Fantastic and Concerning Quotes About Brazil

Executive Summary

• We found some very interesting quotes about Brazil.

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Brazil in Decline

The proverbial friendly Brazilian does not exist anymore. The last ones were my grandparents.

A Nation of Man Children and Savages?

The average Brazilian is more worried about if he has the most expensive car in the neighborhood than he is about their kids education. I’m not joking.

If you ask a father what their kids are learning in school vs. what is the car model of his neighbors, you’d probably get more correct answers to the second question. Besides, man are groomed to be 5 year old kids, going from their mom wings to their wife wings, which leads to a very paternalist society.

The problem then becomes: the government can’t change the people’s minsets. You see, Brazil for the past 2 decades has been regarded as the “least educated” people by a large margin, even countries in Africa that are aflicted by constant civil wars have better education indexes than brazilians. This is profoundly embarassing. In short, these people are “savages”. And I speak this having to deal with all this NONSENSE in my daily live for the past 3 decades. I had to deal with NONE of this on any of my visits abroad.

Honestly don’t know if it is genetic (DNA), if it is social, if it is cultural, if it is economical, or if it is a mix of all of the above. For this point in time, I lost hope for brazilians to evolve past “savages” and becoming civilized human beings, with a sense of moral compass and with human empathy (something that I had seen with my own eyes in countries that are considered “1st world”, so I’m afraid Economy is a direct consequence of the human spirit in that place, and not the opposite)

For you to have an idea, I am a white brazilian citizen. Back in my home state, people mistreated me for being “too white”. After I moved to another state more to the north, this sentiment is even more prevalent here, since whites are not majority of population. So yes indeed, there is a strong “anti-white” sentiment here, everywhere you go, even for native citizens. Gang mentality is real. (I assume this would happen with italians too, everyone that doesn’t have black hair is not considered a member of the family in their mind) After reading all this, don’t be too judgemental when you encounter lots and lots of brazilians living abroad. These, the ones immigrating, are the ones who still have a sense of “human empathy” in their souls and they KNOW they have to RUN from this place as an act of desperation. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

By a mile, the worst people that I had to deal with during that period were the brazilians who were passing by. They would always arrived at the information booth with closed angry faces, you could tell right away they were brazilians. They never said thank you or smiled.
What a bunch of savages.

All of this hurts the reputation of the good apples who are decent and go seek a better living abroad. Unfortunately the numbers don’t lie.

Mexico, by contrast, was the friendlier and most free place I ever visited. Cheap, no bureaucracy at all, etc etc. Better weather even. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Savages at the Airport

Having said that, I think that what you experienced is not so much about your physical status as an obvious foreigner, but rather your non-Brazilian brain and its inability to understand the incredible lack of patience combined with a complete and total lack of courtesy and/or social politeness that exists in Brazil -(which I too have still not been able to fully process, even after a decade of living here). To sum up: nowhere else in the world (that I have been to) have I seen the degree of “rudeness” in social settings or public places that I encounter on a daily basis in Brazil. That person hitting you with their cart at the airport? Normal. This used to happen to me every time I was in the airport (among other things), which is why I now simply stand back and let all the impatient Brazilians get their shit off the conveyor first – its amusing to watch, actually. They way they act, you would think that once their luggage passed it was headed straight for an incinerator if not immediately retrieved (didn’t you notice how the Brazilian passengers acted as soon as your airplane came to a stop? Everybody jumping up, grabbing their bags, and pushing and shoving in the aisle to get out of the plane first, as if it was a ticking time-bomb!). This behavior is unfortunately not limited to airports. It happens anywhere that you must wait for something (ATMs, grocery store checkouts, bus stops, restaurants, etc). I have actually turned around and kicked carts behind me in the supermarket line after having been rammed several times. Just last week I had to yell at not one, but TWO people who had started piling their shit on the checkout counter where my (as yet unchecked) stuff was – this happened because I stepped back one (1) meter to put the hand basket back in the proper place while the checker was ringing up my goods, during which time they both moved in and physically blocked me from getting back to and paying for my stuff. Basically, Brazil needs to institute a national program of Patience and Personal Space Training. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

How Much Pee Are You Swimming In?

I live in the hills around Niteroi (a city on the outskirts of Rio) as a missionary in Brazil. Honestly, there are so many places to go besides Rio…that are far better than Rio. Paraiba do Sul, Minas Gerais, Juiz da Fora….Copacabana also is vastly overrated and in my opinion ugly and crowded like a sardine can. Also I want you to take a moment to think about how much pee you’re swimming in with thousands of people drinking beers crammed into a few miles of beach. Yeah. I honestly don’t see the draw other than saying you went to Copacabana.

The Historical Reasons of Brazil’s Problems

Here in Brazil, on the other hand, most Native Americans were annihilated and forced out of their ancestral homes, and our workforce was mainly composed of enslaved Africans brought here against their will and forced to work their entire lives on the sugar plantations owned by the Portuguese elite and their descendents; also, most of our administration was decentralized, with individuals governors responding directly to Portugal, lacking any form of interaction or interest to develop our country as a whole. As a result, some regions of Brazil, such as the South or the Southeast, are vastly better developed than others, such as the North or the countryside of the Northeast. In many ways, our colonization was very similar to that of the Southern British colonies in North America. After the end of slavery (Brazil was the last country in the world to end it, and only because of intense opposition by the British government),

After the end of slavery (Brazil was the last country in the world to end it, and only because of intense opposition by the British government), most Africans were left scattered around the country, no longer able to work because of government sponsored plans to “whiten” our population, bringing in immigrants from Italy, Germany, etc, to work on our newly developed industries and coffee plantations. Many “favelas” were built by the ex-slaves who were left homeless after the end of slavery and the lack of a governmental plan to include them in the broader society. We never had a legal apartheid system, but Brazil is, to this day, an EXTREMELY racist, segregated country, and in many ways some slavery institutions exist to this day, such as the maids who work in middle and upper classes’ homes, some of which even live in these homes and are not allowed to have a full life of their own outside their master’s home (sounds a lot like slavery, doesn’t it? Believe me, it’s still VERY commonplace in Brazil).

Brazilian Women Don’t Want to Darken Their Skin?

Brazil is dangerous, extremely racist and misogynist, and the men are absolutely taught from a young age to be hyper-aggressive. I have also run up and down/spent time on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacobana countless times and have NEVER seen a real Brazilian knockout girl on the beach (my Brazilian friends tell me that real hot Brazilian girls never go to the beach anyway because they don’t want to “darken” their light skin as dark skin is considered “low class”). – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazil as a Bad Travel Value

So my overall conclusion about the whole thing is: if you want to visit a place that is beautiful geographically, that has lots of beaches and that also has polite friendly people and costs cheap, stay with Mexico. The “bang for your bucks” ratio there is INSANELY higher. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Corruption and Street Violence

Meanwhile, there is blatant, in your face corruption everywhere. There is rampant street violence everywhere except in closed condos, which became home prisons for the rich. Police, as everyone already knows, does absolutely nothing to counter street violence. It is also very corrupt. In fact, it is a well known fact that (all?) police car units receive “help” from gas stations, bars and small dinners to help curb violence, and frequently they encourage criminal acts to happen if their patrons refuse to support them. This is kindly worded by policemen as “the kids lunch” (as in the policeman’s children) and similar obnoxious terms.

Bureaucracy

If you want to have your own business, good luck. If I were to talk through taxes, tax burden, corruption, inefficiency, unqualified workforce and so on I’d write a book.

Hood Rat Noise Pollution

Brazil, today, is a very stressful place to live. The rule of thumb in Brazil is that all rules are made ad hoc. So nobody follows no rules. Case in point: neighborhood noise has reached record levels because there has been a surge of bars, street parties and all you can imagine disrespecting any city zoning rules. So after a stressful week of work, you are rewarded with a noisy neighbor or bar or street party all day and all night with a very low quality “funk” (well, the carioca funk that is) with pornographic lyrics easily reaching 90-100 dB in your window. Day and night in, day and night out.

Only Law and Medicine

And education. The heritage of bureaucracy means that only law and medical careers are seen as worthwhile. The best basic education is private, and the best superior education is public. So only the rich can get the best superior education, and they get it for free, making the whole inequality problem way worse. But in true Brazilian fashion, public colleges are gradually being trounced by private schools, except when it comes to research because, well, research in Brazil, with a handful exceptions, is wasteful and inefficient and there is no accountability at all inside public universities about how grants are actually spent.

Breaking Up Brazil

Honestly, I actually support the idea of breaking apart Brazil into multiple pieces. Brazil is too big to be manageable by the current establishment. The country only walks by basic life instincts, inertia if you will. Brazil certainly feels like a thousand people playing tug of war in multiple directions, and nobody going everywhere.

In short, imagine a very dynamic and rich country, except that nobody follows the rules for absolutely nothing whatsoever. The best word to describe Brazil is chaotic and unpredictable. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Trashing the Amazon

The police shoot kids and dogs in the streets because this culture is painfully uneducated, has zero impulse control and isn’t responsible whatsoever regarding sexual reproduction and spaying and neutering. This country, except for the gorgeous, priceless Amazon which these dumbasses are obliterating, is garbage. Brazil would be sincerely and absolutely amazing if only the indigenous people lived there. You know, those poor people that that shitty government if fucking over to steal and demolish the lands they have protected since millennia. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Rude Brazilians

As a Brazilian, I actually agree with a lot of what you say. The average Brazilian tends to be rude. Well, at least that’s my experience growing up in Rio. Brazilian culture is very toxic in general, women are taught to hate each other, men tend to be sexist as hell. People here tend to be rather snobby and usually think they’re better than other people. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

So i work at a hotel in miami florida , i must say that by far the worst tourist ever are the brazilians , they are rude , cheap and in many cases aggravating towards the staff , no only they complain and want free stuff all the time , they do unconsidered things like taking the luggage cars inside of their rooms , never tip and i do emphasis on this because the servers and bartenders live of tips , asume that the staff understand their language and get mad about it , they leave rooms upside down , by far the WORST – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Another thing that will happen quite often. You have waited patiently to get your turn at the bank window, airport check in or any other similar situation. Someone will come up and just start talking over you. Get used to it, it just happens. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Rude Brazilians and Loud Music

Yes I do despise them. My baby daughter was very sick and was struggling to sleep with the constant loud music. One day I explained to a neighbor that lived opposite that his loud music was keeping my sick baby girl awake, and asked him if he wouldn’t mind turning the music down. With that his little face smiled and told me to call the police. Here in Great Britain they would apologies and wish my baby girl better. But not with your average thick selfish Brazilian. Everything is confrontation. Walking through the shopping mall with my baby in a buggy no-one attempted to move out of the way, and wouldn’t help with the stairs etc. (and they claim that family is everything in Brazil). Mothers regularly try to give their children away and seem more interested in dressing up as if they are going to a night club, rather than looking after her children.

To a Brazilian violence, theft, rape and anti-social behavior is the norm, and borrowing money from family and friends that are trying to help them, then not paying it back is also normal behavior. I found myself becoming more aggressive so that I wouldn’t be seen as weak, being far less polite as manners such and please and thank you aren’t used that much (not like here in the UK) as you would be seen as being fake and insincere.

I was staying in the more nicer parts of Brazil. I dread to think how awful it must be living in a favela that is run by a drug dealing dictator.
I think Brazilians must despise each other, why else would the murder each other in such high numbers that more people are killed in Brazil, than the Syrian civil war each year.

I’m off to trauma counselling to get over my experiences of living in that vile country. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazilian Liars

I come from a German-estonian family and unfortunately was born in Sao Paulo Brazil and for many reasons am unable to leave. Nothing would make me happier than leave this country and emigrate somewhere where people are actually capable of genuine human contact. I do not think you are wrong in your assessment. Brazilian people are rude and unfriendly. They appear warm to foreigners simply because they are more talkative and because they are indoctrinated at school to form groups for everything; write a paper – form a group, go to a party – go in a group; go to lunch – go in a group. The rule in Brazil is, be part of a large group or you are toast. Next time, if you wish to come to Brazil to admire the scenery (which is rather nice in some parts) come as a large group of tourists. There is no place for an individual here. The necessity of blending in contributes to a trait which many foreigners just do not get in short periods of time: Brazilians are professional liars. They lie all the time. It´s so natural to them they do not even blink. THey look you right in the eye and lie their pants off. The pressure to get along and blend into a group is so strong that any individuality is repressed. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Rio as a War Zone

Rio de Janeiro in having a terrible moment, since 2008 and until today is almost a war zone. The army is concerned about that matter, there’s tanks going through parts of the city and – even being a Brazilian – I never been to Rio de Janeiro in my life, actually people in Rio are quite rude with everyone.
Natal is a beautiful place with wonderful and kind people. I’ve been there twice already with my family and never felt better about anywhere else I went. People were generous, local food was cheap and the officers would often have fun with us while talking and showing us the right way after we got lost (we had the incident going on quite often). I got badly hurt in a pool in the first time I went and the taxi driver didn’t even charged me for the run to the hospital.
Natal. Nice people, nice food and nice place.
I hope you change your mind about us. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Disgusting Recife

Causaian is enough, you dont need to be American. Recently back from Recife which I will never revisit. Vile place, vaccuous, shallow people who would send you in the wrong direction and laugh with their friends after. Yes I met some very kind people, like 1 in 100 and if we could have communicated it would have been better. My advice if you dont speak Portugese dont go to Recife. What a shithole, pave paradise and put up a parking lot next to an open sewer….

Recife is trash even for Brazilian standards. You couldn’t pay me to visit there. What an endless list of hard-left Governors, drug dealers and thieves did to that place would make Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack look like a better option for a tranquil vacation. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazil as a Disaster Area

VERY EXPENSIVE: It’s actually more expensive than my country (I am Czech), yet Brazilian salaries are half of what people make in my country (whenever I hear Czechs complain about low salaries and high prices I always tell them about Brazil to make them shut up)

2. Rampant chaos, disorder, in your face poverty-wealth disparity… it is almost inmoral in my opinion and it’s even more inmoral that the average Brazilian could care less.

3. Too much crime…. At the hostel they told us to not wear our watches (a 25 dollar watch from H&M… talk about cheap watches), yet they assured me I would be a prime target for crime in Brazil if I was to have that watch with me (honestly it’s a plastic watch from a clothing store). Also our camera would have to be monitored at all times… keep it deep inside your bag (very disappointing)

4. Phony / fake friendliness….. Maybe in my European nature I am used to clear people who smile at your because they mean it, when Europeans say NO, it means NO! When Europeans say yes it means YES! When Europeans call you their friend, it is because they truly like you and cherish you as a person, but all this neurotic loud Brazilian behavior that is mistakingly called happy, it’s all pretty much fake and pretentious! It’s very easy to see thru them once you get to know the Brazilian mindset! (I am nice to you because I can get something from you or because you’re a blonde foreigner) if not, I’ll ignore you or even worse… look down on you!!!

5. Rampant racism, classism, homophobia, corruption and no one cares…. Yes Brazil is portrayed as a place full of diversity, color, open mindedness and if you’re a white westerner visiting you’ll see that face as you do your Rocinha tour with other gringos, and as you sip caipirinhas on a fancy Rio Beach…. But get out of that spectrum and you’ll find a very classist, conservative, chauvinistic, homophobic, corrupted society full of prejudice and deeply ingrained social divisions.

6. Not a nation of intellectuals…. It’s interesting sitting down with Chileans to talk about the impact of globalization over a few glasses of Chilean wine at a small coffee shop in Santiago, then you go to Brazil thinking… (The conversations I am gonna have there!) And you find that most Brazilians are painfully ignorant of the world. Perhaps because unlike Chile Brazil is quite large and expensive that most Brazilians can’t leave their cities and visit other places, but it is a fact that the average Brazilian is rather ignorant on pretty much most subjects outside the spectrums of soap operas, football and pop culture! In order to find intellectual Brazilians you have to go up the social pyramid and find upper classes who can afford to be educated and travel…. but as a tourist who has time for that?

7. Not ecologically aware…. I saw people throwing their trash on the beach, bottles of coke floating on the Guanabara bay, people throwing papers on the streets and so on. Very disappointing!

I must say that I loved Chile, it’s very clean, with majestic landscapes, out of this world sea food… and Chileans are a friendly and open people with a genuine interest towards tourists!!!

And I also agree about the immortalized Brazilian beauty…. I was not exactly taken back by it. In fact I can name quite a few countries where I’ve seen better looking people than in Brazil. (Though beauty is subjective) – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Disgusting Cycle of Violence?

It’s a disgusting cycle of violence that starts right from the cradle. Some men will actively seek and pride themselves on having sex encounters with pregnant women because in their view this means they don’t have to wear a condom and there’s no risk of having kids themselves. The woman is no saint in this either, since there must be two in order to dance. You see where I’m going? Things that you would never expect to think in your mind because these “creatures” have gone down below the limit of what is considered human anymore. This is part of the culture and it is widely accepted everywhere. Fathers and mothers will turn the blind eye because they don’t want to be bothered, most of them are already on burnout from being wage slaves anyway, the marriage is dead for a long time already. And there’s even a more cruel aspect to it (really? what a surprise!!) : the parents will even reward the kid that misbehaves because – once more – this means that he’s a “dominant male” or whatever that means. You will start to notice that many of the abused and mistreated kids are the ones who were following all the rules and behaving properly, these are the ones who are turned into scapegoats to all the other siblings. I don’t know from where this comes from, and honestly I don’t care anymore, my mind had enough dark thoughts to think about for a lifetime. Let these animals live in the cages they built for themselves and let’s go pursuit a better place to live our lives not having to deal with any of this. You can imagine how these creatures behave in a professional environment, I bet you do, I don’t even need to start on that. I see a lot of foreigners donating their hard-earned dollars to “charity” programs in south america, don’t waste your money anymore, your charity money is only enabling all of this behavior to continue happening (incentivizing further breeding to get more donations) and none of the money reaches the pockets they should in the first place. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

The Developed South Being Invaded by Non Whites

Well, I was supposed to talk about my homestate Rio Grande… the short version of the story is this: they were already aggressive enough before. Nowadays, what’s happening is that the black/brown folks from the other states are going down to the developed regions in the south in DROVES. The cities and the region that I knew and loved back 10 years ago don’t exist anymore. Homelessness been rising, you see less and less white people on the streets, companies closing doors, garbage thrown on the streets, the streets stink like piss. People in the countryside don’t have jobs (it’s mostly public sector sucking out of the government tits) which leads to people becoming even more inventive in regards to ways to exploit others in order to survive.
The island of Floripa in the neighbor state might be more worthy of an extended visit of 10 days, the north of the island is its own independent region isolated from the rest. But even then, there’s massive migration happening to the region, it will eventually die out, if it has not already. You will face many of the annoyances there as well but at least the weather is nice (not too hot) and the landscaped are nice. The sewer is still dumped into the ocean regardless of the city you choose to visit. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
“How to kill an entire country – The manual” – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Anti White Racism

To be honest as someone who lives in Curitiba I’m very impressed that you knew about the regional differences in my country, since most foreigners only visit Rio and Bahia, which to be honest are the most unhygienic, dangerous and unfriendly areas towards Caucasians and have a huge amount of Communists . As a Brazilian, I would not dare stay for more than a week in any of those regions unless I really needed to. I mean xenophobia between regions is really bad in Brasil, so if you are Caucasian the main reason people treated you badly is probably because they assumed you are from the capitalist South were 80 per cent of the population is white, mainly because of the massive immigration of Italian, Polish, German, and Japonese people during the end of the XIX and the start of the XX century. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

The Problem With Non White Brazlians

It is really sad that your experience with Brazilians was so bad, but if you ever fell like returning I have to say meeting Brazilians in the internet is normally a bad idea even if you live here; since most Brazilians distrust each other, only shady people use meeting apps. The best and only way to meet genuinely nice people here is unfortunately in person. Also people with higher salary, especially from the South, tend to be, unfortunately, most likely to approach foreigners without any second objectives and speak English, most likely also Italian or German. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazilians Spend Time Talking About How Attractive They Are?

When I first arrived at the apartment. I remember thinking what a good looking bunch of people. The conversation got round to what they were doing in their daily exercise routine to improve certain areas of the body. I remember finding some of the strutting that was going on a little over the top. The subject of the Brazilian people being the most Beautiful people in the world was pretty much agreed by all. Including me as I couldn’t really say anything else. My colleagues girlfriend I think noticed I was coughing and shuffling my feet a bit. She came up and said “don’t worry you could easily pass as a Brazilian”.

Everything is About Sex?

Everything there is about “sex”. Every freaking thing. The novelas, the books of George Amado and others, their parties, the pop music. It’s just too much. I feel sorry for the young Brazilians that don’t participate of any of it, they should have the chance to leave and find a country that matches their personality. I was so glad when I left, but I am really sorry for the sweet Brazilians I met that hate that mess so much and can’t leave because they lack money. Sad.
About safety. I had a gun pointed at me in Penedo during Christmas. The police didn’t do anything about it. 99% of the crimes against women and children in Brazil goes unpunished according to the UN data. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Two Faced Brazilians

Man brasil is very overrated…i’ve met brasilians abroad and they come across as the nicest ppl ive met in my life…but if you go to brasil and deal with locals you will realize there are a lot of uneducated cave people there…and i mean a hell lot…i really didnt like brasil and only because of the locals…too bad because the landscapes are so beautiful…must be the poverty and lack of opportunities as well as the constant violence…they are jealouse at the foreigners coming to their country and having a blast in their beaches and top restaurants…sad but true…!…more power to you! – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazilians Take Advantage of Foreigners

But yes, as a Portuguese woman myself living in Bahia for six years now, I can say that most of people here aren’t very reliable. Once they know you’re a foreigner, they will always try to take advantage from you. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Brazil is a Beautiful Country Ruined by Its People

I planned it this way because I wanted to see the contrast between the two different regions of the country, opting out of more touristy places such as Rio. I could write an entire book on this adventure and what took place, both good and bad. I agree Brazil itself is unbelievable from a topography/nature standpoint. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

We do have a saying here: Brazil is a beautiful country, its biggest problem is its people. It’s kind of a self-loathing view but it’s quite rooted in truth. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

South Brazil Backs Bolsinaro

I arrive in Curitiba. Most people have never even heard of this city, and I would consider it a hidden gem. It’s one of the safest and cleanest cities in all of Brazil. I would parallel it with Seattle. The population (metropolitan area), the weather, and the hip factor are very similar. This is where I saw the true diversity of Brazil and all the different ethnicities. Very European, and the further south you go in the country, the more it felt like America somehow — driven by money and power opposed to the north, which is more festive and community-focused. Much of the south is very right-wing and backs Bolsonaro, whereas the north is more liberal. However, I did meet some kind and welcoming people in Curitiba. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

Traffic Accidents

For a while I was having to do the drive between Ilheus and Belo Horizonte a few times a year. I have never seen so many fatal accidents. A lot of the truck drivers are brutal, with very little regard for human life. – BBQ Boy Blog Commenter

This plays into the consistent theme of savagery.