readers may be interested in knowing that the author(s) of the U.S. mega-bestseller Freakonomics claim that the precipitous drop in the NYC crime rate can be tied back to 18 or so years since abortion
was legalized. I have no idea whether this theory has any relevance to the situation in Sao Paulo.

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written by Ted Goertzel, May 18, 2007

This theory has been pretty effectively debunked in the United States. See Zimring's book in the references to our article for details. It has no relevance to Brazil since abortion was not legalized 18 years before the drop in homicides.

bs bs bs (bad shots) AND wtf
written by Simpleton, May 19, 2007

"These attacks are intended to generate media coverage, embarrass officials and intimidate law enforcement." BS

(more) "These police measures have substantially lowered homicide and some other violent crime rates, and have made life much safer for the average citizen or visitor to São Paulo." BS

(&more) "The fact that São Paulo did so much better than Rio and other cities suggests that policy measures implemented on the state level were responsible." BS

(terrible aim?) "* Most are killed with firearms; the average number of bullet wounds per victim is 6.9."

(low rate for women previously noted - this addresses big cause of reduction in homicide? - stay on target Ted) "A specialized unit was organized to provide supportive assistance to women who were victims of sexual crimes."

...
written by e harmony, May 19, 2007

Doctor Goertzel, I'm happy to hear about these improvements in the state of Sao Paulo, I would like to see as good or better improvements throughout the whole of Brazil, most especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

However, doesn't the city of Sao Paulo have a homicide rate much higher than 15 per 100,000 residents? Isn't the city of Sao Paulo's homicide rate roughly that of Detroit's give or take a little less or more? The other question is, does any homicide stats in Brazil differentiate between Sao Paulo city proper and Sao Paulo metropolitan (what in the U.S. use to constitute just a county)?

Statistics are helpful yet they can be gathered in such a way that can give some what of a deceptive picture. In the United States homicide rate for cities - such as Detroit - are generally done just on the city proper and not the county as a whole (at least the statistics on homicide rates released to the public per the news annually. Generally the source being the Federal Bureau of Investigation). This is a more accurate picture in my opinion than lumping all cities in the county together. However, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) seems to have taken to compiling its statistics on violent crime and homicide rates per metropolitans by utilizing the contemporary vernacular for "metropolitan" that started a couple or few decades ago: that being extending the territory of "metropolitan" beyond the geographical lines of county and including separate and growing nearby counties to which "white flight" and wealth has steadily fled to over several decades. In my opinion stats like these by the FBI are the most horrendous in projecting accuracy of what is going on on the ground level. They consequently project a very low homicide rate, but to those that are unaware and have little or no comprehension of the fallacious nature of these so called "metropolitans," they can not discern the misleading nature of these stats. Simply being, these "metropolitans" (in current vernacular) are metropolitans in money and political ties of power only and absolutely absent of any "community" connection by the "average joe." Essentially you have two, or three "worlds" thrown together into a single stat as though they were the same "world" when in reality they differ to a degree of night and day.

In my humble opinion, both the United States and Brazil, would produce stats that are reflective of more accurate truth or reality, if they stuck more with city propers and more especially if both nations (or local governments within the two nations) began to produce stats on the micro level of individual neighborhoods. Because even neighborhoods can differ greatly in homicides and violent crime. Because in truth, at least I know it is so in my city, a city does not share its burden of violence and danger equally. There are areas of my town that almost seem like an entirely different country then from my neighborhood.

The cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Salvador have lots of "morenos" and or mulattoes and black peoples. If these cities can reduce there homicide rates to that of some of the lesser violent cities of Western Europe, then those three cities will become even more inspiring to dark skin peoples like myself. They'll be considered through out the world as the "civilized dark meccas of the world." That's better than hosting the f*ckin olympics.

...
written by aes, May 19, 2007

The pill and how we learned to f**k with impunity , kill fetuses with indifference, infect with herepes, cirvical cancer, amd emd the family,

Oh baby let me f**k you pure with as one to one, blah blah blah. There was a time when the man took the responsibility . But then the pill and boy we f**ked ourselves into disease, into irresponsibility (hell it aint my fault she said she was on the pill), we made pendejos of men. We created a globalized irresponsibile hedoniism.

When you make women responsible for society they dont have a clue as to when they are fertile, or whether they took the pill or not. It is their nature to go into a state of irrational disconection. f**k me f**k me, oh baby f**k me, yes yes yes, of course I took the pill, and I dont have aids, and f**k me f**k me f**k me, oh baby I love you, oh baby, oh baby, oh f**k.

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written by aes, May 19, 2007

In the Mafia Commission Trial (February 25, 1985–November 19, 1986), Giuliani indicted eleven organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families", under the RICO Act on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder for hire. Time magazine called this "Case of Cases" possibly "the most significant assault on the infrastructure of organized crime since the high command of the Chicago Mafia was swept away in 1943", and quoted Giuliani's stated intention: "Our approach...is to wipe out the five families."[24]

Abortion my ass. It had to do with Giuliani's effective and unrelenting procsecuting of the LAW.

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written by João da Silva, May 19, 2007

The cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Salvador have lots of "morenos" and or mulattoes and black peoples. If these cities can reduce there homicide rates to that of some of the lesser violent cities of Western Europe, then those three cities will become even more inspiring to dark skin peoples like myself.

Harmony,my lad,you got it all incorrect. I dont give a f**k about you being a moreno,mulatto,etc; Brain Power and not Black Power.It is a question of economy,as Billy Cinton said a long time ago.Good education with the promise of a bright future for all kind of graduating professionals. Think about it.

BTY, pay attention to the comments of AES/Prof/Pinga and my humble self.You have to display your knowledge and self confidence regardless of the color of your skin.

And Harmony, dont get intimidated by us.

e harmony
written by aes, May 19, 2007

who gives a f**k what color you are. It is the mind that I am speaking to soul, the self if you well. What color is Rice or Powell, Supreme Court Justices Marshall and Thomas? It is never about color it is always about self. Africa is a continent. It is black filled with doctors, lawyers, scientists, judges, philosphers, phds. Go to Paris, they dont give a f**k how many melonin you have to the square inch. Color and the importance of it is an American myopia, that is problematic for it effects vision. You are as bright as you are and as tan as you are. And Brazil, as an American I can assure you, is one of the most racially integrated of any country that I have ever been in. In Brazil it is not so much what grade of color you are as how much money and education that you have. The class that you manifest, manners intelligence etiquette. It is about education, and calss. To a great extent it is about monetary class, but that is Brazil's unique cross to carry. As to skin color forget it, it is on the equator and everybody is black to some degree. 'Dark skinned peoples like yourself' knock that s**t off. Learn how to write a complete thought without grammatical error or fallacy of logic.

...
written by e harmony, May 19, 2007

written by João da Silva, 2007-05-19 16:13:56

The cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Salvador have lots of "morenos" and or mulattoes and black peoples. If these cities can reduce there homicide rates to that of some of the lesser violent cities of Western Europe, then those three cities will become even more inspiring to dark skin peoples like myself.



Harmony,my lad,you got it all incorrect. I dont give a f**k about you being a moreno,mulatto,etc; Brain Power and not Black Power.It is a question of economy,as Billy Cinton said a long time ago.Good education with the promise of a bright future for all kind of graduating professionals. Think about it.

BTY, pay attention to the comments of AES/Prof/Pinga and my humble self.You have to display your knowledge and self confidence regardless of the color of your skin.

And Harmony, dont get intimidated by us.

I understand all that. The reality of the situation however is that people across the world draw association between what they see. Fact is, nations with lots of "dark peoples" like many in Latin America and in Africa are immediately associated with high levels of violence and corruption, by people in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia. People around the world notice there does not seem to be a nation on earth with a high percentage of mulattoes and black peoples that has a robust economy, stable and efficient government, and a Europe or Japanese like low level of violence. All those things together.

I've got no beef with Paris (or Berlin or London for that matter) it is one of the worlds great large cities and it has a very old history. But regardless of my own German bloodlines, I want to see the city of Rio become a fairly tranquil and economically prosperous mega city of the world. Granted, because of many of Rio's "first world" qualities and tropical climate it is considered one of the great cities of the world. But Rio is a city in many ways divided into so called "first world" and "third world" living condition (strangely right on top of each other) and the homicide rate is very high. After we cut through all the sh*t, any city with a homicide rate as high or higher than Detroit's is f*ckin dangerous. And believe me, Detroit, Baltimore, and cities like it our dangerous I would prefer to see Rio drop its homicide rate down to something like a European city like Paris with around 3 homicides per 100,000 people (or roughly something like that). Frankly, that is still probably dangerous in its own right. But the U.S. standard of accepting of homicide rates of 15 per 100,000 people as a "good city" is warped in its own f*cking right.

Basically, I would like to see Rio surpass U.S. cities and be elevated up to European or Tokyo standards or better. The impact would be positive in the U.S., Europe, and Asia as to how many peoples in those regions look upon people like me.

Report attacks racism in France (Part 1)
written by The Guest, May 19, 2007

Aes wrote: "Go to Paris, they dont give a f**k how many melonin you have to the square inch. Color and the importance of it is an American myopia,..."

They don't? Well I guess that is why they have so many problems that are only going to get worst.

BBC News June 17, 1998
A report by the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) says France is rife with racist activities and accuses the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this.
The report is part of a review of the situation in all the 40 member-states of the Council - a pan-European body that promotes democracy and human rights.
'Intolerant attitudes'
Michael Head of the Council of Europe's Committee against Racism says race relations are both improving and deteriorating
The report says: "France is still suffering from frequent and sporadic outbursts of racist activity, including some anti-Semitic incidents, as well as continuing discrimination in many fields of social and economic life."
The large Muslim community in France "is particularly the subject of intolerant and discriminatory attitudes" says the report, noting also acts of anti-Semitism.
The report describes the National Front as one of the most powerful extreme-right parties in Europe, "which presents an openly racist and xenophobic ideology."
The BBC correspondent in Paris, Stephen Jessel says the conventional non-extreme French right seems to be split on the question of what its relationship should be with the National Front.
Some on the right both in the UDF and the RPR parties are prepared to form alliances with it.
As the ECRI report notes, France has long been a land of immigration. One French person in four has a foreign-born parent or grandparent.
But, our correspondent says the National Front has successfully exploited resentment against outsiders and France's tradition, as a land of welcome to foreigners is moribund if not actually dead.

French Ghettos, Police Violence and Racism (Part 2)
written by The Guest, May 19, 2007

Global Research November 8, 2005

The French called them Les cités. The ‘ghettos’ are specially built for excluded and disfranchised migrants from France’s former North African colonies - mostly Arabs and Muslims - and other parts of the world. Clustered on the peripheries of France’s big cities, Les cités proved to be laboratories for dissent and resistance against oppression. The children of the immigrants who built France after World War II are being pushed further outside the French society.
It is important to emphasise that the French youth who are protesting against police violence and the policy of the French political establishment, are French citizens. They were born into first and second generation immigrants communities from France’s former colonies. They are not motivated by religion, and the protest has nothing to do with Islam and Western cliché of “Islamic fundamentalism”. It is a protest against oppression and racism. This is the only way the youth can express their anger and frustration at French political establishment which deny immigrants to be integrated in their diversity. Successive French governments failed to come up with a faire and successful integration policy.
The “second class citizens” have been pushed further out of the centres into France’s larger suburbs of Paris, Nice, and Lyon Toulouse, Marseille, Strasbourg and other big cities where their parents once provided cheap labour for France’s factories. The youth are excluded from the French society, and subjected to brutal and Nazi’s-like police harassments, encouraged by racist policies. In its annual report in April 2005, Amnesty International have criticised the “impunity” provided to police and police violent treatments of youth from North African origins during the provocative identity checks. In fact, an Arab or an African man has no right to look a policeman in the face during this deliberate and daily racism faced by young people of colour.
It is the police who provoked the current protests, when it was alleged that two boys, returning from a football match, had been deliberately chased by police into Clichy-sous-Bois substation, and were electrocuted and died. As usual the boys were afraid of the heavy-handed identity checks in the suburbs where French citizens of North African origins live. And the police refusal to apologise for their criminal action of exploding a tear gas inside a mosque. The situation was inflamed by the inflammatory and racist attitude of Nicolas Sarkozy, the megalomaniac French interior minister. Sarkozy attack on the youth as “subhuman” and calling for more Nazi’s-like repression to “ethnic cleansing” the ghettos was not helpful. Thanks to the cultural chauvinism of the French society, Sarkozy enjoys the support of 57% of the French voters. These anti-Arabs, anti-Muslims hatreds have taken France into its “anti-Semitism” past with new target, Arabs and Muslims.
A French government-commissioned report presented by Jean-Christophe Rufin, former vice-president of Médecins sans Frontières, to the interior ministry on October 2004 revealed that, mounting racism and “anti-Semitism” in France represents “a radical threat to the survival of our democratic system”. In addition, “racial discrimination is very real in France, but it’s not something that the authorities ever really wanted to face up to” said Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor in Paris.
It is France dark past and its discriminatory system that need to be clean. “It's hard to just sit here and watch the rich people driving past in their swanky vehicles. They have everything and we have absolutely nothing”, a 20-years old Zaid told the Independent on 05 November 2005. “Ever since Sarko [Sarkozy] came into the government, life has been merde [s**t]. He treats us like dogs -- well, we'll show him how dogs can react”, added 16-years old Kamel. Youth unemployment in the ghettos is three times higher than the national average or more than 40 percent.

To:Guest
written by João da Silva, May 19, 2007

As the ECRI report notes, France has long been a land of immigration

Since when?

French Ghettos, Police Violence and Racism (Part 2) Continued
written by The Guest, May 19, 2007

Global Research November 8, 2005

Furthermore, French of Muslim and North African origins constitute the largest percentage of Franc’s prisons system, where the treatment of prisoners is hell, and living condition is torturous. Physical and mental violence play a bigger part in the running of overcrowded prisons. In his recent book L’Islam dans les Prisons, Farhad Khosrokhavar, a professor of Sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris estimates that French Muslims make up some 70 percent of a total of 60,775 prisoners in France. Sociologists put the blame on marginalization and towering poverty and unemployment rates among the Muslim-Arab minority. The situation is not unique to France; it is a trend across Western Europe.
Contrary to Sarkozy’s and Western mainstream media allegations that the protest is organised by “Islamists” and the mosques, the protest is a form of youth solidarity against France’s discriminatory system and police brutality towards French citizens from Muslim and North African backgrounds. Muslims all over France have called for calm. Sarkozy should do the right thing and apologise for his racist remarks. The recent law banning on the head scarf (the Hijab) in public schools, hospitals and government buildings is a form of extremism. It is not only inciting racism, it is also denying French Muslim women their rights to education. It also shows that France is desperately in need of tolerance to wash the stain of Jean-Marie Le Pen fascist racism.
The recent curfews and emergency measures are the failed tools of France colonial past; what is needed is a change in attitudes. It is the French establishment and the French society that bear the responsibility for this system of conscious racism. Once this system is removed and its roots cut out the French society, France can be proud of its ideal.
It is time France revisits and takes seriously its ideal of Liberté, Fraternité and Égalité. France ought to reconsider its fraudulent policies of anti-Arabs and anti-Muslims prejudice. Or maybe France needs another French revolution?

E Harmony
written by João da Silva, May 19, 2007

Basically, I would like to see Rio surpass U.S. cities and be elevated up to European or Tokyo standards or better.

Harmony, I tend to concur with you. Until 15 years ago, Rio was one of the friendliest cities in Brazil. You can walk on Copacabana, ride the buses without being harassed, drink cafezinho with unknown cariocas and catch the plane without being afraid to be be shot at by the criminals.

It is so sad that Rio has become a "Pariah City". And I sincerely hope that your wishes come true.

What the F....?
written by bienchido, May 19, 2007

AES...you have obviously never been to Paris or you would know that race relations there are horrid.
As for your ideas about women and sex: you are a grade A a*****e from hell.

Racism Unfiltered in France (Part 3)
written by The Guest, May 19, 2007

Time Magazine Jan. 06, 2007

If the problem of racism in American discourse is typified by the N-word outburst of comedian Michael Richards followed by his abject apology, the French variant is altogether more toxic. The latest outrage came from second-string TV personality and self-appointed social commentator Pascal Sevran, whose recently published book included the obscenely racist idea that the "black [penis] is responsible for famine in Africa." Elaborating in a newspaper interview, Sevran said, "Africa is dying from all the children born there" to parents supposedly too sexually undisciplined or dumb to realize they could not feed them all. The answer to the problem? "We need sterilize half the planet," Sevran emphatically replied. Known as an relentless attention-seeker, the defiant Sevran drew only limited fire for his comments, and a public rebuke from his public television employer — though not the cancellation of his Sunday program that many demanded. Appalled at the light punishment, the government of Niger (itself a victim of recent famines) announced it would file libel charges against Sevran in French courts.
Sevran's prurient opinions are but the latest addition to the growing racist chatter in the French mainstream. A month earlier, a Socialist political kingpin in the Montpellier region sparked fury — and possible expulsion from the party — by lamenting that France's national soccer team fielded "9 blacks out of 11" starting players. "I'm ashamed of this country," in which "the whites are lousy," he groused, and would soon be fielding teams "where all 11 players are black." That echoed a comment a year earlier by philosopher Alain Finkelkraut, who — seeking to explain the 2005 rioting by youths descended from immigrants in France's suburbs — made allusion to France's "white-black-Arab" soccer side that won the 1998 World Cup and became an icon of French social integration. " Today, [the team is] black-black-black, and it's the laughingstock of Europe," Finkelkraut complained.

Racism Unfiltered in France (Part 3) Continued
written by The Guest, May 19, 2007

Time Magazine Jan. 06, 2007

Even some black Frenchmen have joined the bigoted chorus: In November, the black comic known as Dieudonn頭ade a conspicuous appearance at the annual congress of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front party — much to the pleasure of extreme-rightists looking to lose their racist stigma without changing their xenophobic positions. For the last two years, the self-described leftist Dieudonn頨ad outdone even Le Pen in Jew-baiting, delivering a series of brazenly anti-Semitic remarks, belittling the Holocaust and depicting Jews as racist persecutors of blacks and Arabs. Though that earned him general condemnation, Dieudonn駳 high-profile fraternizing with a party treated as a pariah by most French minorities and voters indicated that he, too, was looking for a more effective manner to promote his divisive positions. His flirtation with Le Pen found support from Ahmed Moualek, a blogger and influential voice from France's blighted suburban housing projects who said he'd rather debate with "an intelligent racist than with a stupid anti-racist," noting that while Le Pen's "language can at times shock people, he's an honest man."
The rising torrent of racist language and publicly expressed racist attitudes may be a sign less that racism is spreading, than that the boundaries of mainstream tolerance are changing. As in the U.S., France has seen an increase in provocative shock content in entertainment and commentary, whether for comic effect or political impact. Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy drew protests when he used a racially loaded term to denounce young men rioting in the suburbs last year — an outcry that also coincided with his jump in polls. The street patois of those ethnically diverse projects, meanwhile, has also long contained its own racially aggressive "shock" element, with the rejoinder "ta race" (your race) a kind of generic, all-purpose slight. Clearly, the political "filter" in the U.S. public square that prompts a Michael Richards or a Mel Gibson to grovel apologetically following publicly recorded racial insults is considerably less developed in France. Indeed, last year's riots were a stark reminder of how poorly France has done in integrating its diversity, remaining locked in an officially "color-blind" national ideology that often simply avoids confronting the problems of racial inequality. France counts no blacks or Arabs as members of parliament, and its corporate boardrooms don't fare much better.
France rejects affirmative action as incompatible with its republican ideals of color-blind equality for all citizens. Nice in theory, but that's not working in practice: discrimination continues, inequality is rife, and notions of color-blindness don't square with the rising chorus of racially loaded commentary. Color-blindness may also function to keep France blind to racial discrimination and inequality, but the rising tide of anger in the projects and racist chatter in the mainstream suggests that the French may soon have no choice but to openly confront what color-blindness prefers not to see.

Sarkozy is now the president. Let's see what is next.


"Color-blindness may also function to keep France blind to racial discrimination and inequality, but the rising tide of anger in the projects and racist chatter in the mainstream suggests that the French may soon have no choice but to openly confront what color-blindness prefers not to see."

The above statement reminds me of another country. Do you want to guess which one?

To:Guest/French Ghettos, Police Violence and Racism (Part 2) Continued
written by João da Silva, May 19, 2007

Guest, I am aware of it and you dont have to repeat it. The French,along with the Germans are the biggest racists and they consider the Brazilians to be inferior race!. I had to spend 15 hours in the transit lounge in Paris from the Orient back to Brazil, before the French and Brazilians eliminated the visa requirements between the two countries.

The best experience I have had is with the Americans and Canadians .Great folks. They are not racists,but give importance to the "Brain Power".

Or maybe France needs another French revolution?

I think the entire Europe needs another revolution (Great Britain excluded)

To:Guest
written by João da Silva, May 19, 2007

Sarkozy is now the president. Let's see what is next.

Dont expect too much from this poodle,lest you will be disappointed.Alpha French Male? Be on the look out.

BIENCHIDO:
written by aes, May 19, 2007

'68 I lived on Cite next to Notre Dame for 4 months, on the top floor of a 14th Century building. It was an extraordinary time. If you read American Black literature of the time, listen to the Black Jazz that existed in the caves of Paris, Paris was described as color blind.

I have been back to Paris for periods of weeks or days on business.

Now I have never liked the French. They are a petty people that have not won a war since Napoleon and have an inferiority complex almost universal. They are essentially a poor people dreaming of a past glory.
They are irrelevent. They have caused more problems in the world then they could dream of solving. And their grand scheme of Empire has come back to haunt them. There is no solution. The Flics even back in '68 would stop at one end of the quay with a paddy wagon and round up all the personage coraling them to examine in the particularly fascistic way for their papers.

I lived only in the old city of Paris. Nam was on and their were oddly North Vietnamese restaurants in an international milieu of blendedness.

France is doomed, damned by the consequences of its own delusions.

As to color blindedness it is from the Black writers and jazz musicians who spoke of the equality they felt in Euriope, in Paris, at that time. That is the color blindedness of which I speak.

I would not choose to live anyplace in France except the old city of Paris. Not for the French, but for the architecture, the ambiance.

In the early mornings the Algerians, or Morocans cleaned the streets with ancient reed brooms, which as an observer thought 'charming'.

Forty years later France has created the blueprint for its own demise. Like Viet Nam, or Haiti, or anyother place France has been it has brought a disease of decadence and demise.

These truths are self evident. The French are petty fascist arrogants, I have chosen not to live in Marseille. I once hitchhiked through Strasssborg and found it the most charming of cities. But France is not big enough for the world, and the world, will have France for lunch. It is perhaps there that when the rioting begins that NATO will begin the conflagration in earnest. There is justice in France, but it is French justice, the world is a big place, that is the greater justice, find your own justice, the world is filled with a variety of countries, peace can surely be had somewhere on this vast planet. But entropy is the nature of man, it takes a certain kind of man to head for New Zealand, or Australia, or Canada. Or perhaps you are just a blight on the escutchion of humanity and have no value to contribute and regard it your God given right to live wherever you please, even if you are neither wanted or a merely tresspassing. It reminds me of Holland and the murder of Van Gogh, someone didn't like his opionion, or the Danes Cartoons. It seems simple enough instead of trying to change Europe why dont you sell what you have acquired and find a homeland that shares your philosophy. That would seem more just. Better all around.V

What the F....?
written by bienchido, 2007-05-19 21:29:36

As for your ideas about women and sex: you are a grade A a*****e from hell.
I am sorry but to what do you irroneously refer?

BIENCHIDO
written by aes, May 20, 2007

Oh yes the pill and the abrogation of the male reponsibility for conception. Forty years of the failure to accept either the consequences of propogation, physically and emotionally or ultimately the disintigration of the family and society in general. Life is carpe diem, do your own thing and their is no personal responsibility because everything is relative. Well we started that s**t, to get f**ked. The consequence of failing to use a condom which for nearly fifty years had prevented rampant syphalis, gonorea, had evolved to a virulent herpes and to an epidemic of cervical cancer. The pill freed women to do what? What has been the consequence of this freedom, and if you are offended by the dialogue, you either do not know women or have not been in an ecstatic state with one. We (man and woman) become hedonistic, irresponsible emotionally retarded adults. Incapable of keeping either ones word 'Ido' which for my parents and grand parents to mean for fifty years or till death, to 'I do right now'. Think half or more of all marriage ends in divorce. At at some level abortion is murder. If you dont like the idea dont do it. What do you want to call it a 'medical procedure'. Like removing a wart. We have cheapened our lives, let us blame it on the pill. The freedom to be stupid. When you are willing to kill a human life for the sake of convenience, what can possibly be left that is sacred, or sacrosanct. I like the partial birth abortion part where they suck the brain out of the presenting head, because if the baby were actually to have its head in the world it would be murder.

TO;BIENCHIDO:
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

Forty years later France has created the blueprint for its own demise. Like Viet Nam, or Haiti, or anyother place France has been it has brought a disease of decadence and demise.

These truths are self evident. The French are petty fascist arrogants

Do I have to say more?

To:AES
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

it takes a certain kind of man to head for New Zealand, or Australia, or Canada

Another great statement from you AES and thanks.Dont forget to include your country too.

Comparing Apples to Oranges..
written by bo, May 20, 2007

the article states that there are 15 murders per 100K in sao paulo, that is in sao paulo STATE, NOT the city! So it isn't a fair comparison comparing a state to a city. Instead of comparing to detroit, new orleans, etc, try comparing the STATE of sao paulo to another american STATE.

The murder rate in the STATE of sao paulo in 2002-2004 was 48.2 per 100K, for anyone to believe that the rate has dropped to a mere 15 per in the last two years is absurd. If those numbers are the real numbers from the state secretariats office I smell something fishy.

Top 30 municipalities where murder is a problem in Brazil (average rate for 2002/2004):

City, State, Murder Rate per 100,000, Ranking

Colniza MT 165.3 1st
Juruena MT 137.8 2nd
Coronel Sapucaia MS 116.4 3rd
Serra ES 111.3 4th
São José do Xingu MT 109.6 5th
Vila Boa GO 107.0 6th
Tailândia PA 104.9 7th
Aripuanã MT 98.2 8th
Ilha de Itamaracá PE 95.1 9th
Macaé RJ 94.5 10th
Foz do Iguaçu PR 94.3 11th
Itaguaí RJ 92.7 12th
Recife PE 91.2 13th
Tunas do Paraná PR 86.8 14th
Itaboraí RJ 83.7 15th
Cariacica ES 83.3 16th
Cabo de Santo Agostinho PE 82.2 17th
Santa Cruz do Xingu MT 81.7 18th
Duque de Caxias RJ 80.9 19th
Ribeirão PE 79.4 20th
Rio Bonito do Iguaçu PR 79.3 21st
Vitória ES 78.6 22nd
Nova Iguaçu RJ 78.5 23rd
Vicente Dutra RS 78.1 24th
Cotriguaçu MT 77.4 25th
Buritis RO 77.3 26th
Jaboatão dos Guararapes PE 76.9 27th
São Sebastião SP 76.9 28th
Agrestina PE 75.8 29th
Diadema SP 74.6 30th

Rio de Janeiro RJ 57.2 107th
São Paulo SP 48.2 182nd

Bo
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

for anyone to believe that the rate has dropped to a mere 15 per in the last two years is absurd.

Why not?

...
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

The reality of the situation however is that people across the world draw association between what they see. Fact is, nations with lots of "dark peoples" like many in Latin America and in Africa are immediately associated with high levels of violence and corruption, by people in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia. People around the world notice there does not seem to be a nation on earth with a high percentage of mulattoes and black peoples that has a robust economy, stable and efficient government, and a Europe or Japanese like low level of violence. All those things together.

I don't think people should care about what others think, and grouping "Latin America" and Africa together is a big geographical mistake. Not because they are two different continents, but because the populations and history of both places are drastically different.

Most of Africa is a semifeudal economy, countries with their economies closed for most part, ruled by an insane and corrupt elite. The poor people from the US and Europe donate money so the rich people from Africa can transfer it to their Swiss accounts. On the other hand, Brazil and latin america always was run by the rich and white. That seems to be changing, but not necessarily to something better (see Lula and PT, the most corrupt government Brazil ever had).

Between the whitest white with a good ethics and moral and Lula, I would choose the whitest white, because we don't need racism, what we need is a meritocracy.

aes
written by nesnej, May 20, 2007

I'm sorry but attempting to correlate abortion, and freedom to have sex with getting pregnant with higher murder rates just doesn't work. If this were true then the countries of Europe should have some of the highest murder rates in the world, as almost all make abortion legal and in my experience are, on average, much loser about sex than most of the Americas. This is the old puritan argument put out there to try to impose moral rules to a certain segment of societies wishes. That is not to say that your statement about partial birth abortion is incorrect, but that is because a late term fetus is a fully developed baby. However a first trimester fetus is more or less the equivalent of a tad pole. Despite what your good book, whose main character (GOD) has about as much chance of existing as Santa Claus, says.

...
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

The reality of the situation however is that people across the world draw association between what they see. Fact is, nations with lots of "dark peoples" like many in Latin America and in Africa are immediately associated with high levels of violence and corruption, by people in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia. People around the world notice there does not seem to be a nation on earth with a high percentage of mulattoes and black peoples that has a robust economy, stable and efficient government, and a Europe or Japanese like low level of violence. All those things together.

I don't think people should care about what others think, and grouping "Latin America" and Africa together is either a big geographical mistake or a political maneuver from some american black-Nazi group. Not because they are two different continents, but because the populations and history of both places are drastically different. Such associations tell more about the individuals that have them than about the actual reality.

Most of Africa is a semifeudal economy, countries with their economies closed for most part, ruled by an insane and corrupt elite. The poor people from the US and Europe donate money so the rich people from Africa can transfer it to their Swiss accounts. On the other hand, Brazil and Latin America was always run by the rich and white. That seems to be changing, but not necessarily to something better (see Lula and PT, the most corrupt government Brazil ever had, or "Evil Morales" in Bolivia).

I don't have much faith in this country. The children are taught leninist ideology in the school, the communists are in power with some very backward ideas. If nothing is changed I think in about 50 years, in the best of the cases, we will be a new Cuba, in the worst case we will degenerate to a state of unseen barbarism.

The children in Brazil nowadays think that "samba" and "candomble" is culture, but they know nothing about the classic culture or the following centuries of knowledge that Europe produced. The truth has been reduced to what's "politically correct".

Without a solid base, and such base can only be found in the European culture, there's no way anything good can be built. Nobody denies who they are by pursuing knowledge, it's about time for blacks to give up on Africa and start using their "Brain Power". Everytime I hear about Africa I can't help thinking that that place is the closest thing we have to hell on Earth, and, still, some use it as a badge of pride. Go figure.

...
written by aes, May 20, 2007

Well your comment was interesting. I dont know where there is a correlation between higher murder rates, unless you consider the killing of an embryonic human as murder. Though it is murder if the fetus is shot and the mother actually wanted the baby, the crime is murder. Curious, how can the killing of the same thing be murder in one instance and a medical procedure in the other. I suppose if you bury the fetus it is murder and if you flush it down the toilet it is merely a biological procedure.

The commentary I was making was primarily concerned with whether the 'pill' had benefited global society at large. It was my contention that in fact it had been responsible for a variety of diseases, caused the irresponsibility of the male in the process.

I also contended that abortion as a means of contraception had denegrated human life, brought a fundamental disintegration and dysfunction to the concept and reality of family, produced a carpe diem society at any cost and made human life as expendable as a disposable diaper.

I also contended that it made the centering of the self, the convenience of the self, the sine qua non of life. That convenience was the meaning of life. If you found being pregnant inconvenient, well it was easily remedied.

But there are grave conscious and unconscious consequences to abortion. The are psychological tomes written on the subject. What percentage of women that have had abortions are not deeply scarred, damaged, psychologically traumatized by the event. The body never forgets, and the soul never stops grieving.

So life is made cheap, it is as easy to snuff out life as it is to remove a wart.

So why should a father be a father to a thing that has as much significance as a cold. So they dont. So you have a society of dysfunctional emotionally underdeveloped adults, who when reaching a situation in life where another life is inconvenient, well just 'snuff it'. Now this wasn't anything I said before, but it certainly begins to provide fodder for the rampant rise of jeuvenile murders. Life has lost meaning because at a very fundamental psychological and biological level we have soled our humanity for covenience.

I dont know what they do in Africa. I do know that they have hugh numbers of children because the mortality rate pre history had been so high. With the advent of contemporary medicines we are able to reduce the mortality rate to such an extent that we now have a population that is so large it cannot feed itself, so there is massive famine. The West continues to feed the famine, the Africans continue to reproduce without consideration of food, since the West miraculously produces the food and life continues like lemmings heading over the inevitible cliff of Darwinism.

We spend more time solving the problems of the world then we do our own, because it is so much easier. We dont know how to solver our problems, we cant identify them even, but we sure as hell know the solution to Africa's problems. Like hell we do. Some times you just better get the hell out of the way.

Lord grant me the will to do the things I can, and the wisdom to know the things I cant.

The operation was a success, but the patient died.

...
written by e harmony, May 20, 2007

written by A brazilian, 2007-05-20 13:44:11
I don't think people should care about what others think, and grouping "Latin America" and Africa together is either a big geographical mistake or a political maneuver from some american black-Nazi group. Not because they are two different continents, but because the populations and history of both places are drastically different. Such associations tell more about the individuals that have them than about the actual reality.

Most of Africa is a semifeudal economy, countries with their economies closed for most part, ruled by an insane and corrupt elite. The poor people from the US and Europe donate money so the rich people from Africa can transfer it to their Swiss accounts. On the other hand, Brazil and Latin America was always run by the rich and white. That seems to be changing, but not necessarily to something better (see Lula and PT, the most corrupt government Brazil ever had, or "Evil Morales" in Bolivia).

I don't have much faith in this country. The children are taught leninist ideology in the school, the communists are in power with some very backward ideas. If nothing is changed I think in about 50 years, in the best of the cases, we will be a new Cuba, in the worst case we will degenerate to a state of unseen barbarism.

The children in Brazil nowadays think that "samba" and "candomble" is culture, but they know nothing about the classic culture or the following centuries of knowledge that Europe produced. The truth has been reduced to what's "politically correct".

Without a solid base, and such base can only be found in the European culture, there's no way anything good can be built. Nobody denies who they are by pursuing knowledge, it's about time for blacks to give up on Africa and start using their "Brain Power". Everytime I hear about Africa I can't help thinking that that place is the closest thing we have to hell on Earth, and, still, some use it as a badge of pride. Go figure.

I don't agree with this post at all. In fact I don't agree with the proposition that the French are the most racist (certainly have racism there) or that legalized abortion is any significant cause for the high homicide rates in many U.S. cities.

Aside from the multitude of troubles on the African continent, there is nothing wrong with Africa or all the various African peoples. You probably can find many cities throughout Africa, that while far worse in infrastructure than their U.S. counterparts, are far safer in terms of violent crime than their U.S. counterpart. Not only that, many of the tribal identities are still intact in Africa and family bonds often stronger than in the U.S. Black community.

I'm also quite fond of Lula, Evo Morales, Chavez, and even Michelle Bachelet. And samba and candomble are legitimate forms of culture in Brazil. God*damn it, I wish we had some samba shakin a**es in my city.

There's nothing wrong with Europe, just as there is nothing wrong with Asia, the Americas, or Africa. Europe without doubt contributed to human history and produced some notable accomplishments. But the Mexica (Aztecs) or Mayans no less so. Great kingdoms and ordered societies existed in China and Africa as well. When white peoples decided to appreciate Picasso that didn't mean the art of Benin (in Africa) amazingly gained justification and worthiness - abstract art in its own genre amongst the Black African Kingdoms already had it. And as the Norman conquerers of Sicily recognized, and incorporated into their own architecture, the Muslim East of olive, bronze, and black skin complexion, produced some awe inspiring architecture and gardens of their own.

I'm about tired of hearing about how this racial group did this and that. Let's understand something, "Egypt" did not include all of Black Africa, and "Rome" did not include all of White Europe. Three thousand years ago parts of Black Africa was "ahead" of most of White Europe. Even when Rome ruled as an empire they referred to my German ancestors as "barbarians" (implication being they didn't feel united by "white pride" nor was the concept of "Europe" formed at that time) and those so called "Dark Ages" is laughable since that would have required my Germanic ancestor to have been living in the "Light Ages" prior to the "fall of Rome." Fact is, just because the Romans put bathhouses (dirty filled water I might add) in "barbarian" frontiers of Europe doesn't mean the Saxon (a name which essentially means "knife" in reference to the tribe carrying knives and being warriors [not scholars]) were living like Timbuktu.

...
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

I'm also quite fond of Lula, Evo Morales, Chavez, and even Michelle Bachelet.

Please explain why you are so fond of these folks.

aes
written by nesnej, May 20, 2007

I'm sorry but attempting to correlate abortion, and freedom to have sex with getting pregnant with higher murder rates just doesn't work. If this were true then the countries of Europe should have some of the highest murder rates in the world, as almost all make abortion legal and in my experience are, on average, much loser about sex than most of the Americas. This is the old puritan argument put out there to try to impose moral rules to a certain segment of societies wishes. That is not to say that your statement about partial birth abortion is incorrect, but that is because a late term fetus is a fully developed baby. However a first trimester fetus is more or less the equivalent of a tad pole. Despite what your good book, whose main character (GOD) has about as much chance of existing as Santa Claus, says.

E harmony
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

Europe isn't perfect, nor any other continent for that matter. But it's up to us to learn with other's mistakes and improve ourselves. This fixation about Africa is unjustified, if they had a culture that was "superior" to Europe than I would like to see it. In Brazil we only see samba, capoeira and candomble, and that's it. I think this is more something foreigners would like to be, than actually real.

This country has a destiny, but this artificial divide seems to make it go backwards instead of forward. We are dangerously going back to the XIX century in terms of "racial concepts", this is what PT and the rest thieves promote.

If you admire Lula then I suggest you to inform yourself better, especially about the Sao Paulo Forum (a communist group he belongs to). He is not only a corrupt, but a traitor. His allegiance is first to such groups that threat Brazil's sovereignty, and then later to his own country. PT has connections with the FARC, a colombian terrorist group that uses drug trafficking as a means of financing its activities, and brings tons of cocaine into Brazil, causing as a side effect the huge security problem we see today. PT received money from such group for the election of Lula.

Other terrorist groups such as the MST, with connections with the president's party, has their own "schools" where they teach kids about the socialist revolution that is coming. Their goal is no more no less than implement a socialist regime in Brazil.

Many of the members of PT were guerilla fighters, that fought against the military regime to establish communism. They failed of course, but now they are trying the revolution in the Gramsci way, instead of an armed one. What we have in Brazil is a "silent revolution", where key positions within the government is filled with people from the party, and slowly the population is educated to accept socialist ideas, even if they don't know such things are socialist. So much today every politician willing to succeed in elections must use the social justice speech, i.e., distribution of wealth. They have no notion of merit whatsoever, if you have something then you are stealing from the poor.

About Brazil. Take all of the cultures of the world, break them to pieces, save the good and throw away the bad, put it all together. That's it, the recipe for a better Brazil. When this happens we won't be Europeans, Asians or Africans, but something else, the true Brasilians. My people is the people of the future, so I should lay the foundations today.

Samba may be a lower form of culture, a form of popular expression, just like Britney Spears or Metallica. But not culture in the sense I am referring to, literature and other forms of art would be more like it.

To: A Brazilian
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

One of your best posts.You expressed the thoughts of the Brazilian middle class regarding the "Silent Revolution", that is going on.Thanks and congrats.

Gilligan (Joao) is at it again
written by GTY, May 20, 2007

"The best experience I have had is with the Americans and Canadians .Great folks. They are not racists,but give importance to the "Brain Power".

This guy is so infatuated with white Americans and Europeans it is sickening. He has shown his overt racism on post after post. He claims to have had his best "experience" with American and Canadians, yet will immediatly belittle or rant against Black Americans, Mexican Americans or any American of color as being less of an American. His statement about "Brain Power" is an obvious racist statement that means in his own mind "white brain pwer", there is no arguing with racists of this type, it's why he attacks me, E-Harmony or the black writers on this blog. Fortunatly he is not typical of most Brazilians, but he is typical of most Americans, perhaps that is why he wants to be one so bad...I am sure he would love to come to the South and join the Klan.

It's funny how race and violence always elict the most responses on this blog. Bo is correct, statistics can be manipulated to say anything, he is also correct in saying the author in this case has done so. But Police Departments and city officals across the US do the same thing, just recently here in Ft Lauderdale, the Chief of Police has been removed for cooking the books about violent crime, it being much higher than reported. He had instructed his officers to "miss report" how they reported crime to be reappointed by a new Mayor.

I also agree that secular Europe has created a BIG problem by allowing Muslims to immigrate but not assimilate into their society. Now they pacify them by actually supporting their 15th Century customs and laws...their is a day of reckoning coming across Europe. Even the move towards conservative politicans and leaders is too late.

As for E-Harmony, his desire to see Brazil, which is undeniably a country of African blood become a place where the world could look to see a black culture thrive and be an example of tolerence and freedom is admirable. It is my understanding that Bahia has become the number one international vacation spot for African Americans, I have meet many African American's in Rio as well, they should be welcome, because they can learn a thing or two about Brazilian tolerance. While visiting Corcovado, my teenaged son and his girlfriend saw and met Luducris, we later saw him near our apartment in Ipanema, my wife and I had a chance to speak with him, he was polite and articulate, he said he loved Brazil, Rio in particular. We were able to have a similar conversation with Will Smith a year later...funny, we also saw Calvin Klein, he purchased an apartment in Aporador, he said he loved Rio because of all the beautiful your Brazilian boys...something for everyone...it's why I love going (not living) in Brazil myself.

...
written by e harmony, May 20, 2007

written by João da Silva, 2007-05-20 16:16:05

I'm also quite fond of Lula, Evo Morales, Chavez, and even Michelle Bachelet.



Please explain why you are so fond of these folks.

How about this as an answer to satisfy you: One has tits, one is Indian, one use to jump out of planes, and the other came up selling peanuts on the street.

Now, in the 21st century that is inspiring, not a nigga from Harvard.

...
written by e harmony, May 20, 2007

Chavez and his daughters. Now you ain't ever seen that up in the White House.

In all honesty Chavez is to far left-wing for me. Perhaps that is due to me from both the U.S. and a product of a more comfortable life, I don't know. But I tend to appreciate the free market more than people on the far left (but less than people on the far right). Maybe if I came up in abject poverty I would feel different - I don't know. Nonetheless, I admire the fire in the belly of Chavez and his desire to help out those on the bottom. His family picture certainly is something new for Presidents and a "silent revolution" in its own right. That's my feeling on it and I'm done arguing about it. (this is all way off topic from the original subject of the thread anyways)

GTY: the hispanic
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

which is undeniably a country of African blood become a place where the world could look to see a black culture thrive and be an example of tolerence and freedom is admirable.

Brazil is not a black country. The only racist here is you by stating that. And Bahia is a backward place, if they used their hips less and their brains more then they would have higher impact in our economy.

Your text is malicious. You really don't admire anything, you just wrote that thing up to establish a lie "a black country" for those that read it. Incredibly low and racist of you.

The gringo fixation with blackness and Bahia stems from the fact that they are looking for something different when they come to brazil, so they can free themselves, which might involve realizing sexual fantasies with transexuals or children. No educated person would ever call Brazil a "black country".

...
written by A brazilian, May 20, 2007

I admire the fire in the belly of Chavez and his desire to help out those on the bottom.

His desire is the same one of Stalin, Mao, that North Korean guy I forgot the name, and many other genocidal ogres around the planet. All of them thought they knew what was best for everyone, and ended up building up the biggest killing machine of all times. Many millions of women, children and other "camarades" were killed, either by hunger due to their inefficient politics or by terror. Some ended up as slaves.

Truth Hurts
written by GTY, May 20, 2007

Read your history, Portuguese slave traders having babies with their female slaves and Brazilian indians. It is too bad you deny your heritage instead of embracing it. It really is quite remarkable and beautiful, Brazil truely is the melting pot we all strive to live in. The reason they don't participate in your economy has nothing to do with their "hips" but beacause racists like you and Gilligan prevent them from doing so at all costs. But now they vote in leftists and local leaders, white ranch owners are finally being prosecuted for killing the poor, including women and children in the North. Your police are corrupt and take the law into their own hands murderous animals with no sense of morality. Better get used to it dude...you are a "n****r" say it loud, your black and proud...as is your mother and sisters.

Yeah, I'm hispanic, 1/2 Mexican to be exact, loved my mother, proud of my heritage. In this great country, we not only have the ability to create wealth for ourselves and our families, our politcial clout and power continues to grow. Miami is a city run by Cubans, LA, Denver and Phoenix, run by my brothers and sisters, even Chicago and Boston are becoming browner and browner. Why do you think the Senate is about to pass an Immigration Bill that will include amnesty? Why will Bush sign it? It's just a few short months away...they all want to get relected. Rednecks are done, finished, as are the so called Red States, our next President will be a women or even Black...in a country only a couple of hundred years old...while yours tries to live in it's slave trader past.

Does it kill you that a 1/2 Mexican, "hispanic" can live like a Barron in Florida? While you struggle to buy arroz e fejio in Brazil. Hip swinging is what makes Brazil the greta place she is, not narrow minded (thank God your the tiny minority) light skinned Brazilians who think they are white...wake up man, even in your case, there was a brother in the woodpile at some point in your family tree. Your keep calling Black Brazilans monkeys, I have heard it a million times...but I'll bet you walk to the other side of the street when you see a couple of Brazilian brothers coming, typical chickens**t white boy. You are all such a bunch of sheet wearing pussies. Adios...paz.

To:GTY
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

This guy is so infatuated with white Americans and Europeans it is sickening. He has shown his overt racism on post after post. He claims to have had his best "experience" with American and Canadians, yet will immediatly belittle or rant against Black Americans, Mexican Americans or any American of color as being less of an American. His statement about "Brain Power" is an obvious racist statement that means in his own mind "white brain pwer", there is no arguing with racists of this type, it's why he attacks me, E-Harmony or the black writers on this blog.

Gary, you young fool,a card holding member of the Communist Party of the Planet.First of all let me welcome you back to the blog after your botched up fishing trip to Bimini (Is it located in Cuba or Bermuda Triangle?.The least you could have done is to transmit the coordinates to us,before you embarked on your disastrous mission).

Secondly, I would like to express my utmost displeasure at your calling me a Racist. When I called the Americans and Canadians good folks, I did not mean,just the whites,but in general regardless of color, the nations of origin,etc; I was comparing their respect for Brain Power with respect to the French,Germans,Swiss, etc; Put it into your dumb head. If the Canadians and the Americans are racists, why do they have so many engineers,doctors and many more experts from other countries?. Nowhere in my blogs, I have made any racial remarks and you can check it out.

On the contrary,you are a reverse racist.It is proven beyond any iota of doubt by your constant berating of the Brazilians (regardless of our skin color,ethnic origin,BRAIN POWER,etc).Not only tht,you have been insulting all the good honorable Americans who are on this blog (refer to your insults your E Harmony).

Let me tell ya something,buster.You are a goddamed reverse racist playing "Coitadinho" and trying to take maximum advantage of all the good folks,including your good ole dad (I suppose you dad is a Lutheran).

And Comrade, stop being a "coitadinho"

To:E Harmony
written by João da Silva, May 20, 2007

How about this as an answer to satisfy you: One has tits, one is Indian, one use to jump out of plan