Demystifying Brasil

About 9 years ago, I made my first international trip – in fact I spent 6 months learning English and studying at a university in the United States. Besides the obvious cultural and personal experience, one thing that really caught my attention was the poor understanding that people had about Brasil.

As years went on, I really took interest for the international aspect and lived 5 more years abroad, this time in London, England. Its central location and other advantages such as a strong currency (at least by then), great flight destinations and good business connections, made it possible for me to visit other 30 countries or so. The impression that people knew very little about Brasil became a certainty.

In general, when you talk about Brasil, people will remember three things:

* Football – people may remember football players that even a hardcore fan may have forgotten – not that this is my case, I mean, I don’t remember the full Brasilian line up in Germany 2006. But I remember one guy talking to me in Turkey speaking of certain players that I could hardly remember. I was grinning and nodding as a way to hide my embarassment.

* Carnival / Samba - the words Brasil in certain parts of the world will strike a very odd reaction as people will remember scenes of Carnival and people dancing Samba (or we would say sambando). Some would actually start dancing in front of you in a way that a real sambista would have frowned upon. But indeed, music (and not only Samba) is an important aspect of our culture.

* Beach / Women - with tropical temperatures and a inherently mixed race, Brasilian women are a nature’s gift – no discussions about it. Unexpectedly some people think that topless is a common feature of our beaches, but it is not a understatement to say that our beaches are the best in the world. Have a look here and here and here.

Obviously, Brasil is much more than that, although this is quite a nice set of qualities for any country in the world. It is definetely better than to be known as the biggest exporter of phosphorus in the world. But this hides a lot of truth and misundertandings that we will try to evidence.

As World Cup 2014 and Rio 2016 near, interest in Brasil will certainly peak and that’s why I decided to start this, so we can discuss real issues that Brasil is facing prior to these events. In particular, we will discuss the social problems that also make the news abroad (crime, violence, slums, poverty, etc) trying to bring the international experience to solve some of these problems. Our focus will be on solutions to old problems, but also a bit of praise for some of our inherent qualities.

We expect that you contribute to this!

Aquele abraço (clipe)