On the Beat: Brazil

The WIU Wind Ensemble tour isn’t the only major event happening this March in Brazil.  The country is in the midst of an election year, is just four years away from hosting its second FIFA World Cup, and preparations are underway for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.  Brazil is not only Latin America’s biggest economy, but one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.  The country is a journalist’s mecca. Check here regularly for links to important and interesting news stories impacting this dynamic South American nation.  

Protests break out in Rio over the government’s plan to split revenue from a recently discovered oil  supply among all of the nation’s 26 states.  Due to our late afternoon flight, we just missed a massive demonstration in the center of the city, but The New York Times was there and has this report:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/world/americas/18brazil.html?scp=2&sq=brazil&st=cse 

Rousseff could be elected Brazil's first female president later this year

Brazilians will elect a new president later this year, and many speculate the winner could be the first woman to ever take the post.  Read about Dilma Rousseff and find out what a win for the guerilla-trained presidential advisor could mean for Brazilian politics.  

Until a few months ago, Brazil’s President Lula had been a 50-year smoker.  Read why he kicked the habit in this Associated Press article.  

Cotton is at the center of the latest trade dispute between Brazil and the United States, whose bilateral trade fell some 17 billion dollars between 2008 and 2009.  Read about it in this New York Times article.  

Secretary of State Clinton and Brazilian President Lula (AP photo)

The Brazilian President will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on March 3 in a meeting that will highlight their nations’ different perspectives on Iran.  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to defend Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear program.  For comments from the leaders just ahead of their meeting, read this Business Week article.  

Temperatures in Rio this week will creep near 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but an American socialite cruising the worldwide advertising circuit is apparently “too hot for Brazil.” Check out the Associated Press article.  

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will stop in Brazil during her upcoming Latin American tour.http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/26/clinton.latin.america.trip/index.html  

As part of the Obama administration’s efforts to tighten U.N. sanctions, the Washington Post reports the US Presses Brazil on Iran  

Rio’s beaches are getting some pre-spring cleaning, thanks to a new mayor in town. Read about it in Alexei Barrionuevo’s New York Times article “Clamping Down on the Kaleidoscope of Rio’s Beaches”  

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently met with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.  The Washington Post reports on the leaders’ get-together in Havana.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404405.html  

AP photo

Brazil’s unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in January, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100225-708494.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesAmericas  

Globalpost‘s Brazil correspondent Seth Kugel shares “The Making of Rio’s Carnival Floats” http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/brazil/100212/rio-carnaval-samba-float  

And for the New York Times, Kugel introduces us to an obscure fruit that’s taking some Brazilians from poverty to prosperity in  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/dining/24acai.html?ref=americas  

Margot Roosevelt, for the L.A. Times, says American executives may look to Brazil’s rain forests to help their companies meet climate change responsibilities in http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover-amazon21-2010feb21,0,3432052.story