RAPIDINHAS
APRIL 1998

TV
The Bare
Skit

Mylene Macedo, who was an efficient but anonymous secretary for a politician, became famous in the late '80s after she took it all off on the pages of Brazilian Playboy. She was fired, but her celebrity has helped her find plenty of new jobs like the one she holds right now: being the hostess of an erotic late-night show on cable TV.

There isn't too much required from the former bunny in Mulher Maçã (Apple Woman). She doesn't even have to take her clothes off, which is done by younger chicks. Her interviews also don't need any expertise since she stays in the titillating level asking intimate questions from other women who share with her the liberating experience of getting naked on the pages of a magazine.

The half-hour show produced by WRC Produções Audiovisuais is presented every Thursday on Canal Adulto on the TVA, TV Alpha, and Direct TV systems. Uruguay and Colombia have already bought the program, whose top-watched scenes are the strip-tease shows. Mulher Maçã also covers rowdy parties, tells naughty stories, and has a how-to-do-your-strip-tease routine.

Memory
Indian's
Old Dad

In 55 years—40 of them living inside the jungle—dedicated to the Brazilian Indians, Cláudio Villas-Boas amassed some impressive numbers. He helped to build more than 30 airfields in the middle of the jungle and opened more than 1,000 miles of trails under the Amazon canopy. Cláudio had also some 250 bouts of malaria, give or take a few fevers, and an unknown number of reports on his first-hand experience with the indigenous peoples.

The sertanista (backland expert) died from a stroke in his apartment in São Paulo. According to Luciana Soares Santos, his secretary and caretaker for the last four years, his last words were: "Luciana, Luciana, call Orlando". He was suffering from severe depression for a year, according to brother Orlando, due to his retirement and distance from his beloved Indians. "Since he was single, work was extremely important for him, " Orlando, who has two sons, Noel and Orlando, told the daily O Estado de S. Paulo. "I have a different temperament, I take care of my family and I am more agitated, holding conferences throughout Brazil."

Taciturn among the white men, he loved to spend hours talking to his Indian friends. After a period of seven years in which he lived among the Indians without ever leaving, he lost all his documents. He was forced to get them all again when he decided to travel.

The former president of Funai, Sidney Possuelo, also an indigenist and a friend of his, recalled a story of a chicken coop that Claudio built in the jungle to protect the birds from the bats. The shelter was so nicely done and the sertanista loved it so much that instead of placing the chickens there, he moved himself to the new quarters and stayed there until his retirement. Cláudio left unfinished A Arte dos Pajés (The Shamans' Art), a book he was writing. Orlando and Cláudio wrote 13 books together besides documenting all their fieldwork.

They were three brothers (from a total of 11 siblings) devoted to the same cause. The Villas-Boas—Orlando, Leonardo and Cláudio—became legendary in Brazil and around the world among environmentalists and human rights activists. Their names were constantly cited as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 1973 they were even nominated for the award, but they never got it.

Cláudio was born on December 8, 1916 in Botucatu, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. He was 27 years old when in 1943 he joined his two brothers in the Roncador-Xingu expedition also known as Marcha para o Oeste (March to the West), his first taste of the adventures lying ahead. At the time, Indians were not commanding quite the same respect as they get nowadays. The adventure continued until the mid-sixties and was told in detail in the book Marcha para o Oeste.

The expedition perfectly suited President Getúlio Vargas' (1883-1954) desire to establish contacts with groups of Indians who were showing hostility against peasants trying to expand the agricultural frontier of the country as the incursions were presented at the time. In the wake of the Villas-Boas' effort, 34 cities and hundreds of villages were born.

Together with his brothers, Cláudio contacted some of the most feared tribes like the Kalapalos, Kayabi, Kamaiurás, Meinacos, and Txucarramães. In 1973 they were able to contact for the first time in the north of the state of Mato Grosso the Kreen-Akarore Indians also known as Panarás or the giant Indians.

After his brother's death, Orlando talked about those heroic pioneer times: "At the beginning of the expedition we were admitted as manual workers because Flaviano de Mattos Vanique, the expedition chief, didn't hire but illiterate people. One day he found out we could read and Cláudio became chief of staff, Leonardo began to take care of the warehouse, and I became the secretary." 

Orlando recalls several incidents with the Indians: "We started the expedition at Roncador do Xingu on the banks of the Araguaia River, marched to Rio das Mortes (River of Deaths) and from there on to Manaus. It was a hard walk. In the Xavante region alone we had 18 skirmishes with the Indians, and it took us 11 months to cross a 200-mile area. In the Xingu area we started to meet Indians who had never been in contact with white men. Some were very aggressive, but they are all our friends today. We found out that the Indians had an organized, stable, and peaceful society where everybody lived well."

Cláudio helped spread the notion that Indians should not be acculturated and civilized, but that they should be left alone and as isolated as possible from the rest of the Brazilians. The creation of Parque Nacional do Xingu-reservation was the fruit of this vision. The same with Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio—National Foundation of the Indian), the organization that replaced the SPI (Serviço de Proteção ao Índio—Indian Protection Service).

He was the most intellectual of the three and the one who least liked to socialize, talk, and to give interviews. Orlando, much more talkative, is 84 years old. Leonardo died in 1961 at age 43, the same year when pressured by the Villas-Boas, president Jânio Quadros—he stayed in power a mere seven months before an abrupt and never-explained resignation from the presidency—created the Parque Nacional do Xingu. By 1994, the Xingu Park dreamed by the Villas-Boas as a "society of nations" had 6,000 Indians living in 18 settlements from different tribes.

Cláudio's last expedition in the jungle happened in 1976. At the time, he and Orlando tried without success to find an indigenous tribe. That same year he left his post a Diauarum, inside Parque do Xingu. He went then to São Paulo to live with his adopted son Tauarru, a 12-year-old Indian who would die ten years later in a car accident.

In 1976 Cláudio talked about his fear for the future of the Indians: "Who, like myself, lived more than 30 years among the Indians, feels that they represent another humankind, with complex values that we are not able to grasp." He used to say that the haste to conquer the Amazon was destroying the Indians. He also feared the encroachment of garimpeiros (gold prospectors) over Indian territory and their diseases, bad habits like alcohol consumption and the poisoning of the waters with mercury.

In Almanaque do Sertão. (Backlands Almanac) it is registered how in 1947 the Villas-Boas reported by telegraph the reaction of the Indians to a solar eclipse: In order to reignite the sun, 200 warriors threw their arrows towards the sun while the children cried and the women painted their own bodies. Told about Claudio's death, chief Raoni, from the Kayapo tribe, reacted: "Now our father is gone. The Indians' father is dead. He used to tell us that everybody in the cities was crazy. He also taught us that the white man's life is not good for us."

Farewell
Saucy
Inconformist

"We don't need anyone anymore. The same people who enslaved us invented the technology that liberated us. Now I am "www". (August '96)

"I've been waiting for a great love. Meanwhile I stick around practicing so I won't forget how to do it." (May '93)

"In the Globo TV soap operas, blacks only get in the kitchen." (November '92)

"I had my course of roguery and drugs in the U.S. I learned it all and very early because over there everybody snorts, everybody takes it, everybody burns pot, fucks, takes syrup and balls." (February '91)

"With two whiskey bottles I want to see which bouncer can hold me. I'll bite their ears off." (January '89)

"Thank you. With this money I'm going to buy myself a Sony machine." (On receiving a Sharp Award for life achievement)

"I don't burn, I don't snort, and I don't drink. My only problem is that sometimes I lie a little." (Often said with a joint in hand)

Personification of the soul and funk in Brazil, this colorful, controversial, much-loved and much-hated character deserves a place in the hall of fame of the best MPB (Música Popular Brasileira—Brazilian Popular Music) musicians. With typical irreverence Tim Maia so described the formula for his soul-music-style success: "Half of my songs are armpit warmers and the other half underwear soilers."

He died on March 15, at the age of 55, after an agony that lasted one week at the ITU of Niterói's Hospital Universitário Antônio Pedro. He was on stage singing the first song of his show, "Não Quero Dinheiro, Só Quero Amar" (I Want No Money, I Just Want to Love), when he started feeling ill and was taken in a hurry to the hospital.  

Sebastião Rodrigues Maia was born in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, on September 28, 1942. He was the 18th in a family of 19 siblings. At six he started to help the family by delivering the homemade food prepared by his mother, Maria Imaculada Maia. Tim learned to play guitar as a child and he was 15 when he formed his first band, The Sputniks, with Roberto Carlos, an unknown who would later receive the epithet of King and become the most lasting best-selling recording artist in the country.

The group was short lived though. In 1957, with $12 bucks in his pocket and no knowledge of English, the singer decided to make America. He lied that he was a student to the immigration authorities and adopted the name of Jimmy, for Tim's dream was to make movies, but living by himself in New York, he washed dishes, helped in a house for the elderly, played in small bands, created his own group (The Ideals) and even robbed to survive.

In 1964, the US Immigration caught up with him and sent the singer back to Brazil after he was condemned for smoking pot and served six months in prison. He was by then 21, had acquired a taste for soul and funk, and had become fluent in English.

Back in Brazil, he was ostracized getting his first chance only when legendary singer Elis Regina—she died in 1982 from a lethal concoction of cocaine and whiskey—invited him in 1970 to participate on her LP, singing "These Are the Songs", in English. PolyGram signed him that the same year. His first album, Tim Maia, contained some of the hits that he would sing for the next three decades, among them: "Azul da Cor do Mar" (Blue as the Sea), and "Primavera" (Spring).

In 1971, he recorded "Gostava Tanto de Você" (I Liked You So Much), another perennial success. Other of his big hits were "Coroné Antônio Bento" (Colonel Antônio Bento), "Cristina", "A Festa do Santo Rei" (The Holy King Celebration), "Não Quero Dinheiro" (I Want No Money), "Um Dia Eu Chego Lá" (Some Day I'll Get There), "Descobridor dos Sete Mares" (The Seven Seas Discoverer), Você e Eu, Eu e Você (Juntinhos) (You and Me, Me and You (Close Together).

Nationally respected music critic Tárik de Souza called him an "apostle of musical competence. On the other hand, Tim was always a big mouth, literally and figuratively. A pot-bellied heavy weight he owned a powerful voice to sing those memorable tunes composed by him that get inside you and keep replaying themselves. He could gulp down three bottles of whiskey a day. Drugs followed him all his life.

His mouth was also a powerful machine gun that didn't spare friends or foes. He never forgave Roberto Carlos, for example, for not having helped his former partners at the Sputniks. He has also made virulent attacks against radio and TV stations accusing them of being involved in jabaculê (payola) to build and destroy musical careers. Tim became a folkloric character whom people couldn't trust.

He was famous for not showing up at his own shows and for sometimes appearing so drunk that he was not able to perform. The singer was always in the courts. In 1992, he was condemned to pay $20,000 to an agent for having missed 11 engagements. At the end, without a contract or a recording company willing to work with him, Tim had to finance and record his own discs.

Tim was also a bad employer not paying his musicians and used to threaten reporters who dared to criticize him or simply not like his work. He had at least six children. One of them he only knew when the youngster was already 17. Officially he married five times and had three sons: José Carlos, 32; Márcio, 23; and Telmo, 21.

Some critics were fast to point to the hypocrisy of Globo TV network, which had banned Tim from their station for years, but were quick to present specials and tributes to the "great musician" as soon as his heart stopped and the ratings showed it was a smart move. The TV station management forbade him from ever singing at Globo in 1993, after he didn't show up for a scheduled presentation in the Domingão do Faustão show.

Recently Tim had vowed to be a candidate for the senate in a platform of giving a voice to Blacks and children, creating an Afro-Brazilian university, and protecting musicians from the multinational recording companies. In 1988 he also talked about running for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, but he never did. "I am bicão," he used to say about himself. Bicão is slang for people who go to a party without an invitation.

Partial discography:

1974 - Tim Maia Racional

1978 - Tim Maia Disco Club (re-released in 1995 as Sossego)

1979 - Reencontro e Tim Maia (in English)

1982 - Nuvens

1983 - Descobridor dos Sete Mares

1984 - Me Dê Motivo

1985 - Tim Maia

1986 - Telefone

1987 - Somos América

1988 - Carinhos

1991 - Tim Maia Interpreta Clássicos da Bossa Nova

1992 - Ao Vivo

1993 - Tim Maia

1997 - Tim Maia e Os Cariocas, What a Wonderful World - Oldies But Goodies, Pro Meu Grande Amor, Amigo do Rei 

Politics
Not So Fast

Six months before the October election and with opponents still undefined, Fernando Henrique Cardoso's reelection bid doesn't seem so unsinkable anymore after the release of a Jornal do Brasil—Universidade Federal Fluminense poll. The poll published on March 21, 1997, was the first major indication of a shift against Cardoso among the Brazilian electorate. The JB-UFF poll found out that voters from the state of Rio—the second largest electorate in the country after São Paulo—in a imaginary dispute between the President and PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers' Party) candidate Luiz Inácio da Silva, better known as Lula, would split their vote equally between the candidates. In a runoff, Cardoso would lose the elections with 48% of the votes against 52% from Lula. In the 1994 elections, Cardoso won in 25 of the 26 Brazilians states.

Cardoso would also lose if his opponent were former President Itamar Franco, who apparently will not be able to run since the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro—Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement), his party, has decided to back Cardoso. In such a scenario the split would be 51% to 49% in favor of Itamar. Cardoso would only win—with 58% of the votes—in a dispute against Ciro Gomes, ex-governor of the northeastern state of Ceará and former Finance Minister. Gomes is the presidential candidate from the PPS (Partido Popular Socialista—Popular Socialist Party). Another candidate, Dr. Enéas Carneiro from right-wing Prona (Partido da Reedificação da Ordem Nacional—Party of the National Order Rebuilding) is a long shot.

In a five-way dispute including Itamar or in a four-way dispute without the former president, Lula and Cardoso would have a tie on the first round. In a scenario including Itamar, Cardoso's predecessor would get 15% of the votes, while the President would get 25% and Lula 22%, a technical tie due to the 3% margin of error. Seven percent would vote for Enéas, 6% for Ciro Gomes, and 20% would void or leave their ballots blank. Without Itamar, Cardoso would get 28% of the votes against 27% for Lula. Invalid votes would be 24%, Enéas would get 9% and Ciro 8%. The number of people who haven't made up their minds is 5%.

Of all likely candidates Cardoso has the highest rejection index, with 38% of voters saying that "under no circumstance" they would vote for him. Only 15% said they would never vote for Lula, 14% said the same for Itamar. Even Enéas and Ciro Gomes had a lower rejection index, 27% and 26% respectively. Curiously enough the same survey found out that 65% of Rio's voters approve of Cardoso administration against 32% who disapprove. The UFF poll was taken among 1,300 Rio's voters on March 16 and 17.

According to the poll's coordinator, professor Alberto Carlos Almeida, from UFF's Political Science Department, these results show that the government is losing the battle of image in the social area mainly on the unemployment front. "The opposition is being able to tie the unemployment situation to Fernando Henrique, although Rio has the lowest unemployment rate in the country."

Losing His Cool

In a show of how low his patience threshold is, the President could not graciously take the heat during a town-meeting-format TV interview with high-school students. Cardoso's degree of irritation was shown at SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão—Brazilian System of Television) TV Programa Livre (Free Program), presented by Serginho Groissman.

Revealing an unexpected social conscience, the youngsters grilled the President on several subjects, including elections, unemployment, death penalty, abortion and drugs. The President went into an offensive mode when Leonardo Antunes, 16, accused him of giving evasive answers and asked the President if he considered it fair that a trash man made less than $200 while a bureaucrat earned more than $15,000.

Visibly peeved, Cardoso lost his temper and scolded the student who dared object to the presidential reasoning: "It is too much arrogance to say that I am not answering. I am trying to explain things. I could say that your question is gobbledygook, that I am the President of the Republic and that I shouldn't even answer that. You need to open your head. I've been here for one hour talking with the greatest satisfaction and you come and tell the President of the Republic that he is not answering the questions. And then you make a totally senseless question.

"This is demagoguery, and we shouldn't use demagoguery even when we are young. It doesn't sit well. You are young, you make a confused question only because you are in the presence of the President of the Republic. Be more humble. Talk to me as an equal, not like someone superior talking to a subaltern. I take it, but it doesn't sit well."

The students screamed and hooted the President, but he was 630 miles away, in Brasília, while his inquisitors were in a TV auditorium in São Paulo watching him on a big screen. There were close to 450 middle and higher-middle-class students who weren't baffled by Cardoso's title (President of the Republic) and most of them when addressing the President used the familiar treatment pronoun você instead of the more respectful senhor.

The only question dealing with the reelection drew jeers from the audience. The youngsters were more interested in discussing Brazilian social problems: the contrast between the too rich and the too poor, education, health, unemployment, and lack of opportunities.

Despite the lingering after-taste, the Palácio do Planalto (the Brazilian White House) declared the experience as being positive and concluded that it had served its purpose as a test. And apparently without any irony Cardoso let it be known: "I adore auditorium programs." 

Opposition candidate Lula used the students' incident to criticize Cardoso for his slippery ways: "President Fernando Henrique is no more than a Vaseline jar", he told allies during a meeting of congressmen from the PC do B (Partido Comunista do Brasil—Communist Party of Brazil). Former President Itamar Franco has also joined those pelting barbs at Cardoso. He first called the President a "slippery eel", and a few days later said his successor was "Mr. Hyde", the mean side of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll.

Obituary
The Last
Funny Face

It was a sixty-year career that started in the circus and took him to radio, cinema, and TV, making him one of the best known and cherished comedians of Brazil. Just before dying from cancer at age 88 in Rio on March 22, Moacir Brandão Filho, who was a consummate grimace maker, talked about his pride of never being unemployed. For Brandão, the transition to TV starting in 1954 at TV Tupi was easy.

The whole country used to repeat one of his most famous catchphrases: "kill the old man, kill" when he worked on radio. His most remembered role was that of poor cousin on Balança Mas Não Cai (It Shakes But it Doesn't Fall Down) a program about a bunch of weird characters living on an odd building created by Max Nunes and Haroldo Barbosa.

During the '50s the show was a big hit on Rio's now-closed Mayrink Veiga radio. "Cousin, you are the best," he used to tell his rich cousin interpreted by late Paulo Gracindo.

Fast
Lunacy

With the express purpose of making life easier for Paulistanos (São Paulo residents) the state government has created what it called the Poupatempo (Savetime) program for those in need of getting an ID card. The new program working from a building at Praça do Carmo in downtown São Paulo, promises to hand over the ID the same day people apply for it, instead of having to wait for four or more weeks.

Something very strange is happening, however. Those willing to use the new fast service are spending as many as ten hours in line, often staying overnight in the street in order to get a number that guarantees a place to have a same-day document. The Department is open to the public from 7 AM to 7 PM, but at 6 AM they start to distribute the numbers.

Salesman Agnaldo Autori, 42, the first one in line recently, had arrived at the Department's gate at 10 PM the night before, as it is common in the U.S. for immigrants trying to legalize their situation. Talking to daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo he said: "I was able to get the first place and with that I am helping the government to disrespect the population even more."

The line has also become a place for some entrepreneurial prostitutes and homeless people to make some extra money. They spend the night in line and sell their places in the morning for those who prefer paying instead of suffering an insomniac night on the street.

The Fear
and
the Fury

More than anything else Cariocas (Rio residents) are threatened by their own aggressiveness. This is the conclusion of a study by the Pan-American Health Association in eight cities in Europe and the Americas. In Rio, the city chosen to represent Brazil, 8% of the 1,126 respondents had been victims of mugging while 6% had been assaulted in traffic or in the streets after a discussion with an unknown person.

"Contrary to the prevailing perception, the rate of robbery, theft, and the number of people hurt by weapons is lower than in most of other Latin-American cities," said Leandro Piquet Carneiro, University of São Paulo's (USP) political scientist, in charge of the Brazilian side of the study, in an interview with daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. According to him, most of the violence is not done by criminals but at home and by people Brazilians meet every day in the streets.

The study also analyzed data from Santiago (Chile), Cali (Colombia), Caracas (Venezuela), San Salvador (El Salvador), and San Jose (Costa Rica). The cities of Madrid (Spain) and Houston (U.S.) were chosen for comparison.

Brazil won first place in violence with a score of 1 followed by Cali, home of an infamous drug cartel with 0.8. Madrid had a rating of minus 2. On the up side the study revealed how optimistic Brazilians are about their future. In answering the question "Is the country getting better in the next few years?" Cariocas got first place in the optimistic scale with a 0.8 coefficient. Brazilians had the highest mark for political tolerance too. Rio also appeared as the city with fewer people owning firearms. Only 4.6% of Cariocas possess guns.

The
Biggest
Yet

In its most ambitious project to date, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is preparing an art expo to celebrate the 500 years of Brazil's discovery. The exhibit has a budget of $15 million and plans to be a comprehensive tableau of Brazilian art starting with Indian objects made before the arrival of Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. Called Brasil 500 Anos—Artes Visuais (Brazil 500 Years—Visual Arts) the exhibit will be opened May 3, 2000. It was on that date, 500 years ago, that the first mass was celebrated on Brazilian soil. The exhibition will also be taken to several museums in Brazil, Europe and the United States where it will be shown in San Francisco (California), Austin (Texas) and Washington, DC. 

"This will be one of the most important expositions done by Fundação Bienal," said Júlio Landmann, president of the organization, in an interview with daily Correio Braziliense from Brasília. "For the first time the expo will have less renowned segments such as popular, Indian, and Afro-Brazilian art, and the images of the unconscious side by side with the most celebrated work like the art of the 18th century and the figurative painting of the 19th century."

British historian Leslie Bethell will select works by Debret, Rugendas and other Europeans who have portrayed Brazil. The super expo, which intends to gather 2,000 works, wishes to be a source of reference for anybody interested in Brazilian art. The work will also be available in CD-ROM, video, book and the Internet.

Booksmarts

From April 29 until May 10, São Paulo will be holding its 15ª Bienal Internacional do Livro (15th International Book Biennial). Organized by CBL (Câmara Brasileira do Livro—Brazilian Chamber of Book) the expo will show 150,000 books—4,000 of them will debut at the exhibit—and is expected to receive 1.5 million people. According to CBL's president, Altair Brasil, the São Paulo book expo is the third biggest book fair in the world losing only to the ones held in Frankfurt (Germany) and Chicago (USA). There will be new books by Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto and Portuguese novelist José Saramago and foreign best-selling authors like Jostein Gaarder and Ghita Mehta will be present to autograph their books.

The book industry is booming in Brazil with 50,000 titles being released in 1997 alone. In 1990 the yearly output was less than half that amount. On the other hand, the number of books per printing has been falling. While in 1992 general books (they exclude didactic works, which represent 53% of all books sold) had an average printing of 4,603 copies, this number had fallen to 3,221 in 1996, contributing to the high price of books in Brazil.

Book Award

There were 1,560 candidates this year to the Jabuti, the prize given in 15 categories—three authors in each category are selected—by Câmara Brasileira do Livro to the best Brazilian literary works. Just to show how hard such a selection can be, renowned writers Moacyr Scliar (A Majestade do Xingu—The Majesty of the Xingu River), Frei Betto (Entre Todos os Homens—Among All Men), Deonísio da Silva (Teresa), Dalton Trevisan (234), Décio de Almeida Prado (Seres, Coisas, Lugares—Beings, Things, Places), Elisa Palatnik (Contos de Futebol—Soccer Short Stories), and Rubem Fonseca (Histórias de Amor), were all candidates for the trophy but didn't make the final cut.

Lealdade (Loyalty) by Márcio Souza, A Casa do Poeta Trágico (The Tragic Poet's Home) by Carlos Heitor Cony, and Um Crime Delicado (A Delicate Crime) by Sérgio Sant'Anna won as best novels. In short story, prizes went to Raduan Nassar with Menina a Caminho (Girl on Her Way), Flávio Moreira da Costa with Nem Todo Canário É Belga (Not Every Canary is Belgian), and João Silvério Trevisan with Troços & Destroços (Rubbish and Wreckage).

Other areas awarded Jabutis were administration, business and law, children's books, children's book illustration, didactic books, economy, editorial production, essay and biography, human sciences, journalism, natural sciences and medicine, exact sciences, poetry, technology and computer, and translation. The prize is important for the prestige it brings. The Prêmio Jabuti 98 comes with a paltry $900 check.

Corruption
Built
on Sand

Brazil's latest national villain is called Sérgio Naya, 55. The wealthy, silver-haired congressman from the state of Minas Gerais, has been expelled from his party, the PPB (Partido Progressista Brasileiro—Brazilian Progressive Party), and his colleagues are considering his impeachment since the 22-story apartment building Palace II in the upscale neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca in Rio collapsed on February 21, killing eight people and throwing 120 families on the streets. Naya is the owner of Sersan (Sociedade Empresas Reunidas Sérgio Augusto Naya), the company responsible for the edifice's construction.

Since the Palace II tragedy, much fraud was found on the résumé of the middle-class Armenian immigrant's son, who went to Brasília, the Brazilian capital, at the end of the `60s and became a construction tycoon, helped by high-ranking officials during the military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. According to his own account—Naya loves to brag— he has a $500-million fortune. His secret? "To mix economy with deception," he confided to a friend, adding: "The US is the country of opportunities, and Brazil is the country of deception."

Extra-generous with big-shot friends whom he flies on his private $15-million Challenger jet and treats to $300 Cristal Rosé champagne, he compelled his employees to unbend nails used in a hotel construction to reutilize them on an apartment building being erected in Osasco, São Paulo.

Worried with kidnappings, he is always followed by bodyguards and often carries his own machine gun. Single all his life; he is frequently accompanied by beautiful women, but rumor has it that he never stays more than one year with any one of them so they will not claim any of his fortune.

He is also a very bad payer. Only in Brasília there are more than 800 lawsuits against his companies. The government is his biggest creditor. He owes $48 million in a number of administrative actions filed against him, $14 million to Banco do Brasil and another $8 million to the INSS, the Brazilian Social Security service.

It took a tragedy for the inspectors to find out that Naya's company had mixed beach sand with concrete in Rio. Seashells were found mixed with the concrete. They also found several other irregularities. Sersan used rainwater taken from puddles on the beach and cement that was already too old for use. Naya protests innocence and accuses his opponents of trying to subject him to a public lynching.

In a videotape shown on TV Globo's Sunday show Fantástico, Naya was heard bragging about forging official documents and using low-grade building materials on his building projects, which were later offered for sale as first-rate constructions. In the tape shot four years ago Naya talks to a group of councilmen from the city of Três Pontas in Minas Gerais. "Everything I buy is used, but it looks like new" he says, adding: "I signed an order for the government, I really do falsify. I gave the order to the Mayor, and he believed it was from the Governor."

The outrage against Naya has almost obscured the most important issue, which is Brazil's lack of rules and enforcement of an adequate building code. Critics of the status quo have pointed that without a serious revamping of the system, buildings will continue falling and people will continue dying. In the last seven years at least another six buildings collapsed in the country.

In 1991, nine people died and 23 were hurt when a building toppled in Volta Redonda, state of Rio de Janeiro. The next year a concrete block fell over a crowd in the Pelourinho Square in Salvador, state of Bahia, leaving 18 people hurt and eight dead. In 1994, a two-story building being erected in São Paulo went down killing three and hurting 14. Then in Guaratuba, Paraná, a six-story building collapsed killing 40 people and hurting nine.

The most tragic of these disasters was a totally preventable explosion occurred in 1996 in the restaurant area of Osasco Plaza Shopping, in São Paulo. Forty two people died and 472 were hurt. The gas ducts in that case weren't up to code and there was no inspection to compel the owners to correct the problem. Last year, a 17-story building collapsed in São José do Rio Preto, in the interior of São Paulo. There were no victims this time.

On the political front, there are at least 44 congressmen being investigated, including Senator Ronaldo Cunha Lima, who shot an opponent in 1993 after his colleague criticized him on TV.

For the record, Naya is building two $30 million 18-story hotel towers in Orlando, Florida. Construction has been delayed and stopped several times due to problems found by city building inspectors.

Stripping
for Joy

"People take off their clothes to make children, to be more exposed to the wind, and to feel the sea. I took off mine to show my joy." This was timbalada-creator Bahiano (from Bahia) singer-composer Carlinhos Brown explaining why during Carnaval he did go in the buff in the streets of Salvador, capital of Bahia, on the back of a trio elétrico, a wired-for-sound truck. According to Brown, his rejoicing demonstration didn't last more than three seconds, but that was enough time to snap pictures of his nudity, which was splashed in Salvador's papers the next day. Apparently some people were offended, and the singer was sued accused of an obscene act. Some papers wrote that his nude scene was in protest against a trio-elétrico jam during Carnaval. He denied it and swore that he did not intend to offend anyone.

You Say
Fair

Between 1991 and 1996 Brazilian exports to the U.S. have stagnated at $1.3 billion, while Brazil has increased its Yankee imports by 131%, raising them from $252 million to $588. Brazilians in fact are having so many problems to get their agricultural products to American shores that they are about to take their case to the World Trade Organization.

Brazilians believe the U.S. are good at talking about fair and free trade and open markets as long as the market is not its own. Brazil accuses Americans of using ruses to keep Brazilian products away, by charging high import tariffs, imposing quotas, and creating extremely rigorous sanitary restrictions. Another common practice is to accuse Brazil of dumping.

The Brazilian Embassy in Washington has prepared a report on the barriers imposed by the United Sates to Brazilian products. According to the study, 16 products are not welcome into the States. They include fruits, orange juice, shoes, soy oil, and sugar.

One special bone of contention is the U.S. charge that Camargo Correa Metais (CCM) wants to sell its metallic silicate used in the computer and electronic industry at lower prices than it sells in Brazil and has imposed a 35% tariff on the product. Brazil argues that there is no dumping, but the negotiations are stalled while the Brazilian company has already lost $150 million in exports to the U.S. in the last five years. Washington has also imposed a tax of 8.55 cents on each liter of orange juice in order to protect Florida's orange growers.

In 1992, close to 90% of all imported orange juice in the U.S. came from Brazil. This had fallen, however, to 67% in 1996. The U.S. doesn't import beef and pork from Brazil either alleging the presence of aphthous fever and swine fever (hog cholera) in the country. Brazilian poultry also don't make the grade in the USA.

Music
Frigging
Talent

With a name like Funk Fuckers you wouldn't expect this band to be playing gospel and being prude and they aren't. The naughty attitude revealed in the band's name continues in the musicians' names—their ages vary from 20 to 23: B. Black, a.k.a. Bernardão Erótico (Erotic Big Bernard); Jimmy Love; Yurinando (a play with urinating); Baruco Cagüete (Baruco, the Snitch); Mortadelo "Bass" Gee; and Leon Experiênza.

Created in Rio in 1993, the Funk Fuckers, according to their leader B. Black, draw their inspiration from Yankee bands like Run DMC, Dead Kennedys, and Beastie Boys and domestic rockers Titãs, Paralamas, and Kid Abelha.  They produced their two initial CDs, but now have been picked up by major recording company BMG. Their foul-mouthed lyrics, however, have kept most of their songs off the radio stations' playlist. Thanks to MTV they are having some exposure nowadays. A sample lyrics from one of their most tamed songs, "Búlica":

"...Quero me aprofundar na sua pessoa,
ginecologicamente falando…
vem cá meu bem, vamos fazer um oba-oba
você me mostra sua coisa
eu lhe mostro minha trosoba

I want to get deep in yourself,
gynecologically speaking...
come here sweetie, let's make whoopee
you show me your thing
I'll show you my shmuck

Woman
The Darker
Side of Lust

"I'm not used yet to men's looks. They seem to be eating me with their eyes." Scheila Carvalho Ladeira from É o Tchan band may feel a little uncomfortable, but she is enjoying every second of her new acquired status as Brazilian men's newest object of desire and induction to sin. Brazil's most coveted brunette was chosen by popular vote during TV Globo's Domingão do Faustão (Faustão's Big Sunday) show as a counterpart to blondeshell dancer Carla Perez.

With Carla's imminent departure to more innocent pastures to star on her own TV kid show, Scheila should reign supreme, until they find a tawny match for her, that is. As a É o Tchan's dancer Scheila has the obligatory prominent buttocks (for the record, her hips measure 37", her breasts 33 and her waist 26, all of this framed by a 116-lb., 5"5' body). Her flesh attributes are so impressive that her appearance in Playboy (see pic) on February provoked a run to the newsstands, and the sale of magazines zoomed past those sold when La Perez' nakedness was featured.

Scheila has been dancing professionally since she was 10. Born and raised in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, she used to accompany her mother to country fairs. After some time looking at the shows held there, she started dancing and mimicking singers like Simone and Daniela Mercury while her mom sold churros. She dreamed that one day she would go to college and graduate in PE, but she couldn't get the money for that.