Virada Cultural Paulista | The Second Life Effect

Why we avoided the Sambodian Virada Cultural Paulista | 2012, or, traduttores traditores. Neuza and I have not been consuming our fair share of Sambodian culture lately, owing both to ennui and to the odd work schedule of a traduttore traditore. We are also somewhat puzzled over the latest pet project supported by federal and state [...]

The Fearless Independence of the Editora Abril and Other Tall Tales of Its Kind

Blog da Cidadania‘s Edu Guimarães is a leading figure in the self-styled «progessive blogsphere» here in Brazil.  He writes, Some days ago, a friend of mine employed by the Editora Abril phoned me to describe his worries over the scandal involving the newsweekly Veja — that is to say, involving the possibility that group publisher Roberto [...]

The Tupi Tabloid, Decline and Waterfall

Bicho de sete cabeças: Racketeer «Captain» Guimarães (left) with Rio mayor Cesar «The Naked» Maia (second from left), Carnval 2007. A steady drip of confidential criminal intel maintains the diversified gambling racketeer Carlinhos Cachoeira — «Charlie Waterfall» — at the top of the Brazilian newshour, 24-7. The vigorous Rashomon effect observed seems to flow in [...]

Gunned Down in Maranhão

iG  — Brazil –reports: After a journalist is assassinated death squad-style with a standard-issue police weapon, other journalists report receiving threats of violence. The death of journalist Décio Sá, a political reporter at the Sarney political clan’s Estado do Maranhão and author of the widest read blog in the state, has led to a state [...]

On The Antonin Scalia School of Tropical Jurisprudence

R7 reports on a jaw-dropping moment of political incorrectness,. The story runs above the fold  the front page of the Folha de S. Paulo and other dailies this morning, but the racial overtones are deemphasized. I translate the gist. An interview by Consultor Jurídico with former chief justice Cezar Peluso served as a pretext for Minister Joaquim Barbosa [...]

Demise of Demóstenes | Amateurs Get the Dropbox on MSM

A reasonably thorough scanning of Brazil’s «progressive blogophere» turns up a Wikileaks moment: Lei dos Homens offers the entire federal police and prosecutorial case file on the corruption case that has led the political opposition into yet another ugly crisis . Dropbox, however, is informing me that the customer account is receiving too much traffic and cannot [...]

Ere I Saw Elba Ester | AMLO on the Comeback Trail

At first I found it mildly irritating. Now I find it utterly abhorrent. The U.S. press is reporting on this year’s presidential race in Mexico as though it were a Manichean choice between two sharply defined alternatives: the return of the PRI or the perpetuation of the PAN. The result of this crude statistical hack [...]

Demóstenes Torres and the Leaky Police

 «The lawmaker and the outlaw law breaker».Photo montage: SBT network From the Terra news portal, further developments in the decline and fall of Senator Demóstenes Torres, this time published first in Globo’s Época weekly newsmagazine. Senator Demóstenes Torres allegedly requested the assistance of racketeer Carlinhos Cachoeira in procuring World Cup contracts for a friend’s public relations firm in [...]

Demóstenes Torres | Numbers Are Up?

Item: Torres Hires Daughter of Supreme Court Justice | Viomundo. Senator Torres, of the DEM, or Democrats, is heard on 300 wiretaps conversing with a numbers racketeer and political power broker in his home state of Goiás, which surrounds the federal district of Brasilia. The former governor of the federal district, also a DEMocrat, José [...]

Red Bull | The Way of Karma Cola

Meio & Mensagem: Brazil’s federal advertising regulator bans a commercial for Red Bull involving the image of Jesus. News sites linking to the YouTube upload of the spot are advised that the company has blocked the video on intellectual property grounds. I translate. After receiving hundreds of protests, Conar today — [March 27] — decided [...]