Brazil’s Blessing in Disguise

Eduardo J. Gómez-Foreign Policy, 07/22/2009
Two decades ago, it would have been hard to imagine finding an upside to an HIV crisis of the scope that Brazil had on its hands. The World Bank estimated that 1.2 million Brazilians would be infected by the turn of the century — by far the highest number of any [...]

Obama touts trade in meeting with Brazil official

Doug Palmer-Reuters, 07/21/2009
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he wants stronger ties with Brazil, especially in the commercial area, a top aide and possible successor to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
“He made what I consider a very strong and important statement,” Lula’s chief of staff Dilma Rousseff, speaking through a translator, said [...]

Petrobras case threatens Brazil’s boom

Dom Phillips-Financial Times, 07/21/2009
It may be the worst crisis in Petrobras’s history, says the company’s president, and it comes as Brazil’s state-owned oil group is ratcheting up development of the country’s potentially vast deep-water oilfields.
Last week, members were selected for a Brazilian parliamentary investigation committee (CPI) into allegations of fraud, corruption, over-invoicing and tax avoidance [...]

House of horrors

The Economist, 07/09/2009
The president of Brazil’s Senate sits in a fine blue leather chair designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a celebrated Brazilian architect. Comfortable it may be, but its occupants have also found it to be an insecure perch. Three senate presidents have been suspended or have resigned because of scandals in the past eight years. [...]

Rich countries doing little to help poor – Brazil’s Lula

Stuart Grudgings-Reuters, 07/06/2009
Rich countries are not living up to their pledges to help developing countries weather the effects of the global economic crisis, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday.
“I am seeing little being done by the rich countries in the help they are supposed to give,” Lula said on his weekly [...]

G8 climate goals not credible: Brazil official

Phil Stewart-Reuters, 07/09/2009
Brazil’s chief climate negotiator criticized the Group of Eight rich nations on Thursday for not taking more forceful steps to curb global warming, saying proposed long-term targets were meaningless.
The G8 agreed on Wednesday at its annual summit to support a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and of reducing [...]

History: Stability and democracy are catalysts of success

Paulo Sotero-Financial Times, 07/06/2009
Presidente Prudente, a bustling community of 206,000 in the south-western corner of São Paulo state, offers a good view into Brazil’s rise.
From its unremarkable beginning as a stop on the Sorocabana railway when coffee was king, it is now one of two dozen prosperous municipalities at the centre of one of [...]

Brazil to cut back high cost of labour

Jonathan Wheatley-Financial Times, 07/06/2009
Brazil’s government is preparing sharp cuts to the country’s very high labour costs as a way of boosting productivity and growth, Guido Mantega, finance minister, has told the Financial Times.
“We have the chance to turn the global economic crisis into an opportunity,” Mr Mantega said. “We want to make a qualitative leap [...]

Helping hand makes homeowners of poor

Jonathan Wheatley-Financial Times, 07/02/2009
Alberto Silva da Cruz, a 28-year-old security guard, and his wife Genilsa, a 32-year-old cleaner, have just joined a queue about 200 metres long outside an annual housing fair held by Caixa Econômica Federal, Brazil’s government-owned savings and mortgage bank.
It is not yet 9am, more than an hour before opening time, by [...]

Lula promises to help African countries with “green revolution”

France Presse-Folha de São Paulo, 07/01/2009
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke as an official guest at the opening ceremony of the 13th Summit of the African Union (AU), a gathering of all the African heads of state in Sirte, Libya, this Wednesday.
In keeping with an official theme of the summit, agricultural development, Lula pledged [...]