Since we seem to be discussing countries in the forum now, I would like to know what people think about this big tropical country down the equator.

Brazil, because of the Olimpic games and the Fifa World Cup, and also given our response to the crisis, is on the news right now, or so it seems to us brazillians. Never before in this country(brazillians will get it...) we heard so much about our country in the media abroad. In the news, magazines, movies, we are all over the place.  So I'm curious to know how the guy perceives Brazil. Later I'll give my view.

Big asses and group sex. Oh wait that is Brazil on youporn.

Very diverse population, your country has has ancestry from many a culture (Native Brazilians,European whites, large Japanese contingent, Africans from the Portuguese slave trade). Gini coefficient is out of line. The separation between rich and poor in your country is extreme. Large cities are still run by crime lords. Government still has hints of military rule, but very progressive. Economic growth is starting to hurt the natural beauty of your country with massive alterations to the Amazon and offshore drilling. Rising economic power but a lot of its business is still internal.

They need to stop cutting down their rainforest for farm land considering the soil is only good for a couple years before it is all washed away due to the heavy rains (should be pretty obvious but it is still going on).

I heard a lot about the slums of RIo and the crime rate. Beautiful women and beaches and overall beautiful country. I plan on visiting this year. I'm just trying to find a good deal. Seems to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And then there's that big statue overlooking Rio.

Used to have the best football players in the world. Not anymore though. (Neymar being the exception if I could name one)

You got some of it right. We are on of the biggest multicutural societies in the world, after India and US, being highly urbanized. We do have a high disparaty between poor and rich, but is worse in the North - Northeast, than the rest of country. We don't have any hints of military rule, there's no military leader of any kind in any level of government. Actually, our current president is a former guerilla ativist, who fought the military rule back then.

Our economic growth is actually a result of the stabilization of our economy, since 1994, plus the positive effects of the world economic growth in the last 10 years. Our gov actually succeded in staying bellow the average for world growth in this peridod, since it didn't took the steps needed to improve our economy. The alterations in Amazon are a result of deflorastations due to lumber harvesting. We have plenty of free land in the Center states and in te Northeast, closer to the ports and with better infrastructure, we don't need amazon lands yet.

And yes, we're still a pretty much closed economy.

We still have them, they just are not picked for the big clubs anymore. There's a sad change in filosofy, since the 80s, that destroyed the brazillian school of football. We pick MD over MA and Strikers, focusing in the results, forgetting about the beautiful game. But we still hope to build a team for 2014.

Ah, we Brazillians are mad about football. Peculiar in our madness, but mad nonetheless.

You guys use wayyyyyy too much postage when you mail letters.