Monthly Archives: September 2010

Custody Battle For $400 Million Emerald

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“The latest in the saga of the Bahia Emerald, an 840-pound gemstone is set to take place in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday to decide its fate.

Several people have laid claim to the stone in the nine years since it was dug up in Brazil in 2001. Multitudes of lawyers are expected to fill the courtroom where Judge John Kronstadt will review the case of Tony Thomas, a claimant who says he bought the emerald from Brazilian miners for $60,000.

The emerald, one of the largest gems ever discovered and estimated to be worth almost $400 million, has been around the block. Its journey has taken it thousands of miles and in some interesting places. At one point, the emerald was shipped to New Orleans and stored in a warehouse that was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. It has also been listed on eBay, for a Buy It Now price of only $75 million, according to the San Jose Mercury News.” – Source (video, more here)

The Silicone Sisterhood

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“Among Brazil’s poor, there are three sexes: Men, women and travestis -biological males who have changed themselves by art and science into something very close to females. Many use liquid silicone injections in order to enhance the transformation; but the cost, for some, can be terrible.” – Source (more here)

So I watched a documentary on Vimeo about bombadeiras (transvestis* who inject industrial-grade silicone into other transvestis so they have a more feminine figure) and it was half enlightening and half disturbing. The documentary was filmed in Salvador and focuses on male transvestites, their lives and the act of bombando (silicone injection). The director sees the cycle as an act of death and rebirth, both in the individual sense of each male becoming female and in the basic sense that people do die from these clandestine injections (and hopefully, those left behind learn from it).

* – In Brazil, there are the transgendered, transvestites and the travestis. The difference is explained in the second paragraph of the article link I provided above.

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Bombadeira (with English subs)

Unfiltered English – Observations

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I was reading a post on Danielle’s blog about a fellow-English-speaking blogger going to meet her this last weekend and she mentioned how great it was to be able to speak ‘unfiltered English’ with her new friend. This got me thinking about how nice it is and how we don’t even think about this once back in the States. While I do have a considerable amount of foreign friends here in California (and select few online), there are of course plenty of places I can go or people I can talk to if I wish to speak unfiltered.

The reason bumping into a native speaker of your own language is so nice while in another country is that a foreign wall falls, the one that makes you question everything you see, hear and do (like “What does this person mean by that?”, “Why is the bus I just got on going away from my destination?”, etc). When I do meet someone who speaks English natively, I find myself piling on the linguistic layers and all of a sudden, there are tones, turns on phrases and all kinds of nuances circling about.

I call myself fluent in Portuguese and for all intents and purposes, I am…but there’s always that little voice nagging me about the fact that if I stop learning, I’ll never become like a native speaker. That’s the thing, though, I’m not sure anyone ever really does reach that level and it seems to be something you have to achieve to believe. What it comes down to is the difference between treating language like a machine with certain parts (got that, check, got this, check) and having it be a living thing that flows through you.

In another post, I alluded to the fact that being yourself linguistically in a foreign place can be hard to do. Those who are getting to know us are really seeing a slice of ourselves and this can be frustrating, even when the other person speaks English relatively well. By taking liberties with what you perceive is their level of knowledge, the other person may not be understanding exactly what you’re saying, which brings me to a related point.

I love that on profiles for certain websites, there’s a question about fluency in other languages and the only choices they give are ‘beginner, intermediate, fluent’. Does anyone making these sites actually consider that language is much more difficult to measure than this? In the least, there should be a low, medium and high for each of the three choices (meaning a total of 9). Unfiltered English, being…well, not on the list because high-fluent is still not native. In its most basic form, native to me means I don’t have to question myself, even if that means pausing to think of the best way to get a point across.

What do you think? Can someone ever become just like a native-speaker?

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Danielle In Brazil post
Why Being Oneself in Brazil Isn’t a Breeze – EOB

Novos Baianos – ‘Cult Movie’

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“In 1973, Solano Ribeiro directed the film Novos Baianos Futebol Clube, a co-production of TV Bandierante with a German TV network. The documentary is a look back at the mythic Os Novos Baianos and shows intimate moments with the band members, seen from the Sitio do Vovó in the Rio de Janeiro suburb Jacarepaguá. The unedited short film, which was placed online about a year ago, has become a true cult movie.

In the video below, one can see the first part. The documentary continues by clicking on the second and third part.” – Source (in IT)

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Novos Baianos – Wikipedia

The Clown for Congress Goes Mainstream – BBC

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“What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don’t know. But vote for me and I will find out for you.”

This is one of the political slogans of a man who is expected to enter the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, in the general election on 3 October with the backing of more than a million voters. If the phrase sounds like some sort of joke, perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that this particular candidate is a professional clown.

Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, or Tiririca as he is known, started working in a circus at the age of eight in the impoverished north-eastern state of Ceara, and is now a TV comedian. Like Tiririca – which means grumpy – dozens of figures from Brazilian sport and showbusiness C-list are fighting for one of the Chamber’s 513 seats, alongside experienced politicians, members of longstanding political clans and complete newcomers. In all there are more than 6,000 candidates from 27 parties.

Another candidate who is predicted to win a landslide victory is the ex-footballer Romario, hero of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup victory. He is running for office representing his home state of Rio de Janeiro and hopes to work to “keep children off crack and other drugs”.

“As a kid growing up in a poor community, I got tired of politicians visiting us and promising improvements that never happened. I realised that I have to be the one who get things done,” Romario tells the BBC.” – Source (more here)

Nosso Lar (trailer) – Most Expensive in History

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The film is based on a book by one of the spirits channeled by Chico Xavier (who, in turn, was shown in a well-received film made about him earlier this year). Nosso Lar (Our Home) was the most expensive film in Brazilian history, costing R$20 million. The IMBD synopsis, while not giving away too much, perhaps gives away a little more than a normal synopsis. A really basic description would be: Guy dies, wakes up in Purgatory, goes to a spiritual city and contemplates the consequences of his past life on Earth.

Facebook Co-Founder Is Brazilian

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Apparently, Facebook’s Zuckerberg co-founded the social network with a Brazilian guy named Eduardo Saverin, who still owns 5% of Facebook (making him a billionaire). Read the background here and his Wikipedia entry here. Within the first link where the story goes sour between the two co-founders, Zuckerberg says he is glad he’s not returning to Harvard where he might be beat up by ‘Brazilian thugs’. Sour or not, Saverin still enjoys Facebook.


(…not that capoeiristas are thugs)

Possibility of 3 New Bullet Train Projects

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In Berlin, the Minister of Transport, Paulo Passos, speaking from the largest railway exhibition in the world, said Brazil will study three new bullet train projects. The high-speed trains would potentially be between São Paulo and Curitiba, Campinas and Belo Horizonte, and between Campinas and the Minas Gerais Triangle (of which Uberlândia and Uberaba are the principal cities).

Meanwhile, the first bullet train project between Rio and São Paulo, which has investments of up to 34 billion reals, has a end-date of 5 years from now (meaning it should be ready by the Olympics 2016). – Source (in PT)