Will Brazil elect Dilma Rousseff its president on halloween day?

Dilma, 57%; Serra, 43% (29 October). 

28 October.

Brazilians will go to the polls tomorrow, Sunday, to elect their next president who will assume office on January 1, 2011.  That's Halloween day for America and Europe or in countries like the Philippines where commerce has grafted an imported cultural practice alien to their All Soul's religious folk traditions.

Halloween may not be a big thing in Brazil like the year-long fascination with football especially now that they prepare for Copa 2016, and the frenzied celebrations of the annual Carnival in Rio and the Cirio in Belem.

Dilma, 49%, Serra, 38% (26 October).

20 October.

They take their party-ideology driven politics seriously.  The president of the country must have more than 50% of the popular votes cast, otherwise, they go through run-off elections for a candidate to achieve that majority.  President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's full backing had Dilma Rousseff top the scoring among three candidates in the 03 October elections, but she failed to get the desired majority.

The run-off has her against the centrist candidate Jose Serra. She has maintained a significant lead throughout the campaign period as reflected by the several surveys done.  We love the way the front pages of Brazilian papers, spread out in this story, has been presenting the Dilma-Serra survey scores. 

If we go by those results, Dilma Rousseff has won the presidency and the polls tomorrow would just be the official validation of the informal selection.

In the debate, Dilma scored 48% and Serra 41%.

We thought that the Roman Catholic Church would keep its distance from this political affair. It's been reported that the bishops signed and circulated a letter urging voters to keep off Rousseff, who is fully backed by President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

The Federal District judge barred the airing of a priest's sermon campaigning against Rousseff, a clear separation of religious and civilian functions.

It looks like the Vatican itself has asked the bishops to be vigilant on the issue of decriminalizing abortion, illegal except in the cases of rape or when a woman's life is at risk, which was hotly debated on by the two presidential contenders.

We will see how the bishops could sway voters away from Dilma.

Wondering if the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines are monitoring this political event in far away Brazil.

29 October.

 

Menos Peso, Mais Sexo (Less Weight, More Sex)!

No Philippine daily newspaper would ever have a front page cover like this, more so on a Sunday edition :

Sunday Front Page!

The picture alone would send the Padre Damasos of the religious sector as well as the prim and proper members of Pinoy society to the barricades to protest abuse of free expression. The paper would be "excommunicated", and reflective of  Catholic Church's Age of Inquisition, doomed to the list of forbidden reading materials.

And the couple are named--Amaro Pena Jr and Adriana Guedes; the story did not say whether they're married. No Pinoys would dare be photographed on bed and their sex life be a front page main feature. Bad examples to prurient souls!

The folks of a slum village that bragged of their fertility--one had eleven children!--to a comic duo last night on a TV5 semi-documentary show, of course, wouldn't care. They're already practising "menos peso, mais sexo" since they do not have (and their poverty would not create) obesity problems.

"Menos peso, mais sexo" is Portuguese (they speak that in Brazil) for "less weight, more sex", but the words are in the Pinoy's vocabulary.  The naughty translation in Pinoyspeak that comes to mind right away is "less pesos, easy sex" since "minamais"connotes that one can do a task easily.

The story is based on a doctoral thesis in public health presented to the Aggeu Magalhães Research Center in Pernambuco (Recife, about 1,900 kms northeast of Rio de Janeiro, is a major city of this  state of Brazil).  

The study included 43 men who went through a bariatric surgery called Fobi-Capella (may be similar to liposuction?) to solve their sexual problems due to obesity.  "Being overweight," the caption says, "disrupts the sex lives of those who can't come to grips with the weighing scale. There's lack of confidence, malaise, fatigue, rapid heart beats, difficulty in having and maintaining erection, and even in varying sexual positions with partners."

According to the study, these ex-gordos (ex-fat guys) had reasons to celebrate after surgery; the statistics show it: 

• Before surgery, 9.3% had severe erectile dysfunction; 67.5% functioned normally.  After surgery, the proportion of men with severe dysfunction fell to 2.3% and those who functioned normally rose to 81.5%;
• 100% noted improvements in their sex life;
• 97.6% claimed benefits relative to their sexual function especially regarding satisfaction and orgasm.

Amado Jr, 31 years old, went through the procedure. Although he was not included in the study, his pre- and post-surgery sexual experiences were used in the story.  He said he was terrible ashamed of being fat, and his penis became small because of the fat. His belly also got in the way; there was minimal penetration, and they could only do one or two positions.  He now says, his penis is back to normal; and they do have sex almost everyday with varying positions, where before, once a month was good enough.

"Forty combinations of sexual activity" is a key phrase found in another study.  This time it's about the sexual and sexual-health behaviors of U.S. adults conducted by researchers from the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation for almost twenty years.  The study covered, among others, the experiences and condom-use behaviors of 5,865 adolescents and adults ages 14 to 94.  

The Star-Ledger of New Jersey carried it in its front page on 05 October issue as shown below.

Study funded by Church & Dwight Co. Inc., maker of Trojan® brand sexual health products.

Among the key findings of the study are the following:

• "There is enormous variability in the sexual repertoires of U.S. adults, with more than 40 combinations of sexual activity described at adults’ most recent sexual event.
• "Many older adults continue to have active pleasurable sex lives, reporting a range of different behaviors and partner types, however adults over the age of 40 have the lowest rates of condom use. Although these individuals may not be as concerned about pregnancy, this suggests the need to enhance education efforts for older individuals regarding STI risks and prevention.
• "About 85% of men report that their partner had an orgasm at the most recent sexual event; this compares to the 64% of women who report having had an orgasm at their most recent sexual event. (A difference that is too large to be accounted for by some of the men having had male partners at their most recent event.)
• "Men are more likely to orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse; women are more likely to orgasm when they engage in a variety of sex acts and when oral sex or vaginal intercourse is included.
• "While about 7% of adult women and 8% of men identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the proportion of individuals in the U.S. who have had same-gender sexual interactions at some point in their lives is higher.
• "At any given point in time, most U.S. adolescents are not engaging in partnered sexual behavior. While 40% of 17 year-old males reported vaginal intercourse in the past year, only 27% reported the same in the past 90 days.
• "Adults using a condom for intercourse were just as likely to rate the sexual extent positively in terms of arousal, pleasure and orgasm than when having intercourse without one."

 The last one about condom use would probably register a warning beep in the radar of  the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and their apostles. Condom use is part of the reproductive health options for Pinoy adult males, and these moral crusaders have never given it a positive view.

 

For a comprehensive look at the contemporary Americans’ sexual behaviors including "a description of more than 40 combinations of sexual acts that people perform during sexual events, patterns of condom use by adolescents and adults, and the percentage of Americans participating in same-sex encounters", the website to go to for a download of the "National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior(NSSHB)" is   http://www.nationalsexstudy.indiana.edu/  of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion.

By the way, Church & Dwight Co. Inc., maker of Trojan® brand sexual health products (condoms included) funded this study.


Holy Cow! Let's look at the 40 sexual combinations. Mabuhay ang Reproductive Health Bill!