RAPIDINHAS

Fashion

Crème de la crème

Isabela Rosselini's 13-year reign as Lancôme's face has ended. To replace her the cosmetic giant has chosen a Brazilian who has been living in Paris since age 7. Cristiana Reali, 31, got the contract competing with such well-known beauties as actress Juliette Binoche. "Decisive in her choice were besides her beauty and freshness, the intensity and the passion she has forged on the stage," explained Lancôme's communications' director Jérôme Bartau. Cristiana, the daughter of Elpídio Reali Jr, a correspondent for the daily newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, is a promising theater actress who has some name recognition in France for playing the classics like Molière and Racine. In her new career as a model, Reali has been clicked in Paris, London and Cuba. The new Lancôme campaign should start in July.

TV

Naked does it

TV novela (soap opera) programmers have a sure-shot solution for sagging audiences: to bring in breasts and other less-exposed female anatomy parts. But this time SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão - Brazilian TV System) has outdone itself by deciding to include the savior scenes even before its new novela Razão de Viver (Reason for Living) has started. News photographers flocked to the waterfall where Cláudia Liz, the novela's star, was supposed to tape her nude scenes. Outraged with the barrage, the model who has already shown all of her stuff to Playboy readers, protested: "I get the tubes to pose nude and it's not now that you are going to get it for free." That said, she took it all off but her panties and T-shirt and marched to the waterfall.

Rubber-a-plenty

Condom makers' dream of getting a camisinha (little shirt) in each pocket and each purse is getting closer to fruition in São Paulo. Thanks to a stable currency, the real, condom manufacturers are able to place the product in vending machines in strategic places like nightclubs, newspaper stands and subway and bus stations. The company Blausiegel alone is investing $2 million in more than 2,000 machines and believes that soon 7% of its earnings will come from the rubber dispensers.

Collor Web

From his self-imposed exile in Miami, former President Fernando Collor de Mello has been feverishly weaving pages on the Internet. Those curious enough to visit him at http://www.visionpoint.com/collor will find his biography, articles and speeches from the times he was the country's number one honcho. The down-to-earth pages are presented in French, Spanish, English and Portuguese. Collor criticizes President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and gives hints of his presidential aspirations when he speaks of his wish of retaking the "abruptly interrupted" march. He blames his impeachment on "powerful groups" defending "their limited interests". His E-mail couldn't be easier to remember: collor@america.com

Emigration

And the number is

Until now Brazilian emigration figures were uneducated guesses. But Itamaraty's (Foreign Ministry) first census ever on Brazilians overseas is out with the revelation: 1.5 million Brazilians have left their country for the first and third world. From those, the majority (610,130) went to the US. Tiny Paraguay comes in second on the list of preferences (325,000) followed by Japan (170,000) and Europe (126,828) where the biggest colony is in Germany (23.700). Almost one third of those who chose the United States went to New York (230,000). There are still 150,000 Brazilians in Boston, 130,000 in Miami, 47,000 in Washington, 15,000 in Houston, 15,000 in San Francisco, 13,000 in Los Angeles and 10,000 in Chicago. As large as it is, the exodus phenomenon represents less than 1% of Brazil's 160 million souls.

Slammer bangers

Brazilian prisoners are mad as hell and they are not taking it anymore. According to the last prison census's figures, it takes ten days between a jail rebellion and the next one, and there is an average of two jailbirds who break out of prison every day. Every year 1 million crimes are committed in Brazil. There are 511 prisons to receive the 129,169 convicted criminals even though there is enough room only for half of them. And there are 275,000 warrants of arrest out there that haven't been executed. Just for them the country would need 550 new prisons. "Our prison system is bankrupt," says Assis Toledo, minister of the STJ (Superior Tribunal of Justice).

Worse in the USA

Is there any place in the world with more crime than Rio? Yes, five US cities, for example. According to Paris's National Institute for Demographic Studies director Jean Claude Chesnais, your chances to be killed are much greater in the United States. He bases his conclusions on research analyzing the 1993 and 1994 number of murders for each 100,000 residents. In Rio, during that period, there were 60 murders for 100,000, while this number was 86.4 in New Orleans, 77.9 in Richmond (Virginia), 69 in Washington DC, 67.9 in Gary (Indiana) and 64.1 in Saint Louis (Missouri).

Like on the tube

In Brazil, life is imitating novelas (soap operas) again. Going to a teen party these days might seem like a trip to Gypsy land. Getting their cue from Explode Coração (Explode, My Heart), a soap that extols the Gypsy culture, adolescents all over the country have been celebrating special occasions wearing colorful garbs, getting crystal balls and Gypsy cards, hiring Gypsy dancers and playing full blast the novela's soundtrack.

Must read

The vestibular, that Brazilian all-encopassing marathon-like test that makes or breaks those interested in getting into college, will just start November 24, but the Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular has already released the list of books candidates will have to read for Vestibular '97. The 10-book list has been enriched with three new works: Mário de Andrade's Contos Novos, Gil Vicente' Auto da Barca do Inferno, João Cabral de Melo Neto's Morte e Vida Severina. Carried from last year's list are Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias (Manoel Antônio de Almeida), Lira dos Vinte Anos (Álvares de Azevedo), A Cidade e as Serras (Eça de Queiroz), Dom Casmurro (Machado de Assis), São Bernardo (Graciliano Ramos), Campo Geral (from "Manuelzão e Miguilim" by Guimarães Rosa e "Memorial do Convento" (José Saramago). On February 3, 1997, candidates will know if the new list of literature has helped. That's the day the final results will be released.

Trash no more

In a pioneer undertaking in Brazil, Brasília has started to issue tickets to those who dirty the city's streets. Throwing paper or fruit peels will set you back $20. This is the lowest fine. The sum jumps to $50,000 for those who toss garbage on fountainheads. Recidivists will have their fines doubled. For now there will only be 84 inspectors enforcing the law. Brasília's Department of Environment, however, soon intends to also use the military police and traffic cops to dish out tickets.

Lethal treatment

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the recent incident in Caruaru, state of Pernambuco, in which 43 people died after going through hemodialysis, was the worst tragedy of its kind in the world. Three CDC's scientists went to Recife where 60 other patients with liver intoxication had been sent with little chance to survive. The intoxication seems to have been caused by a toxin called Microsistine-LR or by heavy metals in the water of Instituto de Nefrologia e Urologia in which the accident occurred. The only positive result from the tragedy was the Health ministry's belated decision to supervise the 400 clinics which do hemodialysis in the country. Ironically enough, the clinic in which the mishap occurred was being paid $100,000 a month by the federal government to minister that treatment to 147 patients from Pernambuco's backlands.

Death bound

Condemned for killing two prostitutes and a businessman in Florida in 1993, Brazilian Rodrigo Viana, 22, has been sentenced to the electric chair. The decision was made in April by a jury.

Banana rescuer

Cosmopolites sordidus, a worm that damages Brazilian banana trees should soon cease to be a menace to banana farmers. Scientists say it can be widely and economically controlled by the fungus Beauveria bassiana applied by a method developed at the State University of Santa Catarina. The fungus is smeared in shallow incisions on the tree trunk and attracts the grub which is killed by the toxin secreted by Beauveria. Humans are not affected by the fungus. The method is now being extensively tested in the Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area in Paraná State.

Lowering the death toll

The heavily traveled trunk highway between São Paulo, SP and Florianópolis, Santa Catarina is expected to soon lose its sobriquet the Killing Road. Development loans from international financial agencies for $450 million will provide the main truck-car-intercity bus highway with many improvements. It is to be widened, gain separate traffic lanes in critical areas, by-pass Curitiba, capital of Paraná State, and hopefully reduce the slaughter.

Teaching to fish

Thousands of favelados residing in some 60 Rio de Janeiro slums including many precariously perched on the sides of morros (hills) are expected to benefit from extensive work including sanitation, drainage, garbage collection, street paving and lighting, and child care services conducted with the help of a $180 million international loan. Approximately 70 per cent of the workers hired for the construction jobs are hill dwellers themselves and should benefit from both the better wages paid and from learning how to maintain much of their own communities.

Slang

Sea saw

The mangue music trend has given voice to Recife's fishermen. Chico Science, the movement's leader, has used their patois in his lyrics with a little adaptation. Here's a taste of the new language:

Aratu (homeless crab) stupid

Caritó (crab's box) van for prisoners

Cevar (to raise crabs) to educate

Corda (cord) gang

Da lama (from the mud) cool

Espumar (to foam) to be hungry

Guajá (high sea's crab) yuppie

Jogar isca (to throw the bait) to flirt

Maloca (shack) home

Maré cheia (high tide) good life

Maré seca (low (dry) tide) penniless

Sair de andada to go aimlessly

Virar pirão (become bouillon) act stupidly

Xié (little crab) street kid

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