Rapidinhas - October 95
Behavior
Is that you, Bráulio?
To stop the spread of AIDS which continues to be a serious problem in Brazil, the Health Ministry has started a new TV campaign. The series of four ads shows a man (actor Emílio Melo) talking to his penis. The erect creature ready "to go for another one" is always convinced at the end to wear a condom. The campaign has generated laughs and controversy.
Besides the expected opposition from the Catholic church, the 30-second spots have been getting flak from people called Bráulio. It happens that's the name the proud penis has got on TV. Some Brazilians who have Bráulio as their first or last name decided to sue the government. One Bráulio from São Paulo, for example, in one day got 20 calls from people making fun and asking to talk to dr. Penis.
Tonho, Bastião and Ricardão were other names considered for the male organ, but Bráulio ended up winning in an internal plebiscite at Curitiba's (Paraná) Master Comunicação e Marketing, the ad agency responsible for the TV spots. The ad images were complemented by a forró tune composed by Genival Lacerda. Take a look at the "Melô do Bráulio" lyrics:
Bráulio é safado
Grosso, metido e velhaco
Entra em qualquer buraco
Ele é um grande gozador
...Cuida do Bráulio
Segura o Bráulio
Não deixa o Bráulio numa
Fria se meter
...E pra quem gosta
Cuidado nunca é demais
Vista a camisinha no Bráulio
Quando for brincar lá atrás
...Menina-moça
Não se encante com o dote
Se não vier de capote
Manda o Bráulio se danar.
Bráulio is a rogue
Rude, conceited, a rascal
He gets in any hole
He is a good trickster
...Take care of Bráulio
Hold to Bráulio
Don't let Bráulio
Get into trouble
...And for those who like it
There is never too much care
Dress Bráulio with the condom
When you go play behind there
...Young lady
Don't get excited by the size
If he's not wearing an overcoat
Send Bráulio to hell
Games
Hide and seek
Denise Ramos, 25, is another good excuse for those willing to spend any free time in front of a computer screen lost in erotic dreams. She is the star of an interactive soccer game in which every goal is rewarded with one less piece of clothing of gorgeous Denise. "But you have to be a real ace to be able to see everything," teases the model. When she is not taking her bra and panties for computer soccer fans, Ramos studies to become a social worker so she can work with delinquent minors. Denise is also a gifted soccer player herself and one of her dreams is to organize a feminine soccer team and take the group on the road all over Brazil.
Culture
It's a mad, mad, mad boy
Nobody was prepared for that, not even its creator cartoonist Ziraldo. But Menino Maluquinho (Crazy Boy), the film, became an instant success drawing to the movie theaters close to 250,000 people in five weeks of exhibition, a huge success by Brazilian standards. Directed by Helvécio Ratton, Maluquinho has already been sold to South Korea, Norway and Denmark and 30 other countries have shown interest in acquiring the rights. The story -- a little boy delights family and friends with his tricks -- is being transformed into a TV series. Released in 1980, the book that inspired the movie has already sold 1.5 million copies. Ziraldo has just released Uma Professora Muito Maluquinha (A Very Crazy Teacher). There are plans for another movie which will be based in Professora to be released next July.
Politics
Acting boldly
The constitution-mandated Plurianual Plan sent to Congress by the Cardoso administration is being compared to the ambitious Plano de Metas (Plan of Goals) from Juscelino Kubitschek, the president who built Brasília. The new blueprint talks about low inflation, a moderate growth of 4.5% a year, and the expenditure of more than $150 billion. There are no illusions that the plan will be followed to the letter. If 70% is done, say the experts, that will already be a feat. Among Cardoso's proposals from 96 to 99 there are the construction and conclusion of 27 electrical plants, implementation of water and sewer services in 800 municipalities, and reduction in half of child mortality. The proposal also calls for the construction of double lanes in 20,000 km of roads and the almost doubling of telephones in the country from 14 million to 25 million. Cellular phones would jump from 800,000 to 9 million units.
Life
Forward looking
The city of Rio seems in a rush to improve the quality of life for Cariocas. Mayor César Maia has launched a 159-projects package in mid-September with the intention of making Rio "a welcoming town" in ten years. The $20-billion plan is the result of 18 months of debates with the participation of close to 800 community leaders. Among the changes to be implemented is the creation of a sole police force to be known as Força de Ordem Pública (FOP) uniting the civilian and military police as well as the municipal guard, and a computer-based health system which will allow people to go directly to a hospital with a free bed, instead of trying one after the other as it's the case nowadays. To prevent favelas (shanty towns) from invading green areas and to remove favelas from risky areas, it will be created the forest battalion. Traffic jams will be dealt not only with the construction of new roads but also with new work schedules for commerce and industry. Why this concerted effort to humanize Rio's face. The city's authorities don't hide their desire to see the 2004 Olympics being held there. Folkloric Mayor César Maia has recently passed legislation authorizing taxi drivers to wear bermudas. "Hot weather irritates," he argued. "Irritated drivers mistreat passengers."
Every weekday at 7 PM all Brazilian radio stations leave their usual schedule to join in a national network for a one-hour program called A Voz do Brasil (The Voice of Brazil). Millions of hands around the country run to turn off the radio set as soon as a man's voice announces, "In Brasília 7 PM. On the air once again A Voz do Brasil." The program's audience is around 1%. Lately, some radio stations have been orchestrating a public revolt to get rid of the show which was created in 1935 during the Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship. In response, Radiobrás president, Maurílio Ferreira Lima not only told that A Voz do Brasil is strong as ever but also announced that the program from now on will be heard from coast to coast in the US.
Women who take the train in Mauá, a São Paulo working-class suburb, have started a campaign with the collection of signatures to get their own separate wagon during rush hour. This is an old claim to avoid a frequent though little-known sexual abuse on overcrowded train cars and buses. Leading the movement is 36-year-old Maria de Lourdes do Nascimento. She suffered in silence many cases of men rubbing their bodies against hers in wagons so crowded she wasn't able to see who was doing it. But she couldn't take anymore when leaving the train one morning somebody pointed to her that a man had ejaculated on the back of her pants. Nascimento went crying to her work, told the story to her husband and with his backing started the campaign. In less than two weeks, she and a group of women with similar horror stories, collected more than 5,000 signatures to get the exclusive wagon. Probably they will never get what they want: sex discrimination is against the law.
Number seven seems to be the charm. After six failed economic plans, the Plano Real is working so well to curb inflation that Brazilians have been talking about inflation zero for the last months of 1995. Fourteen months since the Plano Real's introduction the monthly inflation has fallen from 40% to a little more than 1% and indications that the rate is still dropping. Still on the bright side, in August, Brazil exported $4.5 billion and reached a record number in foreign reserves: $46 billion. Other indexes, however, are not so rosy. Unemployment is growing and stores have been selling less.
Fernando Collor de Mello, the impeached Brazilian president, hasn't changed. He is still explosive, lacks control and intersperses his talk with four letter words. In his first interview since he was forced from power, on December 1992, Collor de Mello protested innocence from the accusations of corruption and talked about his political ambitions. The former president, who is living in Miami, got particularly upset when confronted with an old article published by newspaper Folha de São Paulo in which he is said to have depressive crisis. "É uma merda que uma bosta como essa se torne verdade," ("It's a crap that a shit like this becomes the truth.") he answered in his famous irreverent style. Collor cannot be a political candidate until 2002, but he is counting on getting back to politics much sooner thanks to a constitutional reform his allies are trying to arrange.
Good news. A frigorific truck full of meat had fallen from the Tatuapé bridge, in São Paulo, very close to a favela (shanty town). The news spread like fire and soon the residents of the close to 200 shacks were helping to clean the accidented vehicle from its cargo. Anticipating the unexpected banquet, some left the fire on and the water boiling for the coming goodies.
Bad news. The Tatuapé favela was on fire. Anticipating the loss of all of their possession, the residents, now with their piece of meat on hand, rushed home. Almost all of the shacks were burned to the ground. "I have no home, but I have the meat," said a resigned woman.
Come November New York will have the chance to experience the talent of another Arantes do Nascimento. The first one was Édson, better known as Pelé. Now, his daughter, Kelly Cristina, will be presenting herself on another stage: the theater one. Kelly will interpret four of a total of 17 characters from Comfort and Joy, a play written by young playwright Jeffrey Hatchet. It's the story of a woman reaching out to friends after her husband's suicide. "Despite the tragic beginning, it's a comedy full of nonsense," explains Kelly.
From now on, in Terezina, Piauí's capital, four-legged creatures used to transport cargo will need a license number branded on their derrière. "Asinine idea," reacted the City council's vice-president Deusdeth Nunes. "When I heard the news I thought it was just a joke." To what Francisco Gerardo da Silva, the mayor's chief of staff replies, "This is the only way to identify horses and donkeys and force their owners to respect the law and stop causing accidents." Once the 3,000 animals are branded officers will have to add them to the vehicles already subject to tickets in town.
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