Further comments on Brazil's identity crisis (1): a fait divers.

[Carlos Eduardo Rebello <crebello@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I ran across this today:

*O Globo*, 26th april, 2000:

Copy of flagship cannot navigate even with engine.

The copy of Pedro Alvares Cabral's flagship that was supposed to be one
of the main atractions of the 500th-anniversary festivities will not
participate in the re-enacting of the 1st mass in Brazil today. Late
during yesterday's night, another attempt to make the ship sail to Porto
Seguro failed. Sixty miles away from Salvador, one of the engines
stopped and later water entered the ship, which had to be towed back to
the naval base of Aratu, It was the 2nd failed attempt to make the
flagship - a project that costed R$ 3.8 million [some US$ 2 million] -
to be present at the festivities. Earlier, there had been problems with
one of the masts.

The president of the Navy Club of Rio, Domingos Castelo
Branco,responsible for the building, replied that "there are so many
things in this country that are devoid of any meaning whatsoever and
cost so much more".

trans., Carlos Rebello