[Sarafan]

A residential view of a US-owned Carribbean island (the USVI):

We're not hula girls and grass skirts. We have electricity. Our government is corrupt and innefective. Our police don't do jack. We basically fend for ourselves, except when it comes to tax time. We have nice beaches, but don't go to the really lonely ones at night - bad things will happen. There's not much to do here other than go to the beach, and that gets really boring after a short time. The girls here are mostly ugly, not pretty. We don't have many chain stores, our biggest department store is K-Mart. There are more islands than St. Thomas (the tourist depot). Living here is pretty uneventful. Everything is laid back and moves very slow (i.e. if you ask for someone to meet you at 2, be prepared to meet him at 3). A lot of people here are ignorant, low-income housing (i.e. ghettos) are right next to major roads and built up areas, racism is pretty widespread (hah, just try to be a white guy and run for a seat in the government) - except it's reversed. I've heard that if you're white and apply for food stamps, they won't give it to you. I mentioned that we're ignorant; we truly are. Our public schools are overcrowded and are not even accreditated (although this may have been fixed). We have a massive teen pregnancy problem; out of a class of four hundred high school freshmen, half of them were pregnant. We have a vibrant night life, bars close at 2 AM, it's easy to get alchohol at any age (easy as in walk into the shop and buy it). Late at night there's street racing, as everything closes down around midnight onwards.
It is pretty though.


I think that's it. Come visit! We need your tourist dollars!

You, sir, have just described the whole situation here (except the racism here is the normal way, that just sounded so wrong, huh?), now imagine that in one of the biggest countries in the world (4th, actually) and on a population of 185 million.

[aceofspades]

I think my associations with Brazil are corruption, soccer, hyperinflation, and "The Girl from Ipanema."