Ask questions about Brazil. Anything, really. It seems people have some very weird ideas about my country.
Don’t be ashamed! Probably a lot of what you think of my country is stereotypical, there’s nothing wrong with that! That’s exactly why I made this topic. [=
Let the questions come!
Is everyone in Brazil obsessed with football?
Nope! 
I’m not! I hate football, actually 
And even the obsessed Brazillians are not as obsessed as the europeans in general. I mean it! Italian, French and English are way more obsessed than Brazillians are with football.
Now you are being stereotypical XD
Do you see many rodas?
I hear the rock band Rush is very popular in Brazil, is this true? (I’m a big fan of them myself 
)
Roda means wheel, so yes, I suppose so, there are a lot of cars in here, and each of them has at least four wheels 
Never heard of them
/me hugs Fadem
I know! 
(Though I really know some Europeans who are way more obsessed with football than most brazillians.)
Do all brazillians like too hug =D?
More than people elsewhere, yes.
Some foreign people like talking a yard away from their talk partner… It’s sick! Some people talk even further away from each other. Here in Brazil, you talk less than a palm away from the other person.
We like proximity, physical proximity, and we’re not as affraid that our actions will mean something else, so we hug people, and sometime cheek–kiss people from the same sex as we, just kidding… It’s just not a big deal.
But I’m quite a hug addict, not many people are like me. ^^
Though everyone else seems to like it, many people look for me whern they need a hug :shock:
/me hugs Bruno. 
^^
Do you have the sudden urge to shout ‘GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL’ at the top of your lungs all the time?
(Sorry, had to do it, you made me when you replied to the PG topic. )
ahem
Why is it that there’s a requirement to apply when it comes to the Army?
Might I remind all the other members of how T behaved about hugs before I joined this forum. So? Am I an awesome brainwasher or what? 
Er, no. We’re not football freaks, stop pointing at us. 
But now that you mention it… clicks the link in your signature to make an edition
Well, first because we were under dictatorship until 1989 (and it was sponsored by the US, shame on you guys and your constant talk about freedom!) so there was all this idea of making the citizen love their nation (as if there was a brazillian nation) by making nationalist demonstrations and making every single man get involved with the army, with the defense of the country…
You know what I’m talking about, T, the ROTC has the exact same objective—to set a simulated space which is to be associated to the real army, but which is a lot nicer. A space in which you’ll suffer and will have to compete a lot because there’s only place for the best, but also a place in which the rules of war—save yourself first and then your friend, it’s better to kill an enemy than to save an ally etc.—don’t exist. A place in which you’ll grow strong bonds to people, bonds that you’ll owe to the army. Therefore, a big fat lie about what the real army is about in order to make people like it, in order tomake people think it’s ok to say the least.
Well, anyways, that’s how it started. Now, you know my country is a bit screwed. Rio is basically taken over by the drug dealers and other criminals; our northeastern area still lives a pretend democracy, and in fact, the way it works resembles a lot the good and old feudalism; our northern area is not well run, because there is too much jungle between the cities… There’s this state we bought from Bolivia, I believe, the state of Acre. Although it’s geopolitically (read: militarly) important for Brazil, it’s not interesting economically, so it was basically forgotten by current governments and has become something that resembles an organized anarchy.
Although we’re not in civil war, we have to send the army to these places, make people go through life–risking missons in the jungle, put them in front of a favela to shoot and be shot by drug dealers etc. And this life starts with the militar service. After all, no–one wants to got to these places, but 1) the army pays well and people are poor, 2) it’s the only well paid job that the goverment offers you that doesn’t need you to be graduated, 3) there’s the whole brainwashing thing I wrota about above and obviously, 4) it’s mandatory for at least a year.
We’ve been making a lot of progress, though, T. There’s a rather new law that says that, if something happens to a person during their madatory service year, the goverment shall pay for the treatment, dismiss the person and pay them for the rest of their lives for what it’d done for them. Since the end of the dictatorship, it has been strictly forbiden for the army to sponsor anything related to education and for militars to teach in basic to highschool—which is why I got so surprised when you told me the United States of America have one of these programs. So the mandatory year is now milder, but it still works its wonders making people beleive that’s what real war/fight is about. At the end of the year, people are offered a raise to stay in the army, and as I said, there’s a lot of poverty, a raise is not an offer many people deny.
The army is just the most disgusting thing in this World. Any army.
/i ↩︎