“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“Entertainment has superseded the provision of information; human interest has supplanted the public interest; measured judgement has succumbed to sensationalism.”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 […]
Não vai ter golpe! (You won’t have a Coup!). Brasil’s ‘Silent Left’ did indeed show themselves, across 25 cities. Did the international media show them showing themselves? For the most part, no. U.S. & U.K. newspapers, which have received criticism for their coverage of political demonstrations across Latin America, were conspicuous by their absence. Going against narrative […]
In mid-2013, just before large street demonstrations rattled São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, news broke of Edward Snowden’s leak of secret internal documents from the NSA, GCHQ and allied FVEY surveillance services. Early observers in Brazil paid particular attention to a map which measured the intensity of surveillance in the ‘Boundless Informant‘ programme. On this map, […]
Back in October 2014, a thirty-something, upper-middle class couple carry a large red flag towards a demonstration a few kilometres away, having walked the length of São Paulo’s leafy Rua Oscar Freire – an affluent area lined with boutiques & international chains. By the time the pair reach main artery Avenida Reboucas they are visibly shaken from what […]