JANUARY '98
LETTERS

I would like to complain about a tendentious article on Ayahuasca, União do Vegetal and Santo Daime published on your pages. It was written with the clear purpose of vilifying the Santo Daime Doctrine image and exalting the União do Vegetal. It is easy to imagine how it happened, as one of the main editors of Correio Brasiliense (the Brasília newspaper quoted on the article) is a mestre of União do Vegetal and we all know the power of this kind of people and how they use it.

I know it is difficult for the magazine to check all the information sent, and, after all, people have the right to express their opinions, but I think that the truth must be respected and so there is an important thing that should be corrected. The hymn about Santa Maria is quoted as: Whoever knows Santa Maria / Uses her every day / And always lives in agony. The real version is: Whoever DOESN'T know Santa Maria / AND uses her every day / Always lives in agony.

Isn't it an ill-intentioned information? I have an article about the Santo Daime urban communes, which could be a response to this misunderstanding and it might balance the information about the issue if Brazzil decides to publish it.

José Murilo Costa Carvalho Júnior
Céu do Planalto, Santo Daime Community
Brasília, Brazil

Fiction
and Facts

Regarding the article "Amazon Ablaze" in your December issue concerning proposed industrial logging in the Amazon, the author, Beto Borges, makes some highly erroneous statements over the practice of sustainable logging. Sustainable logging has been successfully practiced for thousands of years in China, for hundreds of years in Europe, and since the last century in the southern United States. I have visited sustainable logging operations in southeast China, southern Brazil, and the United States.

Indeed, in Brazil sustainable logging operations are major industries in the States of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and São Paulo. Wood products from these areas reduce the need for logging in more environmentally sensitive areas. If, as Mr. Borges suggests, sustainable logging doesn't exist, where exactly is the world obtaining its supply of wood products? Can sustainable logging be undertaken everywhere? Of course not! Should sustainable logging be attempted in the Amazon? Probably not. However making fictitious and easily disprovable statements does not serve the cause of protecting the world's rainforests, it only alienates people.

I greatly enjoy your magazine and look forward to the next issue.

K. Andrew Knapp
Boise, Idaho
kaknapp@aol.com

Dumbed
Down

I have always enjoyed reading Brazzil, back from the days it was called News from Brazil. However, I must say that I was quite upset at your cover story entitled "Are We Sex Mad?" (October 1997). To make matters worse your November '97 issue took full advantage of former landless activist Débora Rodrigues's new profession by further displaying pudenda. It seems the publication will now change its name to Brazil T&A!

The funny thing is that editorially speaking, the publication seems to be critical of this apparent extreme sex craze in the minds of Brazilians. Yet, by displaying full-unabashed nudity, you are doing what everybody else (media) is doing, and any sign of intelligence from your text vanishes. The publication appears as an apologist for this kind of media behavior, in spite of a critical stance.

Notice I mentioned "apparent" extreme craze. I for one think the Brazilian media, which has run out of good and intelligent ideas, creates all this and forces it upon people. Many Brazilians (dare I say the majority) don't really want to see Carla Perez and Co. on TV, but that is what is forced upon them. Even the most "serious and respectable" Brazilian newspapers, like Folha de São Paulo and Estado de S. Paulo, carry literally dozens of "Relax for Men" ads on a daily basis, which bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue, on an yearly basis. You would never dream of reading such ads in the New York Times, but what really matters to the Brazilian papers is the loss of revenue, not a possible dent on their respectability.

What really shocks me is the total lack of subtlety, and apparently, Brazzil has joined the bandwagon. So, no wonder that most Brazilian young women (even ugly ones) seem to think that the only way to advance in life is to use their bodies, either by posing nude or finding a sugar daddy. Because that is exactly what the media, including Brazzil, is telling them.

Cecílio Ribas
New York, New York

Professor
Helper

Your magazine has been very helpful to my Portuguese classes at the Folk University in Gothenburg and to the seminar about Brazil that I make here in town. I have been living in Gothenburg, Sweden, for six years, but I come from Recife and I received this great gift, Brazzil, from my dearest friend Kenji Hughes from California. Since I got my first issue I cannot live without reading Brazzil with its fresh news and interesting information about music and tourism. You wouldn't believe how much your magazine has helped me.

Maria Clara Neto Andersson
Gothenburg, Sweden

High-Brow
Lowdown

I would like to offer my congratulations on the excellent job you are doing at your Internet site, which I have followed closely ever since my introduction to the WEB. Not only do you tackle difficult subjects reasonably well but also, you possess a rare quality these days... a journalistic backbone. Please, keep up the good work!

Amman Mohammed Said
New York, New York

No to
Heedless
Sex

Please renew my subscription and enter a new subscription for all 15 (fifteen) new names below. Suggestion: Many people in Brazil have noticed that it is possible to make money by exploiting sexuality. But I'd like to see less uncaring sex in the magazine.

Michael Jennings
Portland, Oregon

Brazzil Goes
to School

I am preparing an anthology for students to be called The Brazil Reader. May I reproduce Kathleen Azevedo's piece on candomblé and Ted Goertzel's on Fernando Henrique Cardoso? I will give full citations and send you a copy of the anthology when it is ready.

Robert M. Levine
University of Miami, History Dept.
Coral Gables, Florida

We Could
Use a Hand

I love Brazil and I love Brazzil. I want two more years. Thank you so much for existing. I'd like very much to help in any way; I see notices asking for proofreaders and such in the magazine. Tell me if you need anybody, I'd be more than happy to devote some time to Brazzil.

Kathy Macpherson
Portland, Oregon

A Good
Turn

I think your magazine is wonderful especially to those of us who love Brazil. Could you please help me. I am not able to find much info on São Luís, in the state of Maranhão. I am seriously thinking about visiting there and need to know in depth about the people, places, etc... I've checked out the government site but again, very little info.

R. Smith
Houston, Texas
rsmith@lconn.com

Eureka!

This has got to be the site for my family and myself. What I'm trying to say is muito bom..

Martin J. Delessio
Long Island City, New York

 

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