South America culture and politics thread

I find the lack of a Brazilian specific thread disturbing.

Along the Venezuela and Argentina thread, the Brasil thread is to discuss the peculiarities of the Brazilian politics and culture. From the Brazilian standing inside South America to other countries, namely the US, the European Nations, Japan and China. The dynamics of the Brazilian economy and its global impact and the Brazilian military influence (or lack thereof). The Brazilian internal politics, the cultural differences among the 26 states and the Federal District and other nations.

Posts can be in Portuguese but I ask for the Lusophones to mainly post in English since it is the common troper language.

A quick crash course in the Brazilian political structure.

a Brief video over the current state of Brazil.

Argentines and Venezuelans from their respective threads are also welcome.

edited 3rd Nov '15 5:41:38 PM by AngelusNox

Opening.

As a note, in ten days there will be the 30th anniversary of the Armero tragedy in Colombia. A minor eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano caused part of its ice cap to melt, sending mudflows down into the town of Armero and some neighbouring towns, causing 23,000 fatalities.

In the Face of the PL5069 (PL = Law Project) a compilation of Brazilian actors and actresses made a video protesting against the criminalization of announcing abortion methods predicted by the PL5069.

The link's content is in Portuguese.

It seems since the Dilma's reelection the political parties from the pro-government base and opposition are becoming more and more obnoxious with their laws and positions in order to draw notability for themselves and Cunha is doing a hell of a job on that.

Sorry not sorry. But I demand the honor to be the first to do this.

HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE.

Now since that is out of my system, what is the whole petrobras thing going to do? It eroded Dilma's support quite a lot, as I udnerstood but apparently not enough, and new corruption scandals are surging every now an then anyways...

What's all this gunna end at?

The corruption scandals will never end as long as we keep reelecting the same assholes over and over again and once we get rid of the vote transfer among candidates from the same party, which allows parties to elect politicians no one voted for.

But Petrobras will suffer for a few years until the consumer and investor trust return to pre scandal levels, after all PB is one of those companies that hardly go fully bankrupt because the government will always foot the bill.

The Lava Jato's main blow to Dilma was, along plummeting her approval ratings, making almost everyone of her previous allies and supporters turn their backs on her because they no longer want to be associated with her, but at the same time they can't press for more investigations over corruption schemes because they all are probably involved in the PB scheme and others schemes in one way or another. In other words if one falls everyone falls together.

Now the Worker's Party is also distancing themselves from Dilma but it is being seen as a maneuver to save face and keep Lula's reputation untarnished by Dilma's incompetence, thus making him a "viable" candidate for the next election.

As someone mentioned on the US General Politics thread, while more than 2 consecutive terms is forbidden, unlike the US, having a third term after someone else's term isn't and no one bothered to fix this little flaw.

Pretty sure you don't need the "Brasil and" part in the title, since the "South America" bit already covers it.

Aye. changed the title.

I was thinking about being a Brazilian specific thread like the Argentina and Venezuela threads instead of a general South America thread, mostly because you know Brazil is really different from the rest of South America.

Then I think it would be better to leave this as "the Brazil thread" and widen the scope of the other country-specific threads to allow anything related to their country instead of being politics-only.

Not to mention that we technically already have a thread that covers the rest of South America.

And don't we have a Brazil thread in the first place? I swore we had a Brazil thread.

Oh, it's a Protests in Brazil thread.

edited 4th Nov '15 2:04:58 PM by PotatoesRock

We do not talk of the hues.

it summons them

I thought that thread would qualify for a Brazilian focused thread but those protests died down a while ago.

The HU Eroes are HU Everywhere.

FUCKING HELL. This is supposed to be a secular state not Huestan.

edited 5th Nov '15 5:24:50 AM by AngelusNox

Oh Eduardo Cunha.

Of course it was Eduardo Cunha.

The Deforestation and its effects on the Amazon basin and Rio Pardo.

Reuters link.

Shouldn't someone PM Septimus or another Mod about the thread title?

Anyways, this is a thread about Brazilian politics, but I think it should be alright to talk about national cinema here. Here go some new ones.

Starting with Olmo e a Gaivota (English trailer: Olmo and the Seagull), a movie that debuted today. Personally it doesn't seem like my kind of movie, yet it still seems really interesting. I think it's a kind of documentary/drama. I discovered the movie through this other video (with English subtitles), made by actors and actresses that watched it beforehand. I also shared those videos in the Women's Issues thread yesterday.

For the next two movies I don't have an English trailer, not even with subtitles. I suppose non-lusophones can still watch those for their visuals, since that's half of the medium's way of expression.

Reza a Lenda ("So Says the Legend", or maybe "The Legend Says [That]"; I'm not exactly a professional translator ), a brazilian post-apocalyptic movie. "Brazilian Mad Max", as I was told about it (I think some news site so called it that way). It looked fine until the only two women in the entire trailer started fighting over the main male character. I'll keep my judgement for when/if I watch the movie, but that trailer isn't helping.

I saved the best for last. Well, this movie would hardly be considered "classical" or "high quality", and I only (re)discovered it recently, but it makes me feel... Not hype, some other kind of excitement over its simple existence. Although the released is planned to happen yet this year, it's still under production. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... Calango Ball. Trailer #2, Preview. (Calango being a word meaning 'lizard' in a regional dialect, I believe)

Described as "Dragon Ball in the Maranhense Outback", it, as far as I can make out from the trailers, tells the story of Pouku, Xaruto and Duff in their search for the sacred pequis, against the villains Sol (from Dragon Ball), Xiquin do Boi (also from Dragon Ball, but more original) and Mané Guineto. Even if you don't speak Portuguese, I'd recommend watching the videos if you've followed more than one of these franchises, because I don't have my own words to describe it.

Despite all of that, today I also discovered that Calango Ball will be their second movie. The first one was made in 2010/2011 and is available for free on Youtube. I have yet to check it out, so forgive me if I'm wasting your time, but here it is. I hope it's fun.

A dam bursts open and floods a nearby city town in the state of Minas Gerais.

Damn.

Someone screwed badly, I am sure no one inspected the dam or bothered to make the maintenance to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Apparently some useful idiots and a few newspapers are politicizing this incident as an evidence for why the privatization of the company was a mistake and all falls on the former president FHC.

edited 7th Nov '15 9:13:44 PM by AngelusNox

I would love to learn more about Brazilian folklore and religion.

Anything in particular?

I'll start with the basics.

For Folklore I'll start with the classic friendly neighbourhood prankster.

The Saci Perere: Long story short - The Saci is a mixture of European and African folklore ^note which I have to admit I didn't know this bit at first. Generally harmless the Saci is a black or mulato boy with a single leg. He usually pulls pranks like hiding the clothes you left hanging to dry or letting all the chickens in the pen loose.

Usually most of his depictions omit the holes in his hand for practical reasons.

Like most mythological creatures he can be appeased with some offerings like beverages and has some sort of OCD towards certain things like untying knots or not being able to cross rivers.

Another famous one is the Curupira: A red haired boy or dwarf with inverted feet, regarded as a protector of the forests. This one was a Guarani legend that the Portuguese picked up from the contact with the local natives. Usually his targets are poachers and lumbermen and even the Guarani fear him and leave offerings to avoid his misgivings.

The Curupira can be either seen as a benevolent entity by protecting the forests or a malevolent one by leading hunters and wanderers astray in the forest and luring others into the woods and its dangers.

A lot of the Brazilian folklore draws from the Tupi-Guarani folklore mixed with European and African folklore and interpretations.^note It really pisses me off that the ENGLISH page is better written and has more content than the Portuguese page..

Another figure is the Boto cor de Rosa (Amazon River Dolphin), which turns into an handsome womanizer using a hat to cover his breathing hole atop of his head who targets young women at parties and newly wed women. He usually impregnates them near a river which he returns after changing into a Boto again.

Come to think about it, the Boto comes off like an mystical explanation for a good old phenomenon of teenage pregnancy and cuckoldry.

Religion is a subject I do not have much domain off, mostly because I never really subscribed to one even though most of my family really tried to make me.

Most of my family is Catholic but my mother subscribes to Spiritism which is a fairly common branch of Christianity in Brazil.

For the most of it, Brazil is a Catholic country, but with one Jesus and a Saint for nearly everything else. The other common branch of Christianity is the Protestantism commonly refereed as Crentes^Translation Believers, these follow the same vein of the Protestant churches common in the US and in I recall one of the most influential American ministers visiting Brazil once in a few years to see the congregation. These are usually the ones responsible for the backward motions in the Congress, as they all vote and lobby conservative politicians. Although Catholics are big against abortion and birth control, it is the protestants who are the most hostile against homosexuals and women's rights.

Candomblé Is an Brazilian borne religion originated from a mixture of native and African beliefs and mysticism, with a heavy emphasis on mediums and spirits, usually offerings like food and sometime live animal sacrifices^note much to the chagrin of animal rights groups in order for the medium (Orisha)to connect to spirits related to the person making the offering, usually to seek guidance.

Very heaving reading about Brazilian Folklore. Thankfully in English.

edited 9th Nov '15 8:39:58 AM by AngelusNox

I was actually talking to my brother about this yesterday.

Relatively speaking, our mythology and folklore is extremely under-represented. Even in our own media you are most likely not going to hear much about it unless you're in primary school. Overseas there is pretty much no representation of it.

It seems to me that there is a lot of untapped potential for there for a great fantasy game or something, provided you could convince someone to fund it. It would stand out a lot because creatures like curupira and mula sem cabeça are fairly distinctive.

edited 9th Nov '15 8:45:01 AM by wehrmacht

What's the Manifesto Antropófago?

It is the manifest dictating the holy right of cannibal expansion through the Americans to reach the delicious bacon filled North American meat.

I didn't study this bit during sociology class because it focused on the classics instead of national sociologists, but essentially it is a manifest dictating the creating of a making an unique style of Brazilian art and poetry by consuming different aspects of different artistic styles, in order to provide a front against Eurocentric art styles.

edited 9th Nov '15 3:49:43 PM by AngelusNox

it was relevant to its time because at that point the art in brazil was basically following the themes and cultural trends of europe despite being a very different social reality. this led to the famous "semana de arte moderna", a week where a bunch of paintings, poems, and songs were displayed. the artists responsible were heavily criticized at the time but it certainly got a lot of people talking about a uniquely brazilian type of art and paved the way for future brazilian cultural expression.

Is there any local personification of death, like Santa Muerte?