President Dilma’s meeting with Barack Obama today may have been largely symbolic, perhaps even a wasted opportunity. But she did manage to lodge Brazil’s major complaint with the US at the moment: that Washington has been devaluing the dollar, making Brazilian products too expensive to export. Of course on an economic level, this will get(…)
Brazil tourism: forget the gringos
How has tourism been doing in Brazil? Just fine, much like the rest of the economy. But that’s not because of foreigners coming to visit the beautiful country. We haven’t really been able to afford that recently. It’s the locals. The numbers of Brazilians travelling around their own country has shot up in the last(…)
Thor Batista – how foreigners see Brazil
What does the case of Wanderson Pereira dos Santos tell us about Brazil? What does it mean that he was killed on his bicycle, struck by the car of the son of Brazil’s richest man? It depends where you’re from. An article by Simon Romero at the New York Times offers an insight into the(…)
The military dictatorship – battle over history
The top line from a story today in this newspaper made me do a double-take: “Tear gas, pepper spray, and stun guns were used yesterday in Rio to disperse more than 500 protestors who had met in front of the Military Club to protest against an event in honor of the 1964 coup.” Wait. Military(…)
Lula is back – cancer cured
This is great news for the fans of one of Brazil’s most beloved politicians. After 5 months of treatment, the former president posted a video yesterday saying his cancer was in “complete remission”, and that he will be returning to political life. Above is his video, in Portuguese, but here is a(…)
Everything golden again for Brazil’s richest man
Things are looking a lot better for Eike Batista. Last week the world’s 8th-richest man was still helping defend his son, Thor, against charges he was at fault in a car accident that claimed the life of a cyclist. Neither Thor nor Eike denied that the 20-year old’s Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren struck 30-year old Wanderson Pereira(…)
Brazilians really love the internet, blogs
Not a big surprise for those of us that live here, but: Brazilians spend much more time online than almost anyone else in the world. At 26.7 hours per month, people here are plugged in more than all other countries except the US, UK, South Korea and France. As one might expect, Brazilians are especially(…)
Bad week for Chevron, important case for Brazil
It’s never good news when you find out that the Brazilian government is prohibiting you from leaving the country so you can be tried for environmental crimes. But this is about much more than just the fate of 17 unhappy executives at Chevron, the major US oil company. The project to extract oil from Brazil’s(…)
Beer at the World Cup
As if Brazil hadn’t already been infuriating FIFA enough lately, it is looking like the government may uphold a ban on alcohol during all matches in 2014. Soccer fans in Brazil drink beer before and after the game, and are so intensely focused on the action during the 90-minute matches that the current law doesn’t(…)
Brazilian women – how equal?
Last week we had International Women’s Day. I suppose one can only celebrate that this generates quite a bit of attention here in Brazil. Specifically, the focus last week was on the pay gap between men and women, and if the government can do something to actively fix it. Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff,(…)
