2007 General Reports

[Latina Passion]

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/

Both at my P.O. Box and my home for 3% I trashed that shit, because they asked for my full credit card account number!

[Lorenzo]

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/

No, it is not a scam. The only info I submitted was an estimate of the number of days I spent overseas on foreign travel between 1996-2006. I selected the second option. If you choose the third option, itemizing expenses, then I think you have to provide credit card numbers. But it is legitimate.

L

[Johan]

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/

[Rio Joe]

Rio Joe...the only reason your stuff sells at all is because there are too many magazines and web sites starving for content.

True, many print and online publications are starving for content. But some of the magazines I write for pay top dollar, including Hustler. It may not be the New Yorker in terms of literary aspirations, but it has one of the biggest audiences of any men's magazine. There are long lines of struggling, talented writers constantly pitching Hustler (if not for the "prestige" of being in the magazine, then for the money). So Hustler is hardly "starving for content." Yet they still choose me to write for them. I guess those readers that actually do look at the articles find something of interest in my stuff.

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.

[Mr Enternational]

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 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

Let's discuss it over a couple of garotas and cervejas in VM. I'm sure that hangout won't be closing anytime soon!

[Rio Joe]

Brazil is openly fighting... prostitution.... since Lula Brazil is a different country very strong economically, solid currency, debts paid to IMF,etc.

Brazil still has a long way to go economically. But one thing is for sure: If/when more decent-paying jobs become available, the types of girls who become prostitutes will change, probably for the worse. The higher-quality girls (intelligence, looks, upbringing, etc.) will seek more mainstream jobs. The high-quality ones that do stay in the business will charge more money, seeing themselves almost as call-girls in the States. It's a real catch-22, because as much as many of us here would like to see Brazilians have a better life, I think the impact on Brazil's commercial sex scene would be negative for mongers.

Of course this is all hypothetical. Any changes that happen will be incremental, not immediate.

[Brugal8]

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

[Jan 156]

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

[Thanos]

Belo is about 300 miles from Rio, yes there are dozens of buses everyday including overnight express buses.

Cheers,

Hoje

About 6-8 hours. Take the bus from the rodaviaria. Maybe 60-85R on the executive bus. Travel at night push back your seat and sleep. Stay at the IBIS hotel 75-90R a night.

[JohnnyBraz]

Get on-line and find out which office will accept the visa application via mail and then use them. Call them to confirm you'll get a 5 year visa.
I got a 5 year visa in Chicago last year. It only took 3 days. DD

I am quite lucky on this, I live in australia, have a british passport, due to parents, also a Australian passport and new zealand one, on British and New Zealand don't need a visa. Also a nz passport has permanent entry to Australia.

[Hojeobrigado]

Belo is about 300 miles from Rio, yes there are dozens of buses everyday including overnight express buses.

Cheers,

Hoje

Anyone know how far Rio is Belo Horizonte? Are buses that one can take there from Rio.

Thanks

[Ejam06]

Anyone know how far Rio is Belo Horizonte? Are buses that one can take there from Rio.

Thanks

[Combo]

I 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.

[El Austriaco]

As I said in my response to Sperto, my line that Brazil was "essentially founded on sex tourism" is over the top. It would have been more accurate to say that "sexpatriates" or "sexpats" from Portugal were a vital part of the colony's early make-up. According to Parker and other historians, the Indian women on Brazil's coast were very "receptive" to the Portuguese sailors. As the Portuguese government learned of this, they encouraged more young men to cross the Atlantic, mix it up with the locals, and raise enough kids to grab Brazil's interior before the Spanish got to it.

ET, to quickly address Rio Joe's assertion that Brazil was "essentially founded on sex tourism", a comment he has put in context since (see above), while the way of putting it was certainly controversial and probably intended to stir up a discussion, I personally don't think that it was so far off the mark to make it entirely ridiculous. I just double-checked something along these lines that I vaguely remembered from reading a while ago, and here it is (emphasis added). This is about Brazil as a Portuguese colony during the 16th century, once the slave trade had kicked in:

"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

[Rio Joe]

Rio Joe your research is spotty at best

Do you have examples? Never trust someone who makes broad accusations without backing them up.

I have a hard time reading what you write beyond the hyperbolic titles.

If you're not reading my posts in detail, how can you say that my research is spotty? Never trust someone who makes conflicting statements.

I think I am going to call my friend in Texas right now. I just love to hear him say it.

It's the start of the weekend; why don't you cut him a break and NOT call him? It's clear from the rants you've unleashed on other ISG members that you're not exactly a "people person."