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ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
@kunley_drukpa
Jul 8, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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‘Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream’ has made some incredible tweets over the years. Short thread 🧵 https://t.co/jZLFU9UTJl
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More from @kunley_drukpa

ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 18
VISITING BRAZILIAN REGIONS - THE CAPITAL 🇧🇷

If you tell Brazilians that you went to visit Brasilia normally they’ll look at you quizzically and ask why you bothered. They are half right in that reaction but also they’re probably being a little too disparaging. Brasilia is obviously no Rio but it’s a surprisingly decent city ‘for Brazilian standards’ and I have a soft spot for the kind of utopianism it represents - where you know, in the 60’s, they said hey let’s make a city in the shape of an airplane and not just any city ‘the’ capital city. Because it stands for modernity right, so why not? (Brasilia viewed from above famously has a layout that makes it look like a plane, with its government buildings built along an almost sub-Albert Speer-like avenue now retrofitted with plastic garden chairs and its residential buildings extending outwards like wings on either side of the avenue. Actually apparently it’s not even supposed to be an airplane it’s supposed to be a ceremonial axis marking the new centre of the country but it came out looking like a plane and now people take it as a plane)

Have to say I do like the Oscar Niemeyer pieces - the residence of the President (Palácio da Alvorada), the chamber of deputies, the National Congress of Brazil, the Cathedral of Brasília - they’re very distinctly their own thing and define for better or worse a certain kind of second-half of the 20th century Brazilian aesthetic. It is true a lot of these buildings are brutalist-ish concrete blocks but would qualify that unlike in northern and eastern europe this type of architecture kind of works in Brazil’s more tropical climate. You know like England in the summer is a completely different country to England in the winter, it ‘pops’ more, the colour and the light and heat make it really quite beautiful in a way that is more concealed in the grey and cold of mid-February. Brasilia is sort of that effect for most of the year. The Government office blocks that run along the central avenue do look like something out of Terry Gilliam’s… ‘Brazil’, but we are in sunny Brazil not Russia so they land better

Does Brasilia work as a serious, proper city? Not entirely and you’re often very cognisant of the meme layout of the place. What it does feel more like is a sort of giant residential community, as if you’re staying in a large residential resort. You could say it works in that way. Some comparisons to be made with Naypyidaw in Myanmar, another silly planned city. Canberra in Australia too maybe. Actually Brasilia is I think more successful than those places. All of these cities are boring once you get past the novelty planned city aspect but Brasilia has the advantage it feels more homely in the sense of, again, a Florida retirement community. Not fully designed to be walkable but there are a lot of parks and open grass spaces and it’s as safe as Brazilian cities will get. What you’re supposed to do is go and have a barbecue in one of the parks, go to the yacht club at the lake (avoid the crocodiles, apparently some of the lakes have crocodiles) and you’ll have a nice time. Really just what I did even as a visitor - not much to do once you’ve seen the government stuff but it’s an easy place to do nothing, much better than say São Paulo in that way

While I was there stayed with a friend of a friend who was a mid-level civil servant. One evening he said “hey there’s an outdoor garden party for a lot of the younger politicos and influencers in Brasilia, do you want to go?” Said sure. Went and it was a big open field with a lot of young ‘up and coming’ types. Was chatting to a few of them, mostly they were quite heavily pro-PT (Worker’s Party) and Lula. Maybe it was just that specific event but it struck me the similarities between Brazil’s politico class and the Anglosphere’s politico class, how dominated it was by basically the same kind of left-leaning (over?)educated middle class striver groups, except here they were speaking PortugueseImage
Here’s one difference maybe. Few hours into the event my friend of friend said offhandedly oh you know the interns here sometimes they get together and have orgies in their offices. Politicians in Brasilia and in general in Brazil ‘have a lot of sex parties.’ I said what. He said “yeah it’s pretty normal here, nobody thinks anything of it… You seemed shocked why are you shocked?” I said ‘in my country’ this would be considered a little improper. You know, because politics is famously very serious and proper in 2020’s Britain. Then of course I thought about it and all the stuff you hear about what, say, Conservative Party members get up to and qualified it with “I mean, it would normally be considered scandalous. We’re not like France in that respect. Actually you know in France it’s expected that if you’re a politician it’s part of the duties of office to shag other people.” He didn’t laugh, just asked me if that was true I said maybe not literally true but it’s spiritually true. Didn’t laugh at that either

A little later he introduced me to a some women he knew. They weren’t incredible English speakers and they also supported Lula but they were fun. She said they were getting together and going to their flat for an afterparty afterwards. They asked me if I wanted to comeImage
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ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 16
VISITING BRAZILIAN REGIONS - THE NORTHEAST 🇧🇷

Brazil’s northeast is infamously underdeveloped and lower human capital vs the rest of the country, sort of like Italy’s South. As the stereotype goes it is the ‘Lusotropical’ region par excellence; people there spend all day milling around in favellas, sat in plastic garden chairs. So was important to visit

So… in my experience the Northeast’s reputation as being poor and crime-ridden is well-earned but also some of the major cities on the coast are actually quite developed. Pockets that are very pleasant where you can do the geoarbitrage thing of say renting a large modern flat in an upscale neighbourhood for a fraction of what you would pay for somewhere far worse in Europe or North America. A place like João Pessoa or Recife, they’re not world-beating cities but they have parts that look a bit like a discount mini Miami and you could have a comfortable life there. Good weather, food, nice amenities, okay the women are not as attractive as in the south but in the big cities there are still enough attractive women around that you would be fine

Outside of the mini Miamis many of the cities devolve into sweeping favelas. There are favelas everywhere in Brazil of course but the ones here are especially big. Drive a few hours inland from the coast and you reach the famous ‘Sertão’ - arid badlands which historically have been sort of the Brazilian equivalent of the Wild West. Home to the ‘Cangaço’, famous bandit-outlaw types

Will be honest a lot of the interior reminded of Africa, was getting flashbacks to times when I drove through e.g. rural Kenya or Ethiopia. Many ‘Third World Roadside Towns’. The larger cities are not especially pleasant either - they’re often quite ugly and there are a lot of unfinished facade redbrick sub favela buildings, overhanging wires, barbed wire and electric fences etc. They feel dangerous too, you wouldn’t want to live in these places

There might be some nice interior cities I’m unaware of but the general impression I got of the places I did visit was “this isn’t great.” Got out to walk around a couple of these towns then caught myself and thought, ‘why am I bothering?’. I mean I took the initiative to go there myself but still…

It’s interesting to try understand why the Northeast outside of the big cities is so underdeveloped. Obviously there is the human capital problem, this is the big one (there was a lot of ‘Ethnic Littering’ during the Colonial Era, with slavery especially - places like Bahia and Pernambuco the epicentres), but there are systemic issues that exacerbate this too. Explanation typically goes that the region’s Latinoid big bossman coronéis (or Colonel) Latifundia model meant that a small number of (mainly white) elites owned most of the land and handed out positions on a kind of cliente system - resulting in most of the region remaining underdeveloped. There is probably some truth to this. Actually if you look at who constitutes the local elite in the northeastern states today you’ll see some very blue-eyed Western European phenotypes - which is all the more remarkable when on the street fully white people are quite rare. Hey if they’re still able to get away with running these little fiefdoms (with half the GDP per capita than the South - about $18K vs $35K) from their mini Miamis then good for them

Was in bars a few of times and getting solicited by prostitutes was common. One was a quite European looking woman so asked her why she was doing this job. She said she had come to the coastal city from the interior both to study and because it was where the money was. She mostly ‘serviced’ visiting businessmen in the mini Miami. Asked her how life is going, she said not great she is having relationship difficulties with her boyfriend. Said “oh does your boyfriend know you’re an ‘escort’? Is he okay with that?” She said no of course not, reason she was having relationship difficulties because she suspected he was cheating on herImage
The Sertão, João Pessoa, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Salvador Image
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ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 15
VISITING BRAZILIAN REGIONS - THE SOUTH 🇧🇷

Had heard a lot about the South of Brazil - the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul - so decided to visit. As the meme goes, these southern states are hidden redoubts of EVROPA in the Southern Hemisphere with a far superior quality of life to the rest of Brazil, mostly on account of their human capital. You had a lot of Germans, Italians, Poles and Ukrainians among other groups moving there between the mid 1800s and early 1900s which together with a model of smaller more equal family farm-holding versus the large Latinoid-style latifundia huge estate model common in Brazil’s north created a region that is wealthier, more educated, more developed and less crime-ridden than the rest of Brazil

So… in my experience as a region it’s not really ‘really’ impressive - there is not unfortunately some secret hyper-advanced European state tucked away in the Southern Cone. It is at least true though the South is a more coherent, pleasant place than much of the rest of Brazil. All of these things are relative obviously but it wins the ‘Basically Fine’ Award

Was walking around Curitiba, the capital of Paraná, in the old centre, and thing that most struck me was ‘this feels like a city centre somewhere in Eastern Europe - maybe Podgorica or Skopje… Belgrade or Sofia at a push’. Incidentally GDP per capita in the South is about the same as parts of East Europe - about $35K average which is comparable to somewhere like Bulgaria

Women are good-looking too. Would get told by other Brazilians “oh they’re good looking there but they’re a bit cold” but I didn’t find them especially cold, I assume it’s only ‘cold’ relative to the rest of Brazil where they start groping you within ten minutes of meeting you. Here it’s like within thirty minutes. They were sweet and an incredible bonus quite intelligent too

Few years ago I was in a relationship that started where you know you’re very smitten for the first few years and it’s a great feeling then okay some time passes and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason but then because you’ve been in it for so long you get a bit mentally frazzled so it’s harder to become smitten with a new person again… so you don’t get the feeling very often anymore. Well there was a nice woman here and I was like wow, what’s this? Went on a walk to the Curitiba park together to see the capybaras… Look I don’t want to bore you with these things but I liked the people

Took a car and drove around a bit, the scenery is often sub-European with a smattering of Araucaria trees - it is not an overly benighted place. It ‘could’ be a new Europe if you really wanted to push for it. You can drive into their countryside and there are small towns (some are wealthy looking some less so) that build their houses in an old-fashioned German or Polish or Ukrainian etc style. You’d get bored if you lived there but they are pleasant to pass through and stop for lunch and have a bratwurst or schnitzel

Florianópolis in Santa Catarina a very enjoyable beach city though quite spread out. Kept getting told disparagingly it was a popular destination for Argentinian tourists who ‘sexualise Brazilian women’ looking to party. I met some Argentinians in a bar here, they were nice enough though yes they were there to meet Brazilian women

The main cities here; Curitiba, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Balneário Camboriù are probably the most modern cities with the most liveable suburbs you’ll find in Brazil, even if they aren’t perfect and are often dilapidated in parts. Is it European demographically? To be honest it isn’t as European as you would imagine from what you hear. There are more European-looking people yes but there are still a lot of classically Brazilian-mixed types. Again this stuff is relative. Wouldn’t move here permanently but a nice enough place to spend some time messing around. Okay to ‘digital nomad’ in, maybe not as amazing here on a Brazilian salary but not terribleImage
The Araucaria Trees, Florianópolis, Blumenau AKA ‘Tropical Germany’, Iguazú Falls Image
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Reviewing Rio De Janeiro
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ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 13
Took decades but the US finally perfected interventions in Latin America. Bay of Pigs, Operation Condor, Contras - hamfisted since Latinos saw it as a foreign attack. How to do it properly - Caudillo rule via WhatsApp Voicenotes, clearly the most natural form of Latino government Image
Marco Rubio the Leader with his finger most on the pulse of the spirit of the Latino people since Simón Bolívar
Not a joke that Caudillo Rule via WhatsApp Voicenote is the optimal form of Latin American Government
Read 4 tweets
ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 12
Something have been noticing a lot in Latin America recently is the proliferation of AI-generated advertising, specifically ChatGPT-aesthetic style posters. Lots of people using these. Low effort to create and they look ‘Good Enough’. Explanation is probably that now the average person in these countries knows how to use AI at a basic level it just makes more sense to produce advertising like this then to spend the time and money creating more professional and / or creative marketing

You might say “well it looks a bit tacky aren’t you embarrassed why would you use them?” My intuition is that to most people - and especially if you’re from a poorer background living adjacent a favela all your life - it probably looks fine. Called this the ‘Coca Cola Effect’ before - ie that most people will opt for the most easily accessible, nice or ‘Good Enough’ ‘thing’ in a given context. ‘Coca Cola Effect’ so-called since people in the third world drink a lot of Coca Cola because it ‘tastes nicer’ than water and healthier drinks are generally both an effort to procure and ‘taste worse’, if people are even conceptually at a point where they care about their health like that - or here, ‘good taste’

Feel like AI posters in general are not something that has been around much longer than a year in LATAM and anecdotally it seems like both this specific ChatGPT-style poster and AI poster proliferation in general have increased in recent months. Your mileage may vary. Qualification is on the older AI posters you would see eg more ‘Studio Ghibli’-style imagery. Suspicion is specific AI poster aesthetic trends will be downstream of online trends by about three - six months in this way

Effect is most jarring when you pass by a part of a town or a city that is visibly poorer, you know where the building facades have peeling paint and cracked plaster and unfinished brick and electric wire fences. You head into a shop that smells of rotting fruit to buy a drink and there’s a poster of Erling Haaland in ‘Oil Painting Style’ chugging a Coca Cola and a little ChatGPT tickbox below him that says ‘Refresh. Hydrate. Energise’

AI proliferation isn’t just in advertising either. In terms of public spaces have talked before about how you hear a lot of AI music here (have heard it across multiple countries), frequently in English too. Just the most AI-written sounding lyrics being pumped out, again, in dilapidated corner shops at the edge of a favela:

“You’re the password to my heart,
The charging cable from the start,
The Wi-Fi signal of my soul,
The thing that makes my spirit whole.

Sometimes I think about your hair,
And then I think about it more.
And when I am not thinking about your hair,
I wonder what I was thinking for.

Imagine the smell.
Yeah.
Imagine the smell.

The moon is round, the Earth is too,
At least from certain points of view.
And every scientific fact I know
Somehow reminds me of you.”

Nonsense like that when you enter a shop, right after you walk past the big ChatGPT poster at the entrance of the cheating ‘brainrot’ reel strawberry woman advertising condoms

My sense is this does represent a genuine evolution of classic Third World aesthetics. So before you might see a ramshackle old local shop with a red Coca Cola board on it that said ‘Very Reliable Shop’, and there were some posters on the side of the drinks and food they sold, oreos or fanta or whatever. If you went very local they might also have painted pictures of their products on their walls. Or just of a cute dog or something. Now you maybe instead see that all switched out for ChatGPT posters

I will say I don’t even think this is an invalid new cultural expression, it is a very authentic kind of inauthenticity in a wayImage
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Examples of typical shop fronts you will see a version of across the third world. These shop fronts are specifically from South Africa. Now imagine the adverting boards and posters on the facades here have been replaced by ChatGPT-style posters the shop owners have created themselves. This is what you encounter sometimes nowImage
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About the ‘Coca Cola Effect’
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ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 Profile picture
Jul 12
🚨 REPORT: Marco Rubio regularly sending WhatsApp voicenotes that last 15, maybe 20 minutes

“When he fires up WhatsApp and switches to Spanish he just doesn’t stop, he talks so much it’s like he’s recording a podcast. He’s also been video calling his cousins for hours at a time” Image
America’s First Latino President Par Excellence
See Also:
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