Brazilian Braziliance

Whilst I reading about Brazil at the weekend, one thing I discovered is that their great modernist architect Oscar Niemeyor is still alive at the age of 101. Great modernist architect might be an oxymoron to some, but his buildings don't luck hideously ugly in the way that La Corbusier's creations do, from a distance at least Brasilia looks quite attractive.

Also on a Brazilian theme here is my top 5 Brazilian films (although I have only seen around 15 so this isn't exhaustive by any means and the dominence of crime related works probably reflects my tastes as much as Brazilian cinema):

5- Bus 174- a documentary about an infamous seige where a criminal took a bus and held the passengers hostage for days. The incompetence of the police and the horrendous background of the hostage taker are explored in detail. The use of actual footage of the seige makes it partularly gut wrenching to watch. When I first saw it I thought it made too many excuses for the criminal which is somewhat ironic given the next movie on my list by the same director.

4- Elite Squad- A film about Rio De Janeiro's elite paramilitary police unit, who are more of an urban warfare unit than a police squad. It has been criticised for glorifying or excusing police violence, it doesn't though, it puts the violence into context though by looking at the mayhem of the slums and the indulgence towards criminals of the intelligensia. The boasts of the Elite Squad narrator about the professionalism of the unit are undercut by what is actually depicted which a lot of the hostile critics seemed to miss.

3- Carandiru- A film based on a real life prison riot which ended up with over 100 prisoners being killed. It picks some characters and tells their stories from before they went to prison up to the time of the riot.

2- Central Station- A cynical middle aged woman who writes letters for illiterates for a living is forced to take a ten year old boy she doesn't know to his relatives hundreds of miles away after his mother is killed. I don't know if this would seem scmaltzy if it were in English, but it avoids that beartrap and is a great character driven film.

1- City of God- IMHO the best film in the last ten years, it is set in the Rio slum of the title and follows the rise and fall of it's most psychotic gangster from a very scary child to an even scarier adult through the eyes of the narrator.

The Decline/Triumph Of The West.

Something I heard yesterday, in relation to Rio De Janeiro winning the 2016 Olympics, is that the World Bank predicts that by 2016 Brazil will be the 5th largest economy in the world, presumably over taking France, the UK and Italy.

It surprised me that it is being predicted to happen so soon but even if the prediction is delayed by a few years it will happen at some point. India will also overtake us at some point and maybe Mexico and Indonesia too by the end of the century.

In one sense this could be seen as the relative decline of the West but it is also the triumph of Western values that the emerging countries in the world are largely those which have embraced democracy and pluralism. Of the world's 30 largest economies only China, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia are not democratic and 3 of those are dependent on natural resources rather than human capital for their wealth. By way of comparison in a list of the countries with the largest populations 13 out of 30 are not stable democracies (some of them hold elections though).

The West is not going to be supplanted by banana republics and alliances between tinpot tyrants.

Murder He Wrote

If Nick Ross had done this then he wouldn't have been dropped from Crimewatch:

Wallace Souza raised suspicions because of his uncanny knack to be first at the scene of a crime, gathering graphic footage of the victims.

The TV host is thought to have commissioned at least five murders to boost his show's popularity and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime.

Souza, who is also a state lawmaker, has been accused of drug trafficking too, amid a police probe into the murders.

If constantly being on the scene first when murders are committed is fairly clear grounds for suspicion then how come Jessica Fletcher was never arrested during her long reign of terror in Cabot Cove?

Down With The Blue Eyed Devils!

Has Yaz begun writing for the President of Brazil?:

"This was a crisis fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people that are white and blue eyed," he said.

Now if he had said "white and one eyed" then he might have a point.

Viva Castro

The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe writes:

Last year Viviane Castro, a model and Carnival queen, managed to out-do fellow revellers by appearing on the streets wearing nothing but a one-and-a-half-inch strip of sticky tape and a large pair of feathered wings. She was fined for breaching the Carnival’s nudity rules (who knew, frankly?), and her samba group were docked points.

This year she has sensibly added a political twist to guarantee continued coverage – painting Obama’s face on her left thigh, and President Lula da Silva’s face on the right, with the legend “Vendese” (For Sale) printed across her stomach, apparently to protest against increasing US influence in the Amazon.

And in between this unusual Heads of State face-to-face was that tiny piece of sticky tape again – just failing to conceal Castro’s mute but attention-grabbing commentary on Brazilian deforestation.

Political engagement is always to be encouraged and so to raise awareness of deforestation it is only responsible to show a video of her protest:



Hmmm, really makes you think.

Police Execution

I was looking something up about the De Menezes killing and inadvertently came across this video of how the Brazilian police operate. It isn't graphic but does show the police casually killing a gang member, even though they know that there are observers right next to them.



What do they do when they aren't being watched?