TV

The first time I turned on the TV after I arrived I was treated to a close up of a breast feeding woman. Since then it’s been mostly violence and scantily clad dancers (Google "Brazilian TV" for an idea). We only get a half decent reception on one channel, and in my opinion it doesn’t seem to offer much diversity

A rather popular scene from a recent Novella

I used to think football was the national pastime, until I heard that televised football matches kick off at 10pm as ‘novellas’ (soaps) have prime time. Brazilian novellas are hugely popular here and a successful export to the rest of the Portuguese speaking world. For someone who doesn’t pay much attention to them, they seem to contain only arguments and crying, both at a similar pitch. I still haven’t decided if it’s better to watch with or without sound – with sound you suffer the wailing and whining; without sound I notice the poor acting even more.

The news is full of violent events, usually with graphic images, regardless of the time of day. It also frequently has interviews with silhouetted victims or witnesses where their voices are altered digitally to avoid identification. While I appreciate the need for discretion, I wish they’d just dub over with someone else’s voice – the constant digital Tellytubby voices are like nails down a blackboard! Surely in an economy that values job creation where jobs don’t exist they can dub the voices.

The entertainment shows have the presenters advertising products in the middle of the show. There is a lot of very amateur magic and singing, and the audience is always convinced and impressed, and easily fooled.

The presenters are almost always young, white and pretty. I was surprised to see a black weathergirl, but she was young and pretty, so they’d obviously made an exception.

A conspiracy theorist may suggest that it's all a plan. The banal TV pacifies the population rather than educate them with documentaries. The exposure to daily violence and corruption anaesthetises the population so that it becomes accepted as normal rather than something to protest against.

TV is also inescapable. Almost all bars and cafes have the TV on, loud. If you want to go out for a meal and escape the TV, forget it - even nice restaurants often show novellas, news or football matches. UFC is often played, despite the fact that kids of all ages always accompany the parents to the restaurants so sit watching the late night violence. Public buildings, supermarkets and many shops have the TV on, ostensibly for customers but actually for the staff.

Sadly I can’t access iPlayer or 4 on Demand here so have no access to UK TV. However, I’m grateful to have been blessed with a habit of not watching much TV. If I was of a different disposition I think I’d struggle.

(As always, these are my impressions only, based on my experience in one city in one state of Brazil. They do not necessarily represent the nation)