Thread: 2007 General Reports
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12-14-07 06:25 #889
Posts: 383I got the same thing in the mail!
Originally Posted by Johan
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12-14-07 06:23 #888
Posts: 1243Originally Posted by Johan
L
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12-14-07 06:18 #887
Posts: 136Credit Card questions for U.S. based travellers
Is this a scam?
I received from the mail about some sorts of class action lawsuit that they sued all the banks, Visa, Mastercard that issued credit/debit/ATM cards and won a settlement that the banks never disclosed the 1%-3% foreign transaction fees that is being levied on customers (all major banks were involved, HSBC, Citi, Bank of America...as none of them made disclosure that they charged this fees). The settlement called for refunding a portion of this fees to customers. (see link below). is this legit or a scam? The fact that they require you providing personal info caused me some hesitation.
http://www.ccfsettlement.com/
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12-13-07 10:34 #886
Posts: 112Originally Posted by Exec Talent
Still, I appreciate your criticism, ET. It inspires me to improve my writing. Muito obrigado, amigo. It's a bit early, but let me wish you: Um Feliz Natal e Próspero Ano Novo. Eu espero que nós possamos tomar uma bebida junto no ano que vem no Rio.
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12-13-07 05:39 #885
Posts: 15965Originally Posted by Brugal8
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12-12-07 23:02 #884
Posts: 112Originally Posted by Brugal8
Of course this is all hypothetical. Any changes that happen will be incremental, not immediate.
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12-12-07 21:45 #883
Posts: 220What is going on in Brazil
I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this but it seems the most appropriate to me to post what I wan to post.
Maybe all the fellow mongers have noticed but Brazil is openly fighting one of teh the things that has made the country famous around the world and has us coming again and again: "prostitution".
They have closed several houses in sao paulo which have been closed before but always reopened but not this time.
Several termas have been closed or raided in rio and in sao paulo is the prostitution in the whole state that is being fought.
I don't know the reason for this but we must admit that since Lula Brazil is a different country very strong economically, solid currency, debts paid to IMF,etc..
I would really like to know what other mongers think about this current situation which I think is not going to last but now I'm doubting myself
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12-04-07 21:14 #882
Posts: 2345site suggestion
Hi Jackson!
Any chance of a a PDA-friendly viewing option at some time in the future?
I know it probably all comes down to money but thought I'd mention it. I rarely take a laptop travelling and not everywhere has handy internet cafes. I can surf using my phone but the ISG pages are very large files and often the pages crash before they have downloaded. Plus I can't find any way to post, or reply to PMs.
AdultWork has managed a PDA-view option which works well, though they no doubt have more cash to spend. ISG is a brilliantly laid-out site, and it would be great to be able to navigate it using a PDA or mobile phone.
Just a thought
Chris
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12-04-07 07:45 #881
Posts: 138Originally Posted by Hojeobrigado
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12-03-07 04:43 #880
Posts: 372Originally Posted by Donnie D
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12-03-07 01:39 #879
Posts: 22About 300 miles
Belo is about 300 miles from Rio, yes there are dozens of buses everyday including overnight express buses.
Cheers,
Hoje
Originally Posted by Ejam06
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12-02-07 04:37 #878
Posts: 26Belo Horizonte
Anyone know how far Rio is Belo Horizonte? Are buses that one can take there from Rio.
Thanks
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12-01-07 13:06 #877
Posts: 1753I agree with El Austriaco. Rio Joe's analysis is actually pretty accurate. What he's referring to is actually fairly well-known (although not the type of discussion this board is geared towards).
A huge difference in the Puritan heritage of the U. S. Vs. That of Brasil has to do with how the country was settled. The U. S. For the most part was settled by families. The Portuguese, on the other hand, did not bring their families with them to the New World. I don't need to explain the rest of the story.
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12-01-07 00:13 #876
Posts: 712Brazil: a History of Sex Tourism
Originally Posted by Rio Joe
"Portugal was not an overpopulated country. There was no capitalist revolution and no enclosures, as in England, forcing the peasantry off the land. Consequently, the typical Brazilian settler emigrated by choice with the hope of untold riches. These settlers were notoriously indisposed to work; even poor whites had a slave or two. There was a popular saying that "the slaves are the hands and feet of the whites".
The sugar barons lived on their plantations part-time and escaped to their second houses in the cities, where they often kept mulatto (of mixed black and European parentage) mistresses. The white women led barren, cloistered lives inside the walls of the casa grande (big house). Secluded from all but their family and servants, the women married young - usually at age 14 or 15 years of age - and often died early.
Sexual relations between masters and slaves were so common that a large mulatto population soon emerged. Off the plantations there was a shortage of white women, so many poorer settlers lived with black and Indian women. Prostitution was prevalent; many of the free mixed-race women could only survive by working as concubines or prostitutes. Brazil was famous for its sexual permissiveness, but by the beginning of the 18th century, it became known as the land of syphilis (even in the monasteries) and wrought devastation.
The church was tolerant of any coupling that helped populate the colony and many priests had mistresses and illegitimate children. As Gilberto Freyre, Brazil's most famous social scientist, said of the priests: "a good part if not the majority of them assisted in the work of procreation, and their cooperation was so gratefully accepted that the courts did not arrest or issue warrants for any cleric or friar on the charge of keeping a concubine."
In the poorer regions of Pará, Maranhao, Ceará and Sao Paulo, where settlers could not afford black slaves, Indian slaves were more common. Here, interracial sex was more prevalent between whites and Indians and just as tolerated (this is evident in the racial mix in those states today). As in the rest of the colony, sexual relations were rather licentious . As the Bishop of Pará summed up: the wretched state of manners in this country puts me in mind of the end that befell the five cities, and makes me think that I am living in the suburbs of Gomorrah, very close indeed, and in the vicinity of Sodom."
Source: Lonely Planet Brazil. 4th edition, November 1998, p. 18.
Certainly, while racial mixing occured to some extent or another in most of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies at the time, and priests and missionaries weren't exactly angels elsewhere, either, it still seems fair to me to say that Brazil was truly in a class of its own even back in the 1600. And if you compare it to what happened in the U.S.... ufff, what a difference, no?
And while sex might not have been a major motivator for the early Portuguese settlers of Brazil, especially after the sugar trade took off and allowed some of them to become rich beyond belief, it certainly wasn't a exactly a deterrent, either. I think that it's fair to say that some of the early immigration to Brazil was clearly fostered, though certainly not triggered, by promises of sexual freedom. Not all that different from today, right?
But anyhow. I remember that when I first started learning Portuguese, at the tender age of 19, I actually took lessons with a female teacher from Lisbon, by pure accident. Depending on what year you started Portuguese at my college, you would either start learning Lusoportuguese, i.e. Continental Portuguese, like in my case, or the Brazilian variety with a professor from Brazil. Anyhow, I still got to know him, of course, because I had to take his course in Brazilian history and culture. One time, we happened to talk about women, and that's what he told me:
"One woman just isn't enough for a guy, you know. In Brazil, you need three: a white one, to marry. A black one, to cook. And a mulatta... for sex!"
I guess he knew what he was talkng about. After all... he was a priest himself
EA
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11-30-07 23:34 #875
Posts: 112Originally Posted by Exec Talent
Originally Posted by Exec Talent
Originally Posted by Exec Talent