Moustapha wrote:This is really surprising for me. I thought these rates would be closer to those in Middle East countries.
The level of anti-americanism varies a lot from country to country, but it is definitely greater in Spanish-speaking nations than it is here. Truth be told, Brazil is the least Latin American country in all of Latin America (something that is fortunately changing quickly — we can't remain isolated forever). The linguistic barrier has proven too strong to be overcome that easily.
While anti-americanism is strong in places like Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela, it is quite weak in Brazil and Chile.
BBC conducted a poll in 2010 (you can see the results here:
[1]), that showed that some Western European countries are actually more anti-american than Brazilians.
Here is a copy from the table that is in Wikipedia:
And if you think well, it makes perfect sense that Brazil is one of the most pro-American countries in the region. The US has never really interfered in internal political issues in Brazil, except once. That was during WW2, when the US invested heavily in the industrialization of the country, in exchange for us joining the Allied Forces in the Italian campaign. Totally worth it, and the results couldn't have been better for Brazilians, in general.
And honestly, Brazil and the US have always been close friends. In 1876, when the US was celebrating their independence centenary, there was only one foreign Head of State present: the Brazilian Emperor. He had gone there to attend the
Centennial Exposition, and the Emperor and the US President ended up opening the ceremonies (both the exposition and the centennial celebrations) together.
AT&T made a dramatization of the event, in 1930:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQd3H8AmtP0&t=5m10sThis is a matter for a different topic, but just a curiosity related to the event: the Emperor befriended Graham Bell and bought a telephone, installing it in Brazil, making the country the second in the world to have a telephone line.
Anyway, the 1876 events and the WW2 deals are just two examples from the last 200 years. The countries have always had friendly relations. When the Civil War ended, many Confederate refugees came to Brazil, as well, making us one of the countries with the oldest American immigrant colonies in the world. Now, Dilma Rousseff's and Barack Obama's governments are discussing the possibility of visa-free travel between our countries, for a simple reason: Brazilians love the US and Americans love Brazil. People in both countries want to visit one another as tourists, spend money and come back. Its really silly to ignore that because the US has a problem with illegal Mexican immigrants.
Sithsaber wrote:They may like our consumerism and spending their cash in fl but Brazilians for the most part support a political paradigm far different from our own.
Indeed. Brazilians are much more conservative than Americans. They don't like abortions or gay marriage, for instance. A huge majority of seats in the Brazilian Congress is in the hands of conservative parties.
Other than that, I don't see any different "political paradigms" at all...
Soulflytribe wrote:The Argentines hate pretty much the entire world.
They will also make the top 10 of the world with their anti-Chile opinion, their anti-Brazil opinion, their anti-Mexico opinion, their anti-UK opinion, anti-Spain opinion etc etc.
I usually take an anti-Argentina role in these discussions, to contribute to the stereotype, but to be fair, the Argentinians I know are not like that at all. The country has had many historical conflicts with their neighbors (Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay), with Spain (the independence campaign), with the UK (about the Falklands) and recently, with the US. And they are culturally more reserved and closed, I agree, so that creates the notion that Argentinians are obnoxious and hate everyone. But honestly, most Argentinians I know actually like Brazil and Brazilians a lot.
Sithsaber wrote:I think it has something to do with living in a state that is the direct descendent of fascists and economic depression.
Ps: The monarchy is quickly loses all legitimacy, all hail the Republic!
Yes, because Italy, Portugal etc are doing so much better than Sweden and Norway.
Also, despite the ridiculous recent issues that the King was part of (seriously, how is a Head of State allowed to leave the country to go to a safari in Africa without anyone knowing?), the monarchy is still quite popular in the country.
PoFo ethnic party statistics: http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8&p=14042520#p14042520