immigration at the airport

traffic on the Marginal

Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica

30 to 50 THOUSAND Reais Fine if a gringo gives a finger during immigration processing

VERSUS

314 Reais for each slave laborer you keep on your farm

or better yet, getting away free for killing a law enforcement officer investigating slave labor.  Sounds like a really fair justice system to me!

Will have to agree with the European on this one as just came back from a month in Brazil(primarily Rio) and would trade off my Canadian residency for Brazil in a heartbeat(provided I could take my employment with me).  Compared to other places I have travelled/done business(Eu, Phillippines,China,Japan,Mexico, US,Cda) I found Brazil to be a breath of fresh air. 

I probably did everything that a tourist not supposed to do - had an apartment on Princess Isabella, walked on Atlantico at any hour and in any condition, enjoyed very many beautiful cariocas, etc - and did not suffer any bad effects(granted the tests not back yet, but the sex so good there it was not hard to keep it very safe).  I found the market approach at the Help Disco to be quite refreshing compared to NA nightlife and that Termas idea has to become more available around the world.  The people(and I dealt with lots of them) were many times better than any Mexican I have dealt with - I would have no problem considering any of them friends. 

Can always find some things wrong in any country(one taxi incident sticks out, but compared to cab drivers/antics we deal with in Canada would even consider this to be very minor), but I had nothing that will stop me from getting back to Brazil on a much more regular basis.

"By the way, immigration was no big deal at the airport.  I've seen far worse."

Last month I flew to Sao Paulo from Amsterdam with my 4yr old and 2yr old daughters for 12hours, only to be told I had to immediately turn around and go back again!!   I was not told that before I left, being an Australian citizen I am supposed to have a visa to enter Brazil, so we all flew to the nearest country ( Argentina ) , got our visas and flew back the next night. I know this is partly my own fault, but the treatment by the foreign policeman that I was given was quite hideous, considering that I was a young mother with 2 small children flying all that way alone and then being told to go back again...he had no emotions whatsoever. I guess the next step would have been a full body search. I cant think of any other worse situations than that compared to mine! Are there.........?

Well, I'm a US citizen and I have a few comments to make.

First of all - i'm sorry to HamsterSlayer that he feels like he was treated like a criminal.  I'm not exactly sure what he means by this though.  Maybe you are one.  Maybe not. 

Unfortunately, it is a reality of life that we must be subject to search and questioned by authorities before entering the US.  When I came back from Sao Paulo (August 2003), I felt that it was tougher getting back into my own country than it was to get into Brazil.  But still - its something I am used to here.  We are a very protective society ever since the slaughter of over 3000 US citizens (not to mention the many many foreign citizens) on 9-11-2001.

To Hollander - I have only been to Hollywood a few times (being that i live on the east coast/Boston area).  Personally - I loved it.  I didn't think it was over-rated.  But - i'm not sure that i understood what you were saying (whether you were trying to make a point that Hollywood is over-rated or not).  If you thought it was over-rated, then nobody really showed you where to go.

On a political stance, Hollander, it sounds like you are blaming other countries instead of taking any initiative on yourself.  I mean, Paulistas believe they are the only ones who do any work in Brazil.  Could this be a reason for a poor economy? 

The orange juice thing - honestly, why would US citizens want to buy food that wasn't grown here?  I am NOT trying to make it sound like goods from Brazil are any worse (or any better) than goods from the US.  But, whether Brazil was allowed to sell them here or not - people in the US feel good about buying goods that were made in our own country because we know it supports our economy.  Maybe I am missing a point about this.  But as an American, I can tell you that this is the reality of the subject.  I don't think that it is worth getting upset over because, I'm sorry, I just don't think that Brazil would see a substantial economic gain for selling food in the US.

I didn't understand your point about the wealth of western Europe.  But if you want to debate exploitation, how about the hundreds of illegal Brazilian immigrants who live in the Boston area and are not paying taxes here?  This hurts Americans.  How about the Brazilians who steal social security numbers from innocent Americans so that they can get credit cards, make purchases with those credit cards, and then leave the country with the goods they purchased?  Who gets the bill?  Yup - US citizens do in the form of higher interest rates and taxes and more severe penalties for late payments.

>Then I'm fortunate enough to be European and we didn't humiliate
>and provoke the Brazilians into taking any reciprocal action in the >first place.

Hamsterslayer!  Come on, man.  You make it sound like the US has singled Brazil out.  Hardly!!!  That rule applies to anybody entering the US from a country where you need both a passport AND a visa.  Personally - i don't like that we are doing this, but my opinion is that if you are going to do it at all, you shouldn't single out only the countries who require a Visa.  Do it to everybody if you are going to do it at all.  Then there is no bias, no prejudice.  It becomes a non-discriminatory policy.

Okay Okay - enough ranting on my part.  Now I'm going to write about what sucks (the actual subject of this forum).  It sucks that I am in love with a girl who lives 5,000 miles away (she's in Sao Paulo).  It sucks that I only get 2 weeks of vacation per year and can only go down there twice a year to visit her.  It sucks that when I go back there this May, that the last few days of my visit will not be happy since I will be sad that I know I am leaving again.