Holy big brother

Walking along Paulista, we were stopped by a camera crew who got P to say some fun but silly soundbites as publicity for a new series of The Farm. It's a Big Brother copycat on Brazil's second most popular TV channel, Rede Record. Although it is even crasser than Globo in its opium-for-the-masses programming, Rede Record is actually owned by "Bishop" Edir Macedo, founder of the evangelical mega-church, The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Somehow this company manages to condemn its bigger rival as "the devil" while actually offering even more inane and sexualised content. The Farm is a perfect example, pandering to the prurience of what is actually quite a sexually repressed country.

Today's Brazil is high on reality TV and Christian evangelism. Big Brother, which runs on Globo in the summer, is now into something like its 13th season.

PS: Having performed for the camera and parroted back to the director lines like, "Wow !! The Farm is now on at nine o'clock !! That's wonderful !!" P wisely refused to sign the consent form, having thought twice about seeing herself plastered all over this channel.

PPS: Speaking of the devil, it seems Bishop Macedo's Church, the UKCG, may have played a less than saintly role in the sordid death of Victoria Climbié, a blast from my UK past. Wikipedia has this:

Victoria Climbié was an eight-year-old child whose cruel death led to major changes in child protection policies in the UK. She died from abuse and neglect while living with her aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and the aunt's boyfriend. Victoria was seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers before she died, and by the UCKG, but all failed to spot and stop the abuse as she was slowly tortured to death. Kouao and her boyfriend were charged with child cruelty and murder. During police interviews, both claimed that Victoria was possessed by evil spirits. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment.[30]

Victoria's murder led to a public inquiry which investigated the role of social services, the National Health Service, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and the police in her death.

On 19 February 2000 Victoria was taken by Kouao to the UCKG on Seven Sisters Road. The pastor, Alvaro Lima, told the inquiry that he suspected she was being abused. He said that Victoria told him that Satan had told her to burn herself. According to the inquiry report "Pastor Lima expressed the view that Victoria was possessed by an evil spirit and advised Kouao to bring Victoria back to the church a week later".[30] Lima decided to pray and fast with an assistant; he did not call the police, hospital or social services, and took no further action.[31]

On 24 February 2000 Kouao took Victoria back to the UCKG, where Pastor Lima advised them to go to hospital and called a taxi;[30] when she arrived at the hospital her temperature was 27 °C (normal temperature is about 36 °C). She died the following day—the same day the UCKG was planning to hold a service of deliverance for her to cast out the devil.[32] A post-mortem examination found 128 injuries on all parts of her body; the pathologist reported that it was the worst case of deliberate harm to a child he had ever seen.[30]"