8:31 am By Maegan La Mala · Argentina|Brazil|Chile|israel|Palestine|Uruguay · 4 Comments
7 Dec 2010Yesterday, both Argentina and Uruguay announced that they recognized Palestine as an independent state, following Brazil’s lead, who recognized Palestine on Friday. The countries recognize Palestine as it was in 1967 , before the so-called “Six-day War” between Israel and Palestine when Israel took Gaza and the West Bank.
“The Argentine government recognizes Palestine as a free and independent state within the borders defined in 1967,” Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said, adding that this decision was made after a general agreement between the South American and Mercosur trade blocs.
Uruguay went a step forward as its Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Conde vowed to open a diplomatic representation in Palestinians’ Ramallah region after announcing to recognize it as a state next year.
Today’s musical pick comes to us via the new PBS Arts website . PBS Arts is part of PBS’s multi-platform initiative to reinvigorate public engagement with the arts through an exploration of performance, artistic expression, and the creative process — on-air, online, in the classroom and in every community. In this Quick Hit, Seu Jorge, who is one of my favorite artists from Brazil, performs a song named after a Portuguese dance but about Brazilian fishermen.
P.S. : If you are offended by images of fish being well fished, you may want to close your eyes and just listen to the music.
Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.
6:16 am By Maegan La Mala · Brazil|economy|Media|Sports · 4 Comments
24 Jun 2010
I’m just a futbol fan, no expert pero there sure are a ton of people looking at Brazil as one of the potential winners of the World Cup. In Brazil, as in much of Latin America, soccer is a a religion not just a sport pero leave it to the latest Newsweek to turn Brazil’s love of the sport into an economic concern.
From pg. 10 : [In Brazil] Banks close for the games. If the national team makes the playoff round, many schools suspend classes (Kindergarten included). And good luck finding an open church on game day. Even the warring drug traffickers on Rio’s hillsides will likely call a truce when the ball is rolling…That kind of passion has a cost…Brazil would forgo $1.2 billion [if just half the workforce in contending nations knocks off on game days].
No word on the positive community of futbol fans watching the games. Everything has to be monetized and have a value placed on it (as if the futbol industry in and of itself weren’t lucrative enough). This perspective is no accident, Brazil and Chile both have been centered in South America as examples of democratic and dconomic success following years of military dictatorships. This doesn’t erase the reality of the widening gap between rich and poor in either place.
And I am especially thinking of Brazil now that floods in the Northeast have killed at least 41 and disappeared at least 1,000. About 100,000 have been left homeless.
6:41 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil|housing · 3 Comments
30 Aug 2009On Monday, following a court order, 240 police went to evict 800 families from the Olga Benário squatter settlement in an area called Capão Redondo, sprawling southern São Paulo. The property had been occupied for two years by hundreds of families, many from the social movement Frente de Luta por Moradia (the Front of Struggle for Housing). The property’s owner, a transport company, was able to get an eviction order from a judge, even though it owes back taxes, and even as the State Public Defender’s office was attempting to protect the residents. The eviction ended with burned houses and cars, and hundreds of families on the street in the mud.
Having just come out of a personal housing crisis myself here in NYC where the cost of living continues to rise and gentrification is swooping into neighborhoods of color making it hard for old timers to stay, and for new immigrants to find homes, I have to wonder why isn’t housing a right, especially for families with children?
8:03 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil|Environment · Comments Off
6 Aug 2009Admit it…..how many of you VL readers have peed in the shower? A new PSA in Brazil is encouraging people to tinkle in the tub as a way to conserve water. A really annoying kid’s voice tells us that everyone, even aliens pee in the bath (and the commercial has images to prove it). It’s an animated golden shower fantasy.
Via / Consumerist
10:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|GLBT|Latin America|society|Violence|World · 1 Comment
29 Jul 2009
Here at VL we have covered lots of stories about violence against transgender people, and unfortunately many of these cases of violence end in death. What I didn’t know was that the rate at which transgender murders occur worldwide was so high; a recent report by non-profit organization Transgender Europe (TGEU) shows that a transgender person is killed every 3 days. And another disturbing fact is that the majority of these murders are happening in Latin America:
The cases have been reported from all six World regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The majority of cases have been reported from Latin America and North America. On these continents the majority of cases have been reported from Brazil (59) and the U.S.A. (16) for 2008 and from Brazil (23), Venezuela (20), and Guatemala (10) for the first six months of 2009. Moreover, the preliminary results show a total of 11 murdered trans people reported for Colombia followed by 5 for Honduras and 4 for Mexico and Venezuela for 2008, and 6 for Mexico and 3 for Argentina, and the Dominican Republic for the first six months of 2009.In total 91 murders of trans people were reported in 11 Latin American countries in 2008, and 73 murders of trans people in 11 Latin American countries in the first six months of 2009. The reported murders of trans people in Latin America account for 75% and 88% of the world wide reported murders of trans people in 2008 and the first six months of
2009 respectively.
The map associated with the study (image above) for 2009 to date shows the highest concentration of murders in South America, particularly in Brazil.
Spain’s Ambiente G reports on another chilling statistic: in Peru, a gay or lesbian person is killed every 5 days.
Via / Ambiente G and TGEU
4:39 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|france|travel|World · Comments Off
2 Jun 2009CNN just reported that wreckage from Air France Flight 447 has been located off the Northeast coast of Brazil and, as expected, no survivors have been found:
On Tuesday morning, Brazilian air force planes spotted the debris field, consisting of an airplane seat, an orange life vest, small white fragments, an oil drum and signs of oil and kerosene, spokesman Jorge Amaral said. Another official described the debris field as being 5 kilometers long.But it was not until a French commercial vessel arrived on the scene that confirmation of the debris’ origin was made.
The report above from MSNBC says that officials are reluctant to confirm that this is in fact AF447 without first finding debris bearing the serial number. Whatever the case may be, the news can’t be good, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims and the nations of Brazil and France for their terrible loss.
Via / CNN
4:31 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|france|travel|World · 2 Comments
1 Jun 2009We’re calling it an incident, but everyone is expecting the worst: a catastrophic accident in the disappearance of Air France’s flight 447, which left Rio De Janeiro last night and hasn’t been heard from since. Search crews still haven’t found any wreckage, but with this much time off radar we can only speculate that the aircraft met with a bitter end. Judging from the passenger manifests, as would be expected, the nation of Brazil will be one of the hardest hit in terms of victims, second only to France:
The airline company identified the nationalities of the victims as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy just met with families at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, and was straight with them, saying that the possibility for finding survivors was “very low”.
As the story develops, multiple theories are swirling, among them that the plane met with foul weather and was brought down by a lightning strike, by turbulence or a combination of both, given that the aircraft was flying through rough conditions as it sent out an automatic message notifying Air France maintenance of faulty mechanical equipment.
Via / CNN
8:35 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|france|travel|World · 2 Comments
1 Jun 2009An AirFrance jetliner went missing last night about an hour and a half after takeoff from Rio De Janeiro International Airport. AF 447 was bound for Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport and was carrying 228 passengers and crew when, at about 8:30 p.m. local time, the plane reported mechanical problems and disappeared from radar screens. While there are little details to report, Air France is preparing for the worst. CNN reports:
“I can say without doubt that this is a catastrophe,” Gourgeon said, adding “the entire Air France company and its staff are very moved and affected by this.”A crisis center was being set up at Charles de Gaulle to deal with anxious relatives and friends waiting for news of passengers. Air France has also set up a hotline: 0800 800 812 in France, or +33 157021055 for international callers..
Airbus has opened a crisis room and their flight safety team is in place, a company spokesperson told CNN. Airbus is working closely with authorities and Air France, he said, declining to comment further.
Brazil has just launched search teams to recover the aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, around where it was last seen, 365 kilometers off the Brazilian coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
We’ll tell you more as the story develops.
Via / CNN
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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