On March 30, 2007, Brazil's air
traffic controllers started a
hunger strike that paralyzed Brazil's air traffic
network.[14]
The focus showed the world a dysfunctional system is
need of a major overhaul
The poor state of
prisons in Brazil got much sensational press from
the world press
As the world leader in bio-fuels with
much potential for expanded production there has been
tremendous attention given to
ethanol fuel in Brazil
In 2007, Lula was re-elected
extending his position as President until January 1,
2011.
Brazil's current
president,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. a founding member of the
Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores). Lula was
first elected with 61% of the votes and took office on
January 1, 2003. Lula has a
pragmatic foreign policy, seeing himself as a
negotiator, not an ideologue. As a result, he has
befriended both Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and U.S. President
George Bush. Leading a large and competitive
agricultural nation, Lula generally opposes and
criticizes farm
subsidies
It was widely reported in April 2006
that the Vatican had launched a commission to
investigate and prepare a document regarding the
question of whether there are any cases when a married
person may use condoms to protect against infection from
their spouse. Though no conclusions have yet been
reached, the investigation has surprised many Catholics
in the wake of
John Paul II's consistent refusal to consider condom
use in response to
AIDS and the widespread belief that his successor
shared this view.[82]
In November 2005 the Pope had listed several ways to
combat the spread of HIV, including chastity, fidelity
in marriage and anti-poverty efforts with no mention of
condoms. However, Time Magazine reported in its
April 30,
2006 edition that the Vatican's position remains
what it always has been with Vatican officials "flatly
dismiss[ing] reports that the Vatican is about to
release a document that will condone any condom use."[83]
Amazon
deforestation went down this past year, for the third
year in a row. Between 2006 and 2007, 11,223 sq km
(4,333 sq miles) of forest went down, 20% less than what
was registered in 2005-2006.
In 2007 Researchers from the
University of São Paulo developed a plastic film
made of manioc and sugars to make food packages, which
is biodegradable and has anti-bacterial
action
Brazil is
exuberant by
nature so Carnaval comes naturally.
Rio de Janeiro hosts the centerpiece of Carnaval, a 2 day parade
spectacle that is truly the most amazing on
earth
Between January 3rd and February 1st Globo.com
will be conducting an internet beauty contest
vote for Mulata Góis 2008, where 12
beautiful passistas, one from each school, will
present themselves on-line.
Luciana Conception da
Silva, 22 years old, from San
Clemente is the featured one.
Meanwhile the Brazil Carnaval Mulatta
competition at youtube since the last Rio
Carnaval in 2007 has produced this winner for
your dancing pleasure
Brazilian Spicy @ youtube
The other great capital of
Carnaval is Bahia in Brazil's Northeast Region
The musical styles are different in each
carnival; in Bahia there are many rhythms,
including samba, samba-reggae, axé, and others,
which are performed on a truck equipped with
giant speakers and a platform where musicians
play called a Trio Elétrico. In Salvador, the
early capital of the country as well as the most
visited City after Rio massive numbers of people
follow the trucks singing and dancing. The
"Indian" groups were inspired by Western movies
from the United States. The groups dress up as
Native Americans and take on Native American
names. Blocos Afros, or Afro groups, were
influenced by the Black Pride Movement in the
United States, independence movements in Africa,
and reggae music that denounced racism and
oppression. The groups inspired a renewed pride
in African heritage.
Globo International
official coverage of Rio Carnaval
BBC Best
Link:Music -
Brasil, Brasil
BBC Four's exploration offers a detailed
account of the years in which Brazilian music has evolved and
constantly changed, while capturing the global imagination.
This is the music and modern history of Brazil includes an
archive of rare performances and specially shot interviews with
musical legends. From current hot success
Seu Jorgeto touring legend
Caetano Veloso
The 2008 en.wikipedia.org
Brazilian Carnival article
claims that like the Caribbean Carnival:
"The modern Brazilian Carnival finds its roots in Rio de
Janeiro in the 1845s, when the city’s bourgeoisie
imported the practice of holding balls and masquerade
parties from Paris."
In May of 2008, the
oldest and largest annual summit of Carnavals will meet
for the very first time in France. The host City is
Ploerme in the heart of Brittany More information @
CarnivalCities.com
Jan-2007 The 2008 World Carnival
Summit City of Ploerme most recently made the
international press early in 2007 following
controversy surrounding "separation of church &
state" and the dedication of the larger than
life statue of Pope John Paul.
Paul Anselin,
Ploermel's mayor said the monument marked
described John Paul II as "a giant of the 20th
Century who participated in the fall of the Iron
Curtain" [more]
July 2007
Top internatinal Brazil star Gisele
Bundchen
made news
in Rio the month following Pope
Benedict XVI visit by criticizing the
pope's claim of infallibility regarding
abortion laws and birth control [more]
The Story of
Lent
is the story of the merging of the two official
religions of Rome,
Mithraism and the cult of the Great Mother
Goddess
Cybele with the early Christian church to
give us the Roman Catholic church. There are
many who believe that the strongest ancient root
of Carnaval is traced not to the Roman Winter
solstice celebration of
Saturnalia or even those of the wine god
Dionysos or his later Occidental name of
Bacchus but rather the
Egyptian goddess
Isis.
Isis is known as the
Goddess of 10,000 names and has a lot in
common with Brazil's Iemanja.
TRADE &
FINANCE
Brazil's GDP growth of 5% for 2007 is very
good news. While the US dollar continued it slide to all-time
lows
Brazil emerged as the center of finance in Latin
America.
Politically, the region remains split
between populist leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez
and governments like Mexico's and Brazil's that have
embraced free-market principles. Investors made their
choices clear. Brazilian overhauls stoked a boom in
initial public offerings of stock and drew a huge influx
of foreign capital. In Venezuela, where the government
took over the country's leading telecom company, the
Caracas General Stock index fell about 27%.
Most
cars in Brazil run either on alcohol or on gasohol. Brazil's
sugar cane-based industry is far more efficient than the U.S.
maize-based industry. Brazilian distillers are able to produce
ethanol for 22 cents per liter, compared with the 30 cents per
liter for corn-based ethanol.[6]Sugarcane is one of the most efficient photosynthesizers
in the plant kingdom, able to convert up to 2% of incident solar
energy into biomass. Despite having the world's largest
sugarcane crop, the 45,000 km² Brazil currently devotes to
sugarcane production amount to only about one-half of one
percent of its total land area of some 8.5 million km². In
addition, the country has more unused potential cropland than
any other nation.
The exportation of Brazilian ethanol to the U.S. reached a
total of US$ 1 billion in 2006, an increase of 1020% over 2005
(US$ 98 millions). The U.S., potentially the largest market for
the Brazilian ethanol, currently imposes trade restrictions on
Brazilian ethanol in order to encourage domestic ethanol
production, most of which has so far been based on processing
corn instead of sugar cane or soybeans, which is much less
efficient. There is concern that allowing the Brazilian ethanol
to enter the U.S. market without taxation will undercut the
budding ethanol industry in the United States[8].
In 1889, as Brazil became a republic, the
U.S. government was the first to recognize the new regime, which
was strongly influenced by the American constitution. During
World War II, the U.S. government used military bases in the
Northeastern coast of Brazil in order to support the allied
forces in North Africa; a Brazilian expeditionary force was
incorporated into the U.S. V Army fighting in Italy. In 1943,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first American president to
visit Brazil. Under the influence of the Good Neighborhood
policy, established by Roosevelt, many American artists visit
Brazil and Brazilian artists visited the U.S.
Policies to improve socio-economic conditions in
Latin American countries were seen as leftist ideas sponsored by
communist regimes such as Cuba, something that alienated the
sympathy for U.S ideals among many Brazilian intellectuals.
During the Kennedy years, a new program the so-called Alliance
for Progress tried to help change this mentality. During the
1970's and 1980's, the relations between Brazil and the U.S. saw
trade disputes, human rights arguments and divergences on
political interests. Brazil's re-democratization in the
mid-1980's, the opening of the Brazilian markets and a renewed
interest from the U.S. government on Latin America established
an climate of understanding and cooperation with positive
results, which endure to this day. Today the main items of the
bilateral agenda can be highlighted as the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA), drug control and the continuous opening of
the Brazilian economy to foreign investment.
Brazil, which has won a
record five World Cups, was awarded the right to host 2014 World
Cup tournament. The South American country hosted the
competition once before, losing to Uruguay in the mythical 1950
final. After announcing Brazil as the 2014 host, Blatter handed
the World Cup trophy to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, who flew in for the event.
"Soccer is not only a sport for us. It's more than that," Silva
said. "Soccer for us is a passion, a national passion."
"We are a civilized nation, a nation that is
going through an excellent phase," Brazilian Football
Confederation president Ricardo Teixeira said.[More
at en.wikipedia]
Hosting the 2014 World Cup will be a key element in helping Rio
de Janeiro land the 2016 Olympics, officials said Tuesday as they
announced the city's bid to stage the Games.
Brazil is the largest
country in South America; shares common boundaries with every
South American country except Chile and Ecuador
Rio de Janeiro became the capital of
Brazil after the discovery of gold inland in 1763. In 1960 it
lost its capital city status to Brasilia.
Brazil visitors looking for
value like leather goods, shoes, gems, music, traditional
handcrafts, lace, embroidery, and artifacts from Brazil’s
indigenous tribes.
The Amazon represents 58.5%
of the Brazilian territory. The Amazon rainforest holds the
largest reserve of living organisms in the world. The precise
number of species in it is not known, but scientists estimate a
figure between 800 thousand and 5 million species – 15 to 30% of
all known species in the world.
The Atlantic Ocean
stretches along Brazil’s Eastern side, up to a total of 7,367 km
(approx. 4,604 mi) of coastline.
Its population is
concentrated along the Atlantic coastline of the Northeastern
and Southeastern regions. 50% of the industrial output is
located in the Southeastern state of São Paulo. Most of Brazil's
population (81.2%) now lives in cities
Brazil has the biggest black
population of any country outside Nigeria.
Over 10 million African slaves were
shipped to Brazil, six times more than to the United States.
About 54 percent (95 million) are mainly
of European origin, descendants of immigrants from Portugal,
Italy, Spain, Germany and Eastern Europe. More than 45 percent
(80 million) are black or of mixed-race, a legacy of the African
slave trade. Less than 1 percent (700,000) are from indigenous
groups, mostly Indians in the Amazon region; smaller numbers of
Japanese, other Asians, and Arabs live in the larger Brazilian
cities.
The rhythm Brazil is best known for, is samba. March 13
marks the traditional 90th birthday of one of the country's
trademarks: Samba. The first known recording of a Samba song: "Pelo
Telefone" ("On the Telephone"), was recorded in 1917 by singer
and songwriter Donga
Nowadays, most Brazilians from the
south are descendants of the European immigrants who settled in
the late 19th century.
Mail from Brazil is quick
and efficient. Post offices (correios) are found
everywhere, readily identifiable by the blue-and-yellow sign
When writing addresses in
Brazil, the street number follows the name of the street (so the
address "Av. Atlântica 2000" would roughly translate as "2000
Atlantic Ave."). Often in smaller towns or beachfront
communities, a street name will be followed by the abbreviation
"s/n." This stands for sem numero (without number)
Brazil (official name:
Federative Republic of Brazil or, in Portuguese, República
Federativa do Brasil) is a federation comprising 26 states
and a federal district (where the federal capital, Brasília,
is located),
São Paulo is the third biggest city in
the world, after Tokyo and Mexico City.
In Brazilian-Portuguese, "abobrinhas"
is the art of talking shit. Or, as one blogger refers to
it,"small talk; useless information, foolish chit-chat;
non-sense; fluff." Little Pumpkins (the literal translation of "abobrinhas"
.PNG){kind=logo}
Most
cars in Brazil run either on alcohol or on gasohol. Brazil's
sugar cane-based industry is far more efficient than the U.S.
maize-based industry. Brazilian distillers are able to produce
ethanol for 22 cents per liter, compared with the 30 cents per
liter for corn-based ethanol.[6]
Sugarcane is one of the most efficient photosynthesizers
in the plant kingdom, able to convert up to 2% of incident solar
energy into biomass. Despite having the world's largest
sugarcane crop, the 45,000 km² Brazil currently devotes to
sugarcane production amount to only about one-half of one
percent of its total land area of some 8.5 million km². In
addition, the country has more unused potential cropland than
any other nation.
