Why is it that everything that happens in Brasil seems to be reported like an existential threat & why do foreign outlets so often get it so wrong? Here’s some examples from the past few years. (Ironically most of them received more media attention than the recent environmental catastrophe in Minas Gerais). 1. Carnaval is Cancelled Happens every […]
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After the lowest turn out yet for a pro-impeachment protest last Sunday, hundreds of thousands of social movement and labour union members took to the streets wednesday 16/12 in at least 23 states to protest what they call a Coup attempt against President Dilma Rousseff. In São Paulo, where Brasil Wire witnessed at least 5 blocks […]
“Só uma crise, real ou percebida, produz uma mudança real.” – Milton Friedman. (Originalmente publicado em Inglês 22/6/15) O ano de 2015 está sendo terrível para o Brasil: uma conjuntura econômica mundial desfavorável, uma série de políticas equivocadas do início do primeiro mandato de Dilma Rousseff, e os escândalos que se seguiram à eleição de […]
“Entertainment has superseded the provision of information; human interest has supplanted the public interest; measured judgement has succumbed to sensationalism.” Bob Franklin (Newszak and News Media, 1997) Midweek 6pm, central São Paulo: workers are drifting into the local boteco for a cold beer or pinga, perhaps killing time to avoid rush hour before their long […]
In September Bloomberg covered a Brazilian elite NYC fundraising gala which it sponsored along with Goldman Sachs, BrazilFoundation (linked to BlackRock Inc) and KAR Properties, a developer who specialises in selling Miami condominiums to wealthy Brazilian ex-pats. In it, the reporter wrote “While the sensitivity of the issue prevented anybody from speaking a word publicly about Brazilian President Dilma […]
American exceptionalism is a myth. Superpowers do not promote democracy, not at home and certainly not abroad. Democracy requires popular sovereignty – power to govern without external control – the antithesis of empire. – Jan K. Black PhD. In the recently released ‘The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire’ (Verso Books), the first […]
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Narcos is not a documentary and purely as televisual entertainment it is difficult to dislike. It is directed by the talented Brazilian José Padilha (Bus 174, Tropa de Elite) and also featuring fellow countryman, Tropa de Elite’s lead Wagner Moura (Elysium, Praia do Futuro), who shines as Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Narcos is a stylish, visually & […]
This time last year, in an article entitled “Bom Senso F.C. & a battle for the soul of Brazilian football”, published on Brasil Wire, I wrote about the potential for a breakaway of Brasil’s major clubs from the Jurassic power structure that controls Brazilian football, headed by national and state federations. In 1992, England’s largest […]