Brazil: culture of fatalism involving tragedies that could have been prevented

New York Times….. Sérgio Abranches, a sociologist in Rio de Janeiro, said in a scathing essay about the nightclub fire and the sense of fatalism with which Brazilians often react to such preventable disasters. Of course, Brazil is far from the only country forced to confront such issues. Just in the last decade, lethal nightclub fires have broken out in Argentina, Russia and the United States. Yet the blaze here has stirred frustrations that the protections for human life that exist on paper are not vigorously enforced, even as Brazil wins plaudits for its vibrant democracy and economic might. Read Article