Friday, February 20

Beware of the Girl from Ipanema

Over the past few months, I have been following the David Goldman custody case ad nauseum, because of the fact that whatever the decision the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court makes on his case, could inadvertantly affect me and my two boys born to a Brazilian father.What David's ex wife did to him is beyond any form of decency. She was deceitful and manipulating, you can see it in her eyes in the home videos.
There is an article in the Financial Post about a Canadian businessman who is going through a custody battle with his estranged Brazilian wife. At the end Francois Larivee says the biggest mistake was to marry a Brazilian. I tend to agree with him.
I have lived in Brazil for the last 13 years and I can tell you with all certainty, the Girl from Ipanema is a myth. Men from Europe and America land on the beaches of Brazil and think they have found their dreamgirl. A dream that quickly becomes a nightmare. Tall and tanned and young and lovely??? Only in the song...Reality is that they are short and fat and looking for a sugar daddy to get them out of Brazil..I have sat on airplanes coming out of Brazil next to men absolutely smitten with a girl they met on the beach, whose mother needs money for surgery...Wake up guys!!!!! You are just a bank account for them.And for all of you men going down to Brazil for Carnaval and a good time? Do yourself a favor and wear a condom that YOU provide, because if you get a woman pregnant down there, be prepared to pay at least 30% of your salary in child support, regardless of where you live in the world......
I have a few female Brazilian friends whom I adore, but a number of women from Rio are worthless and unscrupulous. I was part owner of a beauty salon in Barra. My business partner basically made me do everything while she had to pick her kids up from school, go to the beach etc. When I finally decided to get out of the partnership,and have her buy me out, she stopped payment on the cheques she wrote to pay for my portion of the partnership. It has been wallowing in small claims court for over 4 years. She has lied to the subpoena officer by telling her minions to tell the officer that she no longer lives at the said address, yet her children attended school with my son. The money she owes me is not going to make or break me, but its the principle.
There is an article in Macleans about a Montreal businessman who met a 17 year old Brazilian girl and is now fighting a court battle with her in regards to his millions.
The thing I have found in Rio is people are attracted to my internationalism, like it is some sort of status symbol to have me as a friend. Its all great in the beginning, but the same thing that attracts people to me becomes a reason for their contempt further down the road. They think I am pretentious. What a laugh!! ME? Hardly. I had the opportunity to travel the world at a young age and be surrounded by the glamourous life. I learned other languages and delved into the cultures of the places where I lived. I don't rub it into people's faces, and I love to share tidbits about other cultures to people around me.
I want to be clear that I have nothing against Brazilian people, but unfortunately there are enough women(and men) in Brazil who ruin the reputation of the ones who are decent. .

2 comments:

Baronete do Leblon said...

Hey Lisa,

I've been coming to your blog in the past few weeks and this is the first post that seemed a bit unfair (hence, my first comment!). Congrats on the blog, btw, it's a great read. But, just as I only commented on your blog when I found something was wrong with it, the horror stories of international relationships with Brazilians are the ones that are remembered. You'll seldom hear about the lasting, loving relationships between decent people, simply because they are the rule, not the exception. Foreigners coming to Brazil quite often have expectations of romantic/erotic engagements, and often actively seek them, being more prone to a "mishap" than would a tourist in, say, Germany. What I'm saying is that maybe it is not Brazilians that are more immoral than the rest, maybe it is that there are more willing gringos here to fall prey to the immoral ones.

Btw, I see that you, as I, are a fan of food and wine. I have a blog with Rio de Janeiro restaurant reviews you might like. http://eatinginrio.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I agree that there are gringos that come to brazil expecting certain things and yes, they do fall prey to the immoral ones.
I do know of longlasting relationships between Brazilians and gringos. But when things go wrong, they go VERY wrong...