President Lula visited Brazil’s candidate for the New Seven Wonders of the World contest on Thursday (June 14) and asked people to vote for the ‘Christ the Redeemer’ statue.
He also asked brazilian people to stop saying bad things about their own country and care about Brazil’s image overseas.
Yes, I am voting for the Christ the Redeemer, because the statue with wide open arms stands for welcoming and openness, the characteristic of brazilian people.
But about his suggestion to stop saying bad things I am sorry, unfortunately the truth is sometimes painful.
It’s impossible to be quiet when you see children starving in the streets without the opportunity to go to school, when you see the violence, the corruption, the unemployment and the child prostitutes.
It’s also impossible to be quiet when you pay one of the highest taxes in the world and you don’t see your tax payment applied to improve public services.
And the cherry on the top: Lula has chosen Marta Suplicy, a “famous” sexologist, as tourism minister. This appointment comes at a time when Brazil is a major sex tourism destination.
How can we brazilians care about Brazil’s image? Is it a joke or what?

Extract from a letter by Pero Vaz de Caminha to King Dom Manuel the First when the portugueses first arrived in Brazil in 1500 :

“They were brown, all naked, with nothing at all to cover their shame. In their hands they brought bows with arrows. They all came stiffly onto the canoe: and Nicolau Coelho gave them a signal to put down their bows. And they laid them down.”