Ronaldo the Phat

The Folha de S.Paulo reports: Ronaldo the Fat is now Ronaldo the Phat — or Ronaldo the Phenom, if you like.
Graças aos pés de Ronaldo, o Corinthians está prestes a colocar as mãos no Paulista.
Thanks to Ronaldo’s feet, Corinthians is about to get its hands on the São Paulo state championship cup.
I am perfectly aware [...]

The Welfare Queen Is Alive and Well and Living With Dr. Mengele in Bertioga

A reader of Luis Nassif notes, regarding media coverage of the Bolsa-Familia income subsidy and a related social program, the ProUni higher education subsidy, here in Brazil:
Reinventaram aquela história dos “bolsa-família” que compraram geladeira ou máquina de lavar.
They have recycled that whole spiel about Bolsa-Familia recipients who bought refrigerators or washing machines.
Ali Kamel, journalism director [...]

“Down With the Dictatorship of Hollywood”

Abaixo a ditadura hollywoodiana: From the weekend cultural supplement of Valor Econômico, Brazil’s principal national-circulation business daily.
I must say that it is very disappointing to move to an exotic tropical nation in another hemisphere only to find that all that cable TV has to offer is the same programming you get [...]

Dantas’ Inferno: Showdown at the Eldorado Corral

“Smile, you’re being manipulated”: commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Globo television network.

Banco Opportunity, founded by MIT-trained convicted briber of federal officers Daniel Dantas, owns a cattle ranch in Pará which the Brazilian federal police suspect may have been used to launder money.
Apparently the capital gains represented by new calves are very hard to document [...]

Argentine Press Freedom Bill Is An Assault On Press Freedom: Globo

O Globo tells an out and out lie when it describes as “proceeding through congress in secret” a bill that has been widely debated in Argentine society and about which a Google search turns up thousands of mentions. One cannot even begin to fathom the cynicism of Globo.
O Biscoito Fino e a Massa [...]

Brazilian Broadband: Beyond Good and Evil

“The impression one gets is that the broadband operators are beyond good and evil.”
Banda larga brasileira está longe de ter qualidade razoável: Maria Inês Dolci of the Folha de S. Paulo posts a podcast on the astonishingly poor quality of service and sociopathic, usurious pricing of Brazilian broadband Internet providers.
The thing about podcasts is that [...]

Speedy Sputters Under Hack Attack!

Vigilante consumerdom: angry Argentines spank the Spaniards. Source: Iconoclastas.

EXAME magazine (Editora Abril, Brazil) notes another chapter in the saga of Speedy, Telefonica’s so-called Sambodian broadband Internet service.
After crashing the entire São Paulo state government last year thanks to a misconfigured router (or so they tell us), Speedy seems to have once again proven [...]

Happy Baixada Massacre Day

VivaFavela notes the fourth anniversary of the Baixada Massacre.
Corrupt military policemen cruising down the highway in downstate Rio de Janeiro, blasting human beings at random, after delivering a message to fellow troopers investigating them: rolling severed human heads into the station house like hairy hand grenades.
Severed.
Human.
Heads.
29 pessoas foram mortas em Queimados e Nova Iguaçu no [...]

Relief for Nassif: Permission to Say That Veja Sucks

Brazilian online journalist and multimedia economics pundit Luis Nassif is being sued by the editors of Veja magazine (Editora Abril) for having argued — not to put too fine a point on it — that the magazine’s journalism sucks outrageously.
I believe he may have referred to it as a “journalistic sewer,” in one of [...]

Run DMG: Did Pyramid Scheme Support Four More Uribe Years?

RUN (ON) DMG: Family, fatherland and easy money are featured in talking headshot of David Murcia, looking presidential as he addresses the Colombian nation on the integrity of his business. Source: EL TIEMPO.

CNE escuchará versión de David Murcia sobre aportes al referendo: Colombia’s national elections board will take testimony from David Murcia of DMG about [...]