Stories about Portuguese from November, 2007
Kuduro: The Sexy Angolan Rhythm With a Message
Whether the word Kuduro comes from the Kimbundu language, native to northern Angola and means “location” or from the Portuguese expression meaning “hard ass” or “stiff bottom” is debated but there's no argument that the dance is sexy. As one watches the dancers of this Angolan music style jutting their...
Brazil: War in Rio
The blog War in Rio, o Jogo [pt], which defines itself as “a manifest game and a bad taste joke”, has been quickly gaining popularity. Inspired by Wargaming, the idea behind the project is to use humor to generate a debate about the situation in Rio de Janeiro: “While politicians...
Brazil: Social blogging for Christmas 2007
Yassuda [pt] invites other Brazilian bloggers to join a ‘social blogging’ campaign. The idea is to get bloggers to choose a non profit organization and try to use their blogs to help it – writing about the organization and asking for donations: toys, a Christmas supper, food, clothing, or even...
Brazil: Blogger is awarded prize for investigation
Eduardo Machado, one of the editors of PEbodycount [pt], received an Investigative Journalism award for his special report ‘Colombia Plan: A Manual Against Violence’, the first account in the country of the very successful experiment in combating violence in Bogota. His piece was published in a Brazilian broadsheet.
Angola: The right of voting
Desabafos Angolanos [pt] is proud to announce the success of a demonstration in November 19, in Lisbon, to claim Angolan expatriates’ right to vote: “Success? With only 20 people?” Yes! Success because they were 20 people under rain, 20 people among 100,000 who had no fear, who did not give...
Brazil: On the “Che e-mails” and credibility of journalism
An article on the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara's death, led to a heated email exchange between an editor of Brazilian magazine Veja and an American reporter for The New Yorker. The correspondence has spilled onto the internet, where it has fueled a juicy public debate about the impartiality and credibility of Brazilian journalism.
Brazil: Bogota is the next to host the Campus Party
Guilherme Felitti [pt] reports that after the first international edition of Campus Party in São Paulo- Brazil this February, the event will be hosted in Bogota, Colombia from 16 through 22 June.
Brazil: Police demoralization
PE Body Count [pt] reports on a case that reflects the lack of security in Pernambuco-Brazil. The official car of the Secretary of Social Defense, Servilho Paiva, was stolen. The vehicle was found this morning, but guns belonging to two security guards were stolen. “This seems to be more of...
Brazil: Bloggers are debate starters
MLOG [pt] reflects on a piece of news reporting that nearly a third of the debates on the Brazilian internet are started by the blogosphere. “Besides generating arguments, bloggers interfere in consumer's decisions when they quote brands or reveal consumption desire”.
Brazil: Violence against woman
Marcelo Tas [pt] compares two recent incidents of violence against women in different parts of the planet. In Abaetetuba, Brazil, a teenager was incarcerated in a cell with 20 male inmates. It had the predicable result, the girl was raped repeatedly. In Saudi Arabia, a girl was found in a...
Brazil: Thinking about cybercrime
Universo Anárquico [pt] looks into Megan Meier's suicide to discuss cybercrime, such as cyberstalking and the use of anonymity to bully and cause psychological or emotional damage to others. She recommends some online safety and help groups and says it is time to take action: “Their purpose is not to...
Brazil: Interview with a thought provoking filmmaker
Moviola Digital [pt] publishes an interview with a thought provoking Brazilian filmmaker, Claudio Assis, director of Mango Yellow. “Although he is still working on his second feature film, he has shown that the underline of his work is to make films with a strong social criticism”. Assis was interviewed by...
Brazil: Open source software for all
Sérgio Amadeu [pt] blogs about a draft for a law that guarantees public funding for open source software, which aims to ensure that 20% of the Information Technology Fund be applied in the production of open technologies by universities, technological institutes, research centres, cooperatives and community of developers. “This had...
Mozambique: Tribute to Ian Smith
“Ian Smith died today at the age of 88 in Cape Town. The man who fought the English over the independence of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). For he is a true African Hero (there are also blond Africans!), we celebrate the man who still young went to Europe to fight Hitler and...
Cape Verde: We are Africans
Obikuelu Pedra [pt] is not happy to hear on the Radio that Cape Verde is not part of Africa: “What a crazy idea to think that Cape Verde's culture is different from the one of Guinea Bissau and therefore we are not part of Africa. Come on!”
Brazil: Proeminent leader has gone missing
It has been seven nearly 10 days since João Batista, president of Association of Rural Producers of Jutaí-Amazonas, has gone missing. He is a forefront leader for local social and environmental movements and the community fears that he could have been murdered. Anthropologist Mary Allegretti [pt] publishes an open letter...
Brazil: Saving the rainforest and feeding more people
Would you like to hear a fascinating story on how indigenous tribes in Brazil have managed to make extremely fertile dark earth from nutrient-poor yellowish soils, and thus may represent the ability to save the rainforest and feed more people? “The result of such a system would mean better soil,...
Brazil: Falling in love with Tocantins
Pollyana Ferrari [pt] has just fallen in love with the stories presented by a new blog called Projeto Tocantins [pt], written by a newly graduated journalist who was sent from South Brazil to work in Southern Tocantins and discovers a quite different world. All true stories. “I loved it and...
Mozambique: Registration period is postponed
The voter registration period which began on September 24 will not finish tomorrow, November 22, as planned. According to Moçambique para Todos [pt], “The registration has been postponed until December 15 this year, after which there will be a break for Christmas, Family Day and New Year's Celebrations, and work...
Brazil: Community shows what peace is
The residents of Coque, a poor neighbourhood of Recife, organized a rally today to show that they disapproved the way in which the police force invaded the area in a ‘peacekeeping operation‘ a month ago. “The said operation was called “Paz no Coque” (Peace in Coque). They might even have...
Brazil: Books for Black Consciousness Day
To celebrate the Black Pride today in Brazil, The Spectacled Bear recommends a list of books on the subject: “As this blog is principally about books and is principally aimed at English speakers in Brazil, I want to recommend some great books available on Afro-Brazilian themes for kids, i.e. in...
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