Teixeira | «End of an Era»

Ricardo Teixeira já era. Columnist Juca Kfouri dances on the grave of a perpetual Rei Momo of Brazilian soccer. Ricardo Teixeira is history. Sergeant Garcia finally arrested Zorro Brazil, and not just football, has good reason for celebration. Teixeira is leaving not only  the governing CBF but also, and more importantly, the World Cup local organizing [...]

The Militias of Rio | Operation Peacemaker

The militias of Rio — protection and black marketeering rackets run by moonlighting or retired police and firemen — are so vivid in the popular imagination that they figure in the latest Globo prime-time soap, if only tangentially. The evil Tereza Cristinga of Fina Estampa hires an ex-fireman, working as security chief at her condominium, [...]

Tuesday Newsday | Carnaval

In a scene reminiscent of Bush v. Gore (2000), the voting process for this year’s competitive Carnaval parades in São Paulo is beset by chaos. As the envelopes with the jurors’ votes inside were opened on Tuesday afternoon, Tiago Ciro Tadeu Farias, 29, wearing the T-shirt of Império de Casa Verde, broke into the location [...]

Musical Electric Chairs | Electricity Regulation in Brazil

AES Eletropaulo has just returned to us a crispy stereo and burnt-out microwave oven, both fried in a lightning strike or massive surge or something of the kind last month. Big Government made them do it. We filed a complaint with the company and receive a voucher in return for repairs services from any one [...]

How to Boycott Fox in Pindamonhangaba

How to boycott NEWS Corp in Brazil, a consumer campaign suggested by Alberto Dines of Observatório da Imprensa? Rodrigo Vianna has some timely tips, which I translate, as always, in haste. In fact, boycotting Fox in Brazil means boycotting either Sky and  NET – the “convergent oligopoly” of pay TV – or  Globo. The pay [...]

Marina and the Greens | Plus, Big Sousaphone Solo

Newsvine | A Fair and Balanced Interview with Marina Silva by Globo. Mirabile Dictu.. That is me doing a quick bit of translation about the collision between politics and environmental policy in Brazil. Brazil has only had a forest service for 10 years, to our 110. The obscenely well-organized agribusiness lobby is more interested in [...]

Summit of the Syndicates | Labor-Management in Talks On Labor Peace

When you live in a Third World country like the U.S.A., you often find that trade unionists have been hunted to extinction, as still occurs in Colombia. The result is that there is no one left to sit around a table, smoke cigarettes, and hash out what all sides can agree on. The result is [...]

The Yellow Line | Quietly Reopening the Smoking Hole

The Diário do Comércio reports: DATELINE: SAMBODIA — The Pinheiros Station on the Yellow Line — Line 4 — of the São Paulo Metrô begins operations today at 10 a.m. with a high-tech design. On the other hand, the ribbon will be cut without certain items from the original plan that would have made life easier for [...]

Brazilian Capital Market Machine | Writing the Meltdown Manual

The great Sambodian smoking hole, above: Collapse of excavations at the future Pinheiros Station of the São Paulo Metrõ system. After all these years, and thank you for your concern, Brazil seems to have adequate control over its nuclear reactors — even if the location Angra dos Reis along the south-cenral coast, teeming with life, [...]

New regulatory regime for Brazilian software, Mercadante says

CETI is an IT business owners association from the gaucho South. It reports on what the sector is anxious to know: Will there be adequate subsidies for IT R&D in this year’s budget, despite fiscal austerity measures that are being taken? I translate an excerpt and comment for my notes. BRASÍLIA — Federal science and [...]