Brynn Barineau

Month: November 2010

  • Should hate speech be a crime?

    Should hate speech be a crime?

    Just when you start to think your country is the best at something, reality goes and levels the playing field. I thought the US boasted the craziest, angriest bigots but then a group of pissed off Brazilians took to twitter Sunday night and proved me wrong. It seems really hateful people can live anywhere. How unfortunate.

    The hate-filled twitter feed was brought to my attention by a fellow blogger (Thanks Rachel!). Obviously not everyone in Brazil is happy about Dilma’s election. A few people decided the best way to express their frustration was to send a flurry of tweets blaming voters in the Northeast and calling for them to be gassed Nazi Germany style. (Really, the casual references to Nazis and Hitler being tossed out these days show a disturbing lack of perspective. But I digress…)

    The group Diga Não A Xenofobia (Say No to Xenophobia) collected a few of the tweets and posted a summary of the subsequent legal action being filed against one of the authors. The tweets are at the bottom of the article and even if you don’t speak a word of Portuguese the hate comes through loud and clear.

    That these people are ignorant bigots and their messages racist, hateful and repulsive is beyond dispute. But should they be prosecuted for expressing that hate? No, I don’t think so.

    I know my opinion is grounded in a very American understanding of free speech. Hate speech is illegal in many countries, not just Brazil. Here the crime of racism results in 2-5 years in prison and a fine. While I think the sentiment behind such laws is good, I don’t think they are effective and I firmly believe they encroach on a person’s right to voice her opinion.

    I assume that laws against hate speech were enacted to combat racism, xenophobia, etc. Perhaps, supporters even believe they made things safer and cut down on hate crimes. Based on what I’ve experienced, the laws merely force racism underground. It is not extinguished. People will continue to voice their opinions in the privacy of their homes, between friends and in front of their children, but now there is no public debate about the issue. I think it’s better to know who the bigots are and what they’re thinking. You can confront them and debate the issue.

    On a more fundamental level, I believe that if a person wants to post 140 characters of trash that is her right. Unfortunately, she has a right to be a bigot.

    One exception to free speech is inciting violence. Calling on people to kill or hurt others should not be protected. The twitter author is being charged with inciting the public to commit a crime and it carries a penalty of 3-6 months in prison or a fine. (I’m baffled why inciting a crime results in less jail time than being a racist. Anyway…)

    So what crime did this tweeter ask people to commit? She asked for people to do SP (Sao Paulo) a favor and kill someone from the Northeast. Disgusting, yes but a clarion call to violence, I think not.

    Now, if she had gone on to list the names and addresses of several people then I’d agree she was trying to incite actual violence. But a tweet? Someone who takes the time to send a tweet to express her hate is not violent. Just ignorant and lazy. These people are too busy trying to figure out how many slurs they can fit within 140 characters to be a threat to anything other than their own reputations.

    What do you think? Should hate speech be a crime? Should the people who sent the tweets be prosecuted?

  • Bad Portuguese & Worse First Impression

    Bad Portuguese & Worse First Impression

    In my life, I’ve experienced very few things as disheartening as being unable to show another person who I am. Only slightly less frustrating is to still, after four years in Brazil, find myself looking like someone who has never had a single Portuguese class.

    Last Saturday, my husband and I went out with a group of his friends from work. The evening started with me mistiming the elevators doors and slamming my shoulder into them mere seconds after introductions were made. It was a pretty accurate omen of how the evening would go.

    At first, my Portuguese was just fine. When we arrived the bar was empty and the conversation involved one other couple. Then the bar began filling up. With each new couple that joined our group the conversation got busier and the background noise got louder. Soon I was trying to follow a conversation about John Marshall through waiters, drink orders, greetings and a BeeGees concert DVD with special guest Celine Dion.

    My lack of context for most of the conversation didn’t help. I’m not a lawyer. Almost everyone in the group was either a lawyer, judge or court staff, hence the discussion about John Marshall. I’m also not a parent on the verge of middle age or regular novella watcher.

    By 12:30am I was fighting the effects of two drinks, a day at the beach, and three hours of intensive Portuguese. The band was playing now and all conversation had to be shouted. I had ended up on the very end of the table, amongst the men, quietly eating peanuts without the energy to even pretend I could hear the conversation, let alone understand it.

    Finally to round off the shy, boring persona I was cultivating, when my husband got up to use the bathroom I put head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Yup, I went to sleep among 12 of my husband’s colleagues at a crowded bar. About 1:30, when someone finally asked if I wanted to sit in the middle of the group near the conversation, I told my husband I was ready to go.

    The evening was both frustrating and bizarre. The few questions that were directed at me were nothing more than a blend of sounds. The amount of noise and the English lyrics being blasted through the speaker made me deaf to Portuguese. My Portuguese is still not strong enough to fill in missed words of syllables. I have to hear everything perfectly. With all the noise I could recognize some sounds but not enough of them to hear words. The result was that I just heard people making noises in my direction. It was an odd feeling.

    In the end, after running into a door, not talking for two hours, falling asleep at the table and asking to leave after the first set, I’m pretty sure I set a new standard for worst first impression ever.

  • The Delicious Moqueca Capixaba

    The Delicious Moqueca Capixaba

    When visiting Vitoria there are exactly four things to do: 1)spend the day at one of the nearby beach towns, 2) visit the Garoto candy factory, 3) see the 16th century Convento da Penha and 4) stuff your face with Moqueca.

    Moqueca (pronounced Mookecka) can generally be described as a fish stew. Or, more accurately, the greatest fish stew ever made. There are two kinds of Moqueca in Brazil, Moqueca Baiana and Moqueca Capixaba. The basic ingredients are the same for both, fish, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro.

    The Moqueca Baiana, from the state of Bahia, uses dende oil (a kind of palm oil) and coconut milk

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Dende Palm

    The Moqueca Capixaba, from Espirito Santo, draws more from native Brazilian cuisine. Traditionally, it’s cooked in a pot made with black clay and tree sap. The stew is colored using arucum, a natural pigment made from the urucu flower. Moqueca Capixaba uses olive oil instead of dende and doesn’t have coconut milk.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The urucu flower

    Which version of Moqueca is tastiest? Well, that depends on which Brazilian you ask. Unfortunately, I’ve not had the Baiana version in order to declare definitively that the Capixaba version is better, but I can say the Moqueca Capixaba is not just a dish. It’s an experience.

    If ordering a Moqueca, I recommend having a very early, light breakfast and foregoing food for the rest of the day. If you’re a calorie counter, you might as well plan on not eating for the preceding 24 hours. You should also have the afternoon blocked off for napping. There is no strolling or sight seeing after this meal.

    You’ll be able to choose what kind of fish you want, but in Espirito Santo it’s almost always a kind of hard, white fish. My husband and I always order dorado. That is a hearty fish. We also like to have a shrimp sauce. As you can see the restaurant in Ubu is pretty generous with their shrimp.

    In addition to the stew, you’ll also get white rice, piraõ (a fish juice goo, very tasty) and Moqueca Banana (amazing!). Our favorite place also includes a delicious and totally unnecessary fried shrimp appetizer.

    Everything is brought to the table in a steaming, bubbling collection of black pans. The steam rising off the stew is so thick for a few seconds you can’t see across the table. Serving yourself is like dipping into a witch’s cauldron.

    There is no better way to spend an afternoon than gorging on Moqueca followed by a long, quiet nap on the beach. It’s become our Saturday routine, weather permitting. We always love company, so shoot me an email if you’d like to join us sometime.

    The Moqueca pictures were taken at Moqueca do Garcia, on Ubu beach, directly in front of the sea. Find Ubu and you find Garcia.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Ubu, our hidden gem

    Ubu, our hidden gem

    For me, one of the greatest pleasures life in Vitoria has to offer is the opportunity to visit a gorgeous beach, on a gorgeous day. Can’t I do that in Rio? Yes, but I have to share the beach with 1 million other people. I don’t really like to share. That’s why I prefer this little, hidden gem called Ubu.

    The coast of Espirito Santo is lined with small beach towns. The relatively small population of the state will head out every weekend and drive to one of the three or four beaches within an hour of their homes. If you’re willing to drive an hour and half, you can have the beach to yourself.

    Yesterday was a perfect beach day. It was the kind of day against which all other beach days are judged. A blue sky with a few clouds like stretched out cotton balls. The temp was in the 80s and a constant strong breeze made everything perfect. There were not more than 30 people on the beach. A gorgeous beach, on a gorgeous day and we got it all to ourselves.

    I’d tell you how to get to Ubu, but then you might actually come.

    And did I mention the moqueca restaurant in front of the beach?

    The famous Moqueca Capixaba deserves and will receive its own post. To be continued…