This is what´s missing from my life..btw, are bidets particularly common in Brazil? They are super common in Argentina but I haven´t really seen them elsewhere in South America.
I am not a fun of the b hose at all, but I think a bidet is essencial. Our house in New England has a bidet and we love it. It is actually becoming very common around here, last time we checked at Lowe's ( to replace our old bidet ), Lowe's was sold out of every model of bidets. We had to special order it. :)
I wonder of there occurs a pattern where western countries of a Bidet tradition have lower Gdp's than those who are not so Bidet inclined. The reason being that "Bidetness" indicates a French influence in the culture (Latin America, Southern Europe) while a lack of "Bideity" would point to a more English or Germanic mindset (United States, Anglo Canada, Northern Europe). Yes, the sole purpose of the message above is to get on Ray's nerves :-)
Once during a tipsy conversation with old flatmated (me, another Italian and a couple from Australia) we made a list of what we missed most about living abroad (UK): at the top three of the Italian list we had ( do not recall if in this exact order): bidet, bum soap and espresso. That says it all. Maybe germanic and anglosaxon populations, living in colder climates do not feel the need to refresh those part of the body that easily "heat up":) see, while GDP and bidet might well be correlated, this doesn't mean they have a causal relationship at all. Temperatures explain it better, I think.
Humn, long term effects of Bidet usage over behavior and productivity is being dismissed here. Let's see what Science tells us. The Gritty Institute conducted a study which included a group of 523 bidet virgins. These volunteers served both as Control Group (no bidet use allowed during the first 3 months, just to make sure any previous unreported bidet behavior was cleared from the system) and Experimental Group (obligatory bidet use after said three months, being 3 weekly bidet cleansings during the fourth month and a daily bidet rinse throughout the fifth and last month of the experiment). The conclusions were alarming. While not one participant held a criminal record prior to the experiment 43% went on to commit loitering during the fourth month (1st month of bidet usage). This trend carried on to the fifth month, increasing and finally totalling 87% of convicted loiterers at the end of the experiment. Since loitering entails being somewhere with no specific productive purpose in mind then the scientists concluded that bidet use causes laziness, lack of focus and excessive napping (many were arrested loitering by way of sleeping on park benches). This in turn leads to lower output and less incremental GDP growth. Sociologists and Economists at the Gritty Max Weber School of Applied Economics looked at this study and linked to a previous study they developed regarding Northern European Protestants and the bidet. Since the bidet provides a sense of pleasure it is considered sinful amongst them and thus stigmatized. This unwritten bidet ban in turn avoids the decreased productivity observed in bidet prone cultures which due to this guilty pleasure extend the lenght of their restroom breaks (decreasing worker output). You see, it all adds up :-)
I always thought a bidet was to wash your feet..ha ha! but serioulsy I dont even know how it works I mean you have to hop off the toilet over to the bidet?? isn't that uncomfortable to change places? Well I guess I better try find a youtube video to explain the correct use of the bidet..
You hit the nail in the head. Being caught making racist or prejudicial remarks is the quickest way to get on my nerves. Even more so when they make no sense and have no relation to the real world... ;) But I have to say, you are totally correct about one thing, it is GDP related, most often people with higher income have the luxury of a bidet. Bidets have been used all over Europe for centuries, it dates back to old Greece and Rome. French prostitutes made it very popular in the 19th century. Also very popular in Portugal, that is where Brazil got it from... It is also popular in Japan today and very popular with the upper classes in the US, becoming more and more common in middle class American homes as well. Whoopi Goldberg always talks about her bidet, how much she loves and how she could never live without it. Our New England home had a bidet when we bought it and we loved it. Most wealthy Americans are very familiar with bidets. I am not a wealthy American, but I watch it on "House Hunters" and other HGTV shows all the time, how bidets are becoming more and more common in the US. Many 5 star Hotels in New York, London and Germany, yes, (the rosy,white blue eyed people of Gritty's dreams) also have bidets. I always make sure to make reservations in Hotels that have bidets, be that in Germany, London, New York or Paris. I always have a bidet. There was a recent Dr. Oz show that said people who use bidets after pooping ( versus toilet paper ) have less incidence of Colon Cancer. Yes, folks, you heard me right, a good wash in a bidet after pooping will help you prevent Colon Cancer. How about that for a good reason to install a bidet in your bathroom pronto. Not to mention the great feeling of being "really" clean that toilet paper will never provide you. :)
You don't have to be a woman to need a bidet. Anyone who poops and wants to prevent Colon Cancer should have a bidet. Don't worry, when you live in Brazil, bidets will be the norm! ;)
"(the rosy,white blue eyed people of Gritty's dreams)"
I am a fan of Japanese culture as well. They rock. Don't forget this preference in the future and feel free to refer to them as the dark eyed people of slanty persuasion that permeate Gritty's dreams.
BTW I really like these cultures because of their organization while I am not attracted to some other cultures and the societies they ended up producing because I see less of this all around. The funny thing is that you were the person who first decided to bring appearance into the mix. I never thought of it that way. It just wasn't in my mind. I have always considered such things ( like organization) to be a result of habit, nothing else. Yet you always link it to appearance. Isn't that interesting.
For starters, I am not the only one who has noted a certain arrogance ( maybe racism, maybe not ) on certain comments you make here. I remember well, many people jumping on you and getting upset with your arrogant/racial remarks. There are two options here, and none of them are very good, because either you are arrogant and racist and are not aware of it, or you have a serious communication issue and you can't put in words what you are trying to convey. See, when you make comments like "The Northern Europeans this...The North Americans that, "The Italians this..." "The Brazilians that..." because in Latin America this...or whatever, you sound just like the Nazis did during World War II in Germany, see, I don't know if you are a guy or a girl, how old you are, where you are from, what level of school you have or don't have, but you demonstrate a tremendous lack of general world culture and principally world History. Which would be crucial to make asserted comments when trying to generalize about entire populations of countries or continents. Let me tell you, you fail miserably every time you dare on futile attempts to put Nordic White Blue Eyed people in one bucket and Brown Latin/Southern people in another. You can call it Germany, Canada, Bolivia or Peru, but when you bundle certain groups of certain patterns, you are certainly implying your clear preference for certain races over others and you are sure to fail, every time, exposing your deep rooted racism and arrogance. Organization!!! Give me a brake, since when North Americans are more organized than the Polish for example? Or Hungarians less organized than Germans? Being organized as a society is a result of many Geographical, Historical, Social among many other factors of any given society, a result, not an initial factor that will allow or not a country or society to become developed or well organized. Romans and Greeks for example had great empires, Italy and Greece nowadays not so much, same people, many centuries later, less than what they once were, how do you explain that? The same with Portugal and Spain. Are you going to tell me those people were racially superior and now they are not? See where your theory fails! You just can't bundle Germany, Scandinavia, Canada and the US and say they are better/superior than Portugal, Spain, Italy and Brazil for example and not expect an intelligent well informed individual to take any conclusion other than an arrogant and unfair racial comparison too similar to Nazi Germany for comfort. Just for the record. Go to your first comment and refresh your memory on who started this tedious discussion.
Bidets (or the toilet hoses) are great to prevent all sorts of illnesses in that area of a person's body! And, honestly, it is so more hygienic than just paper (or the nasty wet tissue - can't stand those) that there is no comparison!!! And I agree with Rachel, it is really an awesome ally if you have children around.
And as for the comment about women... yes we love it, but after the fact - super conveniente ;)
Again Ray you insist on white buckets, brown buckets and the whole nine yards. All I can tell you is that I prefer certain places over others because of their peculiarities. If you wish to infer a certain mindset on my part for such preferences then go right ahead, just be honest enough to mention that these things you decided to project on to me are nothing more than your own speculations, not supported by anything I actually wrote.
Let's take an example
On a post about foreign influences ( Gringolization) of Brazil a while back I said that I think Brazilian society, for the most part, lacks organization. I then said that certain foreigners, enter Scandanavians, are more suited than others, enter Southern Europeans, to infuse this into Brazilian culture. Why did I write this? Well, because from what I have experienced Scandanavians are much better organized than Southern Europeans (shocker) hence they would be better suited in influencing this characteristic onto a place a. Clear enough right? I guess not since YOU THEN DECIDED that this is what was written " Northern Europeans are more organized than their southern counterparts BECAUSE of appearance derived from superior genetic makeup( blue eyes and bla bla bla) and you then take that inference on a marathon which is later concluded with a righteous rant encompassing history and other topics. All this to prove that WHAT YOU THINK I WROTE is wrong and that I am a terrible and evil person and so on.
Are you getting it now?
By the way when I wrote that Bidet use accounts for lower GDP of this group over that group did you not get that it was a joke? When I mentioned your name in the end and said what was written above was done just to get a rise out of you didn't you understand that I was actually exaggerating your incrediblr ability of reading into things? Did you really think I was using some sort of Bidet Index, perhaps to rival the Big Mac Index, and prove something? C'mon, a schooled and cultured individual such as yourself would never make that mistake.
From what I have heard from you till now, it seems like you are more to the gritty side than the poet's. I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures. Some kind of an obscured pleasure? Sure Freud would explain it! Mr. Gritty whatever, I am pretty much convinced that you CAN understand that comparing cultures like you do is something down right naive, dumb and arrogant, you just don't do it. It is as pointless as unfair because each culture is unique in itself, usually made up from other cultures, for better or for worse. Brazil, for example, inherited from Portuguese colonists it's infamous bureaucracy, clustered buildings and mothers-in-law-zillas. Black slaves contributed a lot to Brazilian culture, specially in it's culinary habits, social expression like the pretty much known "Brazilian zest for life and optimism" and music. Natives also contributed greatly to the Brazilian cuisine, language, and the laid-back attitude of Brazilians surely is a trademark inherited from this ethnic group. From Italian immigrants, Brazilians learned and perfected the "jeitinho a la Soprano" (why replacing the leg of an irritating wobbly table for once if you can simply remedied it with a piece of cork right from your bottle of wine, after all?), as to be industrious workers (Paulistas are a good example of their influence) or even to be skilled as fierce politicians. From the Japanese, Brazilians learned how to professionalize their agriculture and to value nature. From the Lebanese, Brazilians learned how to profit from commerce and got the notion of bargaining which was virtually non existent prior their arrival in the country. From Germans, Brazilians got the notion of market and so on. Although being influenced by multiple cultures, the Brazilian society is of Latin (Portuguese, Italian and Spanish) and middle-eastern (Lebanese) base, what translates into something very much different from those Nordic ones you cherish. If these societies are less organized it's NOT a matter to be judged or criticized, much less by some pompous blog commentator. Let's not forget that those organized societies were once considered barbaric outside of the highly civilized Roman Empire, which the present Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania were part of. Time changes everything. Maybe someday we'll see some gritty poet commenting in a blog on how good it would be for the Swedish to have some Brazilians around to cheer them up and lower their high suicide rates and maybe even pushing them to be organized the Brazilian way.
From what I have heard from you till now, it seems like you are more to the gritty side than the poet's. I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures. Some kind of an obscured pleasure? Sure Freud would explain it! Mr. Gritty whatever, I am pretty much convinced that you CAN understand that comparing cultures like you do is something down right naive, dumb and arrogant, you just don't do it. It is as pointless as unfair because each culture is unique in itself, usually made up from other cultures, for better or for worse. Brazil, for example, inherited from Portuguese colonists it's infamous bureaucracy, clustered buildings and mothers-in-law-zillas. Black slaves contributed a lot to Brazilian culture, specially in it's culinary habits, social expression like the pretty much known "Brazilian zest for life and optimism" and music. Natives also contributed greatly to the Brazilian cuisine, language, and the laid-back attitude of Brazilians surely is a trademark inherited from this ethnic group. From Italian immigrants, Brazilians learned and perfected the "jeitinho a la Soprano" (why replacing the leg of an irritating wobbly table for once if you can simply remedied it with a piece of cork right from your bottle of wine, after all?), as to be industrious workers (Paulistas are a good example of their influence) or even to be skilled as fierce politicians. From the Japanese, Brazilians learned how to professionalize their agriculture and to value nature. From the Lebanese, Brazilians learned how to profit from commerce and got the notion of bargaining which was virtually non existent prior their arrival in the country. From Germans, Brazilians got the notion of market and so on. Although being influenced by multiple cultures, the Brazilian society is of Latin (Portuguese, Italian and Spanish) and middle-eastern (Lebanese) base, what translates into something very much different from those Nordic ones you cherish. If these societies are less organized it's NOT a matter to be judged or criticized, much less by some pompous blog commentator. Let's not forget that those organized societies were once considered barbaric outside of the highly civilized Roman Empire, which the present Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania were part of. Time changes everything. Maybe someday we'll see some gritty poet commenting in a blog on how good it would be for the Swedish to have some Brazilians around to cheer them up and lower their high suicide rates and maybe even pushing them to be organized the Brazilian way.
"I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures"
I point out what I perceive as flaws. I don't see this as diminishing other's cultures, perhaps it is. The question is , or better yet Ray's claim is that I say these flaws are due to something else rather than habit and culture ( appearance is his favorite). Anyway to me I just see certain errors, I see repetition of said errors (pattern) and I shed light on it. That is all. I do not attribute these errors to appearance. So when you write, for example, that at one point in history Northern Europeans were seen as barbarians and high civilization laid with the Roman Empire then I see that as a history lesson that does not pertain since I never wrote that a group is this or that because of origin, appearance or anything else Ray's incredible imagination seems to interpret. So it is of no surprise that at one point in History a specific group were perceived differently, there is no reason for this not being possible since to say the contrary is to claim that they would be forever frozen in time, with both vices and virtues, because that is what "these people" are just like. You see, in the end, it is Ray that subconciously reflects this mindset, not me. Yet he claims the opposite to be the case. Untrue. BTW if a society, say the Swedish, can link an reoccuring problem ( suicide) with something that can be remedied by a foreign influence (let's say Brazilian) then they would be foolish not to take a look at this characteritic and see how they could implement it in their own culture. On the other hand that could just say that said emotional intelligence attributed to this foreign agent is actually a racist theory based on appearance, race etc etc.
"On the other hand THEY could just say that said emotional intelligence attributed to this foreign agent is actually a racist theory based on appearance, race etc etc."
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI cloth diaper so I love the hose to spray everything off into the toilet. I will miss it when I leave Rio.
ReplyDeleteThis is what´s missing from my life..btw, are bidets particularly common in Brazil? They are super common in Argentina but I haven´t really seen them elsewhere in South America.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fun of the b hose at all, but I think a bidet is essencial.
ReplyDeleteOur house in New England has a bidet and we love it.
It is actually becoming very common around here, last time we checked at Lowe's ( to replace our old bidet ), Lowe's was sold out of every model of bidets.
We had to special order it.
:)
Ray
If I were a woman I would have some fun with that. He he he.
ReplyDeleteYou can h8 on me now.
I wonder of there occurs a pattern where western countries of a Bidet tradition have lower Gdp's than those who are not so Bidet inclined. The reason being that "Bidetness" indicates a French influence in the culture (Latin America, Southern Europe) while a lack of "Bideity" would point to a more English or Germanic mindset (United States, Anglo Canada, Northern Europe).
ReplyDeleteYes, the sole purpose of the message above is to get on Ray's nerves :-)
Amber- I love it for that kind of thing. Great when you are potty training and there's an accident.
ReplyDeleteI do prefer the bidet but I am used to the hose now. Actually, I hate just using paper.
Does that mean I'm suffering from French influence? Oh no! ;)
Once during a tipsy conversation with old flatmated (me, another Italian and a couple from Australia) we made a list of what we missed most about living abroad (UK): at the top three of the Italian list we had ( do not recall if in this exact order): bidet, bum soap and espresso. That says it all.
ReplyDeleteMaybe germanic and anglosaxon populations, living in colder climates do not feel the need to refresh those part of the body that easily "heat up":) see, while GDP and bidet might well be correlated, this doesn't mean they have a causal relationship at all. Temperatures explain it better, I think.
So you mean a bidet is just an old fashioned airco ?
ReplyDeleteHumn, long term effects of Bidet usage over behavior and productivity is being dismissed here. Let's see what Science tells us.
ReplyDeleteThe Gritty Institute conducted a study which included a group of 523 bidet virgins. These volunteers served both as Control Group (no bidet use allowed during the first 3 months, just to make sure any previous unreported bidet behavior was cleared from the system) and Experimental Group (obligatory bidet use after said three months, being 3 weekly bidet cleansings during the fourth month and a daily bidet rinse throughout the fifth and last month of the experiment).
The conclusions were alarming. While not one participant held a criminal record prior to the experiment 43% went on to commit loitering during the fourth month (1st month of bidet usage). This trend carried on to the fifth month, increasing and finally totalling 87% of convicted loiterers at the end of the experiment.
Since loitering entails being somewhere with no specific productive purpose in mind then the scientists concluded that bidet use causes laziness, lack of focus and excessive napping (many were arrested loitering by way of sleeping on park benches). This in turn leads to lower output and less incremental GDP growth.
Sociologists and Economists at the Gritty Max Weber School of Applied Economics looked at this study and linked to a previous study they developed regarding Northern European Protestants and the bidet. Since the bidet provides a sense of pleasure it is considered sinful amongst them and thus stigmatized. This unwritten bidet ban in turn avoids the decreased productivity observed in bidet prone cultures which due to this guilty pleasure extend the lenght of their restroom breaks (decreasing worker output).
You see, it all adds up :-)
I always thought a bidet was to wash your feet..ha ha! but serioulsy I dont even know how it works I mean you have to hop off the toilet over to the bidet?? isn't that uncomfortable to change places? Well I guess I better try find a youtube video to explain the correct use of the bidet..
ReplyDeleteBidet Basics Below.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ehow.com/facts_4922948_what-bidet-toilet.html
lol! I thought we were the only ones that had a butt hose!
ReplyDeleteGritty,
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail in the head. Being caught making racist or prejudicial remarks is the quickest way to get on my nerves. Even more so when they make no sense and have no relation to the real world... ;)
But I have to say, you are totally correct about one thing, it is GDP related, most often people with higher income have the luxury of a bidet.
Bidets have been used all over Europe for centuries, it dates back to old Greece and Rome. French prostitutes made it very popular in the 19th century. Also very popular in Portugal, that is where Brazil got it from...
It is also popular in Japan today and very popular with the upper classes in the US, becoming more and more common in middle class American homes as well.
Whoopi Goldberg always talks about her bidet, how much she loves and how she could never live without it.
Our New England home had a bidet when we bought it and we loved it.
Most wealthy Americans are very familiar with bidets. I am not a wealthy American, but I watch it on "House Hunters" and other HGTV shows all the time, how bidets are becoming more and more common in the US.
Many 5 star Hotels in New York, London and Germany, yes, (the rosy,white blue eyed people of Gritty's dreams) also have bidets. I always make sure to make reservations in Hotels that have bidets, be that in Germany, London, New York or Paris. I always have a bidet.
There was a recent Dr. Oz show that said people who use bidets after pooping ( versus toilet paper ) have less incidence of Colon Cancer.
Yes, folks, you heard me right, a good wash in a bidet after pooping will help you prevent Colon Cancer. How about that for a good reason to install a bidet in your bathroom pronto. Not to mention the great feeling of being "really" clean that toilet paper will never provide you. :)
Ray
Alex,
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to be a woman to need a bidet.
Anyone who poops and wants to prevent Colon Cancer should have a bidet. Don't worry, when you live in Brazil, bidets will be the norm! ;)
Ray
@ Ray
ReplyDelete"(the rosy,white blue eyed people of Gritty's dreams)"
I am a fan of Japanese culture as well. They rock. Don't forget this preference in the future and feel free to refer to them as the dark eyed people of slanty persuasion that permeate Gritty's dreams.
BTW I really like these cultures because of their organization while I am not attracted to some other cultures and the societies they ended up producing because I see less of this all around.
The funny thing is that you were the person who first decided to bring appearance into the mix. I never thought of it that way. It just wasn't in my mind. I have always considered such things ( like organization) to be a result of habit, nothing else. Yet you always link it to appearance. Isn't that interesting.
Gritty,
ReplyDeleteFor starters, I am not the only one who has noted a certain arrogance ( maybe racism, maybe not ) on certain comments you make here. I remember well, many people jumping on you and getting upset with your arrogant/racial remarks.
There are two options here, and none of them are very good, because either you are arrogant and racist and are not aware of it, or you have a serious communication issue and you can't put in words what you are trying to convey.
See, when you make comments like "The Northern Europeans this...The North Americans that, "The Italians this..." "The Brazilians that..." because in Latin America this...or whatever, you sound just like the Nazis did during World War II in Germany, see, I don't know if you are a guy or a girl, how old you are, where you are from, what level of school you have or don't have, but you demonstrate a tremendous lack of general world culture and principally world History. Which would be crucial to make asserted comments when trying to generalize about entire populations of countries or continents.
Let me tell you, you fail miserably every time you dare on futile attempts to put Nordic White Blue Eyed people in one bucket and Brown Latin/Southern people in another. You can call it Germany, Canada, Bolivia or Peru, but when you bundle certain groups of certain patterns, you are certainly implying your clear preference for certain races over others and you are sure to fail, every time, exposing your deep rooted racism and arrogance.
Organization!!! Give me a brake, since when North Americans are more organized than the Polish for example? Or Hungarians less organized than Germans? Being organized as a society is a result of many Geographical, Historical, Social among many other factors of any given society, a result, not an initial factor that will allow or not a country or society to become developed or well organized.
Romans and Greeks for example had great empires, Italy and Greece nowadays not so much, same people, many centuries later, less than what they once were, how do you explain that? The same with Portugal and Spain. Are you going to tell me those people were racially superior and now they are not? See where your theory fails!
You just can't bundle Germany, Scandinavia, Canada and the US and say they are better/superior than Portugal, Spain, Italy and Brazil for example and not expect an intelligent well informed individual to take any conclusion other than an arrogant and unfair racial comparison too similar to Nazi Germany for comfort.
Just for the record. Go to your first comment and refresh your memory on who started this tedious discussion.
Ray
Bidets (or the toilet hoses) are great to prevent all sorts of illnesses in that area of a person's body! And, honestly, it is so more hygienic than just paper (or the nasty wet tissue - can't stand those) that there is no comparison!!! And I agree with Rachel, it is really an awesome ally if you have children around.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the comment about women... yes we love it, but after the fact - super conveniente ;)
Amanda
Again Ray you insist on white buckets, brown buckets and the whole nine yards. All I can tell you is that I prefer certain places over others because of their peculiarities. If you wish to infer a certain mindset on my part for such preferences then go right ahead, just be honest enough to mention that these things you decided to project on to me are nothing more than your own speculations, not supported by anything I actually wrote.
ReplyDeleteLet's take an example
On a post about foreign influences ( Gringolization) of Brazil a while back I said that I think Brazilian society, for the most part, lacks organization. I then said that certain foreigners, enter Scandanavians, are more suited than others, enter Southern Europeans, to infuse this into Brazilian culture. Why did I write this? Well, because from what I have experienced Scandanavians are much better organized than Southern Europeans (shocker) hence they would be better suited in influencing this characteristic onto a place a. Clear enough right? I guess not since YOU THEN DECIDED that this is what was written " Northern Europeans are more organized than their southern counterparts BECAUSE of appearance derived from superior genetic makeup( blue eyes and bla bla bla) and you then take that inference on a marathon which is later concluded with a righteous rant encompassing history and other topics. All this to prove that WHAT YOU THINK I WROTE is wrong and that I am a terrible and evil person and so on.
Are you getting it now?
By the way when I wrote that Bidet use accounts for lower GDP of this group over that group did you not get that it was a joke? When I mentioned your name in the end and said what was written above was done just to get a rise out of you didn't you understand that I was actually exaggerating your incrediblr ability of reading into things? Did you really think I was using some sort of Bidet Index, perhaps to rival the Big Mac Index, and prove something? C'mon, a schooled and cultured individual such as yourself would never make that mistake.
Gritt,
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have heard from you till now, it seems like you are more to the gritty side than the poet's. I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures. Some kind of an obscured pleasure? Sure Freud would explain it!
Mr. Gritty whatever, I am pretty much convinced that you CAN understand that comparing cultures like you do is something down right naive, dumb and arrogant, you just don't do it. It is as pointless as unfair because each culture is unique in itself, usually made up from other cultures, for better or for worse. Brazil, for example, inherited from Portuguese colonists it's infamous bureaucracy, clustered buildings and mothers-in-law-zillas. Black slaves contributed a lot to Brazilian culture, specially in it's culinary habits, social expression like the pretty much known "Brazilian zest for life and optimism" and music. Natives also contributed greatly to the Brazilian cuisine, language, and the laid-back attitude of Brazilians surely is a trademark inherited from this ethnic group. From Italian immigrants, Brazilians learned and perfected the "jeitinho a la Soprano" (why replacing the leg of an irritating wobbly table for once if you can simply remedied it with a piece of cork right from your bottle of wine, after all?), as to be industrious workers (Paulistas are a good example of their influence) or even to be skilled as fierce politicians. From the Japanese, Brazilians learned how to professionalize their agriculture and to value nature. From the Lebanese, Brazilians learned how to profit from commerce and got the notion of bargaining which was virtually non existent prior their arrival in the country. From Germans, Brazilians got the notion of market and so on. Although being influenced by multiple cultures, the Brazilian society is of Latin (Portuguese, Italian and Spanish) and middle-eastern (Lebanese) base, what translates into something very much different from those Nordic ones you cherish. If these societies are less organized it's NOT a matter to be judged or criticized, much less by some pompous blog commentator. Let's not forget that those organized societies were once considered barbaric outside of the highly civilized Roman Empire, which the present Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania were part of.
Time changes everything. Maybe someday we'll see some gritty poet commenting in a blog on how good it would be for the Swedish to have some Brazilians around to cheer them up and lower their high suicide rates and maybe even pushing them to be organized the Brazilian way.
Witty prophet
Gritty,
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have heard from you till now, it seems like you are more to the gritty side than the poet's. I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures. Some kind of an obscured pleasure? Sure Freud would explain it!
Mr. Gritty whatever, I am pretty much convinced that you CAN understand that comparing cultures like you do is something down right naive, dumb and arrogant, you just don't do it. It is as pointless as unfair because each culture is unique in itself, usually made up from other cultures, for better or for worse. Brazil, for example, inherited from Portuguese colonists it's infamous bureaucracy, clustered buildings and mothers-in-law-zillas. Black slaves contributed a lot to Brazilian culture, specially in it's culinary habits, social expression like the pretty much known "Brazilian zest for life and optimism" and music. Natives also contributed greatly to the Brazilian cuisine, language, and the laid-back attitude of Brazilians surely is a trademark inherited from this ethnic group. From Italian immigrants, Brazilians learned and perfected the "jeitinho a la Soprano" (why replacing the leg of an irritating wobbly table for once if you can simply remedied it with a piece of cork right from your bottle of wine, after all?), as to be industrious workers (Paulistas are a good example of their influence) or even to be skilled as fierce politicians. From the Japanese, Brazilians learned how to professionalize their agriculture and to value nature. From the Lebanese, Brazilians learned how to profit from commerce and got the notion of bargaining which was virtually non existent prior their arrival in the country. From Germans, Brazilians got the notion of market and so on. Although being influenced by multiple cultures, the Brazilian society is of Latin (Portuguese, Italian and Spanish) and middle-eastern (Lebanese) base, what translates into something very much different from those Nordic ones you cherish. If these societies are less organized it's NOT a matter to be judged or criticized, much less by some pompous blog commentator. Let's not forget that those organized societies were once considered barbaric outside of the highly civilized Roman Empire, which the present Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania were part of.
Time changes everything. Maybe someday we'll see some gritty poet commenting in a blog on how good it would be for the Swedish to have some Brazilians around to cheer them up and lower their high suicide rates and maybe even pushing them to be organized the Brazilian way.
Witty prophet
@`Anom
ReplyDeleteYou wrote
"I just don't get what such a smart person like yourself gets from diminishing other's cultures"
I point out what I perceive as flaws. I don't see this as diminishing other's cultures, perhaps it is. The question is , or better yet Ray's claim is that I say these flaws are due to something else rather than habit and culture ( appearance is his favorite). Anyway to me I just see certain errors, I see repetition of said errors (pattern) and I shed light on it. That is all. I do not attribute these errors to appearance. So when you write, for example, that at one point in history Northern Europeans were seen as barbarians and high civilization laid with the Roman Empire then I see that as a history lesson that does not pertain since I never wrote that a group is this or that because of origin, appearance or anything else Ray's incredible imagination seems to interpret. So it is of no surprise that at one point in History a specific group were perceived differently, there is no reason for this not being possible since to say the contrary is to claim that they would be forever frozen in time, with both vices and virtues, because that is what "these people" are just like.
You see, in the end, it is Ray that subconciously reflects this mindset, not me. Yet he claims the opposite to be the case. Untrue.
BTW if a society, say the Swedish, can link an reoccuring problem ( suicide) with something that can be remedied by a foreign influence (let's say Brazilian) then they would be foolish not to take a look at this characteritic and see how they could implement it in their own culture. On the other hand that could just say that said emotional intelligence attributed to this foreign agent is actually a racist theory based on appearance, race etc etc.
The last sentence above was supposed to read:
ReplyDelete"On the other hand THEY could just say that said emotional intelligence attributed to this foreign agent is actually a racist theory based on appearance, race etc etc."
Ok kids, time to take this discussion outside. Try Facebook ;p
ReplyDelete