<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by A2345exxx:
You made interesting points there. But first of all, Lula is NOT illiterate.
As for earning $80 a month, its horrible but $80 in Brazil has the potential to go a long ways since (but not far enough) things are cheaper in relation to the US.
Hey Ralph, where are you living now? It's a shame to hear stories like that.
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Lula is illiterate. Unless all the news journals as well as the Brazilians themselves are lying about him. I know all about his history, and respect him for the accomplishments he's made.
As far as the minimum salary here. Believe me when I tell you, you can't buy groceries for one person on 240 reais per month. Let alone all the other basic necessities of life. It's truly a shame how these people are expected to work 6 days a week, 8-9 hours per day, and paid the equivalent of $80 per month. No wonder where I live that normally the children don't leave their parents home until they're in their late 20's and many times into their 30's.
I really don't want to be specific about where I live, since I've written things about local politicians here, I'm sure you can understand. But I'll tell you I live on the northeast coast of Brazil.
As far as Brazilian pride, I'm sorry to say in all my time here I just haven't seen a lot of it. There is certainly no love lost for politicians here, but that is 100% understandable. Do you know that in my time here in Brazil, I have seen Brazilians wear a T-shirt, pants, jacket, or some kind of apparel with an American flag 100 X more than I have ever seen them wear apparel with a Brazilian flag. I truly didn't understand it when I first got here. There's a huge percentage of names of stores and boutiques and they're in english. Whenever a store is trying to be "chic", the name of their business is in english. I mean if you have pride, be proud of your culture, your language, and your country. A senator recently attempted to get a bill passed here that would have made it illegal for business to name themselves in english. Although ridiculous, and it never even came to a vote, I see where he's coming from.
As far as American music, sure there's a lot of garbage, but there's a lot of great music as well. Wherever you go, all around the world, you'll hear american music. That says something I believe. The one great thing that I love about my country is that they have the freedom there to make any kind of music that they want. If someone wants to cut a record and name it "George Bush sucks", he can, without fear of reprisals.If someone did that with ACM, the senator from Bahia, he would have something to worry about.