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DEMOCRACY EDUCATION UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Race, Politics and Education in Brasil

In the new Brazilian movie, “Que Horas ela Volta?” Regina Casé plays a North-Eastern kitchen maid for a rich woman in São Paulo. The narrative is based on the tension created when her employer discovers that her maid’s daughter has been accepted to a prestigious public university. Although neither Casé nor her daughter are black […]

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DEMOCRACY OPINION POLITICS

Anti-government protests fizzle: Could this be the end of a cycle?

During a year in which the Brazilian Military Police claimed that the São Paulo gay parade somehow shrunk from its regular crowd of 2.5 million people to 20,000 with no discernible difference in size  it’s hard to treat crowd estimates seriously, especially coming from traditional anti-PT media oligarchies who own Veja Magazine, O Globo and […]

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DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAWFARE MEDIA OPINION POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

The Problem With Veja…

A toxic rag with an agenda that goes far beyond journalism. – Jon Lee Anderson, veteran reporter at the New Yorker. Last week football legend turned senator Romário Faria made a special announcement to his 2 million Facebook followers. “On Thursday I found out from a Veja magazine story that I have millions of Reais in […]

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HISTORY POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

The Curious Case of the Brazilian Royal Family

When Napoleon Bonaparte and his troops invaded Portugal the royal family fled to Brazil. In 1822 they declared independence and Dom Pedro I became the head of the western hemisphere’s only monarchy. He declared himself emperor and his family governed Brazil for the next 67 years. They were exiled back to Europe after a coup […]

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CITIES OPINION RIO DE JANEIRO UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Brasil is not Rio

The Olympics are arriving in a year and it is only a matter of time before thousands of journalists parachute into Rio as they did last year during the months before the World Cup. Rio de Janeiro is unquestionably one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It is a magnet for foreign journalists and tourists […]

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HOUSING POLITICS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

A Brief Look at Brazilian Social Movements

Brazil currently has its most conservative Congress in decades. As violence against social movements increases and the criminalization of Brazilian social movements in the media and judiciary intensifies, it is a good time to take a closer look at who these movements are and what they are doing. How did they start, and what is […]