Glancing at TechCrunch late on Thursday evening, I immediately realised there was trouble afoot.
A few hours earlier, Sarah Lacy had published a post about the difficulties she’d had receiving her visa to Brazil to research her book and report on start-ups for TechCrunch. I’d read the post and sympathized with Sarah’s frustration. The problem, apparently, had been caused by an ‘upgrade’ of Brazilian embassy computer systems and the resulting havoc had affected everyone from journalists to business people to the coach of a national football – sorry, ’soccer’ – team.
As Sarah wrote, it also meant that she would now not be able to meet any of the scores of startups who had hoped to speak to a visiting TechCrunch reporter. If I were one of those startups, I’d be pissed. I’d be pissed at my government for not getting their technology together, and I’d be pissed generally that I’d missed an opportunity to showcase my business on a foreign stage. I might even post a comment saying as much.
Glancing at TechCrunch on Thursday evening, then, I half-expected to see maybe a couple of dozen comments on the post. But no. There were hundreds. Almost 500 in fact, and just about every one of them was attacking Sarah specifically, and American visa policy, generally.
How dare you insult Brazil!” they cried, “You stupid Americans demand that Brazilians have visas to visit your country; why shouldn’t we do the same?” Some of them used words like “reciprocity” and “pay back”. One even called Sarah a ‘gringa’, which was cute and in no way played to a stereotype. Many – who clearly knew all about the months of planning Sarah had done for her trip – angrily suggested that she should have started applying from the visa earlier. A vocal minority was additionally livid that the post was illustrated by a mashup – culled from Google images – of the Brazilian flag and the ‘EPIC FAIL’ meme. Some demanded criminal penalties for the outrage. It was whatever the Portuguese is for a train wreck.
Puzzled, I read the post again. Clearly I’d missed something on my first reading. Obviously Sarah – who, let’s remember, has been TC’s most vocal advocate for relaxing US visa laws for foreign entrepreneurs – had called for Brazil to be bombed back to the stone age, or suggested its womenfolk were unclean. But no, she really had just complained that a computer upgrade had inconvenienced her and thousands of other travelers who already had been approved for visas but who hadn’t been delivered them on the day they were promised.
As a foreigner on these shores, the subject is one close to my heart, which is why I’d read – and sympathised with – the post in the first place. Not long ago, I went through the visa process to relocate to the US from the UK. I had a far smoother experience than many of my European friends who are still flailing around in H1B or O1 hell, but I still had to struggle through a dull process of bureaucracy, money, police checks, paperwork, money, waiting, interviews, money and bullshit. And money.
In fact, the only truly smooth aspect came right at the end, once I’d been approved for the visa and was told my passport would be returned three days later. With that, I booked my flight and, sure enough, at exactly 9am on the third day, a courier arrived on my doorstep clutching my newly visa-d passport. Had there been an unexpected delay after being told I could make travel plans, I’d have been furious: there’s no excuse for missing deadlines when you’ve promised they’ll be met. Reciprocity and forward planning have nothing to do with it; it’s just bureaucratic sloppiness. On that front, the Brazilian embassy had failed. Epically.
And what about this flag business? I mean, seriously. If I understand you correctly, Brazilians, Photoshopping your national symbol with a joke meme is an unforgivable affront to your nationhood, and yet painting it across your girlfriend’s breasts at a soccer game or screen-printing it on a tiny g-string is a wonderful celebration of national identity? Maybe we Brits are just under-sensitive, but frankly you could Photoshop a defaced picture of the queen onto our flag and you wouldn’t hear a peep of complaint. Except perhaps that you stole our idea.
So if it wasn’t the visa issue, or the flag, really the only justification I could find for the Brazilian commenters’ rage was Sarah’s remark that her husband was worried about her traveling to the country due its reputation for violence.
This is of course typical American paranoia of all points foreign. “The natives are savages! We won’t be able to walk the streets in safety!” they whine, in a hideously unfair characterisation of a gentle, welcoming people. No wonder some Brazilians were upset with Sarah, to the point where they posted comments threatening to spit in her face and rape her.
And that’s where I realized that something was terribly awry. Sarah writes a story about bureaucratic ineptitude and broken promises, illustrated by a mildly clichéd Photoshop, and her safety is threatened by a mob of lunatic Brazilians. Arrington disses a few start-ups over the years and a mental German spits in his face at DLD. Erick writes a controversial headline about a multinational music service and the threats get so serious that TechCrunch has to call in the cops to protect its staff.
And that’s just the foreigners. The Americans are just as bad: last week Vivek Wadhwa received hundreds upon hundreds of furiously xenophobic responses to his guest post – many suggesting that the Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University was unwelcome on American soil. His crime? Suggesting that it should be easier for skilled foreign workers to get H1B visas. A suggestion, by the way, which was later linked to and supported by Newt Fucking Gingrich.
I don’t get it. Where am I going so wrong?
I was hired by TechCrunch specifically to be the controversial one. Unlike the rest of the writers here, who have actual reporting credentials, my whole shtick is saying inflammatory things and inciting furious debate among morons. To that end, in my very first column I declared war on anonymous commenters, making it absolutely clear how much I hate every last one of them, and even threatening to bludgeon the little basement-dwellers to death with their own Wil Wheaton action figures.
But nothing.
Since then I’ve tried to up my game. I’ve promoted scientifically dubious fad cleanses, I’ve called out lying company spokespeople and threatened to name and shame them, I’ve applauded Google for its anti-trust activities and suggested that Microsoft would commit genocide if it was commercially expedient. I’ve written an entire column attacking Drudge-reading Republican ditto heads who object to Obama’s attempts to control the Internet. Hell, I’ve even admitted to once being a magician.
But still nothing.
How is it possible I’ve attacked Republicans and not received my own death threats? What’s the point in them deliberately misinterpreting the spirit of the Second Amendment if they’re not going to use the handguns strapped to their thighs to intimidate a foreigner? Where are my globules of Teutonic sputum or my sickening threats of violence? What does a man have to do around here to get threatened with rape by a Brazilian?
Frankly, I’m starting to get worried for my job. Every week Arrington gets off on threatening to fire me – but so far I’ve clung on to the gig, mainly because I keep convincing him that I’ll be a source of controversy and excitement. And yet week in, week out I’m getting my ass handed to me by just about everyone else on TechCrunch. And they’re not even trying.
Clearly I have to up my game. Over the coming weeks the gloves are going to have to come off. I’m going to have to go all-out with deliberately provocative headlines and racist ledes in the hope of prompting a mob of moronically illiterate textually-violent misogynist dickweeds to abuse me. Only then will my controversy crown be restored and my survival here assured.
From next week then, you can look forward to column titles like…
“Did the state of Israel just pass data to the RIAA?”
“CBS’s acquisition of Last.fm: smartest American deal with a German since Werner von Braun?”
“US education hasn’t produced a decent one since Oklahoma: so why is it so hard for foreign bombers to get H1B visas?”
“The Fanboys from Brazil: why Latin American Mac users are even more insufferably smug than those in the rest of the world”
“The French are Lazy, Americans are fat, Brits have bad teeth, Palestinians are all terrorists and the Swiss got rich on Nazi gold – and it’s all the fault of AT&T”
“Fuck you, Belgium”
…and probably something about South Africans being boorish and ignorant. They’re always good for a fight.
And then, after I write those, I’m imploring the comment idiots amongst you to do your worst. Once you’ve finished skimming my words, misinterpreting my every premise and forming your knee-jerk, nationalistic response – please, please be sure to hack it out in the comments. Don’t worry about accuracy, grammar or even basic literacy: it’s a numbers game and you freaks are my last hope at keeping this gig.
After all, where will I be without my job as Controversialist in Residence at TechCrunch? Destitute, that’s where. A poor, jobless, bitter loser with a strange accent, forced to beg for money from my neighbors to survive.
Oh, God, I’ll be Welsh.
Forgive me, Paul, but I only read half of your article. It may be your self-important tendency to write meandering, endless posts in the mistaken belief that you’re some sort of Hemingway and that people enjoy your verbose circumlocutions, or it may just be that you displayed the same sort of tin-eared arrogance as Sarah.
America and Britain have two things in common: (1) They’re both declining empires whose best days are behind them, and (2) They have citizens who don’t realize (1).
Sarah’s post was replete with self-righteous arrogance: I am an American, and you third-world monkeys better treat me like a queen, and be glad I’m visiting to write a book about your dirty country. Brazilians were offended and rightly so.
You suffer the same blind spot as Sarah: in your supercilious arrogance, you don’t see how the post could hurt Brazilian feelings. You can call your dad a jerk. if I call him a jerk, you’d be offended. Similarly, Brazilians can paint their flag on their bare bottoms if they want- it’s THEIR flag. It’s not Sarah’s flag to insult.
I live in the UK, and Britons are some of the most parochial, patriotic people on Earth- just like Americans. They’re very proud of their country. Most people are. Including Brazilians. So bearing in mind the truth that getting an American visa is a far more tortuous and bureaucratic process than getting a Brazilian one, both you and Sarah are off the mark in insulting an entire country (and its flag) because of a technical glitch in a bureaucratic process.
Sarah fail. Paul fail.
I only read the first sentence of this comment that is 90% longer than the rest. I couldn’t move past the term “self-important.”
Verbose and Hemingway again?!!!
How do you always get them to do that, Paul?
Jeebus.
Lamia, can I suggest you have sex at some point in the short term? It might loosen you up a bit.
Let’s face it, Brazil is a shithole of epic proportions, you want to sell to Americans, more than Americans want to sell to you.
Your journalists plot to kill politicians, you do realize that this is the opposite way than it is supposed to be right? In most third world societies such as Brazil, the government generally plots to ice the reporters.
Cheers and have a fantastic weekend!
“this is the opposite way than it is supposed to be right”
I take it English isn’t your first language?
Correct
geez i would hate to see things the way you do.
>Your journalists plot to kill politicians, you do realize that this is the opposite way than it is supposed to be right? In most third world societies such as Brazil, the government generally plots to ice the reporters.
—————-
i saw in the news a couple weeks ago that an american reporter had been arrested for plotting to kill politicians he covered…and i heard on the radio months ago that a reporter was killed in russia for doing her job and exposing POS politicians. i also heard on the radio about a reporter in the philippines who was murdered by goons of a politician because she was exposing his corruption. but only brazil must be the only hellhole country on this earth because you think things should happen a certain way. geez. fml.
Striong argument, Lamia, just compare the status of the Brazilian eocnomy with the US hanging in the ropes:
http://brazil.w...zilian-economy/
Which is why alml Brazilian should forgive Sarah, she just couldn’t handle the sheer frustration anymore.
i got to meandering in your comment and decided that you were probably going to mention how stupid sarah’s post is and how paul’s in defence of sarah’s post is also lame, so i wan’t surprised when i scrolled down and saw ’sarah fail. paul fail’. i decided that since i read paul’s entire write up (even though i realized halfway that this post is about sarah’s rant that had people ranting back) i should read your entire comment. you should read startupwizz’s comment about patriotism being for idiots.i understand people have feelings but, but i don’t understand why the brazilians who commented feel like sarah has insulted them. it just makes them look soft. you could probably just take a picture of her and post most epic fail ever, and basically do what she did. i would refrain from that kind of my penis is bigger than yours argument but she didn’t refrain herself from posting a huge rant on this website so why should you have to post coherent comments in reply. the reciprocity comments from so many didn’t take away from the fact that yes applying for visa sucks and that things like what happened to sarah happens to a lot more people than just her. i agree that aside from the britain’s and france’s visa process, the american visa process is probably one of the worst and entirely bureaucratic. you should point that blinspot finger you have at sarah and paul and include yourself so that it doesn’t come off like you also suffer from that same self righteous indignation sarah exhibited in her post. i think you also agree that sarah could have gone about this a different way.
don’t read chem’s comment. it’s a complete smh pov.
I am done. Self absorbed… circle jerking.. bunch of self loving snobs. I am deleting my link to this piece of crap. When you folks grow up and become journalist maybe I’ll… never mind it won’t happen.
Yeah… see you on Monday.
One good point – Brazil is all over the site. hahaha.
Techcrunch RIP.
You all need to go and get some air, come on, I’m basically neutral in all of this, and I don’t get all this fuss.
It’s all Murphy’s fault, plain and simple
I’m impressed that TC writers are taking this beast on themselves, and I see it as a public good on the internet.
Internet journalism has changed and grown, yet the same kind of dialog we saw years ago is still being used by people commenting on here.
I think some insight into the psychological rewards of that kind of behavior may be helpful–something you would consider? It would help us understand the issues, and eventually shift the normative pressures. At first I found the negativity upsetting, but now it’s boring and I miss being upset. If you can find a way to work this out the whole internet will thank you.
I’m going to reply to my own comment because I think it’s a good point. You should reply too. Let’s make a change.
I was bored 1/12 of the way through that.
I think I went into a persistent vegetative state at about the 2/3 mark.
That’s it dude I’m going to knock you out, put you in a dress and mail you to a Brazilian jail full of rapists
hope that heps
“What does a man have to do …?”
Put on a dress and hang around the futbol team.
That’s right, Ronaldo.
Oh, snap!
Paul,
You know what the problem is? You have your mandate in your head. You will never be controversial that way. Don’t aim at being controversial by looking at what have been labeled “controversial” topics. Just be opinionated on things that matter to you. They don’t have to be big or very known. They just have to matter to you. Sarah’s case is a perfect example. She cared about that Visa. Small event: visa was delayed. Yet, the controversy was everywhere: Brazil being welcome or dangerous, reciprocity, IT deployments across countries, etc. Another perfect example, AT&T puts a human face. There’s tons of material there: should he answer questions? what’s the point, more welcome AT&T same shit service? My point is: STOP TRYING. Write things related to you or that matter to you without being politically correct. Done.
I’ve been reading your posts based on your reputation and you keep promising on delivering. Please deliver next time.
Brazilians are extremely patriotic and have a HUGE inferiority complex. So I am not at all surprised that Sarah got the response she did.
Do remember as well, that these people are the 3-5% minority of computer literate, middle class, english speaking (well educated) people.
And if the computer literate, middle class, well educated people lower themselves to say “they’ll rape someone” and verbally abuse a reporter who was really just trying to help their under-developed country go somewhere, then you can kind of imagine what the remaining 95% working class are like. Brutes.
Brazil is a horrid country, with no future and it will remain that way for as long as I live exactly because the population refuses to accept there’s anything wrong with it and insults anyone who points at their faults.
No point trying to help. Sarah, please focus your energy someone else.
And btw, I’m Brazilian.
Yeah, indeed Brazil is lost without Techcrunch.
I think we should declare bankruptcy right away.
Don’t remember saying anything about that :-\ But sure, make assumptions anyway.
“Brazil is a horrid country, with no future and it will remain that way for as long as I live [...]”
So… we should kill you so Brazil can be a better country?
R.I.P. TechCrunch
That blog is over. What the hell are all you doing?
Keep doing ONLY your job, give the legal things for the authorities.
Shit. This blog is not the same.
I was on the beach in Rio a few years ago and seen fish swimming in the waves. I mentioned it to my security guy -my company insisted I had 24×7 security and a full-time driver, as did the Irish Embassy, our insurance company etc the second part of the trip was to capetown, my security briefing prior to leaving told me “in Capetown they will only stab you, in Rio they will shoot you”.
After mentioning the fish to the guy, he looked and me, laughed and said “that is not fish, that is shit, they didn’t put the sewer pipe out far enough”.
On the tech side of things, I didn’t find anything special -my assignment was to find a company to buy to develop our CALA presence- what I found was that anyone that was really talented managed to get a Visa, by joining a blue chip there and transferring out. As a result I found it was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.
In addition, Air France (I ain’t a frog, I hold an Irish and US passport) did not mention I needed a visa, so I landed and had my US passport on me and my Irish passport in my suitcase.
The next 18 mother fucking hours were spent waiting on a flight out of the country and trying to convince them to let me open my suitcase that was sitting right beside the guy in his office, so I could give them my Irish passport as I had discovered the Irish did not need a visa -everyone loves the Micks
-
Eventually the guy started telling me how I might be able to change his mind. He did not hint he said “Give me $200 and I will let you check your bag”, I gave him to money, opened my suitcase and gave him my Irish passport and he smiled, stamped it and said “have a nice day”! Did it feel like the bribe was romanced out of me? No, it felt like he was an over aggressive milf that had just raped me.
On the way out I had about $500 worth of the local currency which I planned to use buying Cuban cigars in duty free.
GUESS WHAT the mother fuckers don’t even take their own currency in Duty Free!!!!! Can you believe that?
So I buy the cigars, I have a business class ticket and I am just dying to get on the flight to be pampered!
I was glad to be shot of the place to be honest. Why are the most beautiful places in the world so long term fucked by their own people?
Another thing I found funny was the they tax foreign products so much that people literally have the option to buy sneakers over a 12 month period.
@Sarah, if you want to write about hi-tech start-ups in the developing world, can I suggest Iowa or North Dakota?
@Paul Slovenia 1-2 England? really Paul, really?
Check your facts, Chem:
2 American cities feature the top 10 list of top homicide countries in the world (fresgly published); Cape Town on number 5.
No Brazilian city in the top10.
http://brazil.w...s-in-the-world/
There ar 10 cities in the United States with higher homicide rates than Sao Paulo, Washington is one of them…
I have a feeling this will be one of those epic comment count posts. I don’t know… but I suspect Belgium is pissed.
Fuck Belgium
I take issue with every issue you raised, except the Belgium one. I have had it up to *here* with their quality beers and cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Look, I’m Brazilian and I can say that the few times I see a glimpse of patriotism on a Brazilian’s eye is either when there’s soccer on TV or when our country’s sacred name is threatened by anyone. Corrupt politicians? We’ll let them slide.
Patriotism was the main motivation for comments on Sarah’s post. I’m for one, think that to edit a digital image and then call that a crime IS BULLSHIT, period. Our legislation clearly says that you can only offend a PHYSICAL version of the flag, be it made out of paper, cloth or painted on a girl’s breasts. Ok, maybe that last one don’t apply.
But nevertheless, I still think Sarah went way over the top with that post. She didn’t committed a crime, but she also didn’t took any blame to herself. It was all spread around the Brazilian government and… nothing else. Did she really apply for a visa with time to spare? I have a hard time believing in that. And why, instead of writing a rant about what happened, she didn’t write a note? Like the one she wrote saying she was coming on August. Two paragraphs, simple. “I’m not coming this month. Maybe I’ll be there December. Don’t know. Your embassy sucks. KTHXBAI.” would be MORE than enough.
I’ll tell you why she didn’t write that. Pageviews. She knew that “attacking a country” would generate a LOT of traffic. Even though it was a terrible text, she managed to piss off a lot of people and TC got the pageviews to prove it. As simple as that. She basically stole your job. And you let her. The comments threatening violence and rape to Sarah are NOT something exclusive to Brazilians as that ass-hat Arrington said. It’s universal. The thing is that with controversial posts, TechCrunch manage to attract a bunch of trolls. It wasn’t different this time.
I’m pretty sure that, despite the trolls’ comments, Arrington is laughing his ass off right now with the massive number of pageviews that almost took down TechCrunch last Thursday. And if he has the smallest bit of compassion on that arrogant heart, he should revert the money TC made with advertising that day and pay some of Sarah’s trip to Brazil by the end of the year so she can say that “TechCrunch” is coming to Brazil with Sarah Lacy and not the other way around.
Paul, If I were you I’d try to piss off Canada. I heard they can get pretty upset when someone talks shit about hockey. There, free tip. You’re welcome.
I don’t want to be “that commentator,” but…what does this have to do with tech? This is TechCrunch, not Off-Topic-Rant-Crunch.
I mean come on, didn’t you read the article?
Writing stuff like
“The country should be embarrassed, and its businesses should be furious. I’m going to aim to try this whole Brazil thing again in December or January. It’s not the entrepreneurs’ or our readers’ fault this happened, and I still believe there are great stories in Brazil that I want to report. But when you’re harder to get into than China, it doesn’t bode well for foreign investment, Brazil.”
doesn’t fly well not because people are intolerant but because this is just a personal rant not a quality piece of writing.
It would have been interesting article if she actually talked about the lost opportunities, or the state of the world in terms of labor mobility or did some research on how many people can’t travel for bureaucratic reasons. Or anything tangently related to this issue, but she completely missed it and wrote something completely unprofessional.
I do understand that she was frustrated but techcrunch isn’t the place to write about your personal feelings. If she wrote that on her facebook wall, or her personal blog, or where ever she writes, she wouldn’t get that much response too. But this is Techcrunch, it is supposed to be more professional.
On the other hand, what I don’t understand is how that article got published in the first place. Don’t you have editors?
This post was so good I said to myself, “Goddamn, Paul Carr, I want to be outraged, but you write so well!”
Instead of being outraged, I hugged a puppy.
Well, Brazil just beat Argentina, so I’m in a pretty good mood.
I don’t understand how you can read Sarah’s post twice and not see how arrogant she was? Perhaps it’s because you’re just as arrogant.
She can’t go to Brazil and you and her both think that the startups in the country must be rioting and burning cars. I’m sorry for the reality check, but you really aren’t *that* important.
Also, if when I was 15 I tried to order a visa 2 weeks before my trip, my mother would have slapped me. But at no moment Sarah admits her on fault in the situation, she just blames Brazil, and says something like “now I know why it’s a developing country”. If instead of saying “I hate Brazil”, she had said “I hate government and foreign policy”, that’d be ok. But no, she decides to make her fight personal against the country. Well, unfortunately for her, Brazilians are all over that kind of stuff.
From the early days of reading Tech Crunch, I’ve noticed the many misspellings, the incomplete news, and the fact that you guys aren’t really journalists. Too bad for me that you just have so much information flowing your way. I wish the New York times would break that many news…
http://img512.i...52202621872.jpg
Paul,
You going about this entirely the wrong way. You have to have a more zen like approach. By trying to be controversial you make yourself non-controversial. Everyone can see that you are going over the top and they take that into account, sya ha ha good one, and move on.
In order to get the really good whack job attracting comment threads going is to be completely serious and say perfectly rational things Rationality is the enemy of irrationality. An irrational person upon seeing a rational statement suffers cognitive dissonance, has an aneurism, and is then compelled to reply in a completely bat shit crazy manner.
So instead of writing a headline like “The French are Lazy, Americans are fat, Brits have bad teeth, Palestinians are all terrorists and the Swiss got rich on Nazi gold – and it’s all the fault of AT&T”, you should write “Brazil is nice this time of year, even though it is winter.”
With that someone somewhere will take offense and start the ball rolling.
It is only when we are perceived to be sincere and believe what we are saying that we can truly offend those who find something wrong with what we say.
Agreed. This post is just banking on the flow of comments from enraged Brazilians… sad.
i agree with him going about this the wrong way, because as much as this post could have been a rant…it’s more about people ranting about sarah’s original rant…which just makes this into a circular argument only broken up with him asking why do i try so hard to piss people off and yet it seems like people still like me…whereas people just hate sarah. lol. i think he should have continued what she started and titled this: In Defence of Sarah Lacey, Brazil still sucks and so do Brazillians.
“Oh, God, I’ll be Welsh.” <- OK that did it, now I’m offended. I’ve called the FWA (free wales army), and TWA (taffys with attitude) to notify them of your racist slander. Expect a letter bomb to be delivered to your holiday home (read cheap ass caravan) in Rhyl without delay. English go home!
well this whole internet thing makes it easier to communicate information from person to person but makes it harder to filter this information. So, basically, any idiotic idea can, and does, propagate and replicate. Measured ideas, intelligent ideas, progressive ideas, are ideas which can only exist in a community, and a community is by definition a group of people mixed together with some sort of information filtering mechanism. This is what we had before the internet.
A totally lame attempt at satire.
Your employment at Techcrunch though is safe, as long as you continue running important errands for Arrington, like picking up burritos from Chipotle.
Just don’t forget the guacamole…
Brazilians treat american citizens the same way they treat their citizens.
Americans refuse Visa every day
You know now the feeling if being refused a VISA.
Can we at least all agree that Sarah was 100% right?
really? about what? when her point was so beautifully buried under all that self righteous anger. yeah she had a very good point which she could have made the entire focus of her article. i just keep thinking oh sarah’s mad that brazil screwed up her visa because of a computer/systems problem, but mostly what i got from it was ME ME ME ME ME ME ME! and i didn’t even want to agree with half the comments written in reply to her piece, but i couldn’t even find it in me to defend her. it was just sad overall. there was potential. she could/is 100% but that piece she wrote was kinda a huge pile of crap (and i don’t even mean her shitting on brazil). infact despite paul writing about a rant and people ranting about a rant, this was better written than her post. it’s just sad. like this isn’t even the best thing he has written but it’s miles better than what she wrote. i’ve been reading the stuff on this website for a couple of months and i am in no way a tc hater or a hater of tc employees…but i mean some of the people’s points about the things she posts are kind of consistent. as consistent as the things she writes. if someone makes a comment about how you could maybe fix the way you write why wouldn’t you take that advice? is it because the people who write for this website are more knowledgable than the readers or that because of the platform they are automatically better than the readers?
Yeah, like a picture of the US flag with “EPIC FAIL” mark would not draw millions of hate emails.
And her closing comment: “The country should be embarrassed, and its businesses should be furious.” Because a blogger from Tech Crunch didn’t get a visa when she wanted it? Somebody thinks they are far more important than they are. How typically American.
1) I am a former Canadian, now U.S. citizen (as of last year, 31 years after moving here). My citizenship process from permanent resident was very smooth, if anyone cares.
2) I love the Brazilian people, their passion and the fact that they actually UNDERSTAND what it means to truly try to reduce fossil fuels. You GOTTA love that passion.
3) Having said that a friend of my family is an international attorney. He represents American companies with interests in Brazil. True experience forthcoming.
While driving to or from the airport (can’t recall) a motorcycle pulled up next to his car and a gun was pointed at him as they wanted his computer, which he quickly gave the criminal. Why did they want the computer. They cost STUPID amounts of money down there + obvious interests re: what might be on the laptop.
Folks, I’ve heard this from the horses mouth so to speak so the security concerns are legit. Doing business in Brazil, from an American perspective, is potentially lethal. One could say that re: the southern border towns in the U.S. lately as well. Or if conducting business in some sections of a few U.S. cities where violence is a way of life.
Anyway….rambling on….
Re: the visa issue, the company being used deserves some blame. They should have discussed the potential problem ahead of time. Instead they probably just try to handle the volume and process things accordingly.
Expectations clearly weren’t met. This clearly is an example of #FAIL if I have ever heard one.
Every country has their own various forms of screwing up. Lords knows the U.S. has theirs, Canada has theirs, Brazil has their fair share….. Oh, and lets not forget ‘Taxation without Representation’ too Paul – Gotta get that nice dig into the Queen and your peeps
So lets just try to all “get along” and understand that a HUGE opportunity was missed by Sarah not being there and undertaking some reporting while she was there. I think that is a fair statement.
Nice weekend to all
Dan
@BetterBizIdeas
hahaha
WAIT… STOP.. (hammer time)
you are a former CANADIAN CITZEN and now an AMERICAN CITZEN ?
hahahaha
shit.
really,
this is like going from pam. anderson to some average chick.
and get the analogy like..
you , having pam… you could always get to the average chick.. but, by “switching forever” you dont get pam back…
damn boy..
you and your friend trully failed.
and deserved the laptop stolen.
Why mentioning the crime subject? This has NOTHING to do with the discussion and only shows how some Americans are arrogant and full of prejudice.
Sure, and I have a friend who was mugged and lost her baggage just outside LAX. Your friend was followed from the airport because he probably flashed the laptop around. It happens, but this is not common at all.
Doing business in Sao Paulo is just as risky as anywhere else. Most crime happens in the outskirts and are gang/drug related.
Irony isn’t really a dish best served through 1,618 words.
yeah i think an american flag with epic fail over it would definately create huge waves of complaint. i don’t understand why people are so insulted though. national pride is the pits.
oh shit that was a reply for joseph’s comment above yours.
anyways i agree jenn. this article is just tooooooooo long! i learned that people suck in general and that paul spared the canadians.
Smarter journalist would’ve framed the story differently – emphasizing on Brazil’s loss.
But Sarah spent her whole ranting on her loss. Her fees, her agent, her Portuguese lesson, her book, well.. herself. Which, nobody cares. It doesn’t take a Gladwell to see how her piece ended up a big blow up.
So much for “anyone can be a journalist” argument.
and to Brazilians invoking reciprocity, here’s an old saying from some country I can’t remember:
“Just because your neighbor up the hill threw rock to your doorstep, doesn’t mean you should too”
pure gold. 100% agreed
specially cause, by being on the downhill, and trying to throw rocks up.. you might (way likely) to hit your head back.. than manage to hit you neighbors door
not only the brazilians loss, but how an entire good oppertunity was wasted. she could have done more research into the computer problem and what the government was doing for those inconvenienced by this. i understand that she needed to explain to us about her entire ordeal (although she still didn’t mention how long her eintire process was so that people could refrain from making those fairweather traveller comments), but i didn’t even hear about the startups she was going to see. i actually had to go and reread her post about her plans to go and meet these startups. her whole rant could have been something different and that’s what’s sad about this. i could care less about people ranting in response to her rant. i actually don’t think this post from paul was necessary although it ties into what he’s been writing for the saturday series. this whole thing is a lost oppertunity and the funny thing is thatg she hasn’t said anything.
oh and the reciprocity comments were hilarious even if accurate. just because america did it to you first doesn’t mean that brazil also has to do it to america because they feel slighted. i know they might think there is no other way to gain leverage but that doesn’t do anything for brazil really. having bureaucratic visa processes is a loss for everyone in all countries not just america or brazil. it’s funny that the tc writer who supportes all these visa changes could let herslef be so angry that she posted a mostly completely garbage write up, despite whatever valid points she had. and i read what vivek wrote on this website too and i think his was well written, despite the fact that some of the commenters tried to make the argument into us vs them. not all the people who replied to sarah’s brazil post were brazilian.
stupid article, i pointed out how much of a hypocrite he was for hating anonymous commenters–
his own column is or was called “Not suitable for work” and he therefore understands or should understand that there are things that we don’t want our employers or potential employers to read, so why can’t people post anonymously
paul has to pervert the truth to create a story
many other people have called him an idiot
So we’ve lost the ability to engage in repartee without being offended? That’s too bad. Y’all need to chill. These types of comments read as too many people taking themselves too seriously. Paul, let yourself go — mock away. Let the bloody ink flow.
Goood grief, here we go again with another post totally unrelated to techcrunch and what it stands for… tech news!
This is not a political site, not a place for personal vendettas and venting.
I’m Canadian. 2 of my cousins lived in Brazil for 3 years working, after the first week they moved into a gated apartment complex with high walls for one reason, security. Give me a break! Sure to Brazilian citizens their country is safe, for foreigners its BAD!
South America is known for 2 things, drugs and kidnappings. Get over that fact everyone.
i’m not even brazilian (phew got that out of the way) but you need to get over the fact that south america isn’t known for 2 things. way to show your freaking ignorance. i bet all people in south americans are poor kidnapping drug dealers and all canadians are eskimos, happy loving supporters of the british and the queen, hate the french, love maple syrup, like only hockey, and live in igloos or beaver dams. fuck off.
@PaulCarr:
It was necessary to strengthen an article full of prejudice.
Your post is to protect Sarah Lacy of the Brazilian’s wrath? If she, you or TechCrunch apologize will hurt?
2 epic fails: sarah who was stupid not to take care of her visa on time, paul who is mediocre and has nothing to write about but someone else’s useless rant. had i wanted to read about crap like that, i would’ve gone elsewhere like the nra site. i’m american myself and must admit that this country definitely doesn’t get it. let’s keep on thinking that everybody else is inferior and get bombed and hated to death. we deserve it after all
this is getting out of control.
Offending Bras(z)il and each other wont take to any place.
I’m brazilian, leaving in Australia.
I’m no blind an I know Bras(z)il is far behind somne other ountries when it comes to solve its own political and social problems.
I dont care what you commenters say, offending each other, and really don’t care if one of you come sonn after me and offend me.
The point is I sympathise with Sara Lacy frustration, and truth to be told, Brazil screws up things when it should be facilitating.
reciprocity is valid whne all conditions are equal. Theorists can think Brazil doesn’t need US economically but reality show differently. Ego can say no, reality don’t allow us (brazilians) to be forcind thougher boundaries,
You can think Im not patriot or anything like that, and I’ll tell being Brazilian/Australian I’m more patriotic than most people i Know, but one thing I’m clear Im not fantasising what is a reality.
Brazilians like me still remember when US decided to take pics of every single brazilian travelling to America. Besides ofeding our ego, the system worked [erfectly. As a rule of reciprocity brazilian airports decided to take pictures of every single American coming to Brazil. Results: airports didnt have digital cameras and some business American travellers had to wait over 10 hours to get their pictures. Does it help anyway?? There;s any value on this reciprocity besides ego?
The point is: Sarah DID get her visa.
She just didn’t got it when she wanted.
But if I say: “Ok, I’m travelling to the US next week. I’ll apply for a visa” hahahhahaha
Maybe in December I can fly.
I love how TechCrunch (mostly Arrington) thinks that they are extremely important. The fact that TC thinks that Brazilian startups lost a tone of capital and VC’s is just hilarious (and ridiculous). This isn’t the WSJ or BusinessWeek (or any other IMPORTANT business publication), its a blog written by a bunch of unprofessional amateurs. I mean how low do you need to get to write a bunch of crap about a country and photoshop their flag with hate?
PS. Im not Brazilian or American. Vive la France
You babbled and said nothing concise. What is your point? We are not all Brazilians, we are however all immigrants. Legal immigrants contributing to this (US) society with our talent, yet we feel the pain that Sarah feels every time we re-enter the country (and some experience worst).
We make the US be number 1, thanks to the collection of the best minds around the world.
The only reason you put up this post is because you saw the response that her article got and you could never get… even with the most inflammatory stupidity.
You just pissed off the Brazilians again… now TC shall be full of Brazil nuts
second time that a TC writer mention arrington’s joke “i will fire you”. is it really a joke?
i’d like to tlak about this on msn. if you are interested add me lorranagabriella@hotmail.com
I’m sure most Brazilians are very nice, pleasant people…
Just not the ones that comment on TC.
Whats “UK”?
Dude, what the fuck? Only one cuss word and that was a quote?
Fuck this site, they can’t even get a real controversial reporter.
Meta posts suck, aren’t controversial, won’t engender truly hateful replies and are generally more boring. You’re blogging about blogging and making comments about comments, sometimes even comments about comments of comments.
I’d rather watch myself watch me scratch.
Write about something other than your own writing, and we can get angry. As it stands, I don’t feel like being pissed about something that is (at least) 3 steps removed from actually saying anything.
BTW… the queen is awesome hot, and a total [deleted by the NSA].
I like your style, but this is meta-journalism.
Your colleagues get reactions because they’re reporting on the outside world.
You won’t get much if you’re just in turn reporting on them.
I only read this because @loic recommended it.
It’s not about technology, visas or nationalities. It is about Paul Carr. Like all the rest of his articles.
You really should up your game Paul. Otherwise my bet is 3 months till MA kicks your British rear end.
what a pathetic attempt at trying to be funny.
thanks for the pageviews and click thro, i made enough $$$$ frm you imbecile jerkos, pls do visit us again, god bless americunts !!