60 years of German post-war constitution. Thank you, Western Allies!

[Barrister]

Dunno if it's just me, but all the Brazilian women I've met in real life have been a bit disappointing 

How do you feel about light skinned black chicks in general?

My brother is dating a Brazilian chick.  She's just downright white.

And the few other Brazilian chicks I've met that I can think of were fairly dark-skinned black.

It's a country with a very confusing racial mix.

[Zanza]

Certainly a good reason to celebrate. The German post-war constitution was a great success. 

[Syt]

It's a country with a very confusing racial mix.

Indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blumenau


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerode



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainians_of_Brazil


And then there's of course the downright crazy:
Keeping Dixie Alive in Brazil

"WE'RE TRYING to preserve our culture," says Frederico Padoveze, a 23-year-old dressed like a Confederate general whose name belies his southern U.S. heritage.

Like most of the 160 people who gathered on the outskirts of this town one recent Sunday, Padoveze is the descendant of a group of Americans who left their homes in the U.S. South after the Civil War.

Some died searching for better fortune in Brazil and many went back to America. But a small group overcame the perils of life in what was to them a strange, poor, tropical land and have become a small but important piece of its history.

"They wanted a new country, a new place to live," said Noemia Cullen Pyles of her ancestors, who are known as the Confederados in Brazil.

"Everybody's dream is to live in the United States. We wanted to leave," she said.

Indeed, the Confederados' exodus was one of the very few organized emigrations out of the United States, a country better known for receiving immigrants than producing them.

GOSSIP AND SOUTHERN CHOW

At last four times a year, a group known as the Fraternity of American Descendants gathers at a cemetery where their ancestors are buried to gossip, celebrate their roots and chow down on southern cooking.

Padoveze and his friends also put on a dance to tunes like "The Yellow Rose of Texas," and the group holds a church service in a small red brick chapel where the first Baptist ceremony in Brazil was organized in 1871.

Behind the church, the names on the tombstones chart a web of intermarriages that followed the initial settlements and helped knit the community together.

Like the United States, Brazil is a country founded largely by immigrants. The Portuguese arrived in 1500, and later so did swarms of European, Japanese, Jewish and Arab settlers.

By comparison, the U.S. presence is small.

Cyrus Dawsey, a professor of geography at Auburn University in Alabama who coauthored the book "The Confederados," estimates that between 5,000 and 7,000 southerners made their way to Brazil. About half went back.

Most of them were ordinary farmers or craftsmen worried about their prospects in the economic turmoil of the post-war South. Too poor to afford slaves in the United States, only a few bought them when they arrived in Brazil.

"There was a little bit of slave ownership in Brazil but it wasn't very important," Dawsey said.

"That's not to say they were abolitionists, but [slavery] just wasn't important to them."

Brazil did not abolish slavery until 1888, 23 years after the United States.

Eventually most of the immigrants headed to the interior of Sao Paulo state near a town later named after them: Americana. The cemetery is located outside a neighboring city, Santa Barbara do Oeste, about two hours' drive northwest of Sao Paulo and where many of their descendants live.

Dawsey believes the Confederados' geographical isolation in Brazil and their Protestantism in a mostly Roman Catholic country may have initially helped them preserve more of their culture than other immigrant groups.

PERFECTLY INTEGRATED

But on a Sunday, many of those mulling around are fourth-or fifth-generation Confederados, and they say they are just like anybody else in Brazil.

"We're perfectly integrated," said Allison Jones, the Fraternity's official spokesman.

Indeed, just about everyone savoring fried chicken was speaking Portuguese and some don't speak English. Like Padoveze, whose Confederate ancestor married a black Brazilian slave, many have also lost their American last names and pale Anglo-Saxon complexion.

But then again, few people in Brazil fly the U.S., Brazilian and Confederate flags side by side at mealtime.

In the United States, the flying of the Confederate "Stars and Bars" flag has sparked numerous controversies as a symbol of the racial hatred institutionalized in the the Confederate South.

But Cullen Pyles, the Fraternity's treasurer, said the Confederate flag has a different meaning for the group.

"She is a reminder of our ancestry," she says. "It doesn't represent racism or any of that to us."

Later on in the day, Padoveze is resting after having led his friends in a dance. He says his association with the Fraternity has helped him learn not only about U.S. history but about Brazil.

"One of the things I learned from Americans is to love your country," he says. "And I do love my country: Brazil."

[Sheilbh]

I love Brazil.

I also love post-war Germany and I'm a huge, huge fan of the German Social Democrat tradition.  To my mind it's the most rigorous, thoughtful, intelligent and honourable left-wing tradition in the world.  And then Gerhard Schroeder shat all over it

[derspiess]

How do you feel about light skinned black chicks in general?

Depends on how light they are.  I haven't seen many I like outside of TV & advertisements though, to be honest.

I suppose I should amend my earlier statement about Brazilian wimmenz.  My wife has 2 cousins who were originally from Brazil (adopted by her aunt), and both are attractive.

[Zanza]

And then Gerhard Schroeder shat all over it

[Malicious Intent]

I also love post-war Germany and I'm a huge, huge fan of the German Social Democrat tradition.  To my mind it's the most rigorous, thoughtful, intelligent and honourable left-wing tradition in the world.  And then Gerhard Schroeder shat all over it

To be honest, the SPD had little to offer in rigorous, thoughtful, intelligent and honourable personal even in the years before Schröder. Especially since Lafontaine would have been his only real alternative. 

Carlo Schmid however, one of the most inflluential members of the parliamentary council that created the Grundgesetz, was quite a distinguished man. He was also one of the driving men behind the Godesberger Programm.

[Saladin]

I love Brazil.

I also love post-war Germany and I'm a huge, huge fan of the German Social Democrat tradition.  To my mind it's the most rigorous, thoughtful, intelligent and honourable left-wing tradition in the world.  And then Gerhard Schroeder shat all over it

Like Blair did with Labour`? 

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is the way of the left.

Righty : Socialism has never worked!

Lefty : Ah........but it has never been tried.

[Sheilbh]

Like Blair did with Labour`? 

  Not at all.

In all honesty I am distant enough from Germany to be able to talk about a 'German Social Democrat tradition' while I'm close enough to the UK to realise that I don't think there is an Old Labour, there's a plural vision of the left that ranges from intellectual if rather patronising bourgeois Fabianism, to Christian Socialism , the Trades Union left and so on.

But Blair's up there, for me, in my Labour Party Pantheon

[Sheilbh]

Righty : Socialism has never worked!

Lefty : Ah........but it has never been tried.

Socialism has and is working, in this country, right now.  But that doesn't mean it can't be improved or that all changes should stop.  Socialism's not a destination but a process - so are all political values I suppose

[Admiral Yi]

Socialism has and is working, in this country, right now.  But that doesn't mean it can't be improved or that all changes should stop.  Socialism's not a destination but a process - so are all political values I suppose

Weren't you singing a different tune during the great "Europe is not socialist it's social democrat" debate during the US election?

[Richard Hakluyt]

In what way is is it socialist?

It looks like throwing a few crumbs to the peasants in order to preserve the status quo to me 

[Sheilbh]

Weren't you singing a different tune during the great "Europe is not socialist it's social democrat" debate during the US election?

Most lefty European parties are social democrats.  The only big exception I can think of are the French elephants (or dinosaurs).  Labour certainly is, though we still occassionally refer to it as socialist.  But that reference is, like the use of 'Comrade' and singing 'The Red Flag' more an acknowledgement of heritage than anything else.

Though it is a scale to socialism to social democracy.

Having said that given that my condition for socialism was nationalisation of major industry I was quite wrong.  Obama has turned out to be a socialist.  So did Bush, for that matter.  Indeed, we're all socialists now.

The reason I used the phrase 'socialism' was because RH did