Stories from Quick Reads and Portuguese
Bicycling 2,930 Kilometers for a Selfie With Uruguay's President José Mujica
After bicycling for 35 days accompanied only by his bike, 28-year old Brazilian Carlos Eduardo Lemos de Oliveira achieved his goal: he took a selfie with Uruguay's President José Mujica. Brasileiro tira ‘selfie’ com Mujica após pedalar cerca de 3 mil km até Uruguai http://t.co/FsaNyGNAmK #G1 pic.twitter.com/Fla6rfqc3f — G1 – Mundo...
Man's Best Friend: Dog Chases Ambulance to Be With His Owner
This happened near the city of Brasília, Brazil. A homeless man was being transported in an ambulance after suffering a seizure. All of a sudden, the paramedics noticed something unusual: the man's dog was desperately following the ambulance. He kept going for some kilometers until he was finally allowed to enter...
Video: Amazon Indigenous Tribe Protests Hydroelectric Dam Construction
Indigenous people from the Munduruku ethnic group are fighting against the construction of the São Luiz do Tapajós dam in the state of Pará, Brazil. The dam will mean the flooding of 700,000 km2 in their homeland. The Brazilian Federal Government plans to build up to five dams in the Tapajós...
Childhood Play Remains Technology Free by Brazil’s ‘Old Frank’ River
Images depict childhood in a Brazilian riverside community in Xique-Xique, Bahia, located on the banks of the São Francisco River.
A Military Police Corporal Is the First Convicted for Brazil's ‘Crimes of May’ Deaths
São Paulo's Military Police Corporal Alexandre Andre Pereira da Silva was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the deaths of Murilo de Moraes Ferreira, Felipe Vasti Santos de Oliveira and Marcelo Heyd Meres in 2006 during the so-called “Crimes of May.” Journalist Laura Capriglione from the media collective Ponte (Bridge) reported the news on...
A Brazilian Favela Is Challenging the World Cup Champion to a Match
The favela Anita Garibaldi, located 10 kilometers from Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo, Brasil, is home to 4,000 families and its own football team. Latin American origin NGO TECHO (@untecho) is campaigning for a match between the Anita Fútbol Club and this year's World Cup champion to call attention to...
Detained Brazilian Activist Says, “I'm a Target of a Large and Dirty Political Persecution Campaign”
This letter, published by Mídia Ninja collective, was written by Fábio student Hideki Harano, one of the two activists arrested in São Paulo after taking part of a demonstration against the World Cup in Brazil on June 26. The Freedom for Hideki campaign ensures popular pressure for his release. 03/07/2014 Fábio Hideki Haramo Escrevendo de...
Learn How to Protect Your Email Communication in Less Than 30 Minutes
Email Self-Defense, a beginner's guide to email encryption by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), was released in six new languages [fr, de, jp, ru, pt, tr] on June 30, 2014. More languages are underway. Even if you have nothing to hide, using encryption helps protect the privacy of people you communicate with, and makes life difficult for bulk...
A Handbook for Protesters During the World Cup in Brazil
As the 2014 World Cup begins in Brazil, protests against FIFA's interventions and the Brazilian government's spending are taking place all over the country, especially in the host cities. Concerned about excessive police reaction during protests, citizen's counselling organization Urucum, which works on human rights, communication and justice issues and...
From Our World Cup Archive: How Brazil Fooled the World With a Meme
Remember “Cala Boca Galvão”, the Internet meme that became a worldwide joke when millions of Twitter users started telling a famous Brazilian sports narrator and broadcaster, Galvão Bueno, to shut up, during the 2010 World Cup opening ceremony? Almost instantly it was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter and people from all over the...
‘Stadium of Exception': Brazilian Police Arrest Anti-Cup Activists
Collective Midia Ninja denounces [pt] that activists against the World Cup are being arrested in the city of Rio de Janeiro one day before the kick-off of the matches. These arrests are meant to prevent “future crimes in an attempt to intimidate” those who are willing to go on the...
Video: Brazil's Military Police Assaults Subway Workers on Strike
The Brazilian independent media collective Midia Ninja posted a video and a news report [pt] on Youtube that expose the violence of the Military Police of São Paulo against subway workers on a peaceful strike in the early hours of June 5, 2014. The video shows riot police officers charging against workers...
Civil Society Resumes Watchdog for Guinea-Bissau's Presidential Run-Off
Getting set for Guinea-Bissau's presidential run-off on May 18, 2014, the Group of Civil Society Organizations for the Elections (GOSCE) resumed its monitoring activities of the electoral process on May 14. Live updates from the ground can be followed in the website bissauvote.com, which provides a map of reports that are being collected by a...
‘I Saw You On The Train': Falling in Love on Portugal's Public Transport
A Facebook page called Vi-te No Comboio [pt] (I Saw You On The Train) aims to gather and share the stories of anonymous people who meet on the train and take an interest in the passenger next to them. The stories are sent to the social network's administrators who then post them...
Brazil Scores Before “the Internet World Cup” Begins: Marco Civil Approved by the Senate
Update (23 April 2014, 15:15 GMT): President Dilma has sanctioned the bill in the NetMundial event. Marco Civil is now a law in Brazil. Livestream: blog.planalto.gov.br In the eve of the global Internet governance event hosted in Brazil, NETmundial, the Brazilian Senate approved the one-of-kind bill of rights for Internet users,...
The Africanized Experience of Lisbon
The media and racial stereotypes [pt], through the perspective and experience of two specialists in the area of the study of race, both Afroportuguese, born in Lisbon, Portugal. is the topic of a new podcast. An interview with Grada Kilomba, academic of Santomean origin at the Humboldt University Berlin, translated into...
Delayed Construction Works in Brazil Fuel “(un)Happy” Video
The contagious feeling triggered by Pharrell Williams’ viral music video “Happy” inspired citizens of Porto Alegre, Brazil, to take advantage of the fact that their city holds the Portuguese word for “happy” in its name — but rather to express what's making them unhappy. The video shows people dancing joyfully in front...
Brazilian Congress Approves Pioneering Bill of Rights for Internet Users
Marco Civil has finally been approved in the lower house of Brazil's Congress and next should be voted in Senate. The bill of rights for Internet users became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, following a large-scale campaign that was promoted during the day of the vote, March 25, 2014, under the hashtags #MarcoCivil and #EuQueroMarcoCivil (I want...
Brazil's Internet Bill of Rights Ignites Storm of Posts
Activists who support Brazil's bill of rights for Internet users, known as the #MarcoCivil, and who have Facebook or Twitter accounts are invited to participate in a large-scale campaign on social networks to pressure the National Congress to vote on the current version of the bill. An article by Julie Rovono on TechCrunch explains how...
‘The Subject': A New Crowdfunding Tool for Brazil's Independent Media
Aimed at providing an alternative to the traditional business model of media production, a new crowdfunding platform for independent journalism has been launched in Brazil. O Sujeito (The Subject) [pt] is hosted by the crowdfunding website Catarse, which wrote about the new venture [pt] coming at a time of transition for media funding: O veículo impresso está...
“Happy” Video Exposes the Other Side of Rio de Janeiro
Inspired by the “worldwide contagious happiness” that was sparked by Pharrell Williams’ viral music video “Happy“, as can be seen in hundreds of dancing videos from around the world, Brazilian group of video-makers Jeitinho Carioca (“Shit Cariocas Say”) has created a local version for Rio de Janeiro with a satirical tone. Besides showing people...
