The British Have Landed in Brazil: Tourism and Sport

Britain's Prince Harry has been traveling through the Caribbean and Latin America on an all-out charm offensive--and what good timing too, as the Argentines have had about enough of British imperialism's last vestiges in the Falkland Islands.

As part of a GBP 25 million UK-Brazil tourism campaign (the largest ever), the young ginger prince landed in Rio as part of the initial proceedings of the London 2012-Rio 2016 Summer Olympic hand-off. As one would imagine, the usual colorful hijinks ensue--including the stiff jigging around samba dancers, the sporty dab of beach volleyball here, perhaps a bit of jogging around Copacabana there, all of which recall Harry's father's own less-adroit attempts in the past to meld with exotic locals in the name of trade and diplomacy.

For Brazil it's all part of the business of projecting its soft power to the rest of the world. And good PR couldn't come at a better time, what with Brazilian football federation head Ricardo Teixeira resigning for health reasons 2 years before the historic 2014 World Cup. Still, another Brit couldn't help alerting Brazilians to the perceived agenda behind Harry's goodwill jaunt: Morrissey, the former lead singer of the Smiths, taunted the British royal family while giving a concert in Rio during Harry's Brazilian travels. One would have to expect as much from the man famous for titling an album "The Queen is Dead," but really, with his backing band wearing t-shirts that read "We hate William & Kate" it all seems a bit misguided and a bit too much.