BrasiliaJun 5, 2006
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Church...
Inside the church
Congresso National - this is what was invaded by the 'Trabalhadores sem...
| Another last minute decision... Brasila, the capital city of Brazil, build in the 60s specifically to be the capital city of Brazil. It's completely different from any of the other places I've visited in Brazil... more modern and clean but relatively small and not requiring a lot of time to visit. I felt like I covered, by foot, what I needed to see in one day. And the weather turned out to be excellent. Toured the Congresso buildings, the big church, the shopping mall, and the big TV tower. I met a couple of Brazilian girls who wanted me to take their picture. When they discovered that I was foriegn they invited me to a conference that they were attending and then to lunch at the shopping mall. It was cool to have people to hang out with and to practice Portuguese. An interesting thing happened at the Congresso buildings the following week - about 500 people who call themselves the Trabalhadores sem terra (workers without land) invaded the Congress buildings, broke several windows, and destroyed a lot of stuff inside the buildings... primarily in a room called 'salon verde' where I had stood only a couple days earlier. From what I understand, they claim to be fighting for the fair distribution of land but, the common opinion is that they are trying to make a political statement to steer the country in a more socialist direction. They have invaded several farms and burnt buildings and seem to lose credibility with every such act. Duh!?! |
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