Post: #1

A couple of my friends in Sao Paulo told me it's unlike anything they've ever seen in Brazil. Apparently the largest protests of its kind there in 20 years.

Anyone down there now?

http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-protests-2...43267.html

Quote: SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil's Congress building and then stormed it.

Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.

Around the country, protesters waved Brazilian flags, dancing and chanting slogans such as "The people have awakened" and "Pardon the inconvenience, Brazil is changing."

The epicenter of Monday's march shifted from Sao Paulo, where some 65,000 people took to the streets late in the afternoon, to Rio. There, as protesters gathered throughout the evening, crowds ballooned to 100,000 people, local police said. At least 20,000 more gathered in Belo Horizonte.

The demonstrations are the first time that Brazilians, since a recent decade of steady economic growth, are collectively questioning the status quo.

BIG EVENTS LOOM

The protests have gathered pace as Brazil is hosting the Confederation's Cup, a dry run for next year's World Cup soccer championship. The government hopes these events, along with the 2016 Summer Olympics, will showcase Brazil as an emerging power on the global stage.

Brazil also is gearing up to welcome more than 2 million visitors in July as Pope Francis makes his first foreign trip for a gathering of Catholic youth in Rio.

Contrasting the billions in taxpayer money spent on new stadiums with the shoddy state of Brazil's public services, protesters are using the Confederation's Cup as a counterpoint to amplify their concerns. The tournament got off to shaky start this weekend when police clashed with demonstrators outside stadiums at the opening matches in Brasilia and Rio.

"For many years the government has been feeding corruption. People are demonstrating against the system," said Graciela Caçador, a 28-year-old saleswoman protesting in Sao Paulo. "They spent billions of dollars building stadiums and nothing on education and health."

More protests are being organized for the coming days. It is unclear what specific response from authorities - such as a reduction in the hike of transport fares - would lead the loose collection of organizers across Brazil to consider stopping them.

For President Dilma Rousseff, the demonstrations come at a delicate time, as price increases and lackluster growth begin to loom over an expected run for re-election next year.

Polls show Rousseff still is widely popular, especially among poor and working-class voters, but her approval ratings began to slip in recent weeks for the first time since taking office in 2011. Rousseff was booed at Saturday's Confederations Cup opener as protesters gathered outside.

Through a spokeswoman, Rousseff called the protests "legitimate" and said peaceful demonstrations are "part of democracy." The president, a leftist guerrilla as a young woman, also said that it was "befitting of youth to protest."

WIDE ARRAY OF GRIEVANCES

Some were baffled by the protests in a country where unemployment remains near record lows, even after more than two years of tepid economic growth.

"What are they going to do - march every day?" asked Cristina, a 43-year-old cashier, who declined to give her surname, peeking out at the demonstration from behind the curtain of a closed Sao Paulo butcher shop. She said corruption and other age-old ills in Brazil are unlikely to change soon.

The marches began this month with an isolated protest in Sao Paulo against a small increase in bus and subway fares. The demonstrations initially drew the scorn of many middle-class Brazilians after protesters vandalized storefronts, subway stations and buses on one of the city's main avenues.

The movement quickly gained support and spread to other cities as police used heavy-handed tactics to quell the demonstrations. The biggest crackdown happened on Thursday in Sao Paulo when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes that injured more than 100 people, including 15 journalists, some of whom said they were deliberately targeted.

Other common grievances at Monday's marches included corruption and the inadequate and overcrowded public transportation networks that Brazilians cope with daily.

POLICE SHOW RESTRAINT

The harsh police reaction to last week's protests touched a nerve in Brazil, which endured two decades of political repression under a military dictatorship that ended in 1985. It also added to doubts about whether Brazil's police forces would be ready for next year's World Cup.

The uproar following last week's crackdown prompted Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who first described the protesters as "troublemakers" and "vandals," to order police to allow Monday's march to proceed and not to use rubber bullets.

The protests are shaping up as a major political challenge for Alckmin, a former presidential candidate, and Sao Paulo's new mayor, Fernando Haddad, a rising star in the left-leaning Workers' Party that has governed Brazil for the past decade. Haddad invited protest leaders to meet Tuesday morning, but has so far balked at talk of a bus fare reduction.

The resonance of the demonstrations underscores what economists say will be a challenge for Rousseff and other Brazilian leaders in the years ahead: providing public services to meet the demands of the growing middle class.

"Voters are likely to be increasingly disgruntled on a range of public services in a lower growth environment," Christopher Garman, a political analyst at the Eurasia Group, wrote in a report.

Post: #2

^ Would bang carla, even though she's not going to the world cup.

Post: #3

I've been in contact with a couple of my pipelined girls tonight and both said it's nothing I should be worried about. One was showing me pictures of the protest(she went) and said its mostly a proud and prideful protest, with the occasional oddball taking too far by throwing rocks or trying to start a fire.

Nonetheless, it's concerning and I'll have to monitor this very closely.

Post: #4

1 girl, no cup.

Post: #5

The Brazilian spring.

The girl in the video made excellent points.. Mrs Chocolate lives in SP, maybe we'll get an update from her.

Post: #6

I'm living in Sao Paulo, and was at both tonight's protest and the one last week. Last week's got very violent, a couple of reporters got shot in the face with rubber bullets, tear gas was deployed, nasty stuff. Tonight's was completely different. Apparently the police met with the protest's organizers before and promised there'd be no interference if the protest stayed peaceful. We marched down Faria Lima, a main avenue, for a few hours, and then I bounced. Relatively uneventful, just chanting slogans (mostly about the price raise in metro tickets). In fact, the only real action I saw was when the crowd turned on a couple of punks in V for Vendetta masks who were spray painting the doors of a shop.

Apparently it was much rougher in other cities across Brazil.

Post: #7

I cant like on my ipad but one frrrrrrrrrrrrunkis goes to jimnortonfan

Also, from the last post, it seems like brazilians are pros at peacful protesting. They should have kicked those kids faces in.

Post: #8

http://www.lost.art.br/protesto_sp_130613.htm

Post: #9

You can really see the faint signs of Americanization of Brazilian girls you guys have been talking about (see her "wait, what?" snark @1:19).

Post: #10

I don't think there can be a Brazilian spring. Brazil is already open to globalization. So no spring no color revolution. The same thing is going on in Indonesia, another globalized state.

These could be the beginning of something different.

Post: #11

(06-17-2013 11:32 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  You can really see the faint signs of Americanization of Brazilian girls you guys have been talking about (see her "wait, what?" snark @1:19).

I was thinking the exact same thing. If it weren't for the slight accent I would've thought she was American. Bet you any amount of money she got a graduate degree from an American college.

Post: #12

(06-17-2013 11:37 PM)JimNortonFan Wrote:  The same thing is going on in Indonesia, another globalized state.

Didn't even see that reported in the news. From what I gather the protests in Indonesia are about the removal of long-established fuel subsidies. Frankly, I'm completely for their reduction and it was about time, though a gradual, well-publicized reduction should be preferred to one large surprise change. Indonesia has the worst traffic in Southeast Asia, and arguably the world, due in no small part to these fuel subsidies. Further, the subsidies are actually a (corrupt) wealth transfer from the poor, who make up the majority of the country, to the upper-middle and upper classes, the only people who can afford cars. Good riddance.

Post: #13

This girl speaks English far to perfectly to be just an average Brazilian, that and the fact that she's white, blonde and pretty, therefore most likely more well off than the average, makes me think she's a spoiled rich kid who studied abroad and is going through her "let's save the world" phase. Not that everything she said is not true though.

Post: #14

She has a facebook pg that indicates she's in a serious relationship or whatever. Btw, her website:

http://www.carladauden.com/#!

From Sao Paulo but got corrupted...oh sorry I mean moved to So Cal to pursue her passion of studying film at age 18.

She's essentially a microcosm of every Sao Paulo chick I"ve met now living in the US yet haven't been able to touch...haha.

Post: #15

Picked a good time to go, will be there in two weeks. Will post a data sheet on Brazilian protest game when I get back.

Post: #16

(06-18-2013 01:06 AM)Teutatis Wrote:  This girl speaks English far to perfectly to be just an average Brazilian, that and the fact that she's white, blonde and pretty, therefore most likely more well off than the average, makes me think she's a spoiled rich kid who studied abroad and is going through her "let's save the world" phase. Not that everything she said is not true though.

Yea, I agree. I meet ex-pats from various countries in DC that are like this. I have to remind myself that they probably come from really well-off families. Not all, but most.

You really have to go to the country and talk with the people to get the real picture.

Post: #17

(06-18-2013 01:19 PM)Capitán Peligroso Wrote:  Picked a good time to go, will be there in two weeks. Will post a data sheet on Brazilian protest game when I get back.

Where will you be?

Post: #18

Yeah. There's a class of very well-off Brazilians abroad. Some of them are very highly educated and career-driven. I've met some in DC. They are Brazilian in name only. You'll find a lot of these people don't really like Brazil, complain about the problems, don't like carnaval, don't like things like cachaca or acai, and don't even care for soccer. ASW has some Brazilians like this.

If they happen to be from the southern Brazilian states like Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina or Parana, don't even waste your time. These chicks often act like they're from Argentina. You won't get the warm, feminine Brazilian vibe that you really crave for.

Post: #19

(06-18-2013 05:30 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  Yeah. There's a class of very well-off Brazilians abroad. Some of them are very highly educated and career-driven. I've met some in DC. They are Brazilian in name only. You'll find a lot of these people don't really like Brazil, complain about the problems, don't like carnaval, don't like things like cachaca or acai, and don't even care for soccer. ASW has some Brazilians like this.

If they happen to be from the southern Brazilian states like Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina or Parana, don't even waste your time. These chicks often act like they're from Argentina. You won't get the warm, feminine Brazilian vibe that you really crave for.

I get what you mean about the career driven Brazilian chicks in the US with no attachment or warmth for their country...esp this annoying one from Sampa who moved to NYC...she's still married to some dude working in NYC yet had to move back to SP for financial reasons with her parents...her fb posts however are still full of "I'm a NY gal..blah blah blah."

There however was a rare bird I met who lived in DC from Sampa for some time and moved from there to Dallas/Ft. Worth, where I'm at. She had to easily be a 9 with a nice rack, but was very cultured too...Paulista of Spanish descent. Flirty vibes. She could've found the richest guy possible to settle with but she married a middle class guy of Hispanic descent. Not only that, she's actually enrolled in Spanish classes at nights so that she can develop a better relationship with her mother-in-law while volunteering in my Portuguese speaking mixers due to her Brazilian pride. Quite the wifey material in contrast to that dumb idiot above who doesn't realize there exists a world outside of NYC.

Brazilian chicks in the South all vary though depending on what city or state you are in. For example, all chicks in the Sudeste being Vitoria, Sampa, Rio, and BH all have different personality traits depending on the state or city so the same would apply to the south or northeast where many in the RVF community have complained about Fortaleza locals.

Curitiba - Possible to pull here..I did my first night being a Tuesday. But it's not the most pleasant city to wake up to daily as the people are quite cold. You might get an occasional "tudo bem" response if you take the initiative, but they have a tendency to just walk by you lol. If you stop to ask an objective question, then they warm up to you and will talk for ages making sure you know how to get to a certain point.
That characteristic about that can make them semi-similar to New Yorkers.

Still...I was missing the warmth I felt from BH & even Porto Alegre chicks in Curitiba. They have some very Slavic appearances due to having the 2nd largest Polish diaspora in the world after Chicago, IL. Better off going to Poland though as it's cheaper with more down to earth gals with no language barrier.

People from other cities in Parana like Londrina or Maringa will often complain about the coldness of Curitibanos. Same applies with chicks from Floripa or other parts of Santa Catarina who go there for business trips mentioning the coldness of locals in Curitiba. Curitibanos will often come clean as to how reserved and "mean" they can be, but take a lot of pride in their culture talking about the great people & resources in the Amazonia & other parts in BR. They are very explicit in their Brazilian pride & especially when it comes to expressing their disdain for Argentines.

Data report to come on Curitiba this weekend....

Florianopolis/Balneariu Camboriu - There are some really cute down to earth village type girls who live in Santa Catarina. Just getting the face to face interaction time with them is rough though as places like the cities I mentioned and Joinville top out at population 100-700K with no public transportation & the worst logistics possible. Better have some time, good contacts, & tons of cab money when trying to game here.

Porto Alegre - Women that possess a unique mix of warmth & elegance that I was around in Belo Horizonte...not as warm as mineiras but very pleasant gals to be around. The annoying thing is once you DO get to know them..they will go off about how Gauchos (residents of Rio Grande do Sul) are the best, etc etc...as Safado mentioned..they are like Texans in that regards, haha..I to have been guilty of that at times.

Post: #20

Mos def YB13. I'm talking about the ones you meet abroad, not in Brazil. I actually like - if not prefer - southern Brazil and want to spend more time there in the future. The girls from the south that you meet abroad are often Brazil haters lol. Notice I didn't put Paulistas in that category. Girls from SP have been hit or miss. Many Brazilian chicks abroad are from SP since that's the richest city/state in Brazil. They vary though. SP is a very diverse place.

Post: #21

(06-18-2013 07:38 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  Notice I didn't put Paulistas in that category. Girls from SP have been hit or miss. Many Brazilian chicks abroad are from SP since that's the richest city/state in Brazil. They vary though. SP is a very diverse place.

Nah it's all good. Just a reference to certain Brazilians I've met in the US that happened to be from Sao Paulo. You're definitely right about Paulistas being all around the place as they have the most money for that type of mobility.

I still say the toughest chicks in Brazil are the Leblon/Ipanema ones, haha. On facebook..they'll say "from Leblon" or "Ipanema" instead of Rio de Janeiro. Those neighborhoods in Rio remind of the stiff top crust of New Yorkers living in Upper West/East side surrounded by overpriced crappy restaurants, lame bars, and a beach instead of Central Park. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of Rio anyways while preferring BH & POA thus far.

Post: #22

Tension is very high here in SP. Just come back from the streets in centro. At least people are rising against corruption , despite some looting and disturbance.

Post: #23

(06-18-2013 06:34 PM)yb13 Wrote:  They are very explicit in their Brazilian pride & especially when it comes to expressing their disdain for Argentines.

How strong this argentine disdain is? I have never been in the zone, but i plan to.

Post: #24

(06-18-2013 09:22 PM)Mekorig Wrote:  

(06-18-2013 06:34 PM)yb13 Wrote:  They are very explicit in their Brazilian pride & especially when it comes to expressing their disdain for Argentines.

How strong this argentine disdain is? I have never been in the zone, but i plan to.

Dont worry about this hermano. The Rivalry is mostly because of soccer, in all the companies I worked for there were always at least one argentinian in the staff and they were very well accepted.

People will make jokes with you about argentina and Maradona, but thats it.

Post: #25

(06-18-2013 02:04 PM)Gallego2006 Wrote:  

(06-18-2013 01:06 AM)Teutatis Wrote:  This girl speaks English far to perfectly to be just an average Brazilian, that and the fact that she's white, blonde and pretty, therefore most likely more well off than the average, makes me think she's a spoiled rich kid who studied abroad and is going through her "let's save the world" phase. Not that everything she said is not true though.

Yea, I agree. I meet ex-pats from various countries in DC that are like this. I have to remind myself that they probably come from really well-off families. Not all, but most.

You really have to go to the country and talk with the people to get the real picture.

Yup, lip service until she hook some well connected compatriot and move into her Rio beach condo while helicoptering crosstown.