Categories
In The News

Aging At Record Pace, Brazil Faces Demographic Emergency

Countries like France and Spain, already known for their inhabitants’ longevity, needed three times as long as Brazil to double their percentage of older population.

Categories
In The News

Dog Walker, The Man Behind The Canine Wheelchair

SERTÃOZINHO — In a simple house here, 330 kilometers northwest of São Paulo in Brazil, Glauber Pereira Souza, 36, is the head of a four-legged family: He owns five dogs, two cats and two rabbits. The youngest member of his household is Preta, a mongrel female who had been run over by a bus, but […]

Categories
Economy Ideas

Why It’s Time For A Marshall Plan For Technology

-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The idea of economic planning dominated the imagination of 20th-century economists. Unlike the classical liberal view, the planning concept supports clear government intervention in the spontaneous course of markets. By implementing one plan or another, the theory goes, governments can speed up a process or correct a wrong course. Plans are […]

Categories
Economy Ideas

A Tough Choice For Brazilians: Learn English Or Mandarin

The answer from Chinese professionals may surprise you…

Categories
Economy Ideas

The Post-Western World Is Still A Messy Place

The West is in relative decline, especially compared to Asia, but no obvious alternative ‘system’ has emerged.

Categories
In The News

In São Paulo, A Wall To Keep The Favela Out Of Sight

Millions drive past the favela of Vila Esperança, with its rampant unemployment and open sewers. But thanks to a three-meter high concrete wall, they don’t see it.

Categories
In The News

In Rio’s Favelas, Schools Caught In Crossfire

RIO DE JANEIRO — “Stray bullets invading Rio’s schools.” “Under threat, schools are closing.” “Students injured in shooting.” These were titles of articles published by Folha de S. Paulo, respectively in 1996, 2003 and 2006. But they would fit in well with the current outbreak of violence in Rio de Janeiro. Of the first 100 […]

Categories
In The News

Brazil’s Temer Survives Corruption Vote

Correio Braziliense, Aug. 3, 2017 Brazil’s President Michel Temer has survived a crucial vote in the lower house of Congress on whether he should be tried on allegations of corruption. The vote is a “victory” that “strengthens’ his position, Correio Braziliense writes on its front page Thursday. The newspaper features a striking image of one […]

Categories
In The News

Why All Of Brazil’s Presidents Keep Winding Up In The Mud

It is the nature of the job, not the people who occupy it, that is ultimately to blame for an endless series of scandals at the top ranks of Brazilian politics.

Categories
In The News

How Brazilian Soccer Became An Elitist Pastime

High ticket prices and fancy stadiums are making the games of the national pastime off-limits for most of Brazil’s population.

Categories
In The News

How ISIS’ Defeat In Mosul Could Make It Stronger Worldwide

-Analysis- The recapture of Mosul by the Iraqi armed forces, with the support of the international coalition led by the United States, is a real achievement. ISIS has seen its biggest military conquest reversed, and its dream of an Islamic caliphate destroyed. But none of this means that the biggest terror organization the world has […]

Categories
In The News

The G20, Trump And A World In Search Of A New Leader

-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The G20, the club gathering the world’s biggest economies, is the offspring of two crises. First, the 1997 Asian financial crisis led to the creation of the group in 1999, as an annual summit for finance ministers and central bank governors. Their objective back then was to coordinate policies to stabilize […]

Categories
In The News

Welcome To ‘Cracolandia,’ São Paulo’s Roving Drug Bazaar

A pulsing, hazy world comes to life every night in Brazil’s largest city, as drug traffickers and users gather to buy, sell, barter, smoke. When police intervene, a new neighborhood is found.

Categories
In The News

Why Do Zika-Infected Babies Born In São Paulo Suffer Less?

A new study found that dozens of São Paulo women infected with Zika gave birth to babies without Microcephaly. Researchers are trying to trace the difference in the effects of the disease in different regions.

Categories
In The News

How Lula’s Corruption Case Could Return Him To The Presidency

Even as Brazil’s current president Michel Temer is facing corruption allegations, his nemesis and former president Lula was in court last week on bribery charges that he aims to use as a weapon in a possible return to power.

Categories
In The News

Brazil’s Gay Soccer Team Making The Game Beautiful For All

SÃO PAULO — In the nearly two years since it was formed, Unicorns FC, an amateur soccer team in São Paulo made up exclusively of LGBT players, only recorded one crisis: when a player, disappointed with a teammate’s performance, said “soccer is a man’s sport.” For the club, it isn’t — it’s a sport for […]

Categories
In The News

Why This Century’s Autocrats Are More Likely To Succeed

-OpEd- SAO PAULO — One of the biggest lies in modern politics is the belief that freedom is a universally-shared passion. It isn’t. Freedom implies a burden of responsibility not everyone is willing to bear. In this school of thought, I believe Thomas Hobbes was right: People fear violence, scarcity and death. The majority, therefore, […]

Categories
In The News

A Motel Room Inspired By Brazil’s Anti-Corruption Probe

BRASILIA — There’s always something a bit risqué about Brazil’s many short-stay “motels,” where couples can pay by the hour and aren’t all that concerned, usually, with getting a good night’s sleep. But even by those standards, Room 8 in Brasilia’s Altana Motel stands out. Fitted with metal bars on the door and around the […]

Categories
In The News

Brazilian Daily Drops Corruption Bombs On Front Page

Correio Braziliense, April 12, 2017 A Supreme Court judge’s bombshell decision has many of the Brazil’s top political figures running for cover, the daily Correio Braziliense reports. On Tuesday, Judge Edson Fachin extended the already three-year-old Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) anti-corruption probe by opening investigations into 108 people suspected of involvement in a massive bribery […]

Categories
In The News

A Woman Nourishes Favela Children Hungry For Food, And Hope

SAO PAULO — “My name is Daniel Garcia and I’m 18. I love reading Folha de S. Paulo! Today, I read an article about women unsung heroes, and I believe that my own mother fits that category perfectly. Marlene Garcia is 59, she’s black and she used to be a cleaning lady. Every day, without […]

Categories
In The News

No Sex Please, We’re Brazilian: On PlayStation And Demographics

Maybe the West’s low birth rate arrived when sex was defeated by boredom? One writer’s offbeat reflection on how sexuality overload has backfired.

Categories
In The News

Wake Up Brazil! They’re Killing The Amazon Rainforest Again

-OpEd- SÃO PAULO — Any Catholic who has attended mass since Ash Wednesday will have noticed that the Church in Brazil is very concerned about the country’s environment. For the second year in a row, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil is using its annual pre-Easter fraternity campaign to sound alarm bells over the […]

Categories
In The News

Shooting Blind, How I Mastered Photography After Losing My Sight

After a work-related accident that progressively made him blind, Vladir da Silva discovered an unlikely skill and passion taking pictures that relies on other senses. He tells his story.

Categories
In The News

Losing Hand, Uber Drivers In Brazil Play Waiting Game

A day in the life of an Uber driver in São Paulo.

Categories
Future Ideas

Zuckerberg’s Megalomania, A Big Brother Of Good Intentions

The Facebook founder’s recent self-important manifesto reads like comedy, until we see how it pushes us toward a different kind of authoritarianism.

Categories
In The News

Up-Pill Battle, Brazilian Women Want Men To Use Contraception

SAO PAULO — When the contraceptive pill first appeared in the 1960s, it was celebrated as a symbol of sexual freedom for women. But an increasing number of women in Brazil now see it very differently. Many say the pill has become something that is imposed on them by their partners. They believe it has […]

Categories
In The News

When Calls To Prayer Turn To Declarations Of War

Invoking religion against one’s enemies is a sure way to perpetuate resentment and war. It stretches from the Crusades to the internet where you are reading right now.

Categories
In The News

How Peruvian Cocaine Is Fueling Brazil’s Gang Wars

MANAUS — There’s a gang war raging across northern Brazil. It has led to prison riots in which close to 100 inmates have been killed since the beginning of the year. This violence is linked to the flow of cocaine from Peru to Brazil’s northern, northeastern and central-western regions. The money involved is huge — […]

Categories
In The News

After Zika, Yellow Fever Outbreak In Brazil

MINAS GERAIS — After two failed attempts to get vaccinated against yellow fever, 72-year-old José Pedro de Jesus woke up before dawn to get the job done. He lives in a municipality in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais in Brazil called Piedade de Caratinga, where four people are believed to have died of the […]

Categories
Ideas Trump And The World

It May Be Time For Brazil To Follow Trump’s Protectionist Lead

-OpEd- SAO PAULO — Donald Trump is horrifying. Still, there’s a part of his package that could be quite useful to have in Brazil. I’m referring to the president-elect’s threats against General Motors, Ford and Toyota to try and force them to bring back factories installed in Mexico to the United States. It’s true that […]

Categories
In The News

In Brazil, A Prison Riot Written On The Wall In Gang Blood

All signs say the 56 prisoners killed inside the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex are part of an ongoing drug gang feud on the outside.

Categories
In The News

‘Canine Gangs’ Threaten Brazilian Indigenous Tribes

SAO PAULO — Anywhere you look, they’re there. You could be attacked, even inside your own home. For the 800 indigenous Guarani people living in the four villages of the northern Sao Paulo district of Jaragua, the threat of getting hurt by stray dogs is growing. Locals estimate that there are as many dogs as […]

Categories
Green Or Gone Society

Year Of Mud, The Heavy Toll Of Brazil’s Worst Ever Ecological Disaster

Lives destroyed, entire towns damaged, widespread health problems. There is no end in sight to the toll on a region in Brazil decimated by a toxic dam break last November.

Categories
In The News

In Beleaguered Haiti, Hurricane Devastation Hard To Gauge

LES CAYES — As you move through the Haitian cities that stood on Hurricane Matthew’s destructive path, a disturbing question strikes you: What was destroyed in the recent storm and what was damaged from before? You can see scrap metal and zinc sheets that were used as roofs. You can glimpse children bathing in and […]

Categories
In The News

Beyond Bad Food, Malnutrition Plagues Brazilian Hospitals

PORTO ALEGRE — Sitting on the bed in her white hospital gown, Jéssica Almeida was devouring a hamburger. But the scene is deceiving. In total, the 17-year-old spent a month in the hospital and lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds). Such weight loss, which might indicate malnutrition, is common among hospital patients in Brazil, and it […]

Categories
In The News

This Brazilian Girl Read 560 Books And She’s Not Even 12

Kaciane do Nascimento’s love of reading led to her open a library in the backyard of her house, in a low-income housing development in São Paulo state. Now she’s working on a book of her own.

Categories
Geopolitics Society

New Brazil Study Finds Shocking Racial Discrepancy In Zika Cases

A new Brazilian report shows that far more babies born with microcephaly and other conditions linked to the Zika virus are black or mixed race. There are troubling explanations for this fact, including access to (illegal) abortion.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

The Brazilian Sexism That Ensured Dilma’s Impeachment

A clearer picture is emerging of the socio-political profile of those who recently voted to oust Dilma Rousseff from the Brazilian presidency: right-wing males with a penchant for more “traditional,” submissive women.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

Michel Temer, Brazil’s New “Black-Box” President

Little is known of what Dilma’s successor actually plans to do to lift Brazil out of its crisis. Temer, whose career has been defined by discretion, must now show his hand.

Categories
Economy

Can Latin America’s Economy Rebound? Keep An Eye On Brazil

Capital flows back into Latin America suggest Brazil’s economic free fall may have stopped.

Exit mobile version