Road Junky vs. StumbleUpon

[tom]

When we woke up this morning our hangovers evaporated in the moment that we saw that "Stumbleupon.com":http://www.stumbleupon.com had sent us around 30,000 extra visitors over the weekend.

Wow.

First of all they went crazy over an article about a cool hitchhiker called Ludovic Hubler http://www.roadjunky.com/article/1535/lu...itchhiker which was all well and good.

But they really went apeshit about 101 Culture Shocks http://www.roadjunky.com/article/1676/10...re-shocks which sent more traffic than we see in a fortnight and also got over 30 reviews.

Many of these people weren't too happy however. Here are some quotes:

Bigoted bullshit.

Lots and lots of lies. Anyone with a weak mind shouldn't even read something like this because they won't be able to separate fact from fiction.

Xenophobic, ethnocentric, and a couple other synonyms along those lines.

And our favourite:

Possibly the single most worthless site on the Internet. Fact: if it's not true, it's not a fact. Fact: judging by some of these reviews, some people should have their "allowed to use the Internet licence" revoked. Permanently. .

Thing is, just about everything in the article was true. Some of the facts came from personal experience which makes citation diffiicult and in any case we're lazy.

So we'd like to hereby invite all those Stumblers to come and vent on the forum and we'll personally answer all outrageous allegations of untruthfulness.

If they dare.

[Rob]

Since you insist on having your retarded fallacies debated, I'll waste some of my time here. For the record, I lived little over half my life in India, the last 6 years in Iowa, USA, and a good chunk in western Europe. Here's my take on your garbage:


1. When plastic mineral water bottles first appeared in India, largely popularised by the demand of travelers, locals asked for the empty bottles as they were considered useful items for storing liquids in the home.


Might be true. Probably true of any country with poverty. The locals you refer to are the poorest of the poor, not your average local.


2. The word “Russia’ is synonymous with ‘sex’ in countries in the Arabic Gulf where thousands of prostitutes from Russia and the Ukraine are flown in every year to meet the clandestine needs of the oil-rich.

Um no.. actually the word "Russia" is synonymous with the country "Russia". Fancy that. Yes, Eastern European prostitutes are flown in to the middle east and other countries where the local populance faces severe penalties for such things.. but it's far from the first thing Russia is known for. Vodka would probably be a closer guess. To say that is to say that the word "USA" is synonymous with "Fat". Take one negative thing about the country and call it synonymous.

3. Of the millions of condoms donated to India every year to help prevent the spread of HIV and halt the exploding population, more than half end up recycled to make sandals and spare parts for trucks.

Source: Eating Air in India by Robin Brown.

Who the fck is Robin Brown? Some pothead hippie with delusions probably. Where did she get that figure?? 50% of all condoms.. is she insane?? FYI I have never seen a latex sandal or truck part in my entire time in India. Maybe there is some small operation somewhere doing this kind of stuff, but this fool has elevated it to some enormous industry,

4. In Latin American countries where most of the population has mixed indigenous blood, the models in the commercials are all white Latin beauties, fueling demand for acidic skin creams which claim to lighten the complexion.

Proof

Yes, it exists. Products like this exist everywhere in the world, fueled by people's insecurities about their looks, the standards for which are different in different places. In the west, it's the opposite.. skin bronzing creams and tanning salons that when taken to the usual American extreme, makes regular girls look like sunburnt trash, while known to cause skin cancer and all kinds of other problems. And do I even need to point out the half the pop-a-pill to feel young crap on American infomericals? Or amphetamine based diet pills that were legal and encouraged a few years ago?


5. The all-American gesture of the high five actually originated from Muhammed and his followers in 6th century Arabia. It was the easiest way to greet someone when on a camel. It was subsequently picked up by black basketball players in the US and achieved instant cool.

More bullshit. Muhammed throwing high fives? What's next.. Jesus throwing the "West Coast!"? Here's the true origin. http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com/origin.html

6. In countries like Iran where the religious regimes are so repressive as to forbid music, the youth struggle to get hold of old cassettes of Chris de Burgh and imagine they’re listening to the latest in rebel pop.


Where'd you get this.. by watching Family Guy? I can't even refute this, never heard of it. Source?

7. In Japan, Nigerian men get commission on bringing Japanese teenagers to hip-hop clothing stores. The kids are wowed by the presence of a real black man who has only to say ‘Yo, West Coast!’ and they follow. Never mind if he’s referring to the Ivory Coast rather than Compton.

8. There are hand-held video games for Japanese kids where the main character grows in strength according to how much sunlight he receives. Solar panels are built into the device to encourage kids to get outside more.

Proof

9. In China there are sweat shops of workers who perform repetitive mouse-clicking tasks on online games such as World of Warcraft. The points thereby obtained are sold on Ebay to gamers in the West.

Proof

10. Indian women are regularly hired to grow the babies of Western couples. Their wombs are hired and after they’ve grown the child, they’re given $5000 in compensation.

True enough.



11. The babies that beggars carry in poor countries to pull the heartstrings of tourists are frequently rented and drugged with opium to keep them looking quiet and sickly.

Proof

Not all "poor countries", only Pakistan and Bangladesh. You seem to love taking a fact and generalizing it to more than the fact.

12. In India, when people give money to beggars they thank them for the opportunity to give and gain merit.


Retarded. No one I know has even thanked a beggar in India, in any part of the country. Usually the beggar thanks the person giving the money. Fancy that. Don't tell me some isolated anecdote of some uber-spiritual wierdo, this is not a community belief.


13. Devout Jains are famous for taking precautions to protect even minute insect life. But during monsoon many will stay home for fear of disrupting the life of puddles.


Maybe, but very very rare. I wouldn't say "many" .. the monsoons last over a month, it is impossible for anyone with a job, commitment or any sort of life to stay home for that long. Probably the really old orthodox ones that don't have much to do anyway. There are orthodox Jains that wear a viel over their mouths to keep from ingesting/killing insects, but that's a lot more convenient. All religions have idiosyncrasies.

14. While most of us have only heard about the 10 commandments, there are actually 613 that religious Jews are expected to follow. Giving pleasure to your wife on the sabbath is one.

Proof (about 8 paragraphs down)

Just like christians are "expected to" follow the entire Bible, Old Testament and all. No one does though, or am I missing the part where they collect the required quantities of grain, gold and livestock to sacrifice to yahweh?

15.The Japanese health minister recently referred to Japanese women as ‘baby-making machines’.

Proof


And G.W. Bush was disappointed about a lot of OBGYNs not able to practice their "love" with women all over the world. Politicians say stupid or bigoted things all the time, what's new?


16. There’s an urban myth in Israel to explain the above-average breast size of Israeli women that the government puts hormones in dairy products. The theory goes that larger breasts ensure a higher national birth rate, always a priority for Zionist pioneer types.


There's a thousand urban myths in every country. Last I heard, there were theories in the US where the govt was putting flouride in drinking water, not for dental health, but to mind control it's population. Only wackjobs believe such stuff though. Why aren't any of those listed?


17. While almost half the world is either Chinese or Indian, as most of the world abandons the countryside for the cities, the birthrate tends to drop. No longer needing so many kids to tend the fields, it makes economic sense to be more careful. Some say the world population should stabilise at around 8 or 9 billion this way as we all end up living in cities.

"Some say". mmk. IT MUST BE TRUE THEN! Wow, and I thought things actually had to be based on real fact and long term analysis. And ALL people will never live in cities.. it's economically and agriculturally impossible. Moron.

18. When the first McDonalds opened up in East Berlin there was a queue that stretched 3 miles to get in.

Source: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. [we may have exaggerated the length of the queue but you know, it was long)


Exactly.. you exaggerated. A LOT. 3 miles out, you couldn't even see the damn thing, not to mention probably die of hunger in the wait. I don't doubt the queue was long, when capitalism first entered the communist areas, there was a lot of hype over it.

19. There are parts of India where Coca-Cola has used up most of the local water supply in their bottling plants. Leaving nothing to drink other than…

Proof

True, and deplorable. There has been activism against it, and most such plants have been shut down since.



37. It’s also common to read of death tolls reaching three figures in India when half of the invitees to the wedding get poisoned by drinking the homemade hooch.

Never read anything of the sort in all my years there. Three figure death tolls would make front page even there. Common my ass.. probably a one time tragedy. There are smaller isolated instances of one or two people dying from cheap hooch, but that's not exactly sensational is it? Let's lie and generalize instead.



48. But as fire is sacred in India, no one of a religious disposition would ever blow on a flame, preferring to snuff it with moistened fingers or, in the case of a fire, to fan it with branches.


Someone must've forgotten to tell me and everyone I know there. They seemed to have no qualms about blowing out flames. In fact, I've never even heard of such a thing.


53. In South America men still faithfully repeat pick-up lines called piropos such as ‘wow, what curves – and me without brakes!’ or ‘If your ass was a football I would be your Maradona’.


isolated cheeseball men repeat stupid pick up lines everywhere, including in America. You make it sound like the norm, which it is not.


54. There’s a slang for a girl’s ass in Brazil called poupanca, which translates as ‘piggy bank’. The idea being that if she’s broke she can shake her booty and the money will come tumbling to the floor.


And in America, there's a slang for it called "moneymaker", as in "Shake yo' moneymaker". Listing dumb street slang is hardly cultural.


55. Japan leads the world in incest between mothers and sons. It’s thought that sexual favours are dispensed in order to help overexcited adolescent minds concentrate on homework.

Absolute garbage.. Japan has some of the most conservative parenting in the world.


65. The famous slide blues guitar technique actually came from India. A man from Kerala was kidnapped by pirates a few hundred years ago and after many adventures ended up in Hawaii. The locals loved his technique of using a shell on strings for that slide feeling and from there the trick made its way to the Mississippi when Hawaii joined the Union.


lol probably told to you by some tour guide in Kerela or something. There's plenty of theories on the origin of the blues guitar slide, but this is a first. It's highly unlikely though, since the Guitar is practically unheard of in Kerela even today, I highly doubt it even existed there a few hundred years ago. And the few guitar players you find there could hardly be categorized as pioneers.


72. There’s a phenomenon in Japan called ‘compensated dating’ where female students will sleep with old men in return for consumer goods like Louis Vitton handbags and Gucci rings.


It's called prostitution. I hear it's pretty common in most countries.


74. In India it’s common to see Vote For Hand or Vote Wheel with the appropriate symbol painted on walls. To a fairly illiterate population a graphic image works better than a manifesto. In any case, votes are usually bought with bags of rice or bottles of arak, the deals cut by the local caste boss.

It's called a "Party Symbol". Maybe you've heard of it.. lot of them illiterate americans are voting for some Elephant or Donkey thing. Most people know the party/politicians behind the symbol though. And votes aren't "usually" bought for a bag of rice.. most people in India, even the poor, except for a handful of beggars could afford a bag of rice with a day or two's salary anymore, you aren't enticing anyone with a bag of cheap rice. Maybe some votes are bought, but it's far from rampant.

75. Almost all Indian politicians are fat as in a hungry country almost no one would vote for anyone skinny. Many of them also run from office from prison cells.


WTF? The majority are thin as reeds. Have you looked at the Indian prime minister? The guy weighs like 100 lbs. SOME are fat, obviously. Probably fewer than the american average. Also, "Many" don't run from prison cells, ONE has. But why not generalize, being an ignorant stereotyping POS.



78. Italians regularly stay at home until 30 or more. The cash they save on not paying rent lets them buy all those designer goods so necessary to maintain appearances.

It has nothing to do with buying designer goods.. the tradition has existed for centuries. Italian men stay with their parents, then move out with their wifes, so they get good home cookin and family connections throughout their lives, instead of the typical american "bachelor" years spent living lonely in a $300 a month studio apartment living off pizza and frozen garbage. Which, for you, is probably the rest of your life.


82. Most Norwegian houses have a cellar built in for brewing homemade hooch. Heavy drinking is about the only way most people can get through the winter when there’s practically no daylight.


Do I even need to debate this? Most houses have breweries? How stupid are you?? Maybe a handful in a town. And people get through the winters just fine, they don't need to become alcoholics, unlike the average american college student.



88. There are pregnant Latin American women who wait near the US border until their waters break and then make a run for it with their lawyers. If they succeed in crossing the line they chain themselves to a rock or a bush and hope that their baby will be born on US soil (and hence get automatic US citizenship) before they’re cut free and sent back.

'are' again? Maybe one isolated case that made the news or something. News Flash: it's a lot easier to jump the border than that.. they don't have to chain themselves or anything.

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I could go on and trash most of your article, but unfortunately I have better things to do with my time unlike you guys. You get the point though, and hopefully most people stumblng across this junk will too. I'm guessing some of the stuff you believe is true might've been told to you by tourist guides... word of advice, don't believe half the stuff they say. It's made up to sensationalize and impress gullible tourists like you. Either that, or I'm guessing you're the kind of sad loser who gets a kick out of inflaming people's anger, a "troll" if you will, with his own website. Well congratulations, StumbleUpon inadvertently granted you that. This is the high point of your sad trolling existence unfortunately, life is all downhill from here.

[markymark]

um... rob, how do you cite an ungodly amount of rj quotes and then say you don't have time to bash it? that must have taken a long time, and the "unlike you guys" is so lame i can't even start - i'm just thinking dungeons and dragons fanboy.
how can you include on your list of mistakes some obvious jokes that have no intention of imforming anyone of fact? i assume you have a working sense of humor, although different from mine.
how did you mistake subjective looks at other cultures for material intended to be in a lonely planet? i never saw anything claiming that this would walk you through a vacation.
how did you get so angry? just stop reading if you don't like it.
what the fuck is stumbleupon?

p.s. you should definitely check out the onion for your future current events needs.

[tom]

Thanks for that, Rob.

Funny thing about life is most people think that if they haven't heard of it then it didn't happen. I'm slowly adding sources to the article but it takes time and i really didn't expect that many people to read it.

The other thing is that we're not slamming places by pointing out odd cultural instances, we do so just to illustrate the variety of the human condition. We don't think anywhere is better or worse than anywhere else in particular, there's just subjective taste.

We do tend to exaggerate here and there but there's usually a basis to the truth. For instance, many but not all Hindus would never blow out a flame as it's the sacred symbol of Agni (see source recently added to article) and would be like blowing in the face of a god.

Or check out the high incidence of mother/son incest in Japan (source also recently added to article) where we learn:

"The most commonly reported incest occurs when the mother sees her son masturbate as a teenager and tells him, "It's not good to do it alone. Your IQ becomes lower. I will help you," or "You cannot study if you cannot have sex. You may use my body," or "I don't want you to get into trouble with a girl. Have sex with me instead."(166) The researchers found that Japanese mothers and sons often sleep in the same bed and have sex together, although the exact incidence in the population was not investigated. According to the phone interviews, Japanese mothers teach their sons how to masturbate, helping them to achieve first ejaculation in much the same manner as they earlier helped them with toilet training.(167) Most of the sons had no sexual experience with another woman, and became jealous of the mothers' having sex with their fathers, feeling they should have the right to monopolize the mothers - perhaps helping explain why one informant told a family planning expert: "We have no Oedipal problems in Japan - there's no competition from the father.(168) Mother recent Japanese book, based on one hundred incest reports, confirms these observations, including the unusually high rate of mother - son incest, although it, too, provides no way to determine true national incidence rates.(169)"

Of course, incest isn't that common in Japan but the nature of it tells us a lot about hidden Japanese attitudes towards sexuality and family.

Oh well, only one reply and I'm offline for the next week. By the way no one ever said that the guy from Kerala played guitar. He just used a shell on a string, I don't remember the instrument off hand.

But yes, people getting really worked up about things they've never heard before, then writing in to call us names etc - we do find that quite funny.

[Rob]

markymark Wrote:um... rob, how do you cite an ungodly amount of rj quotes and then say you don't have time to bash it? that must have taken a long time,

i don't have time to debate every 1 out of the 101 points, but I do have the time to do about a quarter of them just to point out the idiocy. Obviously the writer had a lot more time on his hands to write out 4 times the amount of crap that I had the patience to debate.

markymark Wrote:and the "unlike you guys" is so lame i can't even start - i'm just thinking dungeons and dragons fanboy.

And I'm thinking dirty hippies that got picked on in high school now crying in joy at the invention of the internet, which allows them to be a douchebags without the guilt of people seeing their loser faces and pitying their sad existence. Because in real life, people would just discount everything they have to say since we know it stems from insecurity and lack of love growing up.

markymark Wrote:how can you include on your list of mistakes some obvious jokes that have no intention of imforming anyone of fact? i assume you have a working sense of humor, although different from mine.

It's not obvious jokes, unlike the Onion. It's some actual truths, mixed with subtle lies disguised as truths as well as exaggerated generalizations of one-off incidents, nothing "obvious" about them. The Onion is obvious parody, and it's hilarious. If this was meant to be parody, please read what Tom has to say about it in the next post.. it clearly was not meant to be. He actually believes this garbage, and expects others to. And the way it is written, a lot of people would.. and would communicate with people from those cultures with these supposed "truths" at the back of their mind. I've seen it, that's what pisses me off. This site is not designed as a parody website, it tries to be legit (which it is not) is the problem. Really, it's just bigoted shit designed to make you guys feel better about yourselves at the expense of other cultures, most of which is fabricated or overgeneralized anyway. The ironic thing is, none of this will change the reality of your failed hippie trash life in Jersey or wherever the hell you are... trashing others without provocation never improves your situation, only makes it more pathetic.

markymark Wrote:how did you mistake subjective looks at other cultures for material intended to be in a lonely planet? i never saw anything claiming that this would walk you through a vacation.
how did you get so angry? just stop reading if you don't like it.
what the fuck is stumbleupon?

I wouldn't give a damn about your sad 2-people-a-day-traffic hippie website if it wasn't for StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a browser plugin that allows users to "tag" pages as good or popular, an online shared list of "favorites" if you will, categorized so someone clicking the "Stumble" button in their browsers would be redirected to a random page from the common library, as long as it's part of their interest categories. So people with a "travel" interest have a chance of being redirected to your page, because some moron tagged it. That means thousands of people being redirected to your otherwise worthless page, reading and absorbing these bigoted myths and communicating with other cultures based on a smug holier-than-thou mentality. That is why I had to take the time out to post here, because the article and the front page had a link to this thread, and not just "stop reading". To at least offset some of the damage caused by the article by hoping people read this.

Quote:p.s. you should definitely check out the onion for your future current events needs.

I love the onion. This is not the onion. This site sucks balls. And for reasons stated above, it is not comparable.

[Rob]

tom Wrote:Thanks for that, Rob.

Funny thing about life is most people think that if they haven't heard of it then it didn't happen. I'm slowly adding sources to the article but it takes time and i really didn't expect that many people to read it.
The other thing is that we're not slamming places by pointing out odd cultural instances, we do so just to illustrate the variety of the human condition. We don't think anywhere is better or worse than anywhere else in particular, there's just subjective taste.

Slamming may not be your intention, but that's what you are doing, unconciously perhaps. The only "truths" you highlight, are negative. How about highlighting some of the positive stuff in those countries you've supposedly traveled to? They can be positive, truthful, and still be exotic you know.
Ironically, you forget to highlight any such "truths" about your own country or way of life, so any claims about "pointing out the human condition" are false. I could, for instance, point out the polygamous cult just busted in the southern states in the US, that had old men marry and have sex with 13 year old girls. I could then put a factoid in my article "102. In America, it is common for 60 year old men to have sex with multiple 13 year old girls taken as wifes." We both know this is far from common, but that is exactly what you do in your article. Or I could point out the existence of sad druggie hippies in America, stemming from deteriorating families, who never got the love growing up. That, unfortunately, is probably more of a general truth than most of your article "pointing out the human condition".

Quote:We do tend to exaggerate here and there but there's usually a basis to the truth. For instance, many but not all Hindus would never blow out a flame as it's the sacred symbol of Agni (see source recently added to article) and would be like blowing in the face of a god.

I am aware that your impressions are based on isolated instances. But you take the liberty of generalizing and slandering the entire cultures. I know of the "Agni" or Fire god worship thing, but my not having heard about this flame-blowing thing from among the thousands of devout Hindus i know makes it as prevalent as the polygamy cult that I mentioned among Christians. Yet, you don't see me saying "Any Christian/American of religious disposition has multiple 13-year old concubines".

Quote:Or check out the high incidence of mother/son incest in Japan (source also recently added to article) where we learn:

"The most commonly reported incest occurs when the mother sees her son masturbate as a teenager and tells him, "It's not good to do it alone. Your IQ becomes lower. I will help you," or "You cannot study if you cannot have sex. You may use my body," or "I don't want you to get into trouble with a girl. Have sex with me instead."(166) The researchers found that Japanese mothers and sons often sleep in the same bed and have sex together, although the exact incidence in the population was not investigated. According to the phone interviews, Japanese mothers teach their sons how to masturbate, helping them to achieve first ejaculation in much the same manner as they earlier helped them with toilet training.(167) Most of the sons had no sexual experience with another woman, and became jealous of the mothers' having sex with their fathers, feeling they should have the right to monopolize the mothers - perhaps helping explain why one informant told a family planning expert: "We have no Oedipal problems in Japan - there's no competition from the father.(168) Mother recent Japanese book, based on one hundred incest reports, confirms these observations, including the unusually high rate of mother - son incest, although it, too, provides no way to determine true national incidence rates.(169)"

Of course, incest isn't that common in Japan but the nature of it tells us a lot about hidden Japanese attitudes towards sexuality and family.

Trash seeks out trash, seems like you've seeked out crappy tabloid articles that reinforce your bigoted views using the same "take isolated incidents and make a statistical trend out of them" mentality.
There's incest and child sexual abuse in America as well, sadly, and very high rates compared to the global average. The only actual statistic your article uses is the number of Mother -son incests among 100 incest cases. So what, there are more mother son incests than the usual, as compared to father-daughter incests... THAT is the whole basis for fabricating this whole "do your homework" fantasy?? It's ludicrous psuedo-science. Would it be better to have more father-daughter incests, as is usually the case? That could be the basis for a whole another realm of perverted speculation to satisfy your minds. The incidence of Incest isn't higher in Japan than most places, it's only the ratio of one type of incest to another that is different. And that is a meaningless statistic. Here's a valid discussion of this tabloid myth.

Quote:Oh well, only one reply and I'm offline for the next week. By the way no one ever said that the guy from Kerala played guitar. He just used a shell on a string, I don't remember the instrument off hand.

This is hearsay at best. I could claim my grandpa invented the jazz drumming technique, and it'd have as much credibility. There are plenty of more rational theories on the origin of the blues slide. With PROOF behind them even! Fancy that!

Quote:But yes, people getting really worked up about things they've never heard before, then writing in to call us names etc - we do find that quite funny.

Enjoy it, it's one of the few pleasures of life reserved for losers like you. I'm feeding it right now aren't I? Too bad, life is otherwise a sad mess for people like you. Ever notice how life has a way of bringing things back full circle? People aren't worked up over "things they haven't heard", they're worked up over half-truths, lies and bigoted slanderings spread by insecure people seeking validation. The world has enough problems and tragedies without you adding lies and exaggerations to it.

[markymark]

wow.

[Ali Baba]

1. The majority of celebrities in Thailand are of mixed race as they have fairer skin.

2. It is common practice to insult babies in S.E Asia to ensure that passing demons/evil spirits don't become jealous and attempt to possess them.

3. Ernai (second wives) are considered status symbol's in China and are publicly flaunted to prove one's success in business.

4. It is common for an English person to appologise to you after you step on his/her foot.

Rob, whatever you do please don't read the 10 worst cities guide.

[yasmin]

I found this site through stumbed upon and really rate it, it's awesome. Travel virgin really does have too much time on his hands..

[Cal]

Also from stumbleupon and think the site is cool, i can imagine you all red faced with rage rob. bloody hippies, huh?



53. In South America men still faithfully repeat pick-up lines called piropos such as ‘wow, what curves – and me without brakes!’ or ‘If your ass was a football I would be your Maradona’.


isolated cheeseball men repeat stupid pick up lines everywhere, including in America. You make it sound like the norm, which it is not.


54. There’s a slang for a girl’s ass in Brazil called poupanca, which translates as ‘piggy bank’. The idea being that if she’s broke she can shake her booty and the money will come tumbling to the floor.


And in America, there's a slang for it called "moneymaker", as in "Shake yo' moneymaker". Listing dumb street slang is hardly cultural.


thought i'd point out that i was in latin america this year and admittedly 53. probably doesnt apply to the andean nations, but by your reckoning rob, argentina is a whole nation of 'isolated cheeseballs'. many female friends of mine complained about it and including it here is mainly humour but also highlights a different culture where men are more forthcoming and chauvanistic (please don't take this as a criticism..). i do suspect embellishment though - i never heard any chatup lines as funny as these, they usually used something along the lines "hey beautiful, how you doing beautiful? you are the most beautiful girl in the world, the girl of my dreams. wow you are beautiful." to EVERY girl in the room

and as for 54. yes the concept of women using their bodies as financial assets - no pun - is not confined to brazil but i doubt its more deeply rooted elsewhere, particularly your example of America. Brazilians are (my own humble but happy opinion) a sexualised and permissive people and it is not only is it one of the sex tourism centres of the world but they dont frown on it too much or see it as a seperate part of society to the rest of the more 'authentic' country as its asian counterparts like vietnam and thailand tend to; or even in america for whom its just showbusiness where u acceptably use your moneymaker to make money. sex is part of brazil and brazilians for the most part happily accept it. and the piggy bank thing is just plain funny.

so yeah, both these examples do occur in america and western europe but in the examples given they actually highlight a cultural trend that is different to us. shocking almost. a culture shock, one might say

and as an aside, so what if you lived in india?? are you telling me that because you lived there you know exactly what goes on in a country of over 1 billion ppl, several different languages and many many square million miles? i live in england and could barely tell you whats happening in ipswich. jesus h. christ man, chill out