Castle

@Mackenzie Marino

@Mackenzie Marino I huge thanks for the feedback and for sure I'll seek to improvemy pronunciation and my English at all.

@Daniel Telles Huge thanks, my friend! 🧡 To answer your question: the mainstream media is a mess. It spreads a lot of misinformation and often presents it as if it were the absolute truth. When I moved from Manaus, I had the same concerns you have. But after four years living here, my advice is: stay on the right side 😬 of the "Force" and help keep this place a great place to live. The locals ("Manezinhos") simply want to live the way they always have: peacefully, safely, and without violence. The problem is that many people move here and try to bring the same problems from the places they left behind. Crime increases, some people think it's okay to invade private property or steal, and they try to normalize things that the locals don't want. From my experience, people here are not prejudiced. They just want a normal, peaceful life, and sadly that's becoming harder to find in Brazil. One thing that does bother me is when newcomers constantly compare everything to where they came from: "In my city we do this," or "Back home it's better." That drives me crazy, and I can only imagine how the people who were born here feel! Florianópolis is actually very diverse. There are lots of people from and , as well as people from all over Brazil. Overall, it's a very mixed community, and I honestly haven't experienced prejudice here. To me, this island really is magical. That said, since I moved here, I've noticed the number of homeless people has increased, drug trafficking has become more visible, and downtown has started to see more theft and public safety issues. I hope that doesn't continue. And one last thing: if you have the opportunity to move abroad, do it. Brazil has become a very difficult place to live. Taxes keep increasing, new regulations are constantly being approved, and people seem to have fewer and fewer freedoms.

@Mackenzie Marino 😬

Thank @Jerry Crumley