Dominion wrote:In Brazil, unless you learn to dance samba, play soccer, and become a Christian speaking Portuguese you will never blend with the local population.
I am Brazilian and you misrepresented facts.
We have had huge African immigration as slaves (thanks to the Portuguese & British), Japanese immigration (the biggest worldwide) and also huge Lebanesese / Arabic immigration over the years. None of these people originally spoke Portuguese or danced samba as you state, and nor were they Christians. We are totally integrated as a nation, and do not unlike you suggest have any social or facial discrimination based on place of origin. They did blend in with the "local people" - we are a very tolerant nation, and there is not such concept of "us" and "them".
Other Christian nations (who did not dance samba, or spoke Portuguese) have formed what Brazil is today (Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and some of the Eastern European countries). Needless to say, the Portuguese who originally colonised Brazil, did not dance samba either.
Samba is an influence brought to Brazil by the African slaves, who to our benefit and cultural richness, influenced our religion, music, and sporting talents.
Contrary to your belief,
Brazilians who are educated and in the middle classes enjoy a very good standard of living, with access to one of the best healthcare in the world via their private medical plans - and also enjoy European style education for their children (our education system is based on the French model). Our services (electricity, gas, motorways, healthcare, housing, etc) are world class and certainly comparable to, or better than, many countries I have visited.
In the UK, which is my adopted country, we have many issues of criminality (knife crime is a problem in many areas of London and other big cities, drugs which come from Afghanistan, organised crime, car crime, etc). I will be very surprised to learn of a perfect nation.
Do not be fooled to think that all of us live in shanty towns or are highly uneducated.
I do agree that we have issues with criminality. I am not making excuses to Brazilian statistics of crime, and that poses a threat to the ordinary man or woman, but please do get your facts right before you post.