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Posts Tagged ‘Brazil’

Brazilian model strikes out against Pope

8 Jun 2007

Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen is speaking out against the comments around condom use made by the Pope on his recent visit to her country:

“To prohibit condoms is ridiculous, just think of all the diseases transmitted without them,” the 26-year-old supermodel told the newspaper.

She added: “How is it possible to not want people to use condoms and also not have abortions? It’s impossible, I’m sorry.”

The outspoken Gisele had previously stirred up controversy when she placed the blame for the deaths of Latin American models from eating disorders on the women’s families.

Gisele’s views on condom use and birth control seem to be shared by many of her countrymen, among them, the president of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who recently defied the Pope’s warnings.

Via / Yahoo! Entertainment

Brazil Defies Pope : Subsidises Birth Control

8:44 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Health|Women · Comments Off

7 Jun 2007

Despite Pope Benedict telling Brazilians not to use birth control or else face the fires of hell, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has introduced a $51m plan to subsidize birth control pills. Birth control pills have already been available for free at government-run clinics and the country already hands out free condoms, the pills will be made available at more than 3,500 private drug stores at significantly reduced prices, as low as around 20 US cents . For men who want to be involved in birth control, the government is also planning to increase the number of free vasectomies performed at state hospitals.

Via / BBC

Botched abortions lead to injury and death in Brazil

5:26 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Brazil|Controversia|Women · Comments Off

21 May 2007

As Mexico City leads the way in the legalization of abortion in Latin America, the rest of the region remains behind. With the pressure of Pope Benedict urging the Brazilian government to keep abortion illegal on his recent visit to the country, new statistics from the Brazilian Health Ministry about deaths related to botched abortions is opening up a heated debate:

In the last five years, 1.25 million women — some 200,000 women per year — were hospitalized for complications related to illegal abortions.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly one million illegal abortions are practiced in Brazil every year. 20 Minutos reports that, in addition to the fact that 13% of deaths in pregnant women in Brazil can be attributed to illegal abortions, the financial toll of the injuries and deaths related to the procedures over the past five years amounted to 81 million dollars.

Via / 20 Minutos

Image via Belfast Telegraph

For democracy’s sake, Lula won’t seek a third term

5:23 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Latin America|Politics · Comments Off

18 May 2007

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva announced earlier this week that he won’t run for a third term as the leader of his country, and in what may or may not be a nod to his Venezuelan counterpart said:

“I do not play with democracy. And because I don’t play with democracy, I will not consider the hypothesis of a third term,” said the leader in the first press conference he’s given since he was re-elected in October of 2006 and the second since he assumed poswer of the governments in January of 2003.

Could be trying to tell Huguito something? Lula went on to say that if he were a legislator, he’d try to set term limits of 5 years, which is one term in Brazil.

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)

Pass the Brazilian Wine Please

10:58 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Food · Comments Off

16 May 2007

I love South American wines and recently wines from vineyards in Argentina and Chile have been growing in popularity. But now a new Southern Cone nation is getting into the wine business, Brazil. Part of the reason is that new technology is allowing lands that were thought unsuitable for grape growing to become viable.

“For years we have drawn two bands around the globe, roughly between latitudes 30 and 50, to denote those parts of it deemed suitable for viticulture,” Jancis Robinson, a well-known British wine expert, wrote of the new phenomenon on her Web site. “But all this is changing fast. Advances in refrigeration and irrigation techniques, not to mention much greater control over how and when vines grow, have opened up to the grapevine vast tracts of the world previously thought unsuitable for viticulture.”

I haven’t tasted wines from Brazil, yet but I am certainly looking forward to.

Via / The New York Times (Registration Required)

The Pope discourages condom use

1:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Religion|sex · 1 Comment

11 May 2007

Earlier this week Maegan told us about Pope Benedict‘s trip to Brazil, where he declared that leftist Mexico City legislators supporting abortion rights would be excommunicated from the church. Perhaps more controversial (and in my own opinion much more damaging) is that on his trip to Brazil — a country that is fighting hard to win a battle against the spread of HIV — he spoke against the use of condoms (like his predecessor, John Paul II), and urged the faithful to opt for abstinence instead.

The Pope met with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is pushing for mass condom distribution throughout Brazil, but according to reports the topic of contraception was avoided, as was the other hot button issue: the legalization of abortion in Brazil, which Lula is advocating for. Then what did they talk about?

Incidentally, the Pope’s appearance in Brazil at a soccer stadium looked like a rock concert — people jamming out, sparks flying — all very un-Catholic. It reminds me of some videos I would watch in my days as an employee of a Christian bookstore (don’t ask). Click on the link to the original article below for video.

Via / 20 Minutos

Brazilian Man : Buy my Wife Please!

11:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Internet · Comments Off

10 May 2007

A Brazilian man trying to make some money by selling his wife on an online auction site partially owned by eBay Inc. is out of luck since the Brazilian government ordered the ad removed.The ad read:

“I sell my wife for reasons I prefer to keep short … I really need the money.
The described his wife physically and listed her qualities as a homemaker and companion. He reportedly said she was 35 and “worth her weight in gold.”

Via / MSNBC.com

Brazil says no to HIV drug patent

4:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Health · Comments Off

4 May 2007

In an unexpected move, Brazil announced today that would be suspending the patent for an important HIV drug, Efavirenz (commercially known as Sustiva), because of the price at which is producer, Merck wants to sell it to the country:

Brazil wants to import a generic version of the drug which is produced cheaper in India. The Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporao, said that Brazil will buy the generic drug from an Indian laboratory that already produces it, and that it will be distributed in the country starting in September.
“We are taking a big step and the decision applies to this drug and to any other when it’s necessary. Today it was this drug, tomorrow it might be another. If we don’t get a fair price, we’ll make that decision, he said.

Brazil says no to circumcision

1:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Health · 5 Comments

3 Apr 2007

A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the practice of circumcision could be effective in preventing the transmission of HIV. Reacting to these findings, the technical advisor for the Brazilian Health Ministry says that her country will not begin practicing circumcisions due to what she considers misleading information:

“I find the recommendations of the WHO and U.N. HIV/AIDS program a little surprising and even frightening,” Simao told Agencia Brasil.

…This proposal gives a message of “false protection” because men might think that being circumcized means that they can have sex without condoms without any risk, which “is untrue”, she said.

Internet access in the Amazon

12:48 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Environment|Internet · 1 Comment

2 Apr 2007

You might think that indigenous groups living in the Amazon would be the last people to need or want access to the internet. The original headline on CNN reads: Brazil to Offer Free Internet Access to Amazon Tribes, and the first thing that comes to mind is a curious “huh?” (crafty, those AP headline writers) but the fact is not only does the Brazilian government believe that internet access for the people of the Amazon is vital, the Amazonians think so too. Both government and Amazon locals think that the web is an effective way to combat illegal activity affecting the rainforest:

The environment and communications ministers signed an agreement Thursday with the Forest People’s Network to provide an Internet signal by satellite to 150 communities, including many reachable only by riverboat, allowing them to report illegal logging and ranching, request help and coordinate efforts to preserve the forest.

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