They are the children of the poor masses in a nation marked by a stark gap between rich and poor. Now the so-called ‘C’ Class is the bulging target of Brazil’s consumer-driven economy. See how they live — and what they want.
Tag: brazil
FOHLA DE S.PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch SÃO PAULO – “Enjoy “ze flight!” One of the secret pleasures of international flying is checking out the fantastic range of accents of pilots and flight crews. Across all languages. But for security reasons, a very solid grasp of English is mandatory for all pilots on international flights. Passengers on […]
In São Paulo, from under a bridge to under the spotlight for an act of extreme (good ‘ol fashioned) honesty.
Once South Americans looking for residency in the US or Europe would concoct bogus unions with friends. Now in Brazil, the game has flipped.
Drug dealers often “cut” their pure product with other substances to increase profit margins. A seven-year-long Brazilian police study found such relatively benign substances as caffeine to some pretty awful stuff.
Worldcrunch ÉPOCA (Brazil) SÃO PAULO – We can all agree that Brazil is the country of beautiful beaches, sensual rhythms and slim, gorgeous bodies. Right? Well, at least for that last category, we may have to leave things loose on our definitions. Once considered worldwide sex symbols of toned slimness, the ladies of Brazil are […]
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 50, has been sitting in an Indonesian jail for eight years waiting to be executed for drug trafficking. In a phone interview, he pleads with Brazilian president Dilma Roussef to save him.
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China Invests Big In Fellow BRIC Brazil
Worldcrunch FOLHA DE S. PAULO (Brazil) BEIJING – China made its largest investment of early 2012 in fellow BRIC Brazil by acquiring 30% of Petrogal Brasil, a subsidiary of Portuguese company Galp Energia. State-owned Sinopec, or Chinese Petrochemical Company, paid $4.8 billion for the aquisition. Overall, China invested $21.4 billion abroad from January to March, […]
On the Ilha das Cinzas island, inhabitants are proving that it is possible to live in harmony with the environment — so long as you follow the rules.
Alexandre Herchcovitch, one of Brazil’s top designers, says the future of fashion in this Bric country is in clothing the rising middle class — even if he won’t ever stop making super-expensive stuff for the super-rich.
CBN RADIO (Brazil) In Jardim Helena, a poor area 18 miles from downtown São Paulo, postmen now need a security escort to deliver mail. Already this year, more than 450 mailmen have been victims of robbery and flash kidnappings, CBN Radio reports. Authorities explain that Jardim Helena’s many alleyways make it easy for criminals to […]
As Euro 2012 kicks off in Ukraine and Poland under a cloud of controversy, a female protestor in Brazil is already planning for the World Cup in two years — joining forces with feminist group Femen from Ukraine, which has a unique way of making themselve
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The 42 Rejections Of Gisele
Worldcrunch TERRA (Brazil) RIO DE JANEIRO – Does anyone have any doubts about Gisele’s beauty? Well apparently, before rising to supermodel status, Brazil’s Gisele Bündchen was rejected 42 straight times when trying to get an international runway job in London, the website of the Brazilian magazine Terra reported. “I turned to myself and asked ‘am […]
You can be live to 122, AND smoke, drink and devour chocolate. You can also do all those things and die young. Researchers try to unlock the secret to hyper-longevity.
Space is so tight at one Brazilian university that some classes are now being held at a nearby kindergarten. The adult students have started to protest, saying it’s hard to concentrate amid the din of shrieking five-year-olds.
Even though Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup and Summer Olympics are two and four years away, it is apparently already “clean-up” time for at least one Rio de Janeiro slum.
Researchers in the northern state of Pará want to use the Internet to track the thousands of plant and animal species in the Brazilian rain forest. It’s part of an even more ambitious global project.
From the slums of Rio to the city’s wealthiest neighborhood, The Handcraft and Sewing Co-operative of Rocinha has come a long way, catching the eye of fashion gods such as Christian Lacroix and Carlos Miele.
A unpaid $7,000 tab at Copacabana’s Porto Bay hotel was traced to a 53-year-old American, whose hotel bill showed 30 caipirinhas a day. Employees say the suspect was constantly surrounded by women… apparently also with drinks in hand.
Thieves in and around Sao Paolo are employing an effective, albeit not very delicate, tactic for robbing ATM machines. They blow them up. In the island town of Ilhabela, a gang of 20 men recently stormed ashore, exploded five ATMs, and took off with a sm
Günter Grass has been criticized by many inside and outside Germany for his recent criticism of Israel. Now Herta Müller, a fellow German winner of the Nobel prize for literature, used the release of her new book in Brazil to slam Grass’s moral s
As a new Truth Commission begins to retrace the crimes of Brazil’s military dictatorship, one officer admits to incinerating 10 corpses of people who disappeared from 1964 to 1985. Cláudio Guerra has since become an evangelical pastor.
Rates of high blood pressure are particularly high for the growing numbers of older Brazilians. More than half of those over 55 suffer from the condition, also referred to as ‘hypertension.’ Among the causes is the high amounts of salt i
The University of São Paulo is experimenting with “creative currency,” raising virtual cash that can be converted into Brazilian reais to fund culture projects that are very real indeed.
A decade after first being lumped together, the world’s leading emerging economies show all signs of claiming a growing slice of influence. Yet at their latest summit, plans emerged to pool their resources in a bank to rival the World Bank. It&am
Analysis: As Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff prepares to arrive in Washington to meet President Obama, a closer look at the bilateral relations between these Western Hemisphere powerhouses shows vast potential, much of it unfulfilled.
Brazil is spending freely as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup. The event is also expected to attract investment from abroad, and possibly boost Brazil’s country brand. But will it singlehandedly boost GDP by 1.5% as one top economist claims?
Brazil is expecting huge crowds when it hosts the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. In fact the country’s tourism industry is already heating up – especially in Rio, home to the soon-to-be refurbished Gloria Hotel, and more and more economic alternat
After four frenetic days, Rio’s annual extravaganza has come to an end – but not before adding to Brazil’s Carnival lore with a bevy of fresh anecdotes. One infamous drug dealer, for example, couldn’t resist temptation, and came out of h
Maria das Graças Foster, 56, has recently taken over as president of Latin America’s largest company, Brazilian oil giant Petrobras. Trained as a mechanical engineer, the new CEO was nominated for the post by another powerful Brazilian woman, President Di
Analysis: Rumors have it that Lula is on the road to recovery following treatment for throat cancer. That’s particularly good news for Brazil’s governing PT and its political allies who have suffered without the powerful ex-president&
In the early 20th century, European migrants headed in droves to Latin America in search of work and to escape wars and poverty. A century later, the ongoing euro zone crisis is prompting a new generation of Europeans to set out across the Atlantic.
The 71-year-old Brazilian soccer icon is an ambassador for both his sport and his booming homeland. Those two hats are set to blend into one with the next World Cup slated for Brazil in two years. In the meantime, he’s also glad to talk about &am
Brazil is portrayed as the poster child for Latin American potential, while Mexico is the symbol for what’s gone wrong. But with near identical growth rates and similarly ambivalent trading relationships with China, Brazil and Mexico share simila
A London-based project dubbed OPEC (Orange Peel Exploitation Company) aims to make biofuel from the waste from the more than 10 million tons of oranges that Brazil squeezes into juice each year. It is the latest of many research projects aiming cut CO2 em
Rising foreign investment and steady growth have created a real need in Brazil for qualified executives. Foreigners – even those with less-than-stellar Portuguese skills – are encouraged to apply.
FIFA and Budweiser are lobbying hard for Brazil to loosen its beer regulations ahead of the 2014 Soccer World Cup. Under normal circumstances, the country’s soccer stadiums don’t sell beer. A bill pending approval by Congress could change that.
Chinese manufacturers have figured out a way to cash in on Brazilian Catholicism, flooding the market with inexpensive images of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil’s patron saint. Local producers can’t compete, and want the government to intervene.
Boom times in Brazil have pushed several of its cities up the annual AméricaEconomía urban competitiveness ranking. Other Brazilian towns made it on to the list for the first time. But it is another country that boasts Latin America’s most competitive cit
Brazil’s richest 10% earn in one month what the poorest 10% make in more than three years. To find out how much the richest 1% earn, multiply that figure by three, according to the South American giant’s latest census numbers.