This article was originally published in Portuguese on the blog of veteran Brazilian journalist Mauro Santayana 01.31.2015. Brasil Wire have chosen to translate and republish the article to add some factual and historical context to the current debate regarding the Brazilian economy in 2015. All views expressed are those of Mauro Santayana For several months, and especially during […]
In 1992, England’s biggest clubs broke away from the Football League to create their own top-flight division. These clubs realised that with their huge popularity and importance to their respective communities, they were the ones in control and no longer had to defer to a league that did not serve their interests. The result, the […]
Brasil today sits at a rare turning point for any country. Despite the furore surrounding the Petrobras scandal and the water crisis in São Paulo there are far more pressing issues that underpin whether Brasil can make the very difficult jump from middle income to rich, emerging to developed country, in the near future. Brasil […]
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Brazil’s political crisis, which starts in our flawed party financing system and ends on the streets with people that don’t feel represented by politicians, is like an airplane crash; there isn’t just one element that explains it all. Those that try to make it that simple are either misinformed or biased. There are many fans […]
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, known simply as Oscar Niemeyer was born December 15 1907. Niemeyer’s work dominated Brasil’s 20th Century architecture and still casts a long shadow over the profession. The government buildings of Brasília were designed at the peak of his creativity, Brasil Wire editor Louis Smith shares photographs taken during a […]
The US will become as unequal as Brasil. And that bothers both societies. As we watched President Obama’s second inauguration 2013 it was hard not to notice that, once again, Latin America was completely absent from any major initiative for the next four years. Even the immigration reform that came as a result of growing […]
The Federal Police Operation that uncovered bribes to politicians and a cartel of gigantic construction companies goes much beyond corruption at Brasil’s state-oil Petrobras. Although most of the implicated belong in the ruling coalition of President Dilma Rousseff, the investigations hit all political parties that had power in Congress since the year 2000. When the […]
Brasil’s most iconic songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim died this week 20 years ago. Lost Sambista Richard Klein picks his favourite moments from the web. Richard’s new book Lost Samba is serialised and available for free on Brasil Wire.
Podem me prender, podem me bater / Podem até deixar-me sem comer / Que eu não mudo de opinião They could arrest me, they could beat me / They could even leave me starving / I wouldn’t change my opinion Opinião – Nara Leão 1964 In March 2014 a group of students at the School […]