Ok, here is a story you won´t freaking believe is coming from Brasil. Pakistan, maybe, or Saudi Arabia, but not Brasil. In fact, the newspaper headline for the story was "Taliban in the University." I don´t know the journalistic terms (and I don´t feel like waiting until Heitor gets home to ask him), but the page one teaser for the article on page six, was "The Dark Ages."
It seems a 20 year-old night student in a tourism course at a university close to São Paulo...or the São Bernardo campus of a São Paulo university...arrived for class in a mini-skirt, heaven forbid. I won´t go through all of the details of the story and how the situation escalated, but it is enough to know that the professor of the young woman´s class had to lock the doors to keep out the protesting rabble, and that she eventually needed a police escort to leave campus through the horde of cursing, spitting protestors. In the first link below, you will see her being escorted out of the building by police (wearing a long coat supplied by a faculty member that covers her mini-skirt) while other students are yelling at her. You will hear the word "puta" very distinctly.
There was a notice in the newspaper, next to the story, that the university is conducting an inquiry, and at least talking about disciplinary action for those responsible. The university also has four people tracking videos of the incident that have been posted on YouTube. But they have also asked YouTube to remove the videos!
This story is courtesy of, Alexandre, my friend/tutor who made this newspaper story the centerpiece of our class this morning, and who later sent me the links below. As I look at them right now, they are not displayed as links. I hope that you will see them as links after I post this.
The first link shows the young woman being escorted out of the building past a group of hostile students, but it is very brief and doesn´t show the instance where, according to the newspaper account, the police say they had to use pepper spray to clear their way through the mob. I´m usually not inclined to believe the police (here or anywhere else) when they say they "had to" do anything, but in this particular footage they appear very calm and professional. So I´m more inclined to believe that, if they used pepper spray, they were justified in doing so.
The second link has three still photos that show you just how offensive this woman´s dress really was. You will be so shocked. The newspaper story said she had worn the same dress to her niece´s birthday party a few days earlier and that her boyfriend was planning to pick her up after class to go to some other social event.
http://www.saiunojornal.com.br/video-universitaria-da-uniban-aluna-e-ameacada-de-estupro-pelos-alunos-por-usar-minissaia-na-faculdade.html
http://www.saiunojornal.com.br/foto-da-aluna-da-uniban-de-minissaia-universitaria-usava-um-vestido-curto-quando-foi-chamada-de-puta-na-faculdade.html
I can only imagine how agitated these students would be if they saw some of the swimwear, male and/or female, at any of the Brasilean beaches. Perhaps they are just concerned with situation-appropriate apparel.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sorry...I Just Need to Get This Off my Chest
Everybody, please read Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Repuplic, by Chalmers Johnson. Actually, you don´t need to read the entire book, but just the first couple of chapters and final couple. In other words...a trip to the library. The middle chapters become tedious with depressing detail with which you already are more or less familiar as long as your world view is not totally informed by Fox "News."
You could also read the first two books in Chalmers´trilogy (Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic) but you can get by without them.
Also, put the DVD Why We Fight at the top of your Netflix queue. Yes, Chalmers Johnson is one of the talking heads in that documentary.
Actually, the only reason for reading these books or watching the documentary, unless you are ready to commit yourself to a lifetime of thankless, and probably hopeless, struggle, and I certainly am not (witness my running away to Brasil), is so you won´t be taken completely by surprise when US militarism finally and completely bankrupts the country.
I have long complained that the US economy is a house of cards. We don´t, after all, manufacture anything anymore (just a slight exaggeration). But there still exists one healthy sector of American manufacturing....weapons systems and other equipment designed for the military.
An extremely intelligent columnist, David Brooks, begins his column in todays NY Times with the statement that "for the past few days I have tried to do what journalists are supposed to do. I’ve called around to several of the smartest military experts I know to get their views on these controversies." The controversies he refers to is the debate within the Obama administration about Afghanistan strategies.
The very fact that he is calling the smartest military experts he knows, as opposed to the smartest people he knows (including some of his op ed colleagues on the NY Times) indicates the extent to which the debate already is skewed in his, and many others´ minds.
Part of the debate we should be having about Afghanistan and Iraq is the economic cost. I don´t want to hear more arguments about whether or not we know how to win a counter-insurgency struggle, nevermind the fact that no country has ever won one. What I want is a debate that considers potential gains versus certain financial and human costs. To my mind, we can neither afford the cost, nor is the military response the best strategy we can adopt to the real threat of Islamic terrorism. In other words, our current approach, which is essentially the Bush approach, is wrong whether considered from a strategic, financial or social perspective.
I am constantly amazed by the congress persons who decry the cost of healthcare reform, which costs a small fraction of what they are willing to rubber stamp for the military or for anything that can remote be twisted into an expenditure for the "the war on terror." We can afford healthcare reform. What we can´t afford is to continue fighting wars with money borrowed from China and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
.
You could also read the first two books in Chalmers´trilogy (Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic) but you can get by without them.
Also, put the DVD Why We Fight at the top of your Netflix queue. Yes, Chalmers Johnson is one of the talking heads in that documentary.
Actually, the only reason for reading these books or watching the documentary, unless you are ready to commit yourself to a lifetime of thankless, and probably hopeless, struggle, and I certainly am not (witness my running away to Brasil), is so you won´t be taken completely by surprise when US militarism finally and completely bankrupts the country.
I have long complained that the US economy is a house of cards. We don´t, after all, manufacture anything anymore (just a slight exaggeration). But there still exists one healthy sector of American manufacturing....weapons systems and other equipment designed for the military.
An extremely intelligent columnist, David Brooks, begins his column in todays NY Times with the statement that "for the past few days I have tried to do what journalists are supposed to do. I’ve called around to several of the smartest military experts I know to get their views on these controversies." The controversies he refers to is the debate within the Obama administration about Afghanistan strategies.
The very fact that he is calling the smartest military experts he knows, as opposed to the smartest people he knows (including some of his op ed colleagues on the NY Times) indicates the extent to which the debate already is skewed in his, and many others´ minds.
Part of the debate we should be having about Afghanistan and Iraq is the economic cost. I don´t want to hear more arguments about whether or not we know how to win a counter-insurgency struggle, nevermind the fact that no country has ever won one. What I want is a debate that considers potential gains versus certain financial and human costs. To my mind, we can neither afford the cost, nor is the military response the best strategy we can adopt to the real threat of Islamic terrorism. In other words, our current approach, which is essentially the Bush approach, is wrong whether considered from a strategic, financial or social perspective.
I am constantly amazed by the congress persons who decry the cost of healthcare reform, which costs a small fraction of what they are willing to rubber stamp for the military or for anything that can remote be twisted into an expenditure for the "the war on terror." We can afford healthcare reform. What we can´t afford is to continue fighting wars with money borrowed from China and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
National ID Cards
Finally, after waiting 9 months, I have received my National ID Card for Non-Brasileans (Strangers, literally). It is required for so many things, even opening a bank account. According to the information given to me at the time I made the application, it was supposed to take 180 days, which seemed absurd to me but, as Brasileans say with resignation, typical. By the time I finally recieved notification, when I was in Rio, it was more like 250 days. Now that the wait is over, I´m just glad my application wasn´t lost. My tutor told me about one of his other students who had that happen to him.
I think of it as typically Brasilean also that the card measures an unfriendly 3.82 x 2.52 inches. (Yes, I had to use an internet conversion table to get those numbers, because I don´t have a "real" ruler. There are certain things which I will never adjust to for as long as I live here, and metric measurements rate high on that list.) Try to fit that into any of your traditional wallet-sized spaces. This is the same size as the Brasilian National ID for its citizens, by the way.
You might wonder why would the government persist in issuing such unfriendly-sized cards. Of course I have a theory. There exist all over the city, and presumably all over the country, businesses where you can have copies of any document "authenticated." For example, when I made my application for my CPF card (another national card that I really don´t understand, but which I described once before here as a social security card, without the social security), I needed to provide an authenticated copy of my passport and permanent visa. I will need to do the same thing when I open my bank account, which I can now do. And, of course, those authenticated copies aren´t returned to you for future use. The process always has to be repeated. Today I had my new ID card copied and authenticated in a reduced format so that it would fit in my wallet, and so that I would not have to risk losing the original. I was told the copy will be accepted in all situations except at the airports. I don´t know if these authentication centers are government owned or not, but they certainly have to be government licensed. And they generate a good deal of revenue for some interested party. Today I spent only R$7, but there were lots of other people doing the same thing.
Take a look at the attached photo. There is certainly some blank space, and unnecessary information, such as the names of my parents, date of entrance into the country and the date of issuance of the card itself. All of that information could be kept in some central file, but doesn´t need to be printed on the card. All of that, plus some minor font changes and you could have a card the size of a drivers license. Why do governments never ask for my advice?
And then there is the very idea of a national ID card. I know they run counter to exagerated American ideas of individualism and distrust of government. And even though I ridicule both of these notions, a national ID card seems a bit offensive. I suspect Republican types must feel more than a little conflicted, because ID cards for citizens and resident aliens would certainly contribute to national security. I want to do a little research. I have to wonder if the US might not be one of the last countries in the world to require such a card.
A national ID card wouldn´t necessarily solve this particular problem, but I was amazed recently to read how ineffective the US is in its tracking of foreign visitors. The US apparently has no idea how many of the people who entered the country legally have overstayed their visa´s time limitations. We only have estimates. At the very least, you would think computerization at the entry and exit points would allow the government to know who left on time and who didn´t. It wouldn´t help them locate anyone, but it would at least identify the scope of the problem.
Enough already. Tchau for now.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
And the Winner Is
Inasmuch as I haven't watched more than a few minutes of any of the last several Olympics, summer and/or winter, I am not sure why I even bother to have an opinion about which city "wins" the honor for 2016. But I do think it is slightly curious that Brasil wants the games to be held in Rio. It seems like maybe fostering a healthy middle class might be a higher priority for the country.
I wouldn't think the civic leaders of Rio would want the international television audiences to see large parts of this city, and I'm not just thinking of the poorest parts, the favelas. Before I even knew there was a Olympic decision pending, I was walking with Heitor in the city center to the Film Festival headquarters. It was a relatively long trek and we passed a seemingly endless sequence of once-beautiful old buildings that are abandoned or so seriously neglected as to be on the verge of abandonment. I remarked that Rio could really be a beautiful city if all of these buildings were saved and renovated.
As to the civic leaders being embarrassed by parts of the city, that is clearly a fantasy. They are obviously shameless. When we checked into our hotel on the first night here, I was looking at the rack of brochures/flyers in the lobby with all of the tourist experiences available and couldn't believe it when I saw that, for R$65, I can take a Favela Tour. Maybe they'd even have to add a few extra buses to handle all of those Olympic visitors.
Perhaps, without much overt effort, the government can limit the international television coverage to the parts of the city they want to highlight. The mainstream media will probably be very happy to show endless vistas of bronze bodies on the sun-drenched beaches and pretend they're showing Rio to the world.
I suppose a lot can happen between now and 2016 but it does seem that the infrastructure of Rio isn't remotely prepared for an influx of people from around the world. The subway system is archaic and extremely limited in terms of the area it serves. The streets are gridlocked with cars and buses, and not just during rush hour. Heitor and I were on a bus near the beaches on Sunday evening and traffic was at a standstill. Of course, I don't know what the plans are if they win. Perhaps they will build a fully-contained Olympic village in some isolated area which would have a minimal impact on life in the rest of the city.
What I read in the NY Times today seemed to confirm what Heitor told me a few days ago, that the two leading contenders are Chicago and Rio, although I know that Japan and Spain are still in the running too. I see a promo touting Rio's chances two or three times every day, before every movie in the Film Festival. A big deal is being made about the fact that the Olympics have never been held in a Latin American country. Because the omnipresence of these ads has influenced my thinking, and because I feel like illogic is the order of the day, I have a gut feeling that Rio is going to get the honor.
I know that the leaders of Brasil, Japan, the U.S. and Spain are all lobbying in person for their countries, but I have this gut feeling that Obama is overexposed, not just on U.S. television, but in the world at large. And Lula is so loveable. So, Brasil it is, unless they lose on a technicality. After all, there is a distinctly Northern-Hemisphere bias to the Olympics. I believe the games are called the Summer Olympics and they are held during the Brasilean winter.
I wouldn't think the civic leaders of Rio would want the international television audiences to see large parts of this city, and I'm not just thinking of the poorest parts, the favelas. Before I even knew there was a Olympic decision pending, I was walking with Heitor in the city center to the Film Festival headquarters. It was a relatively long trek and we passed a seemingly endless sequence of once-beautiful old buildings that are abandoned or so seriously neglected as to be on the verge of abandonment. I remarked that Rio could really be a beautiful city if all of these buildings were saved and renovated.
As to the civic leaders being embarrassed by parts of the city, that is clearly a fantasy. They are obviously shameless. When we checked into our hotel on the first night here, I was looking at the rack of brochures/flyers in the lobby with all of the tourist experiences available and couldn't believe it when I saw that, for R$65, I can take a Favela Tour. Maybe they'd even have to add a few extra buses to handle all of those Olympic visitors.
Perhaps, without much overt effort, the government can limit the international television coverage to the parts of the city they want to highlight. The mainstream media will probably be very happy to show endless vistas of bronze bodies on the sun-drenched beaches and pretend they're showing Rio to the world.
I suppose a lot can happen between now and 2016 but it does seem that the infrastructure of Rio isn't remotely prepared for an influx of people from around the world. The subway system is archaic and extremely limited in terms of the area it serves. The streets are gridlocked with cars and buses, and not just during rush hour. Heitor and I were on a bus near the beaches on Sunday evening and traffic was at a standstill. Of course, I don't know what the plans are if they win. Perhaps they will build a fully-contained Olympic village in some isolated area which would have a minimal impact on life in the rest of the city.
What I read in the NY Times today seemed to confirm what Heitor told me a few days ago, that the two leading contenders are Chicago and Rio, although I know that Japan and Spain are still in the running too. I see a promo touting Rio's chances two or three times every day, before every movie in the Film Festival. A big deal is being made about the fact that the Olympics have never been held in a Latin American country. Because the omnipresence of these ads has influenced my thinking, and because I feel like illogic is the order of the day, I have a gut feeling that Rio is going to get the honor.
I know that the leaders of Brasil, Japan, the U.S. and Spain are all lobbying in person for their countries, but I have this gut feeling that Obama is overexposed, not just on U.S. television, but in the world at large. And Lula is so loveable. So, Brasil it is, unless they lose on a technicality. After all, there is a distinctly Northern-Hemisphere bias to the Olympics. I believe the games are called the Summer Olympics and they are held during the Brasilean winter.
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