[How do you post a picture?]

We don't have the option to add files to the forum. However, you can put a http hyperlink in the message and hit preview, it should appear as the photo. I hope this helps! Welcome to the site.

Oz

[History of Brazil]

Brazil is one of my favorite destinations. To start this forum off, I thought I would share a bit of history with you.

Oz

Brazil - Land Of Mystery

Brazil, South America’s largest economy, has a rich history steeped in mystery, dating back more than 8,000 years when the first Native American’s chose to settle on its warm shores.

Where exactly these Native American’s came from is a subject of debate by archaeologists. Many feel they were migrant hunters who came into the Americas from Siberia, across the Bering Strait. Others believe they arrived much earlier and argue that archaeological evidence suggests they were genetically distinct from the Asian hunters. Instead, they argue, they were African and Australian natives, who were later killed by displaced or absorbed by the Siberians.

Most modern historians agree that by the 15th Century most of the country was inhabited by nomadic tribes that lived on hunting and fishing, from the nation’s rich bounty.

No one agrees on when Brazil was discovered by Europeans. Some claims state that the nation was first explored as early as the 1300s, but the official history of Brazil claims that it was really first claimed by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500.

What is known is that there were no Portuguese settlements until 1532 when Sao Vincente was incorporated south of the Tropic of Capricorn. During the 1600s, the Dutch tried to stake a claim on the country in Recife in the northeast corner of the country, but were quickly driven out.

In the mid 1500s the Pope helped negotiate the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided South America into Spanish and Portuguese territories – in an attempt to prevent war over the land of the New World.

The French at one point tried to violate the treaty and annex Rio de Janeiro as part of the French Empire, but they were soon ousted and the city was returned to Portuguese rule.

To date, Portuguese is still the official language of Brazil, making the country something of an anomaly in South America.

The Portuguese were interested in the country because of the plentiful supply of Brazilwood and sugarcane – both immensely popular on the European trading routes.

For most of the 1500s the Colonial governors ran Brazil under a feudal system that rewarded their friends with large blocks of land in which to grow sugar and Brazilwood.

At first these feudal lords tried to enslave the native population to become their farmhands. The natives proved difficult to domesticate, however, so in short order they decided to bring slaves over from Africa – who proved to be far easier to manage.

During the 16th and 18th centuries most of the native population was killed or bred out of existence, while hordes of African slaves were brought in for manual labor. It is the mix of African and Portuguese blood that gives Brazilians their unique and beautiful skin tones.

It was on Sept. 7 of 1822 that the country declared its independence from its Colonial masters and set itself up as a constitutional monarchy. This system of government was not destined to last and in 1889 a coup d’etat established the first Republican government.

In the 19th Century, coffee started to gradually replace sugarcane as the nation’s chief export. To this day Brazil is known for growing some of the best coffee beans in the world.

It was also at this time that word of the beautiful beaches and mountains of Brazil started reaching normal Europeans. This resulted in a huge influx of immigrants from both Germany and Italy.

The German and Italian influence is still very strong to this day.

Brazil is also known for rarely extraditing criminals back to First World Countries –so the nation has become a haven for various exiles from around the world.

The nation is also known as the birthplace of the thong bikini – and this is perhaps why women, who have their pubic region waxed, refer to the procedure as “A Brazilian.” After all, if one is going to wear a thong, one must make sure that you first remove any unsightly hair.

The nation has alternated between democracy and dictatorship ever since. The last dictator was overthrown in 1985 and there has been some form of elected – though sometimes contested – government to this day.

The darkest part of Brazil’s history began in 1964 and ran until 1985. Concerned about the spread of Worldwide Communism, the CIA helped establish a right wing Pro-America government in Brazil in 1964. This government was known for torturing, killing and imprisoning large sections of the population.

Blanket censorship laws were also put into place that led to many artists fleeing the country to avoid prison and/or death squads.

It is widely accepted that for most of its history the real rulers of Brazil have been oligarchs – for the most part rich farmers who have been able to use their money to influence nearly all parts of life in this enormous nation.

While this has crated some sense of stability, it has also meant that there is a small wealthy ruling class and then a much larger group of very impoverished people, with almost no middle class.

Brazil has a divide between the rich and poor that is almost unknown in the rest of the world. This h as benefited the wealthy farmers, who have had a nearly limitless supply of cheap labor, but been a cancer on the poor, who live in a country that lacks basic infrastructure, social protections and long term economic hope.

For most of its history, Brazil has been plagued by runaway inflation that has discouraged even basic savings practices. The government tried to fix this in 1994 by introducing a new currency, the Real. This measure worked for a brief period of time, until the currency was devastated by the Asian financial crisis of 1999.

The Real was then devalued and the nation sunk deeper into poverty, despite a $41.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

This led to union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva being elected president in 2003 by promising to reform the system. Alas, his government has been plagued by a series of corruption scandals. The good news is that the court system, for the first time in its history, seems to be taking the scandals seriously and there is some promise of reform in the coming years.

This may be small comfort to the millions of poor people who live in Brazil – the fifth most populous country in the world.

Today more than one in four people in Brazil live on less than one dollar a day. The minimum wage of Brazil is still less than $125 a month – leaving many people unable to ever get ahead.

Of course this is great for the farmers, who are able to grow and export coffee cheaply, because their labor costs are next to nothing.

Under Lula, many social investment programs have been devastated in an effort to pay off some of the country’s massive debt obligations. He has cut retirement benefits and changed the tax code. That said, Lulu did create the Zero Hunger program, which promises every Brazilian three meals a day.

Still, the poor here have always been exploited – the sugar fields and gold mines of the Colonial Era were so dangerous and deadly that the Portuguese had to continually import new slaves – who generally died before they could reproduce and naturally augment their population.

When the slaves tried to revolt and create their own colonies several hundred years ago, they were quickly destroyed by merciless artillery.

What the future holds for Brazil is a mystery. Still, it is a welcome place for tourists, who love to lounge on its beautiful beaches and explore its mountains and vistas – while paying less than they would in almost any part of the First World.

[Asked and Answered]

There is a bit of controversy as to who are the owners of many sites on the Internet including this one. For those of you that don’t know, I am the owner of the domain name and I do own many websites. Actually, I own over 300 active live websites. Some are gay, some are straight and some are bisexual. Some are even not related to the adult industry. I started collecting domain names years ago. I currently own over 4k prime domain names. I have been in the business for many years.

I have only sold 2 domain names in the last 10 years. Both were to good people whom I have known and trusted.

My typical MO is to buy a prime domain name, find someone who has an interest in it and that I really trust and know has good business sense and then let them run the site. I normally, put forth the money for the making of the site, hold the domain name in my name, let others run the site and they share the revenues they generate with me. That is true for every site I have ever developed and owned.

I am a businessman and I am not in the business to censor what people want to participate in. If there is a market for a site and it is legal, I am interested in working on it. There are so many areas of gay life that other gays discriminate against. I hate it when someone says that 2 consenting adults cannot participate in something that is legal because they don’t like that particular thing. For example, I hate when someone who says that anyone who barebacks with others is doing something morally wrong when they often hire escorts. I hate when those that want to stop someone from hiring escorts rant and rave but think that it is OK to “party and play.” I hate when someone says that it is ok to dress in drag but it is disgusting to dress in leather. I know that in the above, there are many odd examples. But, I believe that any two consenting adults should be able to engage in any activity that they want without the hatred of others in the community. To that end, I do not withhold development of any site because others view it as morally wrong. I firmly believe that adults should be allowed to make their own decisions and that it is better for the gay community as a whole to have a variety of sites that cater to all those interests and fetishes. I have developed many sites that are not popular with this in mind.

Don’t get me wrong; first and foremost, I am a businessman. I do not develop sites because I have some need to help those less fortunate. It is business and I find people who are passionate about the site to do the rest. In the case of this site, I have found a group of guys that wanted to develop the site, had the desire and motivation but lacked the financial backing and the experience to build a site. I brought what they were lacking to the table and they will do the rest.

Hooboy knew the names I owned and we often laughed about it as he tried to buy a few of them from me over the years. I actually had this site in the works years ago and it was a fully developed site. I then met Hooboy and became friends with him. I was ready to launch the site and decided that I much preferred my friendship with him than competing with him. I gave up the site plans. That was over 3 years ago and I have not regretted my decision one time since. My friendship with Hooboy developed over the years and in over 4 continents traveling together. He knew that I owned many controversial sites and his response was always, “so what.”

When Hooboy died, my goal was to help his lover get the site and help him make a living from it. To that end, I send an offer to Hooboy’s best friend on the day of his funeral. As someone on the other site pointed out, it was a real class act. I knew that a few people who had an interest in his site had flown to Hawaii to the funeral. Some of these people had only met him one time. I also knew that many wanted to get his site without justly compensating the family for it. I was worried that this would happen and that Hooboy’s family would not get what was rightly theirs. I then sent an offer that was over 6 figures to Hooboy’s best friend. This caused much controversy to those that wanted the site for free and thought they would get it for little to nothing. For the first time, the estate knew they had something of value. I kept the offer on the table and even upped the offer at one point. After the “great meltdown” I lowered my offer as the site was slowly being destroyed. I kept lowering my offers to them as I felt the site was being poorly managed and maintained. I also felt that many administrative decisions were happening that were meant to devalue the site. With all of this in mind, I have kept a good offer on the table for the estate and to my knowledge it is the highest offer.

My post on the Hooboy site a couple of months back caused many people to get upset as I got tired of the complaints of working without just compensation. As I said, there are reasons for that and anyone that knows the history of the negotiations knows that there is more to the story than is public. Hooboy’s site was a moneymaker. He did well with it. Others will do well with it.

For those of you who have difficulty understanding my position, I’ll try to be even clearer. I love making websites. I enjoy the process from start to finish. I also enjoy making money from them down the road. I have no issue developing a site that is legal and that adults participate in an area they desire. To that end, people I have known and trusted for years started this site. They will do a great job with the site and I will move into the background with the administrative stuff after they get the site working the way they want. I won’t move into the background as a member of the site as this is one of the few sites I have had a passion for the content. I own other sites that are controversial. I will develop more in other areas. I do not have a moral problem with people who are adults making decisions regarding their body that is informative and if chosen to do with another adult consensual. I hope that this clarifies a bit about this site, other sites and me in general.

I hope you enjoy this site as many have spent a great deal of time, effort and energy on it!

TotallyOz