Bruna Santos, a 17-year-old student from Brasilia, Brazil, produced a short video about child labor in Brazil.

In the accompanying text, Santos discusses the plight of children who work on the streets selling candy and other goods to supplement their parents’ income.

Child labor in Brasilia is becoming more common day by day. Children work mostly on the streets selling candies, flowers, stickers and other small items. Some perform services, such as watching over cars or washing them in public parking lots. Others shine shoes. Brasília has 2 million inhabitants and is the city with highest per capita income in the country, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Research by the Federal Policy Department shows that about 7,512 children are now working on the streets.

Most of these children come from low-income families, and their parents do not have a steady job or do not make enough money to take care of their children. So, the children work on the streets to help buy food and pay for bills….

Wesley Pereira, 12, and his brothers, Walisson Pereira, 14, and Wellington Pereira, 16, sell candy at a busy downtown intersection for nine hours a day. They have been working at that intersection for more than a year, said Wesley. They earn about 150 reais ($68 US) a day, but must spend 60 reais ($28 US) of that to buy candy for the next day, they said.

Worldfocus producer Channtal Fleischfresser spoke with Santos about her experience making the piece.

Why did you decide to do a story about child labor?
I had to choose from a number of issues: student politics, child labor, and other areas, and I was the only representative from Brazil to deal with child labor as a subject.

Bruna Santos

Here in Brazil, we often see children asking for money at street lights, washing cars, selling stickers or sweets. I thought it would be interesting to show other people. When most people think of child labor, they think of kids in sweatshops, not selling things on the street.

Did you have trouble getting the children to speak to you?
We interviewed three kids and one who was afraid of being identified because he thought his parents would beat him. My teacher and I went through several drafts of the piece to avoid exposing the kids too much.

Did you write the piece in Portuguese or English?
I wrote a draft in Portuguese and then wrote it into English with the help of my teacher, Claudia Batista.

Have you already decided what you want to do professionally?
I decided two years ago that I wanted to be a journalist. I’ve always liked to read and write, and I started looking for people who worked with this. I’m sure it’s what I want to do.

How long have you been working with iEARN?
I’ve been working with them since the beginning of 2009. It’s very interesting, because in addition to using a different language, [English,] you get to meet lots of different people, and see different perspectives you didn’t know about before.

- Channtal Fleischfresser

“Rio, the Marvelous City and the Olympic City in 2016 - For the first time, a South American city will host the Olympic Games,” proclaimed O Globo, in Rio.

Shouts of “God is Brazilian” are sure to be echoing throughout Brazil today, as Rio de Janeiro beat out three other major cities — Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago — to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The decision, which will make Brazil the first South American country to host an Olympics, was also a political victory for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who made a personal pitch to the Olympic committee Friday morning, just as U.S. President Barack Obama did.

Crowds in Rio danced and celebrated along the beachfront as the announcement was made.

Although doubts remain as to Rio’s ability to handle chronic problems such as lack of infrastructure, violence and pollution in time for the Games, most Brazilians, including Worldfocus producer Channtal Fleischfresser, were optimistic that the Olympics would bring jobs and prestige to the city.

Protesters at the Brazilian embassy in Honduras.

Peter Eisner describes the political climate in Honduras and shares the observations of a Worldfocus contributing blogger.

There was word of negotiations on Wednesday, but no sign of a quick resolution in the standoff between the de facto Honduran government and the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya remained holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa for a second day in a stalemate with Roberto Micheletti, the man who took office after Zelaya’s ouster on June 28.

Zelaya seeks a return to power. Micheletti says that is out of the question.

News reports from Honduras and Brazil said that a curfew was imposed in the Honduran capital, with soldiers on rooftops and helicopters hovering around at times.

On Tuesday, the reports said police used truncheons and tear gas to disperse crowds surrounding the embassy. AP reported 18 people were treated for injuries and that authorities had denied local reports that three people had died.

For a time, Honduran officials cut off power and access to the embassy. Finally, United Nations workers were allowed to deliver food to Zelaya, his family and as many as 85 people inside the compound.

There were several interviews with Zelaya and Micheletti published in newspapers and on international news wires. The Washington Post characterized the situation as “a battle of wills,” and and said that representatives of the two men had opened contacts to seek a resolution. The Post also said that U.S. diplomats and others were trying to negotiate an end to the impasse.

Why the Brazilian embassy? Zelaya told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo that Brazilian officials had no advance word that he would seek refuge there when he snuck back into Honduras over the weekend.

He told the newspaper that he valued Brazil’s stature in international affairs, but did not consult with its Foreign Ministry before going to the embassy. In fact, the Brazilian newspaper said, there was only one Brazilian diplomat in Tegucigalpa at the time, and that person ranked as minister-counselor, not ambassador.

“Brazil didn’t know about my plans. I took the decision to come directly to the embassy as a matter of strategy, a reserve position, so that the plan would not run a risk.”

Meanwhile, the people of Honduras wait. You can get a glimpse of the tension in the country from one of Worldfocus’ contributing bloggers, a religious volunteer in Santa Rosa de Copán. He wrote last night:

I spent most of today in the house – washing clothes, cleaning the house, reading, checking out the internet, because there has been a curfew. If you are out you could be arrested. But this is very much like a house arrest of about seven million people here in Honduras.

But I went out and talked with some neighbors and went to the pulpería (corner store) up the street. It appears that the police are not overly strict here. A neighbor who went out beyond the neighborhood was turned back gently by the police.

But in the main cities people are not permitted to go out, even to buy basic foodstuffs. This hasn’t stopped hundreds of demonstrators from going out on the streets, especially in Tegucigalpa. But think of the old woman who needs food or the mother of five kids who has no tortillas.

About 6 pm I went across the street (it’s a dirt road) to talk with my neighbors who were outside eating oranges. I guess we were violating the curfew. We talked and then amused ourselves with the silly dog tricks of their dog, Dinky. We laughed heartily - our way of snubbing the fear, insecurity, and sense of isolation that the curfew is supposed to instill in our hearts.

Final note: I hear kids shouting in the street “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.” - “The people united will not be defeated.”

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user vredeseilanden under a Creative Commons license.

Worldfocus partner Deutsche Welle reports on the standoff from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Manuel Zelaya’s ouster has fueled passions in Honduras and beyond.

The stealthy return to Honduras by deposed President Manuel Zelaya this week highlights unusual alliances that make it hard to game the outcome. In the old days, there would have been late-night conniving and arm-twisting by a U.S. proconsul who happened to also be the ambassador or a top American diplomat. This time, the United States has not been a leader in solving the problem.

In diplomatic-speak, U.S. officials continue to reject the June 28 ouster of Zelaya and demand his peaceful return to power. At the same time, the Obama administration has seemed to undercut the role of the Organization of American States in performing a meaningful role. You get the feeling that the U.S. position is: Supporting democracy is one thing, but doing anything that might be beneficial to the interests and alliances of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is another.

Zelaya, a businessman, had been taking an increasingly populist, socially conscious stance and his detractors say he was seeking to usurp the constitution in the style of Chavez’ Bolivarian revolution. Zelaya, seized by the military in his pajamas and deposited in Costa Rica, says he sneaked back to Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, over the weekend after a half day of trekking over hill and dale, without saying which border he had crossed. [El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua -- where he had taken refuge -- are the choices]

Meanwhile, of all places, Zelaya has taken refuge in the embassy of Brazil, a country which until recently had been loathe to play too high a profile in contentious international affairs. Increasingly, however, Brazil has filled in as a mediator and even player — consider President Lula’s ongoing attempts to encourage calm relations between the United States and Venezuela. Brazil also plays an ongoing, difficult role — not given enough credit in the United States — in keeping the peace with a military contingent in Haiti.

Especially under the absentee Latin American policies of former president George W. Bush, Lula’s role was important. And Brazil’s role is significant, especially since the United States has not been clear on what it wants for Honduras.

The Brazilian government agrees with the United States that whatever the outcome in Honduras, the process must be peaceful. But Brazil has allowed Zelaya to raise the animus of supporters from the balcony of the embassy, surrounded by police and demonstrators.

Don’t worry though, the United States is involved in its fashion. The interim (or de facto, acting or temporary, depending on the political connotation) Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti, published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post on Tuesday, in which he repeated his claim that the ouster of Zelaya was a perfectly constitutional exercise and not a coup at all. The article had the look and feel of airbrushing and massaging by lawyers at a K St. public relations firm.

The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic. I must respectfully disagree. As the true story slowly emerges, there is a growing sense that what happened in Honduras that day was not without merit. On June 28, the Honduran Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya for his blatant violations of our constitution, which marked the end of his presidency. To this day, an overwhelming majority of Hondurans support the actions that ensured the respect of the rule of law in our country.

Underlying all the rhetoric about a military overthrow are facts. Simply put, coups do not leave civilians in control over the armed forces, as is the case in Honduras today. Neither do they allow the independent functioning of democratic institutions — the courts, the attorney general’s office, the electoral tribunal. Nor do they maintain a respect for the separation of powers. In Honduras, the judicial, legislative and executive branches are all fully functioning and led by civilian authorities.

Pay no attention to that man on the balcony of the Brazilian embassy who pretends to be the president, Micheletti tells us. Let us look toward November elections, when, he says, he and his friends will prove that Honduras has been democratic all along.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user YamilGonzales under a Creative Commons license.

However, WHO officials are warning that the pandemic will hit poor countries especially hard. At the United Nations meeting in New York later this week, those officials plan to ask wealthy countries to contribute to a special fund for the developing world.

Michael Novacek, the provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the dangers and the production and distribution of vaccines.

In China, a massive campaign to vaccinate people against swine flu began in Beijing on Monday. It is thought to be the first nation to begin inoculating its population against the H1N1 virus.

China has been among the world’s leaders in developing a swine flu vaccine, with no fewer than five Chinese drug makers involved in the effort. Chinese officials hope to vaccine 65 million people by the end of the year — about five percent of that country’s population.

In Mexico, officials are predicting as many as five million cases of swine flu this winter, with some 2,000 deaths. Earlier this year, Mexico was ground zero for the pandemic, but was able to bring it under control by shutting schools and businesses for several weeks.

This time, Mexican officials are promising such closures will be more focused; just recently, some 1,400 schools in one northern city in Mexico were closed after a reported outbreak.

Swine flu has hit South America hard. Brazil is now reporting some 900 deaths due to the pandemic, more than any other country in the world. According to the World Health organization, there are now nearly 300,000 case of swine flu worldwide, with nearly 3,500 deaths.

In December 1971, President Richard Nixon and Brazilian President Emilio Garrastazú Médici met to discuss Brazil’s role in efforts to overthrow the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Photo courtesy of the National Security Archive.

Back in the days of the cold warriors – those righteous Americans who knew might was right and Communism was the devil’s work – U.S. officials set out to overthrow governments that seemed a shade too pink for their liking. The results were invariably bloody.

Echoes of the past came back to us this weekend thanks to the National Security Archive, which published documents showing that President Richard M. Nixon had sought help from Brazil in 1971 to overthrow Chilean President Salvador Allende. Whether or how much Brazil actually helped or not is still not known, but Allende, Chile’s democratically elected president, was in fact deposed on Sept. 11, 1973.

Nixon, his then-National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, and their intelligence apparatus pushed and promoted the coup. By day’s end, it was a bloody overthrow. Allende was dead; labor leaders, intellectuals, artists and others were corralled in the Santiago soccer stadium. Thousands were killed. The right-wing Chilean military imprisoned tens of thousands more, and drove hundreds of thousands into exile. A dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was thus born, reviled by many around the world for his suppression of human rights. He ruled for 16 years, supported as a friend by successive U.S. governments.

Much was previously known, but the independent National Security Archive, based in Washington, has been tracking additional details of the U.S. role over the years. Here is a transcript of a tape five days after the Chilean coup, declassified and obtained by the archive in 2006.

Nixon: Nothing new of any importance or is there?
Kissinger: Nothing of very great consequence. The Chilean thing is getting consolidated and of course the newspapers are bleeding because a pro-Communist government has been overthrown.
Nixon: Isn’t that something. Isn’t that something.
Kissinger: I mean instead of celebrating – in the Eisenhower period we would be heroes.
Nixon: Well we didn’t – as you know – our hand doesn’t show on this one though.
Kissinger: We didn’t do it. I mean we helped them. [garbled] created the conditions as great as possible.
Nixon: That is right. And that is the way it is going to be played.

In the Brazilian case revealed this week, Nixon met with Brazilian Gen. Emilio Medici in 1971. Both agreed that Allende was a threat. [By the way, the CIA also worked with the right-wing Brazilian military in 1964, supporting the overthrow of that country's democratic president, Joao Goulart]. The Archive information is accompanied by copies of the documents on line. It’s worth reading:

The Top Secret “memcon” of the December 9, 1971, Oval Office meeting indicates that Nixon offered his approval and support for Brazil’s intervention in Chile.

The President said that it was very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field. We could not take direction but if the Brazilians felt that there was something we could do to be helpful in this area, he would like President Médici to let him know. If money were required or other discreet aid, we might be able to make it available. This should be held in the greatest confidence.

“The U.S. and Brazil,” Nixon told Médici, “must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros and try where possible to reverse these trends.”

Nixon was not interested in stopping with Brazil. He discussed overthrowing Fidel Castro himself, and connived to dump the then president of Peru, with the picaresque idea of planting news in the media that the Peruvian had fathered a child with his mistress, Miss Peru.

More than three decades later, what have Americans learned from history? How many people died, how much suffering took place, and for what, exactly?

The cold warriors are still with us. The architects of the Iraq War, former vice president Richard M. Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, are veterans of the Nixon administration. History is now.

- Peter Eisner

In Brazil, as in the United States, the issue of race raises passions. Photo: United Nations

Questions of race and poverty raise difficult problems and passions in Brazil, a colossal country of 200 million people where the answers are never any more simple than they are in the United States.

A report released today by the Brazilian government and UNICEF studied the violent deaths of adolescents throughout the country, with some chilling findings. Statistical projections show that 33,000 young people in Brazil will have died as a result of violence between 2006 and 2012, and black children are more than twice as likely to be killed than those classified as white.

The fundamental question, of course, is to determine the source of all violence — and the joint report cites drug-dealing, poverty and the availability of guns. But the question about racial differences is sensitive for Brazilians. Their tendency has often been to defensively compare their country to the United States, and conclude that Brazil is fare more egalitarian, and far more racially blended.

The problem, many Brazilians say, involves class and not race, in which poor whites and poor blacks suffer equally for economic reasons, not for reasons of skin color. The argument doesn’t convince.

It is hard in Brazil to say who exactly is African-Brazilian, and which Brazilians identify themselves as having African heritage: there must be a dozen terms for different skin hues used in common discourse. “We all have African roots,” a Brazilian diplomat once told me at the Brazilian foreign ministry in Brasilia. He appeared to be Caucasian, and his last name was the name of a Portuguese count. The only people I saw there in the Palace of Itamaraty who appeared to be black were serving coffee or waiting to drive ministers to their next meeting.

Last year, there was another report about related issues from the United Nations, quoted by a Brazilian news agency, that “infant mortality among white children…is considerably lower than that registered among black children.” The same report said that while 98 percent of Brazilian young people are able to go to school, “of 660,000 students out of school, 450,000 are of African descent.”

That U.N. report said Brazil has made great strides in combating racism, and that more needs to be done.

Much can be said the same for the United States, which now has a president of African descent.

Brazil and the United States both have far to go. One need think no further than the outrageous case this week in Cambridge, Mass., where one of the nation’s most important scholars and teachers, Henry Louis Gates, was arrested on suspicion for breaking into his own house. He is an African-American who happens to live in a well-to-do neighborhood, where few people are black.

- Peter Eisner

Leaders from Brazil, Russia, China and India at the first BRIC summit.

This week, Brazil, Russia, India and China — dubbed the BRIC nations — held their first leaders’ summit in St. Petersburg. The web of bilateral connections among these four emerging powers is intense, with presidential summits a routine occurence. This quadrilateral format was the first for heads of state, however.

Perhaps predictably for a group that has such divergent interests, not much concrete came of the first BRIC meeting. Nevertheless, surely all the leaders – especially Russia — enjoyed the symbolism of the moment.

It doesn’t particularly matter, but I can’t help but think that the motivation for this meeting must have originated during the Bush Administration, which all but dared these countries to unite to oppose American interests. As it happens, they made some vague calls for a monetary system diversified away from the dollar, but that was about it.

These pivotal powers are at a privileged point in their evolution — they are not wealthy or influential enough for the world’s citizens to expect them to solve serious problems. And yet they are increasingly powerful and can increasingly demand, and deserve, a greater voice in global decision-making.

But this time will pass and, because they are emerging or re-emerging in an era when technology has made this planet very small, their summits will soon be marked by protestors demanding all variety of actions and commentators expressing disappointment that nothing got done, again. They would do well to take bold responsibility for the common good before that time comes. For starters, let’s see if China and India agree to targets for emissions reductions later this year in Copenhagen…

- Nina Hachigian

Scrap collectors are common in Brazil.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made headlines recently when he blamed “white people with blue eyes“ for the world financial crisis, which has undercut Brazil’s economic gains.

Brazil’s economy — Latin America’s largest — has seen slipping industrial production and will take a hit this year. Though it will likely weather the global financial storm, Brazil’s gross domestic product may shrink for the first time in 17 years. 

Natalia Viana is an investigative journalist who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. She writes at the “Frontline Club” about the fate of Brazil’s scrap collectors as prices for recyclable materials drop. 

Scrap collectors and the crisis

The current financial crisis has found its way to unimaginable places. While most Brazilians remain optimistic – after all the crisis was created far, far away from here by economies much more dependant on the financial markets – but the fact is that it has brought consequences to many people who don’t even know what the financial market is and who have never heard of subprime mortgages and foreclosures (and never will). 

The man who told me their story is not an economist, or a journalist. He is João Câmara, a cab driver who drove me home some days ago. He started by complaining that he did not know his way around: he’d been out of the taxi business for 15 years. What had happened, I asked. I had opened my own business, he replied.
 
He ran a centre for selection of recyclable materials in São Paulo. Scrap collectors would come with their wooden carts and sell the stuff they’d gathered –- paper, plastic bottles, aluminium cans –- to be cleaned, selected and then sold to major recycling companies. In other words, he was a middleman. 

In Brazil, 90% of the materials recycled go though the hands of a scrap collector. It’s hard to know precisely how many they are. Figures vary between 800,000 and 1.5 million. These are workers who walk around all day going from trash can to trash can to collect, organize and clean everything that no-one wants anymore. And they have been deeply affected by the crisis. 

João Câmara told me that prices of used plastic slumped so much he had to give up his job and go back to being a cab driver. Many scrap collectors are seeing their earning cut by almost half, he said. 

He is right. According to the National Movement of Recyclable Materials Collectors, a collector who used to earn up to 350 dollars per month are now unable to make more than 200 dollars. Prices paid for the materials have dropped by 60% in some cases. In September 2008, a kilo of cardboard was about 0.22 dollars. Now the price is 0.06 dollars. The price of plastic fell from 0.50 dollars to 0.30 dollars. 

Being a middle-man, João Câmara had the opportunity to drop the industry and go cab driving. He’s starting anew, and faces the future in a very Brazilian way. What can one do, he said, that’s life. But for most scrap collectors, there is no other choice –- they will have to work harder, maybe twice as much as they did before, to afford food for their tables. 

See the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user hadsie under a Creative Commons license.

Brazilian immigrants march in California.

Recently, a Brazilian immigrant in Switzerland made headlines when she claimed to have been attacked by skinheads, and the initials SVP (representing the right-wing Swiss People’s Party) were carved into her chest though she was pregnant.

The case drew media attention in both Switzerland and Brazil, television screens broadcasting the graphic images of the injured woman.

However, police say that she was not pregnant and may have carved the symbols into her own skin.

Natalia Viana is an investigative journalist who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. She writes at the “Frontline Club” about how Brazilian immigrants are seen abroad after such instances.

The changing image of Brazilian immigrants

Last week pictures of 26-year-old Brazilian Paula Oliveira, with the initials of Switzerland’s main right-wing party cut into her body were printed all over the world. She claimed to have been attacked by skinheads in Zurich, but later reportedly confessed to self-mutilating. Now she is being investigated for misleading the police.

The fact is that Brazilians are committing more crime abroad — and being more noticed for that. Today there are about 3.5 million Brazilians living abroad, including a proportion of illegal migrants. About half of them go to the U.S., but Europe and Japan are also key destinations. In London where I lived, it was common for Brazilian to be involved in all sorts of scams, from recruiting illegal workers to arranged marriages to Europeans.

Only this week, 50 Brazilians were arrested on suspicion of faking and selling fake passports in Mantova, Italy. A similar operation had taken place in Spain in January, with 33 Brazilians arrested as fraudsters.

As a consequence, the image of Brazilian immigrants is now changing. For many, they are no longer seen as the smiling hard working types, but as potential criminals, fraudsters or illegal workers. More than that, such perception has started to influence the attitude of several foreign authorities towards Brazilians.

When I first lived in the UK in 1999, saying that you were from the land of football and samba always meant a warm welcome. Nowadays, any Brazilian travelling abroad must expect to be treated as a criminal until proven otherwise.

Take the UK, for instance. It is estimated that about 200 thousand Brazilians live in the country, half of them illegally. Since 2006, about 6 thousand Brazilians are deported every year – making Brazil the leader in “returned” citizens. Last year the Home Office included Brazil in a list of 11 countries whose citizens should require a visa before travelling to the UK.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user unsure shot under a Creative Commons license.

The Itaipu Dam on the Brazil-Paraguay border has been a source of tension between the two countries.

In November, the Worldfocus signature series on “Brazil Today” explored Brazil’s emerging power, touching on growth of the oil industry and the state-controlled company Petrobras: Brazil emerges as an oil giant.

But Brazil’s rise has not been entirely smooth, and the country has had run-ins with its South American neighbors. Bolivia and Petrobras have had disputes over gas exports. There have also been land disputes between Paraguayans and Brazilians, during which peasant farmers burned the Brazilian flag.

Raúl Zibechi is an international analyst, lecturer and researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina. He writes at “Upside Down World” about Brazil’s emerging power and its impact on smaller neighboring countries.

Is Brazil creating its own “backyard” in Latin America?

In past months a number of conflicts have occurred between the emerging global power of Brazil and its smaller neighbors, in particular Ecuador and Paraguay. This has led Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government to defend Brazil’s multinationals and to mobilize troops to protect the nation’s interests.

The power vacuum left by waning U.S. influence in South America has been filled by new global world powers as well as a local power with the ambition of becoming a global player . As recent as the 1990s it was European capital—Spanish and French—that was most dynamic in South America, buying up privatized state-owned enterprises. More recently, China has tried to move into the economic void, importing oil and gas and investing in mining.

For some time Brazil has set out to expand its influence using the South American region as its springboard, a fact that has been the subject of various analyses and studies. However, lately this expansionist policy has generated serious conflicts such as that between Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Lula da Silva. In some of these disputes Brazil has deployed troops to reinforce its national interests, as happened recently on the Paraguayan border.

It is possible that the growing resentment toward Brazilian companies is the price to be paid for Brazil’s commercial and economic expansion. Recently Brazilians began hearing complaints about the country’s “imperialism.” In 2004, Brazil’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) began to experience spectacular growth. That year Brazilian companies invested US$10 billion dollars abroad, as compared with just $250 million the year before. By 2005, the sum total of Brazilian FDI reached $71 billion, as compared with Mexico’s $28 billion (Mexico is Latin America’s second largest FDI investor). A significant proportion of this recent business expansion is taking place in countries that border on Brazil.

[...]On Oct. 2, Lula enacted Decree 6.952, which regulates the National Mobilization System dedicated to confronting “foreign aggression.” The decree defines “foreign aggression” as “threats or injurious acts that harm national sovereignty, territorial integrity, the Brazilian people, or national institutions, even when they do not constitute an invasion of national territory.”

An editorial column of Defesanet states that the approval of the decree constitutes a clear message to neighboring countries: “Any act of aggression or persecution of Brazilian citizens residing in Paraguay (brasiguayos), in the Pando region of Bolivia, as well as new threats to cut gas lines and take over Brazilian installations and companies operating in other countries are now characterized as external aggressions and a military response from Brazil will be legally sanctioned.”

The issue transcends the Lula government. It is basically the affirmation of an emerging power that its borders extend to wherever its national interests are. All great powers were built up in this way, with an attitude that has always been known as “imperialism.” Maybe that’s why many South Americans feel that Brazil is creating its own “backyard.”

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Resources Institute under a Creative Commons license.

Roben Farzad, a senior writer and columnist for BusinessWeek magazine, joins Martin Savidge to discuss when and how the global economic downturn will bottom out, economic lessons from history and why countries like India and Brazil are faring relatively well compared to the U.S.

Both forums will focus on the global economy, though the Davos conference centers around policy and the Brazil meeting looks at social need.

At the World Social Forum, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa blamed the Davos attendees for the financial crisis, saying, “They are the ones responsible for the crisis. They are not the ones to give us lessons.” Other leaders called for an overhaul of global capitalism.

The “Musings” blog writes the World Social Forum in Brazil, and argues that people who strictly oppose market-based policies are being “disingenuous.”

“The Mormon Worker” blog also reports on the forum from Brazil, discussing talks on deforestation.

Blogger “Jim Stormes” describes the opening festivities, including an energetic and diverse march.

Watch a video from YouTube user OskarPCastro featuring presentations and gatherings at the World Social Forum:

Ian Bremmer writes in Harvard’s “Davos Diary” about the gloomy mood at Davos, while Jeff Jarvis at “BuzzMachine” writes, “The snow here is much thicker than the discussion.”

Blogger “Ángel Cabrera” writes that the conference in Davos could be an effective way to examine the financial crisis from multiple lenses.

The “Scobleizer” blog writes that the Davos conference could bring about change, but that discussions have not focused enough on small businesses.

Watch a video from the Davos conference’s YouTube page featuring world citizens’ responses to a question about the world’s economic future in 2009.

No one benefits more than the poor, and physicians are given incentives and paid up to three times more to work in the poorest areas of Brazil.

As a result, infant mortality is down and life expectancy is up, but there are drawbacks. Offering so much has put a strain on the health system. Most of Brazil’s hospitals are considered substandard, with long waits for procedures.

Worldfocus correspondent Edie Magnus and producer Megan Thomspon report from Brazil on the highs and lows of universal health care.

Germans have been asked to eat less meat for the sake of the environment.

The German government has recommended that citizens eat less meat in order to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming and production.

Germans are among the highest consumers of meat in Europe. Meat consumption is expected to double globally between 2000 and 2050, and yet agricultural emissions are just beginning to come under scrutiny.

A blogger at “Transatlantic Politics” worries about state-planned eating schemes and rationing that could infringe on personal freedoms.

Elsewhere in the world, other governments and scientists have taken steps to lessen the environmental impact of methane emissions from livestock and energy-intensive production.

Australian researchers suggested going on a kangaroo diet, as the creatures emit less methane as a part of their digestive processes than do cows or sheep.

British researchers recommended rationing meat, restricting citizens to four portions a week.

A British blogger at “Eco Curious” describes her decision to eat less meat, but also provides advice on where to find the most environmentally-friendly meat in the United Kingdom.

The “Inhabitat” blog writes about a Dutch power plant that converts poultry waste into reusable energy, which prevents the manure from seeping into the ground and releasing emissions.

The “Ethical Eating” blog urges people to become vegans, as meat production in Brazil is contributing to Amazon deforestation.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user dmscvan under a Creative Commons license.

Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at the U.N. climate conference in Poznan, Poland.

In Poznan, Poland, about 11,000 people from more than 190 countries met this week to lay the foundations for a treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that will extend beyond the Kyoto Protocol agreement, which expires in 2012.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) hopes to finalize the new climate protocol at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

This week’s conference has focused largely on convincing emerging economies like China, Brazil and South Africa to curb their emissions, and negotiators have agreed to free at least $60 million for developing countries to combat effects of climate change.

Stavros Dimas, the European Commissioner for Environment, writes in his blog from Poznan that he is optimistic although even more stringent targets are necessary.

British conservative politician and blogger Roger Helmer, also in Poznan, writes that he has witnessed “knee-jerk alarmism” at the conference and fears the third world will blackmail Western countries over climate change.

Blogger Andrew Light writes at the “Wonk Room” blog about “the American problem” — fear that the Obama administration will not support the forthcoming treaty in Copenhagen if the U.S. Congress cannot agree on a cap and trade system.

Blogger Matt Maiorana of “It’s Getting Hot in Here” expresses anger at statements from developed countries and writes about efforts of the youth movement in Poznan.

Esther Neuhaus, affiliated with Brazilian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), demands that leaders stop talking and take action on the last day of talks. Brazil plans to cut its deforestation by 70 percent by 2017.

OneClimate’s “Virtual Poznan” Web site provides videos from the conference and allows users to pose questions for conference participants.

In the following video, Daniel Nelson of OneWorld asks Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo De Boer some user-submitted questions via a Second Life virtual world.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user benkamorvan under a Creative Commons license.

Flooding in Itajai has left much of the Brazilian city underwater.

Floods in Brazil have killed at least 117 and driven more than 100,000 from their homes. Now, victims are beginning to return home, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to help rebuild the worst-hit areas.

Several months’ worth of rain fell on Brazil in under a week, leaving parts of the southern state of Santa Catarina underwater.

Global Voices Online posts accounts of Portuguese-language bloggers in affected areas — some forced to leave their homes – here and here.

The “Luz e Estilo” blog posts photos from Itajai, a city in Santa Catarina that witnessed some of the worst flooding.

The Itajai city government set up an information blog in the wake of the floods.

Blogger “Gschineider” visits Itajai and writes that people are trying to return to normal, though wary of continuing rain.

Blogger “Gringa in Rio” calls the floods the “Brazilian Katrina” and suggests that global warming is at fault.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user emarquetti under a Creative Commons license.

The company’s 48,986-ton P-51 oil platform rests over a hundred miles off the coast of Brazil and is the first semisubmersible platform built entirely in Brazil. It may produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day — if the global financial crisis doesn’t necessitate a change in plans.

Worldfocus correspondent Edie Magnus and producers Bryan Myers and Megan Thompson report from Angra dos Reis, south of Rio de Janeiro, on Brazil’s unfolding role as oil giant.


Worldfocus explores the P-51 offshore oil platform near Angra dos Reis, which for many represents not only the future of oil exploration but also the future of Brazil. /files/2008/11/th_brazil_oilv2.jpg /files/2008/11/th_brazil_oilv2.jpg ]]> http://worldfocus.org/blog/2008/11/25/brazil-emerges-as-an-oil-giant/2929/feed/